Thursday, May 10, 2007
1857 Sepoy Mutiny
State sponsored celebrations of the "First war of Independence" are already in full swing with general cheer passing around in good measure by all ministers. A celebration of such pomposity is out of sync with the spirit of remembrance which is the pertinent sentiment in my opinion. Celebrating it as though it were a festive occasion with politicians stirring up nationalistic fervor for a little mileage is distasteful. Echoing the same sentiment but with a different approach - that the event in question is too violent to celebrate - is historian Rudrangshu Mukherjee in his column titled "Kill the white man". Peter Foster, a British journalist residing in Delhi, was in Meerut - the birthplace of the rebellion/war - and his impressions are in his column "Textbook Nationalism". Before you get the idea that this post is being dismissive and condescending of Indians and their sense of national pride, read it and be drawn down a different path - that of the pathetic state of the education system. Check out other articles on his blog - there some pretty good ones in the archives.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Blues All Around My Head
I've been taking a well deserved break from listening to metal, have been on a literal 18 hour blues trip over the last month or so. From haunting Louisiana swamp blues to the devilish Mississippi delta blues to the searing Chicago blues all the way to the Texas country blues, the blues has taken a hold of my soul. Even modern rock/guitar driven blues has so much feel to it that it makes my soul sing. Blues is not new to me but as with all other genres of music, I periodically go out of touch with it, catch up with later and treasure all my new re-discoveries. This time around I have devoted more time to the acoustic blues that are home to the Mississippi delta and have discovered sheer joy in the wail of the harmonica. Of course, the Chicago blues are never far behind when it comes to the harmonica and I've enjoyed many a Chicago master too.
So, here is a short blues primer that I found somewhere on the net (can't remember where though). If you are familiar with songs from Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (just to name a few), the following primer will bring a smile of recognition -
1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."
2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes...sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, And she weighs 500 pounds."
4. The Blues is not about choice. You're stuck in a ditch, you're stuck in a ditch - ain't no way out.
5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train, blues NEVER go on the northbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.
7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.
8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cause you were skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg 'cause an alligator be chomping on it is.
9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
10.Good places for the Blues: a. highway b. jailhouse Bad places for the Blues: a. Nordstrom b. gallery openings c. Ivy League institutions d. golf courses
11.No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old person, and you slept in it for the last 6 months.
12.Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if: a. you're older than dirt b. you're blind c. you shot a man in Memphis Not if: a. you have all your teeth b. you were once blind but can see c. the man in Memphis lived d. you have a 401K or trust fund now
13.Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got leg up on the blues.
14.If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: a. muddy water b. nasty black coffee
The following are NOT Blues beverages: a. Perrier b. Chardonnay c. Snapple d. Slim Fast
15.If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.
16.Some Blues names for women: a. Sadie b. Big Mama c. Bessie d. Fat River Dumpling
17.Some Blues names for men: a. Joe b. Willie c. Little Willie d. Big Willie
18.Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
19."Make your own Blues Name" Starter Kit: a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.) c. last name of a President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Pegleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")
20.I don't care how tragic your life: if you own even one computer, you cannot sing the blues. If you are reading this on a computer - maybe you cannot sing the Blues - but you sure can listen to it…
So, here is a short blues primer that I found somewhere on the net (can't remember where though). If you are familiar with songs from Howlin Wolf, John Lee Hooker, B. B. King, Big Mama Thornton, Muddy Waters, Memphis Slim and Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (just to name a few), the following primer will bring a smile of recognition -
1. Most Blues begin, "Woke up this morning..."
2. "I got a good woman" is a bad way to begin the Blues, unless you stick something nasty in the next line like, "I got a good woman, with the meanest face in town."
3. The Blues is simple. After you get the first line right, repeat it. Then find something that rhymes...sort of: "Got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Yes, I got a good woman with the meanest face in town. Got teeth like Margaret Thatcher, And she weighs 500 pounds."
4. The Blues is not about choice. You're stuck in a ditch, you're stuck in a ditch - ain't no way out.
5. Blues cars: Chevys, Fords, Cadillacs and broken-down trucks. Blues don't travel in Volvos, BMWs, or Sport Utility Vehicles. Most Blues transportation is a Greyhound bus or a southbound train, blues NEVER go on the northbound train. Jet aircraft and state-sponsored motor pools ain't even in the running. Walkin' plays a major part in the blues lifestyle. So does fixin' to die.
6. Teenagers can't sing the Blues. They ain't fixin' to die yet. Adults sing the Blues. In Blues, "adulthood" means being old enough to get the electric chair if you shoot a man in Memphis.
7. Blues can take place in New York City but not in Hawaii or any place in Canada. Hard times in Minneapolis or Seattle is probably just clinical depression. Chicago, St. Louis, and Kansas City are still the best places to have the Blues. You cannot have the blues in any place that don't get rain.
8. A man with male pattern baldness ain't the blues. A woman with male pattern baldness is. Breaking your leg cause you were skiing is not the blues. Breaking your leg 'cause an alligator be chomping on it is.
9. You can't have no Blues in an office or a shopping mall. The lighting is wrong. Go outside to the parking lot or sit by the dumpster.
10.Good places for the Blues: a. highway b. jailhouse Bad places for the Blues: a. Nordstrom b. gallery openings c. Ivy League institutions d. golf courses
11.No one will believe it's the Blues if you wear a suit, 'less you happen to be an old person, and you slept in it for the last 6 months.
12.Do you have the right to sing the Blues? Yes, if: a. you're older than dirt b. you're blind c. you shot a man in Memphis Not if: a. you have all your teeth b. you were once blind but can see c. the man in Memphis lived d. you have a 401K or trust fund now
13.Blues is not a matter of color. It's a matter of bad luck. Tiger Woods cannot sing the blues. Sonny Liston could. Ugly white people also got leg up on the blues.
