The Verld through my Ass!

I mean eyes. That's just how Meera says it.

OMGOGMOMGOMG Barack Hoosayn Obama is in! Foshizzle son! We be burnin' not concernin' what nobody wanna say! No wait Sean Paul isn't African American.. he isn't even American. Whatever jigger, roll wit it. This is where the man(me!) gets political!

How to solve ALL of Pakistan's problems and why it wont' happen anytime soon:


As you know, the country is in deep shit. As you also may know, it's always been that way. We've never really been good at the whole stability thing. Governments suck and by that I mean both in the slangy way and the sucking-the-country-dry way. The last ray of hope we had was when Musharraf took over but that too went the way it usually goes in this neck of the woods. Musharraf came with big ideas and big talk and in the beginning it looked like it'd work but then as the years progressed, he too was unable to fix the system and the system fixed him. Another hypothesis is that he found the power a bit too appealing and did what everyoen else had been doing so far.
Anyway point is, he's gone now.

Now we have the PPPPPPP headed by the digressing duo; Stache and Smiley. Smiley calls the real shots while Stache looks busy. Apparently this time around our president is more powerful than the prime minister. We are up to our necks in debt, the country is nearly bankrupt, we've got the taliban to the and in the west, India to the east with a few Staches of their own and everyone else all around to worry about. Also I still am not a rockstar. Though I am told that isn't so related to the issue. Thank you O.

Not Oprah, Oracle.

No what I think is fundamentally wrong with our country, is our leadership. It's always been our leadership. Yeah I know nothing new just passing the blame, ask not what your country can and blah. But seriously, hear me out.

Along with leadership, our main issue is corruption. This one-two punch affects us in the following way:

-Leaders rich
-Rich people not as concerned about poorer majority
-More concern with self leads to corruption
-Corruption further solidifies the status of the poor
-Since poor are well...poor..they have to make a choice between making a living/surviving and politics
-Majority not effectively represented
-Majority stays screwed

Tada! All our problems in a nutshell. Now the solution!

-Independant judiciary
-Stops corruption
-Corrupt leaders in jail or out of circulation at least
-Non-corrupt leaders since not busy with corruption, help country in fields like the economy, education and health.
-Jobs created
-Poor not so poor anymore, standard of living raised
-Have time to participate in politics
-Enter politics
-Represent their constituencies effectively, since they know what it's like in the ghetto/hood (f'real)
-Majority represented, majority helped, country fixed!

Now, why it won't happen.

-Corrupt in power
-Don't give a shit about anyone else
-Judiciary not independant
-No one to stop them
-No one to fix shit
-Shit stays shitty

It all makes so much sense! I know right!? Gawd I am impressed with my glorious appraisal of me. That's what she said.

But no seriously, it all falls in place. The only way anything proper will go down is if the PPPPP reinstate the old judges who started the whole ruckus in the first place. But they won't cuz then they'll be the first to go out the door. Oh and don't be fooled by the Metallurgist Motuus, of the PML-79FK, rhetoric demanding the judges be brought back. They themselves ordered an ATTACK on the Supreme Court when an unfavourable decision was passed. All they want is for the judges to be back so that the PPPPP is out so that THEY get their turn with the G's.

What we can do is hope that somehow someway a government will come into power that actually helps the people and is not concerned primarily with themselves. That isn't happening for at least 4 more years.


Flam! updates

I uploaded a couple of videos from the disasterous Oktoberfest gig. Or so we thought it was. What happened then was that we didn't manage to manipulate the soundsystem to our liking so the monitors were messed up in a way that we thought we sounded really shitty. The result was a stiff and sulky performance, 4 songs performed out of 5 planned and an exit without even a goodbye to the folks.

Then there came the video.

Turns out we wern;t sounding so horrible as far as the audience is concerned. If only we'd realised that and done something like shut off the monitors or I dunno what.

