Too-much-Caffeine-itis

1 week of orientation at work, a million presentations, countless coffees and too many sodas. Leading to..."Too-much-caffeine-itis"!! ;-)

I had given up soda for about 2 years cos of 2 main reasons...first, I'd gotten tired of it as I'd been living on Pepsi throughout college...and secondly...it's really not good for health. I'd realized that besides the obvious sugar content problems...I would always feel weird sick and bloated after drinking a soda. So anyway, I hadnt had soda in a really long time. But that changed...and how?!

Throughout orientation, we'd get 15 min breaks now and then and all the analysts would make a beeline for the coffee machines and soda choices. So in a 12 hour period over 7 days, I would have had about 30 coffees (black) and 10 sodas.

Yup. Too much caffeine. Coffee is the good kind. But soda...nuh-uh! So this week, i'm gonna cut back on the soda and load up on coffee... ;-) heh. Good plan!

Random thoughts..
. Imagine a hybrid VW Beetle...it has it's AV cord plugged in and is cruising down the street. The image I get in my mind is that of a mouse scampering down the street....hilarious. Weird? I know!
.. To Aerosmith or Not To Aerosmith?
... Loving the new casa.
.... Hating the credit card bills owing to the buying of new furniture syndrome.

mmmmmmmmm cofffeeeeee. You can sleep when you're dead!! It's alllll good baby...
-Amrita

We didnt start the fire

If you're wondering where I've disappeared...I'm around. Just found some things to do with my free time....something called a job! heh! :P I've a zillion things to blog about...will get around it over the weekend I guess.

Meanwhile...take a look at this video depicting our current state of affairs based on Billy Joel's anthem. (btw...happy birthday Mick Jagger!)



-Amrita

So much mourning (contd)

Just when you think the world cant take anymore...

1. The insaneMumbai blasts. Mindless, pointless killings...
2. Hezbollah seizes Israel soldiers
3. Israel imposes Lebanon blockade
4. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promises "open war" against Israel after his offices in Beirut are bombed. Acts of war raise risk to region
5. Israel expands its strikes in Lebanon, attacking a large number of targets including, for the first time, the northern port city of Tripoli. Bustling Beirut becomes ghost town
6. Israeli air-raids intensify, Hezbollah rockets reach Haifa
7. Crisis continues in Darfur
8. Iraq holy city bombings kills 45.
9. And now this: Lashkar-e-Qakar warns of blasts in Delhi, Mumbai.
   

"Open war"?!!! How desperate are humans getting to attain their selfish ends to declare war in the 21st century? Do they not realize the repurcussions of it? Not to mention the countless lives being lost. I dont say this often.... but those responsible should FOAD!

And of course the biggest tragedy of all...Dubya...goes ahead and passes a very profound statement that the Hezbollah should "stop doing this shit". UGH! I'm not even gonna begin to remark on him...

What insanity would lead people to make a statement like this: "all the remaining 15 mujahideens are totally safe, and celebrating the success of this mission and also preparing for the next mission," said the email from Lashkar-e-Qahar taking responsibility for the July 11 attacks in Mumbai, in which apparently 1 militant was killed. Fucking retards!

We are imploding. Wake up, smell the blood...and stop shedding it!!

Even Mother Nature's giving us enough signs ... It's time to start behaving children.

UGH!
-Amrita

T-t-t-t-t-tttechnoo-o-o

There is some music playing
You cannot recognize it
There are no words
Yet sometimes there's a faint and eerie touch of humanity
Suddenly now there are beats attacking your brain
Your body is moving
Your mind is filled with incoherent images
Face it...you're lovin it...

..it's tttttttechnoooooo

Karsh-a-licious!

Thursday night. More than 3 years since Tabla Beat Science, it was a surreal experience to be watching Karsh Kale spinning music. He was great...spinning his trademark indian fusion-techno mix. Sans his charactestic (and a touch scary) goatee though. ;-) He was part of Kollektiv's launch party at Kush.

Under the pretext of watching Karsh, I got to hear 3 new DJs for the first time... V:Shal, DimmSummer and Zakhm. They were pretty good too. But of course my heart stopped when I heard the now familiar rythms of Karsh's music. Seeing him 3-4 feet away spinning some kick ass fusion was ... well....kick ass! :P And of course in characteristic Ammu style...I was bloody starstruck and didnt have the guts to go up and say hello. Jeeez!

Btw, I've said this before a dozen times in my blog... Karsh Kale's latest album "Broken English" is superb. I give it an A.

Pachaaa.... FINALLY!

Pacha is an Ibiza nightclub and is ridiculously popular throughout the globe. Well..they finally opened doors to NYC....a few months ago. I'd been planning to go there since Jan this year and despite all the free tickets they sent me...I cudnt make it. But this Friday...I broke the jinx and went to attend a friend's bday partee.

The music was delicious at the Techno floor. We had 2 different DJs. Dont know the first one's name.....but the second guy was James Zabeila (thanks K for the early morning research). He was amazing....and had quite a big fan following there. We couldn't stop dancing!! Gooood times :)

More techno-ish stuff to come...

