Tekitoi?

Children of the Century

2005-07-19T12:50:00.000-07:00

A feminist author + a bohemian poet + Early 19th century France + Christian LaCroix costumes = an overlong boring film

The two 'children of the century' we are talking about are - two lovers and writers - George Sand (played by Juliette Binoche) and Alfred de Musset (played by Binoche's real life lover Benoit Magimel, who is more famoulsy known as the winner of Best Actor Award at Cannes for The Piano Teacher).

Who are these two people? Well, I did't know until I saw the movie and I don't think any average person outside France has ever heard of their names either.
But they were two well-known personalities in the line of the great French romantics like Victor Hugo et al.

It must be noted that George Sand was a feminist before the word was invented and notorious for smoking and dressing up as a man in public, while Alfred de Musset was a philandering party animal who spent too much time (and money) on whores (think of an early 19th century version of Mick Jagger).

One look at our two bohemian romantics in one of the earlier scences and you don't have to sit through more than 2 1/2 hours of this costume drama to figure out where this 'realtionship' is going to end up.

My type

2005-07-18T08:34:00.000-07:00

For all those times when I was asked "So, whats your type?" and didn't have a precise answer....
This is my type....

and this ...

and this...

and these two brothers from the UK...

Oh and finally, this cutie.....

Washington DC

2005-07-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

"If you've ever existed in grids or swerves you know that London swings, New York is a grid. Chicago swings. Bombay is a grid. Delhi swings..."
- Midival Punditz

DC = Grid + Swerves = Confused drivers

Dark Water

2005-07-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

Dark Water

Dark Water is yet another pointless remake of a Japanese horror flick (If you have noticed, this trend started with The Ring and it isn't going to stop anytime soon). The tag line for the movie says: "Some mysteries were never meant to be solved." First of all, there are no mysteries to be solved here. The plot is pretty straightforward and the so called 'mystery' is obvious half-way through the movie. Acting and direction isn't anything extraordinary. In short, the movie isn't worth my nine dollars. However, what boggles my mind is what is the director who made such fascinating films as Central Station, City of God, and The MotorCycle Diaries doing making this kind of mediocre fare.

There is a line uttered by Jennifer Connelly's daughter in one of the earlier scenes of the movie: "This is The City (pointing towards Manhattan), this is not the city (pointing towards Roosevelt Island)"....If only her mom had listened...

Whats makes life bearable....

2005-07-15T11:52:00.000-07:00

Good booze + Good Porn = Nirvana

Mama's boy

2005-07-13T21:00:00.000-07:00

When you grow up
Livin' like a good boy oughta
And your mama
Takes a shine to her best son
Something different
All the girls they seem to like you
Cause you're handsome
Like to talk and a whole lot of fun

But now your girl's gone a missin'
And your house has got an empty bed
The folks'll wonder 'bout the wedding
They won't listen to a word you said

Gonna take your mama out all night
Yeah we'll show her what it's all about

- Scissor Sisters (Take Your Mama Out)

Well, while I am out to my mom, I am not taking her 'out'. The last time, she asked me "Its so hard to find a good girl these days, how are you going to find a nice guy?"
I was speechless!

Umrao Jaan

2005-07-12T21:51:00.000-07:00

Umrao Jaan (1981) is a fabulous movie.
Its one of the 'gayest' and most fabulous movie ever made in Bollywood. Bollywood has recently come out with its supposedly first 'gay' movie 'My Brother Nikhil.' But seriously, do I really care for a Bollywood version of 'Philadelphia.'

Of course I understand that you need movies like Philadelphia and My Brother Nikhil to tell the uncle and auntie-jees in their Marutis that its totally OK for someone to be gay and there is this thing called AIDS and some gays have AIDS and we all need to use condoms...blah blah blah.

But I have no patience for these public health service annoucements.
Give me Umrao Jaan any day of the year. Actually Umrao Jaan has no gay characters. Its the story of a 19th century courtesan in Lucknow. (Read an excellent review of this movie here).

