So a short post that’s not really about globalism/active citizenship, but needs a shout-out nonetheless -

I went over to my friend Brandon’s house for dinner tonight.  I was cooking with him and his housemates, though to be honest the guys were doing pretty well without me.  Anyways, The Clash comes on, and everyone’s rocking out, singing along, and playing air guitar – while chopping carrots and stir frying vegetables etc – which was kind of awesome.

But what was even better was that the next song that played was “Gaston” from “Beauty and the Beast”.  I expected them to change the song or to protest that the song was added to the Ipod by one of their sisters, but instead, they proceeded to belt out (Tim in a convincing Gaston’s baritone) “When I was a lad I ate four dozen eggs…”

Rock on, Tufts men, rock on. <3

I went to Casiotone For The Painfully Alone… alone.

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have friends and stuff, and if any of them were still talking to me I would totally have been un-alone.
But there I was. Alone. And, OK, also a little uncomfortable from the nachos I’d had for dinner.
But not painfully so.

And just when I was resigned to the fact that I would be the lone lonely loser on the dance floor, I bumped into a good friend’s girlfriend and her girlfriends outside Cassette #9 in Vulcan Lane.

They were going in. So I tagged along. Suddenly all un-alone.
Sweet.

What a brilliantly trippy little venue. For some reason “Crushed Velvet” came to mind as I walked up the stairs and into the bar. Maybe that was because of the velvet curtains. Or perhaps the deer head on the wall. There were mirrors everywhere and you could notice people using them to check themselves and others out.

While waiting for the music, we sat and drank cocktails from quaint teapots and discussed vampires and werewolves and journalists and what would happen if we mixed the contents of this teapot with the contents of that teapot.

The opening act was Pikachunes, from Christchurch, who I initially thought was just some kid standing on the stage with a laptop, but it turned out it was some kid standing on the stage with a drum machine thingee that looks like a laptop, who sounded pretty freakin awesome, actually. He had stage presence. And a hat, which kinda made him look like Son of Dave, or Tom Waits. Very cool.

Then there was a bit of waiting.
And then what we initially thought was a sound-check in preparation for Owen Ashworth of CFTPA actually turned out to be the second act, Concern (Owen’s brother Gordon). Reminded me a little of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music.

Casiotone took the stage after midnight. Madness!
Some of us had to be up early in the morning to take their kids to the company christmas party and queue for an hour in the freakin facepainting line!
But I guess that’s how the late-rising electro indy Casio keyboard crowd rolls.

It was worth the wait though. I was hoping he would play some stuff from Etiquette, an album I love, and he was ripping into them after just two songs, with I Love Creedence, the song of his I love the most. Brilliant.

He rarely looked up from his keyboard, but still managed to engage the crowd. I think they liked his humility. He was happy to take requests. He was also happy to play one song (shit, I can’t remember — was it his Love Connection cover?) so long as someone from the crowd got up and sung it. And after a bit of a wait, two guys got up to give a bout of peer-pressured crowd participation a crack.

Someone wondered how they were meant to dance to CFTPA’s somber sound but I found it easy: stick your hands in your pockets and shuffle from side to side. Which is close to how I normally dance anyway, so that was handy. Didn’t have to learn any new dance moves.

And you’d just get into Ashworth’s beat machine beats and then the song was over, reminding you that his low-fi electro approach had short pop sensibilities. The keyboard provided the melodies and Ashworth’s voice delivered some great poetry. They would have been delivered even better had the vocals been turned up slightly, but that’s just me and I’m possibly alone on that one.

Hi,

    It’s 12:01 AM and still I am checking my mails and chatting with my friends… My eyes are little bit stretched… Trying to awake and surprisingly I get something interesting on wordpress… and first word from my mouth is Awesome and my eyes hear the voice of my mouth and size of eyes become oval to round… Yah I came to know about Miniature Fake or Tilt-Shift photography.

      Miniature faking or Tilt-Shift is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is made to look like a photograph of a miniature scale model. Blurring parts of the photo simulates the shallow depth of field normally encountered in close-up photography, making the scene seem much smaller than it actually is; the blurring can be done either optically when the photograph is taken, or by digital post processing. Many faked-miniature photographs are taken from a high angle to simulate the effect of looking down on a miniature.

