intrigue

i came across a video about the number stations, essentially a broadcast of seemingly random numbers or words being monotonously spoken.
About 7-8 years back, in the night while supposedly preparing of an exam the next day, fiddling with the radio on my stereo, (used to love listening to foreign stations on short wave. different music, different programmes.. i even got to listen to a russian elvis presley) i had stumbled on similiar gibberish. the feeling of stumbling onto something utterly incomprehensible but of some obvious consequence is awesome. i can't forget this one instance as well. this was a time when i was heavily into astro physics, Carl Sagan, marcia bartusiak, SETI, drake equation, wow signal and what not.. here i am researching in free time about life outside our planet n shit, and lo and behold you hear stream of possibly encrypted data. btw, at that time with a group of friends we were trying to build an interferometer.. so that should give you a perspective.
people familiar with the story of discovery of LGM (little green men, or pulsars to be honest) would understand the rush of excitement that this broadcast brought me. i quickly tried to jot down whatever i could hear. the reception was pretty bad. it was a stream of random words.
'bats. umbrella. boots. iron. ...' shit like this.
quickly i typed the same words i had heard on the browser. a site returned with a continuous stream of the same words written in a marquee. nothing else on the page. no links. nothing. tried to dig behind the page, address. nothing worthwhile. i didn't dig further, thought it might be some ham radio club's secret game or something.
end of story.
then i read information security and warfare by dorothy dennings. it was a revelation. i was into minor programming n hacking then. this book showed me the possibilities. but that sadly made me stop doing hacking shite, cuz i started feeling small and guilty for no reason. at times, u are better off not knowing something.

that was then.
building interferometers (halfway through) and telescope (complete :) though my friends did most of the work.. i don't have the patience to grind mirror over mirror for hours)).
and now.
a few months back in MICA, enthu Akshaya proposed that we set up an online radio station. all excited, but i never got around to do anything about it. maybe it was the fact that we were too busy partying being the last months in MICA. whatever...

old hindi songs

whats about them old hindi songs!? they are magical. its only old hindi songs that spring into the media player of my head for any slight emotional gear shift.
some of these songs i have never heard in original. its as if the collective memory of the world around me seeded that song in me. a big pool from which this memory draws these songs is antakshari. through numerous games of antakshari, i know so many old songs that i have never heard in original. some others i had heard as background score in movies. mostly its people around me humming those songs. my dad's singing is another source of this memory.. though he is just as bad with remembering lyrics as me, so its the tune mostly that sticks.
Speak about viral! these are bloody the best virals ever. which viral ever lasted for decades?
yesterday i was humming geeta bali's 'taqdir se bighdi hui ...' what a wonderful song. and i had never heard it myself! i googled straight away and found it on a obscure website.

woody allen

woody allen. watching his movies is like gazing at a lake. its beautiful, its easy, it needn't be turbulent, and after spending enough time with it you actually feel content with a light buzz (that a glass of shiraz wine (nasik's \m/) would lend).
the movies may not be realistic but it always portrays a certain reality. the reality of life through a narrow lense, a narrow politics. this lends a simplicity to his movies which lets it wash over you without any undue excitement. its like having a nice conversation with an old friend, comfortable in the contradictions/arguments and with a confirmation of knowing each other a little more better.

cheers! and go watch manhattan.

p.s. : i have written about conversations and movies here.

resistire

i woke up today with 'happy together' by the turtles going on n on in my head. what a song! i heard it on loop for quite a few times before i got sated.

and then while on train, another song started doing rounds. i didnt even know the song. it was something i heard a while back while watching almodovar's 'tie me up tie me down'. god bless google and imdb. the song is 'resistire' by el duo dynamico. what a wonderful song. its one of those songs which makes u roll up ur sleeves and draw in the fingers into a fist to punch the air above.
now i want to know of resistance songs from south america. south america has a dynamic history and present of resistance and its poetic legacy is unparalleled. it would be a surprise if we can't find out some kickass stuff in this sphere.. resistance songs from south america.
even better even we could lay our hands on some native music.. that would be kickass. afaik, the conquistador's have been very successful in eliminating the native population. the very few who are left, if we could know their views through music, that would be awesome.
ppl, the two of u who read this at times, :P , please send across any thing in this regards if u find.

abrazo,
ajinkya

ease

usain bolt.
i feel happy to be alive in this era to see such great athletes as usain, phelp, Yelena Isinbayeva...
just saw usain's 100m sprint world record. its amazing. it seems as if he didnt need much effort to break that record. while gay was furious at himself, and others panting, usain seems at ease... this effortlessness, this freedom and control of oneself is amazing and a sure sign of true genius.
watch maksim play piano (his compositions are ok but his performance, spectacular! watch him play 'bumblebee'. awesome shit! wish to c him on stage). His fingers dancing passionately with the keys of the piano. its as if his fingers are part of a ritual of ecstatic celebrations.
ease. i desire ease. they tell me it only comes after immense devotion n practice. damn!

