Generator ^ Second Floor

Hauntingly beautiful!

And I could never tell as a kid
What that window door went to
Only told to stay away
I almost had an accident, age 6
When I found the key in the attic
And now the smell of these wood frames
Is the only sense I’ve left
So as you pull me from the bed
Tell me I look stunning and cadaverous

And since you are my friend
I would ask that you lower me down slow
And tell the man in the black cloak
He doesn’t need to trouble his good soul
With those Latin conjugations
And if it’s all the same to them
You should tell your gathering friends
Please not to purse their faces grim
On such a lovely Sunday

Don’t fix my smile, life is long enough
We will put this flesh into the ground again [x6]

Happyness

I find great joy in discovering new music for myself. It to me is a testament of this amazing world of ours and the creative humanity that lives in it, and that I as an individual am a member of – although personally I don’t have any of the requisite musical talents. Whenever I find a musical band whose chords touches some in my heart, the feeling I get is of utmost happiness. I feel blissful. As Carl Sagan said about books, I think music is proof too that humans are capable of performing magic.

Last week thanks to that brilliantly brilliant concept that is the Tiny Desk Concerts, I got introduced to the London band ‘Happyness’ and listening to their music was a sublime experience. Their tunes and music, first; then their lyrics and the thoughts behind them; and then their interesting chemistry – all I found to be greatly entertaining and endearing. Here’s their tiny desk concert. Listen and enjoy.

Clarke & Dawe

I love satire.

I admire it. I adore it. I indulge myself in it. I wish to participate in it.

I think it’s extremely important for the health of the society. I think it informs and enlightens one, develops one’s wit and sense of humour. It provokes one to think and come to self-deduced conclusions. I think overall, association and regular engagement with satire not only makes one an intelligent and a funny person but also paves the way for one to become a better human being and an active citizen of whichever polity one ascribes to.

A few days ago, I came across a satirical double act from Australia and I was deeply impressed. The acts titled Clarke & Dawe, done by artists John Clarke and Bryan Dawe, and they are excellent. As the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) mentions,

For 25 years John Clarke and Bryan Dawe have broadcast a weekly interview in which prominent figures speak about matters of public importance. John pretends to be someone he isn’t pretending to be and Bryan behaves with grace under pressure.

And in their pretend acts, they often say profundities which not only informs one but also makes one think of things. Classic satire.

For a sample, although their exists volumes of their work, since they have done this act for over 25 years now, here are few videos which have a more international outlook.

Cue Clarke & Dawe.

On understanding Grexit.

On the European Debt Crisis

 On escaping blame for oil spills.

So there you have it. There are a number of great videos of theirs which you can watch and enjoy. Each of their lines are tremendously well thought of and I personally find them to be entertaining as well as enlightening. Do give their channel a watch. The link’s given here – Clarke & Dawe.

The Kinks

Do you like ‘The Kinks’? Have you heard them before? If not then, well, gear up because we’re going to go explore some music.

During the week before the prelims, I got heavily into the music of ‘The Kinks’. In fact, I am still listening to it. It all started as I was revising some portion for the examinations, I don’t remember which one exactly, and I listened to their song – the ‘Apeman’. I just felt in harmony with the song and soon my love for them reinvigorated. Here have a listen first. You can sing along too from the lyrics given here.

I was humming ‘Apeman’ and soon I went to the song ‘Supersonic Rocket Ship’. Yeah, the selection might have had a ‘The Last Man on Earth’ inspired vibe but the song was brilliant. It had that hippy feeling to it and I liked it. Here have a listen yourself (this time the video has the lyrics in it, so don’t be shy).

Having listened to the above two songs a number of times, I went back to the old favourites of ‘You Really Got Me‘, ‘All Day and All of the Night’ and ‘Lola‘. All of them as brilliant as the others. Soon, I was listening to and dancing to their entire collection. Thus, the week before the prelims not only had a let’s-revise-all-of-this-as-fast-as-possible theme, it also had a background score provided for by The Kinks. And I am quite happy about it.

I can cite many of their other songs which I like and enjoy. However, I leave you to it to discover and listen to them if you so feel like it. I leave you with the first song I ever heard of them way back in college. All Day and All of the Night.

Unacademy – Environment & Ecology Videos

With the merging of the prelims examinations for both the civil services and the forest services, the study of environment and its related spheres have gained immeasurable importance in the preparation for the civil services examinations. Any UPSC aspirant can vouch for that and stats will prove so too –  only last year more than thirty percent of the questions asked in the prelims were from the subject of the environment. In a way, it’s good as well. A massive improvement, in fact. Various conventions on environment talk of the need for mainstreaming the studies on environment and this, I believe, is an excellent avenue of doing so. It ensures that all people preparing for the administrative examinations, and subsequently becoming civil servants, will at least have a reasonable knowledge of the environment, and that might be critical in our bid for a sustainable future.