      Here, I am posting some photographs with Tilt-Shift image. They are original but look like fake or model… Just look out at below photos. If you want to know about photographer details then click on photo. 

Eiffel Tower by ArnarBi

Jodhpur by roevin

New York model by 01101001 01100001 01101110

Nakayan by pinboke_planet

Big Miniature World by 27147

Race start by wakeboy

Miniature Garden by pinboke_planet

3 mile island by dutchb0y

toyway bay - hong kong by thechannelc

Tram at Central - Hong Kong by roywkw

Tank by Charlie

I hope you like all these photographs. If you want to see/know more about Miniature fake photograph then checks out below links.

• 100+ Examples of Brilliant Tilt-Shift Photography
• 50 Beautiful Examples Of Tilt-Shift Photography
• 41 Amazing Tilt-shift miniature faking photographs
• Tilt-Shift Photography – 80+ Beautiful Examples 
• Faking Tilt-Shift – a Tutorial for Realistic Miniaturised Photos
• Learn Fake Mode Photgraphy 
• Tilt Photography Tutorial

Check out my old post about miniature model photography with title “Little People“

~ Rock On ~

Hi,

Future of Internet Search

Future of Internet Search

1. red dot design concept award 2009
2. Future of Internet Search: Mobile version

Hi,

       Yesterday I was checking some friends’ blog and coincidently reach on Google (old skool), published at “The Year Zero” and Here I came to know about dropular.net (dropular is media book marking site. Sometimes it contains adult content. so Be Careful while click on dropular) which lead me to behance.net (behance is network to share creative works).

         Here I search for Calendar 2010 on behance.net  (Click Here to see search result) and got some cool creative work. I have posted here some cool work from behance.net with respective link.

{1.} Spiral Calendar by Alone-zino 

Spiral Calendar

{2.} Calendar 2010 Illustrations by Monika

Calendar 2010 Illustrations

{3.} Blue Angel by Oni Nt

Blue Angel

~ Rock On ~

Hi,

[P.S. - This post is only for information purpose. So I have copied all textual content and images from Google and Wiki and put it in sequence].

 Google Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Google Wave is “a personal communication and collaboration tool” announced by Google at the Google I/O conference on May 27, 2009 (Checkout Google Wave Developer Preview at Google I/O 2009 on youtube). It is a web-based service, computing platform, and communications protocol designed to merge e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking.

          As of now, Google wave is invitation based like Gmail was. so either request it on Google Wave or tell someone who has already Wave account.

Look out at some features provided by wave as snaps.

Organizing Events
Keep a single copy of ideas, suggested itinerary, menu and RSVPs, rather than using many different tools. Use gadgets to add weather, maps and more to the event.

Organizing Events

Group Projects
Collaboratively work in real time to draft content, discuss and solicit feedback all in one place rather than sending email attachments and creating multiple copies that get out of sync.

Group Project

Photo Sharing
Drag and drop photos from your desktop into a wave. Share with others. Use the slideshow viewer. Everyone on the wave can add their photos, too. It is easy to make a group photo album in Google Wave.

Photo Sharing

Meeting Notes
Prepare a meeting agenda together, share the burden of taking notes and record decisions so you all leave on the same page. Team members can follow the minutes in real time, or review the history using Playback.

Meeting Notes

Brainstorming
Bring lots of people into a wave to brainstorm – live concurrent editing makes the quantity of ideas grow quickly! It is easy to add rich content like videos, images, URLs or even links to other waves. Discuss and then work together to distill down to the good ideas.

Brainstorming

Interactive Games
Add a gadget to a wave to play live interactive games with your friends (we’re hooked on Sudoku!). See everyone’s moves as they make them in a fast-paced game or take a break and come back later.

