Sharp Dressed Man

ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man (Album : Eliminator)

Rock Hard, Ride Free

Judas Priest - Rock Hard, Ride Free (Album : Defenders of the Faith)

Fecaliano

Niechec - Fecaliano (Album : Smierc W Miekkim Futerku)

In a Big Country

Big Country - In a Big Country (Album : The Crossing)

Dragon's Mistress

Marty Friedman - Dragon's Mistress (Album : Dragon's Kiss)

Gosia

The Mayan Factor - Gosia (Album : 44)

Human

Ellie Goulding - Human (Album : Bright Lights)

Backslide

The Mayfield Four - Backslide (Album : Second Skin)

The things Tremonti has seen

Tremonti - The Things I've Seen (Album : All I Was)

New Vibe

Jaytech - New Vibe (Album : Multiverse)

What the water gave me

In relationships -

• Argue, disagree, express anger and frustration freely (in a purely verbal fashion); but make peace quickly.
• Communicate. Even those silly fleeting thoughts/feelings.
• Be willing to let go of the ego and accept/admit one's mistakes.
• Be supportive always. Never let the negativity of an argument rob the support you provide your partner.
• Hug. Like a million times every day.

Florence and the Machines - What the water gave me (Album : Ceremonials)

Social Activism

Our roles as either employers or employees provide suitable excuses to prevent us from playing a more active role in society, vis-a-vis social issues. The employee thinks that an employer is more suited to affect change in society by virtue of her power, wealth and connections. The employer's gripe is a lack of time and hence imagines that an employee with a defined role in the organisation will have time to offer a social cause, unlike him who has to constantly juggle between various roles. While there is truth in each other's claims, maybe the greater truth is that everyone has limitations that prevent them from pursuing a social cause that is close to their heart. Families have children to take care of, the poor have to worry about their next meal, denizens in big cities have to wade through traffic/crowded trains to get anywhere.......which makes it an effort to accomplish anything which is not an necessary/urgent requirement. Maybe the solution is to pick up an issue/cause in the immediate vicinity not necessarily with the aim to change the world, but to take small steps in changing the environment around oneself. Obstacles do help provide an explanation when goals aren't met. But I suppose there's good reason why we celebrate the individuals who have attained their goals despite the obstacles in their path.

Eisley -I wish (Album : The Valley)

Cost-Benefit ratios of corporate crime

A part of corporate strategy seems to account for any fines that may be levied when transgressing the law. If the profit potential can offset the fine amount, then it seems to be a path to pursue. Or at least that's what The Economist has discovered.

http://roughlydaily.com/2012/09/09/fitting-the-crime/

Meanwhile, magazines think enough time has passed since Jobs death for them to be critical about him without offending anyone. Wired ran an article focussed on the dark side of Steve Jobs, which isn't necessarily flattering.

http://www.wired.com/business/2012/07/ff_stevejobs

Vinod Khosla's response -

http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/09/do-you-need-to-be-a-jerk-to-be-a-successful-entrepreneur/

Fair to Midland - Musical Chairs (Album : Arrows and Anchors)

Ad Fraud

No one takes ads at face value, it is widely agreed that most ads are an exaggeration of the professed qualities of the service or product. But the company's image can take a beating when it becomes public knowledge. Case in point, Nokia. The new Lumia 920 is supposed to showcase a camera feature that allows the user to take great videos even while moving, using a technology called Image Stabilisation. But the ad catches them using a proper camera and lighting equipment to capture the shots. The story broke out on the Verge and was later picked up by the BBC. Just what a struggling phone-maker needs, bad publicity.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/5/3294545/nokias-pureview-ads-are-fraudulent

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19499879

http://sefsar.com/nokia-faked-the-still-photos-too

Today's mood is Crystal Castles!

Crystal Castles - Suffocation (Album : Crystal Castles II)

Obama vs. Romney

When flipping through BBC and CNN on the tv, it's hard to escape coverage over the Democratic and Republican conventions taking place in America. Obama will have some explaining to do over his "change" campaign which won him the elections the last time around (don't think Americans feel their country has changed for the better). In a global context, the world economy isn't better off than it was four years ago. On the other hand Romney comes across as slightly elitist. Born into wealth and power (father was CEO of American Motors and later Governor of Michigan), and as Matt Taibbi mentions "...raised in prep schools, no early exposure to minorities outside of maids...." he runs the risk of being perceived as as a wealthy outsider.

The Taibbi article  "Greed and Debt: The True Story of Mitt Romney and Bain Capital" makes for an interesting read.

Deerhunter : Desire Lines (Album - Halcyon Digest)

The Modi Index

Sep 1, Saturday. Time manages to be in two boats at once, end of the week and start of the month.

