Its really amazing how Ego can make someone lose it. Barkha Dutt is a pioneer in many ways & a role model for many girls in India. She had started out so well. But for past 2 years whatever little glimpses I've seen of her, if doesnt doesn't make me laugh it certainly annoys the hell out of me. She has this air of superiority about her that is really Irritating. Her coverage of the Mumbai Terror Attacks were the peak of this. She kept instructing her cameraman/woman to focus there, to shoot that. It was quite a bizzaire kind of TV reporting. At one point it seemed to me that she even staged a crowd of people in the streets to do a thank you gesture for the leaving Armymen in the busses. (I could be wrong, but thats how it felt) Seems like lot of people are finally getting fed up of her. Blogger Chyetanya Kunte is one of them. Now Barkha with the help of her NDTV lawyers has gone ahead & made him apologize on republic day. The language of his apology is very professional. Must have been written by NDTV's lawyers. You can read the criticism by Kunte that led to this action in the Google cache of his blog (scroll to the bottom). If journalists themselves start crushing bloggers, then who will defend our freedom of speech?
This week I was bombarded with Kanye's new song on the radio. They literally played that song every 15 minutes on 3 different stations. I loved that song. I wonder if I can deal with it if they keep doing this.
I'm a few days late. Been very busy working on SWAT with my PFC peeps. Meanwhile my car brakes failed completely. It was like in movies. I was lucky not to have crashed into 3-4 cars. Finally got everything fixed. Only to have a flat tire just 2 hours back. Talk about Flat luck. Anyways lets get to music.
This was the week when I discovered the Band 2 Bit Pie. Right now I'm totally in love with their songs.
As you can tell. The world is going crazy about Slumdog Millionaire. Though I'm not that crazy about the second half of the film. Its amazing to see a film about India making everyone so crazy. The soundtrack is playing everywhere in LA. AR Rahman is weeks away from being the 1st Indian to Win the OSCARS. The cast has already won SAG Ensamble Award.
53 milion domestic and 73 million worldwide as of last sunday. Yesterday's gross was approx 750k. It's also #34 on imdb top 250 films and #1 on moviemeter.
This week I was mostly listening to the soundtracks of 3 films - Dev D, OYE LUCKY & Slumdog Millionaire. It was also a historic week for us. AR Rahman won the Golden Globes & Slumdog swept everything it was nominated for. It was a total Brit-Invasion at the Golden Globes.
This must be a really great mix because I can still enjoy this song with this mix. This song is probably the sound of 2009 alongwith Electric Feel & Love Lockdown.
4) Funky Roads - Raul Ramirez
This is from the album ECOMUSICA. I found this song on Pandora.
This was a song I would hear on radio from time to time but never found out the artist. Finally last week I found it in the Hypem Zeitgeist Blog Countdown. Very very sexy song.
Hi I'm finally starting something I have been intending to do for last 6 months. Write a post about the 5 songs that I loved in that particular week/month.
2008 was a very low key year as far as music & movies goes in my life. Esp after last 2 years of marathon movie watching & discovering music. But I would still go ahead & write a diary similar to last years Discoveries of 2007.
Books - I read a lot of books this year. I tried to read of lot from the Random's 100 list.
1) Animal Farm - George Orwell This was probably the most satisfying book I read last year. What happens to Boxer brought tears to my eyes. Thats very rare in my life. I can't believe I had not read this book till now.
2) The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald A year when Hollywood got curious about Fitzgerald, I finally read his classic. Loved it.
4) GUNS GERMS & STEEL - Jared Diamond http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns%2C_Germs%2C_and_Steel Pulitzer winning work. The story of civilization from a Biologists perspective. Highly reccomended. Why Eurasians conquered the world? And How?(The answer is diseases). Why Man could not domesticate Leopards(My fav part of the book). Etc etc
Sneha Khanwalkar - Oye Lucky Lucky Oye (Soundtrack) I think Oye Lucky Soundtrack was the best album made in 2008 anywhere in the world.
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular definitely was the album of the year for me. It was the sound of 2008. It pushed Electronic music into the living rooms of American kids. The JUSTICE REMIX of Electric feel is the most played song on radio in LA. And it just keeps growing on me.
Moby - Last Night A long awaited album. Although the magic of Moby is gone, this album had quite a good songs. Ooh Yeah & I Love to Move in here are my fav so far. Gnarles Barkley - The Odd Couple A Great second is so rare these days. Also the only big live show I went too. Gnarles Barkley to me is the best thing in Pop Music right now.
Lil Wayne - Tha Carter III My Hip-hop artist of 2008. His SNL version of Lollilop just blew me away.
But most importantly I loved a britney Spears song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4NayXtzsBo Piece of Me is the song. If you had told me that I wouldn't be able to stop listening to a Britney song I would have laughed at you. Also I also think this is the best & most personal lyrics a Britney songs can get.
FILMS -
I watched very few films this year. One film that stands out for recommendation would be Everything Is Illuminated. It was the best film I saw in 2008.
Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye was my fav film of 2008. Mainly because of how Dibankar showed us Lucky's life. My friend after watching the film said, there was something lacking in the film. My 1st thought was that it didn't have the standard "Arc" type 3 act story. And thats why it felt odd sometimes. As if questioning how this scene is moving the film. Because we are so conditioned of the standard stuff. It took some time to realize what Dibankar had created. And the music was amazing. After watching the documentary of how Sneha did the music, there was no question in my mind that this was the album of the year also.