Games

For More visit https://wave.google.com/

~ Rock On ~

Initial nu stiam ce sa fac cu pagina asta, insa stiam ca trebuie sa am o pagina Rock On Crew! Iata ca acum o si am…”de-adevaratelea”! Dupa un indelung proces de gandire de…hmmm…3 minute…m-am decis si care va fi scopul ei. Asadar, in Home o sa vorbesc despre de toate, despre evenimente, despre ce-am facut, latura exterioara, un fel de “after party” si…despre mine…asa, cand ma mai bantuie talentul.  “Rock On Crew” va deveni, astfel, un fel de pagina a trupei, pe segmentul de informare, istoric, membri, fun facts, intamplari de pe la sala…si altele. Toate astea…bineinteles raportate la timpul disponibil. Asadar…pe curand!

…Ultima, dar nu cea din urma seara…ba da… si cea din urma, cum altfel…doar e ultima! a fost cea care a inchis festivalul Callatis. De aceasta data munca Rock On a fost mai laborioasa si mai lunga decat toate serile la un loc, si rezultatul a fost pe masura, partea noastra cel putin. Aceasta a constat in punerea in scena a MusicHall-ului “Dracula in love”, poveste despre originea reala a contelui Dracula, nimeni altul decat domnitorul roman Vlad Tepes si despre cum au facut scriitorii occidentali, in frunte cu Bram Stocker, bani pe carca legendei conform careia  domnitorul insetat de sange si de dreptate ar fi fost, de fapt,  un vampir veritabil. Adevar sau fictiune?…nimeni n-ar putea pana la urma sa bage mana in foc…insa acest spectacol a fost conceput ca o avanpremiera a unui spectacol de mare anvergura, menit sa  promoveze imaginea Romaniei peste hotare. Asa ca ne vom mai vedea…

Un scurt rezumat: vampiri, varcolaci, toale franjurate si manjite de sange, Annika de la “Rednexx”, Adrian Enache…15 minute de dans!

Multumiri pe aceasta cale bineinteles echipei care a coordonat festivalul, in frunte cu domnul Diaconu si make-up artistului Alex (daca nu stiu numele de familie al omului, ce sa fac), au facut cu totii o treaba foarte buna.

Multumiri si baietilor de la Floor Control Crew, care au fost cu noi pe scena seara de seara si alaturi de care am creeat momente care mai de care mai incendiare. Si multumesc colegilor mei de trupa, multumesc lui Taz, multumesc tuturor care s-au implicat in acest proiect. Ne-am distrat, ne-am jucat, ne-am certat, ne-am impacat…a fost cel mai tare cantonament!

Sa nu ii uit nici pe cei mici, care pe timpul festivalului de la Callatis au venit la “Cursurile de streetdance cu Taz si Rock On” si care au inchis festivalul cu o coregrafie pe imnul festivalului Callatis. Au fost cei mai tari, au fost cei mai buni…si merita toate laudele din lume! Bravo…si nu uitati ca intr-o zi, prin munca si perseverenta, veti ajunge mai departe decat ati fost vreodata!

Din pacate, nu o sa va pot oferi decat niste poze, foarte tari de altfel, pentru ca video este cu copyright si daca proprietarii lui nu vor sa apara, nu apare,simplu!

La revedere Callatis!

…A doua seara in care Rock On  a incins atmosfera pe scena festivalului a fost a 3-a seara de festival.Seara a fost denumita “Steaua de mare”, seara UCMR-ada (Uniunea Compozitorilor si Muzicologilor din Romania), seara in care s-au oferit premii diferitilor artisti din Romania care prin munca lor au ridicat standardele muzicale din aceasta tara.

Divercitycafe.ro a caracterizat cea de-a treia seara in felul urmator:

“A 3-a zi de festival a fost deschisa de o trupa comparata de noi la imagine cu mai faimosii Jabba Wockeez de peste hotare. Miscari bune, show antrenant “

Iata si filmarea.

