Deathly Thoughts/ Dreams Lie Deeper

In 2010 an accident in New Zealand's Pike River Mine claimed 29  lives. I didn't know much about the tragic event but through twists and turns had the privilege to see an internal screening of a documentary produced around that incident. Dave Dobbyn is a Kiwi musician who has been around since the 70s, and he has been commissioned to write a song on that event. As part of the process Dave visits the site and the families, hears their stories and its all captured nicely on film, to be shown later this year on TV possibly. The film ends in a live performance of the song. Dave wrote beautifully and the composition also lends to its emotional qualities, accompanied by a huge choir as well. Its a well made film.

Throughout the screening however I constantly kept thinking about the kinds of events I and we saw in

the year 2013 at the end of which I came to New Zealand. Its probably no use singling out 2013, as we usually experience death as a serial event, our roads claiming more lives usually than anything else I suppose. The school kids returning from a football match, the 6 boys beaten to death, and as a finale to my last year at home, the demise of the garments workers of Rana Plaza. We wouldn't have the budget to commission that many songs, or documentaries, our problems lie elsewhere.

Hope you enjoy the song above, its one Dave Dobbyn sang to the families once while he was still figuring out the song about the 29 men. Watch out for the documentary, its titled "Dreams Lie Deeper".

Related:

In memory of the Pike River miners

Road Accidents in Bangladesh: An Alarming Issue

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State of the Arts: Music

That's Joe Satriani on the left. Bless him! He is a great guitarist and entertainer, and has always said loudly how big an inspiration Jimi Hendrix is to him. Its also known to us how largely he has also inspired and taught a generation of guitarists (Remember Ayub Bacchu's tak? Yup, its a Joe thing)

Here, though our TV won't generally show Joe's videos or concerts, you can still hear a lot of his music, as background scores of our TV dramas!

This is however something that bothers me, since there are so many instances of this. It shows a large flaw about or entertainment industry. The lack of flow of money. These drama show producers  could've easily hired a musician to produce some original music, but when even the makers are in fear of if and when they'd be paid, there's little motivation to do so (unless freebied). Also, with international copyrights laws absent from the scenario, its easier to use something available to us from someone like Joe or Bach or Britney. Since laws are so slack, there is also the chance to use material from any local artist without citing credit or paying a paisa.

The local label owners scream and shout about copyrights and sometimes even manage to get some artists to join in the chorus, but the gist of that whole deal is that the artists are not in any part of that chain - receiving maybe as little as parts of the recording costs, to nothing. Especially, someone new. And then there's the visible lack of distribution of the music and promotions. One would wonder why they release the CD's in the first place! They must have figured out how to make some profit with the least bit of effort possible, since otherwise it wouldn't have happened.

There is also the type factor, behind the kind of attention an artist will receive. Watch Channel 16's Top Ten to see what that might mean. You'll hear 10 songs that almost sound the same. Habib, Hridoy Khan, and a few others started a trend in pop music and their slower numbers seemed to have influenced multiple acts into being and they are churning out some pretty bland lovey dovey pieces of crap that is available on TV and radio.

I am taking a liberty here claiming I know good music from bad, and businessmen don't, or don't care. They wouldn't have cared to support a certain kind of music if they didn't think it had a market and I guess I could hang up my gloves on that point. I have to come back with a 'But' jab, and say, they are not giving some musicians who are more creative, more unique, and more entertaining a chance by not promoting them after their CDs come out. Its just a lack of foresight. The lacking that stops labels from promoting a CD after having put it on the shelf of a store.

If the drama directors had a formidable budget, they could use local musician's work giving them their rightful dues and helping promote their music. I remember one drama starred members of the band Black, and featured them lip syncing the very famous song "Shay Je Boshe Achhey" from Arnob. That level of fame that song and Arnob reached was helped along by that spot on TV, and its still possible to find someone today who mistakes that as a song by Black.

Till we learn to cultivate and appreciate artists, its no use just putting their CDs on the shelves where the masses are unaware of what they sound like or what they represent.

