I Will Survive by American Alt-rock band Cake, one of the most underrated bands ever, from their ’96 debut album Fashion Nugget. What makes this song better than Gloria Gaynor‘s awesome original ? Is it John McCrea gruff, surly vocals? The brilliant electric guitar riff? The bass line? The plaintive, wailing trumpet solo? Maybe its all of them…

Here’s Gloria Gaynor’s original

Get the Gloria Gaynor MP3 Here

Get the Cake video Here and the MP3 Here

In 2005 antediluvian pop star Paul Anka did an album of Swing Jazz covers of songs including some truly bizzare stuff like a Jazz version of Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit‘. Kurt Cobain must be spinning in his grave. One of the few songs on the album that didn’t make you want to burn your ears off was his version of Van Halen’s epic 80′s track Jump!. For some reason the lyrics are actually quite well suited to a jazz song and this is the one song from this truly bizarre album where Mr. Anka hasn’t brutally raped the original tune.

Here is the brilliant David Lee Roth original.

1> Tracy Chapman – Gimme One Reason (With Clapton on electric guitar)

Get the video Here

2> Dusty Springfield (Sort of denied it) – Spooky

Get the video Here

4> Janis Joplin (Some say bi) – Piece of My Heart

Get the video Here

5> Sophie B. Hawkins – Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover (MTV banned the video for a bit)

Get the video Here

1. Bigger pants.

2. A formerly hyperactive kid (like myself) now starts looking for empty chairs when he gets somewhere.

3. An ass cheek goes to sleep if you remain seated in one position for a while. Before you even know it, no milk & cookies or bed-time stories required.

4. You find that the music is often too loud in pubs.

5. You can barely do the half the number of push-ups you could a decade earlier. After each push-up a little voice in your head repeats “This is gonna sting in the morning.”

1. Auto Rickshaws or three-wheeled tempos at their top speed of 40 kmph, spewing fumes in the right lane.

2. Person/Persons honking incessantly while in gridlocked traffic.

3. Person/Persons with car that is obviously faster than mine, driving at 40 kmph in front of me. The pedal on the right makes you go faster douchebag. Fucking use it!

4. Call centre cabs weaving through traffic. Actually any white MPV with yellow plates.

5. Person riding a two-wheeler, cutting me off in traffic while reading a fucking SMS on his cellular phone.

1. Ooh hey

I’m trying to decide

Which way to go

I think I made a wrong turn back there somewhere  : Eykah Badu – Didn’t Cha Know

2. It has to start somewhere

It has to start sometime

What better place than here

What better time than now : Rage Against The Machine – Guerilla Radio 

(Excellent video that parodies GAP adverts from the 90′s)

3. I like big butts and I cannot lie : Sir Mix-A-Lot – Baby Got Back

(Also an excellent video but in a totally different way )

4. There was a person there

Who put forth the proposition

That you can..

Petition the lord with prayer (x3) 

YOU CANNOT PETITION THE LORD WITH PRAYER! :  The Doors – The Soft Parade (Live)

5. He’s gone – he walks through the old routines 

But he’s gone – guaranteed 

He may be sittin’ in the kitchen, but he’s 

Steppin’ out with the Jack of Speed  : Steely Dan – Jack of Speed

(No video but listen to the song from their 2000 Album that won 4 Grammys including Album of the year and went double platinum. Just goes to prove that in this age of american idol, wannabe grunge rock bands and strippers-that-sing  there are still people that don’t have ears made of cloth)

1. Carbon Copy Cloner (Donationware. Pretty, highly customisable and reliable disk backup utility)

2. Growl (Donationware. System-wide notification utility with great integration with OS X as well Apple and third party apps)

3. Transmission (Donationware. Pretty, fast, bit-torrent client that currently shows that I have over 400 GB of torrents downloaded this year)

4. VLC (Freeware. Open source,cross platform, swiss army knife of a media player.) 

5. Synergy (Shareware, iTunes controller)

2. The Mask - Chuck Russell

3. Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels – Guy Ritchie

4. In The Mood For Love – Wong Kar-Wai

5. Before Sunset – Richard Linklater

The dating tips:

1. Don’t give boys that you like a copy of Anne Frank’s ‘The Diary of a Young Girl’.

2. Ever.

1. The God Of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

2. 1984 – George Orwell

3. Psmith In The City – PG Wodehouse

4. The Ultimate Hitchiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – Douglas Adams

5. Ice Station Zebra – Alistair Maclean