Blog Blogger-ai Kedukkum(a) ?

That aside, just to keep up with the Blogger SPIRIT - Cheers & Cheers.

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[Bunch of regulars to a blog, beating the blog author for stopping it. I don't believe I dreamt that.]

The better idea to read this blog, going forward would be to subscribe to the site feed using a feed reader. Reason, this blog may not be updated as regularly as it was for the last few years. And whenever it's updated your feed reader will remind you to read this blog. Even then you may or may not care to read the post. Atleast it would save you the time from typing the URL and waiting for the blog to load.

I've been thinking out loud, over the last few months, on the things missed while maintaining this blog. The path to this decision, I think, has been well registered here and hence it wouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. If this bantam decision would have been made in 2002, I may not be answerable to anyone. Not even to myself. Now, averaging around 2000 unique visitors a day[Ok, this is not a brag], I understand that there has to be some form on inkling to those who bother about this blog, even if they are just a handful.

By any chance, if you mistake this as a full stop to this blog, care for a cuppa coffee. It's not. As always a good flick, a splendid book or a funny anecdote would certainly inspire to scribble something here. By doing such sporadic scribbles, I tend to live the idea, this blog was created for, fun. Be delighted, after all I just minimized a bit of information overload on you.

P.S - Who knows, tomorrow you might find a scribble post on Dishyum, Sudesi and Pattiyal here.

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Thank You For Smoking takes a funny look at the lives of spin doctors, the truth they almost filter, the corporations that rest on their shoulders and the people the tackle on their everyday lives. It's certainly not great flick that one should raise up and give a Two thumbs way way up !! but it certainly provides enough thought and laughter on a Tuesday evening.

The spin doctors or the lobbyists as they are lovingly called, manage to be a firewall between the government and the corporations. In this process they also get burnt by the public angst. These guys talk their way through even the toughest of trials and save the corporations billions of dollars every year. Now if you couldn't make any sense of the previous statements, watch Thank You For Smoking. If you do, watch Thank You For Smoking.

Nick Naylor[Aaron Eckhart], the charming gentleman with a broad smile, is a lobbyist for tobacco. In short, he proves to be middleman between the cigarette companies and the public / government. His life is like standing on a landmine, from tackling the anti-smoking debates on a television show to arguing for pro-smoking in jury courts without giving the slightest of a doubt that he is for against anti-smoking. He dines with the Merchants of Death [MOD], a group of lobbyists who are in a league of their own. MOD consists of a lady lobbyist for alcohol, Nick Naylor for cigarettes and another gentleman for firearms. Not just that but he has a kid son who manages to dramatically change the way Nick thinks himself in general. Nick is ready to accept people calling him by names from Profiteer to a Pimp to blood sucker. Gracious performance by Aaron who carries the entire movie on him.

Nick's bed talk on lobbying tips & tricks to Heather [Katie Holmes], an aspiring journalist of The Washington Probe, starts the fun. The aftermath forms the rest of this 90 minute movie. TYFS moves along with funny dialogues and some interesting situations along way that lead to an expected climax.

As expected, not a single person smokes in the film except for the Captain[Robert Duvall] who holds a cigar on his hospital bed. The titles roll with the cast names printed on vintage cigarette boxes reminding us of the 70's. Other than that and the funny arguments [some of which are ture] there is not much on pro-smoking advices. In fact its all black humor, starting from the 15 year old guy on the morning show who was traced of lung cancer to the Marlboro model who accepts bribe to reduce his old-age cigarette bashings.

The writing is razor sharp with some funny quotes sprinkled all along. Made me think, when Nick Naylor tells his son, "You are never wrong, when you argue right". Jason Reitman as the writer and director of this movie, based on the book by Christopher Buckley, does a great job in making the best out of the screenplay. From the very idea of Space Smoking to the message, Smoking is Cool !! which Hollywood sends to the world, Jason makes enough satire on the industry he comes from and that's exciting.

If you are bored with sitcoms and reality shows on cable, this film is a great escapade.

