8/30/06

ICC and colonial work ethics

I was reading an article by Michel Holding on Cricinfo. In a nut shell the article summed up that there is a colonial work ethics built around ICC. I have to agree with Michel Holding. Ricky Ponting recently gave an interview that he would prefer best umpires for the [self proclaimed] world’s best cricket clash – Ashes. Ya! 6 out 10 times Ashes seems one sided to me. Ricky “the wanting” Ponting went on to name best umpires around the world, notably many were "Australians" including our friend who wanted half million dollars to walk away from the case he orchestrated.

In my opinion, I see a hidden Ponting agenda here. ICC does not permit local umpires and Ponting wants Australian umpires to stand in games involving Australia. Ok! I am just speculating, but tell me this; will "ICC" tolerate similar statements made by a player from India or Pakistan? I am sure ICC will reply rudely stating "it is ICC’s responsibility to nominate umpires hence others just shut the @#$@# up". But ICC officials ignored the brave "demand" from Ponting. It went unnoticed. If Ponting makes such demands it is treated as "command", but if a Dravid or Inzi makes such statements it is called undue or excessive or uncalled for, more over ICC will collect fines to buy a new water cooler. People, don’t you see the colonial attitude built around ICC? Just like Mr. Holding says, we have to live with it, and as I mentioned last week in my Blog, our cricket boards has to shred their submissive attitude until then ICC will not respect our opinions.

Ravi “the Slowchana” Shastri joins the bandwagon. I am quoting from PTI and the article at DNA India - Given the way the drama unfolded, I would have refused to carry on unless umpire Darrell Hair told me who the bowler was who had tampered with the ball. In my [Sastri’s] opinion, what happened is a travesty of the game. Going by the book is one thing, looking at the bigger picture and spirit of the game quite another. That is where umpire Darrell Hair's approach was flawed. He not only had to believe, but also had to show that the game was paramount bigger than the players, Inzamam-ul-Haq and himself. I'm afraid the big Aussie made a hash of it with his stand-offish approach. In this day and age when technology is available at the click of a mouse, I see no reason why Hair did not use it to his advantage. In fact, had he referred that matter to the third umpire or the match referee, the issue could have been settled within minutes for all that was needed was for somebody to check if any footage of ball-tampering was available. It was apparent that without any proof, Hair was skating on thin ice. Thereafter, his ego and stubborn personality took over, complicating the matter to a degree from where it became extremely difficult to come back. I like to know Navjot Siddhu’s take on this episode.

Mr. Darrel Hair apologized for the email he sent to ICC, "I wish to apologize for an ill-advised but entirely confidential e-mail that gave people opportunity to question my motives. Of course, world will talk about the motives, here is a person who yapped about principles yada yada yada suddenly nose dived asking for ½ million to get away from the case, dude, it does create a "fish" aroma. Also get this, Cricket is bigger than some umpire and his "personal" crusade

8/28/06

Moday Musings

Vinayaka Chadhurthi weekend on Sun TV; the non-believers had their customary special movie treat titled “English காரன் ” [it should be Ka”run” instead]. The moral of the story “Encourage your kith and kin to do things they like to do". I think Mr. Satyaraj did the needful to his son Sibiraj. [சரி சரி what else to do, "படிப்புவரல" -that will be an all together another discussion.] Based on the moral I think a 30 minute "வணக்கம் தமிழகம்" with Satyaraj as special guest would be a cost saver mint for the producer. And most of all, the movie insulted athletes around the world – it was a sheer “comical” [I swear] to watch Namitha run along with athletes. The good old Siva Kumar’s thriller “Ladder Steps” [அதான் sir ஏணிப்படிகள்] script could have been reused instead.

People!, listen to this crap - Namitha is a "village" girl born to a male chauvinistic "conservative" dad and a boxed snake [பொட்டிப்பாம்பு]tight lipped mom. But Namitha the village girl is allowed to wear a narrow “pepe” jeans and a juicy Gucci T-shirt. Due to “other" noticeable distractions with a great difficulty திருவாளர் பொது ஜனம் accepted Namitha as an athlete.
ஏங்க “Satyam sir” கொஞ்சமாவது logic வேண்டமா?. When there are producers to spend on such craps, there are also “good” directors struggling to find money to produce genuine movies. Yes I am taking about VAV. vettai Adu ViLaIyAdu.

