RESMONT

Resmont is a new word and I am definitely sure about it because I see a red underline as I type this blog post using Imagine for Mac. I am a playlist happy music listener. I have a lot of music just like most of us, but I keep improvising on my playlist making. So one day, I went extremely crazy and brought out this wonderful playlist for shuffle listening – RESMONT. I started by creating individual smart playlists in iTunes.

To start with, a top 25 songs of what was recently played from your library and I called it “Recently Played”. Quite a simple playlist that iTunes has by default but it gives a good picture of what you had listen to latest. For example I have “Chithirai Nila” from Kadal, topping this list. Let us call this RE.

Sometimes I skip songs. If I don’t have the mood to listen to a particular song now, I just skip it. But iTunes is clever and it keeps track of how many times I skipped a song. So I created a playlist that will hold Top 25 of my most skipped song. Well what did I know, I had skipped “Hoshwalon” from Sarfarosh for 384 times all time, even though this song is my favorite with a 5 star rating. I had been unconsciously cruel to some great music, looking at this playlist. Let us call this S.

Now, I like some songs a lot and lean towards listening to them while on Computer, on iPods and also on Apple TV. So they get the most played count. Lo behold, a new playlist called Most Played to hold the top 25 most played songs. Let us call this MO.

What you add recently to the library from purchases in iTunes or Flipkart’s Flyte is something you may want to listen to often. I take the top 25 just added and make a playlist “New add”. I recently added a wonderful soundtrack music “The married life” from the Pixar movie UP, bought for 12 rupees from iTunes. Let us call this N.

Finally, to cream up the selection I thought I could create a playlist called Top Rated (default in iTunes with 4 stars and above) with all music with 5 star rating. Seems I had only 2 of them. One is Hoshwalon from Sarfarosh, which is also the most skipped and is beyond my understanding, why a 5 star rating song was skipped so many times. Oh vasantha raja from Neengal kettavai is the other 5 star song. I just seem to be lazy to give star ratings or it is rare for any music to reach 5 star rating from me. Let us call this T.

Simply put all of the above together – RE S MO N T, is a new smart playlist that holds songs from all these 5 playlists. You got the Resmont playlist ready to be copied to your iPod shuffle. I have been listening for more than a week and it has been full of surprises and discovery of music from my own library.

Share your own playlists creation and help the world rejoice in music listening.

Shuffling on the iPod

As I woke up at 5AM today with a hot cup of Ginger tea, I was getting ready to go get my dad and in-laws from Bangalore Cantonment railway station. After a half hour drive through partially lit roads, still dark, I reached the station only to find out the train has stopped in Byappanahalli for crossing. The arrival time was moved from 6.10 to 6.35. It gave me sometime to get a copy of Bangalore Mirror and read some interesting bits of news on the last page. It was interesting to read about a small community in a village in UK trying to keep a very old family shop alive, about 350 years old. The small newspaper shop in the station also sold board games and I got Angry birds for my daughter.

Pacing up and down, reading the paper, I finally saw the announcement come through for the arrival by about 6.45. It was unusually 45 minutes late and usually we get out before dawn. But today, I saw the train come through mild bluish sky of the early morning from a distance with the deep running track giving a nice perspective of the arriving train. I wish I had my camera for a perfect wide angle shot.

By the time we got out and into the car it was about 7AM. This is when I connected my iPod shuffle to the Car Aux Audio. This one is a flashy blue clip iPod shuffle from 2007 and it started playing a Tamil classical instrumental. A nice melodious way to start the morning. My dad and in laws were probably wondering why I would listen to this, but they were in for a different surprise. The surprise that a shuffle brings. As we crossed Shivaji Nagar, MG Road and through the old madras road with bumpy roads and erratic signals, the song changed to Anbin vasalile from Kadal, a Christian prayer song from the upcoming Manirathnam Movie – Kadal. Now this was a new song, and I am guessing they were wondering how come I have classical and Christian gospel playing one after the other.

As we approached the KR Puram station crossing the numerous bumpy and potholed roads from Byappanahalli, the song changed to Susanna from The Art Company, a song that was copied by Deva in the movie Vaali as “O Sona” for “Susanna”. Classical to Gospel and now an 80’s pop, they were now probably thinking I am crazy. After we crossed a horrible traffic in  KR Puram junction at around 7.30, we got closer to home and the iPod shuffled to “Vanam Mella” from Nee Thaane en pon vasantham. By now I thought, my aged shuffle has got really wonderful in keeping me surprised.

We reached home at 7.45 and the iPod finally shuffled back to another Tamil classical. I got out of the car and wondered if it was just the iPod that shuffled or the whole of this morning with a delayed train and driving through unexpected traffic and some bumpy bad roads. May be the bumpy road made the iPod to shuffle crazy.

Happy New year to all ! I have also been posting some of my photographs in my Photo blog at Classicframes.

Soulful Music

Soulful Music, originally uploaded by ubababu.

He was playing it for the love of music. Of course there were one dollar bills in his Tip Bucket, one of which was mine, but they were there merely to take care of this survival. So that, this man can live and bring the music alive. In the noise of the Kansas city Farmer’s market, The African American Man in a Cool shirt provided a beautiful ambience in a corner. It was simply beautiful. Can you see the music he is playing?

For more photos, Please checkout my Flickr Pool.

Tag: Tamil and Hindi Songs

I love music. I believe music of any form puts us in touch with our inner self and gives us a sense of freedom. Reema has tagged me to list some music that I love. Music is always fun.

I grew up listening to some English songs, a lot of Hindi songs and a boat load of Tamil Songs. While Tamil songs were the main form of music I was listening to, my uncles introduced me to the world of RD Burman, Manna Dey, Kishore kumar in the Hindi World. My friends in School and College made sure I got some earful of Bryan Adams, Guns n Roses, George Michael.