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Rock Producers & Bands

Any fan of Rock music would notice that the majority of it comes from USA. Though the best of them, the most inspiring ones, seem to spring from the UK and then reach the world via USA. Either way, while listening to Aerosmith's Get a Grip this morning, I was musing at how the 90s saw some fine, polished production within the genre -

Aerosmith's Get A Grip (1993/Bruce Fairbairn)
Guns n' Roses Use Your Illusions I and II (1991/Mike Clink, Guns N' Roses)
Metallica's Black album (1991/Bob Rock)
Nirvana's Nevermind (1991/Butch Vig)
Bon Jovi's These Days (1995/Peter Collins, Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora)
Scorpions' Pure Instinct (1996/Erwin Musper, Keith Olsen and Scorpions)
... and so on.

Each of these albums represent a slight change in the quality of production of these bands' music  from their previous releases. The bands' compositions were given that edge by working with some great producers who knew what to do with it, where to take it.

I learn today, that Bruce Fairbarn had died in 1999 (Read: Obituary Bruce Fairbarn), but had till that date produced a lot of very successful albums. He tried his hand first at being a musician but those  bands never reached heights he had hoped for. On the other hand, his successes as producer are noteworthy - Get A Grip, Slippery When Wet (Bon Jovi), Elegantly Wasted (INXS) and lots more.

Here in Bangladesh, a lot of bands start out and they really have to rely on themselves to produce their albums. There aren't really any 'producers' at work for the most part. Exceptions? In recent times, Jewel, who is a well known guitar player of Legend, Warfaze, and now Miles and X-Factor (his own project) has acted as producer for Black's album 'Abar'. That did seem like a well produced, balanced album, though 'Uthshober Por' before that, and 'Black' which came after 'Abar', were also well produced. Jewel however also arranged a series of rock albums with new and old talents of the country - Rock 101 till 707, where he played curator - selecting bands from a pool of probably 50 or 60 bands each time. A better use of Jewel's producing abilities would've been to select less bands and work on the production a little with them.

Western genres (esp. rock, metal and the like) are not considered widely marketable music (though time and again, rock concerts have had raised lots of money for different causes). In a country that sways so much to imported Bollywood music, its commercial success is also influencing local artists to follow their trends. As a result, even older local music or styles are not really getting produced. However, when you love a style so much, you tend to create and try, and there are some formidable Bangla rock bands here - Cryptic Fate, aforementioned Black, Arbovirus, Breach, Nemesis, Kral and others. They have all been around for some time, and spent countless years trying to realize and learn what makes a great production. Since we started from a point where we lacked even the tools for great productions, we have seen some studios (e.g. Bengal Studio in Baridhara, Acoustic Artz in Dhanmondi) invest in good equipment. Though we don't have studios apt for live recording (all instruments played and recorded at once), the album 'Arnob and Friends' (not rock, but an ecclectic mix of pop, folk and others) was done that way with musicians in different rooms. Others realize that since they payoff isn't much, it doesn't matter if you record everything digitally in your bedroom using lightweight soundcards and other shortcuts. Then comes the lack of producers - a person with ideas, with a vast landscape of aural vision, who when he or she hears a demo, can hear the possibilities ringing inside for a great song. On the other hand, some musicians fail to understand the role of a producer and bear negative impressions or mistake it for the role of 'the man'.

Some Bruce Fairbairn statements:

"None of the songs on Pump would have flown if the guys in Aerosmith hadn't played them great initially. Once you have something good on tape, then you have a really solid basis to play around with, adding the production aspects, mixing in texture and colour to the tracks. All those songs can be stripped down - you can get rid of the horns, the piano, the accordion - and still have a good album with great songs. The production is just there to enhance what the band has done. It's like baking a great cake with a lot of icing. I like a lot of icing."

