Office Annual day on Monday. Moi was entertainment ( read “cultural programme”) incharge. Thanks to laziness ( or the loadbalancer-related work, if anyone would believe me , the actual practice for the songs got postponed to Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Friday, I didn’t come to the office. Saturday, the key player in the skit ( yeah, there was a musical skit ) was AWOL. My role in the selfsame skit was…umm, remember the black guy in Chicago who played the piano and introduced every song? That was what I was supposed to do, minus the-introducing-every-song part.

Hey, but the skit was fun, it lampooned everything in the office, right from the “vision” part of it, to people getting hooked-up through Yahoo Messenger. ( try singing E-Mail Se Maine propose kar diya, chat par unka jawaab aa gaya to the tune of Aankhon Hi aankhon mein ishaara Ho Gaya ) And miracle!!! With 45 minutes of practice to sync up with the music, people managed to stay in scale!!! What else could a lazy pianist hope for?

The music part was four songs, or rather five songs, if you count a 2-song medley as a single one. All but one featured me on vocals; Baahon Mein Chali Aa was me on piano and Laitha on vocals. Champagne Supernova and Time of Your Life were blasts from the pasts, both Deepak and I don’t have to think when we’re doing them…..ditched Creep, because I got worried people would start running on the “run, run, ruuuuuuuun” part.

The FUN began when Chandru decided to check out Rishi’s guitar after lunch, he started strumming something in G, and moi decided to fit in Blowing In the Wind…and voila, 15 minutes of practice and we had a decent medley of BITW along with Neil Diamond’s I Am A Believer.

A decent time was had by all.

Veerana, Ramsay Brothers’ immortal epic is in town, and come what may, I am not missing it. Besides, I think it will get me in the mood for Bhoot.

Currently Reading:

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – Michael Chabon. This one is a lulu. One night and I am already into the 370-th page. 1940. Joe Cavalieri (or Kavalier) and Sam Clayman. Two Jewish kids. Cousins. One a refugee from Prague, an art-school graduate, HOudini-admirer and non-practising magician. The other a Bronx-native, good with words, and an avid comics-fan. 1940, remember? The Golden Age of American comics, with sales of Superman touching nearly a million per month. (Afterthought: The sales right now, for an average comic is about 20 thousand in the US) These guys create their own comic-character, the Escapist, and strike gold. Sam Clay writes comic-book history to flee from his own mundane existence, and because he’s good at writing and coming up with ideas (“The important thing”, He points out early on, “is not what the Escapist can do, it’s why he does whatever he does.”). Joe Kavalier paints to finance an escape for his 13-year old brother from Nazi-occupied Prague. Beautiful writing by Micahel Chabon throughout…..especially the parts where he points out how the partners were influenced by a screening of Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, just before which Welles himself had professed to be a fan of the Escapist. I hope the euphoric high the book has taken me to persists until the last page. And I also thank the unfortunate moron who sold off his copy to Blossom’s at Bangalore. And also my Boss for sending me to B’lore at the right time.

Kishore Kumar – a Biography – I forget who’s written it, but it was good enough for me to read a second time. The nicest thing about this book is the anecdotes, I am a sucker for movie-related anecdotes, and this guy claims these aren’t half baked “legends”, but stuff straight from the horse’s (in this case, Ashok Kumar’s) mouth.

I am enjoying myself.

I had nothing much to do today morning, decided to come to the office and check out some bookmarked sites, and one of them happened to be The Comics Journal. A quick checkout of the column archives took me to this article, and I was struck by these lines there….especially the words I have highlighted in bold.

The first truly great comics book of the new millennium was published in early 2001, a collection of a weekly newspaper strip that was launched over a decade ago. Odds are, you’ve never heard of it: Peter Blegvad’s The Book of Leviathan. I’m convinced that there are now two types of people in the world: people who agree with me on the above, and people who haven’t read it yet. In a Hit List review in TCJ #234, the esteemed Ng Suat Tong wrote, “A rare instance in which the label ‘essential’ is not misplaced, Leviathan is one of the great strips of the last decade.”

