Glenn Terry in action

Managed to catch a bit of Glenn Terry's brilliance at Barefoot on Sunday afternoon. Refreshing no doubt :)

Look and drool. For soon I will too.

Reunion

It's great to be reunited with your uni housemate. It's better still when he brings a bottle of black label. Anyone want to share?

Extinguished fire

This turning into a recluse business is hard work. But, i've mastered the art of not stepping out of the house for 4-5 days at a time, preferring to live out my days (and nights!) in hadu tshirts and boxers alone. I probably get out maybe a couple of times a week. Once for the week's paper, the second maybe to meet a friend or two. And the rest of the time I'm cooped in front of my comp trying to pay attention to useless procedural laws. What a rubbish life! And it's not like all this staying at home is ensuring that I'm acing the exams. What bollocks! I come out of the papers thinking "what just happened?!?" and then I forget what just happened. Word of advice? Fuck the attorneys. Both the people and the exams. In other news, this Kings of Leon track "Sex on fire" is so hot! I've heard it before, but it's grown on me tenfold in the last twentyfour hours. It's a high energy track that makes me crave to gig again. Their album "Only by the night" sounds very nice, even though illegally acquired. Speaking of which, I was thinking about all this illegal music downloading that we do. If there was some other item of value that was available for sale, and illegally available for free (such as maybe a TV?), I'd probably go buy it legit rather than nick it. But I have no morals when concerning digital content. Should I be worried? Should you be worried? In any case, CD's just add to the clutter. I need to get out more.

Corinne Bailey Rae - Golden Touch

30076 Sujeewa, I wish you were dead

I just got a ticket and it wasn't my fault! Ok, i'm sure plenty of people have used that excuse, but hear me out! So there I was driving my grandma, happily waiting in the single file line on Dickman's road heading towards Galle road. The light turns green, and I calculate that I can safely be the last car through the green light. Just when i reach the front, a blue Honda comes from the right (ON A SINGLE FILE ROAD YOU ASSHOLE! [that was for the cop, not u]) and cuts into me, at which point I take evasive action to avoid getting hit and inadvertently cross the junction on the yellow (AS DID THE BLUE HONDA, YOU STUPID FUCK!). When I turn into Galle road with my horn blazing, I see a traffic cop and think "thank heavens, now stop that other car and charge him!". Instead the cunt stops me, says I ran the red light. At which point I just let him have it. Me: "Dakke nadda ara vaahane maawa kapapu hati?" (Did you see how that car cut into me?) 30076 Sujeewa (hereinafter "WHOREliceman") : "oya rathu light eka panna" (You went through the red light) Me: "eka panne ara vaahanen aynvenna. monawa dihaada oya balaang hitiye?" (I was trying to avoid the other car. what were you looking at?) WHOREliceman: "oya rathu light eka panna" (you went through a red light) Me: "AGH!. Dickman's paara one lane paarak neda?" (er. AGH!. Dickman's road is a one lane road, right?) WHORE (for short): "ow" (yes) Me: "ara vaahaney eliyen enakota, eya aave varadi paththe nemeida?" (when that other vehicle comes on the outside of me, is he not on the wrong side of the road?) WHORE: "oya rathu light eka panna" (you went through a red light) Me: "AGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH. Mama eka panne ara vaahanen ayn venna! eya maawa kapagena issarahata aava. eva oyata penne nadda?" (AGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH. I jumped the light to avoid the car! He cut into me and jumped infront. You conveniently didn't see that did you?) I just can't even remember much beyond that. I grabbed my ticket and walked the fuck away from him, got into my car and drove off. I met many other nincompoops on the roads today. Today must definitely be "motorists, leave ur brains at home" day.

Tony Blair on Jon Stewart

One of the funniest talk show hosts meets one of the few respectable politicians of our time. Watch it here - you won't be sorry.

Home

It was 6 months out in a place I had only ever been to once before, that when I was 3. Now that's done and dusted, and it feels great to be home and on my time where there are no work commitments, deadlines or clients. Less than 24 hours in and I'm already feeling the disorganized chaos that is Colombo, where my brother drives like a maniac, brother 2 is in bed with a cast, everything must stop for politicians and buses, and so on. I liked my stint out there. A lot of people warned me that i'd be bored after 2 weeks. But, as is the case anywhere, you gotta keep your self doing things, and you will love it. It helped that I found myself in the midst of a great bunch of people. My cousin (the one that RD knows in London) once was telling me that, to people living abroad, friends are their family. Now, although that may seem like stating the obvious, it definitely is true. So, for four months i'll be here, soaking up my homeland. Then to a not-so-new family. But first, tonight to Chaar-max's bachelor party!

Singfest - Day 1

This was never really part of the plan. But with a free ticket for the first day and Travis on the bill, who the hell would say no? Spent a very chilled day (and night!) lazing on the grass with a great view of the stage watching some great live music. To be honest, I was only familiar with Travis' music and a few songs by Simple Plan. But other big names included Lost Prophets and New Found Glory. So since Travis was to play last, I thought might as well check the other guns too! My biggest find of the day was Melee. They seemed an easy going bunch who play music that is very easy on the ears and pleasant. Before today, I had thought Melee was more of a Busted-type of rock band - i.e. cheesy rubbish. But I was wrong and, they reminded me a lot of The Fray. I'm definitely getting their album, and I think you should check em out too. Highlights? The Bassist of Dearest climbing up the stage scaffolding and playing from about 30 feet up, New Found Glory playing a cover of Aerosmith's Dont wanna miss a thing, Simple Plan playing a cover of the hip hop song "get low", Melee, Travis' set which was brilliant, and the chilled out atmosphere of the entire event. Tomorrow, Jason Mraz, Alicia Keys, Panic!at the Disco, One Republic, Jamie Scott, Pussycat Dolls.

