మనసు కవి ఆత్రేయ

I really want to take a break from my endless rants about society and injustice and share my thoughts about my other favorite pastime - listening to music.

In Telugu music, Aathreya is my fav lyricist. I might not've listened to all his lyrics but I remember many lyrics which makes us think or leave us in awe with his words. He was aptly titled as మనసు కవి (Manasu Kavi)

Whenever I read or see anything about Aathreya, the first thing I remember is Prem Nagar movie. All the songs from that movie are really awesome in all the possible genres. Romance, pathos, promiscuity, metaphor, alcoholism. You name it, he got it. My personal favorites are మనసు గతి ఇంతే, ఎవరి కోసం, ఎవరో రావాలి..

Few of my other favorites are from maro charitra, aakali rajyam et al

My new fav songs are from Abhinandana. I listened to them since my, childhood but never paid attention to the charanams. (As a kid, I was only interested in action movies. I didn't have enough maturity to understand these lines either). Lately abhinandhana songs started popping up on my random playlist more often. So I paid more attention to charanams and I'm really amazed.

Here're few lines from 'ఎదుటా నీవే' lyric which really mesmerized me
స్వప్నాలన్నీ క్షణికాలేగా
సత్యాలన్నీ నరకాలేగా..

స్వప్నం సత్యం అయితే వింత
సత్యం స్వప్నం అయ్యేదుందా..


For one thing, every bit of those lines are true. And the other thing is his amazing play on words. Of course, I'm short of words in Telugu and English to describe this.

Abhinandana's music is one of the greatest albums in Telugu. It wouldn't have attained that kinda immortality without the contribution of Ilayaraja and SPB. Either Ilayaraja's melodious music or SPB's soulful rendering of the songs , we can't praise them enough.

All the three deserve claim for this gem of Telugu music.

Peace.

I started practicing Telugu writing through Lekhini.org and gmail. One of these days, I want to write a whole blog in telugu, but I'm not skilled enough yet. And I'm highly doubtful of my ability to use Telugu words aptly.

Attractive Blonde Lady

Here's an SNL opening sketch spoofing faux news Greta Van Susteren. I don't know the exact airing date, but I guess it's from the last few months.



The video is spot on about Don't ask, don't tell. As ironical as it can be, I found this video on the webpage of the news pundit S.E.Cupp, who might be the subject of 'Attractive Blond Lady' character. I try to restrain from taking shots at the easy targets, but I couldn't resist.

In retrospect I blogged too much about Sarah Palin, but retrospect always makes me feel dumb.

This Woman S.E.Cupp is a atheist conservative. Yes, you read that right. Atheist Conservative, isn't that an oxymoron. But hey, she has to sell some books to middle America and get some bookings on Cable news shows .

This is about her atheism beliefs on Wikipedia "I like to think I adhere to the same Judeo-Christian values that most of religious America does. It's an understanding of and a respect for these values that keeps me moral." And then she wrote a book by name Losing Our Religion: The Liberal Media's Attack on Christianity. And also she stated that she does not believe in God today, but is open to possible conversion in the future.

If you fail to read between the lines, it's a marketing ploy and carefully built image. Gullible people will be interested to read an atheist point of view. Oh, and she also has a masters degree in Religion. Really?! I thought I read enough already, but she's an atheist Conservative with master's degree in Religion. My head will blow away if she starts telling how Darwin was wrong?

I respect both Christianity and Atheism. But what I fail to comprehend is an atheist writing about supposedly liberal media's attack on Christianity. Isn't that self contradictory. Most probably her next book would be How an atheist found her God. (Quoting Bill Maher)

Here's another video of this woman on Hannity show. She's outraged that Letterman made fun of Sarah Palin. S.E.Cupp mentioned that Obama and his campaign is behind this. Letterman made jokes almost 8 months after Obama won the election. Why would she even pull Obama into this. Oh yeah, she has to feign anger (In her own words)



The point I want to raise is how annoying these cable news shows became. 90% of these news pundits have neither credibility nor knowledge. And no body in the media calls out these people except people like Jon Stewart. And it's a whole new game if you're young female with good looks. Look at her website. (I've to say good Search Engine Optimization though) She got everything for an aspiring news pundit. A new book with good head shot, Check! Fake reading glasses, check! Lots of pictures in revealing outfits. check! Oh yes, lots and lots of videos from Faux News.

This post is very similar to my last post. It almost feels like redundant. But the mediocrity of the television news and the end less self promotion of these narcissist TV people made me do this.

Peace.

P.S. I wish she comes on Jon Stewart show to promote her book. Few times, he'll be merciless to these kool-aid people. But it'll be a delight.

Supply Side Economist or a Snakeoil Salesman

Here's a video from CNN dated Aug 04, 2009. It's an old video, but it's never too old for a good laugh.



Here's a Supply side economist Arthur Laffer, talking about how bad Medicare and Medicaid will be if they're run by Government. Say what? For starters Medicare and Medicaid are govt run programs. They're started like that and they remain the same.

We see all these fake pundits on TV every day, particularly on CNN, Faux news and MSNBC. No body questions their credibility or what makes them knowledgeable on any topic. No example stands out like Sarah Palin.

And of course the same thing goes with TV news anchors. This woman here in this video didn't even correct him that medicare is indeed a govt run program. I wouldn't be surprised if she's also ignorant of that fact. And faux news, you'll be confused whether you're a watching a news channel or a bimbo parade.

I want to take this opportunity to write about Supply Side Economics. I didn't study economics in college, so I'm no authority on economics to write opinions. But still I'm gonna voice my opinions about it. Supply side economics states that lower taxes for rich and capital gain tax cuts spurs economic growth. That's an over-simplified statement, but again there's not much actual economics in that. Whenever some one says Supply Side Economics, I'll break into laughter. I want to show them Larry Kudlow on CNBC and ask them why he's such an epic fail. Trickle down economics is one of the greatest lies ever told to America. Still there're so many people out there drinking that kool aid.


W implemented few of these supply side economics theories. Tax cuts for rich and lower taxes on capital gain taxes. Federal Deficit increased and (not surprising for a 'Fiscally conservative') Federal spending also increased. Rich became richer and wealth didn't really trickle down. Even now, once in a while I see few conservative boneheads on TV telling how tax cuts and limited government are the silver bullets for every issue.

And you know, Obama is the cause for all the bad things...

Peace

See the actual media matters article here