…A inceput pe 10 august, dupa Callatis Junior, in jur de ora 9. Festivalul a fost deschis de Imnul Callatis 2009, cantat de un membru Ro-Mania, imi scapa numele lui acum, cu fetele de la Miss Diaspora in jurul lui si cu Rock On pe spate sa asigure animatia. A fost o seara foarte haioasa, fara emotii, pentru mine cel putin, desi era prima data cand eram implicat intr-un proiect de o asemenea anvergura. Am zis ca a fost o seara haioasa, pentru ca, la repetitii totul s-a desfasurat intr-un fel, iar pe scena realitatea a fost cu totul alta, fetele de la miss erau foarte dezorientate, cantaretul probabil la fel si el, au uitat sa iasa pe momentele pe care trebuiau sa iasa si sa lase loc liber trupei de dans, luau centrul scenei pe cu totul alte momente decat cele care trebuiau, asa ca a trebuit sa ne adaptam si sa ne mulam dupa contur, ce era sa facem?:))

A cam trecut ceva timp de la ultimul post dar na, am avut un program foarte incarcat si solicitant, din toate punctele de vedere. Cu toate astea, am promis ca vin cu cateva intamplari de la callatis.

Cateva date pe scurt: cantonamentul a tinut 18 zile, locatia a fost Mangalia, munca a fost multa, festivalul Callatis a fost al nostru, ne-am distrat, ne-am facut de cap, ne-am dus, am plecat, am ajuns…inca suntem intregi.

Dupa multe incurcaturi si incertitudini legate de data de plecare, ba 11 iulie, ba 25 iulie, iata ca in dimineata zilei de 1 august eram imbarcati in masini, cu zambetele pana la urechi, desi eram rupti de oboseala. Dumul a fost lejer si foarte distractiv, am ras de toate prostiile posibile si imposibile, de toate fazele existente sau inexistente, ce sa dormi intr-o asemenea situatie, pe de-o parte ca nu se putea sa dormi, pe de alta ca nu vroia nimeni sa doarma si pe de si mai alta…cat curaj sa ai sa dormi intr-o masina plina de nebuni?:)) Ar fi sinucidere curata.

La Mangalia toate bune si frumoase, intai am fost la parintii Biancai acasa,pentru masa de pranz, infometati noi asa da nu prea ne era gandul la mancare, cum sa fii cand plaja, marea, era la o aruncatura de bat. Bine, ramanand intre noi, o sa spun ca in timp ce mergeam spre casa “parinteasca” observam ca in loc sa ne ducem spre oras, spre plaja, o luam in directia opusa si ne indepartam tot mai tare, insa din fericire, apartamentele nu erau acolo, ci foarte aproape de plaja, ne-am linistit repede.

Prima zi a fost una relax, ajunsesem pe la 3 dupa-amiaza, asa ca am avut liber. Liber a insemnat sa mergem la plaja si sa facem baie, si cu toate ca cerul era innorat si au cazut cativa stropi de ploaie, afara era foarte cald, iar apa de asemenea, asa acum e marea pe ploaie. Putina baie, putina plimbare pe faleza, iar apoi am fost sa vedem scena de la Scoica, unde se tine an de an Festivalul Callatis. Stau si ma gandesc acum si imi dau seama, cat de ciudat ma uitam cand am vazut pentru prima data Scoica, cat de nefamiliar imi era locul…si cat de obisnuit eram in ultima seara de Festival, era ca si cum m-as fi dus acasa, toata lumea ne cunostea, de la organizatori la femeia de serviciu (tanti si cu nenea care se luau zi de zi de noi cand mergeam la scena). Noaptea nu cred ca am facut nimic special, seara ce am fost prin Saturn la plimbare, de vreme ce a doua zi la ora 9 dimineata aveam antrenamentul de plaja, iar la pranz cel din sala.

Cam asa a decurs fiecare zi, antrenament dimineata (cu exceptia zilei in care am fost putin bolnavi si a celor din timpul festivalului), antrenament in sala de dans, apoi antrenament la scena (asta daca nu era dimineata). Partea de cantonament si de distractie a fost una foarte tare, cu multe lucruri noi, multa “caterinca” si multa distractie, dar na… ce sa zic…e treaba noastra ce si cum am facut )…fara paparazzi!

Totusi,pot…si vreau…sa vorbesc putin despre festival.  In postul urmator!

Hi,

[6.]  Woozor (Google Product) – The underground of the weather (Experience Here)

Woozor

[7.]  NY Art Beat – New York Art & Design Events, Exhibitions and Reviews (Experience Here)

NY Art Beat

~ Rock On ~

East Village. NYC. 10003

I just love this! Actually, rock on would be thumb in, this could be the American Sign Language sign for I Love You.

Either way, I think it is fabulous.

