1. A Perfect Circle - Gravity (5:08) 2. Agnee - Sadho Re (4:13) 3. Agnee - Shaam Tanha (5:01) 4. Agnee - Ujale Baaz (4:07) 5. Akon - Blame It On Me (4:57) 6. Anime Music - Full Metal Alchemist- Brothers (4:05) 7. Audioslave - Be Yourself (4:39) 8. Bowling For Soup - High School Never Ends (3:28) 9. Breaking Benjamin - Sooner Or Later (3:38) 10. Breaking Benjamin - You (3:21) 11. Charlie Clouser - Hello Zepp (3:00) 12. Chris Daughtry - It's Not Over (3:35) 13. Disturbed - Darkness (3:56) 14. Don Omar - Conteo (3:18) 15. Eminem - Sing For The Moment (5:41) 16. Evanascence - Whisper (5:27) 17. Godsmack - Asleep (3:58) 18. Godsmack - Spiral (5:23) 19. Juanes - A Dios le pido (3:28) 20. Katy Perry - I Kissed A Girl (2:58) 21. Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven (8:03) 22. Linkin Park - Cure for the Itch (2:35) 23. Linkin Park - Easier to Run (3:24) 24. Linkin Park - From the Inside (2:55) 25. Linkin Park - Lying from You (2:55) 26. Linkin Park - Numb (3:07) 27. Luz Casal - Negra Sombra (5:28) 28. Mana - Vivir Sin Aire (4:49) 29. Marilyn Manson - Sweet Dreams (4:45) 30. Nirvana - Dumb (2:52) 31. Oasis - Wonderwall (4:23) 32. Pink Floyd - High hopes (8:31) 33. Porcupine Tree - Four Chords That Made a Million (3:36) 34. Puscifer - Momma Sed (3:24) 35. Rammstein - Mutter (4:32) 36. RBD - Cuando El Amor Se Acaba (3:20) 37. Ricardo Arjona - Mojado (4:43) 38. Rihanna - Take A Bow (3:47) 39. Scorpions - Still Loving You (6:26) 40. Serj Tankian - Charades (3:14) 41. Serj Tankian - Empty Walls (4:03) 42. Serj Tankian - Falling Stars (3:05) 43. Snoop Dogg - Sensual Seduction (4:05) 44. Tony Dize - Quizas (4:13) 45. Tool - Parabol (3:06) 46. Tool - Parabola (6:02) 47. Tracy Chapman - Mountains O' Things (4:39) 48. Usher - Make Love In This Club (4:27) 49. Vallavan - Kadhal Yengge (4:31) 50. Wisin y Yandel - Por Que Me Tratas Asi (4:03) 51. Yanni - Almost A Whisper (3:12) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
W230 Music Library – Media Storage Label: Additional Storage Device Free: 304.0 Kb Used: 243356.0 Kb Total: 243660.0 Kb ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I downloaded Ayreon’s album called “Human Equation” yesterday, and that’s presently playing in the background. That music pretty much restricts one from watching any other thing. That, coupled with the fact that I don’t feel like reading Wilbur Smith’s ‘A Time to Die’ at this moment, I thought I would put down some great movies, that one just doesn’t stumble across often.
All the movies below are awesome. Thought provoking. And totally different from the regular mainstream movies.
Mogari No Mori [The Mourning Forest] The Mourning Forest is a 2007 Japanese film directed by Naomi Kawase. It was awarded the Grand prix at the Cannes film festival. It tells the story of a nurse who is grieving for her dead child. She works at a nursing home and grows close to an elderly man suffering from dementia who is searching in the local forest for something connected to his dead wife that he cannot explain. On this unexpected journey of discovery, an eloquent story unfolds against the lush and tranquil setting of Japan’s forests.
The movie is all about ‘human warmth through understanding’. The growth in relationship between the nurse and the old man is beautifully pictured.
It is also one of the slowest movies that you will ever watch.
