...no...dont make me...

...choose...I can't ...I suck at it...arrrgghhh!!!

I'm faced with two different scenarios ....in both though...i need to choose one thing over the other...

The old pros versus cons game doesnt work really well here...so it's driving me mad...I think i'm gonna toss a coin instead.... :S What is the probability that I'll get 3 heads if I flip an unbiased coin 8 times? hmm?

Song of the day: 'Fade' by A Sheep At The Wheel

Thought for the day: 18 days to go for Freakshow....and also...should I go for the Halloween Parade in the Village...or study?

Update: -
Scenario 1: choice has been made.
Scenario 2: choice was made yesterday but has led to nasty repurcussions...will reconsider.

Gulab Jamuns aur Patakhe

I'm determined not to let the spirit of Diwali die despite the grave events of this morning...

Diwali is almost here....the best time to be in India in my opinion. Lights, food and festivities everywhere....people visiting each other and exchanging gifts and sweets...its awesome! And not to forget the gazillions of fireworks....Used to enjoy that a LOT as kids. The sheer delight when an "Anaar" came to life....fountain of sparks...beautiful :D

Gulab jamuns are my mom's favorite sweet I think...lol. They're delciious when served hot...and my dad likes to eat them with icecream...yeah...weird!! hehehe.

I can make them really well too....(read: GITS...lol)

So this Diwali I think I'm going to make gulab jamuns. Though I still need to go and buy the mix to make them. To do for tomorrow.

Review from last night's concert is still in the cards....to follow soon.



Happy Diwali! :)

Am I standing still?

FRIDAY!!! This week's been eventful...culminating in some well-deserved (in my honest opinion) and long awaited news...

I had myself a small celebration last night and there was tequila involved!!! Went to a Halloween Party (without a costume!! :( ) Had copious (not thaaaat copious) amounts of alcohol and was scared that I wont wake up in time for a 9 am meeting. But I did make it...and how! :) No hangover yet....but very sleeepy.

Exciting stuff tonight...Zakhir Hussain in concert!!!! :-) It'll be great to see him perform again...Saw him perform with Shakti and Tabla Beat Science. TBS just blew my mind....I was only wishing that Talvin Singh had performed as well that night. THAT would have made my night...BIG admirer of Talvin me.

Continuing with my fascination of Franz Ferdinand...saw their music videos and I LOVE the feel of all of them...also heard a single from the new album.."Do You Want to"...it was great! I really liked the video for "Take Me Out"..heh!

But the album on repeat mode is "Blend" by ASATW. So....

Song of the day winner is: "Another Game" by A Sheep at The Wheel.

~Ammu :)

40 feet

...my fav Franz Ferdinand song...Love the line: "40 feet remain"

in a daze now...lot's of stuff going on...some good...some bad...

Was looking at pics from last year...what a difference!!

Random ramblings at 3:30 in the morning...not much coherence right now...

Later,
~Amrita

Decisions, decisions...vacations! :)

So I've decided not to go to India this December. The whole point was to get my visa renewed and get my wisdom teeth extracted...(yuck!). But the whole visa renewal thing is too risky. So instead, I get to take a 3 week break which I'm sooooo looking forward to. Definitely going to visit, Maddy in Chi-town, Ash and Shwe in LA and maybe also Nandini in Austin. I would really like to make a trip up the Pacific Coastal Highway...up to SFO. I havent been there in a really long time. We'll see :)

For now, I cant wait for the next 2 months to go by....Happiness! :D

~Amrita

REsurrection

Thanks to some Zoo friends...i've been reminded of my vintage rock collection (apart frm Led Zep that is). So I've been listening to Queen, Extreme, Creedence Clearwater Revival, ACDC etc. Good stuff...esp the Queen live at wimbley collection. Amazing voice Freddie Mercury had!! Extreme's "More than words" is one of the most moving ballads I've ever heard...Sang it many times with friends accompanying on the acoustic guitar. The best part of the whole thing...was this beat ...."knocking on the guitar"...which this friend of mine Basty used to do...it hit home. CK sang it a few nights ago...and that was beautiful as well...it was great to resurrect the song after soooo long. Oh and i finally mustered the courage to sing a small Norah Jones song in front of an audience...hehe. "Lonestar".....soon the old Ammu will be back in full force...

