Inventing Impressionism

Claude Monet has been one of my favorite painter since long time but it is this delightful documentary about the master which got me writing.

If you don't like videos, here is another nice presentation showcasing Monet.

MONET

Chennai State of mind

Back in town an'a all new friends
They sayin' how ya been?
Fucked up and outta place
That's how I felt back then

Double talkin' jive
Get the money mutha f*cker

'Cause I got no more patience
Double talkin'-I got (lies)-
No more patience man
You dig what I'm sayin'?!

Look out: Jeff Beck's new album comming!!

The bird connection is nice and I think this makes a lovely wallpaper too Download one ...

Fine and Mellow ... forever

I had loved Fine and Mellow ever since I had first started listening to Billy Holiday.

At that time I did not know anything about her and picked her tape just on a whim. I was hooked to it, much to chagrin of my room mates and I continued to explore and learn more Billy even as the tape wore off due to over usage.

This sound can be easily noticed a lot of old bollywood tracks. I guess this was their concept of western and happening music, as rock and roll was yet to arrive in the scene.

Fine and mellow is a regular 12 bar blues which was one reason I gravitated to this song and was one of my earliest Billy Holiday favorite. Sadly I could never find this particular version among all others littered across cyberspace. With time I came to know about the story behind it




Actually this recording came in as a reunion of old swinging stars. A sense of excitement as well as nostalgia is cracking among players. Especially during the second solo by Lester "Prez" Young. Billy doesn't just follow him perfectly she's loving it too .....

Me too :) It's a treat to watch them play together!.

Lester and Billy, their story is a stuff of movies and books. Maybe I'll cover it during next post. ..

We have a new hero!

Well not really new I agree, but seen from birdsIview time does look different.

Anyway, this post is about Sonny Boy Williamson II: The enigmtic, sly and masterly harp player and bluesman.

To be honest I have been hearing his name and stories about since long but it was only after few weeks back that I found an index of his best mp3s that i started digging for more sonny boy.

Enuff harping, over to the "Original" Sonny Boy...

While my guitar gently weeps

This video features tribute to Harrison by Top Petty, Jack Lynn, Prince and more. Playing rhythm guitar is Harrison Jr. Dhani. He looks just like his dad.
The best thing about this song is the beautiful guitar solo by TAFKAP Prince. Prince is generally not considered as serious guitar player or musician and people think of him as a kind of freak.

Well Prince settles this question once for all times. For those who don't know it, Prince can play more than 30 instruments and his record company was so impressed by his talant that he was given full creative and production control of his albums when he was still a teenager.

I like his onstage moves, really really smooth.

The king of delta blues

THE ONE for blues as far as I'm concerned. I came across this nice documentary on Robert Johnson which I'd like to share.

Back to the cradle

"I have one bit tonight that I do - I'll mull over what I'm going to do when it's my turn. But Eric doesn't even think. Jump on him at any time, say 'Go!' and he'll take you to another level. Then if you say 'Once more,' he'll take you even higher."
- Andy Fairweather-Low, 2001

From the cradle remains in my all time top blues album even after ten years. And watching EC play it live is one up. I do wish to see him live atleast once in my life time.

Watch out the first sustained note in intro .. Go!

Andy's got it right on the head. Go God!!!

Remembering OP Nyyar

I came across this fantastic video on youtube, a kind of documentary on PO Nyyar recording songs with Asha and Rafi, my #1 music team.

Everything's Broken

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.

Ain't no use jiving
Ain't no use joking
Everything is broken.

Broken bottles, broken plates,

Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,

Everything is broken.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground

Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you're chokin',

Everything is broken.

Every time you leave and go off someplace

Things fall to pieces in my face

Broken hands on broken ploughs,

Broken treaties, broken vows,

Broken pipes, broken tools,

People bending broken rules.

Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,

Everything is broken.

Listen to Dylan singing this (I hope this ain't broken yet!)

New Tadka for delicious makes it delightful!

Delicious the social bookmarking tool has been a pioneer and poster boy for the social applications powering the web2.0. I have been a huge fan of this site since long and birdsIview has had few posts featuring delicious.
One major reason for Delicious's success is support for bookmark tagging which allows users to quickly locate the bookmarks they have saved. Tagging also allows aggregation of social data into very useful and exciting information. Over time bookmark search function has seen a lot of improvement such as Browser toolbar based search, director etc.
Recently delicious announced new exciting updates in the search interface which are quite an improvement.
New Search features include (see figure):

1. Time Filters allow to filter results based on time,
2. Delicious Trends Graph allows to visualize bookmarking trends for an item during the time interval.
3. Tag filters This allows to filter results by adding specified tag to the search. This is an improvement over existing tag filter feature taking a leaf from the browser based search interface.
4. Enhanced search suggestion implement a Google -Suggest like ajax suggestion facility.
5. Result Thumbnails supplies previews for search results drawn from a number of popular websites.
6. Tweeter Support.
   