I also liked DASVIDANYA a lot. The movie had the most heart of all the movies of 2008. This year again belonged to Vinay. ROCK ON was something that exceeded my expectation. Is Farhan Akhtar the most talented man in Bollywood right now? He might not be the best singer, best actor, best director, but he is good at everything he does.
HELLBOY II was my fav film of the year so far. This was the year when I watched a lot of SuperHero film. Even THE FANTASTIC FOUR. This was the year of Superhero films.
The best scene of the year so far also goes to Hellboy. Those were the best moments inside the theater this year. Even more so than Jokers presence in Dark Knight.
2008 movies that I missed and will watch this month would be - The Class ,Man on Wire, Waltz with Basir, Gomorrah, Che, Wendy & Lucy, Happy Go Lucky, The Wrestler & WALL-E.
TELEVISION
I watched the 2nd best show on Cable TV ever - THE WIRE Now that the show is over, I urge you guys to watch this series. Also you cannot call yourself a cinema lover & not know who OMAR is.
I also discovered what was the big deal about SIX FEET UNDER. Probably the best Pilot of a TV show I have seen. Alan Ball is one of my favorite writer/director right now.
2008 was also the year of SNL. Esp Tina Hey & Amy Poehler. My fav SNL video of last year Dick in a Box -
One of the major discoveries for me was Stop Motion Graffiti films. Check out this artist Blu from Buenos Aires
Like last year there are so much i probably don't remember right now. I will add them as we go along.
Everyone seems to be going crazy on Slumdog. People are watching Free Screenings everywhere. Dany Boyle is all over NPR. Even KCRW is talking about it. NPR even had a segment on "HINGLISH" as a related Looks like FOX is backing it in a big way. In next few days you'll read a lot of great things about the film. And thats why I feel I must write this post & express the things that didn't work for me. This is not a review of Slumdogs. Its mostly the issues I had with the film. And it mostly stems from a common problem of all such films. I went into the film with a lot of anxiety. I have a major pet peeve when it comes to American/British directors come to India & make films. With the exception of of Gandhi, nothing has worked for me. Lets say its the WHITE MEN's ACHILLES HEEL, when it comes to making films in India. I watched 2 of the most celebrated films about India - A Passage to India & The River. I found both the movies unbearable. And THE RIVER changed Martin Scorcesse's life. Its very hard for me to watch rural or poor Indians speaking English on screen. Have you seen a South American or European film where the characters talk in accented English because the film needs an wider audience? The only example I can recall right now is my fav director Julian Schnabel's beautiful mistake Before Night Falls. And Julian learnt from his mistake. In his next masterpiece The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The french are speaking french. No Kidding! When I heard Danny talk about how Loveleen Tandon asked him to make the film in Hindi, I was quite relieved. But I was also surprised that someone had to say that to a genius like Boyle. But the film is mostly English. A Inspector talks to his constable in English. No Kidding. Two uneducated, brothers from the slums talk to each other in English. I didn't buy the logic given in the film. They made the kids speak in hindi. And thank god for that. The kids were the best part of the film. And then there is the case of casting a British actor Dev Patel in the lead role. I saw the Q&A @ Toronto Festival on Youtube last month & that's when i found out the actors are not Indians. I was quite shocked. And my fears did come true. You can hear a slight British accent in his English. And it becomes progressively stronger as the film reaches its climax. His brother was probably the strongest character in the film, but when the grown up version starts talking in English it just took the fizz out of the film. And that language problem also leads to problems with acting. For Danny Boyle to get the nuances of that is unfair. It usually only works the other way when Non English Speaking Geniuses go to Hollywood & make films there (Cuaron). Sometimes the acting just seemed like the actors are just following instructions. And the scene where the Brother says"GOD is GREAT". Come the fuck ON Danny. For a second I thought I was watching a Subhash Ghai film.
Now I also feel the film must get nominated for two things - Cinematography & Adapted Screenplay (maybe Editing too). The movie starts with such a fucking bang. The first 30 minutes will blow anyone's mind. It has such a kinetic energy about it(City OF God like). Its also when they are kids & speaking in Hindi. If you see or hear Danny Boyle promoting the film you can tell what happened. He got so blown by the visual possibilities of the film, it just overtook him. He literally showed the whole country in the film. In 2 minutes. Watch a part of it here -
It is also the most kinetic film Danny has made since Trainspotting. And it will go down as his best since Trainspotting. I think it will take the Best Cinematography award.
So, our President has a sense of humor. This is a CSPAN video from a 2005 Fundraiser where he is talking about Rahm Emanuel. We all know now that Rahmo has been chosen to be the designated ASSHOLE of Obama Cabinet. This video will also explain why Obama chose him. It also might in their genes. He is the brother of Hollywood Superagent Ari Emanuel on which the character of Ari Gold in based on ENTOURAGE.
Last Tuesday Americans finally lived upto their responsibilities & put a Black Family in White House. It was a Historic day for mankind, up there with Berlin Wall & 9/11. I went to the Democratic Party's Official Party at the HYATT@ Century City. What a bad idea it was. For a historic moment like this they should have had the party in a stadium or a Block Party in Downtown. It was overcrowded. So we stood around & drove back home. It was also a very sad day California. Prop 8 passed, thus banning Gay Marriage. Having been to a friend's wedding few months back, it was also a personal loss for a lot of us. But I also feel its only a matter of time before they get this right again. LA has been witnessing protests after protests since election night. This Saturday the biggest protest rally happened right in my backyard - SilverLake. I found this video on 236 which best sums up the right wing fear mongering propaganda during the election. Enjoy