Jisatsu Sakuru [Suicide Cirle] Tagline: Well then, goodbye everybody. Suicide Circle [Suicide Club] is a 2002 Japanese independent film, written and directed by Sion Sono, that gained a considerable amount of notoriety in film festivals around the world for its controversial subject matter and gory presentation. It won the Jury Prize for "Most Ground-Breaking Film" at the Fantasia Film Festival. It deals with a wave of seemingly unconnected suicides that strikes Japan and the efforts of the police to determine the reasons behind the strange behavior.
Although parts of this movie, makes one squeamish, the overall effect is of wonderment and stupefaction. It makes one look at life from a different perspective.
La Haine [Hate] Tagline: So far, so good… La Haine is a film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, released in 1995. It is about three teenage friends and their struggle to live life in the streets of Paris. Kassovitz won the Best Director award at the Cannes festival
This movie is supposed to be so ground-breaking that the then prime minister Alain Juppé arranged a special screening and ordered his entire cabinet to watch the film.
The most important quote of the movie is the one it begins and ends with:
"Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good... so far so good... so far so good. How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land!"
It deals with the society’s negative view of cops in times of strife, racism, etc. The best part is, it tries to offer no solutions, just paints it raw and strong.
PS:
1. check out Ayreon if you want to know what rock-operas are all about. 2. the movie list above is not exhaustive… will be back with more later. 3. these movies can be found in mininova.org
This morning, as I was innocently ripping Mitch Hedberg stand up comedy from the internet, I chanced upon the homepage of the site i was downloading from - and I landed on this:
hehe..
surreal + hilarious.
:-P
So, jobless as I was, I started looking around for similar ‘Page Not Found’ files, and I hit upon this site, which has several such pages, compiled by one like minded individual.
A few good ones follow:
* Psychiatric Support
* Mario is lost
* Lost in space* Ya Lummox!
* Apologetic Web Server
You need to follow the link for this one, a screen shot does absolutely no justice..
I always thought otherwise till I saw this in Last.fm…
“Tracy Chapman
4,513,285 plays scrobbled on Last.fm
Tracy Chapman (born March 30, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, best known for legendary singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' Bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", and "Give Me One Reason." She is a multi platinum and multi Grammy award winning artist.
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Tracy Chapman began playing guitar and writing songs as a child. She received a scholarship through A Better Chance that allowed her to attend WoosterSchool in Connecticut, and was eventually accepted to TuftsUniversity in Medford, Massachusetts.
I bet that if you have only listened to her songs, without reading any article about her elsewhere, or seeing her picture, you can't tell that the singer is a female, either.
She sounds so masculine. The album covers don’t really make it easily evident too.
I always thought that the lyrics were screwed up in a few places, for a man to be singing them… but I tagged it 'poetic license'. :-P
Mar Adentro is a 2004 film by the Spanish/Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar. It is based on the real-life story of Ramón Sampedro (played by Javier Bardem), a Spanish ship mechanic left quadriplegic after a diving accident who fought a 28-year campaign in support of euthanasia and his right to end his own life. [ripped from Wikipedia, the web-based solution to the question of life, the universe and everything else]
This person from Europe commented:
“This small, quiet, harmonious movie grows into a masterpiece on human dignity. It is intelligently structured, filled with meaningful little details and important side-plots. It tells a story of one man with great humanity without positioning itself politically, but fostering life as a precious right (not an obligation) and underlining individual's right to choose. It enjoys the richness of different landscapes (mental and physical) and languages (important detail). Outstanding acting by each of the actors, especially unbelievable by Javier Bardem. His screen-presence has such a force that you forget that this is fiction. The movie has a wonderful rhythm, it is beautifully shot and outstandingly directed. It takes real talent to make a movie on such a difficult theme with understanding, humor and heart. Six stars out of five.”
And that more or less is the same thing that I wanted to say anyway.
The other great thing of this movie is its soundtrack.
