one of the best by far...

iconic irish rockers U2 have come up with many awesome songs during the course of their musical career but one of those that resonates most deeply personally is LOVE RESCUE ME, a duet of sorts with bob dylan off their seminal RATTLE AND HUM album...

it's quite gospel-ly in nature but the lyrics and music totally blow me away...it showcases bono at his bluesy best with a fantastic orchestral arrangement that never fails to get me each time i listen to it...

had the chance to revisit some of U2's music whilst browsing thru my iPod and after hearing this, it's been running around in my head endlessly for the past 2 days and i just had to share it with you guys...

wasn't released as a single but evidently there are people out there who appreciate this song as much as i do and one even put up a home-made vid for the song on youtube (see below)...

do have a listen if you don't know the song...you won't regret it...







Love Rescue Me Lyrics

soon...soon...

am counting down patiently to the weekend whilst desperately trying to clear my "plate" at work of all outstanding work...like it's gonna happen anytime soon

well at least i've gotta get done whatever i can and do all the groundwork for the rest that i have to pass on to colleagues when i am away...i have this sickening feeling that the mobile is gonna be ringing off the hook in melbourne...

hope it doesn't impinge on my enjoyment over there...or rather down (under) there

quick quick...2 more working days (today inclusive of course)!!!!!

melbourne here i come...well, soon anyway...

...am off on a family holiday to melbourne on sunday night...yes, with my whole immediate family, good god!!! it's been a very long time since we've all gone together, so with the folks getting on in age, might be one of the very last times that we get to do so...so i wasn't exactly very opposed to it...will be away upto and including 10th feb itself...so will most probably not be blogging much, if any at all...

melbourne...state capital of victoria, australia...a well-loved cosmopolitan city...probably one of the most if not THE MOST liveable city in australia...distinct laid-back and more than slightly euro-centric...boasting one of the best climates (in my book anyway) to live in...footy- and food-mad...what more could one want as a holiday destination? in case you haven't realised by now, i love this city...this is the fourth or fifth time i will be there and i will be back over and over again in the future...

just a couple of the sights that i will be taking in shown below...hope my photos turn out as good ya...


..

what a fantastic way to spend money!

studying cow burps?????? WTF!!!

University gets $590k to study belching cows?

A Swedish university has received $590,000 in research funds to measure the greenhouse gases released when cows belch.

About 20 cows will participate in the project run by the Swedish University for Agricultural Sciences.

Cattle release methane, a greenhouse gas believed to contribute to global warming, when they digest their food. Researchers believe the level of methane released depends on the type of food the eat.

article HERE

hilarious!!!

killed me!

the iceman cometh!

goodness me! doesn't the bugger get frostbite on his pecker?

A man who calls himself a tantric master broke his own world record by standing engulfed in ice for 72 minutes. Wim Hof, 48, stood on a Manhattan street in a clear container filled with ice for an hour and 12 minutes.

Hof said he survives by controlling his body temperature through tantric meditation. Tantra is an Eastern tradition of ritual and meditation said to bring followers closer to their chosen deities.

Hof set the world record for full body ice contact endurance in 2004, when he immersed himself in ice for an hour and eight minutes.

article HERE

he bet france's budget deficit!

getting back to the soc-gen mess first mentioned HERE.

turns out that dear ole mr kerviel bet the equivalent of france's annual budget deficit...about 50 BILLION euros...holy sheeet! where's the blardy controls??? something must be seriously wrong with soc-gen's internal systems that he could get away with it for more than 2 weeks, racking up a futures tab the size of godzilla!

ooooh heads will roll for this, big time...


French trader 'staked 50bn euros'
The French trader at the centre of a massive fraud case had gambled around 50bn euros ($73bn; £37bn) before being uncovered, his employer has said.

Bank Societe Generale said Jerome Kerviel, 31, appeared to have been operating alone. When the bank reversed all the deals he allegedly made, it was hit with a loss of 4.9bn euros.

Lawyers for Mr Kerviel, who is being questioned by police, said their client had "committed no dishonest act". "He did not siphon off a single cent, and did not profit in any way" from the bank's assets, the lawyers told AFP.

Mr Kerviel handed himself in on Saturday, two days after the scandal was revealed publicly. No charges have yet been brought against him. By early afternoon on Monday police must either free him or present him to a judge for the opening of a full judicial investigation into charges of fraud.

Societe Generale on Sunday accused its trader of using "fraudulent methods", and concocting "fictitious operations" to prevent detection. It said his background in trader oversight enabled him to fool those supposed to monitor traders' activities.

