The Eighties - Reliving the music!

Thanks to my previous post about TV shows in the eighties I've been inspired to put up another post about the music at the time. Eighties music has been inspirational to a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Great music, weird dress sense, bad hairdos would be the way I'd describe the era!

Listed below are some of my favorite tracks of the eighties:

Take on Me – Aha
Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
Every Breath You Take – Police
Thriller – Michael Jackson
Rebel Yell – Billy Idol
With Or Without You – U2
Karma Chameleon – Culture Club
Broken Wings – Mister Mister
Maneater – Daryll Hall and John Oates
Enjoy The Silence – Depeche Mode
Piano Man – Billy Joel (this was actually sung in the 70s but I listened to it in the 80s)

The list goes on! Anyways, peeps, please feel free to put in your favorites – web space is infinite…or is it? ;-)

What're your favorite TV shows of the Eighties?

I was just reading a post on Rayboy's blog about some producers in the US wanting to make a newer version of the popular TV show Knight Rider (one of my all-time favorites as a kid) which is what insposred me to post this. (Thanks Ray)

Being an eighties kid, I grew up watching tv shows like the A Team, Knight Rider, Simon & Simon, Matlock, Remington Steele among many more. One of my favorites of course has to be Moonlighting. While the A Team showed the world how a bunch of vigilantes can also be "nice guys after becoming a modern day version of Robin Hood & his band of merry men and Knight Rider inspired the youngsters of the older generation to go and get themselves black Trans'ams, Moonlighting not only revived the career of Cybil Sheperd and made a star out of Bruce Willis but gave us a highly entertaining TV series with action, adventure drama, comedy & romance.

So how many of you watched these shows in the eighties? Any favorites? What did you think of their clothes and their dress sense? And the technology back in the day? Feeling a bit nostalgic for some reason....

Orkut to be banned in Kuwait?

This post stems from the article I read this morning in the Arab Times stating that the Ministry of Information plans on banning acess to the popular community networking site orkut.com in the near future. Are these guys for real? Afte the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia (no surprises there) and the UAE (surprisingly) Kuwait is soon to follow apparently.

Orkut is a communitiy based website similar to hi5 and facebook that enables users to post profiles, comments and network. A lof of my friends and other people I know have actually got in touch with lost friends through this website and it's one of the most popular sites in the world especially since it was bought by Google earlier this year.

The governments mentioned above are supposedly afraid of the content that is posted on this website and the fact that users can create multiple profiles and this may lead to fraud, racism and probably propogation of violence and hate groups. Seeing that the internet is one big cauldron of information that can by and large be controlled by users, I don't see the point in banning a site like orkut. What the government does not realize is that there are ways to control this sort of thing. Perhaps they can poilce the site and restrict access to objectionable content. It beats banning access to the site completely. Come to think of it no site or community on the internet is safe from this. That doesnt mean you're going to ban the internet entirely does it?

Choices choices choices - This time, what smartphone do I buy?

Having used imate PDA phones for the past 4 years now, it's going to be a little difficult for me to get used to a different PDA/smartphone but it's about time I switch phones methinks. For the past few days I have been comparing various smart phones with the intention of getting one soon but can't seem to make up my mind. I've narrowed it down to 3 phones now, the imate JAQ3, the Samsung i600 and the Blackberry Pearl.

While the JAQ3 is my first choice at the moment, it is the first phone from imate to look and feel similar to a Blackberry and I have had qualms about the Blackberry since day one. Just like its predecessors the JAQ3 has good battery life (a must for a power user like myself), Quadband, GPRS with Push Email, a front placed QWERTY keypad, a decent camera with movie recording capability (for those specially over-the-top moments) and the usual Microsoft Windows Mobile for the on-the-go user. And it's got a stylus which I'm very very used to! Overall I think it's a pretty decent phone.

Second we've got the Samsung i600 with a sleek and sexy design. The thumbwheel is similar to the one provided by Blackberry and the Windows Mobile interface is a familiar sight for the hardcore imate user. (Don't you just hate the Sony Ericsson and the Handspring Treo interfaces?). The only weakness I see (apart from the slightly small QWERTY keypad which may take a while to get used to) is the battery. Samsung smartphones have been known to be battery drainers and how this one runs in the market is yet to be seen. Perhaps that is one of the reasons they give you a second battery.