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Anand C who was posting guest blogs here, couple of years back, is now an executive producer. When I first knew about it, I thought, Gosh !! What a deep problem he got himself into ?. That's until I read more about it. Here is what the crew has to say about Carma -

Carma is Anand's first film as executive producer and is directed by self-taught filmmaker (and concert pianist / Stanford Ph.D Ray Arthur Wang). At 81 minutes, Carma features Academy Award Nominee Karen Black as the voice of the main character. CARMA is a chilling tale about a CAR haunted by a psychopathic killer's dead MA. Carma's last prestige festival stop was Cinequest Film Festival alumni 2005 (one of the Top 10 U.S. Independent Film Festivals), and after it was one of the Highlight Films at the Delray Beach Film Festival. Its next stop is the Bare Bones International Film Festival (one of the Best Truly Independent Film Festivals) 2006.

As the literature says, CARMA is an independent film. Just that fact differentiates it from other hollywood studio flicks. Studios don't go with experimental films, all the time. Due to the big-budget spendings on films, studios are usually conservative and cautious in approach. At such junctures, independent films are the only way to get creative. So if you check-out CARMA's trailer it wouldn't necessarily look-alike MI.3 trailer. Independent Films have their own short comings in terms of financing and marketing. Still, the only reason for independent films to prosper is due to film buffs, around the world, who love good cinema.

Keeping the lazy lamenting to a seperate post, here's the news. An exclusive screening of CARMA is happening at Stanford University. There is also a post-screening Q&A with the cast and crew:

When - April 14, 2006 | 8 PM.
Where - Fisher Hall, Arillaga Alumni Center, Stanford University. Directions.
More Info -
CARMA website .
Carma Trailer
Teaser Trailer:
Making of Carma

If you are a blogger/press media person, mail Anand[anand.chandrasekaran@gmail.com] for a special invite / backstage pass. Others please book tickets online, here.

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[Clicked by Chandrachoodan]

Chennai Metroblogging went online last week. A quick read of this page would tell more on Metro Blogging. Chennai is the second city in India after Mumbai to have Metro Bloggers.

The idea to have a chennai metro blog was intially brought-up by Chandrachoodan and it had a warm welcome among Chennai bloggers. All of them applied for this concept, few got selected based on their location and now the metro blog for chennai is up-and-running. Other than ChandraChoodan there are other people like Kaps [whats your true name buddy ?], Keerthivasan, Kiruba, Lavanya, Nancy and Vatsan, who write blogposts on Chennai.

I have to say that I'm quite amused by the stuff that's written there. If they are able to maintain this initial enthusiasm, I'm sure the audience base would grow in heaps. Take a spin and you would become nostalgic about Sambars and Buckets.

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Looks like someone hacked into Google Blog. Just few minutes back, saw the hacked entry on bloglines from the Google Blog feed. Was suprised and took a snapshot. When I got to Google Blog to see what had happened, they have a post that they are back. Yet another Blogrrrrr....

P.S - Seems like a student booked googleblog as he recieved a 404 when he visited Google Blog. Here's the original hack shot. And they also digged it.

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they took some decision and students could start preparing for the engineering entrance exams.

The Common Entrance Test for professional courses in Tamil Nadu for the coming academic year would be held on May 13 and 14.

Thinking about it, entrances exams for engineering colleges are not necessary at all. There are more engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu than the sum total of rest of the world. Even after one completes a 'professional' degree this is what they say -

Though the State boasts of a high literacy rate and an established higher education apparatus which can generate around 4,00,000 skilled manpower annually, around 40 per cent of graduates from the engineering pool and 70 per cent from the arts and science streams do not meet employability standards.

Badri has some thoughts in tamil.

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A comment is a spontaneous response to a blogpost. In this given world of spambots and texas holdem spammers, the security around blogs have been tightened.

On an ideal blog, commenting has several steps than blogging itself. First you type the comment, the main thing and for that you've to rake your brains to come up with a comment that proves you know everything better than the blogger himself. Then you type in your blogger.com login/pwd and finally type in a word for the screwed-up word verification thingy. By this time your thought on the comment would have changed. After you do you all this, the comment box tells you that the comment will be moderated by the author.

Until the author wakes up in the morning and logs in, your comment is just waiting there, crying to be approved. Assume that the author approves your comment as it talks only good about him and his post. For all you might know, tomorrow the blogger might change his opinion on the post and would remove the post itself. Then, you start thinking philosophically about the need for a social commenting system called blogs. Thats what I'm doing now.

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Mumbai Mirror has some news on Mani Ratnam's next flick, Guru.