So anyway, I posted the videos on this orkut community of guitarists for feedback and constructive criticism and lo and behold, people actually liked it =O! Surprise is me!

Oh and we met the guy who wokrd with Nadeem Jafri(mentioned at the end; here). I don't think that'll work out cuz he's to old school and by that I don't mean LedZep, I mean Ali Haider. Which means a lot of production, a lot of instruments and very measured and calculated. While we are so much more plug and play. Next target: ADP. Apparently they got their entire album recorded in 25-30k. Must find out more!

Here are the videos:

Jaduu Ka Chiragh


Shab-e-Hijr, our first single


Yeeeup so that's that I will return sooner than usual for another post. I shall start posting notable comic volumes here so as to spread my love for them, download links too though they'll be rapidshare only which I don't think is very popular in Pakistan. At least not among the people I know.

Au revoir.

Complications of a mastermind
Last temptation of my kind
Extra planetary sign
When do we align
All in time
Right on

Mental vacancy

It's around 4am. I could write the exact time but then what that would involve me waiting till I've finished this post and then fitting in the time at that moment. Which wouldn't accurately reflect the general situation I want to describe. Yeah, I think too much. Or so "they" say.

I'm listening to John Mayer, listening and watching too since it's his latest concert/dvd offering. I tend to return to this in times of mental vacancy. Right now I should be asleep. I should have been asleep 2 hours ago, for I have to go to Anees Hussain in the morning as I have to every Saturday at 12noon. Since my sleeping habits a more Catwoman than Batman, in terms of duration I mean, I really should be asleep. I should have checked the stuff from the last class too by now. Which was 6 days ago but like I always do, I've left it for the very last moment. One of the things I don't really plan to fix but hope I will automatically when it is necessary.

So much depends on hope nowadays it seems. Shit's happening all over the world. Though like the song Sunscreen, these truly will seem like better times as the years pass.

But I digest, I was talking about Mayer.
I am a fan, girly/commercial/pop as it/he may be, and while all today I was listening to songs like Hard Rock Hallelujah by Lordi and for the past four or five days I've been air-performing in my room to the screams of Chris Cornell on Audioslave's Shadow on the Sun(which I am so intent on covering asap), I now am listening to John Mayer. I am now feeling a bit guilty over not really playing my guitar as much as it deserves. Hell, it deserves to be played till the finish starts to chip, the string have been replaed a dozen times and till I can play at least my top 6 favourite Mayer songs. At least.

By that time I'll hopefully have learnt quite a few other songs too and that will be the time to get a new guitar. I want a tonne of guitars. So, so many. But only if I can play upto their worth.

Since I believe I should keep my posts short so that the multitude of people who hang onto my every spinning punctuation mark can not have to suffer the shame that comes from drifting off to sleep half way through, sleep-read and then hours later have to come back since they realise they don't remember a certain phrase I so cunningly employed; I shall try and not extend this too far.

I plan to expand my blog purposes to include more indepth efforts towards helping me put me in perspective since that's what this bloj is about, me. I'll talk about comics because I'm really into them. Not in the uber-geek, high pitched nasal voice, condescending "studies have conclusively revealed that Power Girl is a size D as evidenced in JLA #.." crap. The actual plain and simple, stripped down appreciation of the medium and the storylines and characters. I'll probably upload a few of my favourite story arcs too since I have a rapidshare account lying around that I don't exploit to it's full potential. Now if I can work out why it doesn't show everything I upload..

I also think I'll start cooking stuff. Yes I know not really what guys my age or guys in general are expected to do where I'm from and at but yeah I like it and I've watched more than enough Jamie Oliver, Michael Smith, Ainsley Harriot, Gordon Ramsay and BBC Food in general to not do something about my love for food. Since theres no point in talking about Aloo Gosht and Khichri, I think I'll do stuff that mum doesn't. And tell everyone about it. Which will be through my bloj so probably amount to you farigh few. You know who you are.

