Where have you been?

“Where have you been?”

That’s the question my blogged asked me when I logged into wordpress after ages. It’s right. It has been a while. And I have neglected you too long.

I’ve been busy my friend. I have now pursed a career that actually challenges me. No more learning the system and then beating it at its own game. My new career constantly challenges me in every aspect on a day to day basis, whether it be from my side or from the clients side. But I still love it. Not as much as I miss writing.

I found companionship, and was happy. I lost companionship and I was happier. Its a complicated process that involved what the mortals of this realm call “feelings.” Its a touchy topic that caused the heart to beat faster and the blood to grow harder.

I have decided to spoil myself as well. Owning a large array of clothes and electronics that you have not seen before. It’s a sudden yearn that creates this purchasing instinct that results in flies flying out of my wallet. Speaking of wallets, I got a new one. Brown to remind myself I’m getting old.

I shall visit you again my friend. I plan on removing the wordpress title on your name, to show your independence to the world.  And we shall talk about the journey that I am on now. To find the real me in this little island of ours.

Pass it On

The latest item to take Sri Lankan social media by storm is the product of responsible thinking and the need to make an attitude change in the people of our nation and abroad. Created by Subhash Pinnapola and team at Leo Burnet Sri Lanka, they reveal to the rest of the country the importance of sight and the duty we have to donate our organs after we pass on.

The “virus” was a video clip just over 2 minutes titled “Pass it on when your done with it.” The video was hosted on Youtube the popular video sharing website and word of it was spread like wildfire through social media channels Facebook and Twitter. The mass response and spread starts from the catchy title, to the amazing production, to the deep message embedded in the video.
When I watched this video I was deeply touched. I have been aware of the donation of eyes after death to blind patients, but never has it affected me so much. I’ve donated blood numerous times. But something like my eyes after my death, the thought has never occurred to me. It saddens me even more seeing how I cannot donate my eyes due to a history of Glaucoma in my family.

Responsible advertising is something one rarely sees in Sri Lanka. Many agencies have tried but have never made an impact the way Subash has with his campaign. In Sri Lanka Advertising has mostly been about PROMOTING the product. The difference between Traditional Advertising and Responsible Advertising, is where you make the public AWARE of an issue that is right in front of them. Blindness is an age old ailment and the donation of eyes is not something that most people are aware of.

The step Subash has taken to educate the world on the donation of eyes is worthy of recognition everywhere possible. With the channels that have been chosen there is no stopping how far this video clip will go.

The facebook page for the campaign can be found here.

Shooting Film

I got myself a Canon 3000N as a gift from my good friends mother. Its a fantastic piece of equipment, complete with a 28-70 kit lens. I really don’t think i’ll get myself more lenses for it since I mainly shoot portraits. Shooting film is awesome but like everything there are pros and cons.

The Pros:

Full Frame. Amazing Depth of Field (even when I set it for none). The Saturation <3. The weight of the camera.

The Cons:

Film role is damn expensive, it costs 310 bucks for a 24 roll of 200 ISO. Can not preview pictures (Duh). The automatic stinginess of taking shots.

It will be accompanying me for my trip to Galle for the Galle Lit Fest. He will be next to my Digital Camera. They’ll probably avoid talking as my Digi asks him awkward questions and how he functions and shows off his LCD. The Film would be too shy to talk to the Digi anyway. Kinda like the nerd and the cheerleader scene. I’ve actually come to the point where instead of scanning the pictures I just take shots of them with my phone or digi cam and upload. But the quality is never that good. So yeah. Time to pay the studio to digitize them properly.

Smile when I take a picture of you in Galle. It’s gonna cost me.

Colombo Clubbing 2010

The year is almost at the end. And if your my age and in similar social circles you’ll be hitting the clubs a minimum of once every fortnight. Or twice a week if your really as bad. I’ve (I’m really not sure what it is) made like a time line thingy of clubbing and how it’s evolved.

Summer

Amuseum was the place to be. Wall to wall with the international school kids who are back down for the holidays from distant lands with age limits and expensive alcohol. Go early if not you’ll be standing outside and will end up walking to Mojo where all the older crowd hangs out.

Fall

Mojo went on a spree of private parties and being the pioneer in crowd control they always ensured a good crowd control. Even if Mojo was packed there will be at least a line of people outside waiting to get in. They had a very strict members only and couples only policy which can normally be lifted if you know someone on the inside. They also initiated the whole Rs. 1000 for couples and Rs. 1500 for guys. This forced guys to bring a girl with them making the ratio more balanced. When YesFm had their “9 Days of the 90’s party there were more women than men! I still place that as the best night of 2010!

Winter

All the overseas crowd is back. December is considered the “partying” season and all the bars and clubs are packed almost everyday. The main clubbing days in Sri Lanka are Friday and Wednesday. The age limit law is enforced and maintained. Clubs check ID’s at the entrance and regularly the police comes by and performs a raid and arrests the underage kids in the club. Alarming this caused more people to go out this December. It easily takes 20-30 mins to get into Amuseum where they are more lenient on the age. Mojo requires you to flash your ID to the beefy man before walking in.

Like everything in Sri Lanka, Clubbing has become over rated. Like the small beach parties Offshore Life used to have  once in 3 month. Then once Kiss FM came around they had a beach party every other week. Now everyone wants to club and that leaves loads of people standing outside wanting to get it. Colombo is a small city and clubs are quite limited. There are very few places that you can go to and those places are crowded.