But the reason why I consider this to be 'gay' movie is because at the end, Umrao Jaan is basically about a beautiful courtesan who has fabulous talents (poetry, singing, dancing, and not to mention her fabulous beauty) and there are all these guys making a whole lot of promises to her and never following through (sounds familiar?).

2005-06-20T12:28:00.000-07:00

This has been my staple food over the whole of last weekend....Jeez, additional half an hour on the treadmill for every gym-visit this week. Hope my legs are still intact by next weekend.

2005-06-20T12:20:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah, this too...

2005-06-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

This is what I am paying my rent for...

My Dry Spell

2005-06-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Mission: Get laid by Sunday
Strategy: PDX M4M Craigslist Ad (posted 14 June 2005)
[You see, I am systematic and I plan ahead!]

I am not self-delusional and therefore, I have pretty much given up on love and dating. But a guy has his needs! And so, I posted an Ad for an NSA hook-up on Portland M4M Craigslist.

Well, what do I get in response?

(1)- fifty year old men willing to shell out 100 dollars for allowing them to blow me
[Thanks, but in case I start a prostitution business to supplement my
income, I will know the going rates]

(2)- fifty year old men who want to be my "daddy" and "spank my naughty ass"
[Thanks, but I am not here to fulfill your freakish, incest-fantasy asshole]

(3)- a 25 year old dude who sends me a picture of him staring at the mirror in all his early-morning glory (read: ugliness) with a toothbrush in his foaming mouth
[Will somebody teach these 20-somethings some manners? If thats the
picture you are sending me, do really think I will ever put my dick in that
mouth of yours]

(4)- a few more 20-somethings, who call themselves GL (note: Not VGL, only GL; translation: fugly)
[Thanks, if you are gay and if thats your fugly-face in that picture, then you might as well be invisible. Thats Rule no. 1 of being gay in contemporary America. I know its harsh but nobody said it was easy being a fag. I have already gotten used to it and I suggest you do the same]

(5)- a 21 year old dude who does not drive, cannot host and calls himself 'discreet' (read: closeted, living with family and most likely under 21)
[Thanks dude but I have no intention of fucking a minor and getting arrested]

(6)- a supposedly 'bi-sexual' (read: married) 30-something guy who calls himself a "pure-top" (read: expect no reciprocatory BJ and probably no kissing either) and was clearly holding his breath (reeeeally) tight while taking that picture of his naked torso
[Thanks for the picture and nice try, but I can see the flab]

(7)- a whole bunch of guys in their mid-30s and mid-40s who have only a few years left before they reach the desperate life-stages of type-(1) and type-(2) guys
[Thanks for your pictures but get rid of the flab first and then we can talk. Oh Yes, I am shallow and Yes, I know I will there where you are today in a few years. But until then fuck you all]

(8)- a 20-something "creative radical type" (Note: Portland is just full of these) who looks like that dude from Interpol, exchanges a few emails for meeting up and then just sits silent until sunday 9 PM when he shoots me a message saying: "Dude, WTF, I am horny, Wanna have some fun? Howz 11?"
[Sorry dude, you were my best bet; what with getting my hopes high with all those emails until Friday when you just fell silent as if you had suddenly ceased to exist; Sunday 11 is just too bad because I have an 8-5 job and I have a LIFE; Moreover, I just jerked myself off and I am done. So Thanks and Fuck off]

So here I am, more than a month old in this town, all sex-deprived and sorrounded by a bunch of Bobos.
As if life wasn't already painful, even NSA sex is so tricky these days.
What's left?

Fate fucks up everything

2005-06-19T00:58:00.000-07:00

'Blind Chance' (1980) is the fifth movie by Krzysztof Kieslowski that I have seen (the earlier ones: Blue, White, Red, and the Decalog Series) but chronologically speaking, it was one of his earliest movies.