14.If you ask for water and your darlin' give you gasoline, it's the Blues. Other acceptable Blues beverages are: a. muddy water b. nasty black coffee
The following are NOT Blues beverages: a. Perrier b. Chardonnay c. Snapple d. Slim Fast
15.If death occurs in a cheap motel or a shotgun shack, it's a Blues death. Stabbed in the back by a jealous lover is another Blues way to die. So is the electric chair, substance abuse and dying lonely on a broken down cot. You can't have a Blues death if you die during a tennis match or while getting liposuction.
16.Some Blues names for women: a. Sadie b. Big Mama c. Bessie d. Fat River Dumpling
17.Some Blues names for men: a. Joe b. Willie c. Little Willie d. Big Willie
18.Persons with names like Michelle, Amber, Debbie, and Heather can't sing the Blues no matter how many men they shoot in Memphis.
19."Make your own Blues Name" Starter Kit: a. name of physical infirmity (Blind, Cripple, Lame, etc.) b. first name (see above) plus name of fruit (Lemon, Lime, Kiwi, etc.) c. last name of a President (Jefferson, Johnson, Fillmore, etc.) For example: Blind Lime Jefferson, Pegleg Lemon Johnson or Cripple Kiwi Fillmore, etc. (Well, maybe not "Kiwi.")
20.I don't care how tragic your life: if you own even one computer, you cannot sing the blues. If you are reading this on a computer - maybe you cannot sing the Blues - but you sure can listen to it…
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
American History X
I just finished watching "American History X" and I really liked the movie and the sentiments and thoughts it raises. For those of you who have not watched this movie, Ed Norton plays a skin head who in the process of doing time in prison for a racially motivated crime, sees the error of his ways and tries to keep his younger brother clean.
Some quick cons - the movie's screenplay is way too rushed and this hurry to cover so much ground in so little time leaves many rather crucial areas with little or no attention or time. Though the characters are well defined, their development seems jumpy and choppy for the same reason. The lack of character development forces you to take for granted Ed Norton's hate for blacks and for his white supremacist tendencies while a sense of how this came about would have set the nuances of what comes later in the movie in better light. Yes, we are presented with factual account of two such incidents and are left to ourselves to make the connections, if there is one. Norton's character comes across as being high intelligent and one who makes compelling arguments about immigrants and their impact on the crime rate in a manner that would make Lou Dobbs proud. I am not sure if this was intentional on the part of the directors but he never meets an adversary who counters his arguments with sound logic eschewing a centrist or even slightly liberal position. The reasons for this might be many and might also be intended to explain Norton's long association with far right supremacists. The film is emotional and suggests that hate is just extra baggage - it wears you down and brings none of the change that you hoped for. It also depicts how hate divides society on racial lines simply because of how society is structured to think about race and how this hate in combination with racial leanings result in horrific hate crimes with violence being a constant theme. In the end, people commit crimes because of who they are as persons - their personal character traits, their circumstances and their psychological makeup and not because they belong to a particular race or class of people. Though this membership has some affect, however little, on how that person thinks and behaves (hence, racial stereo typing), it is hardly reflective of the common characteristics of the entire race of people.
Another interesting aspect of the movie is its abuse of Nazi symbols to keep up an undercurrent of white supremacy. I do not know if this a peculiarity of the movie or if this is a characteristic of white power groups, but Hitler's shadow is all over this movie. I am not sure if white power groups realize that Hitler's race theories were not solely about white power. In fact, how many of his victims were black, brown or yellow specifically because they were black, brown or yellow? After being assuaged with various posters, memorabilia and music throughout the movie I was left to ponder on whether Hitler was really understood or was just being used as a seed for racially stereotyping white supremacists.
All in all, a powerfully emotional movie. Please do watch if you get a chance.
P.S - did I forget to mention that the kid from the Terminator 2 movie plays Ed Norton's brother?
Update: I was intrigued by the adoption of Hitler as the poster child for white power when he hardly stood for it, though in his plans non-whites shared the same fate as other groups that he targeted. Well given that he did not particularly target non-white races, I find it astonishing that eastern Europe particularly Poland and the Slavic states are hotbeds for neo-nazism. These were the people who were one of the most severely oppressed by Hitler and now they adopt him as their savior and have somehow converted his ideology to that of white supremacy. What gives?
Some quick cons - the movie's screenplay is way too rushed and this hurry to cover so much ground in so little time leaves many rather crucial areas with little or no attention or time. Though the characters are well defined, their development seems jumpy and choppy for the same reason. The lack of character development forces you to take for granted Ed Norton's hate for blacks and for his white supremacist tendencies while a sense of how this came about would have set the nuances of what comes later in the movie in better light. Yes, we are presented with factual account of two such incidents and are left to ourselves to make the connections, if there is one. Norton's character comes across as being high intelligent and one who makes compelling arguments about immigrants and their impact on the crime rate in a manner that would make Lou Dobbs proud. I am not sure if this was intentional on the part of the directors but he never meets an adversary who counters his arguments with sound logic eschewing a centrist or even slightly liberal position. The reasons for this might be many and might also be intended to explain Norton's long association with far right supremacists. The film is emotional and suggests that hate is just extra baggage - it wears you down and brings none of the change that you hoped for. It also depicts how hate divides society on racial lines simply because of how society is structured to think about race and how this hate in combination with racial leanings result in horrific hate crimes with violence being a constant theme. In the end, people commit crimes because of who they are as persons - their personal character traits, their circumstances and their psychological makeup and not because they belong to a particular race or class of people. Though this membership has some affect, however little, on how that person thinks and behaves (hence, racial stereo typing), it is hardly reflective of the common characteristics of the entire race of people.
