This Side of Paradise

As I was writing out the post for the 2025 playlist, I realized that it was much easier to start the post at the beginning of the year and continue to update it as and when there’s a new update. So, here are the songs that I captured my imagination in 2026. Good For Me by Above & Beyond - Originally released in 2006 as an ethereal track, without any percussion, Above & Beyond made a beautiful, acoustic version. Impeccable arrangement, Zoe Johnston’s magical voice and lush strings. A treat to listen to on great headphones. Name by Goo Goo Dolls - Released in 1995, I discovered this on a random Youtube short talking about the history of the song. This song has the group’s classic pop / acoustic signature and a very catchy chorus. Ishq Jalakar - Karvaan from Dhurandhar soundtrack - well, we’ve all heard this one, the drum and bass line set a rocking tone, that just ceases to slow down. Fantastic track to get you into a focus mode. If I Had a Heart (Mixed) by Fever Ray - found this on the soundtrack of the TV Show - ‘The Lost Frontier’. Bleak, minimal and has a nasty hook. I’ve probably had this on repeat for the longest. Voices Carry by ’Till Tuesday - When Rick Beato says “Remember this song?”, it ought to be awesome. Found this when listening to his review of a spotify top 10 list. This exact recommendation comes in at around 13:15 and I can’t just get enough of the song.

….write this up now! Music was something I grew up on… I needed to have it when I was doing something, or just plain chilling out…! got my first walkman when I was still in school and then went on to build a decent enough cassette collection. The craze took off when I got into work, I indulged in a nice CD player and then went onto build a huge collection of audio CD’s ( still have a cupboard full of them)…however, something was still lacking. Yeah.. the stock headphones were crap! utter crap.

my music collection surely has a talent to surprise me at the oddest of the moments…I was mentally preparing to post something very serious (…yes…that post is still on its way) - and that’s when winamp decided to flip me over to Orbital’s “Bigpipe styles”. Did some more reading and found out that it belonged to a series of songs called ‘style’ because it used an instrument called a stylophone ‘Bigpipe styles’ combines bagpipes and the stylophone to a fantastic effect.

Exactly three months back, we set out to achieve the impossible…completing a seven month project in three months…! we made it at last…!! agreed…the three months were nothing less than hell….I’ve lost track of the number of weekends I’ve sat at the office from the morning to the night; I’ve lost track of the late hours I’ve been awake; I’ve lost track of how many times I got called when there was nothing else on my mind other than getting a few hours of sleep. But, in the end what matters is that we’ve kept our end of the bargain. We delievered what we promised. It’s a month of chill-out now, before getting on to the next project.

…so, the creative zen vision costed a bomb ;-( and they had the micro version of the player which was definitely not intent on getting. So, here I was, sitting with a dead iPod not able to get anywhere. And then, thanks to google, I found ilounge. Browsing thru the forums, I found a thread that exactly described the problem I was having..with a very interesting solution. It said - dismantle iPod Remove the hard disk strike it hard against your palm 4-5 times put it back in sync up your music That was probably the craziest reply I ever read. I had nothing to lose here, so I tried it out…!! guess what… it perfectly synced my 35+ GB collection. So, I’m safe for now, all of my tunes are playing okay. I haven’t dared to sync it up after this episode.

That is what I’ve been seeing for the last 24 hours on my iPod screen…it’s a pathetic feeling staying here when you know that all it needs is another 1.8’ disk costing around $150 from any good store. Why is it pathetic being here?? well…none of them ship to India. I called up apple support today and they gave me the same crap…it’s even there on the support site Ladies and Gentlemen…the 5 R’s of repairing your iPod -