The Immigration and Naturalization Service Bureau (which deserves to be affectionately referred to among non-residents and semi-residents on non-American origin as the Intentionally Naturally Slow Bureau) just went public on their new scheme (in tune with the Bush "make no mistake" fever sweeping this war-hungry nation) to bring some greens back into the sagging economy (which will drop a couple of inches thanks to the tax cuts for the rich that were announced from Capitol Hill). The INS has long been notoriously slow with processing applications for visas, work permits and such. They clearly never managed to tackle effectively the problem of high incoming traffic. As it turns out, one of their managers (Dawn Randall, heralding the new dawn of innovative ways to reduce workloads) and her (women's lib anyone?) underling Leonel Salazar were indicted on Wednesday for being responsible for a shredfest of 90,000+ documents (American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits). This was in Laguna Niguel, CA, which handles paperwork for residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam and is one of four immigration service centers around the country operated by private contractors under I.N.S. supervision. This would mean that all the affected applicants would have to send in their applications (with relevant fees) all over again, leading to some incoming cash flow. I'm not high on economics, but this may actually benefit the economy a wee bit (like a mite on a roach's limb). "This is awesome", remarks an American friend. To quote Chuck Palahniuk, "awesome" was probably not the right word, but it was the first word that came to mind. Condolences to all the affected parties. I know how they feel. Guess I'm glad I wasn't in any of those states. Who knows, Georgia could be next ... but our stuff goes to Texas, which has been aiming to set new standards in tortoise velocities (living up to the image of the state of the President).
Friday, January 31, 2003
INS finds new way to help economy?
The Immigration and Naturalization Service Bureau (which deserves to be affectionately referred to among non-residents and semi-residents on non-American origin as the Intentionally Naturally Slow Bureau) just went public on their new scheme (in tune with the Bush "make no mistake" fever sweeping this war-hungry nation) to bring some greens back into the sagging economy (which will drop a couple of inches thanks to the tax cuts for the rich that were announced from Capitol Hill). The INS has long been notoriously slow with processing applications for visas, work permits and such. They clearly never managed to tackle effectively the problem of high incoming traffic. As it turns out, one of their managers (Dawn Randall, heralding the new dawn of innovative ways to reduce workloads) and her (women's lib anyone?) underling Leonel Salazar were indicted on Wednesday for being responsible for a shredfest of 90,000+ documents (American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits). This was in Laguna Niguel, CA, which handles paperwork for residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam and is one of four immigration service centers around the country operated by private contractors under I.N.S. supervision. This would mean that all the affected applicants would have to send in their applications (with relevant fees) all over again, leading to some incoming cash flow. I'm not high on economics, but this may actually benefit the economy a wee bit (like a mite on a roach's limb). "This is awesome", remarks an American friend. To quote Chuck Palahniuk, "awesome" was probably not the right word, but it was the first word that came to mind. Condolences to all the affected parties. I know how they feel. Guess I'm glad I wasn't in any of those states. Who knows, Georgia could be next ... but our stuff goes to Texas, which has been aiming to set new standards in tortoise velocities (living up to the image of the state of the President). {link courtesy: Chris}
The Immigration and Naturalization Service Bureau (which deserves to be affectionately referred to among non-residents and semi-residents on non-American origin as the Intentionally Naturally Slow Bureau) just went public on their new scheme (in tune with the Bush "make no mistake" fever sweeping this war-hungry nation) to bring some greens back into the sagging economy (which will drop a couple of inches thanks to the tax cuts for the rich that were announced from Capitol Hill). The INS has long been notoriously slow with processing applications for visas, work permits and such. They clearly never managed to tackle effectively the problem of high incoming traffic. As it turns out, one of their managers (Dawn Randall, heralding the new dawn of innovative ways to reduce workloads) and her (women's lib anyone?) underling Leonel Salazar were indicted on Wednesday for being responsible for a shredfest of 90,000+ documents (American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits). This was in Laguna Niguel, CA, which handles paperwork for residents of California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam and is one of four immigration service centers around the country operated by private contractors under I.N.S. supervision. This would mean that all the affected applicants would have to send in their applications (with relevant fees) all over again, leading to some incoming cash flow. I'm not high on economics, but this may actually benefit the economy a wee bit (like a mite on a roach's limb). "This is awesome", remarks an American friend. To quote Chuck Palahniuk, "awesome" was probably not the right word, but it was the first word that came to mind. Condolences to all the affected parties. I know how they feel. Guess I'm glad I wasn't in any of those states. Who knows, Georgia could be next ... but our stuff goes to Texas, which has been aiming to set new standards in tortoise velocities (living up to the image of the state of the President).
Thursday, January 30, 2003
(welcome to) moe's
Tried out a new Moe's Southwest Grill near home. Never noticed this the last (and only) time I was at Moe's (a different location too). The first thing that happens when you walk in: you hear loud voices trail "...Moe's". It's a spontaneous group welcome cheer from the guys behind the food counter, for every person who walks in. Phew! Once your nerves are back at ease, check out the interesting array of names on their menu (Alfredo Garcia, Joey Bag of Donuts, Homewrecker, The Full Monty and more).
one of these days ...