Looks like கரார் Kamal’s cheque was cleared for payment. Vetaiadu Villayadu was released finally yesterday. Director Gautham spoke about his movie on Sun TV. I think Director Gautham top most Tamil directors who can communicate their production efforts. He never minces words or statements, yesterday in the promotion program, his expressive eyes spoke million words on the whole effort. Their experience on flying over NYC was an interesting one to hear. I just like to know this, it is that hard to make a Tamil movie in New York, when there are tons of Hindi movies shot in Manhattan area, why our guys seems to struggle? All about funding I suppose. We are busy spending on movies like “English Karan” which serves no purpose [Breaking News: die hard Namitha fans are protesting against his statement.]. I hope VAV movie does not disappoint, though Hj’s songs have already done the needful, I believe a movie is not a just million dollar music video. More than Kamal, Prakashraj or Jothika, I trust Gautam’s ability - he is a director from a different generation. He told about the first song in the movie – it seems that it was not need for the story however being Kamal fan, he cannot let go the opportunity to shoot a “kamal song”. He also made a request and asked people to stay in the theater until the last frame rolled down. Hope VAV is Wow – [WOW=Wetai OAdu Wilaiyadu in Rajinee style]

I might have to wait for the DVD. My home theater is better equipped than Desi theaters in DC area. Knowing Gautam’s and Harry’s mixing ability, I not wasting my money on Desi Theater and its customary sound system. I also prefer an Aiyangaran DVD, why I am saying this because off late in many Desi video stores I see Tamil movies from a DVD company called “Sruthilayam” from Canada. There are simply the worst DVD manufactures known to man kind. The sound quality is pathetic; some times you get camera prints dumped on a DVD which creates a doubt about their legality. Yo! “Sruthilayam” Dude - Dolby Digital or DTS is not spreading the same channel to all the 5 channels. Why can’t our Tamil community get organized in providing legal channels for Tamil movie distribution on DVD around the world?

Good weekend.

8/25/06

Hum for the day

Do you want guess the cost of a voluntary hair “cut” - it is about $500,000. It seems Mr. Grumpy the courageous Hair negotiated with ICC for a $500,000 payout. Meaning, he would quit and walk out of the ordeal [orchestrated by him] if ICC pays him for the loss that he is going to suffer in next 5 years.

This is kind of getting muddy, why should Mr. Hair worry about the money that he is going to make in next 5 years? Has ICC already committed to him? If Hair believes that Inzi and company are guilty why in the world he should fear job security? What happened to his over blown so called “Determination” “strong mind” “strength “ etc - Only Hair loving folks in Down under has to clarify.

ICC has already booked Inzi on 2 counts hearing is pending while they were busy negotiating terms with Mr. Hair. There were rumors yesterday on press that there is slight confusion in the Pakistani dressing room. Things are getting muddy day by day. May be this is first time we see a version of Dirty Hairy without client East wood in it. –Hum for the day “HaIriHaIri om HaIriHaIri om”

Have a great weekend.

8/23/06

False Hair

The ICC refused a request from Pakistan to stop umpire Darrell Hair from standing in future matches involving their team. ICC Chief executive Malcolm Speed threw “a faster one”, he stated that "It remains the role of the ICC and not our members to appoint umpires. Here is my doubt, for whose benefit ICC is for ? Ok! May be for betterment of Cricket, how will cricket become better - When the cricket playing nations play it better, in order to make this happen, the playing nation has be provided with better cricketing conditions.

Time and time Mr. Hair has had problem with various teams, let me discard all my racial rummies, still you cannot deny the fact that Umpire Hair has had problems with Pakistan and various other teams in the past. Hence when a permanent ICC member makes a request, ICC should consider it. Bottom line “collection of permanent members” = ICC. Assume if countries like India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan who generate a lot of cricketing funds shut down to form say Asian Half boiled Cricketing council, jokes apart such move can drain ICC funds. Seriously no other place in the world Cricket can be sold better than the subcontinent. Mr. Speed should slow down before displaying his powers. ICC is simply nothing without the subcontinent market.

Moving on, Players from Down under gave their tube of supporting gel [or Jell] to Hair -, why would not they support their favorite umpire. How many time Hair has rescued them from crisis.