Read the plot here. I will write only the things I thought were interesting:

- The first few scenes are a bit confusing to follow as we are introduced toa number of characters who often speak to the camera (or to someone, the hero of the movie perhaps, standing behind the camera). But they make perfect sense when the movie ends and you can connect these scenes and characters with the rest of the story once the movie is over.

- Our hero is a 20-something yound guy named Witek who is training at a Medical School in the city of Lodz, Poland. Right at the beginning of the movie he gets a phone call at the school form his father who is about to die. His father's last words to him - "You are free of any obligations" (wonder what that means but all I know is that Witek packs his bags and gives up the mdeical school and runs to catch a train to Warsaw)

- Now here is where the interesting thing happens, there are three versions of the story that Krzysztof Kieslowski presents before us -

First version: Witek catches the train; makes friends with a Party member in the train and ends up joining the party; he meets a girl from his teenage years; falls in love with her but she hates the Communist Party, and Witek struggles to have it both ways; utlimately he loses the love of the girl and also misses a flight to Paris at the end

Second version: Witek misses the train and ends up getting arrested by a cop and spends time in prison and later starts working for the underground democratic youth movement in Poland; He falls in love with the sister of an old friend; his colleagues in the underground though suspect that Witek cares more for the girl than for their cause, he again does not get onto the flight to Paris

Third version: Witek does not catch the train and meets a beautiful blonde female from his medical school whom he ends up falling in love with and getting married eventually; they have a baby; he becomes a successful doctor at the medical school in Lodz, refuses to join the Party but does not join the underground democratic movement either, and manages to get onto the flight to Paris. (Note: the last scene is quite superb)

- If you think this sounds familiar its because this idea has been copied multiple times now in movies like 'Sliding doors' and 'Run Lola Run'. While I liked Run Lola Run very much and think Tom Twyker did something 'original' with the idea even if he borrowed it from somewhere else, I think 'Sliding doors' was just 'nice' (and nice is not a good word in my dictionary) and it was ridden in cliches. But 'Blind Chance' is the grand-daddy of all these multiple 'what-if' scenarios type of films that try to explore fate, choices, coincidences, connections between events and people.
(Note for the cineastes: Interestingly, Tom Twyker also directed 'Heaven' which was written by Krzysztof Kieslowski before he passed away)

- This is not coke-and-popcorn entertainment but it is not too difficult to follow either. If you have never seen a Krzysztof Kieslowski movie, you will still be able to appreciate the movie if you keep your mind engaged. (Note: You may have to spend some time after the movie thinking, recalling scenes, and connecting them all together to tie all the loose ends together)

- I don't know who scored the music (especially the score that plays when Witek is trying to catch the train to Warsaw) but it was pretty damn good.

- This movie was actually banned in Poland and wasn't allowed for public screening until 1987. There was an interview in the DVD with a former official of the Party whose job was to review the film scripts during the communist days and who was a very good friend of Krzysztof Kieslowski. Talking about Krzysztof Kieslowsk and the censorship laws in those days, she said: "He was an author of his own thoughts and consciousness. It was his reality, his country, his times, so he had to make do within that frame"
(Its ironical that Andrei Tarkovsky in Russia and Krzysztof Kieslowski in Poland were making avant-garde cinema under repressive regimes while their counterparts were making blockbuster crap in the 'free' world of Hollywood. In fact, the Soviet party bosses had no idea what Tarkovsky's movies were really about and had no clue if they should allow something to be made if they didn't understand any of it)

I highly recommend this movie. Its a piece of art. Its accessible. Its superb!

Love is dead

2005-06-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

Vive L'amour, a movie from Taiwan, is yet another movie making a statement on the pathetic condition of humanity in 21st century.

There aren't any twist and turns in the plot here. Its all very nest and simple. There are only three characters and one apartment here. The apartment is mostly empty (and so are the characters but I will get to that later) but there is a bed with mattress (for sex of course).

