Winner at a Loosing Game

What crazy things would you do, when you are in love?

Come again?

This weekend, while syncing my iPod with my older music database – Rascal Flatts got in to my head. I tried hard deleting this album from my old playlist; “take me there” won’t get deleted. And, it’s not for the first time, it happened even couple of time last to last month. Writing on this just seems like an exercise in futility. Everybody loves this single, and it spans love in every details, in a deeper way.

If you are deeply in love, you would want to go back to those days where (s)he had his/her childhood, hometown, parents, friends and every imaginable things you care for. I don’t know what will happen to you, but I would want to go to!

Tell me ’bout your mama, your daddy,
Your hometown, show me around
I wanna see it all, don’t leave anything out …

You would even want to know every street (s)he visited, every places (s)he had been … just to know her better and that’s how you can get r-e-a-l-l-y close to her/him.

Actually, this song was originally co-written by another favourite country star Kenny Chesney, but when he decided not to record the song for his album, he gave it to Rascal Flatts.

Sweet! I hear you saying that.

I wanna know everything about you then
And I wanna go down every road you’ve been
Where your hopes and dreams and wishes live
Where you keep the rest of your life hid
I wanna know the girl behind that pretty stare
Take me there …

And, somewhere it depicted once again …

I wanna roll down Main Street, the back roads
Like you did when you were a kid
What made you who you are
Tell me what your story is …

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The Lack of Hope or Faith …

I had been a great fan of Vikram Seth. Okay, do you really remember his prose fiction “Suitable boy”? It sold over one million copies worldwide and the fact is, it is 1,349 pages long …. I took a week time to grasp it! His poems makes me healed sometime.

The Humble Administrator’s Garden was my first encounter with Seth includes Mappings (1980), The Humble Administrator’s Garden (1985), the best piece, I believe. It was a winner of the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Asia). I really love few poetries from “The Humble Administrator’s Garden”. Here is an excerpt from “From California”.

The lack of hope or faith:
Neither is justified.
I have closed out the night.
The random rain outside …

or … this is what he talked about in another peom “Homeless” ..

When night comes, to lie down in peace;
To know that I may die as I have slept;

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Everyday … Hope That Never Ends

01:45 AM
23 July 2003
Bunia, D. R. Congo

The local FM station carries mostly RFI (Radio France International), all day long here in Congo, except sometime they tend to reach-out with Swahili too. I find Swahili has got similar phrases from Arabic and sometimes Bengali too (sigh). Ahh, you don’t believe that?

Okay, back to my point, yesterday, they aired “Everyday” from Phil Collins. It was so soothing that I got stucked up for 5 minutes or so. Yes, it turned back the clock. I was in Jessore, then. Installed the new Sat reciever, been watching the MTV all day long. I used to wait for Asian top 20 hits …. where Phil with “everyday” was topping the chart for 5 consecutive weeks. Do you remember Nonie, (hope, I spelt it right) the DJ host of MTV, Asia? She was down to earth MTV host at that time.

But everyday I say I’ll try to make my heart be still
’til then every way there is to cry, ourselves to sleep we will …

I guess, Nonie was my second crash. Why wouldn’t she?

It was all about using words.

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Clinging on to Serena’s Side …

Back in my pre-twenty days; I was kind of pretty much into Archie’s. Who wouldn’t choose Betty over Veronica, whose wealthy flashy lifestyle was distinctively different than Betty’s middle class upbringing? Archie, Veronica and Betty’s love triangle was kind of similar footing what I’m watching these days.

Yes, I was talking about the TV series Gossip Girl. Part of it is because it is very well written; especially it feels really good when the actor(s) talk smart. To my understanding, the “Dare Devil” episode; (5th of the season 1) is one of the best episode from Season 1. It has great soundtracks like those are in “One Tree Hill”. After Serena and Dan (often named by GG blogger as lonely boy) dated for the first time; we all were kind of nervous too. What if, Dan’s former flame Vanessa intrudes here and makes things more complicated …. As Dan and Serena walk back downtown, the best lines from Serena starts like this “and if you made half the effort she (Jenny) did, maybe we would’ve met a long time ago.” Then – this soothing thing started:

It was when the sun just set
Evening breeze across our face
In September,
The end of summers in the air
I remember the first time that we met …
Nothing else mattered?

The song starts right from this scene!

As the song was on; Rufus was listening to that old Lincoln Hawk’s vinyl after they (Lily and Rufus) had a great old timer chat. Here, the sound engineer did a subtle switching getting the music from background and forth. The best part was that when Jenny came back to get Blair to have her keys back. The words between Jenny and Blair were stunning from … that ……. “Catch!” to “Done and done”!

Script writers did a splendid job; not to mention about those guys who chose the right soundtrack for that moment!

