Listening to Q107 Classic Rock FM station online. The show is called Psychedelic Psunday. Nice stuff. You can listen online too. Just visit http://www.q107.com/ and click on "Listen Live". Pretty neat eh? Anyway, I was just listening to it and they just played Pink Floyd - Money. Ahhhh bliss! The first sounds of the falling coins and cash registers scream out aloud that it's Pink Floyd - Money coming up. So, I listen to this song and I think to myself, what good is Psychedelic Psunday with no Pink Floyd? Then I realized how I'm being stereotypical. Pink Floyd isn't the only psychedelic band in the world. Maybe the most famous, but not the only one. And I thought to myself, how true is it, when we think of certain genres of music, we end up thinking of just one particular band or artist first. So, I decided to come up with this post listing out the bands that I think of when I hear the name of a particular genre. It may be that I'm not right about the genre in most of these cases, I don't really go by genres. I believe all music is equal and dividing it into genres is like dividing it into races. Of course, in that case, I'm a racist of sorts as I can't stand pop, hip hop, r&b and rap :-D Anyway, here's my list of genres and the bands/artists that I associate with them.
1. Psychedelic rock - Pink Floyd. This is a clear winner. Anyone who knows psychedelic rock, HAS to know Pink Floyd. I'm sure a lot of people will agree with me that when they think Psychedelic Rock, they think Pink Floyd.
2. Thrash Metal - Metallica, Megadeth. Though I usually associate Metallica only with Heavy Metal, I know it comes under Thrash Metal.
3. Black/Death Metal - Cradle Of Filth, Dimmu Borgir. Ok, so I have no idea which is which. But these are the two bands that always come into my mind when I think darker side of metal.
4. Shock Rock - Marilyn Manson. This guy feeds on Shock Rockism.
5. Industrial Metal - Nine Inch Nails. I don't know why, but that's the band that comes to mind.
6. Heavy Metal - Metallica, Black Sabbath, AC/DC. Black Sabbath, we all know are the Fathers of Heavy Metal, so no comments about them. AC/DC and Metallica, I dunno just come to mind.
7. Pop Rock - Bryan Adams. I used to think he was soft rock, but I now think otherwise.
8. Hard Rock - Guns N Roses. With stuff like Sweet Child Of Mine, I don't think I need to tell you why.
9. Blues - The Doors, Dire Straits. I'm not sure if they're Blues are not, but they come to mind.
10. Country - John Denver, Bob Dylan. I don't really like Country music, but I know these two for sure.
11. Techno - The Prodigy. That's all I can think of, really.
12. Trance - Paul Van Dyk, Chicane, Paul Oakenfold. I'm not sure if they really belong here.
13. Pop - Used to Backstreet Boys, now Britney Spears. Don't really need to tell you about it.
14. Rap - Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, DMX, Eminem. These are the four rappers I've heard and I know.
15. R&B - Alicia Keys. I had no idea what it was till I heard her. So, she's my R&B example.
16. Classical - Enya, Yanni. These two are amazing
17. Grunge - Nirvana, Pearl Jam. I guess all of us would agree that Grunge was Nirvana and Nirvana was Grunge.
18. Punk Rock - Sex Pistols, Green Day. I don't really like Punk rock much, especially not Green Day.
19. Soft Rock - Bon Jovi, Def Leppard. I somehow always thought these two bands to be soft rock.
20. British Heavy Metal - Iron Maiden, Judas Priest. Somehow, whenever i hear these 2 bands, I'm reminded of this genre instead of vice versa.
21. Progressive Metal - Dream Theater. This band is one of the best progressive acts around.
22. Rock n Roll - Elvis Presley, The Beatles. I guess Elvis was the King of Rock n roll, so it's fair. Somehow, The Beatles also qualify as rock n roll for me.