The three characters are:

- May Lin: young, good looking, straight, female, realtor, trying to sell the above mentioned apartment as well as other properties to some really indifferent customers (So, I guess she doesn't like her job very much)

- Ah-Jung: young, handsome, straight, male, peddles clothes on the street (which BTW is illegal in Taipei), masturbates while browsing through porn mags

- Hsiao-Kang: young, handsome, (closeted?) gay, male, salesman for a columbarium-making company (From the look on his face, I don't think he likes his job either), has sucidal tendencies, enjoys wearing women's dresses in secret and sitting in the
bath tub for long hours

Plot: Hsiao-Kang manages to steal the key for the apartment in the very first scene and moves in. May Lin meets Ah-Jung for NSA sex (apparently in Taipei, just standing on the street or sitting in a cafe will get you hooked-up. Here, even Craigs does not deliver the promised goods sometimes) and brings him to the apartment and thats when Ah-Jung steals the apartment key from her. He moves in as well and of course, Hsiao-Kang and Ah-Jung end up meeting each other. There are several other things but I hate to write more about the plot; So try here.

Here is what I thought was interesting about this movie:

- This is a movie about loneliness, isolation, disconnection, alienation, emptiness, lack of love and compassion in our post-modern world. So if you decide to watch it, you may want to get drunk afterwards. (I have 750 ml of Australian Shiraz in my circulatory system right now. So, please excuse any typos)

- This is a very laconic film. The first dialogue is spoken after 25 minutes into the movie and the rest of the movie remains mostly silent as well.

- Since I am gay, I was really interested in the Hsiao-Kang character. In one scene, Hsiao-Kang
is seen kissing a water-melon as if its the face of a guy. (I should try that, it will be better than the douchebags that I have kissed in my gay-life)

- Hsiao-Kang also drinks way too much water. (I should try that too, hydrating your body is good for your health)

- Hsiao-Kang ends up developing a crush on the straight guy Ah-Jung. Therefore, he breaks one of most important rule of being gay because while all men (gay or straight) are pigs, the straight
ones are uber-pigs.

- Sometimes these characters simply lie on the bed and stare at the ceiling or try to smell the mattress. Sometimes they also sit and stare at the walls.

- The last scene is pretty superb: Our heroine May Lin sitting alone in a mostly empty public park and crying non-stop for 15 minutes...Thats it!...Thats the last scene....its almost as if director Tsai Ming-Liang is saying: "Look, this is your post-modern human being - an empty-shell of loneliness burdened with alienation, pain, and lack of love - a walking talking dead body." Holy crap. He may be talking about me (or you)...I need a second bottle of wine!

- Trivial knowledge if you are a cineaste like me: This movie won the Golden Lion at the 1994 Venice Film Festival

- Vive L'amour means 'Long Live Love' or something like that. Now, that is ironic, and not this.

I highly recommend this movie. Keep a bottle of Grey Goose, Valium or your choicest source of intoxication handy.

We are all pigs..really!

2005-06-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

American movies will tell you what a wonderful time we all are having. French movies will tell you what a fucked up world we are living in.

Chaos is a French movie and it clearly isn't saying anything postive about our modern world. More specifically, what this movie is saying is: "Men are pigs." So, hear my dear Ayush and Subhamoy , we are all pigs!

For the plot summary, check out this. I will only write about what I think was interesting about the movie.

Here is how the movie starts off -
An upper-middle-class French couple Paul and Helene are driving to a party when an Algerian hooker named Malika (Rachida Brakni) runs into them and asks for help as two men (her pimps) bang her head against their car windshield. But there is a party to attend and Paul is just too damn worried about his expensive car to bother and so, they just drive to the car wash leaving Malika on the street. But Helene actually has a heart and so, she quickly dials for an ambulance just before the car-wash and then visits Malika in the hospital a couple of days later.

Some of the things that should be pointed out:

(1) Paul has an old mother who keeps bringing him freshly-made walnut oil and obviously misses him a lot, but he does not like her much. But as we know, he is a pig.

