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Archive for December, 2006
Jal Live at Kathmandu
11874 days
by Rabin
in Uncategorized
First it was sound system and second it was crowd that affected the enjoyment and fun at hugely awaited JAL’s performance at Tundikhel.
The JAL started the event with their lowly number Teeri Yaad and started to scorch the event with their hit WOH LAMHE. Then they sang Ek Din Ayega but the piercing noise came from speakers forced them to stop singing and wait for sound system to be fixed. They moved out from stage saying they would be back within 2 minutes but they didn’t return for next 15 minutes. Then the crowd went wild and started throwing bottles, small pebbles and grasses at stage. they did come back and started singing Lal Meri Patt and Rangon Mein but madness of crowd didn’t wear off easily. They continued throwing pebbles and bottles. Farhan (the lead vocalist) even had to urge crowd not to throw bottles. Then they started their hit number Dil Hareey and the crowd started going gaga. They continued the song with old Hindi snippets like Kya Huwa Tera Vaada, Kabhi Kabhi and Ye Dosti. They dedicated later one to the friendship of
Before Jal, Nepali bands X-Mantra and 1974 A.D. scorched the concert. X-Mantra sang their hit numbers like Makurako Jalo, Hami dherai
Over all the concert was really rocking despite few incidents. People enjoyed the music and what more, JAL have promised to come back soon.
Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival
21879 days
by Rabin
in Uncategorized
मंसीर २१ देखि २५ सम्म राजधानीमा हिमाल एसोसिएसनद्धारा आयोजित चौथो अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय पर्वतिय चलचित्र महोत्सबले काठमाण्डौलाई निकै ततायो । काठमाण्डौलाई अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय चलचित्र महोत्सबको क्षेत्रमा महत्वपुर्ण स्थानको रुपमा चिनाउनका लागि सन् २००० बाट आफ्नो यात्रा सुरु गरेको महोत्सबले आफ्नो चौथो संस्करणसम्म आइपुग्दा महोत्सबहरु माझ भिन्नै स्थान बनाएको छ । जम्मा गरेर २६ राष्ट्रका ७३ वटा चलचित्रहरु काठमाण्डौका तीन स्थानमा प्रदर्शन गरिएको थियो । पर्वत पर्वतिय समुदाय र पर्वतिय खेलकुदमा आधारित भएर बनाइएका उत्कृष्ट चलचित्रहरुले द्वन्द्व संस्कृति वातावरण जीवनशैली विश्वव्यापिकरण जस्ता धेरै प्रकारका विधाहरु समेटेको थियो ।
यस पटकको महोत्सबमा प्रदर्शित चलचित्रहरुले धेरैको ध्यान खिच्न सफल भयो । एक लिङ्ग परिवर्तन गरेकी महिलाको साइकल प्रतियोगितामा भाग लिने संघर्षको कथा बोकेको क्यानाडाको हन्ड्रेड परसेन्ट वोमन (100% women) देखि भारतको कश्मिरमा श्रीमान बेपत्ता बनाइएका अर्ध विधवा महिलाहरुको पीडा बोकेको 
Waiting जस्ता चलचित्रहरुले दर्शकहरुमाझ छुट्टै पहिचान बनाए । अपहरित भए पछि बाल सैन्यको रुपमा लडाँई लड्नु परेका युगान्डाको बालबालिकाहरुको कथा समेटेको इन्भिजिवल चिल्ड्रेन-रफ कट (Invisible Children-Rough Cut), युद्ध र विदेशीहरुको हस्तक्षेपको कारणले तहसनहस भएको अफगानिस्तनका महिलाहरुले भोग्नुपरेको पीडा बताउने भ्यु प्रुम अ ग्रेन अफ स्यान्ड (View froma a Grain of sand) द्धन्द्धको कारणले १२ वर्षको उमेरमै परिवारको भरणपोषणमा लाग्न बाध्य बालकको कथा बोकेको सिमेन्ट (Cement) जस्ता चलचित्रहरु हेरेर दर्शकहरुले भर्खरै निकॊ हुन लागेको सशस्त्र द्धन्द्धको पीडालाई झलझली सम्झिए ।
प्रदर्शित ७३ चलचित्रहरुमध्ये दर्शकहरुको रोजाइमा भने भारतीय निर्देशक गौरब जानीको राइजिङ्ग सोलो टु द टप अफ दि वल्र्ड (Rising solo to the top of the world) उत्कृष्ट रह्यो । निर्देशकले भारतीय शहर मुम्बई देखि लद्दाखको चाङ्गथाङ्ग पठार (Changthang Plateau) सम्म एक्लै मोटरसाइकलमा गरेको यात्रा र यस अवधिमा उनले देखेका भोगेका अनुभवहरुको विवरण निकै रमाईलो तरिकाले प्रस्तुत गरिएको छ । चलचित्रमा यस यात्राले निर्देशकलाई जिवनको छुट्टै पाटो सिकाएको देखाइएको छ । नेपालको तर्फबाट सहभागी बृतचित्रहरु केसाङ्ग छेतेनको हामी कुनाको मान्छे, सुविना श्रेष्ठको चुलो चोलो र बन्दुक, एलेक्स ग्यब्बे र सुविना श्रेष्ठको द लाष्ट रेस मध्ये भने निर्माता केसाङ्ग छेतेनको हामी कुनाको मान्छे (We Corner People) ले सर्वश्रेष्ठ बृतचित्रको उपाधिसँगै नगद रु २५००० प्राप्त गर्न सफल भयो । बृतचित्रले रसुवाको विकट गाउँको कथालाई देखाएको छ जहाँ झोलुङ्गे पुलले ल्याएको परिवर्तनको कथाहरु प्रस्तुत गरेको छ ।
महोत्सबको अन्तिम दिन प्रदर्शित सुविना श्रेष्ठको चुलो चोलो र बन्दुकले भने नेपालको द्वन्द्व र माओवादी महिलाहरुको कथालाई समेटेको छ । यस बृतचित्रले महिलाहरु माओबादीमा लाग्नाको कारण र उनीहरुले गरेका त्यागको कथालाई राम्ररी देखाएको छ ।
स्वर्गीय भुगोलविद् डा। हर्क गुरुङ्गप्रति सर्मपित यस पटकको संस्करणमा क्यानाडामा आयोजना हुने व्यान्फ (Banff) चलचित्र महोत्सबमा उत्कृष्ट ठहरिएका चलचित्रहरु पनि प्रदर्शित गरिएको थियो । हरेक दुई वर्षमा आयोजना हुने गरेको अन्तर्राष्ट्रिय पर्वतिय चलचित्र महोत्सब अब देखि प्रत्येक वर्ष आयोजना हुने घोषणासँगै हामीबाट विदा भएको छ ।
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Is MySpace Really Bigger than Yahoo?
