I Am Uncle

My Niece, born 17 Dec 2007

I Am Legend

Go watch this movie for:

a) Will Smith. The Biggest Daddy in Hollywood today. And he deserves every bit of it.
b) Appreciation of Bob Marley
c) A Manhattan devoid of life... minus Lions and deer.
d) Will Smith working out.
e) Appreciation of Shrek
f) The German Shepherd who can act better than Sohail Khan
g) The entirely believable story. Biological weapons (or its development) have more chances of destroying us than even stupidity or arrogance.
h) Will Smith. I like this guy. Even if he was in Hitch.

My experience was screwed a bit by the audience at INOX, Nariman Point. These cock-sucking South Bombay crowd who come for movies dressed like they are at a night club just drives me nuts. And when they talk, talk, talk during the movie - I wanna get up and abuse the fuck out of them. For once, I wished I was not with my wife at the movies.

Tata's 100,000 Rupee car

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/dec2007/gb2007125_021655.htm?chan=search

I've been thinking about this $3000 car a fair bit of late. Especially when I'm stuck in traffic while trying to get from work (Lalbaug) to home (Chembur). In the morning, the onward journey takes about half an hour - because I leave home at 8.00am. The return trip in the evening is about 60-90 minutes... depending on the time of the year. Festivals, Dalit leader birthdays... all make predicting an arrival time virtually impossible.

But the one steady issue is traffic. Its always there. And imagine whats gonna happen to our choked roads and heavily carbonated/ leaded air when Tata unveils the 100,000 Rupee car. Imagine my office boy (who already has a fancier cell phone than mine) adding to the traffic. For increasing market share, have the likes of Tata and Nissan given up on their social responsibility?? How good will such a car be? Will it be compliant with the environmental standards... however badly implemented it may be? Will the cars be safe?

Thats when I came across this story... and I'm glad Maruti Suzuki is not getting into this space. Commendable. I rather have 10 bigger semi-luxury cars on the road than 1000 small economy-types driven by the peons and chowkidars.

My buddy Sheik - always known to be relaxed and objective - has an interesting point of view. He says it is great that these big companies are coming out with smaller/ cheaper cars. The saturation point (the day we will not be able to move on the roads) will be reached sooner... and the administration will be forced to do something about our appalling infrastructure. Right now, the increase in our worries is a gradual problem - and we accommodate these issues in our lives and the govt just ignores it. The day shit hits the roof - the saturation point - we may be in for a better life. An easy first step would be to get citizens to hawk where they are supposed to hawk, walk where they are supposed to walk - and drive where they are supposed to drive.

All in all - we are in for bad times.

Hey, iTunes, Move Over

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2007/tc2007127_346115.htm

Interesting points:

a) Amazon's entry: 89 cents, DRM free, People have another option (isn't that what we live for?), Amazon's one-click checkout, recommendation engines (simply the best). And if I'm not mistaken - I can buy singles now from India with an Indian credit card. Haven't tried yet - but maybe I can. Can't wait to fill my iPod with some Timbaland.

b) Imeem's model: Ad-based

Radiohead - In Rainbows

Recently, Radiohead released their seventh studio album, IN RAINBOWS. It was available only as a digital download from their website. They plan to release a deluxe version of the album sometime later. More importantly, Radiohead is letting listeners pick what they want to pay for the album.

Interesting for sure. Path breaking... bold... experimental... I don't know. Maybe music fans and music-industry doomsday folk are missing a point.

Radiohead is a MEGA band. Its fan base is HUGE. They can afford to keep the middle man (the record company) out of the whole deal because they know where their side of the bread is buttered - and that's LIVE performances (touring). So, for a big band like Radiohead - getting as many idiots to hear the album is a sure-shot way of packing stadiums. Pearl Jam may follow. Eagles may follow.

But spare a thought for the new bands... will this help any of the new acts out there who have not had the marketing expertise offered to the likes of Radiohead over the past many years? Radiohead can afford to pull off a stunt like this because their fan base is in place - something they owe a lot to the their talent (undoubtedly) as well as the commitment of EMI - their erstwhile record label. Nobody markets music better than a record company. Even in the age of fucking YOUTUBE.

Variable pricing - or picking your price in today's world is stupid. The manufacturer decides the price - not the customer. Imagine walking into a grocery store - picking up a liter of milk and paying 5 Rs. or 25 cents (for my Singaporean friends). 'I choose my price - and I don't think milk deserves to be priced more than this. I will pay 12 bucks instead of 28 bucks for a dozen of eggs... because I think eggs should be priced that way'. What the fuck...!!

This action of Radiohead - to me - is sad for the business. After years of work put in by the label to promote them - get them seen, heard and bought - they walk out to do this? New bands won't even try this stunt. Worse, the new acts are going to get tied down to 360 degree deals (physical, non-physical, live, merchandise, artist management) with the record labels - and the every purpose of a breaking out act (by the likes of Radiohead and that petrol-head Geroge Michael ) will prove as a curse rather than a blessing.

Oh, by the way - their music is available at 160kbps... the band leader says that the goal was to provide better quality than that of iTunes (128 kbps). CD quality is at around 1000 kbps.

So, fans pay crap for crap.