He had committed some 50bn euros to purchases of "futures" portfolios - effectively betting on the future direction of the stock market - the bank said. That was more than the bank's own worth - about 35bn euros - and about the size of France's entire annual budget deficit.

Traders are supposed to balance each purchase with a sale, but Mr Kerviel allegedly made up fictitious sales, leaving the bank massively overcommitted.

Analysts have suggested that Societe Generale's massive sell-off may have played a part in sparking the huge losses suffered by world stock markets early last week.

more on this story HERE

the ladies vieing for...

...the women's singles title at the Australian Open 2008 are just about my 2 favourite gals currently in tennis...

the absolutely delicious screaming banshee Maria Sharapova


and the sweet girly Ana Ivanovic...


dammit, i dunno who to support...

i'd like to support THEM with my hands though

bugger must be a nick leeson groupie...

what with the financial markets already in a state of turmoil over the US sub-prime meltdown, and major US banks having to take massive hits in writedowns as a result, the last thing the market needs is a rogue trader...goodness, haven't the banks learnt from the mistakes of BARINGS when nick leeson ran amok and brought the venerable british bank to its knees???

now it's the turn of Soc-Gen

Rogue trader to cost SocGen $7bn

French bank Societe Generale says it has uncovered "massive" fraud by a Paris-based trader which resulted in a loss of 4.9bn euros ($7.1bn; £3.7bn).

The bank said the fraud was based on simple transactions, but concealed by "sophisticated and varied techniques".

While Societe Generale has yet to name the trader, media reports say he is 31-year-old Frenchman Jerome Kerviel.

The losses are four times greater than those made by Nick Leeson, the rogue trader who brought down Barings Bank. Leeson was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail.

Speaking to the BBC, Leeson said he was not shocked that the latest fraud had taken place - only its scale.

"Rogue trading is probably a daily occurrence within the financial markets," he said. "What shocked me was the size. I never for one moment believed it would get to this degree of magnitude, this degree of loss."

Societe Generale's shares, which were suspended in the morning, ended the day down 4.1%. According to reports, Mr Kerviel worked at the bank's Delta One products team in Paris.

Although Societe Generale has yet to confirm his name, it did say that the trader was a Frenchman in his 30s who joined the bank in 2000 and earned a salary and bonus of less than 100,000 euros. He was responsible for betting on the markets' future performance, bank executives said. Societe Generale said the trader had taken what it called "massive fraudulent directional positions in 2007 and 2008 beyond his limited authority".

The fraud is an extraordinary echo of the rogue trader, Nick Leeson, who caused the collapse of Barings Bank in 1995, says BBC business correspondent Nils Blythe. But the losses uncovered by Barings bosses totalled just £860m - about a quarter of the amount lost by Societe Generale.

The bank, one of France's largest, will need to seek 5.5bn euros in new capital to offset the losses. But it said it would still make a profit of 600m to 800m euros for 2007, despite the blow to its balance sheet. The bank's losses have seriously dented its profits for 2007. The company will announce its full year results on February 21, and it said that it expects its 2007 net income to be in the range of 600m-800m euros. Shares in Societe Generale have fallen by nearly 50% in the past six months.

Societe Generale is also going to raise 5.5bn euros through a capital increase "to strengthen its capital base".

article HERE

another one bites the dust...

...the entertainment world mourns the passing of another young talent, the oscar-nominated australian heath ledger

the 28 year-old was found dead in his new york apartment about 30 some hours ago. it was speculated by some parties that drugs were involved (as there were 6 different types of prescription drugs found in the apartment), but so far, the preliminary tests have been inconclusive...so it is still too early to say that he died of a drug overdose...

RIP

a new phone for kona

hurray! came across a great deal this last weekend for the phone that i have been eye-ing for a while now and finally took the plunge...

my old 2-year plan with the existing provider is coming to an end on 4 feb, so with the great promo that this other provider is giving, i decided that it would be worth it to sign on with the new provider early...i still save a bundle on the phone plan and more importantly, a big chunk on the phone...

the new one is once again, another SONY ERICSSON...i can't get past using these babies cos they have exactly what i want in a phone...a good camera (5.0MP no less for the new phone) and a stable software (which is more than i can say for the current stable from NOKIA)...

and here it is...the SE K850



all in all, the net price price (including the money i get for trading in my old SE) is only $187.45...yay!

specs of the phone HERE and an in-depth review of the phone HERE

championing the trespassers...