Blegvad uses an astounding range of styles to illustrate his and his characters’ thoughts on things like philosophy, science and poetry, usually working in a few ridiculous textual and/or graphic puns for the ride. Leviathan is, technically, a full-color strip, though the artist seems to use color as needed, most strips being B&W save Levi’s sea-green sleepers and the pink Bunny. Other strips are eye-singeing explosions of color. A strip that looks like it was engraved centuries ago could sit next to one that appears to have been done by computer last year and would they still work as a continuity. Blegvad even shifts into a non-representational style to draw impressions of sounds for a strip where Levi is awakening to the sounds of his neighborhood. Appropriately, the artist’s visual style is as elastic as his protagonist’s sense of reality.

Both being fanciful child-and-cat strips, there is an obvious comparison to make of Leviathan to Calvin & Hobbes. But as great a cartoonist as Bill Watterson is, he’s no Peter Blegvad, and Calvin and Hobbes are skilled vaudevillians doing cutesy shtick when compared to Leviathan’s Byzantine wonders. Even Blegvad’s throwaway jokes show a level of thought and insight rarely seen in any medium, much less comics. Leviathan is closer to Hobbes the philosopher than Hobbes the stuffed tiger.

I guess therein lies the difference between a syndicated strip and undiscovered genius. I went and did a recursive “wget” on the Leviathan archives at http://www.leviathan.co.uk. There weren’t too many of them, and I read the first one, entitled “Orpheus”. It’s really, truly good!! How brilliant it is, well, I don’t think I can really go into details, because this is just one story that I read. Yes, the inherent humour is a little more sinister. I don’t think people would appreciate getting Levi strips every morning in their mailbox. :-)

We are planning to shift from the place we stay in now. The second time I am going to be shifting in Hyderabad. When I had joined my company, myself and two other guys who had been recruited at the same time ( and we were in the same batch too), we settled for a flat together, and that was quite a distance away from our office. But that was OK, the flat was in a beautiful colony, there was an Internet centre nearby that let me carry my HD there at night – so I managed to download stuff to my heart’s content. And the apartment itself was huge, a 3-bedroom house with a biiiiiiiig living room (it had a neat echo, that room, when people weren’t around, I would go and scream “Dil Se Re” real loud ). I had my own room, of course, and a balcony with a pleasant view, and I remember quite a number of happy nights in that room. There were a lot of pigeons/doves in that area, and at night, especially rainy nights, they would come and huddle on the balcony. Sometimes I would buy some dal grains, and leave it scattered on the balcony for them.

Then the problems started. The owner of the flat wanted to shift back into his apartment, and we were told to go to another one, a 2-bedroom one this time, in the same colony.

Oh maa! I got a room to myself again, but this one was dark. I mean, there was only one window, and it overlooked the corridor, which was dark anyways. For the first couple of days, it was ok, I pretended I was a vampire hiding out in a crypt, but slowly, things started getting painful. I mean, I really started hating coming back to that dark place at night. The same tubelights, the isolatedness of the room was scary at times.

Rishi came over to Hyderabad then, and joined the company in which I worked. The very day he joined, my senior colleague asked me whether I knew of anybody who would want to share his apartment, because his roomie was moving out to Delhi. Surprise!!! He took me over, showed me his apartment, which was a 10-minutes walk from my office, and has a strategic location – you cross the railway line that’s opposite the place, you come to Necklace Road, overlooking Hussain Saagar lake. The view from the terrace was breath-taking – you could see the lake and the Buddha statue and at night, the Queen’s Necklace (that refers to the stretch of lights along the Lake that resembles a necklace )

Me and Rishi moved in two days later.

The biggest pain was carrying all the books, magazines and assorted stuff I had, and I am scared about them this time around, too.