Forks in the road on a dark knight

The proverbial fork in the road is right in front of me, and although I'd bet my last pair of underwear that it was never there 2 seconds ago, now I can't avoid it much like a driver who wakes up a few feet before a lamp-post. The thing is, I had expected to be cruising along for a long while before I came to the fork, but i must've accidentally stumbled upon the shortest short cut ever and now it's too soon to decide and I can't decide. The surprise shocked; it appeared at first to be a dead end. But it wasn't, though I never really recovered from the initial shock although I kept a deadpan face. Then the two roads at the fork appeared. That too shocked. Too soon. Too soon. But one seems the obvious choice, but it wasn't on the cards. The other was what I was expecting gladly, although I wasn't expecting it to be peppered with pot holes and speed bumps as it is going to be so now I'm not so glad. On another note, for those Batman fans out there, Dark Knight is a great movie. I think the Batman series has made the best superhero movies by far, when compared with spiderman, superman, the fantastic four, hulk, etc, etc. Well, catch it, and enjoy!

Roo Radio

I stumbled across Roo Radio (possibly here too) purely by accident yesterday, while looking for something to listen to as my external hard drive that my music is stored on is completely buggered. Hopefully trusty Chaar-max will fix things for me when I'm back home:) Anyways, if you grew up or are still growing up listening to bands like Smashing Pumpkins, Better than Ezra, RHCP, Dave Matthews, Damien Rice, the Cranberries, etc, you will most definitely love this station. It plays the best alternative music and the quality is great. So check it out, let me know what you think.

Legal Jargon

It's public knowledge now that the powers that be want to impose that the Law College is to conduct all its courses and exams in only the English medium. As to be expected, there's been plenty of ha ho about the whole darned change with plenty of people opposing the reforms. But I for one think that it is a good move (one of very few exercised by those in power!), mainly because currently exams and lectures are only conducted in English or Sinhalese. No points for guessing what's wrong there. Secondly, I think it will eliminate the language barrier at least in the legal profession. To me, that's a huge start, and one that's long overdue, for I firmly believe that the language barrier was the cause of our problems and is the obstacle to our solution. Living in Singapore has opened my eyes to a few things. All this hue and cry back home about safeguarding the language of the majority is a load of bollocks. Chinese make up 75.2% of Singapore's population, followed by the Malays, Indians and Eurasians. However, since independence, Singapore maintained English as its main language, and this has definitely helped bridge the races and attract expat workers like ants to honey. So hats off to them law pundits.

Beach Touch!!!

I have just woken up the morning after, my skin is stinging, my legs are like lead and there's sand in my hair! Yesterday was the Singapore Rugby Union's Beach Touch Rugby Tourney. 50 teams in about 6 categories - Mens, Womens, Corporate, Mixed, Boys under 20 and Girls under 20. I've played tap rugger on the beach in Sri Lanka since I was a kid, resulting in many fights after cries of "false alarm!". So I thought this beach touch thing would be a breeze. But, the rules are different and I soon realised that I was wrong. The game is extremely fast, and if your caught napping for even a second the other team can score. Since the attacking team has the benefit of playing 3 on 2, defending can really be a bitch. But it's brilliant! Play is based on 4 touch rules, so the attacking team can make 4 plays before there's a turnover. This was the first time that the Lanka Lions Cricket Club had ventured into touch rugby, and although we didn't win the tourney, we did play really well against teams that play touch competitively regularly. So much so that we were even made a few offers to join a couple of rugby teams out here to play in the Singapore leagues. Thank god i'm going to be outta here!

What I would do for some crack!

The book I'm currently reading is disgusting, interesting, sickening, beautifully written, heart wrenching and captivating, all at the same time, not forgetting controversial. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey may be a memoir that is not genuine as the author would like it to be, but it does drill in to you the dangers of excessive use of drugs and alcohol. I'm glad that it's not genuine in a way because I wouldn't want to believe people actually go through the hell that recovering addicts in the book go through, although I'm sure in reality there are those who have. My question is this. In the book a counsellor named Sophie insists that addiction is a disease. According to her, addiction is an incurable disease and one that can be hereditary. What do you think? Do you know any addicts?

53A at Timbre @ the Substation

I've heard alot of good things about Timbre, but i've never really managed to head out there. So finally found the time to go there and boy was it worth it. So Timbre is an outdoor live music venue. It's very chilled out, very spacious and has plenty of food and drink. But the best thing about it was 53A, a band with a female lead, a crazy talented bassist who has an awesome voice and plays some kick ass drums, and two other guys. But together, they are impressive. Playing alt/indie rock covers and some spice girls, they sure knew how to keep the crowd going. Highlights included "the Pretender", "starlight" and "take me out". It was nice to see the female lead vocals tackle songs from testosterone fronted bands such as U2, incubus, coldplay, muse etc etc. But two thumbs up. I'm going there again soon...Wanna join?