For the first time ever, I got this from Google:
Server Error
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For the first time ever, I got this from Google:
Server Error
The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request.
Please try again in a minute or so
jhankaar!
The soundtrack for the second R D Burman tribute Jhankaar Beats is out. Thankfully, the songs aren't corporate-sanctioned remixes of old Pancham tunes. The title track establishes this tribute as Sudesh Bhosle (who else) breaks out in Pancham song, mimicking the late maestro's warbling cult classic duniya mein. Boss Kaun Hai is an over-too-soon unfinished free-form trivia-talk-athon about the late R D Burman. The tapori vein continues onto the next couple of forgettable Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy-esque numbers. The despicable Udit Narayan pops up. Shaan is beginning to sound too much like himself (wish I could explain that: accept it as an axiom, if you will). The occasional break is provided by pure modern-day Indipop. Pancham quotes in the form of lyrics, musical fragments (including the Bond theme, a favourite of RDB's) pepper the soundtrack. This leaves the title track as the only one I'd want to listen to again, alas, for reasons more nostalgic than musical. Perhaps even Boss Kaun Hai and Ruk Ruk (The music directors decided to use Amit Kumar, giving this song a touch of historical irony). Eschewing the conventional string arrangements seems to be the only USP for most of the new remixes and pop favourites. Pity. Apart from that avoidable detail, the old songs also stood out as examples of collective human endeavour and effort. These days it's all a stream of bytes. {review}
The soundtrack for the second R D Burman tribute Jhankaar Beats is out. Thankfully, the songs aren't corporate-sanctioned remixes of old Pancham tunes. The title track establishes this tribute as Sudesh Bhosle (who else) breaks out in Pancham song, mimicking the late maestro's warbling cult classic duniya mein. Boss Kaun Hai is an over-too-soon unfinished free-form trivia-talk-athon about the late R D Burman. The tapori vein continues onto the next couple of forgettable Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy-esque numbers. The despicable Udit Narayan pops up. Shaan is beginning to sound too much like himself (wish I could explain that: accept it as an axiom, if you will). The occasional break is provided by pure modern-day Indipop. Pancham quotes in the form of lyrics, musical fragments (including the Bond theme, a favourite of RDB's) pepper the soundtrack. This leaves the title track as the only one I'd want to listen to again, alas, for reasons more nostalgic than musical. Perhaps even Boss Kaun Hai and Ruk Ruk (The music directors decided to use Amit Kumar, giving this song a touch of historical irony). Eschewing the conventional string arrangements seems to be the only USP for most of the new remixes and pop favourites. Pity. Apart from that avoidable detail, the old songs also stood out as examples of collective human endeavour and effort. These days it's all a stream of bytes. {review}
labels:
pancham,
soundtracks,
vishal_shekhar
Wednesday, January 29, 2003
rain... rain ... rain
After the cold wave last week, we have decent weather culminating in some showers. A good time to make a random pick from your collection of music and give it a listen. Hopefully there's some nostalgia embelishing each tape or CD you have. As my choice played, Bhupinder voiced the platitude that no one gets a perfect world. Nida Fazli's lyric for Ahista Ahista, quoting a couplet by Shahryar. To counterpoint the emotion, I made some culinary progress, breaking away from a self-imposed stereotype of Mr Beans, I made some Kung Pao Chicken. The only living being dead at the end of this experiment was also the only one who had arrived dead to begin with: the chicken.
After the cold wave last week, we have decent weather culminating in some showers. A good time to make a random pick from your collection of music and give it a listen. Hopefully there's some nostalgia embelishing each tape or CD you have. As my choice played, Bhupinder voiced the platitude that no one gets a perfect world. Nida Fazli's lyric for Ahista Ahista, quoting a couplet by Shahryar. To counterpoint the emotion, I made some culinary progress, breaking away from a self-imposed stereotype of Mr Beans, I made some Kung Pao Chicken. The only living being dead at the end of this experiment was also the only one who had arrived dead to begin with: the chicken.
pravasi bharatiya followup: bring in the minds not the moolah
A sensible voice speaks. It's the voice of Devesh Kapur, associate professor at Harvard. To quote: The Diaspora is a pampered lot, why should they need more?. It's the human capital of the Diaspora than the financial capital that really matters. Touché Don't think any of the diaspora are listening though. Probably time for another Government-backed endeavour to bite the dust.
A sensible voice speaks. It's the voice of Devesh Kapur, associate professor at Harvard. To quote: The Diaspora is a pampered lot, why should they need more?. It's the human capital of the Diaspora than the financial capital that really matters. Touché Don't think any of the diaspora are listening though. Probably time for another Government-backed endeavour to bite the dust.
welcome to the blogosphere extended to mein roommate/housemate friend-of-yore "blogging is just navel gazing" Freund Chris Martin. The inaugural post is up, with a promise of more.
