Just thought I'd post a link to what my PhD advisor called, "the start of my acting career"! It's my three month summer internship at Willow Garage condensed into a 45 second video. Another fun clip from the summer is from the "Intern Challenge", where we had a weekend to make a robot waiter that could serve drinks to the judges (of which one was Larry Page, as we later found out!)
As I was listening to my daily dose of music today, I came across a song I particularly liked, and I couldn't stop myself from turning the volume up. This got me thinking about why we humans (well.. atleast most of us) seem to like our music loud. I did some googling and found this very interesting read, "The Seductive (Yet Destructive) Appeal of Loud Music". Quoting from the article:
"In one study, researchers found that loud music activated those brain regions that are associated with euphoria drugs, such as cocaine. There is evidence that music elevates endorphins connected with pleasure centers in the brain."
Here are the guts of my Nokia N80, which I took apart in an attempt to fix the on/off switch. Looks like I might even be successful -- I've ordered the spare part which was broken. Putting it back together might prove to be quite a challenge though!
It's a well known fact that grad students mustget their caffeine somehow. It's also common knowledge that grad students are usually a starving, broke lot.
In an attempt to optimize the situation, I present to you the "caffeine per buck" table:
Phenom will be doing a show on the 28th of January, 6:30 pm, at St Johns Amphi-theatre, along with Zebediah Plush, Galeej Gurus, and the Christ College and Mount Carmel College acoustic bands, to raise funds for Tsunami relief work.
Tickets are priced at Rs. 100, and are available at Casa Piccola (Residency Road), Music World, Landmark, Crossword and Coffee Day Xpress outlets. Be there if you enjoy some good rock or acoustic music, or just if you want to help the cause. Thanks!
Meanwhile, we released a few more of our songs - Resurgence and CAP 5101. Get them here!
I watched Remember Shakti yesterday at Palace Grounds, and man, I was blown away, again! The last time I experienced something similar was here. Similar observations - these guys (and Carnatic music in general) have amazing rhythmic patterns and phrasing! All the instrumentalists were absolutely brilliant, and so was Shankar Mahadevan - he certainly added value to the performance. Listening to Indian classical melodies backed by John Mclaughlin's jazz chords was an out-of-this-world experience. I felt the lack of a bass guitarist or a keyboardist to fill up the sound, but that was only when Zakir Hussain was playing the snare and the bass drum, not when he played the tabla.
Hmm.. this journal has been gathering dust lately.
Phenom just released one of it's songs - A Little Step, a song about peace and harmony, in the spirit of Christmas! Enjoy, and feel free to spread it around, it's licensed under a Creative Commons license.
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mrinal's journal
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