My music love is from the 80′s, 90′s and the present time, though I prefer the oldies too (the ones that came before I was born).

This tag is about picking the songs that you loved and I will be listing 1 song each from the 3 periods of Time I have been in this Planet.

80′s:

Ilaiyaraja ruled the Tamil world. His melodies were more of a fashion statement. He brought freedom, love, compassion, happiness, sorrow in his songs, in a very unique style.

Ilaiya Nila from  Payanangal Mudivathillai (Journeys never end)  is one of the best from those times.

90′s:

Things had to change and it had to change because of one man – A.R.Rahman. The musical Genius was absolutely splendid right from his 1st album – Roja.

Thee Thee from Thiruda Thiruda is a mind blowing love song. This song is almost 20 years ahead of its time.

Latest:

Apart from A.R.Rahman and Ilaiyaraja we have some decent music directors in Tamil like Yuvan Shankar Raja, Vidhyasagar and Harris Jayaraj. I am going to pick one song from the lot and the only reason for picking this song is this is my daughter’s favourite. I think she likes Surya. She smiles wide when she sees him on screen.

Adiye Kolluthe from Vaaranam Ayiram.

If I have to call 2 Hindi movies that brought me into the world of Hindi Movies are Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak and Tezaab. I really love this song.

80′s:

Kehdo ke tum from Tezaab

90′s:

Aamir Khan is a versatile actor. Rangeela is one movie where he surprised me. It was a role I never expected to see him in and play it with such an ease.

Mangta Hai Kya from Rangeela

Latest: (well almost)

Continuing on my belief that Aamir Khan is probably the only lead Bollywood actor that acts well (apart from character artists like Naseeruddin shah, Om Puri), I like all the songs in Dil Chahta Hai, but this one is the best.

Jaane Kyon from Dil Chahta Hai.

What’s your list? Would you like to share? Go ahead take this as a tag and put it up in your blog, if you got an interesting list. It can be any of the Indian Language.

Dappankuthu – A Form of south Indian dance

“Dappa” means box and “Kuthu” means punch. So a literal translation for it is “box punch”. Dappankuthu is a form of Indian dance, born in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. This is a form of dance for the common man, a freestyle way of dancing. There are no exact rules of how to perform this piece of art but I was quite sweetly greeted with some steps to follow when I casually searched for it in Wikipedia. Wiki has nothing that it cannot explain it to you. So here is what wiki says about Dappankuthu

I would like to quote a portion of it which is very significant.

[Wiki says :

It is considered important to dance the way one feels during the performance (i.e., to improvise), so dapaankuthu is not necessarily restricted to the above steps, though they form the major elements of this traditional art form.]

The main idea behind this form of dance is how creative (or destructive) can you get. You are allowed to pick any props at will and create steps the way you want. During college music festivals, it is common for students to dance with “extra-ordinary” coke bottles or chairs or belts or sometimes even people being thrown up in the air. Yes, Dappankuthu is a “free and open source” form of dancing. There are no dance teachers and no student dancers. Everyone is a beginner and are expected to create and learn new steps each and every time.

Dappankuthu dance is used to express joy, relieve yourself of emotional stress, and boost your self esteem. It is also a great cardio-vascular workout. None of these are scientifically proven, but after a brief performance you will find out that you don’t need scientific proofs to believe in this. In order to perform one, just follow those 8 steps outlined in wikipedia and keep improving on it at your will.

Any dance cannot be performed without music. There have been thousands of “Dappankuthu” songs in Tamil music. They all base it on a single style of beat called the “Kottu”. Kottu means beat in Tamil. We shall refer to this as Dappankuthu music from here on. I will pick a few of the most popular of Dappankuthu songs from the Tamil movies, for you hearing and dancing pleasure.

Movie: Murattu kaalai (means “Raging bull”), Song: “Pothuvaga”. You can listen to it for free at Raaga. Just click on the song name “Annanukku jai”. This is a victory song, where the hero in the movie (Tamil superstar) celebrates his victory of taming a furious bull. You can also preview/buy the song for 99cents from iTunes.

Movie: Kathala Kathala Song: “Kaasumela“. This song is an expression of joy over earning money, becoming rich. This song is also available in iTunes.

Movie: Gillie Song: “Appadi podu“. This is a duet. A joyous expression of love. Here is the iTunes link.

In order to keep the post within the standard blog reader attention span, I will stop the list of songs here. But you are welcome to add your favourite Dappankuthu songs with links in the comments.

[ I have no link to any of these record companies of the above stated songs. I just wanted to make a comprehensive post on the greatness of the Art form called Dappankuthu].

There are also some subset of Dappankuthu music. Savu kuthu (or Savu kottu) which means “Death beat” (or Death punch). This is a kind of a wild country beat that is played during the funeral procession. It is not a custom of every one in Tamil nadu, but there are quite a few who do it. There are special “Death punch” bands available, who can play the music and perform the dance during the procession.

Another form of Dappankuthu music that has recently gained in popularity is “Gaana” songs. Gaana means “song” (so Gaana is recursive naming like GNU, well almost!). Gaana is like Hip hop or a Rap equivalent in Tamil. This special form of music has its roots at various kuppams and pettais (regions) of the Chennai city.

Movie: Chithiram pesuthadi Song: Vazha meenu. Scroll down the list and click on the song name Vazha meenu and enjoy a latest Gaana superhit song.

Dappankuthu music and dance has been there for a long time in Tamil Nadu and expect the tradition to be passed on to generations. A free form of dancing and music that is all about fun and expressing your emotions in the most fun way possible.