Hmm, in other news...The Freakshow is certified to descend on 18-19th Nov 2005. Hotel bookings done! :D

Still praying for people in Mexico...and now Florida...

Lots of Happy Monday wishes,
~Chinks

A Zoo November!!

So about a month left till the party of all parties descends on NYC. Alicia is visiting!!!!!, Nivi is coming back for a week (yay), Lois, XK, His Flyness will be here as well....not to mention Noreen, Fran, Steph who'll be around...

Hotel booking is in progress....and so are other plans....

So, these are the things that I hope Alicia will enjoy when she visits: - (most of my favorite nyc things ....i'm sure there'll be more added here....)
1. UF2 - 18th - saloon, NYC
2. UF2 - 19th - mulcahy's, LI-NY
3. Cafe Wha? / CB GB's
4. Broadway play
5. Central Park (lennon memorial)
6. Statue of Liberty
7. Times Square
8. Kati Rolls...yummm!!!
9. Nutella Crepes at Central Park
10. The Met
11. Dosas at Curry Hill
12. Lots of cheap pizza..lol!

Die Wilma, Die!!

It sucks!! It's a cruel joke on the people of the Gulf...

I hope the weatherman is wrong and the storm doesn't do much damage...prayers go out to everyone there...

~Amrita

...

Coffee and lots of Led Zeppelin....loooong night ahead...:-)

What's goin on...

Exhausted today...Passed out for 4 hours in the evening and now i'm wide awake and trying to figure which other thing to do from my long list of to do...

Finally watched the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame and saw U2 being inducted...oh my!! Great tribute speech by Bruuuuuuuce. :-) See, i'm obviously not the only one who thinkgs U2 rocks!! :-P

Few events in Nov that i'm looking forward to:
1) U2 live DVD
2) Harry Potter GOF movie
3) Alicia's visit!!! (and i'll get to meet Niv again..)

Back to work...I might sleep for another couple of horus and start off on my Thursday!

Slainte..

Lost...

I'm trying to hold on to something...anything...I guess I'm looking for security...something or someone that will tell me that "every little thing will be allright". But a part of me also wants to keep changing, keep looking ahead....and moving on....(Is it just me..?)

So in this apparently eternal struggle....the real quest should be create happiness along the way. Right? That's what I try to remember...especially right now when there are not enough hours in the day to complete the work that I want to do...or need to do.

*sigh* Moving on....i've a fuckload of stuff to do today...especially as I passed out for 8 hours last night even though I was supposed to stay all night...shite!

In other news.....Franz Ferdinand is still rocking my world...and i feel bad that I couldn't see their show last night.

I've been Zoo free for about 32 hours now...Wont log in till tonight 11 pm according to self-imposed curfew. That place sucks you in..heh!

Adios...have a nice day me...and you.
-Ammu

Franz rocks!

I've really started to dig Franz Ferdinand. Their album is superb. Also today's favorite music is spanish guitar by Al Di Meola, John McLaughlin & Paco De Lucia.

Still reeling from my 2nd U2 week of the year. Windy and cold day in NYC. Went out for a walk by The Hudson...it was beautiful. There was a huge cruise liner there which looked completely out of place though...:P hehe.

Learnt l33t and rot13...lol ....was fun!!!!

more later...tomorrow is monday...yuck!! :(

How Amri flew to the moon and back...

Dreams do come true, Prayers do get answered….or maybe it’s just that I was recently appointed Acting Director of all things Edgesteban for Mr.FlyNation…..but after 8 years of adoring U2 and praying for a chance to meet The Edge….it finally happened. Yes, I met Mr.The Edge yesterday in the pouring rain at MSG before the show. (14th Oct). And you’ll be proud to know that I behaved like a disgraceful jerk and I’m positive I made a blubbering fool out of myself. But the end result is that I now have my Mrs.TheEdge shirt signed by Mr.TheEdge himself!! This is how it all went down…..