“aleikekeeeeereckuere” – tape Rewind sound -

Adelaide, January 1992 - Australia beat India by 38 runs.
Just peruse through old articles during that time, you will know that the game was "marred... by controversy LBW decisions - Indians got about 8 bad LBW decision , while two of their own appeals were rejected". Who did this? Answer: Mr. Hair

1993 Adelide - Peter Kirsten [SA] was blessed by a series of LBW decisions from Hair, desperate Kristen gave and spoke to umpire, ICC put up a new water cooler using this incident. - Who did this? Answer: Mr. Hair

Next the ill famed MCG Boxing Day Test - 1995 – Murali was no balled by Hair – Lieutenant General Hair No balled Murali for chucking while umpire [Steve Dunn] at other end had no problems with Murali’s action. I remember watching this game on Star TV [Channel 9] when I was in Chennai. Steve Dunn pointed out later that the rules stated that any suspect action should be reported to the match referee rather being called immediately, and that it was governing body the ICC not the umpires who should rule a bowler's action legitimate or not. Mr. Malcolm Speed Sir - do you get this, when governing body is the ICC - not the umpires, how can you let Hair do such things in mid field time and time again? Was hair punished for this act? No – when all powerful cricket governors of ICC gave clean chit to Murali –Mr. Hair in his autobiography called Murali's bowling action as "diabolical" – meaning extremely cruel.

I feel with such wretched and diabolical record to his credits I think Mr. Hair has no qualification be an international umpire. I feel he is a misfit for cricket because time and time again whenever he officiates he has acted in a high-handed manner. The cricketing elite’ often utter “no one is bigger than the game itself” – Yah! This damn golden word applies to the umpires too. It’s high time - Fire the Big “Wig” aka Mr. False Hair.

Good day.

8/22/06

The “Hair” matter gains momentum;

I don’t know if you would agree with me on this I feel there is a clear cut disparity on how ICC views a degree of offence. Seriously it does look like players from countries like Australia, England [yes! my man Mr. Ricky the loquacious Ponting and his team] are let go easily while similar breaches from other cricket playing nations say India , Sri Lanka or Pakistan are treated as thought they are criminal offenses. Match referees like Chris board are notorious for nepotism. I can quote many such incidents. Instead of calling ICC racial body etc, I would say ICC often plays the favoritism game. They suffer from superiority complex syndrome. More over I also feel this “soup complex” was born out of problems that infests the country cricket boards. For example our Indian cricket board, a worthless pack that never supports the players’ opinion as the Australian Board would support it player’s opinion. Board members in order to retain their “post” they side with ICC forgetting the sport and the players.

When Cricket Australia makes a statement supporting its player, it is very authentic and unanimous – a single voice opinion. However this would never happen in Indian cricket scenario. If at all the board comes forward to say something supporting the player, an Ex-board member, [Mr Leele for example] would call the press and give his esteemed opinion trashing the team, for which the board members would reply…etc. This chat will go on and one, in due course the creditability on a genuine opinion raised by the board supporting the player is lost deep in the hole. Unless and until there is clear cut unity within the boards, ICC will favor and side towards cricket boards that are more organized.

Coming to this Hair raising issue of Ball tampering, Inzi has stated in an interview that their stance on the forfeited test is matter of honor. I wish Pakistani board continues to support his opinion.

Moving on, let us check the credit history – without doubt Inzi is a very calm person when compared to say for example Mr. Ricky the loquacious Ponting, where he and his team mates gets pardoned for various sport misbehaviors. Inzi hardly raises his voices with the umpires Inzi in the past has accepted the rules of the game may be he was in a grumble mode for first hour of the incident. But he did settle quickly respecting the game. While time and time Mr. Hair has had problems with various teams, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan in particular. Apart from goofing up on decisions, Hair’s haughty tone is known to every cricket following person around the world. When you compare the level of arrogance between Inzi and Hair, Duh! Even a child would know that Mr. Hair is light years ahead.

Secondly Inzaman is a captain of a national side, he is holding a highly respected portfolio; it does demand a respect from the umpire automatically. Umpires like Hair or my favorite Steve “the AH” Buckner cares a damn for such portfolios.
Such umpires feel that they can do anything to establish their authority. They don’t hesitate to treat the players as though they are bunch of animals.

What if Pakistan cricket board had told to ICC that they will not play if Hair or Bucky is standing in the middle. There would be no problem here. Period, I am sure ICC will take this matter seriously if more boards start objecting to crazy umpires like Hair. But boards never cared to support its players.