Tuesday, January 28, 2003
the piracy of need
got meself a handful of mint duplicated copyrighted [sic] CDs (no jokes, these jokers called Mash Music/Vanilla Music actually included a copyright message on the inlay for these melange CDs that transcend all barriers of recording company and all that irritating red-tape-ist musically uninformed decision-making). Not that these are eclectic CDs ... far from that. But they fill some gaps in my R D Burman collection. Have I committed a crime by purchasing these "not genuine bona fide 100%" items? Not really sure that's a black-or-white question. If these music companies had made an effort to make CDs accessible and a worthwhile (read below) purchase, I'd be first in line. Till I find the original item(s) languishing in a used bin somewhere, I'll make do with these.
got meself a handful of mint duplicated copyrighted [sic] CDs (no jokes, these jokers called Mash Music/Vanilla Music actually included a copyright message on the inlay for these melange CDs that transcend all barriers of recording company and all that irritating red-tape-ist musically uninformed decision-making). Not that these are eclectic CDs ... far from that. But they fill some gaps in my R D Burman collection. Have I committed a crime by purchasing these "not genuine bona fide 100%
Indian record companies have yet to gain business acumen in the area of converting old film soundtracks from LPs/EPs to CD, being faithful to the original recording and also being cognizant of the benefits and caveats offered by the new digital format. Remasters are unheard of. What you will have instead are one/more of the following:
simplistic trivial "kiddies can try this at home"-style conversion of a soundtrack (usually a proper subset thereof) from a dusty mouldy damaged LP (Preservation is again unheard of. Sidenote: the recent FTII fire). There's even a story of HMV executives trying to locate and convince a Delhi resident for permission to borrow/use (read: filch) from his record-breaking (no pun there!) record collection (ostensibly since they did not have the originals themselves, and wanted to make some moolah with tapes and CDs)
treble-engineered music: A lot of my favourite R D Burman songs won't sound right or satisfying on a music system lacking an equalizer. Despite his experimental temperament, what Pancham lacked was a talented sound engineer who was not bogged down by the internalized conventions of Bollywood (internalized for me too, so I can't even describe them). Perhaps this was on account of the fact that Bollywood's greatest[sic][double sic] voice was the Ultra-Falsetto Nightingale, Madame Lata Mangeshkar. All recording efforts on albums that had at least one song by her seemed to focus on a certain band of aural frequencies making the oodles of bass lines sound like taps on the side of a matchbox.
The dreaded HMV Revival Series: Connoisseurs only, I guess. Take a look at the fine print on any release in this new series and you'll realize it's just a corporate version of a remix, done mildly. Avoid at all costs.
Monday, January 27, 2003
music mania
Finally! My first purchases off Music Graveyard arrived yesterday (the name is a good indication of what might have happened to them if the box hadn't come in yesterday). Two little musical rarities: Latin Rock Fusions, an early Santana album with some cool jams (I mean, really cool) and Straight No Chaser, a compilation of tracks owned by Blue Note that have been oft-sampled (Hancock's Cantaloupe Island is probably the most familiar one, so far). The funny aspect of this 2 CD set is that Art Blakey who contributes the most tracks (3) has only sound bits, and no music.
Finally! My first purchases off Music Graveyard arrived yesterday (the name is a good indication of what might have happened to them if the box hadn't come in yesterday). Two little musical rarities: Latin Rock Fusions, an early Santana album with some cool jams (I mean, really cool) and Straight No Chaser, a compilation of tracks owned by Blue Note that have been oft-sampled (Hancock's Cantaloupe Island is probably the most familiar one, so far). The funny aspect of this 2 CD set is that Art Blakey who contributes the most tracks (3) has only sound bits, and no music.
delhi durbar is another new Indian restaurant to hit Atlanta. Right across the road from good ol' Udipi Café (run by the South-Indian version of the Sopranos) and housed in what used to be a Shoney's, this place also featured a waiter last seen at Curry and Kabob (perhaps it's the same management). The purees rocked, although the grease (normal by Indian standards) may be an issue with over-sensitive patrons. The lassi, although a good addition, didn't pack enough punch. Overall, though, a good array of food, barring the chicken nihari that was missing the chicken. Also featuring beef paaya, last seen at the grease fest called Sabri Kabab House.
The audio video collection from the defunct wing of Urvashi Video Rental and Beauty Parlour at North Dekalb Mall has reappeared at a small cash-only store called SAGAR in the same strip as Udipi. CDs are going at 3 for $15. Quite a good deal. Most of them are Vanilla Music products (read: copies and unauthorized aggregations of other branded CDs). But that doesn't really matter, since the original releases are so hard to find. Go grab some.
Followup : {Feb 07, 2003}
Creative Loafing reviewer Cliff Bostock reviews DD and retracts.
Saturday, January 25, 2003
Friday, January 24, 2003
brrr ... and the wonderful horrible life of leni riefenstahl
Still too cold and I was also reeling from the effects of enthusiastic natural gas (employed in the MARTA buses for heating). Caught bits of The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, an intimate documentary about Nazi Germany's most famous woman filmmaker. Also found out about the genre of the 'mountain film', which despite its physically demanding mechanics, often came off as quite unintentionally hilarious.