:  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  :  : 

Please do not steal these photos. It is simply bad karma and you could develop a nasty rash all over your body – is it really worth the risk?

Finally, sanity is being restored, or at least an effort is being made to do so, in the 54th Filmfare Awards. I was so glad to see movies like Rock On, OLLO and MMJ winning, and movies like RNBDJ and Dostana taking a backseat. Although the nominations were a little fuzzy[some categories had 5 nominations and some had 6, just to please a few people I guess], but given the limited scope of the nominations, most of the awards were well deserved.

Let me start with the Lifetime Achievment Award section. Bhanu Athaiya was a very good choice, especially because costume designers have never really been given their due. In fact, the Best Costume Design category was introduced so late, in 1994, only after seeing what Manish Malhotra’s costume did to Urmila Matondkar; from a demure girl next door he turned her into a sex symbol overnight. Back to Bhanu, she won the Oscar for Gandhi[1982] and that’s been her greatest achievement till date. But considering her work in Bollywood, she did a good job in Lagaan, Swades,1942ALS, Chandni and Razia Sultan. Her list of work shows her predilection and brilliance for period dramas where she has a fantastic sense of color, fabric and designing.
Om Puri being awarded this, ahead of Naseeruddin Shah, that was a bit of a disappointment. I think they should have been awarded together at least. These two giants of the arthouse cinema in the 1980’s did some terrific work. They have not been given enough credit, but this award is probably a way of doing so.

Coming to the Critics Award, Shahana Goswami was deserving of it. Her work in Rock On was awesome, her raw talent and the spontaneous expressions shone through very well. But at the same time, Manjot Singh for OLLO was not a very good choice in my opinion. In fact, Paresh Rawal and Abhay Deol deserved it more than Manjot. And outside ofOLLO, Paresh Rawal for MMJ or Naseer for A Wednesday would have been a much better choice. Nishikant Kamat forMMJ was again a good pick, but I don’t understand this Special Jury Mention for Prateik Babbar and Purab Kohli. What does this award mean? And why Prateik Babbar?? For slouching on the couch, being untidy, and having the foresight that Sushant Modi[Ayaz Khan] is not the right guy for his sis?? And Purab Kohli! He had nothing to lose in Rock On, he was just caught in-between Arjun Rampal and Farhan Akhtar’s ego clash. When they called the band off, he happily joined his dad’s business; when the band was reinstated he started driving around in the SUV once more. He was happy either ways and did not help further the cause of the story.

Talking about stories, Best Story for Rock On was a little surprising. Lots of films in 2008 had amazing stories to tell, like Aamir, A Wednesday, MMJ. I kept cosoling myself that Dostana and Ghajini did not win it. Best Screenplay was awarded to MMJ and Best Dialogues to OLLO and I had no complains with it.

In the techincal awards section, two awards that I didn’t agree at all are Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction. I thought OLLO was shot on location, so where was the Production Design. And the costumes looked like everyday stuff, jogging suits, sneakers, waist-coats, casual wear. In fact, Jodha-Akbar deserved both these awards, for the elaborate sets and the intricate jewellery and costumes. I would like it if someone can explain this to me.

I was happy with all other awards, like Best Cinematography and Sound Design for Rock On, Best Editing went toMMJ, it could have gone to A Wednesday or Aamir too[except for the dragged last 20 mins]; and I cared less for Best Choregraphy, Best Action and Best Visual Effects where the winners were Pappu Can’t Dance Saala, Ghajini andLovestory 2050, respectively.

I was totally ok with the debut award for male, being shared by both Farhan Akhtar and Imran Khan; similarly the female debut award should have been shared by Asin and Anushka Sharma, instead Asin took it home.

Arjun Rampal for Best Supporting Actor was good, but Kangana Ranaut for Best Supporting Actress was unexpected and undeserved. Shahana Goswami for Rock On or  Ratna Pathak for JTYJN would have been a much better choice. The problem with Kangana’s performance is that, she is unidimensional and has no range. Give her such a role, and 9 out of 10 times, she will just sleep-walk through it like in Life…In A Metro or Gangster or Woh Lamhe.