Oh and, I wanted to talk about a few major things too. Major as in relevant, serious, deep stuff that I don't know much about but have opinions on that I believe are correct.

I need to do more. Of everything. Music, studies, work, partying, reading, talking, everything. There is time aplenty. I am too substance-free for myself.


Flam! updates:

We planned to get our stuff recorded so were looking for all possible options. We've found a few. The one we plan to pursue with greatest vigour is a guy who is allegedly Nadeem Jafri's studio technician. Who is currently going through this process of giving us times to meet up and then blowing us off for lame excuses. Which is pissing me off. Will post more as it happens.

Here's some John Mayer to wind up.

Gravity is working against me
And gravity wants to bring me down

I'll never know what makes this man
With all the love that his heart can stand
Dream of ways to throw it all away

Twice as much aint twice as good
And can't sustain like a one half could
It's wanting more
That's gonna send me to my knees

Gravity, stay the hell away from me
Oh gravity has taken better men than me how can that be?

Just keep me where the light is

PS: blogger is getting irritating. new posts don't show up immediately. i fear i too may have to migrate to wordpress ala ms.saiyed. fix up, blogger. fix up or die.

The post that nearly wasn't..

So after a large number of days here I are with a new post. I'm still wondering who reads this. Not many people I'm sure. Anyway! I bring thee, the people, news of mine life! Wasszaaaa karachiiiiiii (and beyonnnnd)....!!

Last Friday I happened to witness a performance by The Munchkins at the PACC. ADP was there too but sadly we got there too late. The show, horror of horrors, appeared to have started on time. Yes I too am still wondering about that. Anyway, the show was in a word, amazing. These guys have their act in tact ladies and germs. Their setlist included:

Led Zeppelin
Whole Lotta Love
Immigrant Song
Stairway to Heaven (merged into All Along the Watchtower, the Dave Mathhews Version, an idea I had independantly thought of a few days prior to this..now everyone'll think we stole it)

Rage Against the Machine
Testify (omg he played the cable-pulled-out-and-touching-metal solo!)
Sleep Now in the Fire

The Police
Message in a Bottle
Every Little Thing She Does is Magic

Jimi Hendrix
Fire

Pink Floyd
Wish You Were Here (Immu did some sweet keyboard-isms on this)
Comfortably Numb

Carlos Santana
Maria (Abbas Premjee displaying some serious acoustic chops)

Red Hot Chili Peppers (omg!)
Give It Away
Snow

U2
Vertigo
New Year's Day
Pride

John Mayer
Waiting On the World to Change.

All of these were astonishingly good representations of the originals. Their vocalist is very very versatile and so is their guitar man. Bass is courtesy of Khalid of Aaroh fame and their drummer is the man himself, John Louis "Gumby" Pinto. Who is crazy. They brought in this keyboards and synthesizer dude who was really classy. He played nearly the entire Stairway to Heaven solo after the guitarist. Skillz major. I was sitting with an open mouth for nearly the entire show.

Obviously the performance drove a few points home...at home. All of us band people were there. Saad, Owais, Anes, me even Jazib who is ex-band. Yeah heh we crossed the ex member mark already. Anyway, it really put into perspective the whole 'how good are we?' issue.

As far as im concerned we arent nearly as good as we need to be. Sure The Munchkins weren't very physical, unlike ADP who have OBA jumping all over the place and Yasir bouncing in his chair and Ali Alam gets worked up too. But they didn't need to. Their vocalist carried it all with his banter and well..chops. I mean holy shit the man can sing. It's not easy to cover Robert Plant, Zack de la Rocha (no its not "just rap"), Sting, Bono, Anthony Keidis, Dave Gilmour and Dave Mathhews, let alone all in one go. He did it.

So we need a blend of all out going wild and having a strong frontman. Er, I say. Work is needed.