...the william type, i mean...

ok ok, enuff of cryptic obscure phrases...here's the thing...dear ole sis passed me a song yesterday virtually...called ALONE by a group called TRESPASSERS WILLIAM...

in a nutshell, i was blown away!

turns out that the group is an outfit hailing from SOCAL generally known for their moody, ethereal sound (perfectly describes the song)...with 3 albums released to their credit, they have received relatively modest press coverage and their biggest claim to fame is for ALONE to be featured amongst the soundtrack of THE O.C. (which is probably where dear ole sis came across it)...

currently they are at work on their 4th album, having relocated to seattle...

unfortunately unable to find a vid for ALONE, but have resorted to up-ping the song here (about 5MB)...hope you guys like it...would like to get some reactions/comments...


Alone Lyrics

the Click Five have matured...

after bursting onto the music scene in 2005 with their debut album GREETINGS FROM IMRIE HOUSE (which spawned 2 big radio hits), these chaps from boston returned in jun 2006 with their sophomore effort MODERN MINDS AND PASTIMES which seems to take on a more grown-up aspect...to many, they are dismissed as teenybopper pop but this song, EMPTY, shows a distinctly more mature, introspective and thoughtful side...

don't think that it's released as a single yet...but they should!

an excellent song, if i may say so...enjoy!



Empty- Modern Minds And Pastimes Lyrics

the vor have come!

brutal
visceral
menacing
electrifying
and completely mesmerizing...

watched david cronenburg's EASTERN PROMISES last night...it's the companion piece to his incredible A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE...a tale of deception, betrayal and brutality in the russian underworld...

cronenburg has crafted a masterpiece of intensity in this movie...dissecting human behaviour right down to its most intense and uncomfortable parts...the movie is subtle in its premise, yet the effect is like a ton of bricks hitting one in the face...

not gonna elaborate on the plotline itself but just to say that the screenplay is smart, pacy and punchy...you'll just have to watch the movie for the story...what i shall attempt to enlighten on are the various roles that the actors play...


viggo mortensen is inspired in his portrayal of the mysterious nikolai, brooding and dark yet somehow allowing a pinch of humanity through...you know that he's brutal and lethal, yet you cannot help but be drawn irresistibly to his humanity which seeps through his cold outer shell...

armin mueller-stahl as semyon mixes the gentility of an ole-school gangster with the cold, hard steel of a scalpel...much more natural somehow than the somewhat campy (in comparison of course) brando in the celebrated coppola epic, the godfather...


naomi watts is luminous in her role as anna khitrova (anna ivanova, using the russian patronymic form)...innocent, yet jaded and more than slightly hardened)...can't believe she's already turning 40 this year...still ethereally beautiful, even in the absence of makeup...


the star for me though is vince cassel, the conflicted drunkard son of the vor clanchief, playing the most frenzied, freaked-out, self-hating character to come along in a movie in recent memory...in spite of things, you will find yourself feeling sorry for his character...so aching for his father's approval yet subtly hating him at the same time...

oh and that turkish bath scene was completely out of this world...forget about the fact that viggo's family heirlooms were out there for the world to see (yes girls, aragorn in full frontal nudity!!!)...focus on the stark clarity of that brutal struggle for survival amidst the steam, with knives flashing and blood oozing...my word! how frickin' fantastically kinetic!

overall, a highly recommended 8-1/2 outta 10 for me...

SPOILER ALERT for those who are not...

...updated on current events on GREY'S ANATOMY...do not read further...skip this posting...






aiyoh, i tell you ah, i am sooooooooo mad over the turn of events on GA leh...the topsy-turvy yo-yo-ing relationship between mcdreamy and meletit has gone sour again...can die leh!!!!! such angst and unspoken recrimination...

but the one good thing about S4E11 (the current episode) is that it's introduced BROKEN, sung by LIFEHOUSE which is off their latest album WHO WE ARE (2007)....it's one kick-ass ballad and is completely and perfectly suited to the feelings of this episode...

can't find the actual video as i think they haven't released it as a single yet (definitely in the works...it's so radio-friendly!) but someone's already spliced together a vid using GA for the song...see below...




Lifehouse Lyrics
Broken Lyrics

horrid horrid taste!

a new entrant into the crap car rice boy hall of fame...my gaaaawd...a prime contender for the worst-looking bodykit of the year...heck no, make that the decade! this is a classic case in how to morph a good-looking car into a complete utter monstrosity...

original


modded


what the blardy hell was the owner thinking?