chakravyuha

Generally very positive on India. Negatives: Corrupt and Bureaucratic government, Illiteracy, Infrastructure.

The average age of cells in your body is 7 to 10 years [*]. The resulting question might in reality turn out to be naive, but it does strike you immediately; “If all our cells are replaced eventually, how are we the same person after 10 years?”

Also, even though the number of cells in the body keeps changing, the size of your body is in direct proportion to the number of cells in it. This is, of course, true for animals too.

[*]: NYT

The Cure – Burn
Blistering licks from The Cure, from the soundtrack to The Crow. The way Robert Smith presented himself in all his goth glory, he could very well have played the Crow instead of Brandon Lee.

Gustavo Santaolalla – De Usuahia A La Quiaca
A beautiful, delicate instrumental from the guy who surely gained a lot of recognition after his contribution (another gem called Iguazu) to the soundtrack for this year’s Babel. The primary sound in his music is usually from an instrument called Charango which sounds very similar to the Santoor, which is used a lot in Indian (mostly classical) music. From the soundtrack of Motorcycle Diaries, the Che Guevara road movie.

Silversun Pickups – Rusted Wheel
A new(ish) band out of L.A. This is from their recent album Carnavas. Good stuff.

Matt Mays – When The Angels Make Contact
Matt Mays (w. El Torpedo) – On The Hood
Matt Mays is good talent but is not very well known stateside.

Catherine Wheel – Fripp
Remember Catherine Wheel, no? never heard of them? Well try this anyway, it’s one of their very best. If you need a category to place this piece in, well, 1990′s alt-rock would suffice I guess.

Pink Floyd – Pigs (Three Different Ones)
I recently gave Animals a re-hear (is there such a word?) and I really think it’s underrated in the Floyd discography. People talk about Wish You Were Here, Dark Side of The Moon, The Wall but this does not fare very well in conversations. Maybe it should, although my Floyd favorite Meddle probably fares even worse. Let me be a snob and say that these people could’nt plumb depth of a puddle. As an interesting side note; there was fleeting nod to the Animals cover (the floating balloon pig in front of two giant chimneys) in one of the scenes in the recent film Children of Men.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club – All You Do Is Talk
Ooooh.. something semi-decent from a band from the Bay Area. That alone makes this worth putting on the list. Seriously, the bay area has a serious deficit of musical talent. I think the Jefferson Airplanes and Grateful Deads of the worlds sucked up the regions musical karma from the next generations quota too .. just kidding!

Porcupine Tree – Fadeaway
Have I praised this band enough? Have I probably listed this song earlier? Well who cares, the song is that good.

My Bloody Valentine – Soon
Shoegazing pioneers My Bloody Valentine’s landmark (and last) album Loveless has this kicker to close the album. I you ever need an introduction on what distortion is, please do hear this album. It will be very very instructional.

Slowdive – Soulvaki Space Station and
Slowdive – Shine
.. because I mentioned shoegazing.

Tears For Fears – Sketches Of Pain
You know Tears for Fears right? Them of the Everybody Want to Rule the World fame? By the way that song’s surely on the most overplayed songs of the century list. Tears for Fears have actually done pretty interesting things here and there that do not get much attention. This song is one example. The standout in this song is how it breaks into a flamenco style three-fourths of the way through. The sound is a bit processed but it’s pretty nevertheless.

Tears For Fears – The Working Hour
Pretty brass sounds tie this one together nicely. Again one of the Tears’ lesser known numbers.

Wilco – Impossible Germany
Wilco is a puzzle I am still trying to solve. I also plan to enroll myself in a learn-Wilco-in-21-days course to better understand what their music is about. Oh, I know I know, there is no such thing, but seriously, a lot of the alt/folk/country-rock bunch praised Being There and Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to the high heavens. That means any self-respecting music-lover should try a little harder to see what’s really going on. No? Well, at least this song is more radio friendly than most of their products. It’s from their recent album Sky Blue Sky. Starbucks proudly displays this among their album wares these days there surely is something to Wilco. Right? No?

The commandsI have written commands that J-say enable Microsoft Powerpoint 2003. Please try these experimental commands. Feedback is welcome.

These commands have been created by wrapping the jaws Powerpoint keyboard scripts from the *.jkm file in Dragon Naturally Speaking.

The formI have created a sample accessible form. I need to check this though.