Ode to Rambukwella

If what the Sunday Leader says here is true, and I'm convinced it is, Keheliya Rambukwella is an idiot. Ramith, or whatever his son's name is, and a couple of his mates broke into the office of the Senior Games Master of Royal College and stole a couple of files relating to their disciplin. However, the idiots got caught. Rambukwella junior is a fucktard So Ramith decides to deny the whole incident. What he didn't realise is his dear friends, who obviously don't have parents who are celebrities in the tale of our banana republic, confessed to the incident and even concurred that Ramith broke the lock. Rambukwella senior is a disgrace So College institutes disciplinary action against the students. However, Old Rambukwella decides to pay a visit to the principal and threaten a fundamental rights petition against the principal for taking disciplinary measures against his kid. Now, if i'm not mistaken, this guy has lived abroad. He is also the defence spokesperson for the government and the Minister of foreign employment. What faith can we as a people entrust in a leader like him when he threatens the process of justice? How dare he even try to initimidate the school authorities? If I was principal I would've kicked Ramith and his accomplices out of the school! While I'm proud to be an old boy of the school that is unting to stand up against the pressure exerted by the Government, my pride to be a Sri Lankan diminishes with every passing day when I hear of such incidents. When an educated, exposed member of Government cannot comprehend that his blood is in the wrong, then how can I expect much more from his colleague Mervin Silva? How I pray for the day where the "big" people are made to eat their own shit.

Here goes.

In my absence from the blogging world, apart from preparing to take the plunge, Chaarmax has tagged for a number of bare-all experiments. So, in the true spirit of things, I shall take this opportunity to bear all while I type the 7 random things about me. Here are the rules: ~ Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog ~ Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird. ~ Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs. ~ Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog . 1. I'm 6 years old. Really. People say I look older though, although probably not 21 as I still keep getting ID'd. 2. I love being a jack of all trades. Sadly, I don't seem to master any. 3. I'm not a movie/tv person. I'll fall asleep in the middle of a movie 6 outta 10 times. 4. I'm a huge music lover, if it's of the right genre of course. As of late, I've gotten into indie quite a bit, thanks to Darwin who has opened my eyes to some great bands! 5. I'm also a big fan of good sound. I ogle at speakers and amplifiers. I play around with audio software. If I had the money, I'd piss my neighbours off. 6. I'm very conscious of my own hygiene, to the point that I might even sniff my self to see if I smell. But in order to avoid any misunderstandings, let me add that this does not happen on a regular basis, as I make it a point to be clean. Ok, that was very personal. 7. Confab, because back when I was in school, this mate of mine decided that he was going to call me that cause my name sounds like a Confifi cab service. I wonder what he was smoking at the time. I believe everyone has been tagged already, so I shan't bother you guys. oh except maybe G man.

Catching Up

After weeks of leaving it for later, I finally took the plunge today and had my keyboard replaced. 100 bucks and a couple of hours later, I’ve got a fully functional keyboard (no more start menu pop-ups!) and an extra stick of RAM (it was a long time coming). What prompted me to take action was something that happened last night. Now, for a few weeks I’ve been using an external keyboard and not touching the laptop’s keyboard, which worked fine. But for some reason, while chatting to the missus last night, the damn start menu popped up from nowhere. That was that! No more procrastinating. So it’s done and I’m glad. Enough about that. Over the last month I’ve had quite a few visitors. Firstly Jim (remember him from the band?) and Lindsay arrived. Got to spend some time with them which was good, cause I’m not sure when our paths will cross again. Then the missus herself came, and we had a blast for a whole month. Somewhere during that month my cousin arrived. So all in all May was a good month. May was also the month that the Lanka Lions toured Kuala Lampur. Lanka Lions is a cricket team in Singapore made up of mainly, you guessed it, Lankans. However, the team also has a couple of Indians and even a Chinese guy. The first team is arguably the best in Singapore and features quite a few national players. Now obviously I don’t play for that one. I play for the second team, which plays in a far more relaxed league and the games are fun. So both teams (minus the national players who were playing some ICC tournament) along with Russell Arnold, who incidentally joined us for the tour, set off for KL by coach. We were to play 2 matches in KL against the Royal Selangor teams. We lost both, although the matches were close. In our defence, playing cricket while severely hungover is harder than convincing Hillary to give up her campaign (btw congrats to Obama!). However, Mr Arnold lived up to his name, taking 4 wickets and also scoring 54, which was not enough to pull it off for us unfortunately. Oh well, good times. A couple of weekends on, the missus and I went down to Sentosa island to check it out. Fuck the cable car ride to the island was super, although I must admit I was shitting bricks at first. When we got to the island, I knew that I had to be on the Sentosa Luge. The luge involves going up over trees and a hill in one of em skylifts used by skiers to get to the top of the mountain. You know where you sit with your legs dangling? Now that was some freaky shit too. I was scared my slippers were gonna come off. I was scared to even look back coz we were going up the mountain. But it was quiet the view from up there, well the bit I dared to look anyway. Coming down the hill was more fun I thought. We had to get into these lil motor-less go carts and speed down the hill, much like sledding but with wheels and steering. AwesomeJ Last Friday, went out to Novus, which is the bar at the National Museum in Singapore, with a few colleagues to say bye over drinks to a couple of lawyers. The setting is beautiful, situated in a courtyard which has been done up with flowing water, candles, white canopies and low lighting. Apart from the 1 for 1 drinks offer before 9, the two piece band was super!! They were playing all the hits from the 70s and the 80s and it was great. After that wound up, went and plonked myself at Sex and the City with friends and it was rubbish. However, it was strange to hear the audience oooh-ing and aah-ing each time carrie bradshaw came out in a new outfit. “OMG Look at her shoes. They are gorgeous aren’t they lah?”. Agh. That’s when I decided that it’s time to take a nap. Time in Singapore has gone by super fast. Almost 4 months done, and I’ll be back in the sunny(er) shores of Sri Lanka soon. Too bad I’ll miss the season where all the bloggers will be in town. Don’t drink too muchJ

Back from hibernation.