A small group of us were waiting at the meet and greet area since 3 pm in the pouring rain and we were sure that the boys wouldn’t be stepping out to meet us. But we hoped that they might take pity on our sad states and spare a couple of minutes at least.

4:15 pm: Larry drove by and without sparing us a glance; he sent a Peace sign our way.
4:30 pm: A black limo pulls up with tinted windows but noone comes out from MSG to open the barricades and let the car in. The guy from the passenger seat comes out (Irish, with salty gray hair) and asks us to move aside. The car goes in but noone could figure out who was inside. I presumed it was Adam or Paul McGuiness. Then we notice the car stopped at the loading dock entrance and it slowly reverses back to where we were standing. By this time I’m totally excited because I think that we’re going to be meeting one of the boys and most probably Adam. Mr.SaltyGrayHair steps out and goes to the boot to take out a giant umbrella. At the same time someone jumps out of the back and with hands deep inside his jeans pockets, he gives us a big grin. IT’S THE EDGE!!! He looked straight at me and we stare at each other for a good 5 seconds. My brain went blank and hand-eye-limb-brain coordination went to the dogs. The Edge shrugged his shoulders probably thinking that “OK! This girl is weird!” He turned and went to meet the fans at the start of the line (I was in the middle).

Edge at start of line:

Something inside my brain clicked and I scrambled to take out my Mrs.TheEdge tshirt from my bag dropping my umbrella and 50 other things in the process. Next came a mad rush to find a sharpie. I had obviously not thought of what to say to The Edge cos I didn’t believe in a million years that I would actually get to meet him. He came up to me and I shook his hand and asked him if I could take a picture of him. He said: “Picture? Snap away!” I obviously didn’t make it clear that I wanted a pic of me with him. *slaps forehead* He started signing autographs next to me. Then I remembered that I needed an autograph too so I hung my tshirt on the barricade and requested him to sign it. He looked at it and signed it nice and big with a red sharpie. I don’t know what he though of the image….he didn’t show any reaction. I hope he read it.

Edge after he signed my shirt:

Edge going down the line: Before Edge left to get into his car, I yelled out “Edge you’re the best!!” He waved back at us and got in and left.

Edge leaving (bye!!): Giddiness set in. I could NOT believe that I’d finally met The Edge….I’m never washing my hand again (lol) and The Tshirt is going to be framed! I called a bunch of people to share the news. Sharon, Noreen, Irene and Erika got fierce hugs from me….I was dancing and jumping with joy right there in the middle of 33rd street. Then we were off to Charley O’s to get in from the rain, celebrate and meet other zootops. Margaritas followed and I was very drunk and high on love and life in general.

THE TSHIRT!!: COBL: The show was great. Bono called us New Yorkers “Noisy Fuckers” lol. The Edge rocked Electric Co as always…that’s really his song. We got GLORIA!!! That’s one song which drives me over the edge whenever I hear it live. We also got Party Girl in the last encore in place of Walk On. YAY!!! :D :D Kept thinking of my fellow Party Girl fans…Nivi and Jeff!! Unfortunately no Boom Chas last night either :( Zootopians I met: PD, Servo, 2blue, Mr.Fly, Zoobdube, Fragrant, Lovey, JackieD, LoveandPete, CynthiaColleti, Kite, HuggoMartini, U2 babydoll

I still can’t believe I met Mr.TheEdge though the t-shirt is hanging right in front of my eyes. Next goal: to get a picture with him…and maybe a hug. Hopefully next time I won’t be a blubbering idiot and actually say something intelligible.

More pictures from yesterday: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11777907@N00/sets/1145247/

Love,
~Amri ta

Amri's journey through GA!! (VERTIGO 2005)

Videos (I highly recommend Electric Co, First time, Fast Cars, LPOE): http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~ar2358/oct7vids.html

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11777907@N00/sets/1102856/

How do you put words to a feeling without killing it? I don’t know….but I want to share it with you…so I’m going to try to keep the feeling alive…

October 7th will go down in my history as one of those days that I hated being captured in my body. I wanted to soar the skies, I wanted to dance with Bono, I wanted to hug the Edge, I wanted to give Adam & Larry a kiss for being so adorable. Let me start by explaining the events of that day…my very first GA experience ever.