This is the first time that Mani Ratnam is finding it difficult to get a star for his next, Guru. He can't find a hero opposite Vidya Balan in his film. Ratnam has signed Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai as the lead pair of his film, while Vidya Balan has been finalised as the second lead. But it seems that most of the Bollywood actors are giving this ace filmmaker grief as none of them seem to be interested in playing second lead to AB Jr.

While we go to press, we have been informed by our source that Mani Ratnam is disappointed with the attitude of Bollywood actors, and he wants to cast a fresh face opposite Vidya Balan. Mani sir will come to Mumbai to conduct screen tests and in all probability he might sign on a new face for the film, he informs.

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"NRIs love the re-immersion into Indian culture, the affordability of food, household help, the improved quality of life and spending time with the family." It may not be a homecoming for NRIs at first. But, after a while they slide back into life in India and seem to harbour no regrets about the relocation.

"It's more cost effective for a company to open offices in Chennai than say Bangalore. A lot of MNCs went to Bangalore at first and now the city has peaked. Chennai is a late starter but it scores higher today with better infrastructure, cheaper living, a strong talent pool and a better work ethic."

Read the Metro Plus column, Back to belonging.

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Pick-up the key and unlock the hunter. He is all set to find his new buick. Good cop.

Via Keerthi.

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Filled with tight close-ups and trolley shots, the 5 minute sequence where Deva - Surya meet Arvind Swamy, is probably one of the best edited scenes in kollywood. The broad view of Arvind Swamy's office is never shown until the conflict happens. Until then the camera just captures the emotions on the faces. As the trolley moves and the camera comes behind someone it cuts surprisingly to another face. May seem to be an old technique now but then it was so new.

A true team effort from the cast, Mani Ratnam, Suresh Urs and Santhosh Sivan. Illayaraja seems to have provided ample support with a perfect silence during the close-ups. Classy.

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[source]

Just as endearing and intriguing as his films, this Time to Dream AmEx ad[2 mins] was directed and starred by Manoj Night Shyamalan. He talks to WSJ on making of this Ad.

Via Hemanth who is just back after a brief hiatus.

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Savadichuduvaen. He repeats and repeats and repeats that one would think the protagonist's characterization is a mock by the director. It may not be. Though the story works at various levels, the movie as a whole fails to impress. Chithiram Pesuthadi is full of good ideas that are badly executed. Like Azhagiya Theeye, it's very earnest but thats it. Nothing more.

And what's with re-releasing of this movie ? Oscar Ravichandran probably wants to be potrayed as the savior of tamil cinema. Looks like the very very mediocre ghaana, Vaala Meenukkum is a massive hit back in Tamil Nadu as one could see several people dancing to it during the success meet.

Sunil aka Narain could have played a role in a Adoor Gopalakrishnan's film but he doesn't shine too much with his acting skills. Sometimes his facial expressions are more pronounced and confuse the heck out of a viewer. It's even more funny that Rediff's Shobha Warrier calls him as Tamil cinema's next big thing. She could take some time-off before she writes S J Surya is the next Kamal Hassan of Kollywood. Couple of duets were truly mesmerizing and the theme music reminds me of a Mani Ratnam film. Though being an inspired theme, it aligns to the 'once-more' category.

Myshkin, the director has some neat ideas but due to various reasons, he wasn't able to pull them all together. The editing was pathetic. To cut a shot a the right frame is an exercise in style. One particular scene happens in the living room of the heroine's house. There are 5-6 people sitting in that room talking indistinctly. Once they complete talking, the camera slowly pans around the room. As everyone moves away from the scene, the camera cuts to a close-up of the blind woman, pauses for a couple of seconds and then the shot is cut. If you could visualise this scene, you would expect that there is a something related to the blind woman and hence we see a close-up of her. Me too. But unfortunately, nothing happens after that. Was that extra shot present to confuse the viewer or was it an editing loophole ?. There are also rapid editing cuts. I assume the director uses this to increase the pace of the screenplay. Good idea but bad execution.

Maybe with this success Myskhin come up with a better script and make some dabbu to rope a better team, next time around.

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Dave Winer of Scripting.com, also known as the father of blogs is planning to stop blogging. He reasons it out very rationally.

Just loved every word of it, especially the last paragraph. Couldn't resist quoting the entire blogpost here on the hope that the father of weblogs wouldn't be angry on this fellow blogger. This decision is creating very interesting conversations in the blogosphere.

