Links For Thursday

Lots and lots of links today. You can thank me in the comments section.

My friend Oba has a very good post on what aspiring young rockers should do on stage. Some of it is technical advice, and some of it is, well, stuff like this:

2) Don't waste time in between songs.
Ugh, this one really gets me. So you've just played a rocking song, the crowd is sweaty and delirious from the sonic pounding they've received. And then the guitarist starts fiddling with his amp/ 15 pedals. The singer starts looking for lyrics sheets for the next song. The drummer starts playing irritating fills because drummers are like that and wont shut up. The bassist takes out his cell phone and checks for messages. End result = you lose the crowd and allow them to focus elsewehere. Now every time you start a new song you have to win them over again.

Concerts for me are like a big ball of energy thats being tossed back and forth between the band and the crowd. Everytime someone catches that ball of energy it grows bigger. But when you waste time, it's like you've dropped the energy ball, and now you have to start again to build it up to where it was.

So all you aspiring guitar heroes out there, keep your guitar effects to a minimum of three pedals that you can handle, know your amp setting stone cold before you go on stage. Singers, stop being pussies and learn the lyrics, no one ever looked cool holding up a sheet of A4 size paper in front of their face(although I have been guilty of doing this myself at acoustic shows) If you forget lyrcs, make something up, it's still better. Drummers, (this is a universal plea) please shut the fuck up when you're not playing a song.

And if you don't love rock'n'roll enough to turn your damn cell phone off when you're on stage you should quit music and kill yourself.

Poor drummers!

The Foreign Policy blog has a post on India's lobbying efforts against explicitly including Kashmir on Richard Holbrooke's agenda. For a rejoinder, read this post on the Acorn. And finally, read Cyril Almeida's latest piece, on matters not unrelated to that brouhaha.

Speaking of Foreign Policy blogs, they've recently added a whole host of bloggers to their mix. The three IR-students who read this blog might be interested to know that Stephen Walt is one of them, and it has become a daily read for me. Really informed and interesting commentary.

Younis! Two links here: one, a great column by Osman. Two, a typically over-the-top post from Farooq.

A detailed account of how Israel helped spawn Hamas. (Courtesy Asad)

It's always heartening to see that Pakistanis do not have a monopoly on inanity in South Asia. Check out this tidbit on the reaction to "Slumdog Millionaire" in India: (courtesy the W)

The film generated controversy in India even before its release there. A Jan. 13 blog entry by Bollywood maharaja Amitabh Bachchan, in which he asked if the film would have generated such hype if it had been made by an Indian director, led to an avalanche of Bollywood stars and critics taking positions for and against him. On Jan. 22, some 40 slum dwellers protested outside the Mumbai home of actor Anil Kapoor, who plays a leading role in the film. The protesters held banners reading "I Am Not a Dog" — referring to slumdog in the film's title — and "Poverty for Sale." Two days earlier, a slum leader in the central Indian city of Patna took the Indian cast and crew of the film to court for allegedly offending slum dwellers by the pejorative in the title.

A funny post over at India Uncut on cows and alcohol.

Speaking of alcohol, here's another way Obama will be different from Bush: cocktail parties in the White House! Good times.

Man, rightwing Republicans are insufferable. And rude. And general all-round assholes.

A great video of Obama's first bill signing. Watch it all the way to the end, to see what he does with the pens. For background on who Lily Ledbetter is, read this column by Gail Collins.

Hey, guess what? The left in France is upset about something or the other! This has never happened before!

Poor Meg Ryan. Here's Eduardo Alvarez - Phil Ball's inadequate replacement on Soccernet - giving us his assessment of La Liga at the halfway stage:

Espanyol resemble one of those beautiful Hollywood actresses who abruptly age and look terrible (i.e. Meg Ryan).

I don't know too much about that, but I do know they almost ended Messi's career about three times today (a 3-2 win for Barca in the Copa del Rey).

Have a good weekend, people.