Also Tell me this, How can the umpire ask the batsmen to pick the ball? So what next the non striker will pick the next bowler to bowl? Press Reports suggest that no one has seen the so called “tampered ball”. If Mr. Hair’s claim is truthful why not ICC display the ball to the press? There are about 25-26 camera in the ground, and I am really surprised that there no pictures supporting Hair’s accusations. Seriously TV camera men are so efficient they capture such incidents better than their game coverage. I am sure one of the 26 would have captured it clearly. We still remember how poor Dravid was made to pay for doging something with the ball. Hope you remember Umpire Buckner’s mime act describing the incedent. On a cricket - TV camera is always watching you.

More over there is rumor saying the whole episode was triggered by English side. English coach had some suspicion on this and reported to the umpire, Hair who is closely associated with yadayada - did the needful. However English coach has denied this allegation.

[Like horlicks,]Inzi has been around for ages now, in my opinion he is very nice and clam slow natured person. I read this interview on CricInfo and I feel that his claims are genuine. There is a foul play and Mr. Hair , ICC has to answer this.
Will Hair do the same thing if it had been Australia v.s England? Don’t tell me those teams don’t do such things, the first case of ball tampering in India was by the visiting English team – John lever was caught using Vaseline from his forehead. Indian Umpire/Bedi found it. He was caught red handed, so when it comes to Cheating, every country has its own set of bad elements. Just blaming Pakistan here cannot be accepted.

It is another controversy for Mr. Hair; I think it is better send him home; there are better umpires in this world. Having said this, ICC to safe their ass have asked Ranjan Madugulle to take care of the proceedings, and he is another known cymbal [Jalra] for the ICC. Hence! The case it put to rest, I am sure Mr. Hair will be the world cup elite panel.


Finally, Chennai Day is being celebrated from today…, I am from Chennai and I dearly miss Chennai. My contribution to Chennai - my song - 80s in Chennai --
Happy Chennai day!

8/21/06

Monday Musings

What is the problem with Umpire Darrell Hair? He was in a controversial “love” tangle with Murali couple of years ago; Hair ruled that Muralitharan was a chucker; however ICC using its “most” modern facilities cleared Murali from this ordeal. Still Murali faced humiliation from the Aussie public. But for the myopic treatment, Mr. Darrell “the” Hair [what a convenient last name] was let go free. Ball Tampering is a serious offense, having said this I would also say it is a very hard case to prove such incidents. How can you prove the ball has been tampered? Event CSI Miami sleuths cannot help! Secondly the Cry Babies XI aka Pakistan team should not have walked out simply dishonoring the game of cricket. There is a process in place called “protesting’ - will it work or not, that is a different issue. If you feel what the Umpire did was incorrect, I would say what Pakistan team did is also incorrect. Both the parties insulted the spirit in the game and forgot about spectators who have paid money. It was comical to see the veteran Mr. Imran “the political” Khan blast out the umpire, the Cookubara company, the pitch, English weather etc…– let me tell you I have not forgotten the confession of his team mates in the past – “ball tampering using soda bottle lids”. I wish ICC investigates the ordeal properly [hahaha], if Hair is proved wrong once again - ICC needs to fire him at once and Pakistan team should get an open apology from him in public. What if the ball had been tampered? Was Pakistan right in forfeiting the games? They have to account for this too. Cricketing law should take its course.

Yesterday Sapthaswargal came to back to its grooves. All girls show again, most of them sang very well. My best singer vote goes to “Shruthi”, it seems she has been learning music for only 4 years, wow! for such a voice she must be in play back already. When it comes to singing, apart from perfect technical accuracy, it is all about conveying expressions. She had a voice & expressions that was similar to Bombay Jayashree. I had some spare time in the evening hence I continued with the Aug 15th specials via DVR, One program I should commend SunTV for was Actor Suriya going to a village of army families. Amazing stories and the program was apt for the day. “Suriya” is shining better day by day. Waiting for “sil” or “jill” or what ever is kAdal :)

Yesterday KTV was showing a movie called Manithan – Ebba, I remember cutting classes and going to this movie on the first day. Seriously KTV has been showing well made craps like Manithan, Nanum-oru-Thozilalai. The music director for Manithan was one Mr. Chandra Bose. I caught him on Sun TV late night serial during channel surfing. He had a dada getup in ujjala white and white, he was busy torturing a female and the script, it looks like he has an alternative career now – good thing is the torturing factor still remains intact.

Finally, “The Try” cricket series in Sri Lanka finally closed. , I saved some hard earned money by not subscribing.

Good day,

8/18/06

#350

8/16/06

Munchings...