Having said that, just before the examinations, irrespective of how confident one may claim to be or how one with the nature one may feel to be, one has to reread the environmental portion all over again. It generally goes without exceptions. Not many people can remember all of the conventions, and the species, and the reserves, and the climate type, and the examples that one has to know of to be better prepared. A quick revision, thus, comes in really handy.

Cue Roman Saini and his Unacademy videos. In about twenty videos (I’m including the two videos on conventions as well though they are not strictly environment based) of no more than twenty minutes each, Roman covers all of the most important principles and concepts of the environment that one needs to know about for the examinations. And they are a boon! It will not take you more than a day to listen to all of them, and it will perhaps pay rich dividends in the examination.

What are you waiting for then? If you have to revise the environment portion for the prelims, and you don’t have much time, watch the videos given below. They may very well turn out be your saviour.

Anna Von Hausswolff

When I first listened to Anna Von Hausswolff, it was by accident, thanks to the YouTube autoplay feature which was switched on. I was listening to an NPR tiny desk concert, not exactly sure which one. The concert ended, I was reading something on another tab, and I heard the exquisite sound of a church organ accompanied by the deep vocals of Anna’s. It was profoundly moving. Earlier in the day, I hadn’t been in the best of moods. The panic still raged on, the depression sneaking in from here and there, a listlessness being an ever threatening theme and then Anna Von Hausswolff’s music happened. It was intense, and perhaps much needed. Anna’s songs have this interesting feeling to them – a touch morbid, yes, but beautiful, hauntingly so.

The first song I wish to share with you is a rendition of ‘Funeral For My Future Children’ originally recorded at a church, and here performed at one too. The song’s title is interesting, isn’t it? The song is so as well. The lyrics follow the video below.

Funeral For My Future Children

I’ll bury all my children
I’ll carry them to death (2x)

Oh, to linger in their stories
Exhausted by their weight
My milk is gray and bitter but I’ll
Carry them each day

To that day, ho-oh (4x)

And now, the other song that I quite like from Anna’s album ‘Ceremony’ – the album by the way makes for good background music while solving questions. This one’s called Deathbed. Yeah, morbidity runs a little in her song’s titles. The music video is given below followed by the lyrics. Interestingly, this video was created by Anna’s sister – Maria von Hausswolff. Have a listen.

Deathbed

Will you take back, you take back, what you said?
I gave all, I gave in for your best.

He fumbles and trembles over land.
The power Love had over that dying man.
He wishes and desires that his depth
Will be paid, made good, and redressed.

To freely forgive those who did wrong
To pardon God for everything I´ve done.
Oh no…

The Curious Case of YouTube India

Do one thing. Open the incognito/private browsing window of your browser and visit the YouTube website. Once there, observe the thumbnails and the titles of the recommended videos. What’s the most common theme that you can find?

I generally am logged on to my google account on YouTube. Thus, the videos that are recommended to me are mostly either those of the YouTube channels that I have subscribed to or the ones that are related to my viewing history; both of which, i think, are rather fair to me as a user.

A few days ago, as I got my laptop fixed and opened the websites afresh, I noticed a pattern on YouTube, a bit disconcerting one, and it is that the videos, their titles and their thumbnails have an overbearing sexual nature. Look at the screenshot below.

In it, you will find a video highlighting a supposedly shameful marriage tradition in the thumbnail of which is a kid looking down on a women’s breast, a video of a sex scandal caught on a hidden camera and a video showcasing a hot bedroom scene from a movie, among others. And this is what one will find in the very first glance itself. In fact the whole home page of theirs is assorted with videos of an actress undressing, item numbers, people engaging in illicit affairs, kissing and so on and so forth with ridiculous titles such as ‘Squeeze me’ and what not. The rest of it is filled with movies, music, and a few other viral videos.

Not a single of these videos is related to the intellectual realm – no video of the sciences, technology, literature, news, geopolitics, tutorials, crash courses and the likes feature at all. Indeed, if one were to look at the YouTube website without knowing anything about it, one will think of it as a soft-pornographic website with heavy intake from the popular media, which at least according to me it is certainly not. It is full of wonderful videos – tremendously enlightening ones at that – but it’s home page suggests otherwise. And I am terribly saddened by it.

I have no issues with the movie clips, music and other such videos being featured on the YouTube home page. Of course, they should be there. But I do not subscribe to such an unregulated assortment in which all of the videos are only that, highly sexualized. I want the new visitor to know that there exists brilliant videos on the YouTube sphere, using which one can stimulate and develop oneself intellectually and not just cater to one’s carnal and primal desires as the present system will have them. It is truly disappointing.

I firmly believe in the process of self-improvement. We need to be better than what we were yesterday. YouTube can undoubtedly help us with that. Just that as of now, despite the vehement efforts of its users and content creators working their heart out to achieve that, the website in itself is trying very hard not to. Perhaps their thinking is let’s give the people the most basal of pleasures and let’s just make money. Yeah, right!

Ah, I am quite saddened by this. Hopefully, YouTube will make amends, and that too – soon.