Music awards were doled out pretty judiciously. Sukhwinder Singh for Haule Haule and Shreya Ghosal for Teri Orewere really good choices. For the award of Best Music Director, I am sure it must have been a close fight betweenShankar-Ehsaan-Loy who produced some great score for Rock On and ARR who was also competing against himself with 3 nominations. But, ARR winning for JTYJN did not go down well, I shall consider this as an award for all the good work Rahman did in 2008, i.e., Jodha-Akbar and Ghajini included. And ARR for Best Background score of Jodha Akbar was good news. Regarding the RD Burman award, not sure how this is rewarded, but I think Amit Trivedishould have been awarded. Finally, the lyrics award for Javed Akhtar was also fine for his simple and meaningful words in Jashn-e-bahara.

Talking now about the mainstream awards, no complains about the Best Director and Best Movie. Ashutosh Gowariker did a great deal of research and a lot of hardwork went into Jodha Akbar. There was nobody more deserving than him, in the category. I would like to contest the Best Actor and Best Actress, though. Taking for granted that its more of a popular vote, Hrithik and Priyanka still did not deserve it; they may have won but they were not the best. In fact, newbie Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai did a better job in RNBDJ and Jodha Akbar, repectively. Even if it was popular vote, then Aamir Khan and Aishwarya Rai should have won.

All said and done, I think the awards were balanced out pretty well. I would any day accept these results than watchRNBDJ/Ghajini/Dostana take away awards and accolades. I would like to see some transparency in the entire process, though. The system should change, at least introduce a jury for popular award and give 50-50 weightage to public votes as well as jury members votes. That way, there will be more clarity in the process.

At the end of the day, good cinema won. At least the awards will help further the cause of independent cinema and meaningful work, and be appreciative and motivational for film-makers who want to tell us new and different stories. And I hope this trend will stay, not just prove to be an abberation. Perhaps, haule-haule se hawa lagti hai …

This post was first published on PFC

Hi,

Saxophone

         Do you know about it Saxophone or “Sax” in short? Also, I never get interested to know about it, but today (6th Nov)  is National saxophone day in Kentucky ( I read it on outtown and to55er on wordpress while surfing on net). So I searched little bit more and transported myself to wiki and saxophone.org. The saxophone (also referred to simply as sax) is a conical-bored transposing musical instrument  and invented by Antoine-Joseph “Adolphe” Sax in 1841.

Adolphe Sax

~ Rock On ~

Hi,

[4.] MSN Spectra – Visual news reader (Experience Here)

MSN Spectra

 [5.] Mindflex – Unleash the power of mind (Check here)

MindFlex

~ Rock On ~

Zero Stars (out of 4)

2008’s Rock On!! is a great Hindi film about a rock band and the tensions that develop between band members. Though London Dreams is also about problems within a rock band, it’s every bit as bad as Rock On!! is good: shallow and lacking an understanding of human emotions.

London Dreams is about Arjun, a Punjabi boy who dreams of becoming a great musician. However, his family hates music, blaming that particular form of entertainment for the death of Arjun’s grandfather.

When Arjun’s father dies — an event Arjun interprets as divine confirmation of his musical destiny — the boy moves to London with his uncle. Arjun runs away in the airport and buys his way into a music school with pocket change. (What? It could happen.)

As an adult, Arjun (Ajay Devgan) is so singularly focused on his goal of headlining Wembley Stadium that he won’t let anything distract him, going to far as to whip himself with a belt to suppress his sexual urges for his backup dancer, Priya (Asin Thottumkal). Arjun’s band, London Dreams, takes England by storm, even though their music is mediocre.

Arjun’s childhood friend, Mannu (Salman Khan), leaves his life of philandering in Punjab to live with his pal in London. For kicks, Arjun invites Mannu to perform on stage with London Dreams.

There’s a freak confetti accident during the performance, and Arjun gestures to Mannu to take over as frontman. Turns out, slacker Mannu is a more charismatic singer than Arjun. Mannu gets all of the accolades, as well as Priya’s affections, and Arjun sets about trying to destroy his best friend and take back the spotlight for himself.

Overall, London Dreams is a sloppy movie. The same footage is used for concerts that are supposed to take place separately in London, Paris and Rome; try to spot the girl in the blue basketball jersey in the crowd at all three concerts.

