The Daily Bluster

I didn’t know it was this hard to look for a point and shoot camera.  It’s been three days since I first decided that I couldn’t do without it, and now I’m stuck; there are so many models to choose from, I am beginning to think that somebody could start a reality show based on the whole thing.    Soon as I decided that I finally made my choice, there’s this annoying little voice inside my head that says, “Wait. Are YOU sure the Canon A3000 is what you need? Check out first this Panasonic Lumix, they’re in the same price range, and it has Leica lens! Or what about the Pentax Optio…and you’re forgetting the Nikon Coolpix series!”  and so on. Thing is, I only want a camera because I want to take better pictures of my dogs, and maybe a few other things. I don’t intend to take “art” pictures with it (what a ridiculous thought) and I don't need a pricier point and shoot.  So I probably need just the most basic point and shoot, just a step higher from my cr...

Amy Winehouse was found dead at her London home yesterday. Cause of death was not immediately known. She was only 27. Media described her as "troubled," what with her drugs and alcohol induced problems hounding her throughout her short musical career. Such a waste, she was a truly talented singer/songwriter; she had the potential to be even greater. And now she joins rock music's "27 Club." Robert Johnson (the legendary bluesman of "Crossroads" fame who reportedly sold his soul to the devil), Brian Jones (the Rolling Stones guitarist), Jimi Hendrix (rock guitarist who set the standard for later generations of rock guitarists), Janis Joplin (bluesy rock vocalist), Jim Morrison, (lead singer of The Doors), and of course Kurt Cobain, the Nirvana front man--these artists are the more famous members of that infamous club. I'm sure she did not set out on her career aspiring to be a member of this club, but she sure did try her best to join when...

I just read from Neil Gaiman’s blog that he was nominated for the Shirley Jackson Award.  This piqued my interest, as I wasn’t aware that there was a Shirley Jackson Award .  The Shirley Jackson Award, it turns out, was “established for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.” Yes, dark fantastic is right. Shirley Jackson wrote, among other things, the classic short story “ The Lottery ,” which I read in high school. The experience gave me many moments of staring blankly and thinking about Tessie Hutchinson.   Anyway, Mr. Gaiman mentions in his blog that “ The Library of the Americas recently brought out a Shirley Jackson book edited by Joyce Carol Oates with 21 stories and several of the novels in it, so you do not have to go and hunt for them in dusty second-hand bookshop s any longer . Although you can if you like. There are more than 21 stories, after all.” Right there is my...

For more than 200 years, a private company virtually governed India and the entire South Asia. Granted a Royal Charter on December 31,1600 by Elizabeth I of Great Britain for trading privileges in India, the British East India Company grew from a trading corporation to a virtual government entity as it acquired not only governmental but military powers as well. Company Flag (1801) At the beginning, other countries like France and Portugal tried to muscle in on the lucrative India trade. Robert Clive, an employee of the company, led a military expedition in 1757 and defeated an army of natives led by Siraj Ud Daulah, an official of the Mughal Empire, and backed by the French. This battle effectively established British supremacy in India, but it led to a break in the relationship between the company and the Mughal Empire, which was then ruling India. A Mughal Emperor in 1615, Jahangir, granted the company exclusive rights to trade in some areas of India. By the 16th century, t...

Is there a word for staring blankly at the blinking cursor on a screen? Well, there should be. Many writers I’m sure are familiar with this activity. I suggest slarble —staring blankly at a blinking cursor on a computer screen, unable to write down coherent thoughts.  (“Hey, busy tonight?” “Not really. Just slarbling .”) Speaking of words yet to be invented, I was surprised to find out that there is a real word for having hairy buttocks. According to Mrs.Byrne’s Dictionary , having hirsute ass is actually called dasypygal , and that gynotikolobomassophile is somebody who likes to nibble on women’s earlobes. Qualtagh is the first person seen after leaving a house. Now t hat is a strange word to invent.  Stranger still is thwertnick —entertaining a sheriff for three nights. I can’t think of any circumstance why anybody would entertain a sheriff for three nights . And how would anybody entertain a sheriff? Do you dance and sing or present a musical for him? Serio...

There are few guitar compositions that surpass Maestro Joaquin Rodrigo’s masterpiece in sheer beauty and artistry. The piece evokes a feeling of something lost, as if the world is suffused by some kind of wistful sadness. The notes echo inside one’s soul, and we, the listeners, are transfixed. It is impossible not to stop and listen; we are forced to submit ourselves—our whole being—to the notes that swirl around us, and we are held captive by the harmony created by guitar and English horns and violins and other musical instrument that come together almost miraculously. Written by Joaquin Rodrigo in 1939 for classical guitar and orchestra, Concierto de Aranjuez is the composer’s best-known work. It is said the inspiration for this composition is the Palacio Real De Aranjuez, the spring resort palace and gardens built by Philip II in the last half of the 16 th century and rebuilt in the middle of the 18 th century by Ferdinand VI. The composition transports the listener to another ...

Josh West is a 39-year-old bus driver from London. He drives a shiny double decker bus. Rogelio Castro, 49, is a Filipino jeepney driver in Manila. Rogelio and his family (wife, three children and their families—eight in all) live in a cramped two-storey home in San Andres Bukid, Manila. We meet them in Toughest Place to be a Bus Driver, a BBC television series that puts professionals from the United Kingdom in a Third World setting. (There is another episode, “Toughest Place to be a Midwife” that places a British you-know-what in Liberia). I must admit, the episode’s premise is fascinating—a London bus driver driving in Manila? I simply had to watch it. Mr. West however did not really drive a bus in the Philippines—he gets to drive a jeepney. “Madness,” observes Mr. West, referring to Manila’s traffic, the first time he experiences it. He is also fascinated by the fact that there seems to be no “bus stops"—people just “wave” at the jeepney to get on. And as to collecting ...