So the comp is usable thanks to an external keyboard. Hence, I can finally catch up on all the blog posts I've missed. Also, I can finally blog about the many things i've wanted to, such as my friends being robbed in the beautiful Unawatuna, Novus lounge bar in Singapore, the last month with the missus, KL with the Lanka Lions and Russel Arnold, food picture posting bloggers, and much more. So give me some time to organise my self, and I shall begin dishing out my wares. Till then.

hiding under a rock

ok i can explain my absence. cant do it in many words though. long story short, laptop keyboard malfunction. trying to get replacement done. should be done within a week. hence ive missed juicy stories on ur blogs, sharing juicy stories on my blog and also typing without being interrupted by a start menu that keeps popping up and by buttons that dont work. with u shortly.

Choices

I was just reading Gutterflower's latest post, and it reminded me about something i've been thinking of lately. It's a concept that's hard to explain, but it involves choices, space, personal idiosyncrasies, personalities, social groups, religions, age and basically everything else that makes each of us so very different to the other. See, of late I've noticed that a lot of Sri Lankan people are interested in, and have an opinion on, the general subject of "others". This involves the clothes other people wear, the food they eat, the places they go, the choices they make, and so on. I mean, it is inherent in our blood and beings that we are born gossips. But, sometimes it goes a little too far. For instance, have you ever come across the term "socialites" in Sri Lanka? It generally refers to young metrosexual guys and girls who are usually dressed to kill, party all the time and act in a more "western" fashion than you'd expect from the average Sri Lankan teen (ASLT). Ok they are different from ASLTs, but I've come across many people who don't like partying and that sort of lifestyle but say "oh I'm not a socialite, i don't need to act like that". See, that's the thing that irks me. If it's not your thing, don't judge people who might like such stuff. Just say it's not your kind of thing and move on. This applies to almost everything back home. I've heard Stigmata being branded as "wannabe's" just cause they dress differently and look strange. But they are the best fucking metal band in town! So if metal and that sort of lifestyle is not your thing, hate the game, don't hate the player! Even if a person chooses to wear a short skirt, or to listen to Brittney Spears, or to get married at 16, or to walk with their hands, or chooses to do anything else that might be different to your interests, try and understand that everyone is different and no two people are alike. You may have your own beliefs, but the next person to you is not a bad person just because he/she has their own! One of the reasons people love to live abroad rather than in Sri Lanka is that, when abroad, no one gives a damn about what you do. In Sri Lanka, we make it a point to make everyone elses life our own responsibility. People were born to be different. Live and let live! After all, you wouldn't want people passing judgement on the way you live your life, right? We're all but oil and water. Oil and water.

Can I see some ID please?

Ok, so I have this issue that keeps bugging me now and again, more so out here in Singa-land. See, I'm in my mid-twenties, having turned 18 a little after the y2k season. But people keep thinking I'm around 20 years old, and, while that would've been great if I had been a girl, I'm not sure that's such a great compliment for a guy. Is it? See, while I was in Sri Lanka I was working for this professional services firm and I had to go brief a client on a few internal issues we suspected they were having. Ok, I admit I had unruly hair at the time, but this director I was briefing looked as interested as my grandma's interest in Incubus. Then she chucked some papers at me and said "talk to me when your manager gets here". The fucking nerve! Obviously she thought I was a kid and was not about ready to take advice from such a vicious breed. Now, out here in Singapore on my first night out clubbing I was asked for identification by the bouncers cause apparently I didn't look 18! WTF? The only identification I had on me that had my date of birth was my Sri Lankan ID so I had to pull that out and show the "1984" bit (as everything is in Sinhala) to convince em i'm not as young as they think. Thanks, but not thanks. It's become so bad that it's become a bit of an inside joke amongst my friends here, and whenever I meet someone new my friends ask that person "so how old do you think Confab is?" The answers have ranged from 17 all through 23, but never friggin 24! So tell me ... ...do I not look 24 to you?

