Obama addresses Iranian people

Obama addresses Iranian people
What a change compared to past administration....

TARP documents should be made public

sneaking-in bonus clause in to AIG contract
All the documents, related to any TARP activity should be published on-line so that public can go through it. Public could be a optional verifier and make sure that no one sneaks-in unjustified clauses(like above clause that aggreed to give bonus for AIG executives.). Tax-payers are funding TARP so have right to every related document.

BTW. Obama had promised to make every legislation available for public scrunity and has not done so till now.

Stoa - Taumel

This song succeeds by far, in creating dark mystery. Music is least stress full on ears, and almost at halfway, vocal starts. I could not decipher the words, partly because the voice is very faint, and she sings as if she does not want to disturb the background music. This is a haunting piece..To fully enjoy this song, read the lyrics aong with singer.

Meaningwise, this song is mobdidly encouraging; one example is
But Im to weak to try.
That lie was my undoing.

I say morbidly because she tries to make us act(without hesitation) by presenting us how we would regret otherwise, and the picture of regret is not violent but beautiful, like this
Tired eyes -
I scan the old horizon.
My path cant end this way.
But dyes rapidly fading.

In last lines, I think she equates hesitation to childish ness.
Thus far I was the child.
The sleepers now awakened.

You can watch this grainy video, I think it is a true Gothic song. And Qntal too has similar songs.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU7rqnrghdw

Stoa - Taumel
Time runs out.
I left behind
My breath came up to here.
Till now I hesitated.

Tired eyes -
I scan the old horizon.
My path cant end this way.
But dyes rapidly fading.

Find to calm,
My heart without.
But Im to weak to try.
That lie was my undoing.

Breakable
Arising hope for silence, -
Thus far I was the child.
The sleepers now awakened.

Human suffering value..

If there were a way to assign value to each and every human suffering(irrespective of time), probably earth would sink....

Obama's address to Congress

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7908476.stm

I have heard every one of Obam's speeches, I think this is the best speech from him. Critics alwayed used ask for more details and today he gave good amount of them, especially how he is going to reduce deficit(I like the one about farm subsidy and military expenses). He spoke about individual responsibility and the one struck me was him urging parents to turn-off TV and make kids focus om home work.(I do not think it is all school that is responsible).

Major departure from previous years, focus was not on how US is going to take revenge and slice enemy throats.

Regarding economy, I am not sure Govt. should prop-up banks, not on ideological grounds but banks are in coma state, let them die, we can rebuild new ones.

I like how Obama highlighted the banker for sharing his money with his employees. Along with this, with his characteristic sincere and confident tone, his speech was very inspirational. No doubt he is such a grand speaker.

Jindal from GOP, sounded like younger version of McCain. He spoke about same things, I am so bored, I do not even want to write them.

Google s/w is no angel compared to that of MS

If any one thinks that s/w written by Google is any better than that of MS, no it is not. MS writes sh*t load of s/w to take care of. Here is one of Google's bugs that frustrated me enough to blog

1) In the blog editor provided in blogger.com, add a custom HTML code like & nbsp ; to the body of post and click 'Save'
2) View the final post, you would see the effect of & nbsp ;
3) Now, click 'Edit', to modify the same post and you will that version shown in editor will not have retained & nbsp ; So every time you modify the post, you have to add these special HTML characters. What an annoying piece of cr*p.

Today, I was editing following posting, about the poem by Oscar Wilde, and I inserted & nbsp ; in to post, to retain the indentation that is there in book. I saved and everything was fine but on re-edit, I lost all my special HTML chars. http://asnowfall.blogspot.com/2009/02/grave-of-keats.html

Good that Google is not in to writing enterprise s/w....

The grave of Keats - OscarWilde

Rid of the world's injustice, and his pain,
He rests at last beneath God's veil of blue
Taken from life when life and love were new
The youngest of the martyrs here is lain,
Fair as Sebastian, and as early slain.
No cypress shades his grave, no funeral yew, <--
But gentle violets weeping with the dew <--
Weave on his bones an ever-blossoming chain. <--
O proudest heart that broke for misery!
O sweetest lips since those of Mitylene!
O poet-painter of our English Land!
Thy name was writ in water--it shall stand:
And tears like mine will keep thy memory green,
As Isabella did her Basil tree
ROME

Comments: The part caught my attention is marked with <--
The phrase ever-blossoming chain is simply superb.

Diorama's Times galore

I recently went back to Diorama's Times galore; this time sounded nice. When I first heard this song few of the lines made me cringe and dislike those lines were:
....
Time - doesn’t every angel fall?
I’m hunting shadows at night
...

But now went back to hear again and found some intriguing lines like these; they give merit to lyrics and background score was always to my liking. I wonder how these writers come with up such lines.

alive
within another brain
within another maze
a wonderful donation

I'll throw it away
stone by stone
sit down and cure
forgotten fever
....
who cares?
for you and I will once
flutter in these winds of scorn
while my little lake is so calm
....
....