“Gossip Girl” who writes the blog here, added the following in a very romantic way: “If Blair’s got to watch her back, Serena needs to keep an eye on her heart. We hear it may have been stolen by Lonely boy”.

Dan is our everyday boy who has troubles like we all have.

The background music was like it was so done for this episode. I had troubles getting to know who sang it. After skyping with lots of my friends; I figured out it was Something Like That but not from Tim Mcgraw but Tim (The Band) from LA. A new band, as usual!

The character’s prevalence in the book series, Gossip Girl is not exactly what we get out of these television episodes. I’ll cover that later.

Portraying a character like Dan takes long time. He has a kind of offbeat personality, and I feel insecure about Serena. After reading the book series, I see the break-up is inevitable. I don’t want to see them breaking up, but what can you about it? And, that’s how our real life is also based on. The great challenge, moving on.

I’m kind of clinging on to Serena’s side; getting hurt is kind of everyday affair to her – being such a good girl right at this moment.

Life is unfair, I hear you saying that.

True, it is! But not as we know it.

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New Days and far flung Memories!

Here comes the sun it’s for everyone
I wish the sky was all mine
Because we came from the ocean life
We swim like dolphins in time …

Nivea was a kind of a home brand in Bangladesh. I used to see my mom using that famous Nivea cream from my childhood. I never cared about applying creams all over my face but my mother won’t let me to go to that much anticipated afternoon play without it! Sometimes she used to get hold on me and then apply that cream all over my face forcefully – before I was to set out for afternoon play. Because, I didn’t want to. Old habits die hard – I’m still not into any cream at all!

And, when I went to Germany for the first time; I asked my mom that what should I bring for her. Yes, you’ve guessed it right! She merely asked for couple of big Nevia cream packages! I used to see the magical things with this little blue pot. The unique and distinctive Nivea smell – which is one that can take me back to my childhood years – is not quite so obvious now so I think they must have altered the ingredients somewhat over the years.

Do you remember that Nivea TV commercial where people were shown from all round the world? It has scenes from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Dallas, Texas to New Delhi, India. Most intriguing part was that the whole commercial is pretty shiny with a soothing tune. Though, it has several localized version targeted for different regions but all starts with motorbiker’s shaving scene from Victoria, Australia.

I would rather love the part of a mother who was with her two sons in a hokey game in Hamburg, Germany. Also, the tune gets to it’s higher scale from this part. You might ask the same from the scene from Galway, Ireland but that’s not shown in Asian version. This resembles my golden childhood days. A large part of this effect is perhaps from the accompanying song by Asher Lane – New Days.

First time when I saw this commercial; I was in Europe – couple of years back – and now a days I mostly see this commercial in Star World, ESPN and other Asian TV networks. At first, I thought it was Robbie Williams, cause it was so much sounded like him and then this German band popped in! It is a great song, it is!

Do you have the song? And, if you s-t-i-l-l could not figure out what the commercial was, here it is! You might need a quicktime plug-in for that.

Wish I could turn back the clock.

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Lost In A Moment

She has sweet and s-u-l-t-r-y voice, and who wouldn’t agree to that? Call me insane but Lene Marlin is not just a bubble gum pop – she has depth. With her stunning vocal work she can be anywhere like Dido. I’m also into Dido – she has a great voice but the fact is we are of same age :) Well why would you care?

Lene did all the work for producing this album and here record company did not have anything to add but to send it to media recording directly. I can tell you one thing that Marlin has been incredibly successful not only in her native Norway and most of the part of the Europe – let alone Asia. The best part, I like the way she pronounce everything — listen to “How Would It Be” you would understand.

Eventually, the song titles and lyrics brings out that she has suffered a recently broken heart. So, why do people breakup? Big question! As I remember reading somewhere that — Broken hearts and thwarted dreams are real ambrosia for song writers. It is the fuel that fires the creative process.

That proves when she sings in “I can show you all my scars, you know, the ones I keep inside of me” on I Hope Your Happy, her vocals suppress all kind of emotion. The sound and delivery are as polite and sincere to the greatest extent.

I have some of her music videos from this recent album, it’s like she is back on track. You will love it! Sadly MTV India is more busy with commercial Hindi songs.

As Tony Heywood says in his review that it is much like the endless remakes of Pride and Prejudice where all that changes is the cast, and I understood what he meant.

Some says that she is not beautiful as she appears – but it’s all about inside what it matters.

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Reading Someone Else’s Thought?

Being a two timer [two timing! … what else to use here?] New Yorker, for couple of months — I fell in love with New York’s life style. Many of the city’s neighborhoods and landmarks are shown in those romance movies I usually watch. After attending two of the concerts in Madison Square Garden, you know, what it felt — truly different. And … New York’s restaurants? Top of the world!