Worse, the band members barely even pretend to play their instruments. The old, mohawked drummer never comes within an inch of the cymbals he’s supposed to be playing. Heck, he’s not even an official member of the band, which consists of two singers, two guitarists and a backup dancer. It’s impossible for them to produce the music that makes up the movie’s soundtrack; it should have also been impossible for Mannu to auto-tune his own voice without the aid of a microphone and computer.

Trumping all of the movie’s other problems, the lead characters in London Dreams are deplorable. Arjun is a sociopath, and Mannu’s alternately a promiscuous lout and a simpleton. Their relationship with each other doesn’t develop, and Arjun never faces any consequences for being a terrible person.

Skip London Dreams and rent Rock On!! If nothing else, the music’s better.

London Dreams is a movie about this passionate guy called Arjun, whose only dream is to sing in front of a cheering crowd in Wembley, UK. He loved music since childhood, but his passion was never appreciated by his family, even worse for him, he was continuously discouraged to be a musician due to a sad experience that happened in their family long time back. This forms the basis of the whole plot, where this desire of his turns into an obsession over time. He manages to land in UK with his uncle, then grows up to train himself in music. The biggest strength of this movie is the way the character of Arjun is shown inside out through his reflections and thoughts from time to time. The highlights are the scenes when Arjun reflects each little step he takes towards Wembley. The first one is when the cops leave him after a warning for singing in Trafalgar Square without any permission. Strangely enough he believes all this happens to him because God has written his success story in an extraordinary way just like all other great men.
Arjun gets his big break with Blockbuster Music and his band becomes one of the most popular bands in UK. He nurses a secret crush on Priya(played by Asin), who is the cheer leader of their band…but he does not let his feelings for her distract him in anyway.One scary scene comes up in the middle where he actually beats himself up with his belt for letting such thoughts come in his mind. I must say the cinematography is superb in such intense scenes where Arjun is shown in his darkest phases. Another one is the point when he is sitting backstage, just before the pre-climax,from where the story starts with his narration, thinking about how life has turned out for him,and how things were snatched away from him even though he had worked really hard to achieve them. I believe the dialogues/narration were effective because the frames supported the intensity required for such dark scenes.

Just when Arjun feels he is very close to achieving his dream, he hits the rock bottom. The twist comes when Arjun gets his friend Mannu(Salman Khan) to UK,and asks him to join his band. Things go out of control when Mannu manages to steal the show completely at his first concert itself and achieves the fame and the popularity in one second that Arjun has been fighting for all his life. He realises it that very moment, that God has, in a very unfair manner given him all the passion to be a musician but gifted all the talent to Mannu.

Things turn really bad for Arjun from there on..he feels extremely jealous and betrayed by God for the first time. He expresses it very well actually in the church,when accuses God for playing with him all this while, and curses himself for being so naive because he kept consoling himself in the hope that God has something extraordinary in store for him. Arjun is left with only two options:Either he could concede and give away everything he has to Mannu or fight his way up even if it required to actually destroy his innocent friend. He settles for the second option.

Arjun tries to actually get Mannu into drug addiction, Mannu being naive falls for his trap. But Arjun does not succeed because the audiences loved Mannu more than him, which he could stand at all. I agree the pre-climax scene at the concert where Arjun blabbers out his negative thoughts in front of 90,000 people in the fully packed Wembley stadium, was not dealt with properly. The confession could have been done somewhere else, at least not in front of the fans, because it only backfired at him.
The group disbands after this, leaving everybody including Arjun and Mannu bitter about things. The final climax scene is actually cute with Salman showing his selfless side to his best friend Arjun, happily welcomes his friend at the station in Punjab. The last song is again at Wembley stadium where Mannu and Arjun sing about dreams and success. It sums up the whole movie. The message is that success is incomplete if you don’t have your friends and family with you to celebrate it.

The movie poses a simple question in my mind: Many people run after their dreams, unaware of the fact that passion is not the only thing required to achieve success. Talent is very important. But how does one know whether they are talented or passionate unless they reach their goal. Also what if you realize it only when its too late, and you cant turn back?
On the other hand talent alone can’t get you anything. Passion needs to drive your talent to the right path, like Mannu was wasting his talent singing/playing for a band in marriages, unaware of the talent that he was gifted with. It was Arjun who unlocked his talent and gave him a platform to showcase it.