Sun TV specials, The preset lineup of course included the usual interview with our Snake + Akka, experts believe that her SunTV appearance is much more than her appearance on [pirated] Tamil DVDs. Seriously I am wondering when the “joke” called “pati mandram” would stop? TGS [Tangaladasami] .[Customary] Interview with A.R.Rahman, V for Vazisal Sarathay made sure he asked superficial questions that had no real answers. How do you feel being among Icons like Sachin? Enna questionYa idhu? I have one thing here to say [seri seri - jAlrathane - adi machi adi] , Some words from Rahman were totally inspirational. [ya! Thala enna sonnalaum adu enaku veda vAku]. Over all the Independence Day programming on Sun TV gave a clear picture on perils of too much “freedom”. Thanks to the DVR technology, just like what I would do before quarterly exams - skipped most portions.

As expected, Cricket was washed out due to rain and other political events in Sri Lanka. Currently the news is BCCI/ICC/SCB/TNCC/DMK is planning for an in-door book cricket tournament. Our great Coach Chapel is busy deciding the opening pair for the game. The game did not start on time again - reason - the book was missing so was Viru, it is rumored that Viru was napping using the book as pillow. Earlier in the day Kaif was caught red handed for tearing all pages divisible by 10. He later said he did it to save a duck’s life. Dravid was not available for comment as he had to gone to the near by stationary store to buy some fevicol.

People, do you know that the solar system planet count has been just increased from 9 to 12. Wow! "Gujjal!" time for Raj TV / Vijay TV and other TV "Josiyam" experts. [Gujjal=Hallelujah!]

They now have 3 more entities to mix and match. As per Vijay TV’s Josiyam program, from today your personal finances are controlled by the planet called “Chatru”, derived from the 10th planet on Solar System called “Charon”. Charon was formerly owned by Pluto [not the Disney dog, I meant the real planet that fetched us 2 marks in 8th Standard 1 word Q&A]. Charon the Stone was finally granted independence on Aug 15th 2006; it is now officially the 10th rock from sun. Can you guess the planet after mars? It is not Jupiter, it is Ceres. Ceres was promoted from Asteroid to planet. Josiyam experts say Ceres controls agriculture. Paddy seeds will be sown based on its position. I hope the 12th planet “2003-ub313” helps promoting my music.

Tell me this, what is the big fuss in adding new planets to the solar system that cannot be seen with your naked or nude or stripped eye? May be the only persons benefited would be Josiyam experts and of course the REMAX Realtor.

Good day!

8/14/06

My Next Music Album

Monday!

The Tri Series in Sri Lanka might be washed out. This is not a laughing matter, when so much money is spent on these games, why not ICC get hold of someone who knows the local geography and weather?.

Thank you God for keeping ICC under control [ICC=Internal Cricket Cravings]. I have not signed up anything yet to watch it live. More over games are scheduled on “busy week days” [starting at 5.00am EST.] I wish the honorary cricket planners, schedule game over the weekends, - most of the fans watching are not “honorary” workers. On second thoughts I think there is no point in watching Dravid Tortoise hunt game plan planned by our coach who flip-flops more than popular democrats here.

Our popular coach cried out loud to the press that Sachin cannot throw the ball etc, later flip flopped to cover up the whole “olaral” ceremony by saying deep throw, short throw etc. Sachin did play in the practice games without any problems. Having been certified by the team physiotherapist and a bunch of responsible doctors, there was no need for the coach to make silly statements. He is not a “doctor” and secondly it was really childish, just assume that there was some truth to this claim, he should have raised this to the board directly but instead he leaks it out to the press, which can help the opponents. This is the “n” goof up incident for the Aussie coach in the press. Talking about “Aussie” Mr. Dean “the bigmouthed” Jones was penalized for passing comments on a South African player. I wish commentators get this clearly - in most pay-per-view channels there are no commercials breaks, I have also heard lots of comments during live broadcasts. At least broadcasters can install a big red light sign saying “ON AIR”, So that the commentators can keep all their sarcastic orifices shut when the light is on.

Had a glimpse of SunTV “sapthaswarangal” yesterday – it was professionally awful. When someone forces their agenda in the name of art - quality suffers. Sun TV for about a month now is trying badly to push their management’s agenda in programming. Yesterday participants were asked to sing songs from popular Kannagi story - “silapathigaram”. There was huge Kannagi statue in the back drop. First and fore most, seriously none of the participants could sing [or wink wink pronounce Tamil properly]. The so called compositions lacked musical values, I wish someone could have composed them in a better fashion; it was a pathetic display of literature.

