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December 20, 2004

Google and the Geek

Here’s Google way of wishing Happy Holidays.

Google‘s desktop search gotta bug[Read it as Aerosmith’s Janie’s Gotta Gun]. A big bug. I suppose they will fix it with a patch. No Issues.

The last man I was expecting to write such an awe-inspiring essay, The Drive to Discover, in support of NASA‘s exploration efforts was James Cameron. Like his movies, he starts it with a mastered ease and then he makes you agree that what he says is close to perfect. Must Read.

Books of the Year 2004, says The Economist
December 20, 2004

Carnatic Sells Big Time

And you thought only film music was selling in millions. The carnatic season special CDs exhibition happening in Sri Sankara Hall on the TTK road will prove you wrong.

Last evening, it was brimming with activity and there people flock the place to get their favorite devotional, carnatic music CDs with a lovely discount. The growth of technology is only boosting the carnatic musical sales. Bharathnatyam, Bhagavad Gita and many other important music are now available as DVDs.

I picked up couple of CDs and some rare gems of MS along the way. Sangeetham‘s editor Sriram’s Carnatic Summer is one of the appreciable efforts in this year’s music season. Sriram chronicles lives of twenty great people of carnatic music like Chembai, Ariyakudi, MS, MLV and others in Carnatic Summer.

My friend who was thoroughly excited at the music exhibition loitered around the entire carnatic music section, went back to the other hall and bought AR Rahman‘s Bombay Dreams. Carnatic music sells, rarely, I agree.
December 20, 2004

Tribute to MS Subbulakshmi

These well written tributes to MS Subbulakshmi talks about the person shw was and the music she lived with. These articles written after her demise are sure some worthy collectibles on MS.

Frontline’s cover story, Enduring Music, written by K.Jayanthi and Asha Krishnakumar.

Gowri Ramnarayan’s column in Hindu Magazine, An Elegant Simplicity, where she sketches her personal connection with her paatti MS. This one clearly talks not about MS’s family life but also how she leveraged it with her very busy professional life. Not for feminists, especially.

Yet another article on MS Subbulaksmi’s life by Gowri Ramnarayan in Frontline, The M.S. Phenomenon, chronicling the life of MS from her birth at madurai where she was born.

Hindu’s tribute in pictures, A Life For Music. Has some of the rarest pictures from the archives of Hindu.

Coming Sunday[26th Dec 2004], the carnatic aficionados will gather in Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan to pay tribute to MS Subbulakshmi. The program would start with Bhajans sung by Sudha Raghunathan, Sowmya and others. Hindu’s Editor-in-Chief N.Ram, Cho. Ramaswamy, Journalist Gowri Ramnarayan and others will pay tributes to MS.
December 18, 2004

Happy Birthday Dude !! – Steven Spielberg

[Pic: Intercom with spielberg’s signature ]

The passion for storytelling, the passion for being highly imaginative and the passion for delivering films with a sense of belonging can be attributed only to Steven Spielberg. As a kid, he was probably my first biggest inspiration for the wonderworld of films. If I could recall one instance of becoming an addict to cinema it has to be Spielberg’s E.T. For me, a kid on 3rd grade, watching a film’s story expand beyond boundaries of imagination and touch hearts despite dealing with a weird looking alien was sheer magic. And Extra Terrestrial still remains a magic till day, even after 22 years after its release.

From then, I have closely watched most of Steven Spielberg‘s movies with a sense of belonging. As though he was a friend teaching me the art of movie making. And never, never he has left me down with his movies. Even my favorite Indian Spielbergs have left me down in a couple of places failing to impress.

Having watched even the not-so-commercial movies like Schindler’s List and Amistad in the dark and hot cinema halls of Chennai, like crazy, I can rather write a full length analysis on Spielberg and his dimension of movie making. Thats certainly not the point. Having watched his movies so damn well, I still can’t guess what would be his next venture. Just like the how he made Catch Me If You Can after the techical wizardry in Minority Report.

Though we know Tom Cruise starring War of the Worlds[Trailer, must see], based on HG Wells sci-fiction, is set to release the summer of 2005, I can’t wait more to watch it.

Spielberg loves to quote, “The only time I’m totally happy is when I’m watching films or making them”. While he is turning 58 today, the movie lovers of the world would join together and wish him a filmy birthday. We don’t have to hope for better films from him. He loves the movies more than the movie lovers themselves.

Happy Birthday Spielberg!!
December 18, 2004

Movable Type ya Blogger

After a year of moving from Blogger to Movable Type, it’s boring to look at this dumbo static interface of Movable Type. I intend to switch to a different blogging interface but the satanic Blogger keeps tempting me to come back. To honestly accept, I love the Blogger tool and desperately want to go back and use it.

One reason for me to get boring could be due to MT tool that is installed on my same domain and gives me a isolated feeling compared to Blogger.com which is a hub for bloggers. So when I am using blogger it gives me the true sense of blogging among bloggers. This could even be a bad-mood-weekend-rambling. Whatsoever, I can’t go back to blogger for the simple reason, I cannot import all my movable type entries by date into blogger. Also we don’t have a good tool to repoint all the links appropriately. Suggestions accepted !!

Google and the Geek

Carnatic Sells Big Time

Tribute to MS Subbulakshmi

Happy Birthday Dude !! – Steven Spielberg

Movable Type ya Blogger