Still too cold and I was also reeling from the effects of enthusiastic natural gas (employed in the MARTA buses for heating). Caught bits of The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl, an intimate documentary about Nazi Germany's most famous woman filmmaker. Also found out about the genre of the 'mountain film', which despite its physically demanding mechanics, often came off as quite unintentionally hilarious.
enough rage and helplessness and your love turns to something else .... steaming piss
Given that Atlanta is reeling from a cold wave and yesterday's barometer dipped to as low as -9o C, our choice of movie was quite apt: Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter: a lyrical temporally fragmented adaptation of Russell Bank's acclaimed novel. This moral tale of the human condition explores the lives of families in the aftermath of a disaster in a remote town in British Columbia. Egoyan eschews all trademarks of Hollywood kitsch or pretentious nonsense to avail of a cold bleak landscape (just like Chris Nolan did a few years later in Insomnia), excellent performances and an interesting soundtrack to aid a juxtaposition of Robert Browning's "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" and give us a dream-like examination of the fragile ties that bind.
Given that Atlanta is reeling from a cold wave and yesterday's barometer dipped to as low as -9
The film reminded me of Peter Bogdanovich's critically acclaimed The Last Picture Show, but scored over that, at least for me. I have more respect for Bogdanovich as a film student and writer than as a director. TLPS was, despite all its apparent merits, a Hollywood-style exploration of human suffering, grief and nostalgia. Something I've come to get tired of.
Coincidentally, a month ago, I read Russell Banks' essay in The Best American Movie Writing: 2001 documenting his satisfaction with the adaptations of The Sweet Hereafter and Afflliction.
Next up on a to-watch list: Affliction. Other films by Egoyan. On the to-read list (ever-growing): Russell Banks.
labels:
notes_on_films
Wednesday, January 22, 2003
AFPL and bonus Hindi film songs
Picked up D J Enright's A Mania for Sentences, a collection of essays on interesting experiments with the English language (including my current favourite, G V Desani's All About H. Hatterr) at AFPL.
Picked up D J Enright's A Mania for Sentences, a collection of essays on interesting experiments with the English language (including my current favourite, G V Desani's All About H. Hatterr) at AFPL.
The MetroAtlanta TV channel was broadcasting Hindi film songs and ads yesterday night. Am investigating the source.
labels:
atlanta,
public_library
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
the long weekend
Monday: music. writing. Stagecoach
Sunday: music. reading. LOTR: Behind the Scenes: Disk I. Atrociously offensive mushy tripe -- a French film called The Eighth Day. Dinner with old friends.
Saturday: LOTR (still rocks). Shorts. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance {personal doubt: Who really shot Liberty Valance?}
Friday: Zyka. Clapton {461 Ocean Boulevard, Behind The Sun}. only this and nothing more.
Monday: music. writing. Stagecoach
Sunday: music. reading. LOTR: Behind the Scenes: Disk I. Atrociously offensive mushy tripe -- a French film called The Eighth Day. Dinner with old friends.
Saturday: LOTR (still rocks). Shorts. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance {personal doubt: Who really shot Liberty Valance?}
Friday: Zyka. Clapton {461 Ocean Boulevard, Behind The Sun}. only this and nothing more.
Footnote on The Eighth Day: The leads in this French Rain Man, Daniel Auteuil and Pascal Duquenne shared the Acting Honours at Cannes 1996. To quote Claude Rains, I'm shocked! Shocked! Things like this make me wonder if I'm missing the obvious point in a lot of films I watch. Do I expect a film to be more than simple and straight-forward? I remember appreciating the intercutting of the lives of the two protagonists foreshadowing their inevitable encounter and the use of rather conventional filmic devices in contrasting Harry's (Auteuil) unhappy family life hidden away behind a mask of faux confidence. {Jan 25, 2003}
Liberty Valance: Part of John Ford's ouevre during his pessimistic view of the "fake West" invented by Hollywood, the film is riddled with too many obvious gaffes. The runner-up in my top two gaffes is in the reverse shot during the climactic political rally. The opposing parties switch sides, something that sticks out like an elephant's backside. The winner is a gaffe that can trigger interesting critical debate on "who really shot Liberty Valance". During the climactic rally, Tom Doniphon tells Ransom that it was he and not Ransom who shot Liberty Valance. Ford uses a flashback to the shooting to tell us this. The flashback runs from a different perspective: that of Tom and Pompey. The flashback and the actual event seem to have been shot at different times, because (thanks to DVD technology) it is clear that Ransom's bullet hits Liberty first, throwing him back (physics verifies the source of the bullet) and killing him. If you believe the flashback with the gaffe, the most famous line of the film "This is the West Sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" takes on interesting meanings. I got hold of Dorothy M Johnson's original short story on which the film is based, and that testifies to Ford's original intent: Tom Doniphon did indeed kill Valance (the short story has interesting differences from the film: Ransom is more arrogant and over-confident of himself; Tom and Ransom hate each other's guts a whole lot more; Tom's revelation comes shortly after Ranse recovers and a while before Ranse's political career takes off).
