09.21.06
Lyrics to Supernova’s ‘Leave the lights on’
I’m already beginning to miss following all the singers every week in Rockstar: Supernova. So one of the things I’m doing now(to tide over my withdrawal symptoms !) is to look back at some of the performances. I realise now that this Supernova song is the one with which they try best to fit in with the Glam rock 70’s kind of sound. Also the lyrics are probably similar to songs of that era with lots of sexual double innuendo. Must admit that one of my perverse thoughts seeing the video again now was to see Lukas on stage with all the go-go dancers on this song and (accidentally ?) kicking one of them off with his Mick Jagger impersonations drunk-but-not-dead swagger 
Leave the Light’s on( Rockstar: Supernova)
Yeah yeah yeah yeah
yeah yeah yeah yeah(Oh, oh, oh)
I’d like to say for the record that I like how you walk
And how the other guys all shut their mouths and talk
And your body’s so black and your skin is too
I wanna make a good connection when I plug into youSo come on and leave the lights on that’s your thing
It’s better for the cameras if you know what I mean
So come on and leave the lights on if it’s all that you see
Coz everything else in the room is gonna be offYeah yeah yeah yeah
I wanna feel like the kingdom when I burn into you
I wanna kneel at the altar your body dances to
I wanna speak three languages… tell us how I feel
That I am unbelievable… I love the way that you moveSo come on and leave the lights on that’s your thing
It’s better in the cameras if you know what I mean
So come on and leave the lights on it’s all that you see
Coz everything else in the room is gonna be offYeah yeah yeah yeah
(Oh yeah! C’mon!)
(Oh I feel oh…)
So come on and leave the lights on that’s your thing
It’s better for the cameras if you know what I mean
So come on and leave the lights if you wanna see all
Coz everything else in the room is gonna be offSo come on and leave the lights on that’s your thing
It’s better for the cameras if you know what I mean
So come on and leave the lights if you wanna see it all
Coz everything else in the room is gonna be off
Some news about the band came out recently with an update on RollingStone about the court case. Seems that the band will now be known as Rockstar: Supernova to avoid the legal suit. Talk about silly names ! On the other hand with songs like the one above maybe it does desperately need some sort of recall from the loyal viewers of the reality show for the record/live tour to sail through. They have moved fast for that very purpose by already releasing It’s all Love and Be Yourself & 5 different cliches as singles in Yahoo music(Link here). And this recall thing does work for now coz even with all my scepticism about the band I’m almost tempted to buy… just to see how Lukas compares to Magni on It’s all Love’s studio version.
09.20.06
The follies of Economic Forcasting
I’ve been came across this nice article America’s ‘Hollywood economy‘ written by Paul B Farrell in Marketwatch about the inaccuracies of economic forecasting.[Link thru The Big Picture] He writes about how investors have a natural tendency to be bulls or bears and so perceive incoming information with that bias. Paul says that “all investors are trapped in their cocoon of illusions, where economic predictions and market forecasts have far more power than any created by Hollywood’s best illusionists … and they’re far more elusive until it’s too late“. He goes on to state that William Sherden’s findings summarized in “The Fortune Sellers: The Big Business of Buying and Selling Predictions are still relevant today. I’m quite surprised at how familiar some of those 10 main points Sherden arrives at are. In very simple layman words:
- Economic forecasts are not much better than guesswork
- Economists are rarely right about transition points in economic cycles
- Long term forecasts are particularly inaccurate
- Forecasters, ideologies used for forecasts are inconsistent across all aspects of economic forecasts
- Consensus forecasts do not improve accuracy
- Forecasters are affected too by their bullish/bearish bias
- More data/sophistication does not improve forecasts since the world economy is rapidly evolving
- Forecasting has actually deteriorated in recent decades
Paul concludes that it’s useless trying to time the markets based on macroeconomic forecasts and that one should just focus on attaining a well diversified portfolio that’ll work in any given scenario. Well I’ve given up getting all worked up about global macroeconomic cycles some time back. Finally figured out that most of the people who achieved above market returns in the long run focussed their attention primarily on company specific trends. A nice quote by Peter Drucker which is cited in the article sums up the futility of the current debate on the state of the US economy best.
“Anybody who tells you that he understands the American economy ought to be sent to teach modern dance.” – Peter Drucker
09.19.06
Magni’s free at last…
As a big fan of Magni, the last few weeks I was torn between wanting to see him perform one more time and thinking that the exposure was already sufficient for him to strike out on his own. Magni clearly already knew by then that the band wasn’t right for him and he (very rightly!) didn’t seem willing to mould himself into what fits in with them. I didn’t follow last years Rockstar:INXS show so was not sure how big a boost the career of other indie singers exactly got by participating. In any case I guess the main benefits of being in the show will trickle in slowly and it won’t be as dramatic a change in career path like the winners. The important thing is that many people in the industry would have noticed them and with some luck most of these people will have a better career after the show.
