Stuff I'm listening to..

I thought that I would share with everyone what I've been listening to throughout all weekend. The inset vidz are actually only audios, so that you don't get distracted from the music.

Lets start with some hip-hop (yes, this is still Av posting!)

This one's by a Toronto based nu-funk band called GOD MADE ME FUNKY! Its called LUV T'DAY and is on the OST of American Pie: Beta House. It plays during the pool party in the very last scene. I love the groove. Check it out!



This is a heavy one by the immensely skilled band Necrophagist. Their genre of music, believe it or not, is called Technical Death Metal.

This last one is by DEEP PURPLE. Its called SOMETIMES I FEEL LIKE SCREAMING, and its what I've been listening to the whole last week, not just the weekend. The lazy-sounding leads by Steve Morse are addictive!



There you go. My musical palette for most of the weekend, spanning three musical styles, laid out for you. Hope you like it!

Luv-n-Luck,
Av

FINALLY!!!!!!

What better way to kick off 2009? This is a something that I've waited and waited to post. God-willing, the time has come. I can almost not believe that I am finally doing this.

For days, weeks, months and years now, I'd been planning on getting a guitar rig. I just didn't want to compromise on any count, and so the process of evaluation and selection was becoming tediously long. Add to that the numerous times the plan got cancelled/postponed, and you might begin to appreciate why I can't believe that I've finally done it. As of now, I can proudly say, that sans the amp, I've finally got what I was looking for. In a long pre-planned display of self indulgence, I got the following during the last few weeks that I was away from the blog.

First came the processor, the LINE 6 POD X3Live :



And then the axe, the IBANEZ RG-420EG-SBK :

I was actually planning to brag about my brand-new equipment, but I'm feeling unusually modest and humble. It can probably be attributed to what a wise man once said :
"With great power comes great responsibility."

So I'll just close with yet another quote I live my life by:
"My tastes are very simple. I like the very best."

Luv-n-Luck,
Av

P.S. - Happy New Year people! May this year be the healthiest, wealthiest, most peaceful year of your life.. yet. :D

Dont know what to name this one...

I have logged into my blog after over a month's time, after that last Valentine's Day Post, thanks to the loads of stuff I needed to finish at work. Infact I'm posting this at 3:45 AM from my office work-desk. :D
To follow up on the last post, I originally planned to write about another day that is celebrated on 14th of February. Its called the International Quirkyalone Day!!
You can find all that you need by following the link given below. Check it out!! http://quirkyalone.net/

And the reason I was going to write about it is because I thought that I fit pretty well in that quirkyalone description:
"A person who enjoys being single (but is not opposed to being in a relationship) and generally prefers to be alone rather than dating just for the sake of being in a couple."

I took the above to mean that a quirkyalone should not mind solitude, on both the short and long time scales, and I know myself to be of the off-beat kind who not only enjoy solitude, but even go looking for it.
(What a paradox.. looking for solitude. :D)
But the iconoclast that I am, I should have suspected the symptoms of getting so voluntarily classified into a category!! Hehe.. Because an experience I had on Sunday has changed it all. :D

You see, like a good teacher and friend, I left my guitar at one of my student's place on Friday evening, asking her to practice for the guitar class on Sunday, as we haven't been able to find a good guitar for her to buy yet. What I didn't realize is that for the next two nights, I would have to go to sleep without my customary 30 minute fretboard workout and the subsequent(addictive) pain in my hands..

And so it happened that I woke up on this Sunday morning with a weird feeling in my heart. I got through my morning chores feeling a bit low, and wondering why. Some unidentified gloom seemed to have settled on my existence even as I went about devouring a 250-page Ebook on my laptop. Apart from the insidious, under-the-surface sadness-like feeling, it had been a normal Sunday on every count. It was only hours later that I realized what it was. I was feeling the exact "withdrawal symptoms" generally associated with a break-up!! I was feeling all "bluesy" and sad inside, and I realized I was missing my guitar!!

Alexz Johnson crooned "I'm in love with my guitar!" to my brain as I struggled to look at the situation in the absolute perspective. It was seriously quite an effort to break out of the trance and reach a brain-space where I could shake my head and smile at my own predicament.

The little experience has stirred quite a few off-shoots of thought in my teeming brain. For starters, being fine without people around but missing a guitar can mean either of two things,

1) Finally, I am musically able enough to start taking repose within my own music and depend on it to take me away to somewhere I have never been before.

2) As expressed in a couple of posts earlier, I am so stone-hearted, practical-minded and selfish that all I need is a inanimate instrument rather than people to keep my sanity.

I know that second option is gonna raise a few hackles again, and more than one of my close friends shall surely threaten me with murder.. Hehe.. But then,

WHO CAN DECIDE WHAT THEY DREAM?
AND DREAM I DO...

Luv-n-Luck,
Av