labels:
notes_on_films
Friday, January 17, 2003
dominican dinner/desi style
Tried out a Dominican restaurant called Santo Domingo yesterday. A friend at the table was sure this was originally a Dunkin' Donuts, based on the architecture of the block. The food was delicious and very much in the Indian mold. The ambience completed the illusion of a fake Cafe Good Luck (non-Puneites will miss the reference). Across the road was a Korean bakery with a French name (Aha!) -- Boulangerie (that's French for Bakery, and not some faux French mangling of "Ben and Jerry"). {AJC Review: last but one on the page}
Thursday, January 16, 2003
what TV can teach you: darmok and jalad at tanagra
I have never heard about Gilgamesh before. Well, at least not till I met a colleague at work who had a machine with that name. Since another machine at the workplace was named for something out of H P Lovecraft, I filed Gilgamesh away as another example. On November 01, 2002 last year, television made sure I realised the error of my ways. TNN was running a Friday special bill of Start Trek: TNG reruns and the last episode they had was one I hadn't seen before, called Darmok. This one has the Enterprise in the El'A'Dral system meeting the Tamarians, a peaceful race with a language described as incomprehensible in past encounters. The Tamarian language uses the same words as English (predictably) but conversation is effected using metaphors from legend. As both sides try to communicate, the Tamarians beam Captain Picard onto the surface of the planet below, along with their captain. Forced to communicate under adverse circumstances, Picard manages to make a connection by using the Epic of Gilgamesh. This dates from the third millennium B.C., making it the oldest epic poem in world literature. As it turns out, the Tamarian captain sacrifices his life for the rather noble purpose of establishing communication with the other (our) race. This is a moving gesture indeed. But the best parts of the episode are the moments when the two captains attempt to get through to each other, using metaphors from their respective mythologies. And I got a free lesson in literature. Temba, at rest.
{more about Darmok} | {episode braindump} | {Discursive Dictionary} | {the Darmok Dictionary}
I have never heard about Gilgamesh before. Well, at least not till I met a colleague at work who had a machine with that name. Since another machine at the workplace was named for something out of H P Lovecraft, I filed Gilgamesh away as another example. On November 01, 2002 last year, television made sure I realised the error of my ways. TNN was running a Friday special bill of Start Trek: TNG reruns and the last episode they had was one I hadn't seen before, called Darmok. This one has the Enterprise in the El'A'Dral system meeting the Tamarians, a peaceful race with a language described as incomprehensible in past encounters. The Tamarian language uses the same words as English (predictably) but conversation is effected using metaphors from legend. As both sides try to communicate, the Tamarians beam Captain Picard onto the surface of the planet below, along with their captain. Forced to communicate under adverse circumstances, Picard manages to make a connection by using the Epic of Gilgamesh. This dates from the third millennium B.C., making it the oldest epic poem in world literature. As it turns out, the Tamarian captain sacrifices his life for the rather noble purpose of establishing communication with the other (our) race. This is a moving gesture indeed. But the best parts of the episode are the moments when the two captains attempt to get through to each other, using metaphors from their respective mythologies. And I got a free lesson in literature. Temba, at rest.
{more about Darmok} | {episode braindump} | {Discursive Dictionary} | {the Darmok Dictionary}
labels:
star_trek
more bollywood reading
Thanks to the Spragues and the Emory Library I have fresh Bollywood reading:
*The Dream Merchants of Bollywood/Nikhat Kazmi
*Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema with Javed Akhtar/Nasreen Munni Kabir
Thanks to the Spragues and the Emory Library I have fresh Bollywood reading:
*The Dream Merchants of Bollywood/Nikhat Kazmi
*Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema with Javed Akhtar/Nasreen Munni Kabir
labels:
atlanta,
public_library
national anthem: in theatres soon
Another brilliantly jingoistic probabilistically generated idea from the state government[sic] of Maharashtra: from Republic Day 2003 (Jan 26), it will be "mandatory for cinema theatres in Maharashtra to play the national anthem after every show". Some moviegoers and theatre owners in Maharashtra have welcomed it saying it would inculcate patriotism among the people. Why don't they make better films instead? The last thing I saw something like this was when Vidhu Vinod Chopra decided to end his big-budget waste 1942: A Love Story with a request to everyone in the audience to rise for the national anthem. By the time the on-screen rendition ended, the only people in the theatre were my family and friends waiting for me to finish watching the end credits (an old habit of mine, which suffers in India where the projectionist rips the reels out the moment he sees "The End" or a reasonable facsimile thereof). {link courtesy: Chris}
Another brilliantly jingoistic probabilistically generated idea from the state government[sic] of Maharashtra: from Republic Day 2003 (Jan 26), it will be "mandatory for cinema theatres in Maharashtra to play the national anthem after every show". Some moviegoers and theatre owners in Maharashtra have welcomed it saying it would inculcate patriotism among the people. Why don't they make better films instead? The last thing I saw something like this was when Vidhu Vinod Chopra decided to end his big-budget waste 1942: A Love Story with a request to everyone in the audience to rise for the national anthem. By the time the on-screen rendition ended, the only people in the theatre were my family and friends waiting for me to finish watching the end credits (an old habit of mine, which suffers in India where the projectionist rips the reels out the moment he sees "The End" or a reasonable facsimile thereof). {link courtesy: Chris}
Tuesday, January 14, 2003
dev anand on cinema
The formerly evergreen now wilting (yet resilient) Bollywood screen hero and terrible director with misguided monetary resources (his tacky films continue to look like bottom-of-the-barrel products generated using a garage Super 8 by a mendicant on bad speed) waxes eloquent (and even gets quoted) about cinema being "just like living" his life. Rest assured, when he kicks the bucket, cinema will still be around. His latest film, Love At Times Square is another addition to this unique genre of serious self-parody defined by Mr Anand.