(2) Paul and Helene have a college-going son named Fabrice (Aurélien Wiik) who is juggling two
girlfriends and gets way too much money from his parents in allowance. In the looks department, he resembles Adam Brody who plays the character of Seth in The OC on Fox. Anyway, both are assholes and I wish they get eaten up by hungry wolves

(3) Helene is a nice, polite, and an obedient wife, mother and working professional. (Translation: she is getting treated like shit and doesn't know it; but she realizes it soon once she meets our heroine Malika in the hospital)

(4) Malika was sold off to an old Algerian guy by her father in marriage but she managed to escape and gets caught by a pimp who treat her like shit. There are lots of twists and turns here in the story but what you really need to know is that somehow she manages to learn the tricks
of online stock trading and secret Swiss bank accounts. The pimps find out about it and she runs for her life before colliding with Paul's car (Actually the part about her getting rich sounded a bit implausible and something out of a Bollywood movie plot to me but that aspect is not so important for the appreciation of the movie)

(5) Helene and Malika become friends and they start kicking some ass. In fact, every asshole (all of them males of course) gets his ass kicked one way or the other - Paul, the son Fabrice, the pimps, Malika's father - but not in the bombs-exploding, bullets-flying and cars-crashing Hollywood kind of way. These are clever chicks, they are French and they have got brains!

(6) Helene and Malika manage to rescue Malika's younger sister Zora from her father towards the end. So, thats the 'happy ending' for those who care for it.

(7) Acting in the movie is great. Both the actresses (playing Malika and Helene) are pretty damn good.

(8) Apart from "men are pigs" lesson, the other lesson I learnt was: "Love is dead." As Paul (Vincent Lindon) says "Love exists only in magazines. I have got 15 girls who are ready to lick me all over!" And then there is that scene where Hélène (Catherine Frot) asks Malika: "Will you ever love someone?" and what does Malika have to say: "Love or fuck?" So, thats it. Love is BS, fucking is the truth.

(9) The "men are pigs" theory holds true for men of any color - white or brown, French or Arab. Our heroine Malika has this to say about her Arab brothers: "With one shitty motorbike, their honor melts away along with their religion." To which Malika's younger sister Zora says: "You are full of hate."

......Oh my dear Zora, so am I......Little Zora, you are quite young and you will know better when you grow up.....I am 24. I hate my coworkers, I hate my neighbours, I hate the clueless bubbleheads in my gym, I hate the fucking-waste-of-time-fags I have dated and I won't shed a tear if they all get killed in a bomb blast tomorrow!

I liked this movie very much.

Also, Aishwarya Rai fans please note: This movie is being remade in Hollywood with TMBWITW playing the hooker and Meryl Streep playing the role of the bourgeoise wife.

2005-05-01T20:21:00.000-07:00

Houses on the Willamette, Sellwood, May 1 2005.

2005-05-01T20:20:00.000-07:00

Sellwood Bridge from the eastern banks of the Willamette, May 1 2005

2005-05-01T20:18:00.000-07:00

This way to the Sellwood bridge. May 1 2o05

2005-05-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

Walking is transportation - Only in Portland.
Four days in Portland and I have already walked more miles than one whole year in Michigan.
BTW there is also an urban legend associated with hanging shoes from trees.

Roots

2005-05-01T19:44:00.000-07:00

We know the force of gravity, but not its origins; and to explain why we become attached to our birthplaces we pretend that we are trees and speak of roots. Look under you feet. You will not find gnarled growths sprouting through the soles. Roots, I sometimes think, are a conservative myth, designed to keep us in our places.
- Salman Rushdie in 'Shame'

Picture taken on the eastern banks of the Willamette in Sellwood, Portland, May 1 2005

2005-04-30T23:30:00.000-07:00

After nine years, the Texan bloke and the Parisian girl meet again! Another beautiful movie.

2005-04-30T23:09:00.000-07:00

"Look I don't read Maxim."
Ethan Hawke in Before Sunrise - A 105 mintues-long intelligent conversation between two smart young people - a Texan bloke and a Parisian girl. After watching this movie I was wondering: Why can't my dates be half as interesting as this?

