$15 and a Year of Jail
"The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world - bar far" (here's an excellent read about that). Today I got a first hand experience of that.
Azhar Chougle | www.azharc.com
"The United States incarcerates more people than any other country in the world - bar far" (here's an excellent read about that). Today I got a first hand experience of that.
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Today I went for Wolfmother with thenewno2 and the Heartless Bastards.
(The opening acts were pretty darn good I'll say, but lets move on) I landed up in Row 4 of the madness that is Terminal 5 in NY's westside. As soon as Wolfmother came on, man, the destructive energy this crowd had was insane. The moshing was extreme - both my feet were hardly on the ground during the entire thing. Crowdsurfers galore, just toppling off all around. I circulated between Row 2 and 6 and managed to cover almost the entire stage laterally in my moshing journeys. Wolfmother brought so much P-P-P-P-PPPPOW! with them. And the improv was great, Andrew was on top of his game, jumping around 4 feet ahead of me (vocals were top notch almost album quality). My ears are still ringing (1 hour, 20 mins later) - they were that heavy. Voice is pretty rustled up too combined with a headthrob from the headbanging. By the end of the whole thing I felt like I had had a shower over the course of two hours - my hair was soaking wet. This was at least 500 calories of cardio here (and strength training for those triceps with all those people flying above me)Back Round and (of course) Joker & The Thief were the best two of the night. Especially the latter, this song ranks up there with Aces High in terms of concert experience. WILD. Just WILD. F**kin ace show. Azhar Chougle | www.azharc.com
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It was somewhere in 2003 that I was asked by my Mom's friend to rip a couple hundred CDs to her laptop so she could put it on her iPod. Being completely business-minded since a young age I charged her per CD (at the time this was a skill not many kids my age had). I didn't know what an iPod was. Heck, nobody new. I hardly even knew Apple even did anything other than that Mac thing that so totally failed - and anyone who bought one was an idiot.
So there I was with this PC laptop and a boxed third generation iPod and a big stack of CDs to get onto it. As I un-boxed the iPod, you can't imagine the sort of immense 'wow' you get out of it. They don't package iPods like that anymore. It came in a medium-sized cube which folded out, and one was greeted with the 'Designed by Apple in California' on opening it. The type on the box was glossy silver. It came with a Firewire and USB cable, along with a dock, pouch, case and cloth.
I didn't know how to use it. It only took a few minutes to figure the thing out. The backlight to the four top buttons was red. I liked that. The hold key got me confused for a second (why isn't this darn thing working?!) but then you just click it back to white and it lights up on its own. You scroll around, you punch in the center. Hey these headphones came with it... hey this sounds pretty good! Oh shit this thing lasts 8 hours?! How many GB did you say? I don't even have that much music.... Oh wow the metal back is so shiny... and there's a silver Apple etched right in the middle of it... they muse use lasers to do that...
... Holy expletive who came up with this. So I spent a few days transferring the music onto it and careful sneaking in a couple hours of listening time in between study breaks. Eventually, since it wasn't mine, I had to let it go but the fascination continued and I found myself on Apple.com a few times a week just reading about what they were up to with all this. I don't remember how long it was till Mom gifted me one of these. 20 gigabytes. Carry all your music in your pocket. Before this I used to listen to music on my phone or carry around a little pocket radio (those were so popular, and when they started making them look like iPods you knew radio is dying). I was addicted to it. A little treasure. Always carried in the case. No keys in that pocket, ever. Having an iPod in 2003 was very different from having an iPod in 2009 (wow, six years huh). I'm not talking about it being a status symbol. It wasn't just that. Sure, you had to be quite fortunate to have one, but there was more to it. iPods weren't popular at all. Especially in India. Not many people even knew what Apple was all about (me included). So this exciting new device came fresh without any background and could just stun people. If you had an iPod then, you were unique (and again, not only because your parents could afford it). There was something about it that said you knew what good design was all about. It was almost as if you knew Apple was going to take over the world at that point. And you had the first bits of it. The iPod wasn't a trend, it wasn't cool necessarily, it was what is was because of design and function. No other player could carry as much music. No other player was as thin, sleek and well thought out in doing so. As simple as that. So there was something special in being part of the Apple culture at the time. Was it because it was so small? That's one of the reasons. Another reason is you had to be smart to have one. This is a time when (in my surrounding humanity) the knowledge on how to properly copy a CD wasn't very widespread (this also because most people didn't have CD burners). Sure the thing came with a manual, and everything you needed - but you just had to be a geek of sorts to really use it (this is how we started - with me getting the work of somebody who didn't have a clue about using it). You had to know how to obtain music (P2P was still quite new back then and CDs were expensive) then get it on the thing and then keep it there while knowing how to avoid breaking this delicate glossy godly creation. Not everyone knew it back then, and at age 13 in 2003. You were, essentially, part of the technological elite. And that was something. To this day I consider the 3rd gen iPod the best design Apple has