Monday, October 24, 2005

Excellent Concert and a Talented Arundhati Singha!! Hot Talas and Cool Rasas is Just Tooo COOOOOL...
Austin, Texas on OCT, 22nd 2005.




If you ever ever ever get a chance to watch Mallika Sarabhai and the Darpana group perform any of their contemporary ballets, please do not miss it! Not only Mallika, but her complete group who performed 'Hot Talas and Cool Rasas' are so amazingly talented. The efforts, the hardships, the choreography and the smooth flow of bodies dancing on the stage is all so well put in, along with some real mind blowing fusion music, its just beyond compare. The concert started with a hard core classical Bharatnatyam performance which went on for 30 minutes. And then Mallika announced that we were at the end of the first half of the concert. The audience was really confused thinking that the whole performance would be only for an hour, and disappointed becos some had paid $50 for a ticket. Suddenly the lights went out and a spotlight followed Mallika as she walked on the stage and said "Now that you have got an idea of our classical expertise, let us give you a gist of some contemporary ballet." And then they started for the next one and half hour, mixing jazz music, south indian classical and music by the group Indian Ocean! It was just fantastic. Mallika would give a very brief and concise explaination just before starting a new skit. She tackled issues from women oppression and religious riots to abstract and philosophical issues like why everybody has a mask on their face.
I was very fortunate sit in the second row from the stage, and I could actually see the varying expressions on each of the performer's faces. Among them was this talented and probably the youngest prodigy in the present group, Arundhati Singha. As the story for any of the skits progressed, I could see the expressions on Arundhati's face change so drastically.....implying that blood and talent was present as one in her veins. Her brief biography describes her as a graduate from Kalakshetra where she was trained for 15 years. And... Ohh.... by the way....her eyes are so so so expressive (Yes, I have to say it thrice)...I was completely bowled over!!
All in all an excellent concert....definitely not to be missed if one gets a chance to see it!!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 6:43 PM ] [ | ]

   Friday, October 21, 2005  

ICMCA presents Mallika Sarabhai in concert!

The Indian Classical Music Circle of Austin (ICMCA) are proud to present one of the mega events for Fall 2005. "HOT TALAS and COOL RASAS" features Mallika Sarabhai and the Darpana Performing Company. Mallika Sarabhai is an exponent of Bharatanatyam and Kuchipudi and is considered as one of India's most premier classical dancer. Mallika Sarabhai and her troupe performs tomorrow (OCTBER 22nd, at 6.00pm) at the West Lake Auditorium in Austin. This is her only performance in Texas. I bet this is going to be one great concert, for those who enjoy music, regardless of the language and culture. If you get a chance, please please don't miss it.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 3:04 PM ] [ | ]

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   Wednesday, October 19, 2005  

US AND THEM- SYMPHONIC PINK FLOYD

Tumbled on THIS cd on Ebay and bought it at a throw-away price.....The decision was impulsive and experimental. The music is good, for a change, but definitely lacks the punch and the strings of the original. Hence I say its good for a 'Change' :-)

Current Music : The Great Gig In The Sky :: The London Philharmonic Orchestra :: Us And Them: Symphonic Pink Floyd (10/19/2005 6:53:19 PM)

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 6:36 PM ] [ | ]

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Me on NPR... sometime... :-)

A friend working as an intern for a professor who is doing a project for NPR called me up yesterday and asked me if I could volunteer my voice for reading a script which will be broadcast on NPR sometime next year. Basically they wanted an Indian male voice for a certain part of the script. I was more than happy to do it. The script was about a discussion of H-1B visas and the particulars and problems to be looked into when filing for such a petition. It was a fun experience, with takes and retakes! A real 'Filmi' atmosphere, with the director/recorder-the professor shouting ....Take-1......Take-2..... :-) The recording session lasted for 1-1.5 hours and they are going to let me know of the exact date of broadcast.