Movies starting from An Affair to Remember (1957) to How to Loose a Guy in Ten Days (2006) had settings in NYC. Even last night, when I was watching No Reservation by Catherine Zeta-Jones – it was kinda like NYC is everywhere. There is no denying fact that I don’t dig her movies and .. she does have a personality.

Back to business … after watching Felicity (1998) episodes in WB channel in those way back days in Georgia; I haven’t thought of NYC pretty much until I started watching Gossip Girl; a TV show which talks about sophisticated lifestyles of some teenage boys ‘n girls residing in Upper East Side of New York City. The best part – first episode was made available as a free download on iTunes.

Just saw the first episode — Pilot. It was very intriguing, I believe. And .. few minutes before the end credit – I like the way Dan looked towards Serena in the cab on their way back home — it was kinda touchy. Sometimes you can even talk millions without saying a word. I really wanted to see — what was going inside Serena’s head?

Just a wild thought, when can we start reading someone else’s … thought?

 

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Sleep: Does it Matter?

I have insomnia not because I have trouble with my life but I want to see more and more, where do I get time to sleep, you tell me?

Once a blogger Nithya Krishnakumar wrote:
[She has a different agenda than mine – for not sleeping]

If you could peer far enough into the night sky, you’d see a star in any direction you looked. When would you sleep?

And somewhere she wrote a little more:

Adrift in the vast dark expanse of the night sky, alone with the stars, numerous and far from reach as are the desires of my heart. Blissful cool breeze caresses my face as I shut my eyes, lost. A distant owl hoots, its time has come. Does sleep matter?

Hmm. I see you crawling to get between the sheets.

Well, but I’d recommend a good night sleep .. It is godsend, it is!
And then, something crossed my mind … do you remember this one?

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I —

If you haven’t figured that line out – yet; it continues …

I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference.

What did I choose when it comes to sleeping?

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Boys, Summer and 69

A little voice Inside my head said, ‘Don’t look back.
You can never look back.’

I thought I knew what love was what did I know?
Those days are gone forever I should just let them go but …
You told me it would last forever
Oh the way you held my hand
I knew that it was now or never
Those were the best days of my life …

Last time as I was back home, sweet home, I was rearranging all my childhood hidden treasure (??) from my old trunk, surprisingly found few VHS tapes … Good old days, guys …. Do you remember those days renting music videos from “Video Connection” and “Film Fair” in Dhaka? Yes, those were the real spoilers. I used to own some of those nice songs on VHS … who would keep the rented videos for long and face fines from Video rental stores? I wouldn’t. I still cherish those videos from Boys of Summer and Summer of 69.

I once read somewhere that this title was taken from Roger Kahn’s baseball book “Boys Of Summer”. That book narrated about some baseball team, who broke the hearts of their die hard fans as they abandoned Brooklyn for Los Angeles. The making of video was so enticing, I still play that video over and over again. And well, for Summer of 69, it has got a huge flashback effect on my life … which turns back the clock to my school days with all my friends whom I couldn’t find even after all these years. Yes, that includes all my childhood crushes. You heard me right!

As you can see that it was included in the video Reckless, which includes six video clips of songs from the album. The same woman is featured in all the clips, sort of like a mini-movie over the six videos. Thanks to Songfacts.com.

Oh, right … what about that video Take on me? I hear you saying that. Hmm, do you remember the video with sensational animations combined with real footage? And the girl with that animation? Bunty Bailey, who had a relationship with Morten Harket, A-ha’s lead vocal. Why do people brake up? Tough question, but … my crush continues.

And … I feel like I am living out of suitcase, but hey, it’s time to move on.

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Big Girl don’t Cry

The path that I’m walking
I must go alone
I must take the baby steps ’til I’m full grown
Fairytales don’t always have a happy ending, do they
And I foresee the dark ahead if I stay

It’s true that I never liked Black Eyed Peas album, let alone all rappers and even I didn’t want to give a try with Fergie, aka Stacy Ferguson! But, then I was listening one of those hundred of FM stations in Kuala Lumpur and with little guiter work the song took it’s flight. I requested the driver to turn up the volume, what was I thinking?

Nice song, I even noded not knowing it was from that girl of Black Eyed Peas. Now, I know. Should it be hit? I asked myself. Then I saw that this song is now certified triple-platinum, selling more than six million copies and the currently third best-selling single of the year 2007, behind Rihanna’s Umbrella and Nelly Furtado’s Say It Right”.

The video is great too! Here Fergie pours out her heart, and decides to get over her ex-boyfriend. This is where Fergie’s voice really shows. If you can’t find the album it features with – it is “The Dutchess”. With this The Dutchess, Fergie relly shows that she has tremendous potential, beyond what she has shown when she is as a part of the Black Eyed Peas. Please go figure.

Who knew! Nearly forgotten, I had to buy the album for a song, and don’t care what all my friend says!

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