Life

Fuck. Life sucks. Condundrums. Issues. Non-issues. Decisions. Fast-food, Home food, Diet Food, and inedible crap. Music. Fantasy. Erotica. Tool. X-Box's and PS2's and Wii's and Halo's. Cricket. Dhoni or Sehwag? Football. Rooney. Sex. Jenna Jameson. Sylvia Saint. Chastity. Computers. WWW. Counter-Strike. DotA. Cigarettes. Alcohol. Drugs. Inspiration. Respiration. Exhaustion. Stress. De-stress. Spa's and Saunas and Jacuzzi's and fuckin' swimming pools. Job-satisfaction. Money. Dollars, Yens, Rupees and Pounds. What the fuck is the fucking point? Physics. Alternate dimensions. Wi-Fi. Broadband. Mobile Phones and the fuckers who abuse them. Dreams and Nightmares. Reality. Life. Reproduction. Death. Insanity.

Just About a lotta stuff...

Ah yes...I've been away for awhile, had some stuff to do, people to see, places to go and all that.
But I finally took some time out to have a pint and watch a movie which all the critics have been raving about...YES! I finally saw 'Omkara'...Obviously if you're not an Indian you probably don't have a clue what this is so I'll give you a brief description.

The movie is an adaptation of William Shakespeare's 'Othello' by a very good director (Vishal Bharadwaj, who also incidently wrote the score for the movie) and its a movie packed with good actors as the leads (Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Viveik Oberoi).

All the character's names have obviously been modified, Ajay Devgan plays Omkara/Othello, the main protagonist of the story.

Saif Ali Khan delivers a powerhouse performance as Langda Tyagi/Iago (Langda meaning lame, the character has a pronounced limp in the story), the main antagonist of the story.

Viveik Oberoi as Kesu Firangi/Cassio (Firangi meaning Foreigner, basically also used as a label on Indian's who've lived abroad or in this case who have habits that are distinctly 'Foreign' in the minds of the village that the story is set in. In this case the habit seems to be his ability to play guitar).

Kareena Kapoor as Dolly Mishra/Desdemona.

Konkona Sen Sharma as Indu/Emilia (Langda Tyagi/Iago's wif(ve)s).

Character Synopsis:- (Borrowed from the good people at Wikipedia)

Omkara - Omkara is a combination of greatness and weakness. A principled man of action, he doesnt see life in midtones. He sees life either as good or evil. Therein lies Omi's tragic flaw

Langda - The pricipal catalyst in the story, Langda manipulates chaos into an orderly world and coldly invigilates its utter destruction. Tragically, the one person who truly loves him is the one who will have to settle the scores...

Kesu - Kesu is a natural charmer. He likes his woman as much as he loves his guns. Inspite of his first skin, he manages to fall in love with Billo, an orchestra party singer. Fearless and loyal to the bone, Kesu's only chink is his impatience and he pays for it in blood.

Dolly - Dolly's love and trust for Omi remains rock steady till the end. Smitten by him, she believes that the idyllic life of her dreams will begin soon. And it almost does until...

Bhaisaab - An influential cog in the Brahmin politics of the region, Bhaisaab is a sophisticated man, which can be misleading at times, given the ruthless nature of his profession. Omi treats him more like a father figure than just a political mentor.

Billo - Billo's wiles and charms has seen the sternest men melt with her desire. Kesu is besotted with her but she just keep him hanging on. A capricous soul, she is easily sucked into Langda's master scheme.

Indu - Life with an unscrupulous gangster was always going to be tricky but Indu bore it all with stern determination. Fiercely devoted to Langda, she becomes an unwitting aid in her husband's nefarious scheme. When the truth dawns, she takes up the cudgel and decides to stem the rot...

All in all, its an amazing movie, a really great adaptation. Set in Uttar Pradesh, India it shows how Omkara is the 'General' or enforcer of a political party headed by Bhaisaab and the crafty Langda Tyagi and the charming Kesu Firangi are his lieutenants. The movie kickstarts when Omkara chooses Kesu Firangi as his replacement 'General' when he himself enters the world of politics. This really gets to Langda Tyagi who sees this as an insult and all his years of loyal service to Omkara going to waste.

The characters perfectly portray the daily routines, habits and especially the local language of the region they are set in. This movie was screened at the Cannes Film Festival and received lots of praise. I would urge all to watch it, but obviously some of the movie's flair and flavor would be lost as most people will not understand some of the fast paced dialogue and local slang/curses/abuses used in the movie (Even more of a problem if you don't speak/understand Hindi). None the less, a must-see for anyone, and who knows you might pick a few choice abuses in another language and insult other people on the sly...or in this case to their faces without them being the wiser.



On a different note,
Has anyone noticed that star footballer, Germany's Captain Michael Ballack bears a striking resemblance to Matt Damon, the actor?