UPDATE: The name of the series is CROSSING EAST. More info about the series can be found on www.crossingeast.org

Current Music : Wearing the Inside Out :: Pink Floyd :: Division Bell

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 10:08 AM ] [ | ]

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   Thursday, October 13, 2005  

HIGH HOPES- Pink Floyd:

"The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The nights of wonder"

The first memory that springs to my mind, when I hear this song is that of, us old friends gathering together after a good game of cricket or any other sport and discussing the game and other random things. This was usually done by sitting on the concrete wall fence that surrounded our apartment complex in Bombay, India which was popularly known as the 'Adda'. We all were mostly in our teens then. Now that everyone has separated and on their own way working towards their carrers and lives, such days hardly come back again and even if we all reunite, the 'Adda' is still not the same. I guess the song signifies all of us growing up and getting busy and wondering whether thise days will ever come back again.

Here are the complete lyrics of the song, dedicated to all my friends and those memorable years that we spent together!!

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young
In a world of magnets and miracles
Our troughts strayed constandly and without boundary
The ringing of the division bell had begin

Along the long road and on down the causeway
Do they still meet there by the cut

There was a ragged band that followed in our footsteps
Running before time took our dreams away
Leaving the myriad small creatures trying to tie us to the ground
To a life consumed by slow decay

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
With friends surrounded
The night of wonder

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us
To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side
Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again
Dragged by the force of some inner tide

At a higher altitude with flag unfuried
We reached the dizzy heights of that dreamed of world

Eneumbered forever by desire and ambition
There's a hunger still unsatisfied
Our weary eyes still stray to the horizon
Though down this road we've been so many time

The grass was greener
The light was brighter
The taste was sweeter
The nights of wonder
With friends surrounded
The dawn mist glowing
The water flowing
The endless river

Forever and ever

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 2:57 PM ] [ | ]

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   Monday, October 10, 2005  

PJ....(meaning poor joke or a pathetic joke)

A young lady gets into an auto-rickshaw* and asks the driver to take her to her destination. When she gets out of the auto-rickshaw, she finds that she is turned completely bald without a single hair on her head. How did this happen....

-Answer: Inside the rickshaw its written in white paint "Automatically".....aka....'Auto-Me-Takli' ** :-)))

* Auto Rickshaw: is a small mode of 3 wheeled public transport (like a Taxi) which has 3 wheels.

** Auto-Me- Takli : means in Indian language, get bald in an Auto Rickshaw..

Ok...now I think I should go to sleep....got to leave About Schmidt half way...

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 1:55 AM ] [ | ]

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CHANNEL: TNT
TIME: 12.00am
MOVIE: The Thomas Crown Affair

CHANNEL: TNT
TIME: 2.00am
MOVIE: About Schmidt

Ohh Man........How I wish it was a Saturday night and not Sunday night!!!! :-( Some of the good movies of all times!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 1:05 AM ] [ | ]

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   Friday, October 07, 2005  

PASSING THOUGHT....

A shrewd politician and a smooth talker can prove to be a very lethal combination!! I am neither...How about you?.....Anybody dare to admit ;-)

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 11:46 AM ] [ | ]

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   Thursday, October 06, 2005  

Try This...for a Quick Breakfast

If you are a fan of half cooked eggs....as I am, try boiling an egg for just a minute and then cool it immediately. Once cooled, tap the egg to take the shell off. What you find is the albumin (white part) just solidifies and the yolk remains intact in its original form. Now the best part, since the egg is kind of 'half-boiled' or soft boiled, when you tap it on something to remove the shell, the shell tends to crack on its equitorail margin and hence you can remove the tapering part in one piece usually,and then hold the egg by the lower half of the shell and using it as a cup, take a spoon and enjoy it. A little bit of salt and pepper might help if you need it, but the egg in all its originality is also just tooo goood! :-)
UPDATE: this recipe was recommended by buddy Taath :-)

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 8:54 AM ] [ | ]

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   Wednesday, October 05, 2005  

Apartment of Horror!! Bloodshed Every Where...

Yes it happened in my apartment yesterday evening....I wish I had pictures but then i was so nervous and in a hurry, I just did not think of the camera. I was just madly cleaning up the bloody stains with a wet kitchen towel and cursed myself for not buying those 'Extra-Strong' -'Interwoven' ones that do not fall apart when soaked with soap water. It was hard to get those blood red stains off the walls before anybody else noticed....and I was just in a frenzy of frantic madness.
I was trying to open a can of tomato puree in a hurry, and I peirced the can so fast (the contents are always under a certain pressure) that some of the puree burst out and got splattered over the kitchen wall and the window blinds. :-)))

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 9:51 AM ] [ | ]