I guess that's the list as of now. WOW! I didn't know that there were 22 genres that I think of. Anyway, do leave comments and let me know which ones I'm wrong in, so that I can correct them both here and in my head ;-)
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Songs 2
11. U2 - With or without you
12. REM - Everybody hurts
13. Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the sky
14. Blue Oysters Cult - Astronomy
15. Celtic Frost - Dying God coming into human flesh
16. Amon Tobin - Verbal
17. Paul Oakenfold - Ready, Steady, Go
18. Apocalyptica - Faraway
19. Cradle Of Filth - Nymphetamine
20. Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia
12. REM - Everybody hurts
13. Alan Parsons Project - Eye in the sky
14. Blue Oysters Cult - Astronomy
15. Celtic Frost - Dying God coming into human flesh
16. Amon Tobin - Verbal
17. Paul Oakenfold - Ready, Steady, Go
18. Apocalyptica - Faraway
19. Cradle Of Filth - Nymphetamine
20. Bruce Springsteen - Streets of Philadelphia
Friday, February 15, 2008
What has Hollywood taught me?
Ok, here's the deal. I absolutely love Hollywood movies. There are sooo many actors, directors, etc that you don't get to see the same one in half a dozen movies every year, playing every role imaginable, which is the case of Bollywood movies. 90% of Bollywood movies have one or more famous actor out of the top 10, which sucks. Anyway, I'm not discussing Bollywood here. I'm going to discuss Hollywood. Today, I was sitting in the subway and thinking about how wonderful this country is and then for some reason I got reminded of Borat and how he made fun of U.S.A. and the Middle East. Then it struck me, what if the not-so-literate people of the world had all their knowledge about the world from Hollywood movies? How would they look at the world? So, I decided to come up with some of the things that they would assume:
1. Big American cities are frequently attacked by monsters and aliens, especially New York.
2. The monsters and aliens love to destroy the American monuments, over and over again. Still, the Americans keep rebuilding them.
3. No one calls 911 when a man kills someone in the middle of the street, especially if it's the hero.
4. If you are chasing someone and you make a jump that is supposed to be very difficult, chances are that you will make the jump and not fall to your death.
5. It's very easy to steal a car. Especially when it's owner is standing beside it and the keys are inside. The owner never hears you open or close the car door. and yea, the hero always steals a car with no alarm in it.
6. To save the world, you need to be perfect. You should be good looking, perfect driver, good shooter, good kicker, hot girlfriend, etc. But you must always stay in a shabby apartment and be almost broke.
7. All the super heroes of the world , only look after one city and the villains somehow always attack that city.
8. You can shoot a gun even after you're shot in your arm and kill the other guy with one shot in the stomach.
9. All the people in Middle East wear loose fitting clothes and drive dusty old cars. People in India are always labour class people or villagers. Middle class doesn't exist and definitely not the Higher class.
10. In the future, all cities will have REALLY high buildings and cars that fly in lanes and somehow never seem to need to stop for traffic signals or fuel. Also, the "ground level" will be full of slums and homeless people and dirt all around.
11. All robots can TALK and give better advice than humans, but they can never save the world.
12. If you go out driving at night, your car will always screw up in the most deserted part of the highway.
13. Wherever you walk, music plays around you and it changes according to the situation you are in.
14. While cracking a password of a system, it takes lesser time to tell you that the password is incorrect than to tell you otherwise.
15. Americans hardly brush or take a bath before they leave their home. While out of home, they hardly eat as well.
16. The police never fine you for breaking traffic rules or blowing up cars or destroying public property. Also, the police are very easy to fool and usually miss when they are shooting.
17. The villain hardly has any family. The hero almost always does and the villain always exploits that.
18. You get to kiss your girlfriend passionately only after you have killed the bad guy.
19. If you are weaker than your enemy, you will definitely win.
20. The bad guy may kill your whole family, but never kills your pets. Also, even if everyone dies, a dog or a cat is always saved in the end.
21. If you are playing a game against someone, you will lose to them initially and then start catching up, making the winning shots only few milliseconds before the game ends.
22. If you are trying to break into a bad guy's hideout, then the security will be the last thing you need to worry about. The bad guy chooses the most stupid people in his gang, people whom you just kick once to stop them from shooting at you. Also, to dodge their bullets, all you need to do is run straight.
23. If you wake up in an Intensive Care Unit, the first thing you should do is tear off all the sensors and drips that are placed on your body and then scream and walk out of the hospital, beating up everyone who tries to come in your way, no matter how weak you are.
This is not the complete list. I will add more and more as they come to my head. Funny, how we make fun of Bollywood movies, when the great Hollywood movies are no different. Of course, I will be posting about Bollywood soon. But that list could probably turn into a book :-P
Hope you enjoy this list and next time you see a Hollywood movie, you'll probably notice these things. :-D
1. Big American cities are frequently attacked by monsters and aliens, especially New York.
2. The monsters and aliens love to destroy the American monuments, over and over again. Still, the Americans keep rebuilding them.