2005-04-30T23:04:00.000-07:00

April 30 2005

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April 30 2005

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April 30 2005

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April 30 2005

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April 30 2005

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April 30 2005

2005-04-30T22:58:00.000-07:00

Willamette, April 30 2005

2005-04-30T22:57:00.000-07:00

On the eastern banks of the Willamette, Portland, April 30 2005

2005-04-30T22:54:00.000-07:00

Michael L. Bouchard (MIA), Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial. April 30 3005.

2005-04-30T22:53:00.000-07:00

Found at the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Portland, April 30 2005.

2005-04-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

At the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Portland. April 2005.

2005-04-30T22:46:00.000-07:00

Unlike the rest of the United States, Portland's idea of a 'four wheeler' - a bike and two feet. On the MAX, Portland, April 2005.

2005-04-30T22:44:00.000-07:00

Posters at the Saturday Market, Old Town, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:42:00.000-07:00

Saturday Market, Old Town, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:39:00.000-07:00

West end of the Burnside Bridge, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

Steel Bridge over Willamette, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

From the Steel Bridge, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:30:00.000-07:00

From the Steel Bridge, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:25:00.000-07:00

View from the hotel window, Marriott at Lloyd Center, Portland, April 2005

2005-04-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

Marriott at Lloyd Center, Portland, OR, April 2005

2005-04-25T11:25:00.000-07:00

On the road, Sept 2004.

Washington Post reported on the woes of DC area commuters on Feb 13, 2005.

The article reports:
"...the survey found that Washingtonians remain addicted to their cars. Three in four area commuters drive to work alone. Carpooling is no more prevalent here than it is elsewhere in the country. Metro is widely admired but largely bypassed, a boutique transportation system that serves a hard-core constituency but is viewed by most commuters as inconvenient."

and here is what the authorities had to say:

"There's nothing we can do to fix it," said Dan Tangherlini, the District's transportation director.

A very interesting insight was provided by one commuter:

Robert Halter, 61, a software security engineer who commutes 40 minutes from Severn to Falls Church, claimed that a vehicle's license plate offers clues as to what kind of misbehavior to expect from its driver. "If you see an 'MD' on the plate, you know that person is 'Mentally Deficient.' If you see a D.C. plate, you know that person has "Diminished Capacity,' " Halter said. And with vehicles with 'VA,' "you know you're dealing with a driver that is a 'Vacuous . . .' -- I'll let you guess the rest."

2005-04-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Flying Bull, April 2005

2005-04-24T17:54:00.000-07:00

Sophisticated snobs also drink Evian. April 2005.

Watch this because it is unwatchable

2005-04-24T16:11:00.000-07:00

Screen capture from Anatomy of Hell (Anatomie de l'enfer), April, 2004

The picture above pretty much gives away the whole plot (if there is any) of this latest shocker from Catherine Breillat. (Let me also say here that she is French and she is a feminist)

Yes, thats what the whole movie is about - a straight woman paying a gay man to watch her naked (taxi fare included as the movie informs us).

As you can figure out, this movie is 'very French'. The characters here talk like the way only French people talk in French films.

At some point in the movie, the 'woman' (played by Amira Casar) tells the 'man' (played by the Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi): "Watch me when I am unwatchable".

What follows is an experiment with a certain feminine hygiene product that will give a whole new meaning to the term 'tea bagging'.

Drinking Roohafza or Bloody Mary will never be the same for me.

There are other scenes too like the "already-infamous scene in which a garden tool suddenly appears where no garden tool should" as NY Times so discreetly put it.

But shocking potential and jokes apart, there are some super-duper intellectual ideas about female sexuality that Catherine Breillat has tried to convey.

For example, Cantherine Breillat is trying to tell us how men have encouraged the self-hatred for women's bodies among women in order to keep them opressed for centuries and how men are born missing ovaries. She also thinks that Freud's idea of girls having penis envy is utter bullshit and that society is based on consensual hypocrisy.

