Obelisk by Dedon

It's not the Gherkin. It's Obelisk by Dedon – the makers of outdoor furniture. Dissemble it and within minutes you have four comfortable seats and a table on your deck, garden or terrace. When the guests are gone, you can stack it up. And this is only one of the fabulous designs in their range.

The furniture is made from Dedon® synthetic fibre which is totally weatherproof, so you don't have to worry about lugging it back indoors every time the clouds come around, which is perfect for London.

Don't leave the cushions out though!

Cape Fear [1991]

Another Martin Scorsese thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat. An ex-convict [Robert De Niro] returns from prison after 14 years only to seek vengeance for his wrong imprisonment, because of betrayal by his own defence lawyer.

The psychopath stalks the lawyer [Nick Nolte], his wife [Jessica Lange] and daughter [Juliette Lewis] in this gripping tale of revenge. I must warn that the movie gets a bit dark and gory in places, but it is well worth it.

Robert De Niro and Juliette won Academy Award nominations for their performances in the film.

Rating: *****
Click here for a teaser

Music for your ears. And eyes...

Whoever said that the best things in life are free, was having a laugh. The best things in life are not free; and they are not cheap either.

Bowers & Wilkins has been making speakers in England since 1966. Known for their quality of sound and unconventional designs, the company also supplies equipment for Jaguar cars [XKR & XF]. They have made a surprise foray into the iPod generation market [which has been growing faster than any other in the music business currently] with B&W Zeppelin.

Keeping to their tradition of beauty-meets-brawn, the oval shaped speaker [with iPod dock] could be mistaken for a piece of art. This speaker carries more punch than the Bose SounDock [from £299] or Apple's own iPod HiFi [£249] and is priced at £399 – I have seen and heard it play. Believe me - it is worth every penny.

Jewellery, for your ears...

I have never been a fan of averages - which is a mistake most of the earphone manufacturers make; making earphones for average sized-ears.

Bang & Olufsen used a different approach - the result is A8 - one of the best earphones available in the market today. Each earphone in A8 has three moving parts to fit every ear perfectly - hence the sound is delivered directly into the ear canal. These are not advertised by B&O as noise cancelling, but they eliminate most of the unwanted ambient sound [as I write this listening to them, Nidhi is watching a movie on our surround sound and I cannot hear a thing]

The sound quality is brilliant and would satisfy even the discerning audiophile, I promise. The bass is better than any non-sealing earphone; so are the vocals. They give a whole new meaning to my iPod. I wonder what took me this long to discover them.

Coming to the beauty, I titled it accordingly. It is 'high-tech jewellery' as B&O calls it. And, at the the price they sell them, it sure is.

Design with technology...

Honestly, I had not expected a design like this from LG - home cinema speakers in the shape of champagne flutes. They come in black piano finish and look absolutely gorgeous - if you have the space. [I was not much impressed with the subwoofer's looks, but that can always be tucked away out of sight]

This home cinema is full loaded - HD ready, 5.1 surround sound with 700W and a built in FM radio. What impresses me most is that the DVD player has a USB port - so if you have content on the computer, it can easily be watched on the telly through the DVD surround sound. Something I blogged about last year. Given that the capacity of the USB drives going up all the time, I am surprised why we don't have movie dispensers to pick up something after hours.

The specs are great and the reviews are excellent...all that in £499. If this was from B&O, it would most definitely set you back by a few grand.

Home Before Dark

Neil Diamond: Not a very popular choice amongst most of my friends, but as it is said about him: "There are two types of people in the world: those who like Neil Diamond and those who don't".

Because, if you are fond of music, you cannot ignore a singer & songwriter who has sold 120 million records worldwide and has been around for last five decades [he wrote his first song at 15].

And, he is still going strong - he will be performing at the Glastonbury festival this year...he's released an album, earlier this month - Home Before Dark and if you fall in the first category of people [like I do], it's worth it's money. His unmistakable voice is still amazing at 67.

I am going for his upcoming concert in O2 on June 24th, 2008 and I am reasonably sure I will not see many known faces there...

Click here to listen to a track from his latest album: Pretty Amazing Grace

Wireless & Sich-like by F Austin Hyde

1979 – a group of us were selected to act in a play for School's annual day - Wireless & sich-like. No one remembers how such an obscure play was chosen. Almost 30 years later – I found pictures and then searched for the play on the web. I came across a 1946 publication – Seven Modern Plays, which had this one too

The story is that the lead character, Geoffrey (played by yours truly) convinces his friends to play a prank on his grandpa [who says sich for such] that he has managed to make a wireless radio. They all team up, get under the covered table and wait for grandpa. Geoffrey then convinces his grandpa that it works. When he switches on the radio on the table, his friends below the table start to sing….but too many friends under a table for too long is not sustainable and the table cloth drops…

It was funny; it was entertaining. We all became recognisable faces in school – and got selected for other plays for the rest of school and college lives. Losing stage fright at an early age lead to shaping extrovert and confident personalities [at least in my case] for which I would always thank my teacher who selected me for Wireless & Sich-like.
Here's to you Sir. Here's to you Mr. RP Bhatnagar.

Cast: L to R:

Summet Singhal; Mukesh Keswani; Rana Nanda; Umar Iraqi; Anuj Mattoo; Rajat Ranjan; David Osmond; Mr. Rajendra Bhatnagar; Rajesh Joshi; Vish Dhamija; Atul Dubey

Letter to a friend...

I had a friend (he's still a friend but has now moved from England) who, after a few pints, would always ask me - "What is life?; What does happiness mean?"

I wrote him an eMail today - here's an adapted extract of the same...

Matey,

Thought of you yesterday...as I think I have an answer to your [eternal] question - "what is life?" - I hit upon the answer by chance so here it is:

"Happiness is lying in grass [I was in Greenwich] on a sunny day with iPod playing Led Zeppelin in your ears".

Those 20 minutes I got on my own were peace and tranquility that one does not get when one tries hard to meditate in solitude. And I got it amidst a crowd of 5000 souls.

Life is nothing but a series of happy moments - spent with yourself [and your loved ones].
Everything else is a distraction towards capitalism. Those billboards will keep telling you to buy a bigger car always - they are meant to - isn't it?...