Day 108 – The Ashes

There’s something about good fast bowling that I quite admire. The finest of which can be seen at a seamer friendly pitch in a test match. If it’s on, irrespective of who’s playing – generally England, Australia, South Africa and Pakistan – and if the match is marching towards a gripping result, I like to watch it. I love cricket, after all. Why wouldn’t I?

The Ashes test series – one of the finest display of pure cricket that one can ever see – is ongoing and this time it’s a live wire. England won the first test match with a canter surprising everyone. Australia fired back registering a massive victory at the Lord’s. The third test match was what was supposed to be the one which will define this test series; and that it did with much gusto. In the evening of the first day, I looked in my mobile to check for the scores. It was Australia at 99 for 7. I couldn’t much believe it. Only in the previous game they had had a batting riot. How could they find themselves in such a deep pickle now? I, thus, went down to the television screen to catch up on the game a bit. And it was exciting! Tremendously so. The crowd at Edgbaston was fantastic. The pitch worthy of a praise. The bowling of England – quite impressive and to the mark. Consequentially, Australia tumbled to 136 all out. The series was on.

Interested in the happenings of the test match, I kept myself updated of the scores, thanks to BBC Cricket and ESPN Cricinfo, two of my favourite places to read about test match cricket. And today when the match was almost reaching its finale with England right on the money to win it comprehensively, I went to the television again to indulge a little. I am quite glad that I did. England won the test match by eight wickets leaving the Edgbaston into a singing delirium and Australia wondering what to do next chasing a 2-1 Ashes lead.

Oh, test match cricket, how I like you!

Here’s a quick history of the Ashes test series narrated by Stephen Fry, if you’re interested.

And if you really feel like indulging yourself, here’s the highlight one of my favourite test matches of all time – the 2001 India v/s Australia Kolkata test match.

Day 106 – Revisiting The Beatles

Every now and then, I just happen to revisit The Beatles. This indulgence can be initialized by almost anything. Sometimes, a mere thought is enough. At other times, a whole song may be needed. But it does keep popping up rather regularly in my life, and once it’s there, I keep at it for a long while.

Today, it began when I happened to watch a video of Paul McCartney in conversation with Billy Collins at Rollins College. It’s a good watch with Paul sharing a lot of insights about his Beatles journey and the way he and John Lennon used to write their songs. As I listened to him, it was perhaps a foregone conclusion that I will rekindle my Beatles mania. And so I did. It began with a song who’s writing process Paul described in the video, ‘Getting Better’. Then, I moved on to what is perhaps one of my favourite songs – ‘Eleanor Rigby’. Soon, I was heart deep into their music.

Oh, it can’t be helped. Once a Beatles fan, perhaps always a Beatles fan. In fact, as I write this, I am partly fearful whether I will not go and engage with the Beatles music all over again. Maybe I will just listen to the ‘Blackbird’. While I’m at it, maybe a little ‘Norwegian Wood’ too. Ah, it begins again.

I leave you with the video that started it all for the day. And hey, did you know that the lyrics of the song ‘Yesterday’ were, initially before the first draft,

“Scrambled eggs
Oh baby, how I love your legs.
But not as much
as scrambled eggs”

Did you? I didn’t either.

Enjoy the video.

Day 101 – Charlie Brooker

Yesterday, as I was reading about a magic trick – don’t ask me how I got there – well, okay, I wanted to know the science behind the magic trick used on this news hijacking, I somehow ended up on a Charlie Brooker video. Till then, I had no idea about who Charlie Brooker was. Given that over the course of the evening, I did watch a few of his videos, I am glad that I now know.

Charlie Brooker is a British satirist and broadcaster and some of his work, at least the ones that I have seen so far, is fantastic. He has this hard hitting and pertinent style in which he goes about things, something which has already made me a fan. Have a look, for instance, to the video that started it all for me. This video, titled ‘How to report the news’, quite succinctly, in about two minutes itself, observes and satires the now prevalent form of news reporting. Right from the word go, you will get it. Here goes:

Impressive isn’t it? You will be hard-pressed to deny the unnerving similarities in almost all of the news reports filed on national television channels of lately, as well as their overall mundaneness.

Now, have a look at another of Charlie Brooker’s videos. This one is about the progress in the process of editing and it’s modern day influence, especially when it comes to reality television. Again it’s impressively succinct. In just five minutes, you’ll get it.

Thus, as illustrated in the video, the power of editing can make one believe any story. Of course, one generally has, and one does need to have some faith in the editing process: that the editors will bring out the true story as much as possible and to the best of their abilities, but if they don’t, then there is little one can do about it. And it’s important to know that.

From discovering him yesterday, I now quite like Charlie Brooker and I would like to see more of his work, but alas, not right now. I will do so mostly after the mains. This, thus, goes right on my wish list.

P. S. – From today onward, to avoid creating humongous titles, I shall be writing the days in numbers. Not that it makes too much of a difference. I just thought you would like to be informed. Indeed, I, at times, myself wonder what do these days really signify? I guess it’s the road to the mains. Also, it builds a bit of pressure. So, there’s that.