From Dave Winer's Why I will stop blogging -

I can do it, folks, I have already, in some sense, stopped one of my rivers, and soon, probably before the end of 2006, I will put this site in mothballs, in archive mode, and go on to other things, Murphy-willing of course.

It's been a long time coming. When I started blogging, depending on how you look at it, either in 1994, 1996 or 1997, I had different goals, and happily the goals have been accomplished. Billions of Websites now no longer seems an outrageously ambitious goal. We're pretty close to a billion, I suspect. The goal was also to create tools that would make it easy for everyone to have a site, and then more specifically a chronological one. That's done.

I wanted programming to turn upside down, to have the Internet be the platform instead of Microsoft and Apple. That worked too. APIs on web apps are now commonplace, and a basis for comparison between offerings. While user interfaces have gotten better, of course, there's been a steady flow of new ideas in how my work connects with yours, and vice versa, and we're doing it without a platform vendor controlling it.

I wanted decentralized news. We can do for ourselves what the pros haven't been doing. And politics -- I don't doubt that the House of Representatives will be filled with bloggers, if not in 2006, then surely in 2008. There's no turning back on any of it. The 20th Century is fading and the new century is going strong. There really was a big shift as the calendar rolled over, and I'm totally glad to be a part of it.

So there's the first part of my reason. Blogging doesn't need me anymore. It'll go on just as well, maybe even better, with some new space opened up for some new things. But more important to me, there will be new space for me. Blogging not only takes a lot of time (which I don't begrudge it, I love writing) but it also limits what I can do, because it's made me a public figure. I want some privacy, I want to matter less, so I can retool, and matter more, in different ways. What those ways are, however, are things I won't be talking about here. That's the point. That's the big reason why.

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While writing a very superfluous article that's based on fantasy than any factual information, our favorite movie writer of Sify, MOVIE BUFF, wrote the ending of the movie Pattiyal.

The article, Is Vishnu the new Mani Ratnam?, clearly has a spoiler of the movie Pattiyal that an oblivious reader wouldn't guess from the title. This is why I tend to avoid any news or reviews of any movie that interests me.

On another note, the punniyavaan who released the stills from Shankar's Sivaji, that you will be seeing multiple times on multiple blogs in the coming days, should be tortured to watch prime time megaserials on Sun Tv.

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Above all the email wishes on a birthday, the two-liner e-mail in a telegraphic format, completely typed in CAPITALS, was the most precious. It was undersigned, APPA, AMMA. 21-03-06 AT 15HRS.

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Anantha (e) Anti pointed to the latest post on his blog, The Chennai Right to Information Initiative, a citizen movement which will be kickstarted this weekend at Chennai. This seems like a better idea than transforming into an Anniyan.

Let's say you are someone who's escaping this intiative by an excuse that you work at Bangalore, hee hee, there's another way to volunteer your time. IVA or Individuals for Voluntary Activities is a non-profit organisation operating from bagalore, has volunteers mainly from software organisations and students who chime in for vounteer work over the weekends. If interested, you could contact the IVA team directly.

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Google Finance was announced yesterday, on the first day of spring.

Just a simple search for Google on this finance site takes me to this page that gives a complete picture of that company. Similarly one could seach for and get the bio for any company, just like Yahoo Finance.

What's interesting is that, on this company bio page, for every company, there is a section named blog posts. The latest blog posts about that company are being pulled through blogger search. Groovy.

P.S - Changes and Changes. Some ten minutes back, when I took a snapshot for reference, this was how Google Finance looked. 5 minutes later this is how it looks. That's when you know the guys at Bangalore are rushing with the changes before the sun rises at New York. Good luck guys !!

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Just upgraded from Open Office 1.1 to ver 2.0. Worth the upgrade.

BTW, if you didn't know, you can actually create PDFs from any document, spreadsheet or presentation using Open Office, for free.

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Was walking out of the post office when a girl handed me a single daffodil flower. Me, 'bulb'ed. First day of the spring, sir. Have a nice day. Marketing can be delightful, at times.

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[Source - Asokamithran caricature by Ananthapadmanaban in Vikatan]

This is MY Blog.

Vote MY Site.

This is MY Photoblog.

Go here to read MY REVIEW.

Go there to read MY THOUGHTS on that book.

I've blogged about it, Go here to read MY POST.