It is called "Negra sombra" [The Black Shadow]
[Lyrics by Rosalía de Castro, Music by Carlos Núñez, Performed by Luz Casal]
“Negra Sombra” gets a totally new dimension and depth if you listen to it after watching the movie [even though the song by itself, too, is pretty neat]. It is exactly like listening to Clint Mansell’s orchestral version of “Requiem for a Dream”, the original soundtrack of Saw and Departed, after having watched the movies.
Have a listen here, if you fancy one - "Negra Sombra":
By the way, The Sea Inside won the 2004 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, the 2004 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, and 14 Goya Awards including awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Lead Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Screenplay, some other 58 wins and 30 nominations.
Regardless of the above hype, this is really worth watching. Movies like these are not made everyday.
PS: This post was mainly
to try embedding a mp3 into a blog post.
add ‘Movies’ to my tag list. [:-P].
Speaking of Movies, check out these crazy new DVD by the Japanese record label Avex. It is called Miteiru dake (Just Looking).
And the women there do just that. Stare. And thats pretty much all they do.
About W230: If one is looking for a mobile with an MP3 and FM player, this is the phone to buy. It has a 256 MB memory card which can be extended up to 2GB. It boasts of an extremely long battery life [9 hours talk time, 450 hours stand-by]. It’s been decent till now, I have charged it only twice for about a week now. [The usage, though, has been minimal in the week]. It comes with an USB data cable + real good ear-phones + weighs less than 100 grams. Anyway, this post wasn’t meant to be a Motorola products advertisement. Given the fact that I had only about 256 MB free space for music, I needed to come up with a playlist. With some help from my page in last.fm, this is what I ended up with. Playlist: 1. A Perfect Circle - Blue (4:13) 2. A Perfect Circle - The Noose (4:53) 3. A Perfect Circle - Weak And Powerless (3:15) 4. Audioslave - Like a Stone (4:54) 5. Breaking Benjamin - Home (3:43) 6. Breaking Benjamin - Medicate (3:45) 7. Breaking Benjamin - Wish I May (3:58) 8. Breaking Benjamin - You Fight Me (3:09) 9. Clint Mansell - Requiem for a Dream (6:34) 10. Don Omar - Si La Vez (3:17) 11. Eminem - Cleanin Out My Closet (4:57) 12. Eminem - Till I Collapse (4:57) 13. Enrique Iglesias - Por Amarte (4:00) 14. Evanascence - Haunted (3:06) 15. Flobots - Handlebars (3:26) 16. Kanye West - Homecoming (3:23) 17. Linkin Park - What I've Done (3:28) 18. Metallica - The Unforgiven II (6:36) 19. Metallica - Turn The Page (6:06) 20. Metallica - Wherever I May Roam (6:44) 21. Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night (5:13) 22. Porcupine Tree - Shes Moved On (5:13) 23. Puscifer - Rev 22:20 (5:08) 24. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion (4:36) 25. Sean Paul - We Be Burnin' (3:28) 26. Serj Tankian - Feed Us (4:29) 27. Serj Tankian - Piano Improvisation (1:36) 28. Serj Tankian - Saving Us (4:42) 29. Serj Tankian - Sky is Over (2:59) 30. Snoop Dogg - Neva Hafta Worry (5:10) 31. System Of A Down - Ego Brain (3:21) 32. System Of A Down - Holy Mountains (5:28) 33. System Of A Down - Nuguns (2:30) 34. System Of A Down - Sad Statue (3:27) 35. System Of A Down - Soldier Side (3:39) 36. System of A Down - Toxicity (3:41) 37. The Fray - How To Save A Life (4:23) 38. Three Doors Down - Kryptonite (3:58) 39. Tool - 10000 days (Wings pt 2) (11:16) 40. Tool - Rightin' Two (8:57) 41. Tool - Sober (5:03) 42. Tracy Chapman - Fast Car (4:56) 43. Wisin & Yandel - Permitame (3:05) Statistics: 43 tracks in Playlist, Average Track Length: 4:31 Playlist Length: 3 hours 14 minutes 42 seconds W230 Music Library – Media Storage Label: Additional Storage Device Free: 304.0 Kb Used: 243356.0 Kb Total: 243660.0 Kb All in a good day's work. :-D PS: 1. Motorola W270 offers the same features and that is a flip-open kind 2. last.fm got a radical new look, as I was typing this post, go check it out
The man walked on the beach. The stray dog followed him as usual. It was late in the night. The moon was high and bright. There was a good breeze. He could smell the salt in the wind. It was just as he liked it. He came to the beaches on days he felt were never ending. He felt he had been coming here too often these days. He observed the play of moon light on the turbulent waters of the sea and the sand on the beach. He looked around as he walked. He was could see no other persons nearby. Into the distance, he could see the lights of the city though. They looked hypnotizing. But he preferred the water of the sea. Never having learnt to swim, he always regarded it with some awe and fear. The huge rocks projecting into the sea, the sand on the beach and the sound of the sea, the waves – this was his happy place.
