Grammys Play the Quintessential Art Snobs

When Justin Bieber got a hat-trick at the American Music Awards last month he snubbed his critics by dedicating an award "to the haters."

But the Grammy's 2013 nominee list clearly reads "Haters 1: Beliebers 0”. The Teenage "Baby" singer's manager Scooter Braun not impressed with his boy missing out, was quick to react to the nominations with the tweet "I just plain disagree. The kid deserved it".

Avial a few weeks before Onam

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Yes, that's what I had on independence eve night at Bangalore, a good mix of Avial. No, we are not referring to the dish here but the Mallu rock band Avial. My 1^st real rock show, so nothing much to compare it to. But yes it was fun for me, and inspired the very malnourished Malayalam singer in me to sing along.

The crowd was very much an Avial crowd in-spite of the organisers move of advertising the show with Parikrama as the main heroes.

Tony, the main singer of Avial very much reminded me of The Devil, with his sexy bald hair, pixie pointed ears, pale skin, sharp eyes, and just fit body. These not so mallu looks, along with his paccha (raw) Malayalam combined his trademark the rebel mallu attire consisting of a school boy white shirt and a black lungi was what the crowd out there loved most about him.

The “Tony, Tony” chants went on throughout the performance, and he dint disappoint his fans one bit. In between the hit numbers he had his own corny malayalam lines like “are we roking, and rolingg makalle?” to keep the crowd entertained.

Thanks to unequal growth hormones between the sexes I was right behind a bunch of tall guys who just kept jumping all the time, making my view of the concert much more difficult. The crowd was very sane for a rock concert, but off course there was the mood of alcohol, mixed with the fragrance of dope every 5 mins a new guy passed by.

The band is a ‘Rang De Basanthi’(with full reference to the movie) type band. In the sense it is one that has the power to make even the ‘Fraud mallu’ sit back, listen, feel proud to be a Malayali, and understand a few issues/stories related with the place he/she comes from.

The popularity of the band’s music is not restricted to just to Kerala, but crosses even the country’s borders. Many compare it to the popularity of the band to that of the German rock band ‘Rammstein’, with the similarity that both sing in strange languages, but the music is as good as ever.

Also called ‘Alternate Malayalam rock’ genre, the band is one that made me tone my tongue to twist it a bit further to sing their Malayalam lyrics. When someone makes you try hard to do something you never bothered to then that is what I call Influential. No doubt Avial is one such band in the history of Malayalam music.

More than a ball game

A month Pune and Kochi were dancing. Why? Because they were getting their own IPL team, but today slogans of ‘Ban IPL’ are being screamed all over.

A month back IPL news meant ‘KKR thrashed again’ or ‘Sachin proves he is god in all forms of the game’ or ‘Yuvraj angry over captaincy issue’, but today it means ‘Was Shashi Tharoor really playing a foul game or is he another victim of controversy’ or ‘Modi not going down without a fight.’

So ultimately who is the joke on? Is it on Sunanda who was forced to give up her share in the Kochi team? Is it on the newly ex-president of the IPL Mr.Lalit Modi ? Is it on the million cricket fans who religiously followed every match, only to realize that it was all fixed in the 1^st place.

Tharoor’s little secret game has now become a major issue involving many big names in the underworld, and questioning the credibility of many politicians and the government. It all started with Modi’s casual tweet about Tharoor wanting to be all hush-hush about his girlfriend Sunanda holding free equity in the Kochi team, and that ironically has got Modi himself under the axe.

When Tharoor who claimed to be ‘only a mentor’ to the Kochi team found himself at the receiving end of the IPL and political blows, with no ‘team’ to support his case, he bailed himself out by resigning as foreign minister, with grace. His resignation speech was classy to say the least, and only a fool would think that was his vote of thanks to political life. Lets all hope that will rise from the dead.

Lalit Modi was the next victim of the IPL hurricane, but for all we know of him, he wasn’t one to give in so easily, the IPL was his brain child, his baby. For the past 3 years Lalit Modi has taken centre stage of the IPL, he hasn’t had to share the limelight either, because the rest of the world didn’t care for the supporting actors. Modi took the all the right and wrong decisions associated with the IPL unilaterally, and always thought it a better idea to tweet about it as soon as he decided.

But one who has lived by the axe must die by the axe, and ultimately at the end of IPL-3 Modi has been reduced to just another twitter fanatic. Most of the in-house people in the BCCI who Modi trusted he could depend upon has let him down. But then Modi’s best friend Sharad Powar had to play Brutus here, lest he dirties his hands and poses a threat to his own position as the next ICC president.