Drastic Fantastic - Singapore

(photo by loh_junwei) I had a few issues about going alone for a gig. But I'm new to Singapore, so from the few people I know, I couldn't find any who liked KT Tunstall enough, or knew who she was for that matter, to go for her gig. So it was decided. I'm going solo and it'll still be a blast. And it was! I thought it was going to be a pretty intimate gig with maybe about 500 people. But boy was I wrong. The Suntec City Convention Room 603 had been transformed into a gig-hall complete with seating for 2250 and standing capacity for about 500. However, although the gig was scheduled to get on the way at 8, when I got there at 7:45 the place was almost empty! So I was thinking "poor KT Tunstall, she's never gonna want to come here ever again!" But I was wrong. At 8:30 when the gig actually kicked off, the place was full, and it actually was a room full of KT Tunstall fans...I sure wasn't out of place:) As soon as KT took the stage, the crowd went nuts! She played right into the hands of everyone there that night. The sound was brilliant, the band was tight and not flashy, the back-up singers were hot, the lighting was mood-friendly and KT Tunstall was amazing and lovable! What a combination! Moreover, what a talent she is! She went through the slow acoustic numbers and the fast rocky songs with equal intensity, keeping the crowd focussed on her music more than anything else in such a way that there was pin-drop silence amongst 3000 people. Between songs she'd talk to the crowd and crack jokes, making us all laugh. She'd also explain what her songs are about, for instance "Funny Man" is about a friend of hers that lost his mind, Black Horse & the Cherry Tree is about good and evil, which made the whole thing very personal. KT really won the hearts and minds and, possibly, a few thousand extra CD sales from, the entire audience. She was truly lovable. The highlights for me were firstly, her solo version of Black Horse & the Cherry Tree, which I had been dying to see live ever since I caught it on youtube, Funny Man, her version of Walk Like an Egyptian and Suddenly I see. What a night. 3 Thumbs up! Btw, she did mention that it's a fact that when you take all the people who lived on this planet ever, there's only 9 dead people for every live person. Is that true?

Arey Raptha-raa-ra-rah!

(Memories from 2007) Here's wishing a great time to all those who celebrate the Roy-Tho spirit. It's undoubtedly going to be a great party back in Colombo for the next 3 days, and I'm sad to be missing it. But I hope the weather holds up and the cricket is captivating, at least until the alcohol starts to kick in. May you drink warm arrack shandied with cream soda for 3 days whilst you have a blast! On a side note, go Royal!

Converse loving ants, and other stories.

For the first time in a few days I decided to come home straight after work, instead of wandering around the City. So I gobbled up a yummy chicken fried rice at the station nearest to home and walked down to the apartment. As I opened the door and took a few steps, I realised I had stepped on water. Now I know it had rained a bit, but the roof couldn't be leaking as there were 12 floors living above me. At first I thought the damn toilet had broken and was gushing water, as it had been giving us a few problems since we moved in, but that wasn't it. I walked towards my room and there was more water. Shit. Panic hit in as I opened the door to discover an inch of water all over my room. My shoes, clothes, guitar, man bag, and suitcase were all in the water! While I was busy at work, some serious rain had obviously pelted down! I immediately knew what the cause was. Attached to my room is a little balcony like bit. The drain pipe had got stuck with branches and some dried seed-ish looking thing, which resulted in the balcony filling up, in turn which resulted in the water flowing into my room. So there I was, an inch of water in my room, 7 inches in the damned balcony. My housemates and I spent an hour and a half cleaning away with one mop, one bathroom mat and a pair of slippers, sweeping the water away, while we used a nail clipper to fix the drain pipe - the cause of this mess. Phew, this was not what I wanted after quite a tiring day. So anyway, since the room was FINALLY clean, I chucked all my wet clothes into the washing machine, and put away my wet shoes to dry. I think I'm going to have to put em in the washing machine. Any tips on washing shoes in a washing machine? Sorry I digress. So anyway, as I was putting my shoes away, I picked up my khaki converse slip-ons. Now this was quite a bargain in India where I picked em up for INR 400-odd. When you're wearing trousers it looks as if you're wearing a normal pair of converse shoes, just without the hassle of wearing the converse shoes. Brilliant. As I pick em up to put em away along with the rest of the banished-but-wet shoes, I notice about 5 ants scramble out of them. Now these weren't your normal ants. Remember when you were in school in year 3 or 4 and you saw these big ass black ants on the trees? Thel Kumbiyo? Well it was em. The sumo wrestler brigade of the black ants, if I may, as they were huge! I hope that's politically correct enough. So in my hastiness, I chuck them into the tub. The shoes, ants and all that is. At this point about 20 more ants jump outta my damned shoes! So I aim the shower head and turn it to maximum with the hot water on and lo and behold a bajillion of em start trooping out to brave the waters! I had shivers running up and down my spine, and if any of those ants were named shivers, I had shivers running everywhere in my bathroom! Here's proof! If only I ate ants, what a great time I would've had!