The recording demos idea is getting a bit more support. In fact it's nearly a done thing. All we need is to get a decent level of quality assurance and we'll get a handful of songs recorded as well as is possible in some home setup. Then the plan is to disseminate them then through our friends and the internets. Hopefully interest will be raised, fans will increase and gigs will be gained. Which will result in a cumulative effect. Hopefully. Currently we got this friend of a friend to try his hand at scratching together something workable for one of our covers.


That one.

And the next time I see OBA I shall the talks to him. Ain't no glass barriers where I'm coming from.

I heard this recently and I like it quite a bit. More so than the original even. It's on Use Your Illusion 2, by Guns N' Roses obviously.

If we could see tomorrow
What of your plans
No one can live in sorrow
Ask all your friends

Times that you took in stride, their
Back in demand
I was the one who's washing
Blood of your hands

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I know the things you wanted
They're not what you have
With all the people talkin'
It's driving you mad

If I was standing by you
How would you feel?
Knowing your love's decided
And all love is real
Baby

Don't you cry tonight
I still love you baby
Don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight

I thought I could live in your world
As years all went by
With all the voices I've heard
Something has died

And when you're in need of someone
My heart won't deny you
So many seems so lonely
With no one left to cry to baby

And don't you cry tonight
There's a heaven above you baby
And don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight, baby, maybe, someday
Don't you cry tonight
Don't you ever cry
Don't you cry tonight

Me a la xkcd!

This is a collection of parts of my personality, sense of humor and general accepted facts(possibly in my mind only) that I found on xkcd.com. You might have to click on some to see them clearly in larger resolution.

My hats are close to me. Very.

This is just stupid funny.

OMG so true! Now if this were ambient or house..

Happens to me more times I can remember. Wait..how do I know that then?

My awareness that I am not a child + silliness

True.

Shift!

I am not a ninja. Though I might be Batman.

The reason.

Yesterday,
All my troubles seemed so far away,
Now it looks as though they're here to stay,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly,
I'm not half the man I used to be,
There's a shadow hanging over me,
Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she
Had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said,
Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,
Love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she
Had to go I don't know, she wouldn't say.
I said,
Something wrong, now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday,
Love was such an easy game to play,
Now I need a place to hide away,
Oh, I believe in yesterday.

cut and slash!

Waszaa!! The exams they are the overs! The great one is free! For a bit. Much has happened since my last post, oh minions of mine. Let us et on with it in earnest. I present to you, The Rant!


Car Troubles

If you've been following my posts, which you have (Imran :P); you'd remember that post the ADP and Z&H concert, my car broke down. Had quite a few issues with it. Well, turns out that wasn't the end of it. I had a faulty water body. I mean the car. Lol. Anyway, that's what they call the mechanism that pumps water around the engine to cool it and such, don't know if thats the correct name or not. Anyway, that thing developed a leak. A la Suzuki's ghatyaness. Stuff like that apparently shouldn't havent for many many year, let alone 2. Which is how old my car is. Less actually.

So that leaked which meant water was being lost much faster than is normal hence less to go around to cool the engine hence the car heating up. That led to the gasket, thing around the piston area, to deform due to abnormal temperatures caused by lack of cooling. That led to oil mixing into the water. Which led to the water getting hot quicker and staying hot longer since well, oil does that. So it was an issue that compounded upon itself. To get that fixed it cost me 3600. Cost extra since The AC managed to screw up during this period too, something to do with belts and what not.

After all that, the car begins to make this weird creaking sound whenever I turn left. After much confusion it was revealed that the carbon bushes, again I don't know what the real name is, were done for dude to..ahem..heavy handedness through potholes. Of which we have many. 300 more for parts and I dont know how much more for labour. The AC ran out of gas too. 1200 ki woh refill hogi. But this's the best part.