"sin skinner" and "soul stripper"

Just last year, I found Diary Of Dreams, what a complete band. Diorama once worked for them and gives one more reason to love them. In fact, in the beginning, I could not differentiate DOD songs from the ones by Diorama.

DoD has two interesting song titles "sin skinner" and "soul stripper". For me, "sin skinner" brings the image of confession in church and "soul stripper" brings the image of confession of God because in Hinduism Yama is the God or angel of death.

I think lyrics of DoD are not always great but still they sound entertaining. Here is the line that I caught my attension and you should the watch this song being performed for video "Nine in Number"

My friends of slaughter
Noble brothers
Sisters of violence
And fathers of destruction

I enslave you all
You shall not deny me
You must obey
Marching into death with me
Die with me!

This is my gift for you
This is my therapy of hate
This is the poison room
This is your home my friend

Sensing ability of specialized individual and ordinary person

To recognize that that air is fresh one need not have to be scientist. That said scientist certainly has edge over layman because of his ability to split the air particles. Similarly to feel and understand the poem one need not have to be Professor in language (say English). Professor may be able to appreciate metering and use of syllables.

Greatness of Wikipedia

Wikipedia site, for layman like me, gives an impression that I am reading biographical history of individual. Generation grown being with Internet is less prone to doubt its merits. So whatever is your opinion, for a second, assume that Wikipedia site is akin to history book. Greatness of Wikipedia is it gives space for World leaders like Gandhi without denying space for porn stars.

What historian may say on Bush on Hamas

In few more hours GW Bush is going give the control of not only US but virtually the stop dictating things to whole World.

Bush and Hamas share same time in history so take a hypothical situation of a histrorian comparing Hamas's role with that of Bush's; The historian, looking back at Bush's actions, may say that he fought for spreading freedom and democracy across the world, and I do not agree with that judgment and add that, on the same standard Hamas members would become freedom fighters.

Munsel and Classical color wheels

This is the notes that I made while discussing Munsel Color wheel and Classical Color wheel with my cousin.

Shrinking Kitchen

Yesterday I was at my friend's house, it looked like recent construction. Kitchen did not appear to have its own space, instead looked to be part of living-room; like finger nail and finger. At one time homes used to have four walled kitchen,distinct like bedroom. Gradually kitchen's presence is shrinking.

Shrinking kitchen reflects change in society. People hardly cook at home. Some heat frozen vegetable or prepared food, and many do not even do that.

Few months back, I came across an interesting book, called "In defence of food", this is primarily about industrialization of food and also about talks about disappearing tradition of cooking. One food company marketer predicts demise cooking tradition in coming decades.

"Small town values" muslim passengers removed from DC flight

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gfsO6SsGJUrRCXhujgS5ycbUIsfQD95F2IT00

These fellow passengers are disgusting, they do not deserve to live any civilized society, let alone USA. That ****ing airTran should get sued till to death.

AirTran spokesman Tad Hutcheson says the airline strictly followed federal rules.
Idiots at Govt. advice people to "report any suspicious activity"; these phobic people think that every muslim/forigner about to lynch them. Stupid Govt. should clearly state what it means "report any suspicious activity". My question is how these fucking passengers say that is suspcious when they can not even understand the language.

May be this is what they mean when they say "Small town values"

"end of december"

Wow "end of december" also means new year's night; Yes, there would be music on clinton street. Ok, I understood the first line of Leonard cohen's "Famous blue rain coat" which I had glossed over all these times :-)

The Grave of Shelly - Oscar Wilde

The Grave of Shelly - Oscar Wilde
Like burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed -->
Gaunt cypress-trees stand round the sun-bleached stone; -->
Here doth the little night-owl make her throne,
And the slight lizard show his jewelled head.
And, where the chaliced poppies flame to red,
In the still chamber of yon pyramid
Surely some Old-World Sphinx lurks darkly hid,
Grim warder of this pleasaunce of the dead.

Ah! sweet indeed to rest within the womb
Of Earth, great mother of eternal sleep,
But sweeter far for thee a restless tomb
In the blue cavern of an echoing deep,
Or where the tall ships founder in the gloom
Against the rocks of some wave-shattered steep.

*Gaunt-thin or bleak
*chaliced-cupshaped
*pleasaunce- secluded garden
*yon-Distance within sight
*founder-break down


I understand that he is talking about graves: one on in the land and other is ocean.

I feel proud of myself whenever I understand a poem because it is hard to get inside a one; and this is the first poem that i read, rather understood, in 2009. Infact, I did not choose this poem; usually I try to understand which ever poem comes across when I open the book.

Nietzsche on Alcohol & Church

Last week, I came across a BBC Documentary "Nietzsche on Hardship", and here I have tried to reproduce, word by word, whatever was told in that documentary. In brief, documentary says, Nietzsche was against alcohol therapy; and equated consoling oneself by going to Church to consoling by drinking Alcohol.