The other man appeared suddenly out of nowhere. By the look of him, he seemed to be having rough days. His clothes were ragged; he had a slight air of poverty around him. But his bright eyes and his seemingly energetic manner bettered the first impression of him. He came forward and they shook hands. The stranger started to talk. He said that he was an actor, and if his well wishers were to be believed, he was really good at it. But right now, he was going through a rough patch and had been without work for days. This introduction didn’t do him much good.
The man, the dog was following, if he hated anyone, hated actors. He always had. He felt that they were untalented people getting fame, fortune and recognition for something very trivial and commonplace. So, on this occasion he felt nothing for the stranger. On the other hand, he felt slightly angry and told him his feelings about the acting business.
The stranger, instead of arguing back, proposed that he would act a bit for him, so the person could see for himself, so he might change his opinion towards actors. He added, if his acting was bad, an honest review by a critic would be welcome, but if the person felt that he had acted really well, he had to reward him with whatever the person saw fit. The person pulled out a hundred rupee note and declared haughtily that even if he is a little touched by the act, he would gladly give that amount away and take back his words about actors and their trade.
The actor agreed without any comments. If he felt any rage, he did nothing to show it. he said that since they were at the beach and the night was bright, , for a much better effect, he would act out a scene in the water. He pointed to the largest rock, a little distance away, which was jutting out way into the water and also quite a distance into the beach, and told that he would go to the top of the rock and dive in from there. The person could remain in the same place and observe the act, as the angle from this place was perfect. The rock and the sea were in front with the lights of the city behind him.
The actor started walking towards the rock. After a few steps, remembering something, he turned around and informed that though he knew swimming, right now it was pretty rusty, so in case of any complications, the person had to call out for Hariram, his friend who sometimes helped out in his acts.
With that, he started walking briskly along the beach, climbed the huge rock deftly, and reached the top. The moon was a halo around his head. The waves in the sea were lit by moonlight. The scene was idyllic. The man raised his arms and dived gracefully into the sea.
The act was brilliant. Out of the world. It starred the actor in two roles. He would dive into the water completely and resurface to switch between the characters. There were no spoken words in the scene. It was acting in the purest form. The scene started with the two people happily swimming around. The antics were funny. A faint smile appeared on the face of the person on the beach. Through the play, a small altercation was enacted, making one of the characters really angry. The anger was really something to watch. The person on the beach was by now, staring transfixed. Then, as the actor resurfaced as the other person, the scene changed. Now, the person was trying to plead with the first one. The helpless look was heart-breaking. The person on the beach had never seen such a thing in his life before. Suddenly, the scene changed again, as if the person in the water was being pulled under and he was trying hard to break free. The look of fear on his face, actually made the person on the beach forget to breathe. He felt the actor’s fear within himself. He continued to watch fascinated, as the scene was excruciatingly prolonged. The fear and helplessness flowed out from the actor in waves. In the end it was replaced by pure resignation. And then the actor went underwater.