In one of the interviews provided as a 'Special Feature' on the DVD, Catherine Breillat brushes off the criticism due to the shock-value of the movie by explaining that the 'feminine hygiene product' scene was actually meant to represent 'sacred symbolism' because drinking your enemy's blood (a respected enemy's blood) is a step towards making him or her your friend. I am not sure if I agree or even understand this.

Also notice that our characters are nameless. They are just - a man and a woman. This is because Catherine Breillat is not interested in character development. Her characters are abstract. They are mere stand-ins for her philosophical ideas.

I really have no coherent opinion about this movie - Do I like it? Do I hate it? I really can't say.
In the interview that I mentioned earlier, Catherine Breillat states: "There is no pleasure in this film...there is pleasure of mind though!"
But only if you can get your mind past the shockers. I am still recovering.

Finally, I have to admit that I kind of liked Catherine Brelillat's earlier effort Romance.

The Art of Sofia Coppola

2005-04-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

I recently rented Lost in Translation after hearing only good things about it from some of my friends (Anubhava, Anyesha).

Two words: Overrated and pretentious.

What’s up with Charlotte (played by Scarlett Johansson) stripping down to her panties and sitting on the windowsill? Are we supposed to feel the ‘pain’ she is experiencing?

A couple of rich bored Americans in a foreign country pissed off because English doesn’t happen to be the first language in Japan. How many times must you make fun of well-intentioned Japanese mispronouncing English words?
Perhaps, Bill Murray’s performance is the only saving grace of an otherwise overrated and borderline racist movie.

Both Bob (played by Bill Murray) and Charlotte are bored with their lives and suffer from alienation and pain. Oh boy, it’s so hard being rich. What Bob and Charlotte need is a shrink. There was no sane reason why this movie should have been praised so much. It’s a bad screenplay and a bad movie.

But I guess it helps to have a famous surname in Hollywood.

I think that The Virgin Suicides, Sofia Coppola’s first film, is much better than Lost in Translation. One of the reasons may be that it was based a wonderful novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides who also shared the writing credits with Sofia Coppola. So, I guess it was pretty hard to screw up. But left on her own as in Lost in Translation, Sofia Coppola proves that she is just an average talent that she tries to hide with her artsy-fartsy pretensions.

No wonder, NYPRESS placed her at Number 50 in their list of 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers published in the March 30, 2004 issue, calling her ‘an art bimbo whose daddy happens to be a major movie royalty.’

2005-04-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

April 24, 2005, Outside my apartment.

Yes, this is almost May and Michigan is still getting snow.
Hate Michigan. Hate Michigan weather.
Somebody please drop an atomic bomb over here. I don't care if all the locals get killed. I hate them anyway. Some people and some places just don't deserve to exist.

Thinking of the Mid-West, the song that comes to my mind is 'Yeh kya jagah hai dosto' (What is this place, friends?) from the beautiful Bollywood movie Umrao Jaan (Dir: Muzaffar Ali, 1981, Hindi, Music by Khayyam).
Here are the first few lines of the song (in Urdu):

"yeh kya jagah hai dosto, yeh kaunsa dayaar hai
had-e-nigaah tak jahaa, gubaar hii gubaar hai"

( English Translation: What is this place, friends? Which region is this...
where, for as far as the eye can see...is dust-storm upon dust-storm?)

Of course, there are no dust storms around here, but just replace that by snow storms. The feelings and emotions conveyed are pretty much the same.

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Snow on the windshield, MI, April, 2005

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April 2005

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April 2005

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April 2005

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April 2005

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April 2005

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April 2005

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April 2005

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Stars and Stripes or the Old Glory or an advertisement of shameless American arrogance - whatever you think, the intention behind this and other pictures of the flag on this site are purely creative.

This is the flag just outside my office buidling in Troy, MI.

By the way, this guy thinks that the American flag deserves a C+ for design.
Gambia leads with an A+ while Pakistan, Israel, and Turkey get an A!

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A sophisticated snob drinks Perrier. Picture taken in April 2005

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