Another interesting aspect of the movie is its abuse of Nazi symbols to keep up an undercurrent of white supremacy. I do not know if this a peculiarity of the movie or if this is a characteristic of white power groups, but Hitler's shadow is all over this movie. I am not sure if white power groups realize that Hitler's race theories were not solely about white power. In fact, how many of his victims were black, brown or yellow specifically because they were black, brown or yellow? After being assuaged with various posters, memorabilia and music throughout the movie I was left to ponder on whether Hitler was really understood or was just being used as a seed for racially stereotyping white supremacists.
All in all, a powerfully emotional movie. Please do watch if you get a chance.
P.S - did I forget to mention that the kid from the Terminator 2 movie plays Ed Norton's brother?
Update: I was intrigued by the adoption of Hitler as the poster child for white power when he hardly stood for it, though in his plans non-whites shared the same fate as other groups that he targeted. Well given that he did not particularly target non-white races, I find it astonishing that eastern Europe particularly Poland and the Slavic states are hotbeds for neo-nazism. These were the people who were one of the most severely oppressed by Hitler and now they adopt him as their savior and have somehow converted his ideology to that of white supremacy. What gives?
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Things That Move
After a really long break, I think I am ready to do some blogging. I think I will open with something sublime - Barcelona's Lionel Messi's (Argentina) goal that bears an uncanny resemblance to Maradona's goal against England in the 1986 world cup.
I think Maradona's goal, featured here, was a couple of minutes after his legendary 'Hand of God' goal, anybody wants to confirm?
If that got your blood pumping, here is something that will move you to the other end of the spectrum - the Pulitzer prize for feature photography was recently awarded to Renée C. Byer for her photo essay on the last few days of a 10 year old with terminal blood cancer.
[Link]Life ephemeral.
I think Maradona's goal, featured here, was a couple of minutes after his legendary 'Hand of God' goal, anybody wants to confirm?
If that got your blood pumping, here is something that will move you to the other end of the spectrum - the Pulitzer prize for feature photography was recently awarded to Renée C. Byer for her photo essay on the last few days of a 10 year old with terminal blood cancer.
[Link]Life ephemeral.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
The Delusion That is God
Richard Dawkins in Lynchburg, VA promoting his latest book, "The God Delusion".
You guessed right, the next couple of posts are all going to pertain to organized religion, faith (blind at that) and morality and the evolution, if you will, of religion itself. And along the way maybe I'll discover a thing or two about my religious conviction or the lack thereof. I have a large essay brewing but don't hold your breath just yet.
As a precursor, just so that you can familiarize yourselves with arguments that are popularly made on both sides of "The God Delusion" debate, please do read this rather elaborate [email exchange] between an atheist, Sam Harris and a theist, Dennis Prager. You can also read about it [here].
Now, onto the master himself Richard Dawkins.
Part 1: Book Reading
Part 2: Questions and Answer session
You guessed right, the next couple of posts are all going to pertain to organized religion, faith (blind at that) and morality and the evolution, if you will, of religion itself. And along the way maybe I'll discover a thing or two about my religious conviction or the lack thereof. I have a large essay brewing but don't hold your breath just yet.
As a precursor, just so that you can familiarize yourselves with arguments that are popularly made on both sides of "The God Delusion" debate, please do read this rather elaborate [email exchange] between an atheist, Sam Harris and a theist, Dennis Prager. You can also read about it [here].
Now, onto the master himself Richard Dawkins.
Part 1: Book Reading
Part 2: Questions and Answer session
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Bill O'Reilly Googly
Another one of many clips of O'Reilly spewing forth his lies as factual truths - this one exposed by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann. His language sure is caustic but very worthy of O'Reilly I am sure
Watch David Letterman splay Bill O'Reilly's guts. This is hilarious!!
Watch David Letterman splay Bill O'Reilly's guts. This is hilarious!!
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Bill O'Reilly - The Spin Zone
I have a special soft corner for Fox's Bill O'Reilly. I am one of his biggest "fans". And with fans like me, who needs critics?
Bill O'Reilly thinks he matters because he thinks he represents objective public opinion in this country. His patronizing paternalism is absolutely insulting (to me atleast). He is the self appointed (annointed is more like it) savior of american culture and "The American Way" of life. Anything that remotely offends him is an attack on the country's values and morals and must be dealt with severity. He denounces all action/opinion that he doesn't approve of as a far-leftist conspiracy. He invites people over to supposedly debate topics but he talks 80% of the time and abusively interrupts his guest's talk time either by calling them names or in an effort to turn around their point (which they haven't had the time to make) to suit his agenda.
O'Reilly's modus operandi
Steven Colbert has a different word on every show. O'Reilly just has one - "Shut Up"
O'Reilly's attitude of self appointed guardian of morals and ethics - in this [clip] he rants on movies like Hostel, Saw franchise etc. O'Reilly - if you don't like it, do not watch it. But do NOT presume to tell me what to watch and what not to.
David Letterman pawns O'Reilly on his show.
and with regards to O'Reilly's journalistic integrity, you can make up your mind after watching this.
Watch O'Reilly try to play his usual game on his guests, but what do we have here? educated, articulate and in your face guests? something O'reilly was not prepared for. gives you a sense of his agenda.
Bottomline: see "The Best Of O'Reilly" and you will begin to understand his pseudo, self appointed authority and his infuriating paternalism on culture, politics and everything in between
Part III:
Part II:
Part I:
O'Reilly also has a problem that all the late night comedians are left leaning and thinks that there ought to be a conservative comedy show. Well, Mr. O'Reilly if you want to see one, either do it yourself or pay/support someone who wants to. You cannot make a call on their (current crop of comedians) persuasion and mandate/require that they have a conservative on board. What he wants is legislated/arbitratred comedians on air - much like Kamal Nath wants reservations for the OBC, SC/ST!! And for what its worth, its a comedy show. The last time I checked, comedy shows don't spew political theories/opinions for mass consumption. More of O'Reilly's infuriating paternalism.