Oct 2nd morning: Brainwave occurred while thinking about The Edge. “I should wear a Mrs.The Edge tshirt” The idea was exciting…so I asked my Knight in Shining Armor a.k.a Maximus to create the graphic for me.

Oct 6th 11:30 am: Begged Kinko’s to create a tshirt for me with my “Mrs. The Edge” print. They had all these rules about 24 hrs…so I was wary…cos we had to be in GA line early in the morning (GA tickets yay!!).
Oct 6th, 9:30 pm: Picked up Noreen at Penn Station. No signs anywhere of a U2 show the next day…no fans…no scalpers…no neon lights! We hailed a cab and headed homewards when enroute we saw a Vertigo truck! We went NUTS screaming and high-fiving…:P lol
Oct 6th 11:00 pm: Kinko’s guy calls me saying my tshirt’s ready! Holy Crap!! Noreen and I head out to grab a bite at “Tom’s restaurant” (The Sienfeld restaurant) and Starbucks. Then came a midnight rush to Kinko’s to pick up my tshirt…it looked fabulous and I was giddy at the thought of Edge seeing it! Heh! J

Oct 7th 1 am: Dying of exhaustion due to a severe shortage of sleep. But wanted to share my tshirt story with everyone…especially Max. So took a picture and shared it with some zootops. Together, we decided that I would definitely get pulled up on stage because of it….more giddiness!! :D
Oct 7th 5 am: Needed to finish some work…so got up early. Noreen hardly slept because of excitement. J
Oct 7th 7:15 am: On our way to VERTIGO!!! We could hardly contain or excitement. MSG rules said no GA line before 8 am, so we decided to reach the venue 7:30-ish. We reached at 7:45 and found out to our dismay that there was already a line and people were being numbered. We made a beeline for where the line started (8 Penn Plaza, 33rd st) and were numbers 44 and 45. Gee whiz!! We were really scared for a second …The Line was organized by a guy called Jim and he took real good care of the whole thing.

So we got ready to wait about 10 hours outside and were hoping it wouldn’t rain too much though the clouds were arriving. Met Alexa (I AM WHAT I AM) and her mom. Then met Steph (EdgeFan4Ever), her mom, Erika. As the day went on, we met a gazillion more people including the hilarious North Bowman from Hamburg, Germany. Had a blast throughout the day, made my “BOOM CHA” banner cos that is the one song that I want to hear them play…I LOVE POP! Around the meet and greet time, met some other fabulous zootops as well…Kite, HuggoMartini, Bob L, Vikki, Clare, Odie, James, Steph (Lostinwoods), Sharon (servo), Fran (franna1). The London people were giddy with excitement and so were we…there was much screaming…lol. Also met some non-U2.com people…Erin…funny guy (best friend!), Ben, McPhisto girl, Lindsey, Jen, Jen. So you get the picture…a whole lot of people!

Now comes one of the day’s highlights…meet n greet time. Cars driving by but noone stops. Then suddenly Bono’s SUV drives in and he jumps out. For what lasted about 45 seconds, he went down the line shaking hands and a lucky few got an autograph from him. I was at the other end of the line, so I waited with baited breath not ready to believe that I was going to meet Bono. By the time he reached my side, he was in a hurry to leave but he looked me straight in the eye and shook my hand and ran back to the SUV!! :D :D :D Oh God!! I couldn’t believe my luck…I was brain dead for a few seconds after that. His hands are really soft in case anyone was wondering…lol! Now if only the Edge had stepped out…I would have died right there.