When I went to get the creaking issue checked, the mechanic dude decides he needs a test drive to further his diagnosis and what not. So we take a spin around the mohalla. On the way back, we stop at this T junction. We have to go left. This school bus has to come from that left and go right. We wait so that it can pass. Stupid son of a bitch makes a short turn and scrapes the side of my car! I mean WHAT THE HELL MAN!!? So we get out, yelling so that he stops (so that in my mind I could take his face and smash it into his bus). He comes around and lo and behold when i get there theres this 2 foot long scratch and a dent with about a 3 inch diameter. We talk to his contractor who readily agrees to pay up. Surprising to say the least. Anyway, I go back to the workshop, the bus leaves and things move on. The contractor says he'll show up on sunday at around 330 while on his way back home from somewhere.

He doesn't.

At 330 his phone's off.
At 4 his phone is at his house. His 3-4 year old daughter tells me dad's not home. I talk to the mum, she reiterates.
I call from another number. The daughter says "abbu woh kehrahe hain ammi se baat karaein". A-fkng-ha.


So anyway he didn't show up. Leaving me at a loss. Not really I'll badger him come tomorrow and if he doesnt show up i'll go to his house. Which might be a tad weird since one of my friends called him up and told his wife he'd show up with dudes in case the hubby keeps skirting. Lol. I hope this doesn't end with me dead.

I hate Pakistani drivers.


Oh yay it's Eid

Eid mubarak everyone. Hope it was fun. And fulfilling.

I hate Eid-ul-Azha. Absolutely despise it. Don't get me wrong it's not the point of it all. It's the way stuff happens over here.

The entire excitement about getting "jaanwars". The trips to the market. The arguments over price.

And then theres the purpose. The sacrifice. Call me a cynic but I don't see no sacrifice. I don't think people actually even care about the whole "giving back to society and those lesser in stature" angle. I don't think people consider the whole Ibrahim and his son relation. Oh no. All I hear is planning about daawats and barbecues and what not. I mean what the hell? Are we not a "poor" nation?? How on earth do people then manage to cough up the money to blow 10grand on a measly goat?? Around 40 on cows! I mean. If everyone is SO concerned about the poor, why don't they just split the money into the appropriate factors and give it away accordingly? I'm sure Allah wouldn't mind. But oh no. Theres the family name to think of. One's standing in society to consider. What will the children brag about with their screechy friends as they run around chasing the poor beasts, urging them to run and enjoy their last days before they become somebodys karhai/qorma/kabab/tikka/whatever.

And OMG the grossness. Is it just the ones I've seen or are all butchers exceptionally unclean? Blekh. Seriously.

And why do the poor animals have to be witness to the gore? I heard somewhere that's inhumae by Islamic standards and should be avoided. Yet I don't see that happening. Also, if everyone's doing it for the religion, then surely such rigour should be reflected in other Islamic avenues too? All the people neck deep in cow intestines should be the absolute personication of piety.

Believe me it is not so.
And don't talk to me about exceptions.


Mumbai

The attacks in Mumbai. Last week's news. A thousand Indian security personnel being given the run around by what, 35 terrorists? As a friend said, respect man. Lets focus on stuff after that.

The English cricket team. They scarpered as soon as the shit went down. But now they're back. Everyone's refused to come to Pakistan. But they go back to India just days after an attack where around 200 people died in RANDOM killings. They've been offered protection by the best trained Indian security teams see. The same teams who got their collective ass whooped by 35 twenty-somethings.

And speaking of us, we initially deny any involvement and knowledge; but in less than a week two "suspects" are arrested. Who we refuse to hand over. Why the hell did we grab them then? WE are going to interrogate them then "share" our findings? Who the hell cares for that? I feel it's all a publicity stunt to show that we're going our bit. Obviously I am no authority but ah what the who.


Flam! and music in general

Recently, after going through some weird personal shit, I decided to look up the blues. In particular I began listening to this one song, Ain't No Sunshine as done by Buddy Guy and Tracy Chapman. Originally I think by Marvin Gaye, that song is really really nice. Had the feeling I needed if not necessarily the context. This lead to a youtube quest regarding Buddy Guy and the blooz in general and boy oh boy did I get results.