"If a band feel they can't make a good record unless they're high, I tell them to find somebody else to get high and make a record with"

Related: 
Kirk Hammett vs. Bob Rock
Classic Albums Documentaries

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QUBEE: Internet for the Underserved

I heard of Qubee a little before they setup a widely* available service or a proper consumer website through a friend who had been hired by them, and another one whose sister was in charge of finding people for testing out the services they were just installing at the time.

That is when I first came across the motto, a grand statement on a temporary website of Augere Holdings, the investors behind QUBEE: 

' ... a mission to provide "broadband for all" and seeks to bring broadband Internet services to underserved communities worldwide' (Though that website doesn't exist anymore, it is available on the Wikipedia page for Qubee and Augere).

I have been a customer since 2009, and today, I happened to see that they were in the news - "Augere's Ahuja, 7 others sued"! Seems like their local shareholder (30%) Teleport Bangladesh is the accuser. I am sure that'll get sorted out, but what I would like to get sorted out for the benefit of my knowledge is their mission statement above.

Who do they mean, when they say "underserved communities"? According to Wikipedia, this is their reach in terms of where they are doing business:

Augere has so far launched broadband internet services in Pakistan in July 2009 and in Bangladesh in October 2009 under the brand name Qubee. Augere is also expecting to launch services in Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, and India in 2011 and is continuing to pursue spectrum across Africa, Asia and South East Asia.

So, am I the "underserved"? I think I could be if we put a spin on that phrase (which I see is usually used in relation to healthcare services). The spin is quite simple. Recently I had a run in with their support team (badly for the 1st time in 3 years to their credit) with what I perceived as something wrong with their tracking of my usage. It came to my notice since last February was the first time was the first time I was found in violation of their FUP or Fair Usage Policy ~ use till a 30GB limit, at which point they shut down the internet unless I pay them a month's worth of fees (do double payment for a single month). I tried to get their support team to register my concerns with their technical team, but was refused flatly on the logic that the traffic that was generated was from my MAC ID - so it could've only been from my house. I would even accept that point if I were to assume that their modems usually send over requests and receive responses even if my computer is turned off!

Khaotic however did manage to get a technical person to go to his house and witness such a phenomenon first-hand. With every kind of software turned off - like Windows Updates, anti-virus updates, other software updates, and keeping the processes and tasks in view, the tracker showed a download of 40MB.  The tech support person couldn't offer any explanation for that, but someone from the support team followed up the next day with some accusations first - "your windows was updating", and "your anti-virus was updating" and a few others, and then, secondly with a suggestion:"Re-install your operating system". It feels like the support team right there is having some fun with these complaints - rather than escalating the issue or getting to the bottom of it.

Meanwhile, I have heard good things so far about the government run BCUBE** and it seems like they have better prices for their services too. If there were an 'underserved community', wouldn't they want to go with the more economic offerings?

* Qubee is in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet now, whereas their WiMax competitor Banglalion has also gone there and beyond to Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Barishal.

** The website is not good looking in compliance with the rest of the government websites, I guess.

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Strictly Stupid

If someone asked me at 13 for what pops up in my mind when i hear "rules", I'd probably say "Rules were meant to be broken". Its a knock off of "Records were meant to be broken" I suppose, but it was very popular at the time when breaking rules at school seemed like the logical choice.

Now, in the real world, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, I still find people clueless to the whole purpose of rules. People are breaking rules that matter and abiding strongly to little ones that defy reason. Very little thought goes into achieving efficiency.

Last time i faced such nuisance was when i ordered a cake from Coopers. I wanted a two story chocolate fudge cake (yes i did) and they showed me a brochure with pictures of three white and blue wedding cakes and i chose one as a model to follow for my cake. I soon realized from talking to the Coopers guy that they plan to cover my chocolate cake with white icing and pink flowers to look exactly like the one in the pic. Why? Its a rule. I tried to reason with him, that i didn't want white and pink on my chocolate cake (that should be a rule), you can just do without it and put chocolate shavings on as decorations the way they would if i order it just flat! No can do. Was it written in stone? I guess it was and used as a foundation to the building Coopers existed in.

