PhotoBlog: A day in Jersey City

I had initially set out to write a blog post panning the Millennium City. However, after my two previous posts panning certain musicians, I secretly wished to write about something positive (mainly due to the fear of being typecast as a Ranting Outrage Uncle).

Thanks then, to the Gods, for ensuring a day of glorious weather. The morning started with an invitation from my uncle to gatecrash a wedding. A pretty nice North Indian - South Indian fusion ABCD wedding it was then. I got to witness a "Baraat" in this part of the world.

Mare-Not Horse

The wedding rituals were mostly South Indian, and one sweet touch was to hand out a small booklet explaining the significance of each ritual in the (abridged) wedding. Given the increasing number of North-South weddings happening in India, it may be a good idea to hand out these booklets in such weddings.

The wedding was held at the Hyatt Regency by the Hudson, and I can affirmatively say that no other place can offer such a breathtaking view both of Midtown and Downtown Manhattan. One of the advantages of living in Jersey City and Hoboken is the view of both the skylines (especially from Exchange Place), which you obviously can't obtain in Manhattan itself. :-)

Midtown Madness

Downtown

Note the 3 tallest buildings in the midtown pic (from left to right) - (a) 1, Bryant Park - Bank of America Tower (b) 432, Park Avenue - One of the tallest residential buildings in the world (c) Empire State Building

Mandatory Boastful Comment: The green building right beside 1, Bryant Park is where I spend most of my waking hours. :D. From the entrance of the building (below), it does look pretty amazing. (Credits for this photo: Souvik Roy).

1095, AoA

I then found this interesting attraction outside the Hyatt Regency. 

Jantar Mantar #6
Location: Amdavad of the Western Hemisphere

This is a sun dial, very similar to the ones at the 5 Jantar Mantars in India. At 3 pm, the dial showed the time as 2 pm, possibly because we are still on Daylight Savings time until next weekend.

There was a "Indian festival of lights" celebration at Exchange Place, hosted by yet another Indian cultural association. While most gigs involved kids dancing to "Barso Re", there was this amazing performance by a fusion band called Mind Mind Motion, which had 4 guys, one each on guitar, sitar, tabla and percussion.

Sitar and Guitar: They rhyme well

On the walk back home, I could see that the hangover of Super Bowl XLVIII still lingers (somewhere at Grove Street)

Still a very Super Bowl

I then came across the JC downtown Halloween bash. This was an interesting fair near Grove Street, because, apart from the usual food stalls, we had dentists, massage parlours, petting zoos etc. set up shop. And, I sighted a Llama.

Location: Not Ecuador

To wrap up things, there was a rock concert at a cemetery / graveyard.

The Dead shall arise (thanks to all the Rock)

No seriously, there was a concert stage near the yellow and blue flags on the pic. In fact, there was this banner outside the cemetery. So much for All Souls day, Souls resting in peace etc etc.

Next Event - Tales from the Crypt: Halloween Walking Tour, Oct 31

Walking tour? Not of the cemetery please. I don't think that's a good way to spend a Friday.

A good day's work then.
Cheers

Disclaimer: Jersey City Improvement Council has not paid me to write this blog post.

Lyrical Ludicrousness-2: Yo!

So, on to the second edition of Lyrical Ludicrousness, starring Yo^2 Honey Singh (who loves to be addressed as Yo!). I needed to do quite a bit of research on this guy, since I have only heard two of his songs: Lungi Dance (Subject of a previous blog post) and the Woofer-Amplifier song......

Wait, the Woofer-Amplifier song is not sung by Yo! ?? Turns out that Its some Pak-Dutch singer named Imran Khan, though, looking at the two images below, you'd be tempted to believe that they are brothers-in-arms roaming through the myriad malls of Gurgaon.

