My blogging experience with Blogger has been quite good. But so far from the looks of it, Wordpress seems to be a better software. So I just got myself a new domain name and installed wordpress. From today onwards, I will be posting at the new location of Just Jo, http://www.jocalling.com. So please get your blogrolls, RSS feeds updated with the new information. Here is the new RSS Feed.
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Sanjay Leela Bhansali has given us so many musical gems through his movies. From Khamoshi to Devdas to Saawariya - it was a beautiful musical journey. He introduced another talented music director, Monty Sharma, through Saawariya and the music album has so many melodious songs (my most favorite song from the album is Thode Badmaash by Shreya Ghoshal). Here is my try at Jab Se Tere Naina, originally sung by Shaan.
Song: Jab Se Tere Naina
Movie: Saawariya
Music: Monty Sharma
Originally sung by: Shaan
Cover version by: Jo
Download the MP3 of this song here (4.41 MB)
Jabse Tere Naina (cover) at Muziboo.com
See how Karan Thappar is ripping off the musical copycats from the Hindi music industry - Anu Malik and Pritam Chakraborthy and how desperately they are trying to defend themselves, Anu Malik even says "we are not the only ones" (so he shall not be blamed?).
Stealing images from Flickr and using it without the photographer's permission are happening more often. I have been a victim to this practice when M A Shanavas stole my picture to use it for a book cover design by him. Then Hindustan Times published a stolen image from the popular blogger Nita. The latest victim is blogger Twilight Fairy and her Flickr image has been flicked by none other than Times of India!
I wrote about 3 mails in all, asking for (a very meagre) compensation for the damages done as well as credit. For one, I never got a response in written - but of course that would mean acknowledging the theft. When I called up, I was told that it is common practice to “use” free images from the net! Flabbergasted at the audacity of this all, I clearly asked whether TOI staff was blind or illiterate to not be able to make out the clearly written statement on my flickr stream and my copyright license, both of which stated that my images can NOT be used without my explicit permission - ALL rights reserved. This is plagiarism in its full glory.
Sunil Koshy teams up with the Kannada music director Vijay Krishna for a Ganesh shloka. This short and sweet shloka will take you out of the world for a moment because of the excellent vocals of Koshy. Go and listen.
Google's much awaited web browser Google Chrome is out now. Go, download and experiment.
Features include: [Via]
- Tabbed browsing where each tab gets its own process, leading to faster and more stable browsing. If one tab crashes, the whole browser doesn’t go down with it
- A distinct user interface that places tabs on top of the browser window instead of right below the address bar
- An “incognito” mode that lets you browse the web in complete privacy because it doesn’t record any of your activity
- A new JavaScript engine built from the ground up for speed
- Malware and phishing lists that automatically update themselves and warn you of bad websites
- A default homepage that displays your most commonly used sites and other personalized information
Almost all of the people whom I met in the online and offline world started listening to English music by listening to a Michael Jackson song. The first English song that I can remember I heard in my early childhood was Beat It, the evergreen hit song from the album Thriller. It was played aloud in the record player of my neighbor. I did not know the lyrics, but I was stuck with the foot-thumping tune itself. And I sang along with my own lyrics, in a language which is yet to be identified. :-)
Michael Jackson was a household name and I don't know how it happened to be so. Even in a family like mine where there was no newspaper, television, radio or even electricity, we knew that Michael Jackson was a famous musician. And for us, he was the only "English" singer.
As I grew up and was in the 10th standard, I listened to Dangerous, another album by Michael Jackson. The friend who introduced that song to me was also my neighbor and I used to watch cable TV in his house. I saw many music videos among which I found MJ's videos so creative, almost movie like, and his moves were stunning. I became a huge fan and started following his music religiously. I bought one and all of his albums. I started collecting the lyrics of his songs and sang along. I even collected some of his old works with Jackson 5 and a duet collection with Diana Ross. When History was released, I was among the first few in my town to get it from the music stores.
Even though I moved on from MJ to other artistes, MJ's music was so influential. His lyrics were so intense, be it about love, romance, children, world peace or environment. His voice and music reflected the passion that he had for the themes he chosen for his songs. He was a complete entertainer. His music videos are unmatchable in the industry.
Despite of all this, Michael Jackson filled the news column for all the bad reasons. It seemed like the scandals one after another took his artistic creativity away. The last album from MJ, Invincible, was a total disappointment. The songs and arrangement was not anywhere close to the usual MJ standards. Then came the news of MJ's financial liabilities, his health issues, selling off Neverland ranch - there you see a legend falling down.
But even at this stage, Michael Jackson stands tall. In the history of music, he will stand next to Elvis Presley. I think even Presely don't deserve the first place because he has not experimented with music like MJ did. MJ brought out various musical forms and collaborated with musicians of many genres and most of them became popular hit songs. Amidst of all the personal problems that he goes through, his fans hope that he would return. And he gave them that hope on his 50th birthday, promising an upcoming album and world tours in the near future.
Michael Jackson, at 50, is still dear to his fans and music lovers around the world. Is it time for him to retire or would he make a worthy come back any soon? That is what his fans are waiting to see.
If this is how China winning the Olympic gold medals, India is better off it. Agreed that out country doesn't provide enough even for those who love sports, but look at these pictures. It is not just the sport authorities, but the parents of these kids are also to be blamed for giving consent to torture their kids in the name of sports, just for them to have a better living (a colleague recently argued that what parents do for their children is not just purely out of love, but as an investment. How true!)
(Pictures via email)
The songs re-produced (cover versions) as well as original compositions or songs in this blog are not for commercial use, but for personal listening pleasure only.