Cheb I Sabbah and Talvin Singh (another one for whom I will be utterly starstruck...my first fusion love) at Central Park Summerstage.

C-c-c-c-ciao!
-Amritalicious

So much mourning

So much mourning in the world today.

Syd Barrett passes away. The founder of Pink Floyd. One of the founders of my musical journey.....
Read here.

Bombay blasts. More than a 100 people die in blasts in Bombay. Such sick insane people in this world. Spent a whole day worrying about family and friends there...so far so good.
Read here.

What Next?

The World Cup is over.
The Wimbledon Champioships are over.

Now what the heck do I do with my free time?..... Yes. Do all those things I put off cos of the above two events. Blading, kathak revisions (cos i'm getting my butt kicked in class), move into apartment, read all the orientation crap for work, renew my driver's license, write the 5 or more articles that I was supposed to finish this summer......gosh.....it's going to be busy eh?

So let's talk about the World Cup Final. GOOOOOOOO ITALIAAAA!! :-) I'd been rooting for Italy since Mexico lost. Somehow...had a soft spot for them. And then of course, when they lost ( sniff )...I started rooting for Italy. Grosso, Del Piero, Cannavaro, Buffon, Pirlo...seriously...such amazing talent!! And their defence kicks ass! Needless to say, I'm THRILLED to bits that they won.

Very shocking to see Zizou exit the way he did....if only he could have held out for 10 more mins...he would have sailed home free. Irrespective of France losing. Well...such a silly stupid act! His greatness is tarnished now. But whatever...Zizou still rocks.

How the hell do we wait another 4 years??? Like Max suggested....have a World Cup every year dammit!!

GOL!!!!,
-Amrita

Sing/Dance for Children

CRY (Child Relief and You)
Southern California Action Center presents

An exciting competition and talent showcase...

THE CRY IDOL 2006

Here's your chance to participate and enjoy the shows
and support the cause of Child Rights all at the same
time!


July 22nd 2006: Audition for CRY IDOL 

A Song and Dance Competition you don't wanna miss!!

Audition finalists will contest at the Grand Finale in
August 2006.

Hurry...register today!
Log on to www.crysocal.org for details.

New York New York

The last two days in New York have been very interesting. :-) How's that you ask?

July 4th Extravaganza

Well, July 4th was fun. This year we decided not to hit the FDR drive as it's covered with what seems like a million people. So we got out of my brother's building in Tudor City and what do you know? From the bridge, we had a clear view of all 3 barges from where the fireworks are set off. I was pleasantly surprised. It seemed a lot of the residents and visitors had realized that and soon a crowd collected.

The show itself was great as usual...10 mins too long in my opinion...but still ;-) I really loved the smiley faced fireworks and the jellyfish ones too. Good stuff! And of course we couldn't avoid the crowd...the bridge at Tudor was COVERED by a hundred or so peeps. Hehe.

Once upon a time, there was MACBETH...

This morning was pure adventure. I had always been dying to see a performance of "Shakespeare in the Park". This is the event in which the New York Public Theater puts up FREE performances in Central Park at the Delacatore Theater. There are usually 2 plays per year. The first one this year was MACBETH and it ran (is running) about 4 weeks.

Anyway....the catch to seeing "Shakespeare in the Park" is getting the free tickets. Box office opens at 1 pm and the lines for that start way early. So me and my partner in crime Sheetal woke up early to a rainy NYC morning. UGH!! We reached the line in the POURING rain at around 9:45. thankfully not too many peeps in front of us. It continued to pour over us and our umbrellas started leaking.

The dedication and optimism in the group was admirable :-) Drenched to the core, we sat down on our mat and read every little article in the AM New York, listened to my iPod, ate mom's yummy cooking (thanks ma!) and chatted away. A very fun experience! Hehehe.

The play itself was later at night. And what a show it was?! All the actors and actresses were really talented and delivered shattering performances. Seeing a play under the wide open sky is kick-ass ! The "thou"s and "art"s are that much more enjoyable ;-)

C'est fini!
~Ams :)

World Cup = Drool Fest

Ok, this is going to be a girly post. There is nothing hotter than seeing tall athletic men ... getting all sweaty.... doing...what they do... Ahem! I'll leave more of the details to the girls reading this post.

My eye-candy from this world cup....this list is not complete of course...there are too many hot Italians ;) especially after today's KICK ASS match against Germany. Feeling sorry for Klose and Lehmann though.

Messi - Argentina. Ok. This is cradle snatching... I know... he's only 19. But very cute.
















Ronaldo .... not R9 from Brazil... but the one from Portugal.


























Jurgen Klinnsmann - The German coach (THUD!)

Nachooooooooooooooooo

...ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

...says Jack Black...a.k.a The Great Lucha Libre...NACHO.

After an extremely disppointing Superman Returns (how the fuck could they fuck this one up?), Hollywood vindicated itself to me through Nacho Libre. It was an endearing tale of an extremely huggable Nacho, the monastery cook turning into Nacho Libre, the wrestler. Jack Black was spectacular...the sincerity with which he carries out his antics adds tons of charm to the movie.

A good and much needed laugh.

Love and peace,
~Amrita