Monthly Archives: July 2006

Requiem for a love

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen
We all gather here today
In God’s beautiful garden
To wish someone away.

Away to a peaceful dwell
Somewhere in the skies above
Say the prayer,ring the knell
Lower into its grave, the casket of Love.

It lived a troubled life
But died a peaceful death
Better to die, than live in perpetual strife
Accept this final gift, of a flowery wreath.

Bowling For Columbine

I don’t think I’ll be able to write an unbiased review of this documentary, as I’m in complete agreement with Micheal Moore on the points he raises in it. So I’m quoting an excellent review written by a native of Moore’s hometown.

This is a bit of an odd movie for me to review because I grew up in a small town in the county that Michael Moore talks about during the film, and hung out in and live near Flint today, so it’s odd for me to see this world I see every day on the screen and knowing the entire world has seen a bit of the world I have seen. It’s an odd feeling. Odder still to realize that Moore, loved around the world by a lot of people for his books, movies, and shows, is hated by a lot of the people in Flint as they blame him, in some weird way, for the decline of what was once a very prosperous town. Heck, I worked at an Office Max one Christmas when Moore came in to buy a digital camera. And last fall some friends and I were behind him in line at the local Borders. And both times I left him alone ‘cause the guy was home on vacation and deserved to be let alone. But imagine coming back to your hometown knowing there are thousands that hate you because of some movie you made. Ugh! So that’s where I am coming from when I review this film, and maybe you can understand a bit better how odd it is to see my county, my city (I spent hours on end hanging at a couple ‘punk’ clubs that were in Flint back when I was younger, and even went to college there), and heck, you even see a billboard touting a gun store near my hometown, to see all this and know that suddenly the world just got a bit smaller.

Bowling for Columbine, at its heart, is an examination of the American gun culture, or craze if you will, and whether or not it has played a part in the violence of places like Columbine High School and other American tragedies. And in pursuing this examination Moore talks with everyone from members of the Michigan Militia, James Nichols – brother of one of the two men convicted of blowing up the Federal Building in Oklahoma – two boys wounded in the Columbine tragedy, and even Charlton Heston. And Moore pulls no punches, showing video from the Columbine shooting in order to make you question what it is that leads to the violence we see every day. It seems to be his contention that it is our fear, of one another, of those different from us, and of ourselves, that has lead us to become a so ‘gun-crazy’. Moore even goes so far as to venture to South Central L.A. in hopes of putting holes in the myth that no whites can walk those streets safely, and even goes to Canada to show how ridiculous our fear can be and how our northern neighbors see us – and it isn’t pretty.

This is essentially a film about one man’s crusade to prove that our gun culture and fear have lead us down a path of violence and bloodshed that will haunt us as long as we let this fear rule us. It is a wonderful documentary and an even better piece of propaganda. Moore, great documentarian that he is isvery manipulative – witness him managing to make retailer Kmart stop selling handgun bullets when faced with two victims from Columbine, an army of reporters, and two bags of ammo bought by one of the young victims – and while he is very effective at getting his point across, he is very single-minded. In seeing Bowling, I have to agree with a LOT of what Moore was trying to say, and think he did a wonderful job of pleading his case, a case that has not been heard in recent years. If nothing else, this film is a must-see because it shovels blood down our throats and makes us see things in a shockingly new way. To see the Y2K scare and remember it, and how afraid we all were, and to know nothing happened. To see all the wars we have waged and to see that we have put our worst enemies in positions to harm us is a hard lesson. As is seeing the Columbine footage and to realize that, when people are interviewed about it, these were kids and that these kids could have been anyone. To hear Marilyn Manson speak, and speak eloquently, as one of his denouncers makes bold pronouncements about how evil the man and his music are is a wake-up call. And it is harrowing to see Heston and his NRA followers and their attitudes about their gun rights and their belief that they need to have loaded weapons in order to be free. This is a wake up call to a nation and a world that points at a violent movie and angry music and cries bloody murder yet drops bombs safely from our living rooms and insist we needed to do that in order to remain free. Few movies leave you with the bitter taste in your mouth that Bowling do, a bitter realization that we Americans are not perfect, and that we have a long go to be even close to such a lofty goal. What is scariest for me though, to watch the film was when he shows people act as them, and to see how dreadful we all can be when we think no one is really watching. And to see a montage of newscasts showing all the scares the news tries to put us through – killer bees, killer sharks, killer black people, killer weather, killer terrorists, whatever it is – and realizing that so many times the threat was so small that we were all jumping at shadows because we were told to.