It's a sheer brag. Though it sounded like a normal usage to me, I've moved from that thinking, some time back. When ? That's when I started reading Ashokamitran. Atleast three years back. To quote[not verbatim] Ashokamitran, To say something as my creation or my writing seems very egotistic and very violent. Violent ? While reading this sentence, I paused there for a moement, trying to make sense of what he said. Honestly, I've always felt bad when stars and writers and celebrities brag egotistically about themselves. When someone could define this brag as being violent, it stayed with me, deep within. I began to consciously avoid the such I - My brags. Even during pressing situations, I've tried and minimize it.

There' a way to avoid such bragging posts. Lets say, there is this review that I penned on Shankar's Sivaji and it got published in Hindu. How would I say that on the blog ? The usual way - I wrote a review on MY blog here and that got re-printed in Hindu. The Ashokamitran way - The review which was posted here was also published in Hindu here. The 'I' and the 'My' could be avoided and you would be humble in saying that. Personally, I have to say it has changed the way I look at things. I have to be stop here abruptly as this is not a self-development blog.

The reason to brag(!!) about this here is certainly not to detail on this quality of mine. It's about Ashokamitran. His writings are far superior and much simpler than many Tamil writers. There are no word plays, no confusing language and no beating around the bush. His writing is so simple that even a long time Tamil literary reader would doubt if there is anything special about his writings. That's his speciality. Such simplistic usage of language is also evident in Ashokamitran's columns.

His protagonists aren't heroes. They are common people like you and me. They don't even stand out because they are common. Just common-common. To explain this better, let's take another favorite writer, Sujatha. If Sujatha writes about a common man, by his genius descriptions, the common man loses his commonality and becomes special. Not with Ashokamitran. The common man from Ashokamitran's pen is just common and there is nothing to much to describe his commonness. Nor he writes about some great hero from the history books. His characters live in this world and all that Ashokamitran does is to describe them with simple words and place them in a situation. This situation is never as critical as the kalinga war. Its just another common situation like drinking water or going to a movie. That's where Ashokamitran pauses to throw light on this incident. He shows us the minds and the hearts and the lives of the people from such trivial situations. The result, truly astonishing and over-powering. He has touched the grey areas of the middle class lives that no one else has ever thought to write about. Ashokamitran is not to be confused with Aathavan who is on a slightly different league. Ashokamitran's protagonists are usually the helpless and cowardish middle class. Imagine Kamal in Mahanadhi, who hopelessly losses his kids in the river of life. Think about Raj Kiran in Thavamai Thavamirindhu who is blinks dispiritedly for being unable buy new clothes for his kids on the Diwali eve. These are some of ideal backdrops in Ashokamitran's shortstories.

Ashokamitran till date hasn't had a magnum opus. Cause there can never a magnum opus for a simplistic writer like him. Even the most popular ones like Thanner and Pathinetavathu Atchakkodu are written for being common novels and not an epic.

Ashokamitran is such a funny speaker that he would come to stage as the last person and win over the bored crowd. The last time, I got a chance to meet Ashokamithran was during Uyirmmai Publishers' function. He spoke in a hearty manner about trying to rope 500 copies of Kanaiyazhi together and posting it across the nation. Even during the Ashokamitran 50 function, he was very humorous. You could listen to that recording on Badri's blog.

If you are starter in Tamil literature start with Ashokamitran for you will come back a full circle to Ashokamitran. This writer's writer has something for all of us to learn and imbibe. Being simple.

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As Vikatan enters it's 81st year in publishing, its clear that Vikatan has managed to keep up with the interests of Tamil people. What started as a monthly magazine in 1926 turned into a fortnightly and then finally landed up as a weekly magazine from November 1933.

Guess how Vikatan Thatha celebrated his 81st birthday ? Pushed the celebration charges to his readers. Yep. What a dark comedy it is grab an extra 5 bucks from the readers to celebrate his birthday. Not many time such things has happened with vikatan. Vikatan which costs about 10 bucks an issue, costs 15 Rs for this week. During the last week's issue, there was a letter from the editor which said the readers have to support the price hike for just this issue. The letter also read that its readers should consider the price hike as a birthday gift for Vikatan. Where in the world does the birthday boy get to decide how much his guests should pay for a gift. One has to agree there are many special columns for the extra buck charged. Still, even an avid reader would feel that this is a crude way to accommodate the special issue.