The person on the beach realized that he had tears in his eyes and he was breathing heavily. He waited for a moment trying to find words to describe what he felt. He felt that no words can ever be used to describe the act or his present feelings. Then he realized that the actor was nowhere to be seen. He looked around in alarm. He tried his best to remember the name the actor had told him to call out, in case of a complication. This was the mother of all complications. He tried in vain to remember the name. He had never thought about anything this hard. It served no purpose. Waves of guilt and sorrow and humility and helplessness joined all the other raw emotions churning in his body. He tried to shout out for help. But emotions overwhelmed him. He felt a huge tightness in his chest. He couldn’t breathe for real this time. The last thought that entered his mind was that the world had lost its greatest actor and he was the reason for that sacrilege. Then he collapsed in a heap on the beach. The moon went behind a cloud. The night was dark.
The dog had been looking at the scene till now with interest. It came forward and sniffed the prone body. It walked around and sniffed some more. Then, the inactivity made it lose interest. Realizing that it was hungry, it started looking around for scuttling crabs. It followed the footprints of the actor, leaving paw prints alongside on the sand. It walked around the huge rock to the other side. It glanced once at the silhouette of a man, sitting on a smaller rock, staring into the city lights with his back to the sea, a small distance away.
The crabs on the beach caught its attention again.
It hurried after the biggest one.
PS: This is an adaptation based loosely on a similar story written, a long time ago, by the author of BrAiN DuNg !
This is the original Sanskrit version of the basic nine tenets of Madhva Philosophy by Sri Vyasa Tirtha. I found this today. Thought i would post it here. This reads way better than the same verse in English. The gist of each phrase in the shloka is posted in the previous post [Lectures on Philosophy - Madhva Philosophy]PS: @evilsense: 'Just Mu' right now, man. Will reply to your comment later. [:-P]
He thought as he walked. He would change. He had made up his mind.He would go back to what he had once been. He had never had any real complaints in his life.He was a cop. He was good at his job. He would go back to being just that. He would let time heal his present wounds.
He reached the entrance of the pub. The sign on the door said ‘Push’. And so he did.
He stepped inside. He breathed deeply. He loved this place. This would be the last visit here. He would give up drinking. He wanted to celebrate that with this one last night at the pub.
He sat at his usual place. The waitress served him his usual drink. He started to drink. He was still far away, though. Lost in all the memories.
He always thought that he had lived a blessed life. That was until he saw her. Then his world had got even better.
Nothing else in his life till then had such an effect on him. It had been beautiful. He had never believed in fairy tales or love or a soul-mate till that point. It was right here, in this pub, that he had seen her the first time. He could replay every second of that night in his mind. He had taken one look at her in the doorway, the wind managing to blow her hair into a heart-melting disarray; before, behind her, the door slowly closed with a small thump. She had looked at him. He had looked back. They had married within the month.
He had adored her. He still did. More than every thing else in the world. He had often heard whispers saying that was what had driven her away. That he had suffocated her with his love. He could never comprehend that.
He loved her. He knew only that.
But the truth was that she was separated from him. She had moved out of his house. She would not talk to him about it. He tried his best to start a conversation, the rare few occasions when they happened to meet. She always snubbed him. He heard whispered tales about her promiscuity. He chose not to believe any of those.
He had taken up drinking almost from the night she had walked away. But tonight, he decided he had pined enough. He would let her come to him by herself. He somehow felt sure that she would come back.
He realized that his drink was over. He signaled for another. And another.
A gust of wind from the door made him look up. He saw a man enter the pub. He seemed slightly familiar. The sound of a woman’s laughter froze him. He hadn’t heard that sound for a long time now. Then she stepped inside.
It was almost like a deja-vu.
But, the feelings that rushed into him this time were totally different, though. It was overwhelming. He couldn’t remember what he had been thinking till then. He couldn’t put his finger on the emotion he was feeling. It was a red hot mix of anger, betrayal, hate, self disgust and all other similar feelings. He wasn’t sure that he had any control on his own body. Time appeared to have stopped.
