The week in re(ar)view

Feel the squeeze
'I feel the need, the need for speed.” It's a great line immortalized in movies like Top Gun and Fast and the Furious but like everything else this needs changing with the times. Now it's all about feeling the squeeze, the squeeze for juice. It doesn't rhyme as well but truth hardly does.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has suggested that our government increase the price of natural gas before further adjusting the prices of petroleum products. Electricity and fertiliser are on the rise too.

Driving promises to be a pain in the near future as you won't be doing much driving. Instead it will involve a lot of pushing. After all, when fuel becomes costly, that's the only way to move about.

Rebirth is an iffy matter
On July 11 nine people of a family died in a suicide pact. Diary entries suggest that their belief in rebirth on earth might have driven them to go for such an awful act.

They jumped under a train. Did they think they will be reborn as something better? For all they know they could turn out to come back as snails stuck on the side of rail tracks.

Teachers who never took any classes
There's fake students who study at universities. And then there are real teachers who do not teach. Taking advantage of the lax administration of National University (NU), 86 lecturers who are supposed to take classes at different NU-affiliated colleges have allegedly never performed their duties although they draw their salaries regularly.

These teachers even refused to take classes after receiving instructions from the NU vice-chancellor at a time when the largest public university of the country could not provide quality education due to shortage of teachers.

These teachers draw around Tk 10 lakh in monthly salaries. "Their basic salaries range between Tk 12,000 and Tk 18,000," said an official of the NU accounts section.

Now that's easy money.

By Mood Dude and Gokhra

RS obituary:
Captain America

Marvel Comics has finally put a lid on one of the oldest comic superheroes out there, Captain America. The latest issue of Captain America named “Fallen Son” which will hit the new-stands the morning after the 4th of July, will see the masked American finally fall to a sniper shot, an eerie reminiscence of the John F Kennedy murder.

Captain America dies in front of a courtyard where he went to protest against a new government act, called the “Super-Hero Act” which essentially forces him to reveal his identitiy. John Loeb, the writer who worked on the last issue, said that the death of Captain America symbolizes current US politics.

Part of it grew out of the fact that we are a country that's at war, we are being perceived differently in the world," Loeb said. "He wears the flag and he is assassinated it's impossible not to have it at least be a metaphor for the complications of present day."

Captain America first blazed onto the scene in 1941, 9 months before Pearl Harbor in a comic featuring him punching Hitler in the belly. Ever since he fought Nazis, evil terrorists, the Red Skull as well as saved the US from countless different threats. Captain America didn't bow down to other superheroes who insisted on attaching themselves to fancy animals like spiders, bats or wolves. He kept his act clean and simple and symbolized many of the values which the USA stood for. His death will be a call to reflection of those values which he tried to instill in others during his long tenure as America's premier (albeit a less famous) Super-Hero.

By Reggie

Guitar Fest 2007

Dhaka's first ever guitar fest took place at RCC (Russian Cultural Centre), hosted by Event Solutions on 13th July 2007! It was another one of those humid Friday afternoons when the show took place. Basically it was a gig where some amazing guitarists played some great solos.

Tickets were sold at tk.180 each and by the time the event started- the whole auditorium was packed. There were so many people and it was really hard to breathe in there! It was so hot!

The show started off with brilliant Oni's (from Vibe) solo performance. He was a killer...playing Pantera's tracks. He was an instant hit. After a not so short break Mashadi took the stage and his works in 'She je boshe achey' was really good. But what got the crowd roaring was Maher- rocking with Joe Satriani's awesome tracks like “Flying in a blue dream” and “Satch Boogie”.

A short while after he got on stage the crowd started to chant out his name. Next came in Shishir who was mind blowing with his own compositions. Everyone loved him! People were standing on their seats and the crowd went crazy.

The last two guitarists who ended the show were Ershad (from Artcell) followed by guest appearance by Komol (of Aurthohin). Some people I asked said they couldn't tell what Ershad was playing while others thought that Komol had got on stage without much preparation. All in all it was a great show, something different for a change. The sound system was good enough and it seemed as though people couldn't wait for another one of these!

By Nayeema Reza