As funny as it is heartbreaking, this is a powerful and oft-times heartbreaking film. Moore knows too well how to manipulate his viewers and knows too well what can make us all squirm. The best trick he pulls may be making us laugh at how sadly stupid so many our beliefs are, and then in mid-laugh he faces you with murder and tragedy. Because if hearing and seeing Columbine doesn’t make you question how we do things in this nation, perhaps nothing will. This is not a perfect film though. It rambles at times and does lose its point a couple times as well. And as I said Moore is single-minded and shows his side and pretty much nothing else. He gets away with it though because in this instance, he isn’t wrong. Not wholly. To see how we treat the world, to see how we are seen, and to see how the NRA treats this country.

This is not a perfect film, nor is it a perfect documentary. If you have ever seen Paradise Lostyou know how powerful a documentary can be, but this is an important film, make no mistake. Few films have the guts to tackle issues as big as Moore has and few filmmakers can give you even half of the facts that Moore does in such a film. Moore, love him or hate him, wants to change the world, for the better, and this film is a means to that end. If nothing else, we all need to see this film to realize what monsters we all can be deep down.

Original article- http://www.jackasscritics.com/movie.php?movie_key=136

Trainspotting

Not for the faint of heart.
Not for people who get grossed out.
Not for people who give up too easily.
Not for people with a closed mind.
.
.
.
Not for a few more categories of people, which I cannot recall at the moment.

If you are still here, buy this book and start reading right away!

“The best book ever written by man or woman…deserves to sell more copies than the Bible.”—Rebel, Inc.
Trainspotting is a collection of somewhat chronologically arranged narratives about the lives of a group of Scottish youth, comprising of drug addicts, playboys, bullies, HIV +ves etc, none of them qualifying for the supposedly “normal” social tag. Written mostly in Scots, an English dialect spoken in Scotland, this book will hit you hard. Whether it may be the language used to write it, or the unbelieveable situations the characters get into, which can gross-out the best of us. It will shock your mind to numbness, and then shock you again.

They also made a movie on the book, which is really good, but its only a summarised version . Watch it only if you don’t have the patience to read the book.

Indian cow

HE IS THE COW. “The cow is a successful animal. Also he is 4 footed, And because he is female, he give milks, [ but will do so when he is got child.] He is sacred to Hindus and useful to man. But he has got four legs together. Two are forward and two are afterwards. His whole body can be utilised for use. More so the milk. Milk comes from 4 taps attached to his basement. [ horses dont have any such
attachment]

What can it do? Various ghee, butter, cream, curd, why and the condensed milk and so forth.Also he is useful to cobbler, watermans and mankind generally. His motion is slow only because he is of lazy species. Also his other motion.. gober] is much useful to trees, plants as well as for making flat cakes[like Pizza ] , in hand , and drying in the sun. Cow is the only animal that extricates his feeding after eating. Then afterwards she chew with his teeth whom are situated in the inside of the mouth. He is incessantly in the meadows in the grass. His only attacking and defending organ is the horns,specially so when he is got child.

This is done by knowing his head whereby he causes the weapons to be paralleled to the ground of the earth and instantly proceed with great velocity forwards.He has got tails also, situated in the backyard, but not like similar animals. It has hairs on the other end of the other side. This is done to frighten away the flies.

This is a true essay written by a Bihari candidate at the UPSC (IAS) Examinations.We are informed that the candidate passed the exam.and is now an IAS, in bihar.

Embedding a song on your multiply welcome page

Follow this process step by step:

1- Goto http://multiply.com/setup

2- Under “My Site Settings”, choose “Home Page Content”

3- Paste the following code below your welcome message in the same text box:

<embed src= “http://www.odeo.com/flash/audio_player_standard_gray.swf” quality=”high” width=”300″ height=”52″ allowScriptAccess=”always” wmode=”transparent” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” flashvars= “valid_sample_rate=true&external_url=[MP3 URL HERE]” pluginspage=”http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer” /></embed>

4- Replace [MP3 URL HERE] by the URL of any mp3 file. It can even be from your multiply music page.

5- Click OK…and you’re done!!!