In the Rockband forums there is now a separate thread related to Magni’s career which should help me track how he goes about things(Permanent Link here in my Music links) There is a host of new info there already – a lot of translated from Icelandic stuff that can only be found there. Thanks to the Magni fans from Iceland and all over the world there including Evilpiggie, Youskinnybitch, Finley, Babe_Magni and so many others. In fact I’ve been so busy reading those interesting messages that there was no time to post about the finale last week! Well to be truthful since it was so predictable I’m not so sure there were any new insights to write about anyway. The post result interviews did confirm one of my earlier thoughts. All of the 3 band members did have their own picks and in the end it depended on who was the most stubborn in having his way. Tommy Lee wanted Lukas Rossi right from the start, Gilby Clarke thought Dilana was the one midway through the show while Jason was cheering for my viking Magni. Since (like I noticed) Jason’s favourable comments on Magni were totally blanked out in many recent weekly performances the writing was pretty much on the wall.
Anyway found out from rockband forums that Metallica is apparently one of the reasons Magni took to music with Jason being his personal childhood hero. Magni mentions actually shaving off the side of his head as a kid to emulate Jason 
So not surprisingly these guys seem to have hit it off very well professionally too. Jason whose house is just across the mansion the rockers lived in, spent 5 1/2 hours jamming with Magni last week before the finale. Both alternately played bass and guitar with Jason even trying out the drums. Magni says they wrote about 30 part songs in that session! None recorded of course. Jason when asked after the results if he ever considered Magni as their frontman had this to say.
For me, yes, absolutely. I will tell you now, now that everything has been exposed. Today, when we had our final final meeting, we were pulling our hair out, trying to figure it out. The question we asked each other was: If you were starting your own band and we weren’t forced into this unorthodox way of putting together this band on TV, which person would you take for your own band? If Tommy and Gilby wasn’t in it, who would I take? I said, well, I’d take Magni. Cause he’s the best instrumentalist and he and I could go for hours, we could jam, we could write songs, we could… he’s one of us, he’s one of me, I’m one of him type of thing. So I knew that it would be the most fruitful with him. Tommy chose Lukas, cause that’s his boy, if Gilby and Jason weren’t in, he’d want Lukas in the band. Gilby said, if Tommy and Jason aren’t in, I want Dilana. So we all three went that far apart. At like, four hours ago, five hours ago, that’s where we were, facing each other in a room, saying these words, so Magni was my boy.”
Well Jason Newsted’s presence in the band was the main reason I first (wrongly) took SuperEVS seriously and decided to follow the show. Now after the show I’m still left wondering why he’s in a band like SuperEVS. I’m no musician but Jason Newsted like the rest of Metallica were heroes of my teenage years too. And he sure doesn’t belong in a band like SuperEVS as far as I can see. Hopefully fans of Jason’s earlier work will be disappointed enough to actually voice their thoughts by carrying Save Jason banners or something similar to SuperEVS shows
All time low for Indian Hockey ??
India finally had their first win in their last match in the World Cup hockey tournament held in Germany. Their 1st win yesterday in 7 matches enabled a 11th place(2nd worst ever in history) and a place in the the 2007 Champions Challenge tournament in Boom, Belgium, the qualifying tournament for the 2008 Champions Trophy. Normally I manage to somehow sit through our team’s matches but the display in this tournament was so pathetic that it wasn’t possible. Of whatever action I saw we seemed to make the same mistakes all over again in each successive match. The decision to start the tournament with Adrian D’ Souza as the no. 1 goalie was a big initial blunder that the team never could quite recover from. Adrian, coming back to the team after injury, was too slow rushing out of the box while defending penalty conversions. A far cry from the audacious young goalie who had blocked Sohail Abbas so many times in earlier tournaments. By the time Bharat Chetri, who did a great job in the recent tournaments, came in to replace him we already were out of reckoning for the top 6 positions.
Penalty corner conversions on the other hand were as expected a big problem after Sandeep Singh’s injury. Has our team even heard of grooming a backup for such a key player as the penalty corner specialist ? Every other team has at least 2 players in the line up that can score from PC’s. I suppose the performance of the young forwards were reasonable if one considered their lack of experience. Seniors like Gagan Ajit Singh were invisible despite having the experience of playing in the Dutch league. The defence was in total disarray for most of the matches and even Viren Risquinha had to play as a deep defender in the last match to stop the avalanche of goals conceeded.