Meanwhile in Gujarat, Modi informs the Wall Street Journal that the high levels of malnutrition among children in his state can be attributed to the beauty conscious nature of the Indian middle class. This was in the context of a report which came out recently that claimed 47 % of children in Gujarat under the age of 3 are underweight.  Modi supporters usually refer to his record of being an able administrator and Gujarat becoming a prosperous state under his watch. But as the Hindu puts it succinctly in the editorial today, "This is what makes Gujarat, which is a prosperous State in the macroeconomic sense, something of a puzzle. Some of its human development indicators are as bad as or worse than India’s poorest States." 

Read the entire editorial here.

Sufjan Stevens - Futile Devices (Album : The Age of Adz)

A legend falls

Sporting legends and their fall from grace. Mike Tyson, Maradona, Tiger Woods and now the poster boy for cancer survival victims...Lance Armstrong. Article from the Hindu.

Today's song share goes to the ladies, to help them get over men who break their hearts.

Sarah McLachlan - Forgiveness (Album: Laws of Illusion)

The Antlers

The Antlers - No widows (Album : Burst Apart)

Solastalgia

An example of excellent progressive rock/metal.

Chaos Divine - No Road Home (Album: The Human Connection)

Give it your best

The Olympics have drawn to a close and this morning's paper congratulates India on its best ever performance, 6 medals - 2 silver and 4 bronze. While many Indians might cringe a little when compared with the medal tallies of USA and China, even more may not even care. When you look at it in the context of how athletic/sporting prowess has never been a part of the national conversation then one can begin to have a different perspective on India's medal tally. The only sport that dominates any kind of conversation in India is cricket and, which as any other sport requires one to be fit, is not necessarily a prime example of athleticism. Also as a country, while being the birthplace of yoga, the whole notion of staying fit through exercise and proper nutrition is only slowly beginning to creep in to urban India. Reports suggest that 33% of kids from well-to-do families suffer from malnutrition (http://goo.gl/FRfiJ), and if you take all the kids in the country the number rises to 47%.

While I haven't done the research, I can say with a fair amount of conviction that the achievers in the Indian Olympic scene, including both winners and those who made it into the contingent, would have come this far mostly on the strength of their own efforts and the support of people around them (family, friends, mentors...). Institutional support for aspiring Olympians starting from a school-level across the nation is still a dream. So 6 may not be a great number, but its helped India rank itself 55th among 204 competing nations. Parting thought, Australia started its medal tally with 2 medals in 1896 ranking last. Today it is counted among the big sporting nations in the world. It was consistently in the top 5 for the past 4 games and has notched up over 200 medals since the 1996 Olympics (http://goo.gl/kYby8). Some lessons we can learn there. 

Also, winning feels great. But I suppose if you give it your best everyday, everytime.....then more than winning or losing you just become better.

As Radiohead says :
You can try the best you can
If you try the best you can
The best you can is good enough

Radiohead - Optimistic (Album : Kid A)

Wayanad

We spent 2 days in Wayanad last week for Vito's shraadh. The rituals were performed at the beautiful Thirunelli temple. While my views on divine providence remain unchanged, I can appreciate and in fact advocate some of the traditional customs performed within a religious environment. The shraadh, for instance, is one such yearly ritual which helps keep my father's memories alive in our family. If you view life as a train ride which starts when you're born and ends when you breathe your last, then all the people you meet in your life are your co-passengers. School, university, relationships, work, family.....are all the bogies you spend time in on the journey. And in most cases we are mostly caught up traversing between these compartments. We do find the reflective moment sitting alone by the window, when we aren't lamenting over the rigours of the journey or celebrating a little with our companions. Inevitably a parent, friend or relative will get off this train forever. The shraadh for me has become a time when I force this train to journey back to the times I spent with my father and I step off the train for a little while and wallow in the stillness, hoping to find where this journey will take me.

Doves - The cedar room (Album: Lost Souls)

Still here

Digital Daggers - Still Here (Album : The Devil Within)

Back in business....quietly.

Cloudy day in Bangalore, the monsoons are very late this year. There's been dark cloud cover for the past 2 months but no rains. I've been thinking of  a music blog for some time, nothing but posting the songs of the moment (playing in the study or the car on repeat). So instead of  starting a new blog thought it'll be better to revive this one. So the songs that make it to our ears frequently these days are -

• Mew - Snow Brigade (Album: Frengers)

I particularly love the verse:

I'll find you somewhere

Show you how much I care

Know that there is no escape

From my snow brigade

• Alex Clare - Hummingbird (Album : The Lateness of the Hour)

I had dismissed this album not being too sure of it on the first listen. But Mannu brought me back to it, this is her find and its a lovely song. We particularly love the pipe/wind organ at 0:58, it adds a poetic mysticism to a melodious song.