3. No one calls 911 when a man kills someone in the middle of the street, especially if it's the hero.
4. If you are chasing someone and you make a jump that is supposed to be very difficult, chances are that you will make the jump and not fall to your death.
5. It's very easy to steal a car. Especially when it's owner is standing beside it and the keys are inside. The owner never hears you open or close the car door. and yea, the hero always steals a car with no alarm in it.
6. To save the world, you need to be perfect. You should be good looking, perfect driver, good shooter, good kicker, hot girlfriend, etc. But you must always stay in a shabby apartment and be almost broke.
7. All the super heroes of the world , only look after one city and the villains somehow always attack that city.
8. You can shoot a gun even after you're shot in your arm and kill the other guy with one shot in the stomach.
9. All the people in Middle East wear loose fitting clothes and drive dusty old cars. People in India are always labour class people or villagers. Middle class doesn't exist and definitely not the Higher class.
10. In the future, all cities will have REALLY high buildings and cars that fly in lanes and somehow never seem to need to stop for traffic signals or fuel. Also, the "ground level" will be full of slums and homeless people and dirt all around.
11. All robots can TALK and give better advice than humans, but they can never save the world.
12. If you go out driving at night, your car will always screw up in the most deserted part of the highway.
13. Wherever you walk, music plays around you and it changes according to the situation you are in.
14. While cracking a password of a system, it takes lesser time to tell you that the password is incorrect than to tell you otherwise.
15. Americans hardly brush or take a bath before they leave their home. While out of home, they hardly eat as well.
16. The police never fine you for breaking traffic rules or blowing up cars or destroying public property. Also, the police are very easy to fool and usually miss when they are shooting.
17. The villain hardly has any family. The hero almost always does and the villain always exploits that.
18. You get to kiss your girlfriend passionately only after you have killed the bad guy.
19. If you are weaker than your enemy, you will definitely win.
20. The bad guy may kill your whole family, but never kills your pets. Also, even if everyone dies, a dog or a cat is always saved in the end.
21. If you are playing a game against someone, you will lose to them initially and then start catching up, making the winning shots only few milliseconds before the game ends.
22. If you are trying to break into a bad guy's hideout, then the security will be the last thing you need to worry about. The bad guy chooses the most stupid people in his gang, people whom you just kick once to stop them from shooting at you. Also, to dodge their bullets, all you need to do is run straight.
23. If you wake up in an Intensive Care Unit, the first thing you should do is tear off all the sensors and drips that are placed on your body and then scream and walk out of the hospital, beating up everyone who tries to come in your way, no matter how weak you are.
This is not the complete list. I will add more and more as they come to my head. Funny, how we make fun of Bollywood movies, when the great Hollywood movies are no different. Of course, I will be posting about Bollywood soon. But that list could probably turn into a book :-P
Hope you enjoy this list and next time you see a Hollywood movie, you'll probably notice these things. :-D
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Quote your status
ABC XYZ online. Status Message: "The road to success is not straight. There is a curve called FAILURE, a loop called CONFUSION, speed bumps called BAD FRIENDS, red lights called ENIMIES. But there are caution lights called FAMILY , green lights called FRIENDS and if you have a spare called DETERMINATION , an engine called PERSEVERANCE , Insurance called FAITH, a driver called GOD ...You can make it to the place called SUCCESS".