The night that Light Grenades went BOOM

Might I warn you, this has not been love. This has been infatuation. I first came across Incubus some time in 2000, when I heard "Drive". Back then I didn't even know who they were, let alone the fact that they'd been around for about 7 years by then. But the song was an instant favourite with me, as it was to a bajillion others. I loved the sound of the funky acoustic guitar riffs coupled with scratchpads, weird noises, great drum and bass, and a beautiful voice! And that was what sparked it. Then I did what every right minded Asian kid did back then, back when downloading wasn't big, especially in Sri Lanka on dial-up. I went and bought the CD "Make Yourself" for 150 bucks from Majestic City. I didn't listen to anything else for weeks. Months even. To-date it still ranks as one of my top picks, and it would be with me on the dessert island, should I end up on one. Some of my favourite Incubus songs ever is on that album, such as Pardon Me, Make Yourself, Stellar, and Drive. This was one fucking great band. Back in 2002, the Lady gave me "Morning View", and it wasn't from MC, so I was in my element! From start to end it was a brilliant work of art. It was definitely not a powderpuff. This was a heavyweight. Packed with a variety of songs such as the red-bull-like "Nice to Know You" and "Aqueous Transmissions", the super-massive hit "Wish You Were Here", "Mexico", "11 AM" and "Warning Signs" amongst others, the album changed the way the world saw Incubus. Or at least they changed my world. But that sounds corny. Nevertheless, this album is what officially made them my favourite band. Although "A Crow Left of the Murder" did not receive rave reviews, to me it was a great album. I had been starved of new Incubus music for a while, so when it was released I headed down to MC. By the time "Light Grenades" came out, I'm happy to say I had a stable broadband connection:) So you have obviously gathered by now that I have been dying to see them live for a long time. I missed them in the UK twice because, first I was broke, and then the next time I was in Sri Lanka on holiday. Sigh. Having finished 3 years in the UK, when i returned to Sri Lanka I was pretty convinced that I was destined never to see them. Mind you I had seen a gazillion of their gigs on screen. But I used to think that they'd probably break up before I can manage to find myself at a concert of theirs. And then there's fate! 2 Weeks after signing on to a new job which was to send me to Singapore for 6 months on work, Incubus announced that it would be playing Singapore on the 7th of March as part of the Light Grenades Tour. I hadn't even started work, but I bought my ticket in December. I wasn't sure who else was going or whether i'd know anyone there, but i didn't care. This was fate, and I wasn't going to play around with a chance like this. However, B, also a die-hard fan, got tickets too. So we planned to do this right. Having found myself in Singapore, one of the first things I did was pick up my ticket. When I did, I breathed a sigh of relief. On the day, I was excited, but still I couldn't believe that I was actually going to see the band of my dreams live! Unfortunately I was hounded with work, so I only managed to leave office at 6pm. The gig started at 8. I made it to Fort Canning Park by 6:30pm, by which time there was already a kilometre long line to get in. But the queue moved first, and I managed to position myself in the middle, where I had this view. I wasn't far from the front, so I wasn't disappointed. The plan was to be close enough to the front to be able to wringle my way through as far as I could go;) Saosin, dubbed as one of the hottest bands making waves now, opened with an hour's set. To be honest, I hadn't heard their music before, but judging by the crowd's reaction, they were pretty darn popular. Most of these kids knew every word to their songs and were already moshing and bouncing off ppl! I, on the other hand, was saving my energy for Incubus. The crowd went wild when Incubus came onstage. Chris Kilmore kicked things off by setting off some eerie melodic sounds which was to be the start of "Quicksand" off "Light Grenades", the first ever song I'd ever seen/heard Incubus play live. Thank god they started with a quiet one, cause the energy in the air could've been cut with a guitar fret board. The mellow beginning only lasted for a few minutes, as they quickly lashed into "A Kiss to Send Us Off", and that was it. The sweaty bodies moving, swaying, jumping as one had begun, and it was to last for an hour and forty minutes. Oh man, from that point on it was all a blur to me. I mean, I can remember everything, but it's beyond description. There was so much energy, so much intensity, so much talent on stage, and not enough water. I can't tell you how many songs they played, or in which order. Some highlights were definitely the whole crowd of probably abt 2500-3000 jumping up and down together for Anna Molly and singing the words to Drive with Brandon and only Mike on guitar. What am I saying, the whole concert was one big highlight. B and I were jumping so hard our bodies still hurt. It was so hot that we had to take off our t-shirts just so that we could breathe. It was just one mass of sweaty bodies, and had the attention not been on Incubus, I would've had a problem with that. When they played the opening chords to Megalomaniac, I dedicated that moment to Mahinda, and then went nuts. I was thinking earlier today that it was real, I was there, and I have lived. Now, when will I see them again?

Belated Greetings from Singapore 2!!!

So I have been meaning to do this for a while now! However, I had net issues. Blogger is blocked at work, which means I can't even read blogspot blogs while working either! Secondly, I thought I was in luck when I found an unsecured network in the apartment complex, yet that turned out to be very very sporadic to the extent that i'd be walking around the house with laptop in hand trying to get connected, and then when connected i'd try and finish as much as possible on the net before I get disconnected, which wasn't very long at all. Sigh. Thirdly, I found out that stealing internet from someone else's unsecured network is a criminal offence in Singapore. Shit. I wasn't planning on stealing forever. I promise! Since we're only in the country for 6 months, we only could get a contract with 1 ISP, M1, whose broadband was over a wireless GSM network using a GSM modem, rather than an ADSL modem. I thought that would be ideal cause we don't have to buy a router or modem, as it came free with the package, and we'd have broadband connectivity at 2Mbps immediately. After having paid a S$200 deposit for being a foreigner with a temporary visa, I took the device to my remotely located condo, only to find out M1 hasn't got great coverage where I live, even though they swore upon their mother's brownies they had me covered. So to cut a long story short, I took it back, argued, got my connection money back although my deposit is going to take a month to get to me! Bummer. Work finally arranged a connection for us through their own ISP, Starhub. Boss gave me a router and a modem, the ISP came to our office to arrange the contract (instead of us having to go queue up at starhub, which is a minimum wait of 30 mins) and there you have it, finally i'm connected legally at home!!! So anyway, I spent most my time while not at work walking around Singapore and exploring. Every corner has a food court/hawker market. Every second corner has a mall. Every third corner has an ice cream vendor who sells ice cream on slices of bread that look like ribbon cake. While exploring, I came across this. Classic. My work place for the next 6 months is in Raffles Place, which is the heart of the business district. It's a great area to be in for many reasons, especially since I'm 2 mins away from Boat Quay and this view. Finally picked up my tickets for Incubus AND KT Tunstall. Next Friday is Incubus, and I've been waiting for this a long time. Should I take half a day off from work and join the queue early? Boy am I excited. Let me do a bit of a Darwin and put a pic of the tickets just so I can brag a lil bit;) More on the Lanka Lions, Lisa Fitzgibbon at a very unfriendly Prince of Wales pub in Little India, soon.

