Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Hotel Keralafornia

http://ishare.rediff.com/filemusic.php?id=19516

Listen this spoof of Hotel California - Hotel Keralafornia

Comments: First - what doesn't work : its a spoof so not that original, I didn't find a particular meaning in the song (same as the original!), the lyrics jar at places.

BUT...

The song has a remarkable depth in some ways. The singer doesn't seem to be native Mallu but is able to do an excellent imitation of Mallu. He seems to really understand the rythms of Mallu-speak and how they interact with English to produce beautiful sounds sometimes (I would guess that it takes understanding both English and Mallu really well to do this). The tone of the spoof is so beautifully laid-back and restrained - doesn't push too hard. The music complements beautifully. Overall the effect is like a verbal and audio velvet bed -- something to luxuriate in.

Friday, August 17, 2007

Funny

I first read this ages ago in the US. I ranked it among the best pieces of humor (for the discriminating reader, of course) I'd come across. I googled it recently and found it. Its still pretty funny not as much as it seemed then. I think the flaw is that it doesn't develop enough, stops too early.

PS: I have to say, I kind of side with the guy.


RECEIVED FROM AN ENGLISH PROFESSOR:

This assignment was actually turned in by two of my English students:

Rebecca and Gary
English 44A
SMU
Creative Writing
Prof. Miller

In-class Assignment for Wednesday

Today we will experiment with a new form called the tandem story. The process is simple. Each person will pair off with the person sitting to his or her immediate right. One of you will then write the first paragraph of a short story. The partner will read the first paragraph and then add another paragraph to the story. The first person will then add a third paragraph, and so on back and forth. Remember to reread what has been written each time in order to keep the story coherent. The story is over when both agree a conclusion has been reached.

------------------------------------------------------------

At first, Laurie couldn't decide which kind of tea she wanted. The camomile, which used to be her favorite for lazy evenings at home, now reminded her too much of Carl, who once said, in happier times, that he liked camomile. But she felt she must now, at all costs, keep her mind off Carl. His possessiveness was suffocating, and if she thought about him too much her asthma started acting up again. So camomile was out of the question.

Meanwhile, Advance Sergeant Carl Harris, leader of the attack squadron now in orbit over Skylon 4, had more important things to think about than the neuroses of an air-headed asthmatic bimbo named Laurie with whom he had spent one sweaty night over a year ago. "A.S. Harris to Geostation 17," he said into his transgalactic communicator. "Polar orbit established. No sign of resistance so far..." But before he could sign off a bluish particle beam flashed out of nowhere and blasted a
hole through his ship's cargo bay. The jolt from the direct hit sent him flying out of his seat and across the cockpit.

He bumped his head and died almost immediately, but not before he felt one last pang of regret for psychically brutalizing the one woman who had ever had feelings for him. Soon afterwards, Earth stopped its pointless hostilities towards the peaceful farmers of Skylon 4. "Congress Passes Law Permanently Abolishing War and Space Travel." Laurie read in her newspaper one morning. The news simultaneously
excited her and bored her. She stared out the window, dreaming of her youth -- when the days had passed unhurriedly and carefree, with no newspapers to read, no television to distract her from her sense of innocent wonder at all the beautiful things around her. "Why must one lose one's innocence to become a woman?" she pondered wistfully.

Little did she know, but she has less than 10 seconds to live. Thousands of miles above the city, the Anu'udrian mothership launched the first of its lithium fusion missiles. The dim-witted wimpy peaceniks who pushed the Unilateral Aerospace Disarmament Treaty through Congress had left Earth a defenseless target for the hostile alien empires who were determined to destroy the human race. Within two hours after the passage of the treaty the Anu'udrian ships were on course for Earth, carrying enough firepower to pulverize the entire planet. With no one to stop them, they swiftly initiated their diabolical plan. The lithium fusion missile entered the atmosphere unimpeded. The President,in his top-secret mobile submarine headquarters on the ocean floor off the coast of Guam, felt the inconceivably massive explosion which vaporized Laurie and 85 million other Americans. The President slammed his fist on the conference table. "We can't allow this! I'm going to veto that treaty! Let's blow'em out of the sky!"

This is absurd. I refuse to continue this mockery of literature. My writing partner is a violent, chauvinistic, semi-literate adolescent.

Yeah? Well, you're a self-centered tedious neurotic whose attempts at writing are the literary equivalent of Valium.

Asshole.

Bitch.

Monday, August 06, 2007

Prison Break



A friend passed on the first season of "Prison Break" and its ruined my life. Its bloody addictive and I keep trying to squeeze in time to view it instead of preparing for meetings and other such essentials.

There are several irritating things about it but nevertheless its got a certain something that keeps me going back to it. However, I may try to avoid the 2nd season, I think the big conspiracy theory is too cliched and hard to believe. I'm just happy to see these folks get out of prison and fulfil the promise of the series title.
The Wikipedia entry had a nice dig about the series -- about how they finally managed to get out on Plan Z after being in danger of running out of letters of the alphabet.
Wentworth Miller acts great. The whole strong silent thing -- works great. And bloody good-looking.

Some spoiler discussion:
At the end of one of the episodes when Scofield scalds off part of the map -- that was one of the low points. It felt so contrived.
I just saw the second to last episode where the fat guy gets RG-ed. Quite sad.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

I got press :-)

A local paper "The Bangalore Mirror" did a piece on the Water Portal. The paper doesn't seem to have a website yet, but the article can be read here:

http://journodiary.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/out-of-it-techies-join-hands-for-social-cause/

Its certainly hyperbolic, but enjoy.