Jesus loves you, but Bono is his favourite

Couldnt help but chuckle, when I read that the Canadian PM rejected Bono's invitation to meet him to discuss aid for Africa at the G8 summit in Germany recently, saying that he likes Bono but meeting celebrities isn’t his thing. :)

Now, check out this hilarious post on the Guardian Culture Vulture blog:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/culturevulture/archives/2006/04/06/god_loves_u2.html
I recommend that you read the comments of the above post, the sweetest things (not all of them) I have read in a long, long time!

PS: From Wikipedia- Bono, with other 3 guys, has made some remarkable rock records.

Desirable Gadget

Tivoli Audio will be launching their NetWorksGo internet radio, late 2007. It can be connected to a broadband or wireless Internet. I dont have to boot my computer and open the browser to listen to my favourite BBC Radio 2. Just turn on the radio and switch to presets.

So, how many stations can I listen to? "..literally thousands of free radio stations around the world."

How do I add a station (tune into a newstation)?

A user needs only to send an email to Tivoli requesting a new station and if approved it will be added to the list. The radio owner then can update the radio’s firmware with a manual button press which will update the list with any newly-added stations. (via Critical Distance Weblog)

Getting this would make my Worldspace reciever redundant, though.

The joy of re-reading a classic

Re-reading Gerald Durrell's My family and another animals was the best thing I did in the last two rain-soaked, lazy days. The book moves forward slowly, with Durrell's spectacular prose detailing the looks and behaviour of insects, reptlies, mammals with wit and humor.

The sky-blue cover with illustrations of an owl, frog, scorpion, dog, lizard, pelican and tortoise was good enough for me to pick up the 50th anniversary edition of this book, last sunday.

Watchin' a game, havin' a Bud...

The big Lebowski: It's funny. I can look back on a life of achievement, on challenges met, competitors bested, obstacles overcome. I've accomplished more than most men, and without the use of my legs. What. . . what makes a man, Mr. Lebowski?
Dude: I don't know, sir.
The big Lebowski: Is it. . . is it, being prepared to do the right thing? Whatever the price? Isn't that what makes a man?
Dude: Sure. That and watchin' a game on TV, havin' a Kingfisher.
The big Lebowski: (after a pause) True.. True..

The sporting season is here, block your calendars and stock up your refrigerators:
Wimbledon: 25th - 8th July
Le Tour de France - Jul 7th to 29th
US Open 28th - 9th September

Just one thing, Dude. D'ya have to use so many cuss words?

How do people, like, not curse? How is it possible? There are all these gaps in speech where you just have to put a 'fuck'. I tell you who the most admirable people in the world are: newscasters. If that was me, I'd be like, 'And the motherfuckers flew the fucking plane right into the Twin Towers'. How could you not, if you are a human being?

(From Nick Hornby's A Long way down)

French Lessons

Alcohol with breakfast is dangerously pleasant. My first experience of it had been some years before as a guest of the Mayor of Bouzy, a village in the Champagne region. There had been two different wines to accompany the food, and politeness obliged me to sample them both. They were cool and invigorating, slipping down easily despite the earliness of the hour, and I was in a happy haze by 9:00am. Lunch-and more wine, naturally- had been served just in time to prevent a return to sobriety, and I ended the day in disgrace after falling asleep at dinner. Since then, I’ve done my best to stick to coffee in the morning.

An extract from Peter Mayle's evocative food writing French Lessons: Adventures with Knife, Fork, and Corkscrew.

I just realized that food writings can be equallly fulfilling as a full course meal. Its interesting to note that food writers (I hate to call them critics) rave about certian things, like truffle, in the same breath a music critic raves about Astral Weeks.

Peter Mayle is also author of A good year.

Graceful

Picked up at a flea market, for less than Rs.150.

If you have heard Grace, then this record would take you by surprise. This is exactly opposite of the over-produced Grace, sparse and personal. The album ends with a cover of Van Morrison's The way young lovers do.

Guten Appetit!

You dont have to be a foodie to enjoy this excellent collection of food writings by Vir Sanghvi. Interesting anectodes, trivia, recipies... unputdownable!

Penguin Link here.

Best Reads

There is no other person who has influenced the Malayalee intelligentsia like Prof. M. Krishnan Nair, through is weekly review of literature (Sahitya Vaaraphalam). It must have been him, who introduced the European and Latin American authors to malayalees, whose books usually hit gold here in Kerala, in sales! Early this year, I decided to subscribe the “Samakaalika Malayalam” weekly so that I wouldn’t miss any of his columns. Unfortunately, the first issue I received with my subscription, was having Krishnan Nair’s column on the cover! This issue of the weekly was a tribute to Krishnan Nair who had passed away, a couple of days earlier.

According to Krishnan Nair, there was only good literature and bad literature - nothing in between.
It was always my wish to make a list of the authors and books, Krishnan Nair recommended through his column, especially of world literature, so that it would serve as my wish-list for
reading - someday I will post the list!

You can access the archives of the columns he wrote (in Malayalam) for Malayalam weekly here (registration required). Or you can buy the hardbound volume of the compilation from DC books.

Sushi rolls..

I bought this album (Phish: A Picture of Nectar) in 2004, but listened to it only this year!
This is one of those albums, you come across, and you feel that you havent heard something like this never before! The Phish are always compared to the Dead and musically I couldnt find anything similar to the Dead in this album (except for The Mango song). I got hooked on to "Stash" first and then.. the entire album!