CNN headlines

This is what CNN (possibly the most biased news agency in the world) has got to report if there is nothing else going around the world. Seriously, this was in the FRONT page of cnn.com yesterday.

Bride-to-be ran away from wedding - courtesy, CNN.com

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/04/30/wilbanks.found/index.html

I feel like punching the day lights off that face. RUINED my day.

Style and Substance

I got this link in a fw: email.

http://www.paradoxware.com/alstudio/cv/en.htm

Rumor is that this guy got picked by the CG team in Microsoft. After looking at the link, I don't see why not.

Note: It runs on flash. Patience, dial-uppers.

Anniyan Songs - no high hopes

Shankar's upcoming release - Anniyan's sound track has been released. This movie might yet be the biggest of this year (my heart says "barring CM", but my mind says "of all"). I watched Shankar's interview on April 14th (Tamil New Year) on Raj TV (via NUMTV). As usual, he was pretty guarded in his answers. One of the questions was about the Music director and the songs of the film [Rumors are that, ARR was busy (emailing songs to some Hindi movie director from London, I guess), so he went with Harris Jayaraj]. Shankar replied (somewhat defensively) that "there is no reason why these songs would'nt be a hit" and "I am sure they would match my previous films' numbers". Yea, I know, it was kind of lame - something which we can expect from Dravid or Ganguly saying that they are not under any kind of pressure due to the latter's form (or lack of it). Anyway, the music is out now, and this is my first impression after listening to some of them.

Note: One of the song was named "Kannum Kannum Nokia" - I am not even attempting to listen to that one.

1. Oh Sukumari... by Shankar Mahadevan and (only towards to very end) Harini: I am not a great fan of Shankar Mahadevan, but this song would easily go down as one of his best. Considering the brahmin background of the main character in this movie, words have been purposefully distorted (in a nice way). "Shethhu for setthu", and so on. The "gamagam" effect comes quite naturally for Shankar, and he uses it really well. "kadavulai vida periyavan - kaadhalai sollbavan". Interesting lyrics. But, I think Shankar would really miss Vairamuthu.
Rating: 4.75/5.0

2. Iyengaaru veetu.. by Hariharan and Harini: Pleasantly surprised by "Jagadaananda daaraka - naattai " intro. Easily the best song of the album. I can already imagine the extensive sets for this particular song. Some of the lyrics are kind of cheesy, but this is nothing compared to the bubble gummy, sappy song of "anbe anbe kolladhey in Jeans". I am not sure if it is me, but the second stanza reminded me of the charanam of "snehithane - alaipaayuthey". Maybe, that is also naattai. Altogether, a very good performance by H2. Rating: 4.85/5.0

3. Kaadhal yaanai.. by oh, i don't know: Some tamil words in between an english pop song. Nothing earth-shattering about it. I heard Yana Gupta is doing a number. It could be either this song or the nokia song. Lame. Rating: 1.5/5.0

4. Andangaaka.. by Jassie gift, KK, Shreya: I liked "Lajjavathiye", so I listened to this one. Reminded me a lot of "Chakkara inikira chakkara - new". I think this would be something like "Azhagaane raatchasiye - mudhalvan", complete with all creative sets. OK song. Rating: 3.0/5.0

I did not listen to the Theme song yet. Overall, songs may be ok for some random film of Ajith or Vijay, but certainly not for a Shankar/Vikram movie. No brainer that one.

My first blog

So this is how it feels like. 'Til now, I had been only a passive reader of blogs. Realizing that there is no reviewing/editing/censorship done on blogs (sigh!, if only it were like this in journals), I decided to start my own. This blog would record anything to everything - whatever I feel worth writing (hey, its my blog!). So, this is my own haven in the blogosphere - my unsolicited opinion, my 2 cents worth, my 2 hoots.

Peyar kaaranam (etymology): I like to play multi-player games (MOH) over the internet (I know, I know..), and my game name is an_owl, and this blog - my 2 hoots. (:D).