From what felt like far away, he watched the couple in the doorway hug and touch each other playfully. Their flirting made his agony worse. He was dimly aware that he had removed his piece from the holster, cocked it and now it was held in his hand, aimed at the couple at the door. The pub had become deathly silent. It didn't register though.
The couple at the doorway suddenly became aware of him. He could see their smiles and laughter freezing on their faces. Their scared appearances did nothing to ease the roar that in his ears. The scene seemed somewhat alien to him. He felt detached. Numb out of his skull. Blank.
The steel felt cold in his hand.
He didn’t want to kill. He had no clue what he wanted to do.
He became aware that the wind was blowing her hair into a heart-melting disarray.
He had to do something about the roar in his ears. He desperately wanted to feel something else except his finger on the cold trigger.
Behind them, the door closed with a small thump. He tore his eyes off from the couple then, for a split second.
[This evening, I brought Eckhart Tolle’s ‘A New Earth – Awakening to your life’s purpose’ from the library near my house. My dad, Prof. P S Nagendra Rao, saw the book and commented that these books have no real philosophical or spiritual basis. So, he started discussing Madhva (Dvaita) philosophy. We talked for about a hour or so. I have tried my best to post the main ideas here.]
“Dvaita, Advaita, Vishsitadvaita etc. are Vedantas. They are interpretations of the Vedas by brilliant sages, so that the common man can understand and follow righteous paths, leading to pure happiness – Nirvana or Mukti”
The basic tenets of Madhva Philosophy:
Sreeman Madhwamate Harihi paratarah || [Hari or God is the ultimate. He is omnipresent. He is independent of all other entities]
Satyam Jagat || [The world is real. This includes all that we see, observe, experience etc.]
Bhedha || [Existance of differences. Five kinds of differences are recognized, between living-living; living- non-living; non-living - non- living; living – God; non-living - God]
Jeevaganah Hareranucharah || [All living entities are controlled by God]
Neechochcha Bhavadgatah || [Existance of hierarchy in all entities]
Muktihi Nija Sukhanubhutihi || [The manifestation of real happiness is attained only at Mukti*]
Amala Bhaktisya tat Sadhanam || [Mukti can be attained by pure devotion]
Hyakshadi Traya Pramanam || [The basis for all these tenants are these three – Aagama, Anumana, Pratyaksha*]
Akhilam Nayeka Vedyo Harihi || [The ‘God’ that is propounded in all Vedas refers to Hari himself]
The above stotra is attributed to Sri Vyasatirtha, when he was just a boy of five years. As the story goes, Guru Brahmanya Tirtha passing along a forest area one evening comes across the boy, Vyasa, walking along with some cattle. He asks the boy– ‘Dear child, how far is the village from here?’ The boy replies – ‘Dear Sir, The Sun has almost set. I am a five years old. I happen to be taking my cattle home at this hour. How far do you think the village can really be?’ The Guru, pleased with this reply, asks him – ‘You appear to be very smart for your age. What else can you tell me?’ The boy says – ‘I can tell you more than just this. I live near a Matha and occasionally I hear talks on philosophy.’ Intrigued, Brahmanya Tirtha asks him – ‘Well then, what can you tell me about Madva Philosophy.’ It is then that the above stotra came to being. The stotra has nine lines and it is the shortest form in which Madhva philosophy can be almost fully explained. He was five years old.
A few concepts: *Mukti: This is eternal salvation. There is a concept called Anadi. Anadi refers to infinite souls existing for an infinite amount of time. God doesn’t create souls. They always exist. Have always existed. Each soul is associated with a Svabhava – a behavior, again unique. God is only responsible for giving life to a soul in this earth. A soul attains Mukti – or eternal nirvana, real happiness, only when it can get out this infinite cycle of births and deaths and suspended animation in between births and deaths.
*Aagama, Anumana, Pratyaksha: Aagama: What is evident from the Vedas, Upanishads and The Gita Anumana: What is evident from deductive logic and questioning Pratyaksha: What is evident from what we can observe ourselves
Posts