Greetings from Singapore

Hello and welcome to Singapore! It's such a nice place, especially when I find an unsecured wireless network at my apartment, when i wasn't expecting to have internet for a week! The flight was delayed as usual by 45 minutes at BIA, but it eventually arrived at the brand new terminall at Changi airport, which was built especially to accomodate the A380. The terminal is beautiful. The A380, i'm not so sure, as I couldn't get a glimpse of it anywhere on the tarmac! I must say the roti parata meal on the plane certainly lifted me up from my leaving blues, and prepared me for what's to come. What did come? An apartment that needs lots and lots of cleaning. But even that is ok, now that I have internet. So after a meal of Chicken Rice at the local food court and 2 hours of cleaning the kitchen and a bathroom, here I am catching up on what i've missed in the last so many hours since I've been online! Plenty going on at Darwin's, fuelled by a plot by a bunch of bearded buggers' to assassinate the makers of dilbert. (Darwin - my sincere apologies for not being able to reply. As you can see, I was stuck in mid air!) My only gripe about that whole scenario is that I wish people would live and let live when it comes to sensitive issues such as race, religion, sex, sexuality, etc. Anyway, it's bed time, or at least it feels like it even though it's only 8:45pm back home in CMB. There's plenty more cleaning to be done in the morning. p.s. The album has reached 300 downloads!

Sunday Jams

Sunday is a night i'd want to relive in my memory forever. So there we were, the final sound check before our last gig together as this line up; Jim on drums, Aadhil on vocals and guitars, Sarani on Lead, Uvindu on bass and myself on guitars. It was 7:30pm, but we knew no one ever came on time, so we took our time perfecting the sound. If at all, it sounded a little echo-ey, but once the people started trickling in that problem would be solved. It was sounding nice, we were pumped and ready to go, so we left our stuff and sat down. Sarani, Uvindu and I got there early. Real early! 4pm to be precise. This was our own gig, and the club had given us permission to do whatever we wanted. So there we were, the three of us redecorating the furniture arrangement at Zanziba while the sound people set up. This involved a lot of pulling, pushing, lifting, grunting and heaving before falling flat on the couches, tired of exhaustion. But we were happy with the end result. Around 9:15pm CC took the stage along with Vidhu, Nuvina and Sarani. It was a great little set from them, however I was disappointed that they didn't play Micheal Jackson's Earth Song as promised. But, as usual, CC was ever competent at wooing the crowd. Next up were us! We were looking at 2 sets and 15 songs in total. It was the first time ever that I had to play that many songs, and boy did it feel good. There are no words to express the feeling you get from playing live. Maybe RD can help there! But to see the crowd moving to your music gives you a wonderful kick! Although we only played 3 covers on the night, the highlight for me was our version of Matchbox 20's How Far We've Come. In the middle of the song I looked up to find Aadhil on the floor, belting the chorus out! The whole band was tight on the night. Jim is an amazing drummer, but I've never seen him play any better, and I could see the crowd just staring at him open mouthed and in awe. Sarani just blew the roof off with his lightening solos. Uvindu was just happy to be himself and play his funky grooves. I could tell Aadhil was just having the time of his life, and I was standing there with my guitar trying to soak it all in. It wasn't a huge crowd, but it was a lovely crowd! It was also the first time that the audience took the stage and jammed. We were entertained by Magicbox Mixup, Cynosure, Anil, Ranil, Spy, Star 69 and a host of others! What's this post getting at? Well, I'm not really sure. But it was a great experience playing with these guys. All of them have a lot more experience than me, and I enjoyed a wonderful learning curve. So thank you, and I hope we can jam again sometime, somewhere:) Thank you to all who came, including fellow blogger themissingsandwich . Hope you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did.

Sunday, bloody Sunday

So we're gigging again, but I gotta tell you, it's damn hard work! It's doubly hard this time cause we're doing an entire show by ourselves, which involves preparation for 2 sets over 2 hours! Good lord! The daily routine has been killing. Work during the day, practice at night. But I must admit, the songs are taking a completely different shape with the addition of Sarani. RD, i'm guessing Sarani's our version of what young Rich is to Mimosa. This guy is fabulous, and definitely soon to be one of Colombo's best! Now i'm no Santana, but he makes me feel like a 7 year old with a guitar when he gets going. Definitely a god on guitar! The gig's on Sunday night at Zanziba. Free entrance too, so if you're in Colombo please do come, as RD did the last time round. We're having CC (TNL Onstage Solo winner) performing with us on the night too! And a week from Saturday, it's off to Singapore.

Download Link

Pic by Lindsay MS3: After the Rain is available for download here. In other news, no frigging sms till 12? How am i supposed to wish uncle Mahinda? More abt the trip to Unawatuna which was cut short by Jazz Unlimited which was cut short by Deyata Kirula which was cut short by recent bombings, soon.