Check this out I kid you not...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Ballack2.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Matt_Damon_at_Incirlik.jpg


Does anyone have any other pairs like this? Someone told me once that there is a pornstar named Bella Donna (I'm not intimately familiar with her work, must've looked over her somehow...haha) who bears likeliness to the actress Rachel Weisz of The Mummy and Constant Gardener fame. I'll have to look this one up once I finish with this post.

An Evolutionary trajectory or a Static line?

Something that I've been thinking a lot about recently. The question simply put would be:

"Would you rather listen to a band that keeps changing their music or trying out new things or a band that stays more or less to its strong, big guns?"


I bet you answered pro-evolution. And no I don't have prescient abilities. Everyone wants to believe that they're pro-evolution because it means that we as individuals are open-minded and are evolving ourselves. No one wants to be the guy who says out loud, "Fuck that evolution shit. Lets just stick to the hanging about the trees gig."

I'd like to think that I'm for evolving bands like Tool (yes, I'm insanely into Tool. Go ahead and say something derogatory about them to my face:D) and that I accept every bands new release in a new light without any shadows. But I don't. This is not me showing everyone I can be bold and say I'm against evolving bands. I love evolving bands. I also however love bands that stay static like AC/DC or maybe like Oasis (who were static until their last couple of albums).

We're all guilty of having said at some point or the other that, "Oh man, 'insert band name here's' new album isn't as good as 'their really famous album'" And IMHO, its not that big a cardinal sin as it sounds. My favorite example of this would be Metallica's 'St. Anger'. C'mon you people know that when you heard it you were wondering who the hell hijacked the guys who made '...And Justice For All' and 'Master of Puppets' and replaced them with some sorta teenage garage metal band? And when I first heard Oasis' 'Don't Believe the Truth' I wondered who gave the Brit group the balls to make a record like that. I also think Iron Maiden makes redundant albums. At the same time I've developed a real liking for house music which generally uses only a simple 4/4 beat.

So my next question would be why this strange dichotomy? I still haven't figured it out. And I'm not sure I can. Comments are welcome and all Iron Maiden fans needn't try to flame as the flames will only be used to roast marshmallows.

Peace.

Your Scholastic Strength Is Deep Thinking

You aren't afraid to delve head first into a difficult subject, with mastery as your goal. You are talented at adapting, motivating others, managing resources, and analyzing risk. You should major in: Philosophy Music Theology Art History Foreign language

What Should You Major In?

Holy mother of god...everyone's telling me stuff like this. Makes me wanna pound the living shit outta them. Why the fuck did no one bother telling me this before I decided to do a degree in Biotech.??

Music Reviews

I've shamelessly borrowed this idea from another blog that I visited. Its a great blog and kudos to the man who runs it. Visit it. Seriously.

http://fredcharles.wordpress.com/

I'm gonna try and discuss some of the music I've been listening to for the last month or so, music's always been a passion and it generally influences my mindset and thoughts most of the time. So here goes:

1. Ministry of Sound: Chillout Sessions Vol.7:-
This is a damn good release from the people at MoS. Its really well done and even has a few cool surprises thrown in like Athlete- Wires and Snow Patrol- Run. However the second CD lacks heavily and kinda descends into depressive type electro-lounge kinda stuff. Still gets a nice 6/10 just for the first CD, a perfect way to enjoy a lazy day in your house with a cuppa and a good book.

2. Meshuggah- Catch-33:-
YES! I finally got around to listening to Meshuggah's latest release. Somehow I'd managed to completely overlook this gem due to my sudden fascination with Electronic Dance Music. In a single word: Dense. The most complex of all their albums I'd say. I thought their EP "I" was cool but this one takes the cake. Almost like a single song, the album just flows. Tomas Haake's heavy grooves (yet another underrated drummer, just because he doesn't do stuff like 'The Black Page', honestly what's the world coming to?) and Fredrik Thordendal's amazing riffs totally blew my brains out. A whopping 9/10.

3. Opeth- Ghost Reveries:-
This is good. Amazingly good. Probably heaviest ever of all their albums, barring Blackwater Park. I make no bones of the fact that I absolutely adore Opeth's music and they have never disappointed my expectations. Sadly, Martin Lopez (their drummer) has quit the band but I'm sure this Juggernaut will roll on. "Hours of Wealth", "Ghost of Perdition" and the Beatle-esque "Atonement" are strong favorites. A cool 8/10

4. Red Hot Chili Peppers- Stadium Arcadium:-
Whee! My new favorite RHCP album. Frusciante steps into his own light. Finally!! I've always believed that he sorta seemed to be holding back but now he's let it rip. His overdubs and solos remind me of Hendrix (now thats a compliment!!). Flea and Chad Smith as usual are their stellar selves and Keidis' voice becomes better and better with every recored they release. Second CD isn't as good as the first but still...9/10...easy.