The formerly evergreen now wilting (yet resilient) Bollywood screen hero and terrible director with misguided monetary resources (his tacky films continue to look like bottom-of-the-barrel products generated using a garage Super 8 by a mendicant on bad speed) waxes eloquent (and even gets quoted) about cinema being "just like living" his life. Rest assured, when he kicks the bucket, cinema will still be around. His latest film, Love At Times Square is another addition to this unique genre of serious self-parody defined by Mr Anand.
books and some great commentary
To add to my pile of stuff on loan, another trip to AFPL got me a set of essays on Brian de Palma by Michael Bliss as part of the Great Directors series, Seymour ben Chatman's acclaimed Antonioni, or the surface of the world and a compilation of TV Soap Opera Themes.
To add to my pile of stuff on loan, another trip to AFPL got me a set of essays on Brian de Palma by Michael Bliss as part of the Great Directors series, Seymour ben Chatman's acclaimed Antonioni, or the surface of the world and a compilation of TV Soap Opera Themes.
Got through Gene Youngblood's commentary accompanying L'Avventura. Quite an education there. This film definitely goes on my to-watch-again/to-buy-someday list. Ideal material for a film class -- almost in the vein of "just when you thought you had understood film theory, ..."
labels:
atlanta,
public_library
Monday, January 13, 2003
a power-packed weekend was guaranteed for all...
Sunday, January 12, 2003
More shorts. A Guy Walks Into A Bar, a delicious send-up on the westerns featuring Fred The Wonder Years Savage in his first adult role (and his first use of the F-word and his first bed scene!). My favourite moment is the opening which uses a Mesmerizer lens to re-create the impression of badly panned-and-scanned anamorphic widescreen westerns (like Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly).
Sunday, January 12, 2003
More shorts. A Guy Walks Into A Bar, a delicious send-up on the westerns featuring Fred The Wonder Years Savage in his first adult role (and his first use of the F-word and his first bed scene!). My favourite moment is the opening which uses a Mesmerizer lens to re-create the impression of badly panned-and-scanned anamorphic widescreen westerns (like Leone's The Good, The Bad and The Ugly).
Monsters Inc on DVD. Lovingly put together with great animation, rendering and voices (Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi), this is a great 93 minute joyride.
Saturday, January 11 2003
La Jetée and Eye, Like a Strange Balloon off Short Cinema Journal II: Dreams, a wonderfully mastered compilation of shorts. The first was the inspiration (note: not source material, just an inspiration) of Terry Gilliam's fascinating (and for me, yet unwatched) post-apocalyptic classic 12 Monkeys. The latter is more testimony to the crazy genius of the underrated Guy Maddin.
Antonio's L'Avventura (The Adventure) is mind-blowing. Despite being rather long and, as is the case with most parallel cinema, gently-paced, this film shatters everything you thought you knew about film grammar and reading helps. Gene Youngblood's commentary appropriately guides you through understanding this masterpiece.
Friday, January 10, 2003
delicatessen
was the movie for the evening. From the makers of Amelie. A cross between the food movie genre and the visual spectacles of Terry Gilliam's Brazil, this film is a delight.
labels:
notes_on_films
ripoff roundup
Every portal you see tells you the same thing. The Badshahs of Bollywood refuse to learn a lesson. Worse yet, they take the wrong lesson. It's Aesop on LSD. With a dash of Lear. No Vincent Price. It's a world populated by star children. Inheriting the lack of acting from their parents. Star pairs deserving of stellar meltdown. Black holes. Last year had its share of inspired movies. This year it's no better. The genetic malapropism from the Malini fold {see movie endurance log} and the white-pants-dancing-South-fan yeah! Agent Jitu's duh-I-could-do-better son are back to haunt the theatres with Kucch to Hai {translation: There's Something Here aka Something Rotten in the State of Denmark}. It's the desi take on I Know What You Did Last Summer. With songs, dances and an extended watered-down hackneyed Indian love story (possibly peppered with ultra-dig don't-I-sound-cool smart-ass lines borrowed from a deep-fried interpretation of English movies. Hopeless.