The familiar post mortems in the press will appear soon and then things will continue in the same vein. The same Federation Chief KPS Gill who has held the post for past 2 1/2 decades will continue to rule his fiefdom in his autocratic, bizarre way. Today in an interview KPS Gill says that he had offerred to quit after Asia Cup 2003 but hockey lovers had forced him to continue. Now apparantly he’s determined to continue till the job is done. Yeah, right. An 11th position now in the WC after 25 yrs of doing the job. With no olympics medals or any podium finish at any major event all this while. Even god probably doesn’t know when this demented man wil say enough is enough.
As before I’m sure now the coach will be sacked and maybe some prominient senior players too. Well at least hopefully Gagan Ajit Singh should get a permenant axe this time. He sucked bigtime in all the matches failing to even trap passes in the D, leave alone score any goals that matter. A mere shadow of the brilliant forward that tormented the Dutch and German defences in the 2004 Champion’s Trophy. He’s been going steadily downhill ever since the team won itself a full time sponsor and he secured a contract to play in the dutch leagues. Gagan’s a good example that simply providing some financial incentives for players is not enough. What we need is some sort of long term investment in infrastructure, a change in the way our leagues are run and new initiatives to make the game popular. We also need to modernize our whole setup – maybe form new modern academies, seek guidance of foreign coaches, trainers and try evolve a system where juniors are given exposure to the latest modern hockey techniques. Of course most importantly we need a new Federation Chief -one that doesn’t interfere in the selection of players. The likelyhood of any such serious initiatives being taken in the near future is remote so we’ll just plod on downhill I guess 
And even though I enjoy seeking out obscure moments of glory in sports, things are now looking particularly bleak for Hockey. Heck, even the World Hockey Federation is now taking pity and wants to revive the game of hockey in our country. And we still shamelessly call hockey our national sport! We aren’t a great sporting nation by any means but it’s still an insult to all those sports where we actually do well like Shooting, Chess, Kabaddi, Badminton or even Cricket.
09.18.06
Lyrics to It’s all Love(SuperNova ?)
I’ve been listening to Magni singing It’s all Love with Tommy Lee’s SuperEVS(my name for the band formerly known as Supernova) a little more closely these days. I did think two weeks back that it was a real strange decision to allow Magni to have the first take on a proper rock ballad before whomever SuperEVS finally picked as their frontman. Made me think that the band didn’t think as highly of Magni’s vocal prowess as I did. Well now that Lukas did sing this song on the day of the finale, the results are there for everyone to compare. Even hardcore fans of Lukas(if they listen for once rather than continue to droll over his stage act) will agree that he totally messes up the song bigtime. Not only did Lukas forget the lyrics to the first verse he also sounded like he was singing with marbles in his mouth (again!). And this is inspite of the band slowing down the song a bit to suit Lukas’s range. The lyrics themselves are not bad though I’m not sure they are particularly memorable in the I only remember silly choruses T. Lee way.
It’s All Love(SuperEVS)
Everybody likes an easy way out
Nobody tells it like it is no more
You took a hit when you blew it out
The light inside that shined beforeNever had to have to love this much
Never felt enough to call it hate
If you can let a thing mess you up
It’s not too lateIt’s always so close
Then you pull it away
And anything goes
Then it goes astray
Now what are you left with at the end of the day
It’s all love, it’s all love, it’s all loveNothing left but the sound of doubt
A pouring out of how did you live in
No one tried to help you figure it out
Does anybody see the signs you’re givenNever had to have to love this much
Never felt enough to call it hate
If you can let a thing mess you up
It’s not too sameIt’s always so close
Then you pull it away
And anything goes
Then it goes astray
Now what are you left with at the end of the day
It’s all love, it’s all love, it’s all loveIs anybody listening to what I’m trying to feel
Is anybody feeling anything that’s real
Is anybody really gonna help me feel this soul inside of you
Recently in an interview Tommy Lee, the de-facto band leader, talks about their band aspiring to have a David Bowie meets T. Rex kind of sound. I figure that probably means an early 70’s glam rock kind of music. Now that would explain why Lukas’s stage act does fit in reasonably well with the band. Unlike Tommy and the band however I’ve no clue what a typical David Bowie sound is supposed to be! After all Bowie’s music has evolved so much throughout the last 4-5 decades and has actually led to inspiring many sub-genre’s of popular pop/rock music. It’s tough nevertheless to place this particular song into anything quite of that era. To me it appears more of a unpolished rock ballad left over from one of Live’s albums a.la The Dolphin’s cry. It’s all Love probably still is the most radio friendly of the SuperEVS songs put out so far. So hopefully they’ll re-arrange it a bit while recording to suit Lukas’s vocal range. Or else they’ll have the rights but no longer quite own the song
