Greetings from Maine

Me been baaad with posting... sorry folks.. its been crazy hectic and all that..

But again, you guys didn't expect me to post everyday did you?? Did i manage to lull you into that false sense of security?? :D.. gotcha!!!

Anyway..have been in Rockport, Maine since Monday for the Driving Assessment 2005 conference ... good fun.. am headed back tomorrow - driving straight to Look Park, Noho for the Mark Knopfler concert!!! :D .. wheeeeee .. hehe

May have photographs from Maine for you guys in my next post.. if i feel generous.

I don't want to be your regret

It has been an eventful week.. but am not gonna post much abt it.. just some highlights... and no dumbass, not all the highlights!! crazy or what?

Have been killing Jack Johnson songs.. Drove down to NEU, Boston on Thursday and had only JJ on my player - to and from. Luckily I was travelling on my own or I night have been strangled by a co-traveller! :)

Mid-week - Landlord dropped a bomb on us and wants us out by end of July - they say they wanna sell the house.. damn soulless losers.. Just coz we dont mow the lawn regularly enough???? Anyway, now it looks like they are willing to let us stay if we fulfill a loong list of conditions ( I don't know what yet) and they up the rent by $250!!!!! Is that even legal?? -- lets see...

Found someone to watch "The Grudge" with... scared the bejeesus out of me.... i thought i was made of sterner stuff man!! ... am i getting soft in my old age or something? :D .. Or is the movie truly scary?? Brrrrrrr .. damn ghosts and all.. serves me right for renting it!! Knew I was asking for trouble.....

Got dragged down to Somerville to watch "Parineeta" today.. :)... glad i went down though.. movie was good (Darjeeling Toy Train and all :) )... but the main fun was in watching a hindi flick on the big screen.. and the Udipi restuarant later.. idli, sambar, rasam, dosa, uttapam... mmmmmm ... hit the spot!!

....... this song hits the spot too.. "Cocoon" by Jack Johnson. If you guys aren't familiar with it, go find yourself a copy. Its good. Blah Blah Blah. :)
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Well based on your smile
I'm betting all of this
Might be over soon
But you're bound to win
Cause if I'm betting against you
I think I'd rather lose
But this is all that I have

So please
Take what's left of this heart and use
Please use only what you really need
You know I only have so little
So please
Mend your broken heart and leave

I know it's not your style
I can tell by the way that you move
It's real, real soon
But I'm on your side
And I don't want to be your regret
I'd rather be your cocoon
But this is all that you have

So please
Let me take what's left of your heart and I will use
I swear I'll use only what I need
I know you only have so little
So please
Let me mend my broken heart and

You said this was all you had
And it's all I need
But blah blah blah
Because it fell apart and
I guess it's all you knew
And all I have
But now we have
Only confused hearts and
I guess all we have
Is really all we need

So please
Let's take these broken hearts and use
Let's use only what we really need
You know we only have so little
So please
Take these broken hearts and leave

another week down.. countdown to what?

Before I start - I came across this snippet today
- Altho' it says marriage - it should be the first thing in the list of things to do for anyone walking into a relationship or maintaining one. God knows too many people don't follow this...

To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
-Ogden Nash, author (1902-1971)

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Just finished reading these two -
Speaking with the Angel - Short stories (Edited by Nick Hornby)
A very nice collection of short stories by contemporary writers.. No set genre or common thread amongst the stories.. well, unless u consider wry humor or irony the thread.. The book has stories by Nick Hornby, Zadie Smith, Helen Fielding (of Bridget Jones' fame) and other "young writers". The best story by far in the book is the one by John O'Farrell about a mime - the oblivion that a person can live in, interpreting - or rather, misinterpreting everything around him to his advantage.. it is scary how easily one can reach this point. Makes you want to stop, rewind, playback slowly to make sure you're not doing the same. Or it'll remind you of someone you may know who has this selective blindness and will make u want to seek him out and grab him by the shoulders and shake him till his brains are unscrambled.
Most of the other stories are good too. A few are .. well, just average.

Karma Cola - Gita Mehta
A seriously rambling and disjoined narrative about India in the seveties.. with the influx of the westerners looking for a purpose, for Moksha and settling for anything in between.. Disjointed but it does come together.. one just has to take that leap to make the connections. East meets west, west chases east, east sells east.. lot of anecdotal info about all the gurus and ashrams and the party scene in india! Ironic and hilarious, this 25 year old bok makes an interesting book
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Bought a CD thats been on my wish-list for a long time - Putumayo's Blues Lounge. I'd heard samples and clips from the album many months ago but hadn't been able to get a copy of it - (read - no one was sharing it online - ahem..) Anyway - used a gift card today to pick up the album. It is Blues and Electronica.. and hang on, it's not sacrilegious.. well, a little bit. There are times when the Blues and the electronic music melds really well and fortunately it is not like the regular electronica which can get way too hectic - the blues bits chills it down. The album makes for pretty good listening, specially with your bass up in your car. The music does tends to get hypnotic - electronica style - and the pure blues feel is not there. But again, this isn't a pure blues album!! I'm enjoying it quite a bit - its most fun if u listen to it loud! I'll recommend it to music lovers who're ready to accept modern musicians tinkering with an age-old genre... and to those who grew up listening only to digital music so that they can get the appreciation of the classic blues in a familiar setting.

yet another movie post...

Gawd - I realised that my blogs are filled with posts about movies I've seen.. lists of books I'm reading or have read -- that also mostly fiction!!..

Why don't I write about the important stuff?? The deep philosophical questions that we all have.. profound thoughts that will make you stop and ponder.. Deep insightful observations on life, the universe, the purpose of it all.. why not??