Every portal you see tells you the same thing. The Badshahs of Bollywood refuse to learn a lesson. Worse yet, they take the wrong lesson. It's Aesop on LSD. With a dash of Lear. No Vincent Price. It's a world populated by star children. Inheriting the lack of acting from their parents. Star pairs deserving of stellar meltdown. Black holes. Last year had its share of inspired movies. This year it's no better. The genetic malapropism from the Malini fold {see movie endurance log} and the white-pants-dancing-South-fan yeah! Agent Jitu's duh-I-could-do-better son are back to haunt the theatres with Kucch to Hai {translation: There's Something Here aka Something Rotten in the State of Denmark}. It's the desi take on I Know What You Did Last Summer. With songs, dances and an extended watered-down hackneyed Indian love story (possibly peppered with ultra-dig don't-I-sound-cool smart-ass lines borrowed from a deep-fried interpretation of English movies. Hopeless.
Ram Gopal Varma's assistant Prabal Pandey decides to use The Twilight Zone: The Movie as raw material for Darna Manaa Hai {aka Fear is Forbidden Here}. Dyspepsia.
And then debutante director Amit Saxena commits an ultimate act of movie necrophilia by exhuming Billy Wilder's noir classic Double Indemnity for Pooja Bhat's production company as Jism (aka: Body). Grief!
Thursday, January 09, 2003
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas ... aka NRI suck-up day was inaugurated today {ref: warning}. Ten NRIs and PIOs were honoured. Hope they will be kind enough with their purses now. Then there's the expected announcement about Dual Nationality/Citizenship.
Wednesday, January 08, 2003
tool/feature (re)commendation
For the last few days, I have (finally!) been using Mozilla (the stable 1.2.1, since I wanted a stable version running and wasn't in a position to be an alpha tester for 1.3a). This is clearly a cool browser for web developers what with its extremely helpful JavaScript Console and ... sound the trumpets !... DOM Inspector. The latter constructs a DOM tree (in simple words: a tree representation of the different HTML elements in a web page) and highlights the area in the webpage as you step through the tree. A great aid if you are (still!) writing web page crawlers and scrapers.
For the last few days, I have (finally!) been using Mozilla (the stable 1.2.1, since I wanted a stable version running and wasn't in a position to be an alpha tester for 1.3a). This is clearly a cool browser for web developers what with its extremely helpful JavaScript Console and ... sound the trumpets !... DOM Inspector. The latter constructs a DOM tree (in simple words: a tree representation of the different HTML elements in a web page) and highlights the area in the webpage as you step through the tree. A great aid if you are (still!) writing web page crawlers and scrapers.
radio station call letters ... Java to the rescue?
Something just struck me while I was hacking away at some copious Java code (isn't it always copious?). Everytime I caught a new exception for code in a try block (sorry for the language specifics here) I named the instance using the first letters of the words in the name of the exception. An example: an instance of FileNotFoundException would be called fnfe. If you handled a lot of exceptions and logged the names of the instances, you could probably have a list of potential radio station call letters. This is FNFE 99.3 FM.... No, I'm not reeling from substance or spirit abuse.
Something just struck me while I was hacking away at some copious Java code (isn't it always copious?). Everytime I caught a new exception for code in a try block (sorry for the language specifics here) I named the instance using the first letters of the words in the name of the exception. An example: an instance of FileNotFoundException would be called fnfe. If you handled a lot of exceptions and logged the names of the instances, you could probably have a list of potential radio station call letters. This is FNFE 99.3 FM.... No, I'm not reeling from substance or spirit abuse.
labels:
java,
programming
Film heritage up in flames
A fire at the NFAI (National Film Archives of India) Building on the FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) in Pune destroyed some rare nitrate negatives, including Raja Harishchandra.
{more on FTII} (Note the spelling error in the GIF}. {link courtesy: vivek} {yahoo! india news}
Followups
how safe is the NFAI collection? |
blaze exposes petty politics |
I&B probe into fire assured
A fire at the NFAI (National Film Archives of India) Building on the FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) in Pune destroyed some rare nitrate negatives, including Raja Harishchandra.
{more on FTII} (Note the spelling error in the GIF}. {link courtesy: vivek} {yahoo! india news}
Followups
how safe is the NFAI collection? |
blaze exposes petty politics |
I&B probe into fire assured
Tuesday, January 07, 2003
Google's ready for IPO says Forbes. And they're also expiring penalties on domains participating in a link exchange programme that used hidden links with keywords in tiny little images.
This is probably a good post to mention the Google Dance. This page has been around for a while. The name refers to the varying results across Google's different web servers as they are being updated. Also check out another Google Dance Tool.