Hopefully someone will open up a new club this year. I always wanted to open my own club…

The Sri Lankan Porn Crisis

For those of you who don’t know The Police have been ordered to arrest 80 Sri Lankans who have performed or started in Porno graphical movies that are circulating through blue tooth mobile devices. They even have a team who spend their day and night watching these movies. Don’t ask them “Whats up?”

The government was even going to publish the pictures of the so called “Pornstars” in newspapers so that the public can identify them and notify the police. Like they’re criminals or death eaters. Most newspapers declined since 1. Its disgusting. 2. Sri lanka is a small place filled with stupid people. They might accidentally catch the wrong person and the newspaper will be sued for damages. 3. It’s unethical.

Now I got myself an email containing the pictures of these women and from all the Sri Lankan porn I’ve see on friends mobile phones and through the very popular http://www.sexy.lk back in the day. Most of these women are not pornstars. There is no proper porn industry in Sri Lanka. Most of the videos going around are of prostitutes who agree to be filmed and or couples. Its somewhat normal for an intimate couple to video tape themselves having sex or other acts of sex. Or the male would pressure the girl to go for it. Or even the girl would take nude pictures of herself and mail/MMS it to her other half as a tease or to fulfill a request.

Things like that happen and its best kept private rather than blowing it up outta proportion. But our government in its crusade to cleanse the country does not care about the damage they cause on their way. As long as the results are satisfactory…

New Beginning

At this very moment I’m at my brand new job. Its my first day. And we’ll its kinda weird. Having worked at one of the largest companies in the country working here is just weird.
Last time when I joined. I joined with a batch of 20 people 3 of whom stayed till the end of the road. This I join alone and at a designation that gives me authority. But I feel like I haven’t earned it. Yet. The work load is more strategic and theoretic as well as practical. So its quite a lot to input and output. The processing part depends on if I’ve had my morning share of caffeine or not.
Working at a smaller company makes things smoother. Shorter ques for getting anything done and less noise at office. My colleagues are yet to speak to me. I know 2 of their names but that’s it. Its a tech oriented firm so they are of that background and thus spend more time typing and looking at the screen than socializing. I’ve been hired to do the tech part as well as the socializing. The hybrid of sorts. Though I don’t think we’ll be getting set for any office gatherings with a bottle. Maybe a tech talk about the new iphone OS.

But its a new beginning and that’s always a good thing. You can still swim in the deep end with your fingers crossed…

Ashes to Ashes

Ashes to ashes,

Dust to dust.

As we grow older,

The less we trust.

Morning till evening,

Day through Night.

Love is a challenge,

Which puts up a fight.

Sparks and Flames,

Fire and Ice.

Wars will be fought,

If the price is right.

Wires and cables,

Satellites and phones.

All the right things,

Are always disposed.

Rivers and Oceans,

Streams and Bays.

If love came knocking,

It never stays.

Ashes to ashes,

Dust to dust.

All the above,

Is done without a fuss.

STFU and get real

Auto-Tune is a proprietary audio processor created by Antares Audio Technologies. Auto-Tune uses a phase vocoder to correct pitch in vocal and instrumental performances. It is used to disguise off-key inaccuracies and mistakes, and has allowed singers to perform perfectly tuned vocal tracks without the need of singing in tune.

It was Cher’s secret weapon back in the late 90’s. It was the only way she could sing her hit single “Believe” without going into surgery for something that really needs tending to. Other than her face that is.

Numerous artists have used it. Some very obviously like Jamie Foxx and some you wouldn’t expect like the Dixie Chicks. Many artists use it for only a few words here and them. But some artists can’t seem to sing without it. Such as T-Pain and Kanye West.

Here are a few artists who have used it in their music:

Kanye West’s album 808s and Heartbreak

was practically an over dose of auto tune. When I first heard Heartless I was quite surprised. “I didn’t know Kanye West can sing!”

T-Pain is probably the biggest user of Auto Tune. Its his cocaine. He has no talent without it! Its on every word of every song of his. He even uses it when he talks normally. I remember telling people that his voice sounds electronic. I thought it sounded cool back then but now I realize its crap.

Artists such as JoJo and Black Eyed Pea’s have used it in a few of their songs such as “Boom Boom Pow” but it suited the track.

The most disappointing was Natasha Bedinfield. My dad loves her music. He has her track “Unwritten” burnt on a CD so that he can listen to her in the car. It’ll break his heart to know that she used an electronic device to sing one of her songs (Love like this).

Chris Brown used it in his song “Forever”. It was one of his best hits. Sadly it was his last.

Miley Cyrus uses it cause she thinks its cool.

Billy Joel apparently used it when he was singing the American National Anthem at the Super Bowl. FAIL.

Lil Wayne obviously uses it. He can rap thats for sure. But his voice is so cigarette stained that it sounds like crap. Not to point out that he is butt ugly. No idea why Keri Hilson is doing him. She probably uses it too.

Jay – Z is one of the biggest anti Auto Tune artists out there. He even released a single called Death of Auto Tune (D.O.A) which is in the new BluePrint3. He actually sticks to what he can do. And that’s rap. Really good.

Its sad to see how low some artists go to achieve fame. Worse is when people who can actually sing use it to sound better, and even worse is people who can’t sing using it and earning fame. Using a technological device to spruce something that god and training created is a shame.

How many more Artists do you think use Auto Tune?