This song has particularly grown on me. And since I really like Chicago too, it's all the better for it.





This jam is just crazy. Eric clapton a lot younger than in the previous video and these two just burn up the notes.



Also, I rediscovered the Norwegian Recycling outfit. I think it's just one guy who does it all. What he does is take a number of songs and mash them up. Creating this totally new song that is really really cool, more so if the songs are familiar.



This is a mashup of:

1. Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls
2. Ben E. King - Stand By Me
3. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
4. Alice Deejay - Back In My Life
5. Beverly Hills 90210 - Opening Theme
6. Puff Daddy feat. Faith Evans &112 - I'll Be Missing You


The video further accentuates the overall scenario.


Finally I come to Flam!. Yeah the exclimanation mark is part of the name. Saad(guitars) and I are at a stalemate in our argument about what to do regarding the band in the immediate future.
I say we should get stuff recorded so that we may circulate it to potential supporters via the net. Saad does not agree. He is of the opinion that proper recording should not be considered till we have the money to get it done where live drums may be incorporated instead of loops. That costs a substantial bit more. While I'm all for the live drums idea my main issue is that to get that kind of money a lot of time well be needed, time that will be wasted otherwise since procrastination is something we're so good at it could very well be another genre. Not that we're good at the genres we relate to heh. He says we should make unplugged versions of our songs, record them khudse and use those as marketing tools. In the meantime we should concentrate on gigs. Since they are few and far between in the coming, we should organize our own concert. A valid idea but unplugged songs take away the relation factor and people who listen to them won't recognise them if and when they like them enough to show up at one of our shows. Though the gig factor must be pursued. I wonder how we're going to get sponsors. Does anyone know anyone who could help?

This is when I wish a lot of people read my bloj.

There’s a woman crying out tonight
Her world has changed
She asks God why
Her only son has died
And now her daughter cries
She can’t sleep at night

Downtown another day for all the suits and ties
Another war to fight
There’s no regard for life
How do they sleep at night
How can we make things right
Just wanna make this right

We believe
In this love

So this world is too much for you to take
Just lay it down and follow me
I’ll be everything you need
In everyway

We believe
In this love

Blaj.

the long friday, a starman graphic novel.

Post. Hmm. I wonder if blog entries may be qualified as posts. Further research needed. Anyway, it seems I have found time to post another entry. Once again I am wondering why I bother. It's not like anyone is going to read it. "not yet" is all I have as consolation.

I have been away, my imaginary followers, for I am busy. Busy with studies! Yes I, rockstar-to-be extraodinaire, also study. Tis the bane of this youth of mine. Speaking of which, I've noticed I feel rather old compared to the young and happy folk I happen to see all too much nowadays. Ah..I feel a rant building up.

ADP, Z&H and Ego.

Friday the...umm...ah 28th. Aunty Disco Project and Zeb and Haniya are scheduled to perform at The Forum( a mall in Karachi for my international followers). I hear about it on the radio. CityFM89 to be precise. Guess what? It's free!! HOLY SHIT FREE!!! Petrol cost 27 bucks a litre when I arrived in this country. It's been upto 84 recently. A medium sized loaf of sliced bread was for 12. Now I think it's 30. Imagine what a step forward, or well maybe backward, a free concert is!

ADP is one of my favourite favourite current Pakistani bands. I'll post a video or two of theirs in this post chalo. Anyway, these guys are insane. Plus they're regular dudes. No bullshit. all about the music. They have regular jobs too! Which makes them all the more appealing to me since they represent the possibility factor of my rockstar aspirations. Though I would readily give up a regular job for a life as a hugeass rockstar but at the very least I'd like to be a moderately huge rockstar if I have to have a dayjob too. Anyway! So um...yeah! They put on a kickass show too! Lots and lots of energy, jumping around and what not, OBA is really good as frontman and Yasir adding that special flavour with his darbuka chops and holyshit OK is like our David Grohl(very very high praise if you are an ignoramus)!!