I guess people who identify with this movie, like me, will love it, but if they don’t they have all the reasons to hate it. Going by the reviews, many of the critics have slammed the movie left, right and centre. I guess when a movie is based on personal experiences or deals with things which are real but very intricate, fails to have a mass appeal.

But anyway, I can see effort put into this movie. Songs and lyrics are outstanding according to me. People are naturally comparing it with Rock-on which is wrong, because it’s a matter of chance that this movie came after Rock-On, had it been released before it, the fate of this movie might have been different. Who knows?

Hi,

        Steve McCurry is american photojournalist and know for his best photography, “Afghan Girl“. Some photographs taken by him in various parts of india are awesome.  You can visit his webiste or blog for more details. 

Part of his work:

Work of Steve McCurry

 ~ Rock On ~

The third day of BITS OASIS 2k9, which included the much awaited professional show by Shankar Ehsaan and Loy concluded as the best day of OASIS this year.

The first major event of the day, Razzmatazz, which started at around 11:30 AM included some of the best dance troupes from colleges all over India including SRCC, LSR, KNC, IP etc. The three rounds coupled with the determination by every team to perform their best produced a spectacular show. This followed a quizzing event called Triathlon which was later followed by the competition for Mr. and Mrs. Oasis ’09 (MAMO). As MAMO got over, all were left with little to do other than wait for the Gods of Indian Bollywood music to set the auditorium stage on fire. The entries started at 9:30 PM and the pythonic queue was an indication of the expectations everyone had from that night. After pushing and screaming for a long time, everyone managed to get through. The auditorium almost jam-packed with twice its normal capacity. With the entrance of the trio, the auditorium started shaking with a roar of excitement. The numbers of Dil Chahta Hai, Wake Up Sid, Kal Ho Na Ho and Rock On, which Shankar sung with panache lending it a feel more awesome than in a playback, made everyone present dance their hearts out. A few songs were also sung by his son, who by his voice made a mark that pretty soon he’d be sharing the stages with his father. Towards the end, Shankar Mahadevan came up with his very first song – Breathless. It was then that the people present shifted into a psychedelic state swinging themselves from side to side, head banging to every drum beat, and shouting the complete lyrics at the top of their voices. On exiting the auditorium and interviewing a few students, they said,” We can no longer feel our ears and legs. It was the most amazing concert ever.” Thus, concluded the amazing performance by the trio at around 12:30 AM. After an hour, the finals of Rocktaves ’09 started. Adrenaline was still rushing in many which was quite evident from the huge mosh-pit and the severe head banging during this all India rock event. Guillotine, a band from Delhi was declared as the winner.

Sleep deprivation and utter fatigue did not stop anyone from witnessing these amazing performances and enjoying every competition to the very last bit. The thrill of the four days of complete cultural extravaganza which came just after a row of exams was just what everyone needed, to rejuvenize their body, mind and soul.

Hi,

I would like to share some cool stuff with all of you.

[1.] Search-Cube – The Visual Search Engine (Experience Here)
       Search Cube is search engines which displaying search results in an easy-to-parse, ordered list and in 3D interface. It grabs results from Google and site preview thumbnails from Thumbshots, then combines them in a 3D cube that you can rotate freely either with your mouse or keyboard. It won Mashup award in 2008.

Search-Cube

[2.] Zoomi (Experience Here)
           A shopping experience for Amazon books, represented visually as bookshelves, with browsing controls to zoom and pan. Zoomii also won Mashup award in 2008.

Zoomii

[3.] Microsoft Tag (Experience Here)
       A Microsoft Tag is essentially a machine readable web link ,analogous to a TinyURL link: when read, the Tag application sends the HCCB data to a Microsoft server, which then returns the publisher’s intended URL. The Tag reader then directs the user’s mobile browser to the appropriate website. Because of this redirection, Microsoft is also able to provide Tag analytics to publishers.

Microsoft Tag

~ Rock On ~