Thats coz then no one would read my damn blog that's why!!!!! :D

OK - Watched Mr.&Mrs. Smith.. went in expecting a half-assed movie just made to put together two lookers and throw in action and special effects.. But I was pretty happy.. In fact the audience clapped at the end of the movie. I was surprised at that!! But yup, its a pretty good movie - funny, witty (not the movie -the conversation - or barbs thrown at each other) :)... Put together two of the Greek God/Goddess of Hollywood and its definitely eye-candy. Add some good action... decent witticisms... and AN EXCELLENT soundtrack.. and you have a must watch. :) Although - God - the camera does not move off either of the two for even a couple of frames!!! To be expected I guess.. full paisa wasool for those who go to feast their eyes on their heros/heroines.

Have a long saturday tomorrow in front of me.. g'night.

--Before I go:
Check this out: Its amazing. :)
http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/col_rapidAfterimage/index.html

yaya i found it from pogue's posts.. the one i dissed just a couple of weeks ago!!

sorrryyyy

I think my blog was down for the better part of the day. I didnt even realise it. The Apache Webserver on my computer has been acting up. I dont want to move my blog to a webhosting service.. not that i don't want to pay them.. its just such a big pain in the rear end.

next time ppl, if u try come online and see the site is offline, send me an email okie plz.. :D
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its hot and humid today.. on my second frappucino of the day.

always angry??

I watched "Crash" today... walked in expecting a regular ordinary movie - walked out feeling like someone had sucker-punched me in my guts!!

My first reaction was that - AHA.. finally something to vindicate my stand that human beings are essentially small, weak, petty and bad. Then the movie progressed and left me more confused.. not so simple any more is it?? Ya, a movie to show that nothing is ever simple.. nothing is ever black and white.. who is someone to judge? But damn, does the racism show up in the movie.. it is cruel, deeply embedded and scary.

I liked it when she says - I realised I wasn't angry just coz my car got stolen- I'm always angry.. I wake up angry. ----- Sometimes that happens to me-- well, its happened a lot over this year i guess - Is it worth it to live feeling that way?

And when she hugs the hispanic maid - thats a much needed hug. A hug can do so much.

In LA - people don't touch - they miss that feel - and so they crash!! hehe, funny but kinda poignant too.. thank God i dont live in LA.

I watched "Madagascar" too a couple of days ago, but after "Crash" I'm not even gonna comment on it!

pics from the concert

At NYC - June 2005


Harish Mathema and Sanjeep Pradhan

Nepali Concert in NYC - June 4th, 05

Saturday - June 4th - 1:00 - Off to New York City
T'was the first time this season that I had to switch on the a/c in my car and altho' it made a valiant effort, there just wasnt enough cold air!! Sheeesh.. gotta repair that too! Anyway, I sweated it out down till Bridgeport, CT. Smooth sailing.. I had almost forgotten the pleasure (?) of freeway driving.. blast the radio and sing along like crazy.. if people look at you oddly, flip them the birdy! :D

Bridgeport RR station - Damn that is one shady area! NOW I know why people prefer to park in New Haven.. Managed to find a parking garage close enough and caught the 3:19 to Grand Central. Other than a pair of LOUD and obnoxious girls blabbing on their respective cellphones (sitting next to each other, obviously travelling companions but both talking to other people on their phone)... the train ride was smooth - managed to cover a bit of "Speaking With The Angel" -Nick Hornby.

Grand Central- 4:40 - Wanted to get a "chop" for myself - one of those chinese carved stamps that artists use on Sumi-e and other chinese paintings. So blundered into the underground system and managed to decipher the lines and station names and blah blah and to find Chinatown.. Was almost like walking into Haat Bazaar on a Saturday! crowded, noisy, colorful, smelly, aromatic... The chop maker said it'd take him 30 mins to make it - time i didnt have - and it'd cost an insane amount of dineros. All this information I got using only mime and broken english. In NYC!! ok, call me a tourist but I still am amazed everytime I get into that city.

32nd St and 2nd Ave - Starbucks -6:00- Rendevous with the darj/kpg folken.. meet up with Pardesi, Lambu, ktmgirl and hunter. catch up, make connections, talk about home and so on.. take the conversation to the Armenian Church where the Nepali Concert was gonna be held (go figure!! :D).. concert was running late so we move to a bar to continue the conversation and tank up for the concert! We finally straggle down again to the venue, just in time to catch the food and the concert begins - Harish Mathema, Sarishma Amatya, Sanjeep Pradhan, Sanjay Shresta, Dhiraj Rai and special Appearance Sunil Upreti. The numbers that were belted out included "Aankha ko nani hau timi", "Mohini laayo malai","Swapnil raanga ma sajeki timi","Kahan timro mayalu lai chaadi rakhyou", "O mero priyatam", "Tada najai deu timi", "Let's rock mayalu", "Anjan mayalu", "Udi jaaney rumaal sarara","Deurali ko chautari ma","Pari ko rani", "Sirima siri", "Nasha bhitra nasha sari", "Luki Luki", "Musu Musu" and lots more. A very energetic audience too!

I miss my last train back - 1:30am - so the folks decide to stay up with me and wait for the first train at 5:40am. So we head down to the village, a place called Groove with a grand funk band doing irreparable harm to but very clever covers of everything from Barry White to The Doors. They were loud!!! But good. Then early morning breakfast - 4am at McDonalds and off to Grand Central to catch the train back to Bridgeport. Get to CT at 7 something AM.. drop off phoenix and drive back till Amherst..

Made it in one piece! Had a blast!!

finally... a break

I'm going to New York City tomorrow... i.e today actually.. saturday.
There's a Nepali concert I'm going to attend.
I'm sure it'll be fun.. will post about it when i get back on Sunday. :)