I grew up listening to his songs, and there was a time when music meant Michael Jackson to me. It’s so freaking unbelievable that he died this early.

Rest in peace MJ, you’ll always be in our hearts. You were truly the King of Pop, and you’ll be greatly missed!

My top 10 favourite MJ tracks:

01) Heal The World
02) Man in the Mirror
03) I Just Can’t Stop Loving You
04) Smooth Criminal
05) Black or White
06) Bad
07) Beat It
08) You Rock My World
09) You Are My Life
10) They Don’t Care About Us

In the old days it was all about achievements
Collecting all your trophies in a shrine
Then everybody came across the internet
And suddenly you had to be online

A home page was all you really needed
To seem like a success but not a geek
As long as you updated semi-annually
And checked your email once or twice a week

You’re no one if you’re not on Twitter…
Technology was moving rather quickly
And the next thing you needed was a blog
With intimate and detailed press releases
And now and then a photo of your dog

More recently the students brought us Facebook
And everybody has a hundred friends
The parties in the photos look amazing
They’re not so great but everyone pretends

You’re no one if you’re not on Twitter…

Now you need to publish every movement
And every single thought to cross your mind
I’m told the Twitterverse is full of rubbish
But most of us are actually quite refined

We validate each other’s insecurities
And brag about the gadgets that we’ve bought
We laugh out loud at every hint of jolliness
And try to self-promote without being caught

You’re no one if you’re not on Twitter…

This awesome geek song written and sang by Ben Walker. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

And oh, feel free to add me Twitter!

German band Lychee Lassi started playing in 1998 and made a name for themselves with their debut EP Speed, which came out in 2000 and was named “Record of the Month” by TIP Magazine. They have gone on to play gigs all over Europe at clubs, open-airs, and festivals, and tonight they played in front of a live audience in Bangladesh for the first time. I really had a good time at this electronica-jazz fusion concert, and so did my friend Rafiq who accompanied me.

Due to stupid government regulation the bar at the club was closed, so we opted for Pepsi and Fanta. It’s getting relatively harder to get alcoholic beverages in Bangladesh… the scenario is pretty ugly.

Anyways, here’s the line-up of Lychee Lassi: Dirk Berger on guitar, Beat Halberschmidt on bass, Roland “Roy” Knauf on drums, and DJ Illvibe on turntables. They are flying to India tomorrow to perform at Egmore, Chennai, so good luck to them!

Dan on the left, with his band Backstreet Girls:

He plays bass guitar on two more bands, Crime Club and Ratcats.

I just fell in love with Armin van Buuren after listening to episode # 320 of his radio show A State of Trance. He plays exactly the type of trance I listen to, and I loved his extraordinary remixes. This Dutch DJ is no less talented than Tiesto or Paul Van Dyke… no wonder his world ranking is # 3 according to The DJ List!

The only girl I care about has gone away
Lookin’ for a brand new start
But little does she know that when she left that day
Along with her she took my heart.

Rain please tell me now does that seem fair
For her to steal my heart away when she don’t care
I can’t love another when my heart’s somewhere far away.

Rain won’t you tell her that I love her so
Please ask the sun to set her heart aglow
Rain in her heart and let the love we knew start to grow.

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I’ve been
I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again.

Woa, listen to the falling rain
Woa, listen to the falling rain
Woa, listen to the falling rain
Woa, listen to the falling rain…

“Listen to the Falling Rain” By Irish singer Daniel O’Donnell.

কেন আজ এত একা আমি?
আলো হয়ে দূরে তুমি
আলো আলো আমি কখনও খুজে পাবে না
চাঁদের আলো তুমি কখনও আমার হবে না

রোমন্থন করি ফেলে আসা দৃশ্যপট স্বপ্নে আঁকা
লুকিয়ে তুমি কোন সুদূরে
হয়ত ভবিষ্যতের আড়ালে
তবে আজ এত একা কেন?
আলো হয়ে দূরে তুমি
ঘাসের চাদরে শুয়ে একা
আকাশের পানে চেয়ে জেগে থাকা…

This is the first track of Tahsan’s third solo album “Ichche”, released last week. I’ve been listening to this song non-stop for the last 8 hours, and thought of sharing it with my readers. I’m dedicating it to a very special person — hope she understands what I want to mean.