Finally Sun TV is busy advertising their August 15th special program line up, and the announcer says "cherish our freedom and independence", agreed very patriotic , however when he makes this announcement – on the screen - Ariya was seen busy holding his "dash" ….. And singing for a copied rap flick – Damn, can’t they choose a better decent "spot" to place this "patriotic" voice over message.

Good Day,

Ps: Aratai aragam is now taken over by Mr.Solomon Papayya and the well known speaker Mr. Raja, they are funny and knowledgeable people, still after watching it for 10mins I felt the has been diluted [with an agenda] and has lost all its seriousness. It sounded like another “patti mandram” that required a lorry load of Laughing gas to get a smile.

8/10/06

Only A.R.Rahman!

"jil enu oru kAthal" – A great track with Broadway style Big band Jazz– in my opinion – “Zimply Superbbu!” Rahman has produced an honest track keeping the genre intact till the final bar.

ARRangement - [simple walking] Bass, Drums, Rhodes, Brass section, muted trumpets, tap dancing thumps and Finger snaps. Concentrate on each instrument separately and see how they complement each other with the vocals. The Recording is crystal clear you get a fantastic separation.

Vocalist - Tanvi is amazing”. Her expressions are of top quality and the most important – “picture perfect pitching”. I highlight this because movie tracks today have various “keyless” entry and exit points. Just listen to Tanvi’s vocal tone variation for the line Jil enu oru kathal – this is quite amazing and the female Jazz scats are very authentic. I just do not know what special Rahman does to get such fantastic vocals on the track. Only Rahman!

Tanvi’s slightly accented Tamil pronunciation - honestly I liked it, and there are no serious “pronunciation” issues to complain, she pronounces hard Tamil sounds quite well. You cannot find fault here - having said that - in software development we often say “there is always one more bug” in music appreciation - there is always one more “nitpick” - who knows – by dropping few drops of castor oil in the ears “pundits” will identify faults like “pronunciation for the word “seiyuthe” is irritating” - I would leave those nitpicks to “Tamil pundits”. Bottom line here is - I understood it and I have a great track to play in my car Stereo during office rush hour traffic. “The energy in the song inspires me and creates a greater level of enthusiasm to be creative in life”.

Ps: Next track that caught my attention at once was “New York Nagaram” I will write a detailed review on every song once I come out “Jil en oru kathal” joram– Man! Rahman Rocks.

8/9/06

Something interesting

Remote production - I have been doing [remote] production for about 8 years now. Right from inception of my site in Mp3.com till now, the process is kind of similar. My crew is often spread around the globe and I user various communication methods to communicate and get the work done. There is a lot co-ordination and management involved in this process.

Today I am really happy to see many Bloggers take similar path in music production. Working on such remote productions requires proper co ordination. In order achieve efficiency a Music producer or a composer needs to be organized, he or she needs to communicate their requirement clearly to their peers or crew. For example if my good friend Udhaya writes a song for me, I need to communicate my requirements clearly to him. For such communications, we used emails, conference calls through which I will explain the structure of the song etc, Other than email and chat-windows there is no proper tool to facilitate such remote production tasks.

What if , a software tool using which composers can create a track, package it with time coded markers and description and export this as a bundle to the lyric writers, who then using the same tool opens it and gets its instructions, then writes the song and sends it back to the composer as another package? Sounds interesting to you?

Folks, having understood this production nightmare for about a decade now, I went on to develop a software program to facilitate such production tasks. I developed this software using dot NET V2.0 and the Free C# Visual Studio Express from Microsoft.com.
Let me explain program modal and the work flow:
Production - a production is a collection of audio and video bundles.
An Audio bundle consists of an audio file [mp3 or wav or windows media], a time code file and a lyric file. A video bundle – a video file [wmv or mpg], Time code instruction file and a director comments file. User opens a production. Once the production is activated, using the project explorer window [check the screen shots] users can load audio or video packages. Using the work bench windows composers can create markers and its related instructions can be entered. A Marker is a time code in “hh:mm:ss” format. The entire production can be compressed as single file and can be mailed to the lyric writer or programmer etc, who can open it and read the instruction using the same tool. There is simple rich text editor is provided to write lyrics and notes. I have not tested this completely; I think I have addressed all the requirements based on my experience, but there is no such thing as complete software hence if anyone has any ideas to incorporate let me know. I can try to add it.
If you need this tool let me know I will upload this tool some time over the weekend.