Watch out for Independence day

Another weekend getaway to yet another beach. Went down to Beruwela this time, and by golly it was packed! With foreigners too! Never have I seen a Sri Lankan beach with so many foreigners! But the fun is over, the sand has been washed off, Djokovic just won in Melbourne, and now the things-to-do list is staring at me on the eve of the first 5 day working week in 3 weeks! First up on the list is the release of the 10 Second Rule album. We've decided to release the album online for free download, taking inspiration from Radiohead of course, on independence day, i.e. 4th of Feb. Album is titled "Monsoon Sunday 3: After the Rain" and will be available at www.rock.lk. You won't be able to do anything on independence day, apart from stay at home, so you might as well download the album;) Well, off to the showers now!

I want you back...KT Tunstall style

Good lord, she only keeps getting better! Armed with her acoustic guitar, a tambourine and her trusted Akai E2 Headrush loop/sampler pedal (just discovered that today!) this is KT taking my breath away! Again!

If I Was Prabhakaran...

...I would be thinking to myself that this armed war type of thing has been going on for a while with not much success. I must prove to those southern buggers that I'm a nice, like-able kinda guy. Cause if the South believes I'm a trustworthy, decent chap, they might actually consider me as a plausible alternative to dearly beloved Mahinda. So for starters, if I was Prabhakaran, before wasting another suicide bomber, I would blow up Mervyn Silva to smithereens. I'd plant not one, but two claymores on either side of the road so that he gets hit from both sides, much like he did at Rupavahini, only with much more force and shrapnel. That should win me support from the masses. Tell me. What would you do if you were Prabhakaran?

Running Late

You know it's not your day when you over-sleep not once, but twice, and then go on to ruin surprise birthday parties that aren't yours in the first place! The new place requires me to be at office at 8am sharp. So there I was happily dreaming of not being late, which is unusual for me, when my mum comes crashing into my room and goes "shouldn't you be getting ready? it's 7:35!". Fuck. 25 minutes to shower, iron, get dressed, and get to bloody work! By a miracle of some sort, I get to work by 8am on the dot. Distressed but on time. As I was heading home, the missus and I decided that I shall pick her up at 7:45pm, in order to be at C's GF's house by 8:15, in time for C's surprise, scheduled for 8:30pm. Right, that's not too hard is it? When I get home round 6ish, I think it's only prudent to have a nap, so that i'll be fresh for the eve. So there I was, prudently napping. Or so I was until missus calls me at 8:20pm and goes "where are you?". In that delirious split second between deep sleep and wide awake (induced by shock) I thought to my self "Is it already time to go to work?". Then it hit me. Fuck. C. Surprise. 10 minutes. Ran to the shower. Ran out only to see C himself had called me while I was in there at 8:29pm! Now why's this bugger, who was supposed to be surprised a minute later, calling me at 8:29pm? Why's this bugger, who I have avoided wishing all day, calling me now? So what to do? I call him back! (In hindsight, that was the biggest mistake I made. In my defence, I thought the surprise was over, and he was calling to find out why I was late). So here's what happens. C : Machang where are you? Me : err, at home! C : Ado come for a drink you bugger! Me : ah, err, ok. Happy birthday machang! C : thanks. Come to N's (C's GF)! Me : mmmmm, ok. Where are you now? C : at N's. Me : (thinking to myself, fuck I missed it!) no probs, i'm on my way. 15 mins. C : you are? why are you heading to N's? Me : didn't you say you were there? C : No i'm at dinner. Me : Oh fuck. err. yeah. I'll come once you get there. (at this point I'm confused as fuck. Is he there? Is he not? Had I missed the surprise? Had I ruined it?) C : Ok Bye! Me : bye! 2 minutes later, C calls me back C : *Laughing away* Me : (i assumed I had missed it) Shit I missed it nuh? C : Missed what? Me : err nothing. See you at N's. C : yeah machang! At this point, N had frantically passed the message to those who were at N's already that C might have a clue as to what's going on thanks to me not being on time and thus me not knowing what to say to him. So I get a barrage of calls from all sorts of people there asking what I had told C. So there I was, confused as fuck, thinking that C had already made it to the surprise, and the rest were calling to take the piss outta me for being late. The general gist of the calls were like "ado wtf did you tell C man?" And there I was maintaining "don't bullshit me you bugger, he's already there and you buggers are just taking me for a ride. I'll be there in 15." Now the story gets better. I hurriedly pick up GF, then rush to N's. Park the car behind C's vehicle, cause obviously he had made it there before me. Then check with N's maid as to what time C & N got there. He says "ahhh dang vinadi 10k vithara avilla". So I think to my self, ah that's cool. So I rush up the stairs to the rooftop, on the way passing N's door, that suddenly slams abruptly. I run all the way up and open the door. "SURPRISE" everyone shouts. I dunno who was more surprised, them to see that I wasn't C, or me to realise that C hadn't yet come up. So they say C hadn't made it yet, so I hurry back down and move my car away, only to hear "surprise" again, while I was walking back up the stairs. C had been in N's room and they had walked up 2 mins after me. Man, talk about fucking bad luck! Obviously I wasn't allowed to live it down for the night. The moral of the story? Set an alarm.