Close to show time, it starts raining and we were told that we’d be let in early. 6 pm, I’m going crazy with excitement, everyone runs back to their spots in line. We’re let in and Noreen and I are praying for the bomb shelter…but no luck. Our entire gang of about 15 people ends up without the “Vertigo Vertigo Vertigo” signs. We resolve ourselves to hitting the rail on the Edge side to make up. So when the time came, we made a beeline….up 2 escalators, down a few pathways, and onto the floor. We made it to the tip on Edge’s side. Me and Erika were on the rail bit containing the small platform so now we’re even more excited. When the dust settles, I started looking around…reacquainting myself to the Vertigo stage, MSG etc. The view from down there is amazing…and very humbling.

Keane starts playing…they rocked!!! I enjoyed every song….sound check time. Rocco drops a few guitar picks but I couldn’t get my hands on one. I’d been holding out my Boom Cha banner throughout of course. Then it begins…”Wake Up” by Arcade Fire starts playing and we all go maaaad!! :D :D :D

9:20 pm Edge steps out and starts strumming the opening rythms of COBL. We saw Bono reach the stairs and climb up…and that’s it…VERTIGO WAS UPON US!!! Among the screaming and singing, I noticed Adam and Larry step out as well and we were well into COBL. Awesome performance as always, it’s a good show opener in my opinion. We swiftly moved into Vertigo before which Bono says “New York City, Friday night, Home sweet Home”…and the crowd went nuts!! The beginning of Vertigo was a lil rocky…but the crowd took over and made it perfect! :P No offense to the boys.

Guess what? I think U2 found their fifth band member. The audience!! :-) Bono got what he wanted everytime he looked at us….and the wooo-hoooos of Elevation rang out loud in MSG. You should have seen The Edge gyrate and play that guitar…oh my!!! *fans herself* Power packed performance.

There were 6 songs on the set which blew me away and Electric Co was the best of all of them. The Edge finally stepped on to the ramp…and he danced, stomped, gyrated his way across with killer riffs….my heart stood still and I’d died and gone to heaven. Seeing him do that on a guitar 2 feet away from me was mind-numbingly brilliant. Him and Bono dancing…pure drama…but perfect! Then we had ISHFWIALF, Beautiful Day, Miracle Drug, SYCMIOYO…all awesome and much much better from the floor.

Now come Love and Peace…my absolute favorite Vertigo show song. Seeing it frm the front was extraordinary. Bono even came and stood on the little platform an inch away from me….oh my God!! I touched his leg….OOOOHHH!! :D ;) I can hear thuds now…haha. Sunday Bloody Sunday was as powerpacked as usual…so was Bullet The Blue Sky. It was nice to see the COEXIST headband up close.

At some point of time Bono did his speech about the Edge belonging to the future…that was really really cool. I dug it. “Bonorotti” was born as Bono sang Miss Sarajevo. I had to keep reminding myself that the band had members besides the Edge cos I would keep gazing at him. Hehe. PITNOL, Streets and One…the power triplet…perfect perfect perfect! The audience sang along…and Adam walked out and let some people touch his guitar!!! Wow.

Encore 1. The First Time is a beautiful live song. And it’s even prettier when you have the Edge slow walking down the ramp 2 feet away. *drooool* Stuck in a moment followed with Edge singing along. Then Bono says “Now we’re gonna play a song which most of your haven’t heard of”. Opening drums for “Fast Cars” and I lost it ….jumping up and down….started recording it. It was amazing…even more so cos of E(dge)steban (borrowed frm Mr.Fly). He danced on that Spanish guitar of his. If I loved him before…I don’t know what I was feeling now.

The show ended with ABOY, Crumbs, Yahweh, WOWY…very very nice! Edge’s guitar string broke during Yahweh….which was very funny. The Edge walked back and shook hands with Erika right next to me and someone behind me….but not mine. I was heartbroken and started crying when the show ended. Not just cos of The Edge…I guess the whole emotion of being so close to the band…came out. It was a perfect and awesome day. I left MSG feeling numb and reeling from the riffs.
I’m happy I met so many Zootops and made new friends. All thanks to one of my oldest friends from the Zoo…Noreen!! ((hugs)) Gracias! And thanks to Max for the tshirt graphic….and BOOOOM CHA!!!