Bill O'Reilly thinks he matters because he thinks he represents objective public opinion in this country. His patronizing paternalism is absolutely insulting (to me atleast). He is the self appointed (annointed is more like it) savior of american culture and "The American Way" of life. Anything that remotely offends him is an attack on the country's values and morals and must be dealt with severity. He denounces all action/opinion that he doesn't approve of as a far-leftist conspiracy. He invites people over to supposedly debate topics but he talks 80% of the time and abusively interrupts his guest's talk time either by calling them names or in an effort to turn around their point (which they haven't had the time to make) to suit his agenda.
O'Reilly's modus operandi
Steven Colbert has a different word on every show. O'Reilly just has one - "Shut Up"
O'Reilly's attitude of self appointed guardian of morals and ethics - in this [clip] he rants on movies like Hostel, Saw franchise etc. O'Reilly - if you don't like it, do not watch it. But do NOT presume to tell me what to watch and what not to.
David Letterman pawns O'Reilly on his show.
and with regards to O'Reilly's journalistic integrity, you can make up your mind after watching this.
Watch O'Reilly try to play his usual game on his guests, but what do we have here? educated, articulate and in your face guests? something O'reilly was not prepared for. gives you a sense of his agenda.
Bottomline: see "The Best Of O'Reilly" and you will begin to understand his pseudo, self appointed authority and his infuriating paternalism on culture, politics and everything in between
Part III:
Part II:
Part I:
O'Reilly also has a problem that all the late night comedians are left leaning and thinks that there ought to be a conservative comedy show. Well, Mr. O'Reilly if you want to see one, either do it yourself or pay/support someone who wants to. You cannot make a call on their (current crop of comedians) persuasion and mandate/require that they have a conservative on board. What he wants is legislated/arbitratred comedians on air - much like Kamal Nath wants reservations for the OBC, SC/ST!! And for what its worth, its a comedy show. The last time I checked, comedy shows don't spew political theories/opinions for mass consumption. More of O'Reilly's infuriating paternalism.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Requiem For A Dream
One of my favorite movies - how dreams can be all consuming - body, soul and life. Actually, words fail me when I try to describe the absolute desperation of these blighted lives, lives so desolate, so bleak, so hopeless that it scares the living daylights out of me. The dread and barrenness of life is only exacerbated by the haunting background melodies and masterful direction by Darren Aronofsky.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, a MUST see
Warning: may contain a few spoilers
Trailer 1:
Trailer 2:
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, a MUST see
Warning: may contain a few spoilers
Trailer 1:
Trailer 2:
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Music of the Gods
Iron Maiden- The Metal Gods
I know of atleast 2 readers who are going to jump with joy ;-) Up the Irons! you know who you are. To the uninitiated - if at the end of watching all these videos, your soul does not wish to jump, dance and sing in tune with the scores you see in the videos then absolutely no one, not even the God you believe in, will be able to save it, your soul that is.
I will be seeing them in 10 days and I am salivating in anticipation!
Fear Of The Dark (Rock In Rio)
Hallowed Be Thy Name - I have included videos from shows that are separated by 13 years - 1992's Live At Donnington and 2005's Rock In Rio. Bruce has aged like fine wine - he sounds better now than ever before.
1992 Live at Donnington Castle, England
2006 Live At Ullevi Stadium, Sweden
Running Free (Ullevi Stadium, Sweden)
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Maiden England)
Infinite Dreams (Maiden England Video)
A few videos from Bruce's solo career:
Tears Of The Dragon
Accident of Birth
Tears Of The Dragon (Unplugged) - goes out of key a couple of times, but hey its Bruce!
I know of atleast 2 readers who are going to jump with joy ;-) Up the Irons! you know who you are. To the uninitiated - if at the end of watching all these videos, your soul does not wish to jump, dance and sing in tune with the scores you see in the videos then absolutely no one, not even the God you believe in, will be able to save it, your soul that is.
I will be seeing them in 10 days and I am salivating in anticipation!
Fear Of The Dark (Rock In Rio)
Hallowed Be Thy Name - I have included videos from shows that are separated by 13 years - 1992's Live At Donnington and 2005's Rock In Rio. Bruce has aged like fine wine - he sounds better now than ever before.
1992 Live at Donnington Castle, England
2006 Live At Ullevi Stadium, Sweden
Running Free (Ullevi Stadium, Sweden)
Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son (Maiden England)
Infinite Dreams (Maiden England Video)
A few videos from Bruce's solo career:
Tears Of The Dragon
Accident of Birth
Tears Of The Dragon (Unplugged) - goes out of key a couple of times, but hey its Bruce!
Friday, September 29, 2006
Google Reader, Phlat and rants on software
I am a product of the web 2.0 generation - I want to not only choose what I consume but I also want to choose the manner in which I consume it. RSS is a big part of my day and I really don't respect any website/service that does not let me syndicate material. Take for example, an RSS enabled website say, a camera review website. They have loads of categories but I am interested only in one/some of them. But the dingbats have only RSS feed to every headline that ever makes it to their website. It leaves me to sort out (from amongst a vast sea of other websites doing the same thing) the wheat from the chaff. Sometimes thats all I do, throw the trash out and mark the posts that interest me but I don't have any time left over and these posts backup. Soon, they loose significance and I may as well delete them. I just wish that every website that categorizes their material has customizable RSS feeds for visitors to subscribe to. Just imagine if you could take a look at the categories I had on this blog (hypothetically speaking of course, since this is blogger and it doesn't have ANY such feature) and specify the categories you would like to read (assuming that you want read any at all) and your syndicator just picks up only those feeds. Take it one step further, the reader specifies tags and ONLY those posts tagged with the user's choice of tags get syndicated. Technorati tags are a start. Wouldn't this be nice to have? I would be thrilled!