8/7/06

New song Release - Lehrom pe

Lehrom Pe, my second Hindi track after H1bees,

I take great pleasure in introducing 2 more talented personalities. Vocalist: Raghu - A versatile vocalist based out of the New England region, Raghu has a wide range and we are working on more tracks. Lyricists Ajay - based out of UK, very talented writer. and finally, thanks to Bharath, he has worked on additional drum programming and audio mixing.
Please download the song from my website. http://www.srikanthd.com

Since I am running short of time I had to cut short the Blog, Please check back again for more.

- Thanks.

Weekend story..

Over the weekend stopped by SunTV; Sun TV serial [killers] artists displayed their other cinematic talents in form for Record dance. I could not take it at all, especially when veteran actor Siva Kumar displayed his “dabba” capacity, he listed about 100 flowers and verbally dropped them all in the golden feet of his “Talai”– however he missed the main flower that would have worked better “kathula poo”. The Pathetic Villy from oxymoronic “Soga Anadam” was seen dancing in all almost all the record dances. Thank god for “change the damn channel button” in the remote control.

I also saw a movie, “Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu” - Bharath, Mallika Kapoor, Arun Kumar, the funny guy Bhaskar. Frankly I got this DVD to squeeze some juice for my Blog, but you know what, I was disappointment.

Director Vijay Milton must be a very funny guy. His direction and screen play was fresh and visible in every frame. Each frame was filled wit and humor. The movie had lots of fresh ideas like very nice introduction and mostly perfectly timed funny dialogues. Mallika Kapoor was very impressive and competed well with talented Bharath. – Usage of Vividh bharathi’s “ungal viruppom” theme music is worth a mention.

I laughed loud; it was really different from the usual [pathetic] Tamil movies that spend about 3000 feet of film roll for just character introductions. The story line and its twist carried the movie well, Director had to cook this meal for 3hrs hence he did lost his grounds in middle. Like the usage of animation was fun but in my opinion it was an over kill. All said and done, Director Vijay Melton came back quite well to end the finish the movie. The conclusion was crisp, short and sweet.

The sound tracks - in fact the music was “sagikable”, at times impressive too, but when it came to singing ability of Yuvan Shankar I am surprised who in the world told Yuvan that he can sing. Dude get straight - you cannot sing, please don’t even try. It is horrible to hear, as your voice and pitching is no where near basics of any kind of singing. A song is to be sung in one key in a particular harmony but often he tries to sing [“nosing”] in all the 8 keys per harmony/progression. Is Tamil Nadu short of “good” vocalists?

I wish more movies are made in this fashion; I would reduce the time to just 2 hours max. If you spot and laugh for witty humor I recommend that you should watch this movie with your family – Yes. It is family movie too - Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu, better name would be (a - b)2 [= a2 - 2ab + b2]

Finally, As you know I have been working with Mr. [Altanta] Ganesh, Veteran Tamil movie and Stage artist, in his cross over English feature film - “Dance to My Tunes…” for which I did the music scoring recently, The crew has come with a Trailer for promotional purposes, I have obtained permission to upload it in my website and Blog, I will upload this in a day - since the file size it too big I am trying to getting it down to a quick one minute cut using windows media format, best viewed in 320x270 screen; If time permits I will also upload the sound track that I composed for the trailer as a separate download.

Good day.

8/2/06

Wednesday Talk

When I browsed through the Google news, one major headline topped the charts. If you think it is about the war in Middle East, you are wrong my friend, or may be the change of regime in Cuba, No you are wrong again. It the story of Mel "the Full" Gibson, the popular macho Hollywood star was arrested on DUI charges, that is one side of the issue, the other side is during the arrest Mr. Gibson taunted racial remarks on a particular community. After a full "Alcohol drain" MelJi realized that this issue would grow against his movie career, at once he changed his name to "Gel Gibson"; He apologized to the community and expressed his willingness to talk to the community leaders in order to obtain a free “Saba Vimochanam” coupon. Few years ago when Mr. "Dull" Gibson released his dull movie Passion of the Christ, there were similar nose cry in the press. However in due course of time, it subsided down as Hollywood has better news like Britney becomes pregnant, get ready in about 2 weeks the same news would take over Mel DUI drive. This one and half “aNa” news was discussed to full extent on TV, Radio and other popular media outlets, popular Blogs and less popular Blog [Yes, Mine].