Comfort of alcohol
To imagine that there is a benefit in escaping our troubles, once in a while with a alcoholic drink or two, is to misunderstand Nietzscheian analysis of relation between happiness and pain. Happiness does not come from escaping trouble, it comes from cultivating them, turning them to your advantage. Nietzche did not want anyone to drown in worries, instead he said our worries are pointers to the things that need attension.

Comfort of Church
Nietzsche was rather against Church for the same reason as he was against getting drunk. In the short term, going to hear a service in a Christian church may make you feel quite good in the same way as getting very drunk may make you feel quite good. But in the long term, Church in Nietzsche's eyes dulls pain and in this way, it also dulls the energy that pain can give us to overcome problems and so reach real happiness.
There are differences between Church and Pub, but Nietzsche insisted that there are similarities in the consolation available at both the places; it seemed to him that New testament tried to make us feel better by saying that many things that we thought of as problems are not in fact problems at all but rather assets.

• a) To anyone worried about being too timid, New testament advises blessed are the meek they will inherit the earth.
  


• b) To anyone worried about not having friends, New testament says blessed are you when men hate you, they exclude you and insult you.
  


• c) To anyone that worried about not having enough money and who envies that those who do, New testament has these soothing words, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to the enter the kingdom of god.
  

Nietzsche took such words to be catastrophic, like alcohol Church counsel might dull pain but it will also weaken the resolve to overcome the problem from which the pain has risen. Essentially, Nietzsche did not want to people in trouble to pretend that they did not need the things they could not attain.


**Note that I do not know the details of New testament; here I just wrote whatever was presented in BBC documentary.

Warm and cold green

When trying to get GREEN tint we have can look at Yellow ochre as "warm green" and Cereleum Blue as "cold green" and choose appropriately.

Fine art material retailers in Bangalore

For the first time I saw my cousin, Shalini's paintings in person and they were much better than the photographs which she had sent by e-mail. This energised me and I decided to teach her how to photograph paintings and also thought of buying a decent easel. I believe that the use of proper tools for painting would infuse sense of value, responsibility and pride in painter. Ability to photograph is aslo important because in this age, for amatures, internet is an art gallery; in addition to this, good photograph can also be used for making quality prints which can be used for display purpose,inside home, instead of original painting; i believe this is one way to protect original paintings from dust and other pollutants.

Global brands of colors
Bangalore, probably for that matter, whole country is in its infancy when it comes to fine-art materials. Except for Winsor Newton, average dealers have barely heard of international brands like Liquitex, Golden, and only two special dealers showed name familiarity.

Camlin and Crystal beverages are distributers for Liquitex paints and Golden acrylics inside India. Liquitex, Golden products are sold at MRP by retailer but are not readily available, customer has to pre-order through retailer. Retailers that I spoke to said that consumers are neither aware or seek these foriegn brands because these(especially at MRP) are way beyond typical Indian consumer, so all ones sees is sea of Camlin colors. Camlin's paint products are pathetic; screw caps of their water color tubes cracks after few months, and this shows how much importance Camlin gives to quality, so I would not trust my creative work in the hands of Camlin. After looking at how wilted Camlin colors tubes were, I feel embarassed to say that I will use Camlin paints for painting movie star cutouts for theaters.

In Bangalore, there are two retailers in Avenue road selling paints; the stores are congested, and unorganized like rice or grains selling shop. These shops do not even seem to know where an item is located; everything is some where in that pile.
And there is an another retailer in Commercial street, better organized but selling same brands as Avenue road retailers. It is frustrating that one has to go back to these stores, and all they have is Camlin, Camlin; why not call these Camlin outlets.

Artist quality papers
My cousin is not able to get thick water color papers made by branded company. All that is available is handmade paper with vast difference in thickness and without proper thickness rating(gsm/lb); and these aspects makes one suspect the reliability of these so called hand made papers.

Where can I get these brushes?
Loew-Cornell makes great quality brushes; I have used them for 2-3 years and seen their bristles hold over years and also handle do not crack under moisture. These brushes are made in Japan, SriLanka and India but are not available for consumers in India, and it is frustrating to know that quality brushes are made in India when the brands curently sold in India fall apart in no time.

Winstor Newton Canvas?
Fortunately W&N canvasses are made and sold in India.

Is this going to change ?
I do not think this situation is going to change any soon, may not be in my life time. There is not any Art economy. India has gotten macro things(like Benz car, Plasma TV) implanted but subtle things are not available. One can see easily spot lack of harmony in growth, they glare at you like bad silicon implants.

Camlin, camlin...
Every retail store is filled with cheap Camlin color products. Camlin's paint products are pathetic; screw caps of their water color tubes crack and break after few months, and that shows how much importance Camlin gives to quality, and I would not trust my creative effort in the hands of Camlin; they seem like Indian postal service: arcane, corrupt and unresponsive to consumer needs. After looking at how wilted the Camlin color tubes were; I feel embarassed to say that I would use Camlin paints for painting cinema star cutouts for theaters :-)