So, more research then. Google search, and there is a website which shows the lyrics of all his songs. At the very first glance, the songs all have a common underlying theme:

Location: Some awesome party in some god-forsaken location in Gurgaon.
Subject: Some beautiful, well-dressed girl
Topic of Discussion: Make-up used -> Drink which she is having -> Next Steps
Next Steps: Shit like penthouse / top floor; calling "father-in-law" blah blah. (I am not going to elaborate on this)
Notable Song titles: Alcoholic, Love Dose, Chal Mere Ghar, Chaar Bottle Vodka, Weed Pila de, Main Sharabi

Safe to say that if certain sections of NCR youth actually start believing / getting inspired by this stuff, we are in a mess. Last I heard, Yo^2 songs are being sung at birthday parties of 10-year old kids.That, if true, is even scarier news.

On a parting note, I heard that the movie "Xpose", which released recently, featured both HimeshBhai and Yo!, which features Himesh as an sacked-cop-turned-actor........

Really?

Lyrical Ludicrousness-1: REPEAT!

Credits: Pramath Verma, For letting me use the name of his blog as my blog post title without permission.

This post has been in the works for a long time. It had been lying in draft mode for as long as my blog has been in hibernation. Many thanks to Souvik, Tahmina and Sanchita then, for bringing up the topic of the two most _______ (fill with inappropriate adjective) Indian musicians of the 21st century. We start first, with the senior music director-turned-singer-turned-actor-turned..........

Himesh Reshammiya:

Turns out that Himesh Bhai did start off pretty early in Bollywood (1998, to be precise, courtesy Wiki). He really took off, though, (at least in terms of movie soundtracks / per year), somewhere around 2004. Thank goodness then, for IITJEE coaching (never thought I'd say this, ever), for keeping me preoccupied through this period. Though, being honest, he was okay as a music composer. Eventually, along came 2005, BITS Pilani....and yes, Aashiq Banaya Aapne, and THAT cap. 

This song became a major hit for some reason (Whattay singing debut). This popularity can also be attributed partly to Emraan Hashmi (adulation, envy, whatever you can call it). I found it pretty irritating though (major understatement, this). To start with: The Werewolf sound. And then, Lyrics. So now, you have three words, (Aashiq Banaya Aapne). How do you manage to fill 15 seconds of air time 10 times in a song? Simple. REPEAT. 

(Aashiq Banaya) * 3 ....aapne. (And repeat this wherever possible in the song).

At the height of the mania, comparisons with the legend Mukesh began to be made. (Nasal Twang and all Ok, but seriously?). Neil Nitin Mukesh, were you listening?

Along came 2006, another song by Himesh, in a movie starring (you guessed it) Emraan. Song in question: Jhalak Dikhla ja. And this is how it goes:

(Jhalak Dikhla Ja) * 4

Ek baar (Aa jaa) * 5 (Ironic isn't it? Ek baar....followed by a five-fold repetition).

There, a pattern emerges. Now, for some reason, there were other songs he had sung, but the only ones running on TVs and hostel rooms were these gems. In the same year, one more gem, from a movie named "Rocky-the Rebel". And this song starts as:

Junoon * 12. One word....12 times. 

At this point in time, I had to check the follower and hater groups for ARR and Himesh on orkut (RIP). ARR's followers outnumbered Himesh's, and there were multiple anti-fan groups for Himesh, vs one really small one for ARR (Yes, someone actually did not like ARR). But still, all was well with the world.

Anyways, I do not recall any memorable albums after this period. He did make his acting debut, and acted in movies such as Aap Ka surroor, Karzzzz (some problem with the keyboard, no doubt), and most recently, the Xpose. I have seen none of these movies, so I shall refrain from commenting further.

Ahh wait, I totally missed Hookah Bar, the only song which he has written, apart from singing it too. 

Tera (Pyaar)*3 Hookah Bar. 

So someone's love has been compared to a .....Hookah Bar. Umm, let me know if any of you got this comparison.

So that's a long enough post. Next musician, up next, in another post, which will hopefully be published soon. Cheers!