Zeb and Haniya are also pretty respected in my bands-I-am-a-fan-of list but since I have yet to give their album a proper listen, I was mainly concerned with ADP.

All in all I was pretty psyched about going, and despite the fact that I had exams looming over me head, due in less than 5 days after the concert; I planned to go. I mean come on! Plus since it was on a Friday, there was no risk of The Forums "family day" bullshit which, like is common in our hypocritical nation, mean you cant get in unless you have a "female" with you. "femail" in some places. Or a toddler. Do not think you and your 3 "mail" cousins may enter. Oh no no no, you are not the kind of family that counts. Apparently it has something to do with rowdyism, lecherism, ogling hotties(yeah that's sexist whatever, screw you!) and generally being douches(don't see you resenting that now, do I?).

So I grab Ali Murtaza and the Bilalman and reach The Forum bang on time at 530. Oh hey everything's set up, cool! Lets go lets go..."Sorry sir, families only hai aaj"...."(wtf) friday ko bhi..?"..."jee sir *greasy smile*".

At this point, an appropriate catchphrase to sum up my insanely foul mood would be "HULK F*CKNG SMASH!!!". All I bloody wanted was to show up at a show, with a couple of friends and have a good time and leave. Thats Fcking it! But no! Since our illiterate and unexposed nation is permeated with bloody asshole MAILAS who's idea of a good time comprises of taking pictures without consent and passing comments and general douchebaggery and since like our fckng police our security culture is to try and make the problem just go away without having to actually do anything about it, our people erect these hypocritical, discriminatory FAMILIES ONLY signs that suggest that if you don't have the appropriate amount of Y chromosomes in your immediate vicinity or preferably in you, youre a maila too! This is actually a ploy to hide the fact that any security apparatus erected is a sham and just window dressing. What's the bloody point of SECURITY if you can't fckng SECURE even the will to carry out your own objectives!?

We stayed around for a bit, tried to call in any people who could either bring "family" or be our "family" but to no avail. Some unknown younger brother-elder brother kept Bilal from contacting his elder brother Mikaal and asking him to help us out. He did however mention the situation to his mum when he called to see if he could wrangle his actual family(the kind thats real!) to come and in doing so get us in. That didn't work exactly as planned but it did. When we reached Bilal's house after giving up hope, we found that Mikaal had left and would get us in. By then I was thoroughly depressed, but my spirits slowly began to rise as we returned to the forum and lo and behold! Where there were 3 dudes, now there were 4! But we got in because we had a "family" member with us. Hurray for hypocrisy. Asswipes.

It was 630 when we got in and thankfully, ADP started just as we got in. Yay! Being vertically challenged, I had difficulty seeing over the heads of everyone in front of me. Since my compadres weren't as excited about the deal as I was, I made my way alone to the front...um..row. If you could call it that.



That's Imran Lodhi on bass btw. He's left, it's Ali alam now he's not in this video.

Once again, ADP were INSANE! OBA and Ali Alam were jumping so hard I thought the stage would collapse! OKs skinbeating was so furious the kit was vibrating to no end and Yasir was well...show stealing intermittently like he does. It seemed like this was the show. This was the headline. No one was waiting for Zeb and Haniya it seemed. I wasn't at least.
An eventful moment came in the form of OBA suddenly throwing down his guitar at some interruption and storming to the side to have what he surely wanted to be a heated conversation but it turned out to be a sheepish one as he, sheepishly, came to the mic and announced they would be taking an Azaan break.
They came back in a bit, continued their set and ended loud. Ali Alam took over guitar and vocal duties in between, that was tightness too. Then everyone left so that OBA could do Nazar solo. That didn't really work well due to the hustle and bustle of the environment. An issue that affected the response Z&H generated as well, but I'll get to that in a bit. They also debuted a new song which wasn't totally new but ah well, not everybody's as fan as me! Which isn't much either but over there I was hardcore baby!!