Click here if you can’t see the Bangla text above.

The performers were (in the order of appearance): Rab Fakir, Feedback, Souls, Fahmida Nabi, Hyder Hussein, Shahed, Pop guru Azam Khan, LRB, Meghdal, Aklima Baul, Gambhira troupe, Mehrin, Shironamheen, Pentagon, Meghdal, S. I. Tutul, Renaissance, Warfaze, Dolchhut, Black, Sumon from Aurthohin, and Artcell. Each of them sang two songs each.

Overall, it was a good concert. The sound system was okay, so was the security with enough armed police. Channel I recorded the entire program, whereas Radio Foorti and Radio Today telecasted live. Refreshments were available, coffee was sold for 3 taka per cup, burger and sandwich for 40 taka, hot dog and fountain coke for 15 taka. Two third of the crowd was under the age of 21, with a significant number of bosti people. Did I mention that the entry was free of cost?

It was a night of funky jazz tunes that probed us all into the highly diverse repertoire of prolific German drummer Wolfgang Haffner and his band. The quartet played cosmopolitan jazz music for one and half hour in front of few hundred audience, among which two-third were foreign diplomats. The Bangladeshis who were present all seemed to be affluent high society members. The old haggards who were there were all accompanied by ladies half their age. Mysterious, very mysterious.

The pool-side porch was literally jam-packed with audience, with a very little space to move around. I was lucky enough to get space on the front side, but I had to squeeze myself between two “deshi” and two “bideshi” girls. I enjoyed the music so much that I didn’t even bother to ask their phone numbers… big mistake.

The concert was organised by Goethe-Institut Dhaka, and it was a part of Haffner’s “Shapes” tour in South Asia. Haffner played drums, Christian Diener and Frank Kuruc played electric guitars, and Sebastian Studnitzky played keyboard and trumpet. We were told that Haffner performed in more than 50 countries in the last 20 years, and appeared on over 350 albums by various artists. He also released 11 albums of his own! According to this talented drummer, his inspiration comes straight from his musical heart. This quartet’s next concert will be held day after tomorrow in Kolkata, India.

Realisation of the day:
Alcohol + hot ladies + live music = totally intoxicating experience.

I just got hooked with Radio Foorti — I’ve been listening to this station non-stop since yesterday. This private FM radio station is mainly broadcasting modern Bangla songs, along with band music and a bit of oldies and folk. I really liked play list — they didn’t choose to broadcast boring Rabindra Shangeet which would make people like me fall asleep. Their play list of oldies is great too, they have carefully selected once-a-super-hit songs that have great messages. They aren’t playing songs from Bangla movies, which is good. What impressed me the most is the crispy MP3 quality stereo playback, and their style of picking songs and switching genres. Purely professional!

Tune to FM 88.0 MHz if you’re and listen to Radio Foorti! As they says, “radio manei foorti”!

A cool fact that amazed me is the term “RJ” or “radio jockey”. So if I ever get a job as a RJ, then I’ll be known as RJ RJ, right?

Due to overwhelming requests, I’m putting up their contact information here:

12-14 Landmark Building,
Gulshan 2, Dhaka 1212
Phone: (+88 02) 883 5747
Fax: (+88 02) 883 5746
E-mail: write@radiofoorti.fm
Website: www.radiofoorti.fm

For all the RJ wannabes, here’s what to:

1) Download this form (right click and choose Save As)
2) Print it out and fill up it
3) Send it to RJ Hunt, GPO Box # 984, Dhaka 1000

♪ Click here to listen to Radio Foorti! ♫

Update on December 28:
They have started playing English and Hindi pop tracks on a program named Club Foorti. This program will be aired on every Thursday from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM. The first English song was played yesterday on a program of RJ Nusrat — “Hips Don’t Lie” by Shakira.

Update on September 20:
Radio Foorti changed their frequency — they are now on air on 88.0 FM instead on 98.4 FM.