produced for its iPod line. Today's iPod has retained nothing of the sort. Now, I'm not saying this in a bad way. If iPods didn't become popular, Apple wouldn't have rejuvenated Mac - and the iPhone simply wouldn't exist today. So it was definitely a great thing to happen to the company. But along with this came popularity. Mass popularity. It wasn't because suddenly everyone knew how to use iPods i.e. they became geeky enough to evolve into the culture, its simply because the average-everyday-daily-Joe-Windows2000user people started buying it, and rattled their way around and somehow got it to work. Then it became cool. Then everyone had one. So it became a necessity. A requirement. Not a choice, a requirement (and how and why is another long story). You know what was the requirement in 2003? Windows XP. Funny, isn't it. So Apple has become immensely popular, people flock to the 'Mac Store' (ugh, idiots), buy up their shiny new gear and profess their genius for choosing 'an Apple'. Why did they choose it? Heck they aren't entirely sure themselves. But they knew that they couldn't go PC. Isn't current requirement. Then Apple started catering to the mass market. Oh yes, this is optional extra. So is this. Hey, new iPod! Hey look guys, time to upgrade your Macs to this one! Yeah isn't Steve Jobs your childhood hero? And then every time Apple releases something new the whole world goes 'Oh my... honey, get the car' and dashes off to stand in line so they can get one on the very first day, use it to a quarter of its potential, and repeat the process within the very same year. Apple is my life! Well, I'm portraying Apple as quite evil here. Far from. They still do make better computers than any other company. A better phone. Best portable music device. The people who deny it are doing it because - Apple consumers are now either a) Normal people who bought a Mac because they're ignorant or b) The ultimate fanboys. Neither of the groups give the culture a very good standing. You know when I used to drool over new products Apple came out with? When I was sure the entire world wasn't behind me willing to stamp me down to get to it first. Now, I'm content with my Mac (and will be for years), don't plan on replacing my iPod for a long, long time (or my iPhone) and the new releases of iMacs yesterday just flew right by me. Its impossible to get small-company Apple back. When they were generous enough to present us with the full package rather than have us buy additional bits which should've been in the box. What I'd like to see is companies bringing back that innovative charm to technology that won't have the masses swooning - because they won't understand it. Just like the first iPod. Azhar Chougle | www.azharc.comComments [2]
Artists have to deal with it day in and day out. Well, not really 'deal' with it, but require it. Sift through a splurge of reactions to find that one person who appears to make a little bit of sense.
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For whatever reason I've ended up talking to a lot more people this year.
It has become routine that I get a pasta every alternate night from the cafe below my dorm. I used to get it made by the same guy every time last year and it was only a few weeks before I left for the summer that I got his name. Well, he left the job and this year I've found a new fellow who I meet nearly every day at 9 30. Every day we inch a little forward in conversation. His English isn't very good which is why I try and keep it simple small talk. Today I found him crouched under the counter holding a first-gen iPhone in his hand. Now that's a conversation starter for me. So we got talking and eventually he mentioned how he has no music on the thing. He can't afford an AT&T phone plan so using it as a phone is out. So I gladly offered to put some on to it for him, since he didn't have a computer - let alone an internet connection and a lot of music. So for the second time so far this semester I took my laptop out, set up in the cafe, got the cables and started trying to figure out what sort of music he likes. He seemed to be in to metal and rock which were my speciality. He didn't know many artists names. He knew a few, so I gave him all I had from those he mentioned. He also mentioned an artist that I don't have which I'll procure eventually. So when I connected the iPhone it asked what I wanted to name it, so I finally got his name, which is Joel. And then dragged all that he wanted into a playlist and left it to sync (my lossless files meant it took an hour in the end). During this time I got to know him a little better. The part which hit me right in the face is the guy is hardly a year older than me. He works from 10am to midnight, I think everyday. I obviously didn't ask him what he gets paid but I'm sure it isn't enough for the amount of work these guys put it (they're hardly ever idle). He said he wanted to learn English so he could take some courses at Baruch across the street "I want to improve my life man" - coming from a guy not much older than you working 14 hours a day isn't easy to hear. I know that a lot of the world is full of much worse than this. Wars, poverty, hunger, starvation... and there are so many people in far worse situations than he, but I don't have an income to help those more in need and worse still I haven't had many a chance to come face to face with them like I have with him. This probably hit me a lot more because I'm here, living in Manhattan, going to one of the best visual arts colleges on the planet, fully paid for by my mother and uncles - and this guy who works at the cafe downstairs, less than a year older than me, is going to make his life better all on his own. I found out his birthday is October 27th (I hope I heard it right) so I can spare a bit to get him a decent pair of headphones and figure out a way I can help him learn better English other than just talking to him a bit more. Azhar Chougle | www.azharc.comComments [3]
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The Bio-Disc is really, quite a stupendous product.
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