Vikatan was subscribed in my family. Right from my thatha days, it's been a member of my family for a long time. There used to be a fight on Wednesday mornings to grab the fresh copy of Vikatan and read it. That's the same thing at least 2-3 generations of people would say. Isn't that enough to apprise the impact of Vikatan on Tamil people's life. Though I have to admit their ultra special Diwali Malar 2005 didn't stand up to it's culture. With a few columns and couple of travelogues which made value, nothing much glittered in that special issue. But I wouldn't admit Vikatan would go invalid in the next 10-15 years. It has been open enough to the changing tastes and has kept abreast of the growth. It has been the pulse of Tamil nation and has managed to deliver something for all ages.

I subscribe to the internet edition of Vikatan and I have to say that I'm impressed. Especially if you are a desi, its just $ 11 for a year's subscription. And that gives the option to read Ananda Vikatan, Junior Vikatan, Aval Vikatan, Shakthi Vikatan, Sutti Viktan and Vikatan Cinema. A kill for the buck. If you aren't a subscriber and you crib that you aren't in touch with the happenings at Tamil Nadu, subscribe to Vikatan, I say.

P.S Don't miss to check-out the mock on Rajini's Sivaji by the acclaimed artists like Ma.Se, Shyam and Haran.

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List of best open-source software for Windows. Don't forget to check-out the democracy player.

The Three Great Virtues Of A Programmer.

Here Comes GBuy, Watch out Pal...err...Pay Pal.

Enjoy your work but slack off.

Tips. All about Google.

Finally, Researchers uncover cause of asthma.

Up Close and Personal - Windows Vista.

Google - Sun and the infamous rumor that caused an uproar.

Ajaxing your way through Web 2.0.

Spice up your I-Tunes.

and finally

The case of Einstein and obscure factoids.

All links found while Digging. Urge you to start DIGGIN !!

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Not Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. This one is from the makers of Matrix and it's releasing this weekend, V for Vendetta. Too much expectations. Waiting to check out the masked 'V'.

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Karka Karka song from Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu sounds pretty good than the initial hearing, alongwith the trailer. Fabulous selection of the percussions especially when you listen through the car deck. And the point where the long shout of than saavai sattai payil vaithu engeyum selkindraan... merges with the music is a sure thrill. The rap by itself sounds much much better than the trailer. The male voice that creeps inbetween by singing nara vettaigal vettaigal aada, I think its Nakul or Tippu really spoils the whole show. Extremely feminine and doesn't gel with the whole macho wordings in lyrics.

BTW, am I just the one who's totally bored of having songs that 'talk' about our hero's super-hero capabilities. Especially if its a Kamal movie. This song Karka Karka seems to talk about Raghavan a tough cop and his macho capabilities. The last time there was such a song on Kamal was for Panchathanthiram. Rajini is an exception, sometimes Vijay is also fine because he has managed to do it well. With Vijaykanth, I'm frustated because there is no variety and he usually walks in a thiruvizha with a maalai around his neck. You too Gautam ??

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The Holi(not holy) picture in Tamil Murasu and Hindusthan Times is creating few blogposts in the Indian Blogosphere. I'm annoyed not by the picture but such blog posts.

Given the state of affairs of the Indian Media, I'm positive the photographer or the journalist hasn't taken the permission to publish this picture. Maybe I'm wrong. If only they have taken the permission of the guys on the photograph, what the heck guys, what's wrong with posting those pictures? No one morphed few photographs to make this collage. It seems real, it's happening. Agreed, it's an invasion of privacy and that is a cause of concern but none of these blogposts seem to raise that as an issue. If that's the concern, I take it. Rather if someone is passing moral judgements on what should and what should not appear on newspapers, are they not trying to do the same moral policing which happened in Chennai clubs, few months back.

Remember the issue with Shankar's Boys when the whole Tamilnadu took a holy dip with a rush to save the boys' virginity. This one seems like a similar issue involving excessive amounts of vigorous hypocrisy. Who's having the last laugh now ?

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I was a huge fan of Suresh Peters. Right from his first album pop album Minnal to this third one, I was one of the very few million fans for Tamil Pop. Infact I still remember the folk rap in his second album. Though Malgudi Shuba's Vaalparai Vattapaarai was trying to revive Tamil pop music, it was back to square one after that. SPB Charan and Devan did an album called Kamban Oru Kanniley and except for the title number others seemed like tamil film music. They were certainly good but not standing up as pop album attempt. Couple of albums from Shalini and Anuradha Sriram's Madras Girl got famous at their time of release but never got to stand the test of time. Until today, Suresh Peters' Minnal is probably the best effort in Tamil pop scene.