Casablanca

The movie is set in Casablanca (French occupied Morocco), during the early days of World War II. With the situation in Europe turning worse, many try to migrate to America. And Casablanca forms a viable point of exit.
Things seemed to be going very well for Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), an American expatriate who runs a successful cafe/casino, till his ex lover (Isla Bund, played by the incredibly beautiful Ingrid Bergman) from his days in Paris arrives with her husband Victor Laszlo(Paul Heinreid), looking to escape to America. The Gestapo is after Laszlo, a radical against their oppressive regime, and tries its level best to not let him escape and take him back to the concentration camp. The husband and wife turn to Rick for help, who helps them escape.
I especially liked the climax. Isla, still in love with Rick, had offered to escape with him and leave her husband behind. He agrees to this proposal, but in the end, when they’re supposed to board the plane, he lets her go with Laszlo instead, making the biggest sacrifice, letting go of his love in the sake of Laszlo’s ,putting himself in danger at the same time. We seldom find such people in real life.

The Book or The Movie?

My post on an online debate on the same topic:

Books and movies are two completely different media.
While in books, the author has to write in such a way so as to work up your imagination to feel the world he’s creating. In case of the movies, the director has to put his own imagination to task and put it across to you in sound and video, and you have everything served on a platter.
When making a movie based on a book, the director has to make this leap of imagination, and make the movie look like what you yourself would have imagined while reading a book.
It is not essential to show everything that’s there in the book, because some things which look good in print look quite dull on the screen. Whats important is to give you the same feeling as you had while reading the book, compressed in the time frame of the movie.

Hit TV shows in Iraq

“Husseinfeld”

“Mad About Everything”

“U.S. Military Secrets Revealed”

“Suddenly Sanctions”

“Children Are Forbidden From Saying Anything Darndest”

“Matima Loves Chachi”

“Buffy The Slayer of Yankee Imperialist Dogs”

“Wheel of Fortune and Terror”

“Iraq”s Wackiest Public Execution Bloopers”

“Achmed”s Creek”

“The Price is Right If Saddam Says It”s Right”

“M*U*S*T*A*S*H”

“Veronica”s Closet Full of Long, Black, Shapeless Dresses”

“Two Guys, a Girl, and a Mosque”

“When Kurds Attack”

“Just Shoot Me”

“My Two Baghdads”

“Diagnosis Heresy”

“Everybody Loves Saddam Or He”ll Have Them Shot”

“Captured Iranian Soldiers Say the Darndest Things”

“Burka Baywatch”

Race against time

Shantanu was supposed to catch the train home today, and he still hadn’t received the ticket by the afternoon. His parents had already couriered it once earlier which never arrived, sending a duplicate copy this time. It finally arrived at 1645. He read the ticket, and said the departure was at 1707. We were at my home near brookefield. And we had to reach Bangalore Cantt station. People well accustomed to Bangalore geography, and the chaotic traffic conditions which exist between the two said locations should understand well.
I drove like a madman, through the nightmarish traffic conditions on Airport Road and beyond. Shantanu, who usually asks me to take it cool while driving, sat mostly silent today, complaining only very occasionally. We finally reached a little before half past five, and made a run to the platform. It was empty…no train on the tracks. Wishing it had not already left, we enquired around. Guess what? The fool had read the date (1707 is July 17) as the departure time. The actual departure time was 1855. I cursed him for a some time, then we found a place to sit. Discussed about old times, before we’d met at college. Lots of memories…crazy adventures, crushes, pranks, scary situations and all. Then I had a brainwave, and went to the bookshop and bought today’s Mid Day which was covering yesterday’s meet (See previous post “Bangalore Book Club Meet”). The meet got generous space in the paper, along with a pretty big pic (I just missed getting on it by inches!) . But yeah…my name was prominently covered elsewhere;). Always helps to have friends in the media!

Bangalore Book Club Meet

After weeks of planning and campaigning, the meet for the members of Orkut’s Bangalore Book Club community finally happened yesterday at Airlines Hotel, off Lavelle Road.
I reached the venue about half an hour earlier to set things up and guide people to the place. There are some special measures you need to take when organising such events where you have complete strangers meeting up. I’ve already done such meets in the past, so it really wasn’t much of a hassle.
The meet was officially supposed to begin at eleven am, and that was when people started turning up. I had expected about fifteen people to turn up at the max, but as many as thirty people turned up in the end! It was a resounding success, and a really tough job to arrange the chairs for so many people at the same time!
The meet was even covered by the press, courtesy my dear friend at Mid Day Bangalore. Check it up in today’s edition.