5. Sleater Kinney- The Woods:-
Ugh! Horrendously bad. I know a lotta people just love SK but this album sucked. It was worse than the last Blink 182 album (and i dont even remember its name). Punk's rolling down the drain. 4/10

6.DragonForce- Inhuman Rampage:-
I'm confused. I really am. As a rule I'm basically not into mindless shredding or even guys like Satch, Vai etc. (I know,I know you can stone me later, just let me finish) but Herman Li and Totman (is that his name, I forget) do the mindless shredding bit so well that I find myself liking it. Very Powermetal-ly. Decent release although I really don't like their drummer. A decent release. 7/10


7. Trivium- Ascendancy:-
Jealously is most unbecoming. But man, when you hear Matt Heafy play that guitar and remembering the fact that he's only like 20, you begin to feel that green-monster stirring about in your chest. An alright album, although gets a bit too metal-core at times. Still if you aren't that repulsed by metalcore give it a listen you might be pleasantly surprised. 7.5/10

8. Led Zeppelin- BBC Sessions:-
I've gone back in time. And its beautiful. It makes me wanna cry, punch, scream, do something to let out all this emotion Zeppelin awakes in me. My all-time favorite band, no questions asked. BBC sessions takes you through a double disc bonanza of the best rock quartet jamming out some of their best numbers at the revered BBC studios. 10/10

9. Jimi Hendrix- Axis: Bold as Love:-
Periodically I find myself going back to some of the great's like LZ above and JHE. I can't explain it. Its like getting your fix for the day. You just can't go on without it. And anyone who calls themselves a music lover knows what I'm talking about. Bold as Love, man what an album. It's got to be one of the most tripped out, revolutionary kinda records ever made. Just listen to it. Hendrix never disappoints.
10/10

10. Tool- 10,000 days:-
Fuck me sideways. It doesn't get better than this these days. I could go on and on about this album, but that would negate the purpose of me writing my post on TOOL. So in short, if it wasn't for their last release Lateralus (which everyone liked btw, even Dream Theater fans liked it and they're the ones who usually get violently ill if you start comparing Tool and DT.), this album would have gotten a 10 but sadly I'll have to settle for giving it a 9/10. Give me another month of listening to it and I'll upgrade its status.

Peace out.

QUOTES OF THE DAY:-

"If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced."

"The convoluted wording of legalisms grew up around the necessity to hide from ourselves the violence we intend to each other."

Fanfiction

Fanfiction...its one of those things y'know...oh wait you probably don't...
Technically its one of those things that aspiring writer-fans of something (usually some book or the other, Harry Potter being the most popular choice, also sometimes is based on a movie) write. Things you should know about fanfiction and the writers of fanfiction:-

1. It can either be really good or really bad (usually its bad...)
2. Most of these fanfic writers will never be publishing people mostly because most of them lack the imagination to create their own universe and hence resort to 'playing' in someone else's sandbox so to speak.
3. Its a terrible addiction, especially if u find some authors who can actually write and atleast create a sub-universe of their own.
4. This is more of a confession: I read HP fanfiction...yes i know...its an affliction...plus I'm a Harry/Hermione fan ( I mean seriously whats up with that Ron/Hr thing in Book 6? Its so mismatched even I managed to pick up on the vibe that they'd kill each other before getting to 2nd base)

Fanfiction can actually be fun to read, unfortunately the sad fact (and this applies to all fiction-published and fanfiction) is that, 'To find a diamond you have to get into a coal mine' or something to that effect. But once you find those good authors you can easily get hooked. This is probably because:

1. You already like the well established characters and this allows you to read more about their what- could-be lives.
2. Like me, you hated Half-Blood Prince and Order of the Phoenix and simply cannot digest the fact that first JKR killed off Sirius and then jammed Harry with Ginny. Mental, that one.

Enough on all of that, go read for yourself

http://www.portkey.org [this is a HP dedicated site, which ships exclusively for Harry/Hermione so yay!]
And if you're really interested then read the works of the authors Amynoelle, Heaven, Twitch.E.Ferret, Ryoko Blue, madscientist on portkey!


QUOTES OF THE DAY:-

"Truth suffers from too much analysis"

"Here lies a toppled god-
His fall was not a small one.
We did but build his pedestal,
A narrow and a tall one."

"No matter how exotic human civilization becomes, no matter the developmets of life and society nor the complexity of the machine/human interface, there always come interludes of lonely power when the course of humankind, the very future of humankind, depends upon the relatively simple actions of single individuals."

Quiz type thing

http://www.blogthings.com/whattypeofwritershouldyoubequiz/

TOOL

No its not about those things you use to fix things.