As the Tamil Pop industry started to churn out mediocre attempts, one after another, I thought they might rather stop making this nonsense called Tamil Pop itself. Before my thought was even committed, Tamil Pop ceased to exist. Over the years, few albums have released and none have been hits by themselves. Even Yuvan's effort was little noticed(how many knew that Yuvan actually made 2 pop albums ?).

Now a bunch of guys, naming their band as Encore have come out with a Tamil pop album Thee. They sent across an email with a pointer to their music samples. Listening even to the first one, I've to say I'm thoroughly impressed. At first it seemed like an email to get some blog bandwidth but they sure rock. Their title number, Thee has some amazing strings and some superb rhythm programming(notice the aygiri nandhini tune jammed in-between). The music sounded very professional and nothing close to being an amateur troupe. I just glanced down to read the credits and saw Percussion - Sivamani, Bass - Keith Peters. Both, masters in their own areas. And the label of release was Saregama. The singers list had Devan, Malgudi Suba and Chinmayi. Seems like they got the big fishes in the industry for their album. Apart from their title track Thee, I also liked Dhinam Dhinam and Chinmayi's Thaai Polavae(can't sing at a lower pitch than this).

Though one has to listen the entire album before jumping to a conclusion, I loved majority of their samples and am looking forward to the rest. Encore formed by Bharat / Jagdhish / Karthik / Krishna and Katz are trying to revive Tamil Pop. I hope and wish their attempts gets noticed and reaches out to the masses.

As a note of suggestion, Tamil pop isn't Tamil cinema and hence you don't need variety. You don't need to wait for a commercial hit to make an art film. You don't need 5 songs, 3 fights and 2 foreign locations. The Tamil pop could be based on a theme or just concoction of various themes. Essentially, it needn't be as Urvasi Urvasi followed by Ennavale Adi Ennavaley followed by Errani Kurrani Gopala followed by Kathalikkum Pennin and so on. Make songs that you want to listen and we will listen. I promise.

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A R Rahman is performing in the Eastern Michigan University on April 15th . Radha Krish mailed me that he had performed at Stanford, some weeks back.

Why is Rahman so inclined towards universities these days ? Charity ?? Good music lovers ?? I'm clueless.

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[Image Courtesy - IndiaGlitz - SR Plus launch]

[tip - sort of inside joke, obvious only to sujatha readers. ofcourse you know its all imaginative]

Kamal - Oh !! Idhuthaan Andha mexico salavaikaari Joke'a. Itha Dasavathaaram'la Poturlaamaa.
Sujatha - Itha Vechukittuthaan Ivalo Naalaa Naaney Jalli-Adichittu Irukken, Neenga Vera !!

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the previous post and the one before didn't make any sense, this might. vacation.

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Vaenum...Puthiya Theevu Theevu !!

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Chris Pirillo is on a two week Googlefasting. And it's Day 8 today.

Googlefasting seems to have caught the fancy of blogosphere[via]. Are you fasting ?

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Google's products are like Rahman's music. They grow on you, atleast for me. Read ahead.

Google Reader has now become a personal choice for me. I was enthusiastic when G Reader was introduced, the excitement was put down when I learnt the Reader wasn't compatible with Firefox. Though it was resolved in the next few weeks, it's only for the last month, I've started using only G Reader to read blogs and other news feeds.

Bloglines is such a robust app on the net for news feeds while Google's Reader is slick and has a very intuitive user interface. The G Reader has an option to read the posts both chronologically and blog-wise. Intially I wasn't comfortable with the chronologically ordered posts from various blogs. It needed a mind-shift, after being used to read posts blog-wise in Bloglines. Now after using it for well over a month, I've to say that I'm enjoying this interface which allows for lazy reading. If you wonder how to migrate from Bloglines to Google Reader, see this help text to export you Bloglines subscriptions as OPML file and this help to import that file into G Reader. Just two steps and you would agree with the analogy of Reader to Rahman's music.

BTW it seems like Rajini & Rahman's Sivaji music would be out by March 10. Kamal plans to showcase the h(a)unting music on March 5th. I'm hoping the news on Sivaji music is just a hoax. Whoever wants the music to be out by march and wait until Diwali for the movie. Shankar must be crazy if he is aiming for this. Thanks Radhakrish for the link.