Example of manipulating news, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1838782.cmsSo what did you feel, is this about the popular cricketer?

While browsing through Times of India , I saw this news, “Cher's charity clear out”, yes some of her old body parts that she replaced over the years are on sale now, like “Build the Bear” , you can build you own Cher.


Finally, Team India on the final day of pre tour camp, went through military training in Parachute Regimental Centre. Chappell says it was fun filled training, we need to ask Viru and I hope the training camp slowed down his growing circumference. It seems Players underwent a lot of activities, not only aimed at improving their physical strength, but also concentration. Kind of a joke, were they playing international cricket without physical strength and concentration till date? What ever, the way Sri Lankans are playing today, I don’t mind to send a real army regiment to defend. Dravid and the coach have lot of stakes in this series; it is not enough if Dravid scores runs, as a captain he has to win games & series. One good thing for him is Master blaster Sachin is back in the team, another experience shoulder, or to put it crudely, - the blame is easily transferable.

8/1/06

Another can of worms:

"It took me about a year to convince them that running between the wickets and fielding were quite important in one-dayers

He reveals that he didn't have a contract for nearly half his tenure but was well supported by the management in BCCI. "I actually didn't have a contract for about 40% of the time but it didn't really matter because they were honourable people. I got paid every three months"

"My peeve with the selection process is that I have never liked the system


John Wright, the former NZ batsmen and the former Indian cricket team coach has spoken loud vis his new book "Indian summers", he talks about various issues in the dressing room, select procees etc. Various media reports quotes that he talks about Dravid’s unceremonious declaration. It seems Sachin was unhappy about this in the dressing room, Why Sachin? Yes! If a captain declares when you are a scoring shot away from a land mark, any batsmen would get upset. In a professional career this happens, and the land mark might be very important. In my opinion, Dravid should not have declared regardless be it Sachin or anyone. Anyways it is a dead issue now and there is no point in digging further, Dravid and Sachin have done a lot for betterment of Indian Cricket, we can throw this issue in the attic and keep moving.

Wright in this book says, Gavasker was appointed as batting coach without his consent – dude, you could have questioned J. Mohini [Dalmiya] then and there! , Why did you maintain silence? you could have spoken earlier to press or if the contract did not allow you to do so – Dude, just quit the job that you don’t like. You were swimming in the pool with others and having been kicked out please do not complain that the pool stinks. Why Wright ignored these incidents when he was in service? Reason - he was being paid a large sum, no idiot will want to give up a high paying job.

As far as Wright’s book goes, it is “Freedom of speech”– this is perfectly ok, I am just wondering will John “Mr. Right” have the same level of guts to write similar things if he had been New Zealand’s national coach. Can he write about his tenure as captain for New Zealand and the issues in the dressing room etc? I am sure no team is immune to “pavilion passions” or “Selectors Stink” Every team has their own pile of dressing room crap. Be it India or Australia or the TNCA’s 5th Division team - Mambalam mosquitoes.

Some media reports say that this book has helped Indian cricket. Duh! - Entire country already knows about our unbelievable selection process and its related filth. This book would be just another collection of such craps. More over, when a non Indian writes about India, - 6 out 10 foreign writers do not hesitate to add their myopic views on India. I remember a person asked me in Minneapolis if I ride an elephant to work in India. The global media at times vents out biased views on India. Mr. Dobbs of the CNN, time and time used to complain about India. His complain was that India was not buying enough American goods to offset trade deficit. He squarely blamed India for improper balance of trade, but a week ago Washington post reported – “US exports to India has nearly doubled in past 4 years”. I demand an apology from him for such accusations.

John Wright book is another such accusation or Pandora’ s Box, or an New York street hotdog – Every Indian knows that Indian cricket management is “disorganized” in such fantastic manner - no one has clue about its composition or its functions. Like after “Dalmiya’s Deals and cases”, he manages to retain his portfolio for CAB.

As far as John Wright book is concerned , it would serve as a good gossip column for Sanjay [asa]Manju & co during tea time in the forthcoming Sri Lanka series., the fact is that politics surrounding Indian cricket is a stinking pot, anything that comes out of it is definitely going to stink, our wise men – aka the selectors are born with clips in their nose, they will not mind to swim regardless, like if Wright is invited to swim again, I am sure he will dive just in closing his nose and his book deal.

World cup is round the corner and I feel team India should focus on their game rather than these nitpicks.