AnOther OPINION

A near-perfect analogy for the nirvana grunge syndrome, as well as the mallcore/nu-metal (think, KORN, slipknot, Machine Head) revolution that has taken over the rock(hate that word)-music scene today vs The Underground Metal scene, would be Microsoft's standoff against GNU/Linux (well, not much of a standoff, MS has over 90% marketshare). With the popularity of certain (free) linux distros rising(Ubuntu, not SUSE), I hear the MS fanboys cry foul. Well all the negative points against Linux have been iterated here
A counter argument is given here. As with all the people who have difficulty switching from the same old structured musical drone of these stereotypical grunge/mallcore/nu-metal bands to traditional metal, it is obviously going to be difficult for windows users to switch to Linux (yes, you cannot escape the shell as of yet).

YES, LINUX IS NOT FOR NOOBS, atleast not for some time to come I guess. Well, today everyone wants a shortcut to life. With such a mentality I am all too sure we're going forward...ha...ha.

One more clarification,

OPEN SOURCE not equal FREE (source is GPL'ed i.e you can modify the source and redistribute it under the GPL)
FREE software is as good as FREE BEER, if you get what I mean.

LINUX RULES, METAL RULEZZ!!

If you feel the comments are biased you can suck it, cause it is meant to be.

Black Sabbath(Heaven and Hell moniker) pics taken from my Fuji Finepix S5200 \m/

Lineup:
Ronnie James Dio - Vocals
Tony Iommi - Guitars (Rhythm and lead)
Geezer Butler - Bass
Vinnie Appice - Drums

Movie Roundup ...

Saw some pretty good movies during this summer, would like to mention some of them here.

English:
CUBE - low budget movie which tries to explore facets of the human psyche especially those of helplessness and despair when survival is an impossibility. Of special note is the first feeling when confronted with a harsh reality is that of rejection of such a possibility and acceptance of an alternate state of conciousness (dream/delusion). Although the acting is not that great, the concept is pretty intriguing.

Hitchcock classics - Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho, Birds - Must watch!!

Jacob's ladder - A thriller/horror movie about a vietnam war veteran. A scary plot about the delusions he has after he returns from war, and he is not the only one... A good movie which might unsettle some.

Sergio Leone's classic Wester movies - Fistful of dollars, For a Few Dollars more, The good the bad and the ugly.

Japanese:
Akira Kurosawa - Seven Samurai(shinchin no samurai)

Grave of the fireflies - A beautiful animation movie concerning 2 orphans after the world war II bombings. Must watch!!

Malayalam:
Kadhavasheshan - Directed by T.V. Chandran, backed by some good acting by Dileep is the story of a person disaffected with his surroundings especially concerning the popular culture (Senseless idolatry) viz. cricket, bollywood and some that touched his life those of poverty, riots and starts losing his faith in humanity and life as a whole and commits suicide. The direction is good and for the most part the feelings echoed are subtle but some of the coincidences shown in the movie are ridiculous. I guess that was just a way to get the point across. But, I digress.

Kireedam(The crown) - A brilliant movie involving a father(Thilakan) and son(Mohanlal). The plot is brilliant and to top it the acting by both Thilakan and Mohanlal is outstanding. After seeing this movie I realized how multidimensional and versatile actor Mohanlal is. The last scene where he portrays multiple emotions of sorrow, anger, despair is plain brilliant. Haven't seen any actor do it with such ease.

Another slew of good malayalam movies that I've seen are Nadodikaatu, Bharatham, Nizhalkuttu, Vellanugalude Naadu.

Movies in the pipeline,
Vana Espuma(Idle Mist) - Low Budget spanish movie. Supposed to be really good. Unfortunately am not able to find it.

Vaanaprastham - National Award winning movie with a great performance by Mohanlal as a Kathakali artist.

Paadam Onnu: Oru Vilapam (Chapter One: A wail) - Brilliant movie by T.V. Chandran about the life of a poor muslim girl who gets married at an early age.

Yojimbo,Rashomon - Kurosawa's classic movies. Sergio Leone(Dollars Trilogy fame) was inspired by his movies and did some remakes.

Books in the Pipeline:
Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
Gulag archipelago - Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Bloodied angels fast descending \m/

"The closer you get to the meaning
The sooner you'll know that you're dreaming" - Heaven and Hell(1980), Black Sabbath

It was the 1st of May, four of us sabbath fans all geared up to go. The concert was in San Antonio, TX at 7:00 pm. We started from here about 4:00 pm clueless as to what was heading our way. The last thing you want, a thunderstorm, after about a 45 mile drive. Had to stop by a gas station for about 30 min as the visibility had become really poor. Then we started and drove pretty much above the speed limit due to the time crunch. By the time we reached the Verizon Wireless amphitheater, we were already an hour late. Machine Head and Megadeth were the supporting bands. We could hear "Peace Sells ... " being played, from the parking lot and being an ardent fan of Megadeth couldn't resist the temptation to make a dash for it. Well, unfortunately I tripped over a steel rope and had a nasty fall, nearly missing by balls, another thing being it was the last song by Megadeth for the night. So much for the run. Fortunately we made it in time for Sabbath to start.

The guitar riffs kicked in and Oh man! what a sound. It was great to hear these old geezers live especially the creative force behind the first metal band ever, Mr. Tomy Iommi himself. Metal never sounded so good and it takes you back to the late 70s and 80s when Metal was at it's peak, while mainstream grunge was rearing it's ugly head. Metal saw it's demise in the early 90s as Kurt Cobain (Nirvana), Lar$ Ulrich(Metallica) and the rest of the lot ushered in an era of talent-free living. Well you people better watch out, Black Sabbath is coming for your filthy asses.

Coming back to the concert, Sabbath belted out classics like Heaven and Hell, Sign of the Southern Cross, Children of the sea, Lady Evil, Die Young with Neon Knights being the encore. RJD(Ronnie James Dio) was brilliant as the frontman. Every note that he hit was perfect and Iommi was awesome to say the least. He nailed all the riffs and the leads were great too especially the extended lead on "Heaven and Hell" where he turned the 6 1/2 min. song to a 9 min. monster with a jaw dropping solo.

The concert got over at about 11:00 and for about an hour I was having difficulty hearing to what my friends were talking. Well, it was a WALL OF SOUND.

Will post the pictures soon. Till then, \m/

Am back on blogspot. Will try to write regularly from now on. Well, have a lot to write so most probably will. Next one in line is the Black Sabbath (Heaven and Hell if you will) concert, my first and what an experience.