People limit themselves everyday, following baseless rules. Our government is quite famous for it, their bureaucracy or red tape. I say, its time to break these rules. Lets think for a minute why we do what we do!

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CGBrainChild - Inspiration.

Amazing how you see people and talk to them, but there are always things you never really know about them! Nikolai from my class is one of these people. He is an architect from Serbia who was the person to join the class the latest! lets say a week or so before the end of the first semester when we were all just wholly occupied with our upcoming exams.

Anyway, he has opened up a new website and it is called CGbrainchild. here is what he had to say about it:

Only aim of this gallery is to give inspiration to Artists. CGbrainchild is mainly about Computer Graphics, but every other piece of art, sketch, art studies, story is welcome, because this is about Inspiration.

So if you have some artwork that you would like to show, and you think that it can be inspiring for others, go to www.cgbrainchild.com and see Sending Your Artwork Details.

CGbrainchild is now on search for:
| 3d Artwork (created with 3dmax, maya, softimage...)
| 2d Artwork (created with Photoshop, Painter...)
| Sketches, initial idea drawings, studies
| Traditional art images
| Stories about success or better failure and what you learned from that experience
| Or maybe you have a suggestion

Be sure to also check out the links at the bottom of the pieces from the gallery of the artists' pages too!

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tick tock tick

I am a headless chicken today.

Even tho i don't know where my head is at a moment, i know exactly where it has been afterwards. The destinations today are the bank, the endorsement of my money... the currency transfers, the flight bookings, shopping for warm swedish-weather-friendly clothes, contacting the university, and the sheer tightness of the deadline, dead being the keyword... in two days i shall prepare and leave for another country, or not. Oh.. i didnt need to be so dramatic... i'll just catch the classes late.

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Cha Nashta

I was happy with the way things went on inside the Sweden embassy. The woman who took my papers seemed easily irritable but I think I managed to stay calm. The mic hanging from a high position on the wall (or was it the ceiling?) did make me nervous though. All in all, things went well, and she promised to allow me to drop the photographs (that I had forgotten) in the day after with the guard at the gate.

On the way out, I tried explaining to the guard how and why I will be showing up at 'his' gate tomorrow, and the assistance that I will be requiring from him in the process...namely, to pass on the photograph to the lady inside! He rolled his eyes a little, looked lost... deep in thought. He seemed to be opening the gate awfully slowly. It was a metal gate but I dont think it was that heavy. He opened it a little and an impatient me tried to hurriedly leave through that small space, when I felt the mildly plump guards body brush against me from behind! He spoke hushedly to my ears "Cha Nashta'r Kichu Dibenna?" I was out by the time he finished. I was amazed, disgusted (by the whole approach of it) and at the same time at a loss for reflexes. I did not know what to do or say. A confused murmur of "Naaah, ajke nah.. hoyto kaalkey" slipped out from my mouth. I don't think he even heard what I said, I didn't want to make it clear either, I had no intention of entertaining this request or plea, or threat. He was a middle aged fella, with the blue white stripes and badge of 'Group4Falck' (I don't think I spelled it right), a private organization who supply guards and other security services to other organizations. I never would have expected this from him!

The fate of my photographs will be in the hands of this guy tomorrow. The lady clearly indicated that my visa application would not be considered without the photographs. Should I wait in line tomorrow and hand them in myself? What other way is there to handle this situation without having to pay for Cha Nashta? I have enough money to treat him to a five-star hotel mind you...but this tendency of everyone to demand a little extra for doing their jobs is not something I ever liked and nor do I want to entertain it ever. I just pray I am never cornered to succumb to such exploitations. Well, here is a situation.

I don't want to stand in line again at the embassy. If the man wanted a bribe, or just a little 'extra', the time in the line might be a lot more than the usual. Of course I could cause a min hungama and try to gather public support on my side from the others in line. No, I just don't want to be in line again. It will be handed to the guard as I had planned. I came up with the idea that I will try to scare the guard a little. I will hand him the photos and tell him that I will email or call the lady inside to inform her that I have dropped them off at the embassy with the guard. This will surely get him thinking into not doing anything slackish. I settled on this as a 'good plan'.