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Martha Stewart, right, teaches Jennifer Garner, who stars in the television show, "Alias," how to make yogurt on her show "Martha," in New York Tuesday. Garner, who is pregnant, was featured on the show which was filmed in front of an audience filled with pregnant women.
Photo Courtsey: The Daily Texan
- Firstly I never knew that she (I mean of course Martha, not the sweet Jennifer :-) was back on the show! And secondly.....I wonder why would anyone want to know how to make yogurt? You would probably be better off buying it off the shelf....and anyways making yogurt is pretty simple. Of all the beautiful things in the world.....WHY YOGURT??? There are so many other different recipes.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 9:21 AM ] [ | ]

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   Tuesday, October 04, 2005  

Home Theatre Design....

One of the things that has fascinated me from early childhood, is the interest and gathering information about various home theatre systems(mostly components) and trying out things to see how acoustics are affected by various type of room structure. I remember the first tape-to-tape recording that I did was with my father, of course under his supervision when I might have probably been 7-8 years old. I still remember we placed the original tape (Song: Funky Town) in a single casette player and the recording tape in the other and connected the audio out of the oroginal to the mic in of the recorder. So was the first recording done!

Right now, my home theatre consists of a 5.1 surround which has the following components:

Receiver: Harman Kardon AVR 125, 5 x 45 Watts, Dolby Digital/ProLogic/DTS Decoder.

Front Speakers: Polk R50 Cherry

Center Channel: Polk CSi20 Black

Surround Speakers: Bose AM5

DVD Player/5 Disc Changer: Sony NC875 (This one can play literally any disc available on the market right now)

TV: Optoma DLP Wide Screen Projector: Brightness: 1500Lumens; Contrast Ratio: 2000:1; Wide Screen Size: ~48inches x 85inches.

I am pretty happy with this as long as I stay in my tiny apartment. The Polk front speakers provide the much needed bass and the Bose AM5 are just enough for the surround effects due to their excellent high frequency response and the mild passive subwoofer.

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 4:57 PM ] [ | ]

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   Monday, October 03, 2005  

3M Post-it for you Desktop!

CHECK THIS OUT AND PUT IT ON YOUR DESKTOP!!!

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 2:52 PM ] [ | ]

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The Exorcism of Emily Rose: Rating- * * * * * Excellent...A Must See...

Saw this movie over the weekend. Maybe my views are biased becos this movie is based on a true incident that took place in Germany, but I did find this movie to be too good! It explains both sides of the story and it depends on the viewer to decide whether Emily was really possessed by demons or was suffering from some psychotic disorders. This is one kind of a movie where you don't need great actors or exceptional acting skills, but the story line itself is so powerful to make the movie watchable and thrilling. There is no dirty-puky horror but the suspense and the gradual possession of Emily by the demons has been portrayed extremely well. Jennifer Carpenter stars as Emily and Tom Wilkinson plays the role of the priest who performs the exorcism. Laura Linney plays the part of the lawyer who defends the priest from accusations of negligent homicide. A very good movie for those who love to see horror flicks!!
The above shot is during the peak of the exorcism ritual when the priest asks Emily (i.e the Demons) its name so that it can be exorcised from Emily's body. And the Demon replies chanting in ancient Latin and Aramiac "1,2,3,4,5,6" and then shouts so loud that nobody can bear it. Excellent shot!!! Keeps you at the edge of your seat! :-)

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 11:46 AM ] [ | ]

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Its just amazing.....

THe moment I stepped out of the airport....I could smell the salty air and the coooool breezae blowing. Temperatures hovering around higher 60's and lower 70's. it was a great respite from the Texas summer. My first SIGHT was that of the palm trees all neat in a row! reminded me of my native place in India-Murud, Janjira!! I said to myself, I am just gonna have fun, despite the itsy-bitsy nervousness of a couple of presentations that I had to do...!!The HOTEL was a good one and my room had one of the better views. Though I always hate to stay in the hotel room whenever I am staying in one! The best thing about the trip was that the presentations went pretty well and I got to eat some of the best fish!! Also dipped my feet in the Pacific Ocean. It was just amazing.. Here are a few pictures : San Diego SkyLine, The Pacific, The SunSet, Room View at night

   [ posted by PseudoFreud @ 11:11 AM ] [ | ]

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