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A tipping point has been reached, and going forward, you will need only one kind of database to run both the transactional and BI parts of enterprise systems. There will still be different instances due to performance requirements to support diverging transactional and BI workloads, but they will both operate with the same database. Proprietary systems that operate with special purpose technology stacks and databases are out. Open systems - including de facto standard such as IBM DB2, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server - are in. Open source databases will remain outside the mainstream due to lack of features, functions and experience, but will exert a remorseless flattening influence on the major players in downward pressure on prices.

Just like his other articles on Business Intelligence, in this well conceptualized column, Trends for 2006, Lou Agosta makes a daring thought about the world of Data Warehousing. He throws his views on how companies could derive value from their BI systems by employing open source architecture and low-cost servers. I only wish those corporates who are thinking a zillion times to data warehouse their systems would read this. Build Data Warehouses for cheap and Warehouse the world. For this is what every Data Warehousing guy dreams about.

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Wrote a quick guest blogpost named, Blogasm for Gilli.

Kick-started recently by Boston Bala and Icarus Prakash, Gilli is a sort of manual aggregator for the Tamil Blogosphere just like Desi Pundit. This regional blogosphere has nearly more than enough blogs than most Indian regional blogospheres. The kind of variety it offers and rich writing it engulfs is so amazing that I'm following more than 30-40 blogs through Google Reader.

I am staying positive that Gilli powered by the passion of its contributors, Bala, Prakash and now Badri, would take Tamil Blogosphere to the next level by aggregating and spotlighting the best of the best. All the best.

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Film Fare Awards 2005 - And the filmfare award for the best - film, screenplay, direction, camera, back ground music, actor, actress and child artist goes to the cast and crew of BLACK. Will sport a moustache if this doesn't come true. Sometimes, even if you are stiff emotionsless critic, you fall shaken with emotions when a movie moves so deeply from the heart. Black is one such gem. A classic that can stand over gimmicks and modernities of film techniques.

This was written in this blog, a year back in the review of Bhansali's Black. Though that review was written very emotionally, I was sure that those moving images of Black deserved a big applause.

Let's fact check with the Filmfare 2005 which was staged last week.

Best Actor - Amitabh Bachchan (Black)
Best Actress - Rani Mukerjee (Black)
Best Film - Black
Critics Award - Amitabh Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Black)
Best Director - Sanjay Leela Bhansali (Black)
Best Supporting Actress - Ayesha Kapoor (Black)
Best Cinematography - Ravi K Chandran (Black)
Best Background Score - Monty (Black)
Best Editing - Bela Sehgal (Black)

Except for Screenplay, which was awarded to Nina Arora and Manoj Tyagi (Page 3), what was written, came true. Hurray !! I am not sporting a moustache.

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[Pic - Aaton]

One word. Rocks. Ofcourse, Antartica has ice rocks and glaciers but this is about the Emperor Penguins. Most of us who know penguins only as symbols of Linux, would have a mind shift after watching this dazzling flick.

Luc Jacquet, the director and his crew spent around a year in the icy antartica to shoot this film, March of the Penguins, which chronicles a part of penguins' lifecycle. At the end of this hearty flick, not only would one fall in love with the penguin bird but also appreciate the risks taken by the crew, during the shoot. Though we all sub-consciously agree that this world has evolved and it's all about survival of the fittest, its tough to envison how emperor penguins evolved and survived the worst winters of the earth. Writer Ashokamitran once said, A flourishing life is one which is made up of small sacrifices. If one would agree with this, penguins nearly sacrifice their lives for their kids by sheltering them from the winter winds. Father Penguins go more than 4 months without food as they are busy keeping their kids warm. The unique role reversal of penguins is also shot and documented very convincingly.

The reason I am so damn thrilled is also because of the impeccable narration that fits the moving images. Morgan Freeman, my most favorite hollywooder, not only reads the script but also emotes it with his voice, so damn well. He gives life and soul with every stress and pause. Also, the add-on short film, Mens and Penguins which details the making of the film, is also a must watch. If you haven't watched, do watch atleast for the sheer effort of film-making. Do watch. Do watch.

P.S - If this one gets dubbed in Tamil, an apt title, Thavamai Thavamirundhu.

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