The room I have been living in upto now has received varied reviews from different people. My parents univocally hated it when they came here (they always do! ) – “It has too many mosquitoes lurking around”(I breed them! ), “Too much clutter!” ( yeah, what’s new?), “too many books and cds” (ho ho ho), “too much dust”(who has the time?), and “oh MY GOD! what are your socks doing in the Fridge??” (Uhhhh…ooops!) My juniors liked it though. 33-Man felt the books were looking better ( maybe because instead of being locked away inside a cupboard, they were on display in racks ), others said it was much cleaner, more habitable than my previous places. The habitable part of it I could understand, this was the first room in a long time that actually had a bed, with a proper mattress and bedspreads, and a table and a chair. ( Ah! The perils of bachelorhood! )

But yes, all in all, I was pretty happy with this house. Not just the location, it was the very feel of the house, very inviting and very homely….I loved to go back every night from the office, plod into my room, switch on the computer(which for a change, is put up on a proper table), and let ARR, or The Beatles, or Trilok Gurtu, or The Temptations sweep me away. I used to wake on time, because the sunlight would come in through the window first thing in the morning. No attitude from the watchman or the House-owner if there are late-nights. There is no problems with food, the catering service Abhishek orders from takes care of that. And the wonderful roomies I have, aaaaaaah, they add to the perfect ambience.

But yes, it’s summer now, and we are facing a lot of water-related problems. The taps on the washbasins go bad too often, and last month, another switchboard caved in. (yeah, not kidding, just caved in! The switch to the bathroom is lost somewhere amidst a web of wires and circuitry, and we now use the bathroom at night with a torch or a candle on) Plus, Rishi wants a room to himself. That’s only fair, his stuff is stored in my room, and he sleeps in the living room and sometimes (those moods) I do lock myself up in the room, and maybe he finds it awkward to knock everytime he needs something. (What “maybe”, beatzo?) And the House-owner is a bit too uncaring for our taste.

Whatever! It’s official, we are shifting in a month or so. Preferably some place in the same area. And a 3-bedroom flat, of course. I hope we find one that satisfies all our requirements, and yes, I hope I get the pick of the room. :-P

Things I did between Wednesday and Thursday:

*Completed The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor.
*Fought, made up, fought again, made up again.
*Successfully oversaw a Server Build that had broken because of the LB configuration.
*Successfully managed to evade work throughout the rest of the day.
*Watched The Hero: Love Story of a Spy.
*Post-movie Unreal session.
*Post Unreal pseudo-debate here.

I just realised it’s already Friday, and I am not sleepy at all.

There’s a music shop near Sangeet theatre that’s selling off most of its cds at reduced prices. BAsically I stumbled upon it one day – just when I had moved to Hyderabad, and was browsing through the collection there and suddenly found a cd of Sepultura’s CHAOS AD. And the original cd, at that. It was slightly battered, the cover was open and the a little faded, but the cd inside looked fine. Asked the guy how much he would sell it for. 300 rupees, he said. Cd prices at that point of time were coming down drastically, and I told him so – and pointed out that 300 rupees is a ridiculous price for something that has obviously been used.

My powers of persuasion worked! He gave it to me for 225 bucks.

Slowly, I started buying the stuff there. Everytime I was there, i would see some stuff I hadn’t noticed before. Started telling my friends/colleagues about the place, and one of them found Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon for 200 Rs. Rishi bought his first Judas Priest album from there, too.

Among the good stuff I got in the beginning were Chemical Brothers’ Dig Your Own Hole, Prodigy’s Fat of the Land and Music For the Jilted Generation. Alanis Morrisette – Jagged Little Pill, three Blur Albums, Oasis – Be Here Now
Kula Shaker – Peasants, Pigs and Astronauts, the Kabhi na Kabhi OST……

But unfortunately, I missed out on something real good – a two cd-set of The Best of The Doors that was going for 400 bucks ( i know I could have got the price down to 350 bucks, but I didn’t even try, coz I had all the mp3s.) And now, one fine day, I go there and see that the cd has been sold. Pah!