PHEW!!! See the above paragraph? Yes, boys and girls, THAT Insanely huge thing is the "Status Message" of one of the people I have on my GTalk list. Whenever the guy comes online, the notification itself fills up the entire right part of my screen. Beat that! I'm not even gonna mention the times when he's got a bad connection and gets signed in and out every few seconds. I leave that to your imagination. ( I refer to those times as the times when I can catch glimpses of the right part of my screen) Anyway, nice way to let everyone know that you're online, eh? Whenever I see a HUGE GTalk notification, I know it's him. I don't even need to check the name. Of course, it's a different thing that I always abuse him in my mind when I see his "Declaration of Presence" and am always thinking whether or not to go ahead and block him. (I hardly talk to him anyway ;-) )
I remember the good old days of status messages. There were those few that you could choose from: Available/Online, Busy, Not at My Desk/Away, Stepped Out/Out for Lunch, etc. Then there came the custom status messages, where people would put stuff like "Can't wait for so-and-so event", "Happy Birthday *blah blah* ", etc. Those really were the golden days of status messages. Now, look what's going on. I remember when I was a kid and there was no internet, you had to read books from the library to look for quotes and motivational stories or hear them from people around you. Then came the internet and with that came e-mail, which brought along with it, "Forwards" which gave birth to Chain Mails, etc. I'm not gonna discuss Forwards (Leaving that for a different post ;-) ), but status messages. Anyway, so forwards and chain mails and some websites (including blogs) were where you would look for quotes and motivational stories. Now, it seems, as they say, the world is becoming a smaller place. So all that stuff has decided to shift itself to Status messages. Now, instead of knowing if Mr. ABC is busy or at work or planning a trip for the weekend, I get to know the secret of success. And since he comes online everyday, I get to read it everyday and get inspired, right? WRONG! I'm more bugged by the whole thing than inspired by it. Why would I want to know what the responsibilities of a man are with respect to his family and friends or if life is like a box of chocolates or a bunch of stale cookies that look great but follow the age-old law of "looks can be deceiving"? Why, may I ask, should I be the victim of someone's opinion about how I should treat life and family and friends? I really don't understand what a person is trying to say with a status message that says "Everything has been figured out, except how to live". Is he trying to tell me that he has figured out everything, except for how to live? What am I supposed to make out of it? It's weird the way the world is going. It seems no one is taking things literally anymore. Everyone wants to use every possible place to "express themselves" without really thinking for even a minute whether it is the right place to do so.
It seems MSN saw this problem, or maybe they were just trying to make the most out of it and so unlike other messengers that I know of, they decided to let the users put up quotes by placing a "Personal Message" field in their messenger. I never really understood what that was all about anyway, and I think nor did many other people who use MSN. I mean, am I supposed to put a Personal message up there? Is that supposed to be a message from me to some particular person, but viewable by everyone on my list? Or is it supposed to be some kind of message from me to everyone on my list. I think they wanted people to put messages like "Happy Birthday" and "Going for a trip to ______ " in there, but of course people put quotes there. Then they allowed custom nicknames and people put quotes there too. I have a friend on MSN whose nickname is supposed to be "Men, it has been well sed, think in herds; it wil b seen dat dey go mad in herds, while dey only recover their senses slowly 1by1" which in proper English would be "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one". I just asked my friend, "What am I supposed to call you? Men? Herds? Senses? Men-quoter?" and my friend just laughed and said, "You call me by my real name". Sure, I did that. But what about those who don't know the real name? What do they do? But of course my friend didn't think of that. And we think we are smart. *SIGH*
After reading all this, I'm sure all of you would agree how annoying those status message quotes are. I mean, really, if you want to share a quote with me or think I should know some morals, then mail them to me or send them as a chat message to me, that I can delete and forget if I want to. Spare me the agony of having to know that you're online by seeing half of my screen covered. I would prefer knowing about YOUR STATUS than some person's thoughts put into words. :-) I would like to end this post with one of my status messages on GTalk when this status quote phenomenon started:
"A status message is not the place to look for quotes" :-)
P.S. For all those of you who think I'm just preaching and not practicing, here are my "vital status-tics":
Current: Listening to....*Artist Name* - *Song Title* (I'm using HyperIM status changer for this)
GTalk previous ones:
1. A status message is not the place to look for quotes
2. Send a message only when the dot is green
Yahoo previous ones:
1. Sleeping..zzzzzz
2. Not at home...
3. xx Years of nothingness.. / Happy Birthday to me!! (My birthday messages)
MSN:
Nickname: Nobody
Personal message: If the message is supposed to be personal, then why should I type it here for the whole world to read?