01879 days
by Rabin
in Uncategorized
On Tuesday, Techcrunch reported that MySpace has semi-officially overtaken Yahoo as having the most page views of any internet property. This revelation was met with moderate fan fare and other prominent industry blogs like GigaOm and Searchblog did not even go there. There is good reason to take this news with a grain of salt, as it is misrepresentative and hides some very important facts.
Do Page Views Matter?
Page views are a useful metric for judging the volume of interaction with a web site, but comparing page views can also lead to erroneous conclusions. Let’s explore some common pitfalls.
MySpace and Inflated Page Views
In the user interaction and usability world, much has been made of the lackluster user experience of MySpace. Indeed, many technophiles and designers cannot understand why so many people actually use MySpace despite the fact that it is aesthetically unappealing, slow, and riddled with vestigial clicks. This is a fascinating enigma with complex answers, but the important thing to consider from a marketing standpoint is the vestigial clicks. It has been suggested that MySpace is in no hurry to streamline navigation because the current information architecture inflates page views. And it seems many analysts and industry watchers keep falling for this trick.
Although a brilliant marketing move on the part of MySpace, it should be a big red flag that each user is taken to a marketing splash page and is forced to navigate to their own profile page. Other social networking web sites take users directly to their profile page upon logging in.
Another important point that has to be made is that MySpace is very static while many of Yahoo’s web services are dynamic. By using
Declining Page Views Are Great
By making services such as Yahoo Mail more dynamic and self-contained, Yahoo made a very conscious effort to reduce page views to better the user experience and increase user lifetime. What matters is not how many page views Yahoo’s users generate but how long they stay on their web properties, how long they will be loyal to those services, and how many ads are displayed per average session as well as their CPM (cost per one thousand ad impressions).
Enough with the Hype Already
Undoubtedly, MySpace continues to grow and is here to stay as a hugely important player in the internet game. It is exciting to see who is growing and who is struggling, but let’s forget all the empty hype of page views and pull ourselves away from obsessively observing who will have the highest page views this week. The real question that we should be asking is who will find the magic formula of attracting, engaging, and retaining users that will ultimately lead to the highest levels of success.
By Sergio Paluch
Source: paradymesolutions.com
Source: paradymesolutions.com
Chulo, Choli ra Banduk ‘A Stove, a Blouse and a Gun’
11881 days
by Rabin
in Uncategorized
A girl married at the age of 13 gets exploited by her husband and in-laws. She wants to be free from all the hardship. Maoists promises of freedom, liberty and indoctrinated policies appeal her. She leaves her family and joins the militia.
A girl belongs to so called lower class family who owns nothing. They have to work tirelessly to make meal for evening or morning. In the midst of extreme poverty and hardship, Maoist’s ideology brings rays of hope. She leaves her family and joins them.
A girl while studying at college gets attracted by Maoist’s ideologies and promises. She joins them and works to build strong student’s base of party.
These are the some glimpses of female Maoists from the camera of Subina Shrestha. Her 22 minutes long documentary tries to explore reasons why many women joined the party and their experiences as cadre. It also tries to review the 10 year old people’s war from women’s perspective.
Our male dominant social structure has always way around discriminated the females and denied them their rights and liberties. So when the conflict began Maoists gave promises of equality, freedom and liberty to women and they too joined Maoists. Now there are around 40% women constituting Maoist’s People’s Army. Many joined liking their ideologies but it’s not the case with all. “A stove, A blouse and A gun” also tries to show how many girls were abducted and recruited without their consent. An ex-Maoist cadre shown in shadow says:
We were taken to Maoist’s program saying we would be freed soon. They made us walk at night. Later when we wanted to come back, they told us that our names have already been reached to comrade Prachanda (Maoist Supremo) and we cannot go back. Even if we go back to home we would be shot by army. We couldn’t do anything as we didn’t know way back to home.
This is just a single case. Director Subina expressed that she couldn’t find any who were willing to share their stories.
Now the conflict is in state of being managed, the Maoist’s female cadre are actively anticipating the outcome of their sacrifices. But their dream seems to be in bleak situation as the party which gave them dreams and promises also acted same way as other parties. Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) has only 2 women member in its Central Committee and it didn’t include any woman in it’s Peace Negotiating Team.
This documentary has shown the retrospectives of people’s war and women’s active participation. Now the
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