Panic mode ON!

Last Saturday, I went there and told Naveen (that’s the guy’s name, we are on a first name basis now ) that I am buying 14 cds, and he said, ok, flat rate, 2200 bucks. YO! So these were the cds I got –

Neil Diamond – Tennessee Moon – Neil Diamond has one of the most amazing voices I know, and with Chandru’s help, I have almost all his albums. (copied, of course) Am planning to buy “The Essential Neil Diamond” just to HAVE it. “Tennessee Moon” isn’t his finest album, but it sure has some great tunes. Featues Waylon Jennings and Chet Atkins as guest stars among others. Gave it a listen.

Connie Francis – The Best of I heard Connie Francis singing “Stupid Cupid” on the Mementoes album, and …need I say anything more? Chandru tells me this is a pretty rare album. Most of the songs on it are in Mono.

Enigma – E3
Enigma – The Screen Behind the Mirror – The only Enigma album I had heard so far was MCMX ( the first album) and random tracks. I heard TSBTM once so far, and it uses snatches of Carmina Burana. BEautiful music to listen to in a darkened room at night.

Dean Martin – The Best of I bought this primarily for the fact that this has “Baby it’s Cold Outside”, one of my favourite songs. And also I have but one Heart, which featured on the Godfather soundtrack. Other songs here include a version of Volare, and La Bamba. I found out that the versions of Baby It’s Cold Outside and I have but one heart were radically different frm the original versions, they were more voice-centric.

Bruce Springsteen – 18 Greatest Hits. The Boss is one artiste I haven’t listened to properly, except for the ever-present Born In The USA, and Streets of Philadelphia, and The Ghost of Tom Joad. Haven’t started on it yet.

Luciano Pavorotti and Friends – Live for Guatemala and Kosovo – Beautiful live album. I love Pavorotti’s voice, complements that of artistes like Mariah Carey, and BOyzone who sing along on this album. It also features legends like BB King and Zucchero. One of my favourite tracks on this album is a Spanish number by Gloria Estefan. Pure Latino!

Elvis Presley – debut album. – Since I bought the video of the Making of this album, it’s only fair that I should buy the original. Elvis is GOD!

AR Rahman – Bombay OST – At last count, this is the 9th time I have possessed this album in any form. The cassette in Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu, then a Tamil cassette my father bought for me just because he saw a different cover saying “AR Rahman” and didn’t realise it was Bombay. (My parents used to indulge and encourage my ARR fixation a lot when I was a dorky kid) Then a version of the Tamil album with additional songs. The mp3s. Then a Bombay/Kaadhalan combo cd, that I got as a gift. Then another Bombay/Iruvar combo that I got as a gift (and later gave away). And now this. The original Hindi cd.

Hey Raam OST – Under-rated album by many. Over-rated by some. I love Shruti Haasan’s vocals on the title track. In love with Rani Mukherjee’s recitation of the Bangla poem. Love the piano on “Nee Partha Paarven”.

Pro-Pain – Contents Under Pressure. Highly recommended by the biggest Metal-freak I know. The other Metal-freak I know, the guy from Bangladesh, hasn’t even heard of it.

Offspring – Americana. – Give it to me, bay-bee. (Aha Aha)
Give it to me, bay-bee. (Aha Aha)

Simon and Garfunkel – Best of All the best songs in one cd. Sometimes it’s nice to have a cd just for the heck of possessing it. :-)

Spice Girls – Spice. Aaaaaaaaah! Nostalgia time. Many nights have I spent with the Spicy five’s ditties, and well, it’s back to basics again. You can’t imagine the trouble I had to go through in the pre-Internet era to get just one nude Geri Halliwell pic….

And that is the psychology behind an excessive cd-buying spree.