Delicious Wishlist
These new delicious features are quite exciting and useful. However I believe that there scope for improvement in few areas such as:

1. Search result sorting based on:

• Number of times it has been bookmarked.
• Date of bookmarks.
• Users or networks
  

 

Related articles by Zemanta:

• Yahoo Bookmarking Site Delicious 'Freshens Up'
• Diigo - Web Highlighter and Sticky Notes, a delicious killer?
• How to Get Traffic from Social Bookmarking Sites
• Delicious Tries to Borrow Some Twitter Magic

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Chew on this

“Over-indulgence in anything is wrong—whether it’s practicing 50 hours a day, or eating too much food. There’s a balance with me, as there should be with everything and everybody. I’ve tried to keep it so that I’m able to execute the ideas that come out, but practicing too much depresses me. I get good speed, but then I start playing nonsense because I’m not thinking. A good layoff makes me think a lot. It helps me get both things together—the creativity and the speed.”
— Jeff Beck

How to: Survive Long Lonely weekend

Was really hoping to be allowed to go home this weekend to organize shifting from Pune to Bangalore (and be with apple to be honest).
That has been shot down by bossji and I'll have to wait till at least Wednesday to start. This means spending 2 more days by the dusty outer ring road of Bangalore doing absolutely nothing, I'm bored with cursing one and all responsible elements by now.

So what to do? Maaya Memsaab seems to have the best advice on this ...
I'd do the same I guess ..

Motherless Children

Wow flickr widget

क्या आइटम है भीडू !!

I came across this cool widget which literally makes your flickr photostream images fly out.
Check it out, (try doing a mouse over... awsome!)!

There are more cool widget here which I'm still exploring.
Get your custom flickr widget here.

Ek baar muskura do

Song for myself and for everybody else who get the blues.
This is one real gem from Md. Rafi/O. P. Naiyaar which somehow didn't get the love and respect it deserves.

नफ़रत से जिन्हें तुम देखते हो ,
तुम मारते हो जिनको ठोकर ,
क्या उनपे गुज़रती है देखो,
इक बार कभी घायल होकर

ज़माने की आंखों ने देखा है यारों , सदा अपनी दुनिया में ऐसा नज़ारा, कभी उनको फूलों से पूजा है सब ने, कभी जिनको लोगों ने पत्थर से मारा ज़माने की आंखों ने देखा है यारों

पिसे न जहाँ तक, पत्थर पे मेंहदी,
किसी भी तरह रंग, लाती नहीं है,
हजारों जगह ठोकरे खा ने ले जब,
कोई ज़िन्दगी मुस्कुराती नहीं है,

बिना ख़ुद मरे, किसको जन्नत मिली है,
बिना दुःख सहे किसने, जीवन सवार
ज़माने की आंखों ने देखा है यारों

भावर से जो घबराके पीछे हटें हैं,
डुबोदी है मौजों ने, उनकी ही नैय्या ,
जो तूफ़ान से टकरा के आगे बड़े हैं,
बिना कोई मांझी, बिना ही खिवैया

कभी न कभी तो, कहीं ना कहीं पर
हमेशा ही उनको, मिला है किनारा
ज़माने की आंखों ने देखा है यारों

यहाँ आदमी को सबक दोस्ती का,
सिखाते हुए जो, लहू में नहाया,
मसीहा बना और गाँधी बना वो,
हजारों दिलों में, यहाँ घर बनाया,

उन्ही की बनी है, यहाँ यादगारें,
उन्ही के जहाँ में, चम्पका सितारा
ज़माने की आंखों ने देखा है यारों


Happy Weekend!!

CV Tagcloud

While looking for new data visualization tools on internet, I came across wordle which essentially is an online tag cloud creator.
Using wordle one can create tagclouds from any blog, web site or any chunk of text supplied by user.
Moreover, it is possible to fine tune the way tag cloud is displayed using various options like:

• Tag orientations.
• Tag Fonts.
• Color schemes
• Number of tags etc.

To see it action, I created a tag cloud based on my current Resume. Wordle generated tag cloud from this, shown below:

I think it's pretty cool application and is quite usefule with Tag Clouds gaining more and more popularity as an alternate way to quickly visualize information loaded in large chunks of texts.
I wish it offered a tighter control over the tags words which appear in the clouds. This way more the conveyed information can be more precise and relevant.



I think it's

Keep talking

For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals

Then something happenend which unleashed the power of our imagination

We learned to talk

There's a silence surrounding me

I can't seem to think straight

I'll sit in the corner

No one can bother me

I think I should speak now ___________ Why won't you talk to me

I can't seem to speak now ____________ You never talk to me

My words won't come out right ________ What are you thinking

I feel like I'm drowning _____________ What are you feeling

I'm feeling weak now _________________ Why won't you talk to me

But I can't show my weakness _________ You never talk to me

I sometimes wonder ___________________ What are you thinking

Where do we go from here _____________ What are you feeling

It doesn't have to be like this

All we need to do is make sure we keep talking

Why won't you talk to me _____________ I feel like I'm drowning

You never talk to me _________________ You know I can't breathe now

What are you thinking ________________ We're going nowhere

What are you feeling _________________ We're going nowhere

Why won't you talk to me

You never talk to me

What are you thinking

Where do we go from here

It doesn't have to be like this

Kabhi Tanhaiyon mein

Larry and Lee

I discovered this awsome music shop in Camp Pune which features eclectic and rare CD which the owner prodly says "You will not find this kind of stuff in crosswords and planetM" . The best part is that he himself is a music freak and loves to talk about it.
Really its a pleasre dropping in there whenever I'm in the area.
On his recommendation I got myself this CD: Larry and Lee
Who Larry and Lee?
You may not have heard of them, but you have heard them for sure. Think The Wall (Floyd) and think Steely Dan. They are everywhere, being on top of list of hottest sessions guitarists.
This album is surely on top of my charts these days.
Check them out, this one's called Remembering JP
let me know what you think of them.