Google announced its reader and I imported my opml into it in a flash to try it out. On Scoble's advice they actually made a video and had one of their engineers do the talking. Lamest video ever! Between deciding to focus on the engineer or on the computer screen, the script falls apart. Even if he didn't have a script, the whole point of making a video is to showcase the reader's USP features. Instead, it just wastes my time. That apart, the reader itself is excruciatingly slow in displaying posts from feeds and if you want to try changing the views around, your hair might even gray a bit! Another gripe is that they have all these buttons for the various operations I might want to do with each post right at the end. If I happen to be reading a very long post I would have to scroll ALL the way to the bottom and then click to share, tag etc. Why can't they just put these things at the top too? Its the same with their gmail - the reply, forward etc are right the end. Even the delete was at the bottom before someone had the sence to put a button right up on top. But, what I do love - tags (this is my new mantra), discoverability via their "share" feature and simple UI (its Google!). I haven't figured out this one yet, only some of my feeds are able to retrieve posts from the target site for as long as I kept scrolling down - a sort of infinite scroll bar. This is an awesome feature. I totally loved the scrolling and tags. The infinite scroll bar was a HUGE success for Microsoft (yes, I am afraid they were the first to do it. They do innovate there you know) on their live search.
Coming back to tags, wouldn't you like to tag (if you choose to, of course) the things that you want to visit later on your hard drive(s)? You remember them the way you want to and search for them using your own semantics. You have been unencumbered from remembering on which drive, under which folder your documents, music, videos sit awaiting your exalted return. Fixed, organized directories are a thing of the past! Tags are in, rigid categories/directories are out. Introducing Phlat, it turns your hard drive into a relational database. You specify your tags for how you want to remember anything on your drive. Key in your tags in the search box and voila! Of course, since its from Microsoft it runs on Microsoft desktop search (MDS). For another time - another rant on the lack of inter-operability and the division of the market by walled garden policies. But MDS is a pretty good product so one generally need not be too averse to installing it. I found it totally awesome - I have 300GB of songs/documents/emails/rss feeds/movies. I cannot manually look for anything, in fact I refuse to! Do try it out, I totally loved it. [download link]
I think I am going to start a new series on how stupid and frustrating the software we use today are. Let me start with Blogger - it is riddled with spammers and to take care of spam, the wise ones over at the plex decided to have word verification to prevent bots from trolling. They flipped the switch and all was well with the world once again. But, hang on, whats this? even the owner(s) of the blog HAVE to go through this word verification to reply to comments on their blog even when they are already signed in.
Dumpkoff! can't you see they might spam their own blog.
Yes, that must be it then.
Google announced its reader and I imported my opml into it in a flash to try it out. On Scoble's advice they actually made a video and had one of their engineers do the talking. Lamest video ever! Between deciding to focus on the engineer or on the computer screen, the script falls apart. Even if he didn't have a script, the whole point of making a video is to showcase the reader's USP features. Instead, it just wastes my time. That apart, the reader itself is excruciatingly slow in displaying posts from feeds and if you want to try changing the views around, your hair might even gray a bit! Another gripe is that they have all these buttons for the various operations I might want to do with each post right at the end. If I happen to be reading a very long post I would have to scroll ALL the way to the bottom and then click to share, tag etc. Why can't they just put these things at the top too? Its the same with their gmail - the reply, forward etc are right the end. Even the delete was at the bottom before someone had the sence to put a button right up on top. But, what I do love - tags (this is my new mantra), discoverability via their "share" feature and simple UI (its Google!). I haven't figured out this one yet, only some of my feeds are able to retrieve posts from the target site for as long as I kept scrolling down - a sort of infinite scroll bar. This is an awesome feature. I totally loved the scrolling and tags. The infinite scroll bar was a HUGE success for Microsoft (yes, I am afraid they were the first to do it. They do innovate there you know) on their live search.
Coming back to tags, wouldn't you like to tag (if you choose to, of course) the things that you want to visit later on your hard drive(s)? You remember them the way you want to and search for them using your own semantics. You have been unencumbered from remembering on which drive, under which folder your documents, music, videos sit awaiting your exalted return. Fixed, organized directories are a thing of the past! Tags are in, rigid categories/directories are out. Introducing Phlat, it turns your hard drive into a relational database. You specify your tags for how you want to remember anything on your drive. Key in your tags in the search box and voila! Of course, since its from Microsoft it runs on Microsoft desktop search (MDS). For another time - another rant on the lack of inter-operability and the division of the market by walled garden policies. But MDS is a pretty good product so one generally need not be too averse to installing it. I found it totally awesome - I have 300GB of songs/documents/emails/rss feeds/movies. I cannot manually look for anything, in fact I refuse to! Do try it out, I totally loved it. [download link]
I think I am going to start a new series on how stupid and frustrating the software we use today are. Let me start with Blogger - it is riddled with spammers and to take care of spam, the wise ones over at the plex decided to have word verification to prevent bots from trolling. They flipped the switch and all was well with the world once again. But, hang on, whats this? even the owner(s) of the blog HAVE to go through this word verification to reply to comments on their blog even when they are already signed in.
Dumpkoff! can't you see they might spam their own blog.
Yes, that must be it then.
More on its way.
Update [10/02/06]: Google reader has an infinite scroll bar for all my feeds and not just for a few as I had previously noted. I really love this feature, now I can scroll as far back as I like to retrieve much older posts without having to go to the target website and search through their archives.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Lights! Action! Camera!
Photokina 2006 is on and all the beauties have been revealed! I have been wanting to buy a DSLR for ever and this year feels right. The usual contenders are Canon (traditional favorite), Nikon (another traditionalist and favorite), Sony (this year's wildcard), Olympus (very strong contender) and finally, Sigma (another favorite).
The rumor mills have been chugging away the past couple of months. Canon, Nikon and Sony threw out their offerings before Photokina itself. I just had to see what Sigma was going to throw up and boy did they kick up a dust storm!