Modi’s top crime is that he was involved in betting and match-fixing allegations. The IT department has proof for that, but investigations have come out with more surprises, putting the whole IPL brand name into shame. Names were dragged in, denials were in plenty, and the media saw to it that no one was spared.

Earlier Preity Zinta had a lot of explaining to do over the alleged ‘proxy ownership’ of the Punjab kings XI. Now its Shilpa sheety’s turn to save Rajasthan royals face, and she has opted to do that by the language IPL best understands by now, tweeting.

The tax department and the government are determined to get to the bottom of the IPL mysteries. This has become bigger than a national issue, and the government knows that if they do messy job here the ICC will step in along with the international paparazzi and that could turn really ugly.

Except for the bookies no one likes the word match fixing, irrespective of the result of the matches. I remember the match fixing controversy during South Africa’s tour of India 2001. Too many hearts were broken when the secret was out, including mine. So if any hint of match fixing is whispered we want to know the truth.

I was watching Preity Zinta’s interview with Barkha in which Priety stated that, “everybody is talking about the IPL which is great in a way but I wish they would focus on the game, I wish they would focus on the sport which everybody's completely ignored.”

Yes Preity we wish for the same, we would also rather talk about and watch the game, than the dramatic IPL circus show. But we would also like to be assured that whatever happens on the field is the result of those 22 guys who toil is out in the field—The same guys who we idolize, the same guys for who we prayed, and not the result of a raw deal made between a bunch of high profile businessmen in the luxury of a 5-star hotel room. If the latter is found to be true then we definitely won’t be laughing, as the joke would undoubtedly be on us the fans.

Fantasy Mike

' Only in America can a cute black boy with a big fat nose turn into a delicate pretty white woman with no nose at all'. That was just one of the many jokes i have heard about the rightly labeled 'king of pop' Michael Jackson. So the half man-half woman turned 50 this Friday, and how did he choose to celebrate it? He spend the day watching cartoons at home with his 3 children. Not a party fit for king, but atleast the kids aren't complaining.

Michael is said to have had a very trying childhood, controlled by
his dominating father. But he is a perfect example of a child prodigy. At the tender age of 6 he was lead singer to the band 'Jackson 5' and the media has been religiously following his life since the 'ABC' days. the band even had a cartoon series on them at the time.

The boy grew up to be a world wide star. His albums like thriller, bad, dangerous were instant hits. The music industry grew with Michael, but not the boy inside him. His greatest regret to this day is missing out on a normal happy childhood, which he blames on his parents. To compensate this he decided never to grow up, to relive his childhood as an adult.

He got an estate for himself, named it 'Neverland', converted it into an amusement park and filled it with zoo animals. He was constantly seen hanging out with pre-teen boys (which was another reason for controversy in his life). During his brighter days there was no one even remotely qualified to beat him at his job. To top it all he married Lisa Marley Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley. oh what a lovely fairytale it all was, until...

His life was filled with controversy and rumors. Even at the peak of his career, during his 'thriller' days there talks of surgeries being done 'to lighten the skin'. There were alleged stories that he was taking female hormones to keep up the pitch and avoid facial hair. then later to reclaim his 'male' title he was rumored to have transplanted some hair to own a Goatee (i shudder think where he got the hair from).

Then there was the great controversy over the child molestation charges. This really broke his heart (or him?), he couldn't take the limelight anymore. It converted him into the whining, weeping, hurt, abused , misunderstood victim. his constantly shrinking nose, and skin that gets paler by the day never failed to get the attention it deserved. The time he decided to give his 11 month old son a peak into the wild, horrible world by dangling him off a hotel window didn't go well with child activists. The man has had it rough for more than a decade now. During his crazy days he was lovingly referred to a 'Wacko Jacko' by the media.

But all things apart i do remember the good old days. I remember the time when no party survived without Michael's music. I remember the time when dance meant Michael's moves especially the moon walk, I've seen a million people, professional dancers included who have tried to imitate the moon walk, but none have got close to the master. I remember the time my sister and myself used to scream every time his videos were shown on TV (and we were hardly 10 then) . I remember the days when people believed a skin problem caused his color change and even sympathized with him. I remember the days he came for interviews with that infectious smile, when he didnt have to cover his nose (which is almost non-existent now) during public appearances. The days he had hit after hit, broke record sales and let his music do the talking.

So on his 50th birthday i was expecting him to do something crazy but predictable. Maybe come out with a new album or adopt a child or announce a world tour. But no, as usual he stunts us by doing something very unstar like by spending time with his kids. But the funny part is even that is news. Well what to say except that michael you never stop to amuse us, whether intentionally or unintentionally.