Monday, January 06, 2003
public acquisitions
As if I didn't have enough dead tree descendants piled in my room, I had to take a trip to AFPL (again!) to pick up a few more items
* Survivor/Chuck Palahniuk
* If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B movie actor/Bruce Campbell
* Moon/James Herbert
* A Love Supreme/John Coltrane
As if I didn't have enough dead tree descendants piled in my room, I had to take a trip to AFPL (again!) to pick up a few more items
* Survivor/Chuck Palahniuk
* If Chins Could Kill: Confessions of a B movie actor/Bruce Campbell
* Moon/James Herbert
* A Love Supreme/John Coltrane
labels:
atlanta,
public_library
more kudzu after a himalayan lunch, galaxy adventures and an homage to americana
After stuffing myself with a buffet (special mention: beef bhuna) at Himalayas, I picked up more books at Kudzu Book Fair next door. A few more books on Oracle and a couple of books on film.
The TNN ST:TNG marathon had a few new episodes to offer, especially the interesting Frame of Mind. I then caught most of Luc Besson's homage to Americana, Léon.
Saturday, January 04, 2003
Rest in Peace: Pancham
9 years ago on this date, Hindi (nay, Indian) film (and even non-filmi) music lost its greatest (and perhaps last) talented exponent in the last few decades -- Rahul Dev Burman. And ironically, just like Bernard Herrmann, after finishing his swan song (1942: A Love Story). Since his death, everyone in the industry and around has been showering accolades, via hollow praise, reminiscences, remixes (the largest in number), and retro- post-modern movies like Dil Vil Pyar Vyar and the upcoming Jhankaar Beats. Your longevity needs no proof, Pancham. If there's a heaven, I'm sure you're still doing what you did best ... creating lovely melodies from a complex mesh of influences and your unique dash of creativity.
9 years ago on this date, Hindi (nay, Indian) film (and even non-filmi) music lost its greatest (and perhaps last) talented exponent in the last few decades -- Rahul Dev Burman. And ironically, just like Bernard Herrmann, after finishing his swan song (1942: A Love Story). Since his death, everyone in the industry and around has been showering accolades, via hollow praise, reminiscences, remixes (the largest in number), and retro- post-modern movies like Dil Vil Pyar Vyar and the upcoming Jhankaar Beats. Your longevity needs no proof, Pancham. If there's a heaven, I'm sure you're still doing what you did best ... creating lovely melodies from a complex mesh of influences and your unique dash of creativity.
labels:
pancham
Jai Bajrang Billie Jean
Guess what? The King[sic] of Pop (face falling off, last heard), Michael Jackson will probably be back in India (the last time he visited, he defiled Bal Thackeray's restroom) for the muhurat of a live-action film called Hanuman produced by Raju Patel (last heard from as co-producer of Kaante) and Film Club. Expect some interesting songs on the soundtrack...
Guess what? The King[sic] of Pop (face falling off, last heard), Michael Jackson will probably be back in India (the last time he visited, he defiled Bal Thackeray's restroom) for the muhurat of a live-action film called Hanuman produced by Raju Patel (last heard from as co-producer of Kaante) and Film Club. Expect some interesting songs on the soundtrack...
Friday, January 03, 2003
kudzu book splurge
Visited a year-end clearance sale at excellent discount store Kudzu Book Fair. With great prices, I got myself a ton of books. Including a few computer science books that ended up being cheaper than their economy editions back home:). Apart from a few books on Oracle (something I deal with increasingly day by day), C++ and GNU tools, I got some nice books on film, media and media studies.
What is kudzu?
{used to be :} so it's obvious i have too much work on hand ... bear with me ... if you're still reading this ...
Visited a year-end clearance sale at excellent discount store Kudzu Book Fair. With great prices, I got myself a ton of books. Including a few computer science books that ended up being cheaper than their economy editions back home:). Apart from a few books on Oracle (something I deal with increasingly day by day), C++ and GNU tools, I got some nice books on film, media and media studies.
What is kudzu?
{used to be :} so it's obvious i have too much work on hand ... bear with me ... if you're still reading this ...
and the winner is ...
now that the official word is out, e-congratulations and hosannas to Ramanand for (a) being the winner for MasterMind India 2002 (b) being the youngest winner in the history of MasterMind India. Now, like geriatric bench warmers I can dodder about a little and claim to have known the young lad and seen his potential (and all that other squat fodder). And despite this being true, no one is going to believe me.
now that the official word is out, e-congratulations and hosannas to Ramanand for (a) being the winner for MasterMind India 2002 (b) being the youngest winner in the history of MasterMind India. Now, like geriatric bench warmers I can dodder about a little and claim to have known the young lad and seen his potential (and all that other squat fodder). And despite this being true, no one is going to believe me.
Thursday, January 02, 2003
hit the mattresses
Managed to digest the commentary for The Godfather as well as part of it for The Godfather II. The special features DVD actually has some cool Easter Eggs. Guess I have to wait till I can get my hands on the set again to sate my hunger for exhaustive commentary.
Managed to digest the commentary for The Godfather as well as part of it for The Godfather II. The special features DVD actually has some cool Easter Eggs. Guess I have to wait till I can get my hands on the set again to sate my hunger for exhaustive commentary.
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