ANNIVERSARIES:

Anthony Kiedis (Red Hot Chili Peppers) 1-Nov ! LaTavia Roberson (formerly of Destiny's Child) 1-Nov ! Rick Allen (Def Leppard) 1-Nov ! Anu Malik 2-Nov ! K.D. lang 2-Nov ! Nelly 2-Nov ! Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu 3-Nov ! Laxmikant 3-Nov ! Monali Thakur 3-Nov ! Pran Nath 3-Nov ! Mani Prasad 4-Nov ! Puff Daddy 4-Nov ! Yanni 4-Nov ! Art Garfunkel 5-Nov ! Bryan Adams 5-Nov ! Lalgudi R.Rajalakshmi 5-Nov ! Nirmal Udhas 5-Nov ! Lalith J. Rao 6-Nov ! R.N.Tharanathan (Rudrapatnam Bros) 6-Nov ! Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi 6-Nov ! Bhushany Kalyanaraman 7-Nov ! David Guetta 7-Nov ! Joni Mitchell 7-Nov ! Kamal Hassan 7-Nov ! Shounak Abhisheki 7-Nov ! Sunanda Patnaik 7-Nov ! Bonnie Raitt 8-Nov ! Dhirubhai Shah 8-Nov ! Diana King 8-Nov ! C. R. Vyas 9-Nov ! M.B.Vedavalli 9-Nov ! Sisqo 9-Nov ! Dayal Thakur 10-Nov ! Abdul Karim Khan 11-Nov ! E.Gayatri 11-Nov ! LeToya Luckett (formerly of Destiny's Child) 11-Nov ! Neil Young 12-Nov ! Shravan Rathod 13-Nov ! Xavier D’souza 13-Nov ! Alec John Such (Bon Jovi) 14-Nov ! Brian Yale (Matchbox 20) 14-Nov ! James Young (STYX) 14-Nov ! Jaspinder Nirula 14-Nov ! Joseph Simmons (aka Run of Run-D.M.C.) 14-Nov ! Madan Pal 14-Nov ! Travis Barker (Blink-182) 14-Nov ! Frida (ABBA) 15-Nov ! K.V.Narayanaswamy 15-Nov ! Muthiah Bhagavathar 15-Nov ! Diana Krall 16-Nov ! Isaac Hanson (Hanson) 17-Nov ! Herman Rarebell (The Scorpions) 18-Nov ! Kim Wilde 18-Nov ! Kirk Hammett (Metallica) 18-Nov ! Rudy Sarzo (Whitesnake) 18-Nov ! Matt Sorum (Guns N' Roses) 19-Nov ! Babla 20-Nov ! Hirabai Barodekar 20-Nov ! Björk 21-Nov ! Baba Sehgal 23-Nov ! Bruce Hornsby 23-Nov ! Miley Cyrus 23-Nov ! Bhimsen 24-Nov ! Titte Krishna Ayyangar 24-Nov ! Amy Grant 25-Nov ! Tiruvarur Bhaktavatsalam 25-Nov ! John McVie (Fleetwood Mac) 26-Nov ! Rita Ora 26-Nov ! Tina Turner 26-Nov ! Bappi Lahiri 27-Nov ! Charlie Benante (Anthrax) 27-Nov ! Nandu Bende 27-Nov ! Apl.de.Ap (Black Eyed Peas) 28-Nov ! Dawn Robinson (formerly of En Vogue) 28-Nov ! H.V.Srivatsan 28-Nov ! Matt Cameron (Soundgarden) 28-Nov ! Umayalpuram Mali 28-Nov ! Jonathan Knight (New Kids On The Block) 29-Nov ! Wallis Buchanan (Jamiroquai) 29-Nov ! Billy Idol 30-Nov

Wolfenstein:The Old Blood

Last year's Wolfenstein: The New Order came out at a time we really needed it. The next generation consoles were less than a year old and were in dire need of games. New Order (the game, not the eighties post-punk/electronic dance band) was an old school twitch shooter that returned to the style we loved from the past. It took inspiration from first person shooters like Doom, Quake and of course the first originalWolfenstein 3D from way back in 1992. The critics loved it, but for some reason it was unloved and unnoticed by the gamers.
Well, now we are all getting a second chance to show the love in the form of its prequelWolfenstein: The Old blood. This stand-alone expansion is set right before the events of last year's game and promises eight-plus hours of gameplay at a budget price tag. What's not to love... well, the fact that there is no online multiplayer but let's just forget that and move on.
You return to the shoes of American brick sh*thouse William "B.J." Blazkowicz as he infiltrates the Third Reich and escapes the infamous Castle Wolfenstein. It is a giant love letter to the originalWolfenstein 3D right down to the main character remaining shirtless for the first half of the game. It's a little camp, but a cool nod to the box art from the '80s original.
It's gory AF as you blow giant chunks out of soldiers and dismember wave after wave of Nazis. The speed is break-neck and your reflexes are the only real difference between life or death. At times, it tries to change up the gameplay by introducing stealth tactical sections. The option to take out radio operators to stop alarms being tripped is a welcome mechanic to keep enemy numbers down, but more often than not it's just more fun to Rambo kamikaze it and hope for the best. The recent Wolfenstein series continues its trend of having some of the best villains in the business and the supporting cast is incredibly well written. You can feel the game is trying to lend a helping hand of seriousness to the proceedings and to place a human face to the horrors of war. Unfortunately all of this is washed away with the introduction of giant mechanised robots, dinosaur sized killer K9s and one hell of a "jump the shark" moment that happens later in the game, which I'm not going to spoil here. This is as dumb as science fiction gets and makes the game infinitely better for it. The only real down side I can see is the first half of the game suffers from "haven't I been in this room several times already?" symptom, with the first few chapters feeling like carbon copies of each other and showing a true lack of diversity. Thankfully by Chapter 4, things start opening up and the pace picks up to a satisfying finale. I just wished Wolfenstein: The Old Blood embraced the grandeur of its big brother and had more set pieces to bring the wow factor, but if you consider the budget price and the fun to be found here it's well worth your time, just remember to turn off your brain first.

Interviews

Venues

Best Jazz Venue in India

Those of you who have been around from the 1960's through the 1990's will remember the vibrant live music scene in almost every starred hotel in India. Those were the days when you walked into a nightclub like 'Rendezvous' at The Taj Mahal hotel and 'Supper Club' at the Oberoi Sheraton in Mumbai to see curtains going up on a band that was the prime focus of these outlets. Every seat in these restaurants allowed an unobstructed view of the band that performed every night on resident contracts. Today all this has disappeared thanks to some ridiculously high entertainment taxes on live music. Today, non off these hotels have complete bands playing save for a few that feature small duos or solo singers. The Lodhi in New Delhi, recently listed among the world's best hotels, decided to step in and rewind to the good old days. They got Goa's premier jazz quartet 'Jazz Junction' to move to Delhi on a resident contract and the decision has paid off in terms of footfalls generated by the band. Jazz Junction featuring singer Daniella Rodrigues, pianist Tony Dias,
bassist Colin D'Cruz and drummer Angelo Colasco began playing at The Lodhi in June 2018. Four months into the contract the band generated a sizeable following, with quite a few high profile guests choosing to celebrate their special occasion at the Elan bar where the band performs. Against all odds the rewind option proved to be a huge success and hopefully other properties around the country takes the cue to trigger a whole new revival  of live music.