end

i have no sense of end. i start on an idea/dialogue/work/whatever with full steam and then as the brain empties its thoughts into the receptacle of words/artifact/whatever, the steam now used up, the pen stops and thats my end. like here... with three dots... done...

front row seats

chandan cinema. what charm! breath the warm smells of pop corn and whistle along the geysers of whistles blowing from all around. even amol palekar mentions it in 'golmaal'. lovely movie it was, god bless Hrishikesh Mukherjee. he perhaps has been responsible for billions of minutes of hearty laughs, content smiles and happiness throughout India.

anyways.. (unlike my other blog, here i am going to let myself drift away in the thoughts and the language they come in as i write.. 'anyways' would represent getting back to what i wanted to say in the first place :P)

and top it with front row seats. a sure fire combination for a great 3 hour ride.
i remember watching 'bheja fry' in fun cinemas in ahmedabad. we were some 14-15 of us. all front seaters. after a few minutes from start, all came down and made themselves comfortable on the carpet beneath. people were sleeping, rolling around, sitting at the front while watching the movie.. what an experience it was.

anyways.. :P
yesterday we saw kaminey in chandan cinema.. front row seats. the screen towered over us.. the images looks curiously distorted with lower half ballooned and the upper half narrowed... its like movie of moving potatoes or sacks or something.
we had to pan from edge to edge lest we miss some thing in the movie.
nevertheless, what a wonderful experience. first time in last 4-5 years i saw someone selling the tickets in black.. wonderful! it brought old memories back, to watch those action english movies in 'circle cinema' in nasik. people hooting and cheering during the movie.. never a dull moment.

but watching Kaminey (which is a kickass movie btw.. it strangely reminded me of amores perres for some reason :P) made me realise something. there is a certain cinema best viewed from front row seats, and certain others which are best viewed on your laptop and then some to be seen from the last row gallery.
I have seen 'Beta' from front seat.. 'Hum aapke hain kaun' from front row seat twice.. once from left end and the other time from the right end and then once from the last row of the gallery.. i can visualise the movie in 3D!
Kaminey is not a front row movie.. extreme closeups, stylized cinematography, saturated colors.. it puts quite a bit of an effort on the viewers to make sense of the scene. it made me dizzy at times.
masala movies in which you would rather break out in dance with the hero are best viewed from front seats. also, the steady non-exceptional cinematography doesnt strain you. instead, it helps feast on the vision of your screen idols.
i saw 'godzilla' in vishal theatre (which now has been broken down into multiscreen muliplex.. what a shame.. to replace such huumongous screen with 3 puny ones.)in Nasik... the screen of that theatre was huge..even sitting at the last row, one at times had to pan from end to end. the grandeur of godzilla was supposed to be seen in such screens only. or the madness and grandeur of 'fitzcarraldo' would have been so much more with big screen.
and then ... there are laptop movies. movies not necessarily social.. by that i mean, u watch masala flicks with ur friends and they are fun for that social experience. as against 'Khadosh'(bloody scary movie.. one of the most violent movies i have ever seen. made me go numb for a while)... these kind of movies are not supposed to be enjoyed at all. they are introspective and thought provoking. these. are. laptop movies. (or small hall movies)
hm.. need to buy kaminey dvd.

La Complainte de la Butte... or 'that french song which is so good on ears'

there's this french song in 'moulin rouge' called ' La Complainte de la Butte '. i don't even fucking understand the language.. but the song's been going on in my head since a while now. its beautiful. well, the amazing vocals of rufus wainwright did help ofcourse. but the beauty of it, i believe, lies in the simplicity of it all.

the simple melody wafts about and coils around your head, feeding in ears the delight of the luxuriantly sweet notes every now and then.

a while back i got introduced to edith piaf. her 'Non, je ne regrette rien' us absolutely fabulous. i mean, firstly hearing that almost guttural and lively voice is surprising & a pleasure in itself, but the melody.. its one of those compositions which take you, lift you and and then never leaves you through the life. it alights on your soul on a certain occassion and lifts you up everytime u feel low.
other such compositions are ennio morricone's music for cinema paradiso.. god its so beautiful. or the il postino theme. its orgasmic.
these compositions are soul food. i could die without them.
and what to say about moonlight adagio by beethoven. its sublime. it simply is. its life. its death. its earth. its moon. it is sublime.
it slowly envelopes all around and dissolved in the experience, it doesnt remain just music, its as if all senses closed in a singular ecstasy born of the adagio. oh! what is existence if not for such experience.

mad genius

the craziest man i have ever seen has to be Klaus Kinski. just the image of him. god! god is one kickass artist, to chisel out such amazing creatures.
those scavenging eyes. the unkempt hair. the mad un-contained energy. its bloody infectious. wish, i had known him, met him. it would have been something.
was watching his film fitzcarraldo yesterday. what a movie! and more so due to klaus. the mad plague of an idea starts from klaus and grips you. the sheer magnanimity of thought. its such an inspiration.
god/s, please make more people like him and werner herzog.. we need them.