This is about a band. A very amazingly fuckin' great band. One of the best. In fact if it weren't for Led Zeppelin they would be THE BAND. Our world these days is filled with this mostly commercial sounding crap like hiphop n R'n'B (which isnt the original RNB anylonger). You've got the St.Anger's from Metallica which if it came from some fledgling metal band would be a roaring success but coming from Metallica sounds like a sellout. In the midst of all this noise being churned out you occasionally have a few bright pinpoints of light, kind of like supernovas, they just hit you y'know and immediately you realize you're in the presence of something that transcends all the boundaries that we've built up around ourselves.
When TOOL plays its like you're part of this massive singularity or maybe its a cult or something I can't really tell you. But when you listen to TOOL you become aware of yourself and you sorta get a glimpse of what the world would've been like if guys like Hendrix, Joplin, Lennon were still around. Its poetry, its an opera, its a fuckin art-form, its what being stepped up on acid and having sex would feel like. Oh yeah, and the music's pretty damn good too.
Nowhere in the world can you find someone as off the hook as DANNY CAREY. There might be a god out there somewhere but when you have a drumset involved God bows down to Carey. I know people say there's guys like Portnoy and Peart n all but the sheer expressiveness of Carey behind a drumset remains unmatched, and the fact that he can outplay guys like Jordison with a hand tied behind his back.
ADAM JONES/JUSTIN CHANCELLOR- I can guarentee you that you cannot find a pair of more unsung guitarist/bassists anywhere else. Just because Jones doesn't throw in flashy billion notes per minute solos every song and Chancellor doesn't keep slappin' n poppin' everyone thinks they're just the so-so guys. The complexity of their playing will be noticed only by those people who don't have their heads up their rear ends. The most important thing is they play for the overall sound, the soundscape as I like to call it. And to top it all Jones also directs their really cool videos.
MAYNARD JAMES KEENAN- 'Nuff said already man. Just go listen to the vocals on 'Ticks and Leeches' or the scream on 'The Grudge'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tool_(band)
http://www.toolband.com - OFFICIAL SITE


QUOTES OF THE DAY:-



"Deep in the human unconcious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic."

"You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. This power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably must face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic."

The Dune Books

Ok, so as the title clearly states its about Dune. For the ignorant and uninititated (this is your chance to get enlightened...) DUNE is a novel by FRANK HERBERT. Its a Science Fiction novel and has about 10 books in it. DUNE, the first novel, is in itself pretty complete and no further reading of the rest of the sequels/prequels is required. But the amazing thing would be if anyone who's reading this and goes ahead to read DUNE and doesn't read the follow-ups would have to be an absolute ijit.
The things that make this book so much of a necessary read for everyone is that its not your traditional SF story. Some of the things that I found amazing about this book:

1. Its very well written, not too descriptive about the environment (like LOTR, which was still amazing though), not too descriptive about characters (like WoT), it achieves that perfect balance.

2. Its fuckin' dense...I've read a lotta books, lots of weird stuff, and I'm a SF fan and even then, this book has to be the mother of all books in terms heaviness and references which aren't explained immediately. Its widely said about this book that if the reader can get past the first 50-75 pages then they're hooked forever.

3. Most SF books aren't too interested in the religion of the world they're based in and are very pro-machine/human interfacing and interacting. This one defies all odds and goes pro-religion and anti-machine.

4. Its the most philospohical SF book also. Its filled with prefectly placed phrases and sayings about everything from Politics (also a very prominent thing in this book) to Life.

I can't even begin to express my pure love for this work of art. If you thought Asimov and Clarke's stuff were the shite, you'll also be surprised to know that Arthur.C.Clarke has said, " Its amazing, the only thing that comes close in having such rich style and background is Lord of the Rings.

So in short do yourself a favor, go buy the book, or atleast click on this and get a brief glimpse of what I'm talking about, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

Quotes of the day:-

"There exists no separation between gods and men; one blends softly casual into the other"


"Empires do not suffer emptiness of purpose at the time of their creation. It is when they have become established that aims are lost and replaced by vague ritual."

First Meetings

So this is what a blog looks like...

Hi! Willkommen...my name's Aditya, most of my friends call me Adi and you're here 'cos you clicked on something that looks like this http://www.adiverse.blogspot.com .

I'm a 21yr old male from Delhi, India. I'm about 186cms in height and have brown eyes and black hair (wow how interesting...).
Some of my interests are music, movies, reading etc. etc. And no I'm not gonna list out what bands I love and the books I read cos that would take too much time and space and there's always a time to do such things and the first post on a blog isn't one of them. This is just my spot to vent, rant, discuss, dissect and share some of the stuff that goes around in my head.
If you're still reading this and intend to continue reading the posts to follow I must warn you,

'Here there be tygers'

On with the festivites.