Canon EOS 400D/Digital Rebel XTi
reviews: DPReview, LetsGoDigital (EOS 350D, EOS 400D), Imaging-Resource, CameraLabs
Nikon D80
reviews: DPReview, LetsGoDigital, Imaging-Resource, CameraLabs
Sony Alpha 100
reviews: DPReview, LetsGoDigital, Imaging-Resource, CameraLabs
Sigma SD14 (just released, no reviews yet just specs)
reviews: Photokina Report, Official website, DPReview, LetsGoDigital
And for the sake of completeness,
Olympus E400 DSLR
reviews: LetsGoDigital, DPReview, Imaging-Resource (E330, E500), CameraLabs (E500, E400)
If someone wants to yell Panasonic! I suggest you poke around these wonderful sites and you will find reviews for them too.
These are my contenders. I am drooling over the Sigma but the price isn't out yet and I do not want to refinance my car just so that I can own one and I am not going to work any harder either. so there!
Update: the D70's kid brother (and the D50's younger brother) - the D40, is here. The D40 is an entry level DSLR that is surely up against the E400.
Reviews: LetsGoDigital, DPReview, Imaging-Resource, Megapixel.net
The rumor mills have been chugging away the past couple of months. Canon, Nikon and Sony threw out their offerings before Photokina itself. I just had to see what Sigma was going to throw up and boy did they kick up a dust storm!
Canon EOS 400D/Digital Rebel XTi
reviews: DPReview, LetsGoDigital (EOS 350D, EOS 400D), Imaging-Resource, CameraLabs
Nikon D80
reviews: DPReview, LetsGoDigital, Imaging-Resource, CameraLabs
Sony Alpha 100
reviews: DPReview, LetsGoDigital, Imaging-Resource, CameraLabs
Sigma SD14 (just released, no reviews yet just specs)
reviews: Photokina Report, Official website, DPReview, LetsGoDigital
And for the sake of completeness,
Olympus E400 DSLR
reviews: LetsGoDigital, DPReview, Imaging-Resource (E330, E500), CameraLabs (E500, E400)
If someone wants to yell Panasonic! I suggest you poke around these wonderful sites and you will find reviews for them too.
These are my contenders. I am drooling over the Sigma but the price isn't out yet and I do not want to refinance my car just so that I can own one and I am not going to work any harder either. so there!
Update: the D70's kid brother (and the D50's younger brother) - the D40, is here. The D40 is an entry level DSLR that is surely up against the E400.
Reviews: LetsGoDigital, DPReview, Imaging-Resource, Megapixel.net
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
The Underground Man
I am done with reading Dostoevsky's "Notes From The Underground" and it is as much a classic (contradictory as it sounds, existentially speaking of course) as Kaufman says it is. It was eye-opening - after reading Nietzsche (my favorite existentialist) not everything that comes your way impresses you. You sit back with an enlightened, heightened consciousness trying to come to terms with this, for the lack of a better word, education. After the initial excitement of reading and comprehending (atleast partly and with repeated reading) one of the seminal works in existentialism, you actually think and apply your own filters to this lode. There are some themes - of alienation, torment and hatred - which I will explore in another post. I urge those who can and want to read it.
The next existentialist in Kaufman's taxonomy is Kierkegaard. I have no immediate wish to read up on Kierkegaard's works, so I will stick to Kaufman's expose on Kierkegaard's flavor of existentialism. Watch this space for more.
The next existentialist in Kaufman's taxonomy is Kierkegaard. I have no immediate wish to read up on Kierkegaard's works, so I will stick to Kaufman's expose on Kierkegaard's flavor of existentialism. Watch this space for more.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
Abou Ben Adhem
I was flipping through my book of poems when I chanced upon a poem I had read during my school days - its relevance to the present world scenario can hardly be ignored.
Without further ado, James Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem"
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,,
An angel writing in a book of gold -
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the prescence in the room he said,
'What writest thou' - the vision rais'd its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answer'd, 'The names of those who love the Lord'
'And is mine one?' said Abou. 'Nay, not so,'
replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.'
The angel wrote, and vanish'd. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And show'd the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Without further ado, James Leigh Hunt's "Abou Ben Adhem"
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,,
An angel writing in a book of gold -
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the prescence in the room he said,
'What writest thou' - the vision rais'd its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answer'd, 'The names of those who love the Lord'
'And is mine one?' said Abou. 'Nay, not so,'
replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerily still; and said, 'I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow men.'
The angel wrote, and vanish'd. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And show'd the names whom love of God had blest,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Sunrise at the Angkor Wat
I was in Cambodia last winter and shot the sunrise at the serene and majestic Angkor Wat, I definitely thought that many of the smaller and lesser known temples far exceeded the Angkor in elegance and beauty but then the Angkor was never about intricate beauty. Majesty and scale are its hallmarks.
Click on the image to see the picture in its actual size (2544 x 1696). If anyone is interested in the EXIF data, I will put that up too.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Word Play
Chris Anderson, author of "The Long Tail", in his blog introduces a fascinating (atleast to me) idea of the interplay of words, their frequency of occurance as opposed to their length, their contextual meaning and juxtaposition.
To quickly summarize his thesis, Chris cites Zipf's Law which states that the frequency distribution of words as a function of their length has an exponential distribution and the rank of these words shares a power law relationship with their frequency of occurance/usage. This was based on analyzing James Joyce's opus Ulysses and was stated, at the time, to hold true for the english language. Chris then cites Wentian Li who proves that this is the case for all languages including imaginary ones that constitute words banged out on keyboards by monkeys. Chris then concludes that Zipf's Law is more of a mathematical law in total rather than one governing and explaining linguistic features of a particular, or for that matter any, language.