:-)
PHEW!!! See the above paragraph? Yes, boys and girls, THAT Insanely huge thing is the "Status Message" of one of the people I have on my GTalk list. Whenever the guy comes online, the notification itself fills up the entire right part of my screen. Beat that! I'm not even gonna mention the times when he's got a bad connection and gets signed in and out every few seconds. I leave that to your imagination. ( I refer to those times as the times when I can catch glimpses of the right part of my screen) Anyway, nice way to let everyone know that you're online, eh? Whenever I see a HUGE GTalk notification, I know it's him. I don't even need to check the name. Of course, it's a different thing that I always abuse him in my mind when I see his "Declaration of Presence" and am always thinking whether or not to go ahead and block him. (I hardly talk to him anyway ;-) )
I remember the good old days of status messages. There were those few that you could choose from: Available/Online, Busy, Not at My Desk/Away, Stepped Out/Out for Lunch, etc. Then there came the custom status messages, where people would put stuff like "Can't wait for so-and-so event", "Happy Birthday *blah blah* ", etc. Those really were the golden days of status messages. Now, look what's going on. I remember when I was a kid and there was no internet, you had to read books from the library to look for quotes and motivational stories or hear them from people around you. Then came the internet and with that came e-mail, which brought along with it, "Forwards" which gave birth to Chain Mails, etc. I'm not gonna discuss Forwards (Leaving that for a different post ;-) ), but status messages. Anyway, so forwards and chain mails and some websites (including blogs) were where you would look for quotes and motivational stories. Now, it seems, as they say, the world is becoming a smaller place. So all that stuff has decided to shift itself to Status messages. Now, instead of knowing if Mr. ABC is busy or at work or planning a trip for the weekend, I get to know the secret of success. And since he comes online everyday, I get to read it everyday and get inspired, right? WRONG! I'm more bugged by the whole thing than inspired by it. Why would I want to know what the responsibilities of a man are with respect to his family and friends or if life is like a box of chocolates or a bunch of stale cookies that look great but follow the age-old law of "looks can be deceiving"? Why, may I ask, should I be the victim of someone's opinion about how I should treat life and family and friends? I really don't understand what a person is trying to say with a status message that says "Everything has been figured out, except how to live". Is he trying to tell me that he has figured out everything, except for how to live? What am I supposed to make out of it? It's weird the way the world is going. It seems no one is taking things literally anymore. Everyone wants to use every possible place to "express themselves" without really thinking for even a minute whether it is the right place to do so.
It seems MSN saw this problem, or maybe they were just trying to make the most out of it and so unlike other messengers that I know of, they decided to let the users put up quotes by placing a "Personal Message" field in their messenger. I never really understood what that was all about anyway, and I think nor did many other people who use MSN. I mean, am I supposed to put a Personal message up there? Is that supposed to be a message from me to some particular person, but viewable by everyone on my list? Or is it supposed to be some kind of message from me to everyone on my list. I think they wanted people to put messages like "Happy Birthday" and "Going for a trip to ______ " in there, but of course people put quotes there. Then they allowed custom nicknames and people put quotes there too. I have a friend on MSN whose nickname is supposed to be "Men, it has been well sed, think in herds; it wil b seen dat dey go mad in herds, while dey only recover their senses slowly 1by1" which in proper English would be "Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one". I just asked my friend, "What am I supposed to call you? Men? Herds? Senses? Men-quoter?" and my friend just laughed and said, "You call me by my real name". Sure, I did that. But what about those who don't know the real name? What do they do? But of course my friend didn't think of that. And we think we are smart. *SIGH*
After reading all this, I'm sure all of you would agree how annoying those status message quotes are. I mean, really, if you want to share a quote with me or think I should know some morals, then mail them to me or send them as a chat message to me, that I can delete and forget if I want to. Spare me the agony of having to know that you're online by seeing half of my screen covered. I would prefer knowing about YOUR STATUS than some person's thoughts put into words. :-) I would like to end this post with one of my status messages on GTalk when this status quote phenomenon started:
"A status message is not the place to look for quotes" :-)
P.S. For all those of you who think I'm just preaching and not practicing, here are my "vital status-tics":
Current: Listening to....*Artist Name* - *Song Title* (I'm using HyperIM status changer for this)
GTalk previous ones:
1. A status message is not the place to look for quotes
2. Send a message only when the dot is green
Yahoo previous ones:
1. Sleeping..zzzzzz
2. Not at home...
3. xx Years of nothingness.. / Happy Birthday to me!! (My birthday messages)
MSN:
Nickname: Nobody
Personal message: If the message is supposed to be personal, then why should I type it here for the whole world to read?
:-)
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