Z&H were up next. We finally discovered that out of the two the guitar player is Haniya and the only vocals madame is Zeb. Haniya had done something to her ankle and was thus sitting down. Their band was the dudes from Co-ven minus Omran. Heck if Omran'd shown up all my dreams would've come true. For just that night and that concert I mean.
So yeah, Sameer is a good bassist and I happen to adore his guitar, Sikandar Mufti is ace drumwise and lol, Humza Jafri is a Talibani. No he isn't but he has the requisite beard. It's more than a foot long! And omg! His guitar his a movable pickup! Instead of multiple pickups and selectors for them, the pickup itself moves! Amazing!



Initially Humza's back was turned to the audience for a couple of songs. Eventually he turned forward. Their show wasn't really wild and crazy, stark contrast to the ADP show but then, it wasn't supposed to be. This wasn't ADP this was Z&H, cool female bluesy folky singers from up north. They did what they do and they did it well. Although I felt their laidback vibe and softer music didn't really work well in attracting people in such a busy environment. A mall is a place where I can now safely assume you need to be loud to be noticed. Lots of requests were being shouted out and they played all their big songs; Aitebaar, Chup, Rona Chhor Diya etc. They even played a stripped down version of Paimana Bitte, on rampant request even though it wasn't part of their setlist.

They were giving out free tshirts too of that very show. But only to the frontmost of the front rows. That too only the girls. Who didn't even want them! Ugh! Discrimination strikes again!

It ended at that. I caught up with Yasir post-show and asked him what we(Flam!) needed to do to be able to play with ADP. He gave me the basic version, stuff that I already knew. get a sponsor, arrange a show etc. Couldn't really work up the courage to ask him if they had any shows coming up where they'd be willing to let us open. And then we left. But the night was not over. Oh no.


The Perilous Journey Home!
En route to Bilal's we stopped at Jeddah Haleem Center near the former Schon Circle in the Mottas area for shawarmas. After that, we'd just u-turned and were on our way towards Teen Talwar when on the turn above the underpass my car which was already out of gas, ran out of petrol as well. A situation I'd been dreading for a few days now since I'd been conducting mileage experiments on gas and had regularly been using up my petrol reserve without remembering to fill it up again. Darkie and Bilal got out and pushed but progress was slow. Very slow. Fortunately a petrol station was closeby but at the pace we were moving I had to get out too and push which somehow drastically improved progress.

As we reached the pump a passerby pointed out that my rear passenger side tire was punctured too. I had not noticed that, till then. I got fuel then turned to the corner where there was a tire shop. Got the tire fixed there. Then sped off to Bilals to drop him. and sped on towards my house. I had gotten barely half a kilometre away when I noticed my engine was heating up to unGodly levels The needle was ABOVE the H symbol! Itsa gonna blow!! I stopped quickly to the side and called Bilal and told him to bring me water to put in. Our inexperience in the matter and stories we'd heard about similar situations led me and Darkie to be overaly cautious when opening the radiator cap to put in water. The one bottle I did have with me I expended splashing all over the place, causing much steam to rise. The place was dark. Really dark. Mobile snatcher dark. Thankfully none came and eventually we got it open and by then Bilal showed up too. Filling up the water, I dropped him back to his house and left with Darkie once again. Thankfully I got home without the car acting up again. Though it did in the subsequent days and the effects of that incident have cost me 3300 bucks so far. Add the tire, shawarma and the fuel charges to that and we come to the grand figure of 3700.

Free concert? Alas, it did not prove to be.

Been down so long, getting up didn't cross my mind,
I knew there was a better way of life that I was just trying to find.
You don't know what you'll do until you're put under pressure,
Across 110th Street is a hell of a tester.