Just thinking about this, one can already see that certain words (like "I") are more likely than certain others with the same length (I can't think of any right now but you are free to fill in the blanks). And this, I am sure, is a feature of the english language. There might be different relationships in different languages but there is enough evidence to suggest that all languages (real and inventented) do not follow the power law blindly. Rules of linguistic construction are the anamolies and these rules, in my opinion, were first formalized by years of talking/speaking before they were codified into a written language system. I am no linguist and certainly no expert on the evolution of languages and am shooting from the hip here but Li, in my opinion, has over generalized Zipf's Law.
Edit: A fun way to learn about the Long Tail phenomenon
To quickly summarize his thesis, Chris cites Zipf's Law which states that the frequency distribution of words as a function of their length has an exponential distribution and the rank of these words shares a power law relationship with their frequency of occurance/usage. This was based on analyzing James Joyce's opus Ulysses and was stated, at the time, to hold true for the english language. Chris then cites Wentian Li who proves that this is the case for all languages including imaginary ones that constitute words banged out on keyboards by monkeys. Chris then concludes that Zipf's Law is more of a mathematical law in total rather than one governing and explaining linguistic features of a particular, or for that matter any, language.
Just thinking about this, one can already see that certain words (like "I") are more likely than certain others with the same length (I can't think of any right now but you are free to fill in the blanks). And this, I am sure, is a feature of the english language. There might be different relationships in different languages but there is enough evidence to suggest that all languages (real and inventented) do not follow the power law blindly. Rules of linguistic construction are the anamolies and these rules, in my opinion, were first formalized by years of talking/speaking before they were codified into a written language system. I am no linguist and certainly no expert on the evolution of languages and am shooting from the hip here but Li, in my opinion, has over generalized Zipf's Law.
Edit: A fun way to learn about the Long Tail phenomenon
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
The Heart Of Existentialism Pt. 1
I have been reading (yes reading. You can stop laughing now) Walter Kaufman's "Existentialism - From Dostoevsky To Sartre", a wonderful thought provoking book on the philosophy of existentialism. Why I sought out this book and what I think of it is irrelevant to this post. What is relevant, is his scholarly insight into the stalwarts of the existentialist movement, the essence of their philosophy - its evolution and impact, and unmatched clarity of thought and presentation. I have distilled some passages from the afore mentioned book for the interested reader. All text in (bold) italics constitutes passages from the book while my fillers are in plain text. I urge the reader to chew on the general philosophy, savor the ideas and themes, relish it and bask in all its glory.
Kaufman introduces Existentialism with - "Existentialism is not a philosophy but a label for several widely different revolts against traditional philosophy. Existentialism is not a school of thought nor reducable to any set of tenets." He presents various passages, essays and letters from philosophers and litterateurs who, in his opinion, influenced and shaped this movement. Of these scholars, he says "The three writers who appear invariably on every list of "existentialists" - Jaspers, Heidegger and Sartre - are not in agreement on the essentials. Such alleged precursors as Pascal and Kierkegaard differed from all three men by being dedicated Christians...If, as is often done, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky are included in the fold then we must make room for an impassioned anti-Christian and an even more fanatical Greek-Orthodox Russian imperialist. By the time we consider adding Rilke, Kafka, and Camus, it becomes plain that one essential feature shared by all these men is their perfervid individualism."
"The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic and remote from life - that is the heart of existentialism."
Though Kaufman has extensively translated, in his book, many essays from each of the philosophers he mentions, I am going to cull out, modifying the tone if the need arises and present excerpts to paint you, my interested reader, a pseudo-indivdualistic landscape of existentialism. I again urge the reader to savor and relish the myriad textures and hues of individuality that Kaufman, through the philosophy of existentialist giants, paints.
Of Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground", Kaufman opines "is the best overture for existentialism ever written. With inimitable vigor and finesse the major themes are stated here....." He goes on to say "...the drama of the mind that is sufficient to itself, yet conscious of its every weakness and determined to exploit it. What we perceive is an unheard of song of songs on individuality: not classical, not Biblical and not at all romantic. No, individuality is not re-touched, idolized or holy; it is wretched and revolting, and yet, for all its misery, the highest good." He points out an important trait of romanticism that contrasts itself sharply with core of existentialism - the celebration of the self, the individual with all its faults and shortcomings. "Romanticism is flight from the present, whether into the past, the future, or another world, dreams, or, most often, a vague fog. It is self deception. Romanticism yearns for deliverance from the cross of Here and Now; it is willing to face anything but the facts. No prize, however great, can justify an ounce of self deception or a small departure from the ugly facts. ....... Man's inner life, his moods, anxieties and decisions are moved into the center until, as it were, no scenery at all remains.... he [sic, the man whom Dostoevsky has created] believes neither in the original sin nor in God. For him, man's self will is not depravity; it is only perverse from the point of view of rationalists and others who value neat schemes above the rich texture of individuality.
I am sure the astute reader already sees a pattern emerging here - celebration of the self, the overlordship of individuality, atheist in nature, lengthy self observation and understanding and above all absolutely no self deception - the dark, grimy underside of human nature is celebrated with much the same gusto as love and happiness. In any celebration of individuality, the differences are stressed, studied and exphasized over the similarities. Also, interestingly, lengthy self observation and understanding oneself without any self deception affirms psychology as another concurrent theme in existentialism. Keep in mind Kaufman's words that existentialism cannot be reduced to some tenets. I leave you to contemplate these points. Their import will sink in only, in my opinion, with some inrospection. I will return to post more nuggets from the other existentialists that highlight other themes in existentialism, hopefully, broadening and pushing the boundaries of your consciousness.