Then I also considered the fact that he might not be that desparate for the extra so as to go to measures to make my photos vanish. Sure, I get paranoid easily often! So in case he does claim the money again, I played out little lectures on ethics and morality, honesty, piety that I might give to him.

This morning I passed the photos to the embassy. Through the heavy rain, I passed the envelope to the guard and explained that he should pass it onto the woman inside. He asked me whether its enough for him to pass it on, I replied affirmative. And with an attempt to show great appreciation, I thanked him firmly and let go off the envelope. No lecture delivered, no little warnings given out. I didn't give him a chance to say anything much after I handed him the envelope. I rushed back to my taxi amidst the rain and headed for work. I did email the embassy with a notification that I had sent the photographs over.

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Jadookor

Today we spent a lot of noisy time. Its called Brainstorming in the real world. Where more than one heads get together to show off their brain power. Its almost like girl power but less appeal.

We wanted to create the perfect code generator. With a lot of marketing buzzword, high goals and utopian dreams floating about in the office, this is where we ended up. In the conference room, three of us ...and our brains. Which if you consider the 'seeing is believing' philosophy, will dispell the whole notion. Anyways, there is also a saying "An idea can change your life"... so we fought hard... the storm was a raging bull, and each of us a ... a guy in spain ... i mean.. a ... wat do you call them... a mmmmm... its at the tip of my tongue. [I remember now.... A MATADOR! yesssss]

Anwyays, later after the hurly burly was over... I sat down and had a great idea! Gooooogle! some of us are so slowwwww! Anyways, it opened my eyes to a whole new world! And also some worlds which i had forgotten about (Like Velocity and MiddleGen).

Links:
http://boss.bekk.no/boss/middlegen/
http://www.codegeneration.net/generators-by-language.php?language=4
http://jag.sourceforge.net/tutorial.html#anchor3

And of course, the blog that lend me a start:
http://www.dotcat.org/?id=lazy-coding

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A Brainwash Anyone?

Recently, I went to a discussion held by an organization named Liberated Youth. The discussion was on the present plight of youth, especially muslim youth. They made a claim in the beginning that the youth is the 'Critical Mass' of the population whereby they hold the power and intelligence to make wrongs right and bring about large changes socially, politically... etcetera ecetera.

When I told some of the guys about this discussion I have been to, and the fact that Liberated Youth happends to be a sub faction of another organization that is Islam conscious, many claimed that they often 'brainwash' people! I have only been to one of these discussions, which was followed by and Q & A afterwards, and from that experience I can say that they were pretty rational, keen on promoting youth to be rational, to do something once they have thought clearly of the action, its consequences and its implications!

This scare is pretty widespread these days. Anything related to religion is scary. The people who talk about religion is scary and the organizations that pursue this subject are almost always implicated as brainwashers.

What struck me as ironic is the fact that little discussion I went to that night, was accusing the general portion of the youth as being brainwashed (not is exactly these words) by the media. Especially the exported entertainment, the music, the movies and the portrayals they carry of the youth and what their lifestyles is like. I mean really, if you see the world over, the youth of asia now dress like the youth on MTV (including yours truly) or Friends. But this is also nothing new. My dad and his generation used to be into bell bottoms and Elvis. I see people discarding culture for trends. Maybe its inevitable, but do we really stop and think about it?

I did agree beforehand with the issues that were raised that day. I don't particularly think the way we dress and carry ourselves matter much. However, to see the majority of the youth unconcerned about the poverty, illiteracy and the regular chaos of the city does bother me! It is true, being hip, having a phat ride (a car with spoilers and custom exhaust pipes and what else have you ...U know what you see in NFS),  and whatnot...the 'bling bling' it has come to Dhaka, where exists palace like apartments surrounded by slums! Where are our heads these days!???

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