Things of Which I May Not Speak

It has Steve Carrell. It has Tina Fey. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?

Go see it.

That’s all.

When I was about four years old, my father bought an Apple IIc and this event determined a lot about who I am today. I knew LOGO and then BASIC before I knew Gujarati, my mother-tongue. My father is not a geek by trade, nor is he a geek by any traditional definition. He is the proto-geek, among a class of prime movers who made geeks possible.

∞

Before I was a fan of Star Wars, my parents were Star Wars fans. Before I had heard of Obama, my father was a fan of Obama. There is a pattern here. He bought the iPhone before I did. And now the iPad. And he has more interesting uses for both than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

This one goes out to all the fathers, mothers, uncles and loving benefactors of geeks everywhere—if you didn’t spend a ridiculous amount of money on what appeared (to everyone else) to be an overpriced toy, we wouldn’t be who we are today. Some day I will write a song, but until then, this will have to do [video]:

There are two feelings that deserve words in the dictionary to describe them:

1. The feeling when you are randomly flipping channels and accidentally discover that one of your favorite movies is playing on a channel you never watch.


2. The feeling when you discover that an artist you love has put out work (e.g. music) that you didn’t know existed.

I came up with a word for the first one: Serendipiteevee. It’s what I felt when I just discovered A Hard Day’s Night was playing on a channel called Palladia. That such a channel exists is proof of a benevolent God; because how else could a channel no one has heard of even survive?

I don’t have a word for the second feeling—discovering new music by a favorite artist. But that just happened when I found that Beirut put out a delightful song called Mimizan for the  charity compilation album Dark Was the Night. Watch it below (or here); how can you not smile while listening to this [video]: Continue reading ‘SerendipiTV’ »

The audio cassette that got most play in my room between 1994 and 1995 was The Pet Shop Boys’ album Very. Every single song is a gem. I just descended in to some serious emotional nostalgia, listening to the whole album again after a long time.

Here is Can You Forgive Her:

And, for the Pet Shop Boys fans, this interview Andrew Sullivan did with them is what reminded me of how much I really loved their music 15 years ago.

Mumbai, 30th November 2008- the morning after:

The people yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it.
The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
“I earn my living.
I make enough to get by
and it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself
and maybe for others.
I could read and study
and talk things over
and find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time.”

—The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg

my video crossed 1,000 views in 4 days on YouTube.

Thanks to Karthik at Milliblog, BeatlesTube.net and In The Life of The Beatles for sharing it! And to anyone else who shared it that I don’t know about.

[P.S. If you find/know-of any other site that has linked-to/embedded my video, let me know.]

UPDATE: It seems that, at the moment, if you search for “The Beatles” on Google or YouTube, my video shows up on the first page. And, it’s now approaching 3000 views in five days.

So- three silly comedies over the past few days. Quick thoughts:

1. The Invention of Lying: The story of a parallel universe where no one lies, and one man (Ricky Gervais) discovers that he can. It takes its premise to its logical conclusion, which is usually funny. Especially funny if you like Ricky Gervais. Also, half-way through the movie, it reinvents itself as the invention of religion, which helps the premise remain funny until the end. Oh, and most of the movie was shot here in Lowell, Mass.
   The number of really top notch cameos in this movie is staggering—Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman,  Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Tina Fey, John Hodgman. And, obviously, Stephen Merchant.


2. Hot Tube Time Machine: A little bit of funny and a little bit of nostalgia. Movies about the ‘80s are probably better than the real thing. Part super gross out comedy, part male bonding comedy, and part nostalgia, which makes it Back to the Future crossed with The Hangover. And the Back to the Future connection is acknowledged- Crispin Glover shows up in the past and the present. And the recurring joke with his hand is inspired.


3. I Love You, Man: Paul Rudd and Jason Segel star as really, really good friends. The movie is fine in general, but the writers have a very keen sense of the weird rituals of adult men trying to become friends. Especially the non-bar/sports men of this world. And there are many of us.

So there you have it. Three comedies, all good, none great. All worth the price of admission.

I first saw this video four years ago, and it is the single biggest inspiration behind my own series of videos. Behold, the amen break: [Video]

So, finally, episode 3 of my video series is ready. This time on The Beatles and India—how India influenced The Beatles and The Beatles influenced Indian music. Our story begins in April of 1965, with The Beatles filming Help in an Indian restaurant (Video).

It’s been a couple of months since the last episode. This one took a lot more research, a lot more video clips, and a lot more writing. But I think I am more satisfied with it as a short documentary than I was with the previous two.

[You can find more from this series in the Bollywood Roots section. Also, you can subscribe to my channel on YouTube.]

And while I’m on the subject of Ebert, he just announced the new show today. Key quote:

I can also say that we held video tests with several potential hosts two weeks ago in Los Angeles, and know who we will use. We also know we will have a strong web presence. We will go full-tilt New Media: Television, net streaming, cell phone apps, Facebook, Twitter, iPad, the whole enchilada. The disintegration of the old model creates an opening for us. I’m more excited than I would be if we were trying to do the same old same old. I’ve grown up with the internet. I came aboard back when MCI Mail was the e-mail of choice. I had a forum on CompuServe when it ruled the web. My web site and blog at the Sun-Times site have changed the way I work, and even the way I think. When I lost my speech, I speeded up instead of slowing down.

We’ll also go New Cinema. Not just the One Weekend Wonders, although you gotta have ‘em, but indie films, foreign films, documentaries, restored classics, the new Herzog, the new Bahrani, the new Almodovar. What’s new on Instant Streaming. What great movies should everyone see? Hey, Paramount just announced $1 million for ten $100,000 movies. Those kinds of films. What kind of a real movie lover cares who has the “exclusive” first trailer in the newest extrusion of the “Transformer” franchise? It’s time to smarten up.

Continue reading ‘Ebert’s New Show’ »