Kaufman introduces Existentialism with - "Existentialism is not a philosophy but a label for several widely different revolts against traditional philosophy. Existentialism is not a school of thought nor reducable to any set of tenets." He presents various passages, essays and letters from philosophers and litterateurs who, in his opinion, influenced and shaped this movement. Of these scholars, he says "The three writers who appear invariably on every list of "existentialists" - Jaspers, Heidegger and Sartre - are not in agreement on the essentials. Such alleged precursors as Pascal and Kierkegaard differed from all three men by being dedicated Christians...If, as is often done, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky are included in the fold then we must make room for an impassioned anti-Christian and an even more fanatical Greek-Orthodox Russian imperialist. By the time we consider adding Rilke, Kafka, and Camus, it becomes plain that one essential feature shared by all these men is their perfervid individualism."
"The refusal to belong to any school of thought, the repudiation of the adequacy of any body of beliefs, and especially of systems, and a marked dissatisfaction with traditional philosophy as superficial, academic and remote from life - that is the heart of existentialism."
Though Kaufman has extensively translated, in his book, many essays from each of the philosophers he mentions, I am going to cull out, modifying the tone if the need arises and present excerpts to paint you, my interested reader, a pseudo-indivdualistic landscape of existentialism. I again urge the reader to savor and relish the myriad textures and hues of individuality that Kaufman, through the philosophy of existentialist giants, paints.
Of Dostoevsky's "Notes From Underground", Kaufman opines "is the best overture for existentialism ever written. With inimitable vigor and finesse the major themes are stated here....." He goes on to say "...the drama of the mind that is sufficient to itself, yet conscious of its every weakness and determined to exploit it. What we perceive is an unheard of song of songs on individuality: not classical, not Biblical and not at all romantic. No, individuality is not re-touched, idolized or holy; it is wretched and revolting, and yet, for all its misery, the highest good." He points out an important trait of romanticism that contrasts itself sharply with core of existentialism - the celebration of the self, the individual with all its faults and shortcomings. "Romanticism is flight from the present, whether into the past, the future, or another world, dreams, or, most often, a vague fog. It is self deception. Romanticism yearns for deliverance from the cross of Here and Now; it is willing to face anything but the facts. No prize, however great, can justify an ounce of self deception or a small departure from the ugly facts. ....... Man's inner life, his moods, anxieties and decisions are moved into the center until, as it were, no scenery at all remains.... he [sic, the man whom Dostoevsky has created] believes neither in the original sin nor in God. For him, man's self will is not depravity; it is only perverse from the point of view of rationalists and others who value neat schemes above the rich texture of individuality.
I am sure the astute reader already sees a pattern emerging here - celebration of the self, the overlordship of individuality, atheist in nature, lengthy self observation and understanding and above all absolutely no self deception - the dark, grimy underside of human nature is celebrated with much the same gusto as love and happiness. In any celebration of individuality, the differences are stressed, studied and exphasized over the similarities. Also, interestingly, lengthy self observation and understanding oneself without any self deception affirms psychology as another concurrent theme in existentialism. Keep in mind Kaufman's words that existentialism cannot be reduced to some tenets. I leave you to contemplate these points. Their import will sink in only, in my opinion, with some inrospection. I will return to post more nuggets from the other existentialists that highlight other themes in existentialism, hopefully, broadening and pushing the boundaries of your consciousness.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Over and Over and Over
Dio's powerful vocals, Iommi's plodding doomy riffs and trippy leads and cryptic/philosophical lyrics - the very makings of many a Sabbath song. Ponder over these lyrics for a while till I am back with some worthwhile to write.
Sometimes I feel like I'm dying at dawn
and sometimes I'm warm as fire
But lately I feel like I'm just gonna rain
and it goes over, and over, and over again, yeah
Too many flames, with too much to burn
and life's only made of paper
Oh, how I need to be free of this pain
but it goes over, and over, and over, and over again
Yeah, sometimes I cry for the lost and alone
and for their dreams that will all be ashes
But lately I feel like I'm just gonna rain
but it goes over, and over, and over, and over again
Sometimes I feel like I'm dying at dawn
and sometimes I'm warm as fire
But lately I feel like I'm just gonna rain
and it goes over, and over, and over again, yeah
Too many flames, with too much to burn
and life's only made of paper
Oh, how I need to be free of this pain
but it goes over, and over, and over, and over again
Yeah, sometimes I cry for the lost and alone
and for their dreams that will all be ashes
But lately I feel like I'm just gonna rain
but it goes over, and over, and over, and over again
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Motörhead: I Ain't No Nice Guy Anymore
When I was young, I was the nicest guy I knew
I thought I was the chosen one
But time went by and I found out a thing or two
My shine wore off as time wore on
I thought that I was living out the perfect life
But in the lonely hours when the truth begins to bite
I thought about the times when I turned my back & stalled
I ain't no nice guy after all
When I was young, I was the only game in town
I thought I had it down for sure,
But time went by and I was lost in what I found
The reasons blurred, the way unsure
I thought that I was living life the only way
But as I saw, that life was more than day to day
I turned around, I read the writing on the wall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
In all the years you spend between your birth and death
You find there's lots of times you should have saved your breath
It comes as quite a shock when that trip leads to a fall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
I thought I was the chosen one
But time went by and I found out a thing or two
My shine wore off as time wore on
I thought that I was living out the perfect life
But in the lonely hours when the truth begins to bite
I thought about the times when I turned my back & stalled
I ain't no nice guy after all
When I was young, I was the only game in town
I thought I had it down for sure,
But time went by and I was lost in what I found
The reasons blurred, the way unsure
I thought that I was living life the only way
But as I saw, that life was more than day to day
I turned around, I read the writing on the wall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
In all the years you spend between your birth and death
You find there's lots of times you should have saved your breath
It comes as quite a shock when that trip leads to a fall
I ain't no nice guy after all
I ain't no nice guy after all
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Downtown Philadelphia
Canon S2 IS in night mode. It was still twilight outside and the prolonged exposure has over exposed the horizon. That apart, the city and the Schuylkill river have come out in striking contrast - deep blue/black as opposed to the lights of the city
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