The third in this review is the Blackberry Pearl 8100. The one really good thing about Blackberry is their marketing although the phones themselves have been getting rave reviews in Europe and the US. I honestly have a hard time buying what Americans buy! The Pearl comes with the usual Windows Microsoft interface, superior push email capabilities to add to the already much talked about email functionality of this phone with EDGE support. However the phone is sans 3G (don’t know when we'll get the full use of 3G in Kuwait but….) the QWERTY keys on the keypad are a little too small and according to some people that already have it, the phone capabilities of this piece are a little below expectations.

So there you have it; 3 good phones and I need to make up my mind by the end of this month. Any advice or input people?

Dumbasses - How many varieties do you know?

This post has been inspired by the large number of stupid people that inhabit the world. With all due respect to everyone reading this blogpost, I am going to whine a little about how certain people just piss you off by being rude, inconsiderate or plain stupid.

Dumbass 01:
These are the people who will try and suck the life out of an elevator button thinking it will get to you faster if you press harder.

Dumbass 02:
These are the people who get to an elevator, see a bunch of other people already waiting for the elevator to get to them, press the damn button a few times just for reassurance. They're the smartases who think that nobody else has pressed the button and it is solely their duty to do so and prevent the rest of the people from looking like fools. (perhaps in Kuwait it is attributed to the "vasta" factor) pull a few stirngs, press a few buttons....

Dumbass 03:
This category just runs into an elevator as soon as the doors open often not allowing persons already inside to step out. These people are either in a real big rush to get hit by a truck or are just desperately in need of a potty break.

Dumbass 04:
Ever knew people who casually ask how you're doing when they see you on the street or at the dricleaners or your local bakala (local convinience store)? Notice, they say "How are ya?" instead of "How ARE you?" My guess on this is that if he or she says "How are ya?" they're really not in the mood to know how you're doing. It's like a lackadaisical approach to the whole greeting."How ARE you?" on the other hand warrants to a few other questions"How is the wife? Kids ok? Blood pressure under control? Watch Die Hard 4.0?" etc etc etc.

In due course of time I am sure I will find at least another 4 dozen categories of dumbasses to write about but in the meanwhile, this will have to do.

The reality that is Dubai

I couldn't get too many days off work so I decided to go to the closest "quick vacation" spot around - Dubai. I guess spending time with my girl is the best time spent as far as I am concerned but that is not the point of this post.

Now I've been to Dubai about a zillion times before and I've noticed that things change almost in a flash. Whats annoying is that the people are getting more and more artificial every time I go there. The fake accents, the fancy restaurants, the designer clothes and night clubs seem to be a facade. I'd rather live in a place that has a little more heart. Like Kuwait!

I know what most of you will be thinking. Kuwait? And heart? The truth of the mater is I was born here and have spent a considerable amount of my life here. Perhaps it's the comfort level, perhaps it's the people. Or my familiarity with the roads and the ever changing rules for expatriates that change in a flash (much like the skyline of Dubai). But on the whole I think the people in Kuwait as rude or incompetent as some of them may seem) still have a kind of innocence. That innocence has been lost in Dubai which is now turning to be a well-oiled corporation.

Do I like it in Dubai? Yes, I do. I like the pace of business and the profesionalism people display there. I like the recreational avenues, the malls, the bars and the nightlife. But would I live there? I don't think so.

A New Passion - Come Sing With Me

So there I was last thursday night waiting for something exciting to happen and while we all know that in Kuwait this could take anything between 2 days to about 7 years in some cases, my friends and I decided to jam. Three guys in a room with some equipment; laptops, speakers, amplifiers, one acoustic and another electric guitar and a set of keyboards - and we think of strumming a tune.

Nothing in particular, we just strum and yoodle (try yoddling after a few drinks and about a pack and a half of Davidoff Lights!). People, I kid you not, about 3 hours later we had actually written a song, composed the music and sung dummy recordings in our makeshift studio in 3 pitches......and that too in 2 different genres; rock (the original version) and reggae!!!

Come...
Come sing with me,
A distant melody,
A hardcore symphony.

Don't...
Don't change yourself,
Don't sow unsure seeds,
Don't make yourself bleed.

You've got to be yourself now,
You've got to do what's right.
You've got to make life work for you,
Without taking a bite.

You've got to be yourself now,
You've got to do it right.
You've got to make life work for you baby,
Without taking a bite.

Come!

To some of you pros out there this may sound like some childish or drunken (or perhaps both)attempt at a Kuwaiti-Indian version of Rockstar but I think with some practice, dedication and the right strategy, we might be on to something big here.

I'm not saying we're the next big thing after Supernova. Hell, we might not even want the accolades and the fame. All we want is something to do creatively, something to collaborate among friends with, something to entertain with. And possibly a cult following! ;-)

In the meanwhile my friends - come sing with me!