September 29, 2008
September 24, 2008
Zeitgeist
What does Christianity, 911 and The Federal Reserve all have in common?
I thought there would be just four or five ‘large’ countries in the world someday. But I meant it only in the economical sense – there would be just four or five currencies. I hadn’t anticipated what prominent leaders of the banking system have made their sole ambition — one world, one totalitarian government ruled not by vote but money.
Zeitgeist exposes the lies behind 9/11, Christianity and the world economy. It also talks about why American education is on a downward spiral: those few who actually benefit from the economy do not want people to think or understand what’s going on around them. The role of media and entertainment has been largely trammeled to spreading propaganda and keeping people away from serious issues. These are possible reasons for the state of America today. Bushs are businessmen — they have waged wars on false grounds for their own benefits. History is full of such instances. It is greed that has been cited as the chief reason behind the latest Wall Street crash.
So far, the Obama people have only talked about bringing their soldiers home. The 9/11 is an issue which could undermine their efforts to get elected to the Oval Office. But truth must come out. Is it possible not only to end the war but to handover the Iraqi oil from the U.S. oil companies to the Iraqi people?
The claims Zeitgeist make are very convincing. Peter Joseph, the writer and director of the movie, talks about U.S. presidents who failed to protect the constitutional rights of the American people and led the country to wars in the past as Bush did. The movie shows facts from various sources to allege that the Bush Administration could be behind the 9/11 attack on its own citizens and it might be also behind the London tubes bombing.
The more we study, the more we understand the world. Start today.
Links:
Wikipedia
IMDB
Jordan Maxwell Theories
Watch online:
Youtube
It's a free movie. The comments on the videos are also interesting.
September 22, 2008
About sensitivity: David Foster Wallace
Suzy Allman/The New York TimesAn excerpt from Infinite Jest:
The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.“Bookworm Michael Silverblatt hosts this special edition of Politics of Culture. He and book critic Anthony Miller discuss Wallace's impact on fiction, his generation and American culture.”
Don't miss Wallace's own comment.
Further links:
Granta has links to many relevant resources.
September 19, 2008
Latest Concerns
Update-to-date
At least, I wasn’t quite expecting to be in a good mood last Thursday but it turned out to be an ideal day off from the office. I could choose to be surrounded by books and indulged in authors that I really care to read. I looked for Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way in and around New Delhi that day. Not finding it in all those big bookstores wasn’t the only disappointment: the thought that they didn’t keep other foreign titles I desperately wanted was. I fell in love with the rain trickling down at CP in the beautiful evening light and when I reached home with fresh copies of Doris Lessing’s old classic The Golden Notebook and Roddy Doyle’s Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha and the Granta 100, I had already hit a blow to my budget. But I’ll tell you what’s really in my mind these days — I demand elegance and healthy humor in my writings: I want my prose to be elegant and my words to mellow. Somewhere it stops and flows and stops and flows again, as I write here, pause a second, and then write and pause again.
Seek Elegance
I’d like to tell the stories of those pauses, that some pauses were joy, and some sorrow. I’m quite relaxed as now I have the atmosphere I craved to indulge in peaceful writing. I bought a newly published guide to creative writing just to practice some “tried and tested” exercises, and it’s nothing new as I have been doing this “self-study” from my early years. That I was first published three years ago and the way I’m working on my writing and what I am already doing — all this hasn’t satisfied me a bit — nothing will, forget about being arrogant!
I intend to finish a book during my first Dashain vacation.
George Orwell: A Life in Pictures
History is OK when it’s not too hard on ears or eyes. George Orwell: A Life in Pictures reveals the circumstances that led to Orwell’s magnum opus like Animal Farm and 1984. Orwell stood against all kinds of totalitarianism and his life inspires us to follow the lead.
David Wallace Foster made me aware of his presence, ironically, now that he’s gone.
And The New Yorker has become a regular diet.
September 18, 2008
How to tackle Sarah Palin?
Lipstick Lies
Since Palin took the center stage, all the Obama people are trying to figure out how to tackle her. I think now we know how to tackle this Republican celebrity.
“So the crush is over, huh?” a colleague said after reading my msn msg- lipstick lies.
Sarah Palin — the femme fatale — has changed the course of the presidential campaign, of course. But the change will cost Americans more than anyone else if they let themselves be carried away by their horny hormones. Republicans – I started wondering — what kind of people they were? How can I say so many people, who supported Bush, could be wrong? Why are they still backing John McCain? Why are they still applauding Palin and McCain despite the realization that their candidates are lying and lying about lies and playing victim of their own lies? How do you fight these people?
I was dying to read more about Palin (The State of Sarah Palin) and now I am clear in my view and got more reasons to stand in favor of the Democrats. No wonder, why the Republicans won't allow Palin to talk to the press. Now even McCain hasn't held a press meet for about a month now. Change — We "ALL" believe in.
Paul Krugman wrote (Blizzard of Lies):
“What it says, I’d argue, is that the Obama campaign is wrong to suggest that a McCain-Palin administration would just be a continuation of Bush-Cheney. If the way John McCain and Sarah Palin are campaigning is any indication, it would be much, much worse.”God Save America since it seems most of the Americans can’t. If the republicans win, that would herald the death of the American dream.
September 14, 2008
Right now - II
[logic gate]
riled
chi
na
hooters hoot
foot
foot
tête-à-tête deprived
v
i
c
t
i
m
hmmphh
7:36 a.m./September 15
Music Maker
There
is
nothing
worth tolivefor
except
rock 'n' roll!
That's right.
September 9, 2008
September 8, 2008
Putumayo World Music
I was writing and listening to Putumayo world music — the music is so intriguing but not interrupting because I cannot understand what they are singing!
I love this Mexican song: La Calaca- El Tecolote!
“A kuri kuri kuri koooooooooooo!!!!!!”
I like the Putumayo collections like “Music From-” the tea lands and coffee lands and chocolate lands and Africa and Mexico and Brasiliero and so on.
September 7, 2008
Tahaan — A boy with a grenade
Tahaan
A filmmaker, if lucky, gets a few accolades from the audience when his film — one among many releasing on a Friday among several goddamn Fridays — is a hit. Moviegoers just want a film every weekend. They don’t want anything more than entertainment. A friend, who could watch everything, would often surprise me with his thoughtful reviews. He could also watch a film from a director’s point of view and praise his vision even if the director failed. He would point out valid reasons for a film’s box office result. But how many of us do notice the hard work behind a work of art or success?
I was not upset by the empty rows at the front today. I knew but had expected more people to fill the cinema. It’s showbiz and the show must go on. And Tahaan proved to be more than just an entertainment. Ziya Us Salam said the film was an exhilarating visual poem. Santosh Sivan — the director’s vision didn’t conflict with Santosh Sivan — the cinematographer. But the ace cinematographer says filmmaking is more technical than cinematography.
Tahaan is a tale of compassion and belonging. The race for donkey or "chhota wala, bada wala ya fold karne wala mobile?" ("a bigger cell phone or a smaller one or a folding one?") reminded me of the race for shoes in Children of Heaven. It cleverly showed the nuances of Kashmiri life — it's pain and sense of loss — without even 'speaking' about them.
The last few minutes of the film had the boy, Tahaan, catching the sun beams and then his donkey, Birbal, and glaring out of the screen with an adorable but assuring gaze: “See, dreams do come true!”
1:32 a.m.
September 8
Excerpts from a Hindu article that I have also added on the Wikipedia (read Editing Wiki below) :
“Tahaan” (is) a story of a little boy in Kashmir who goes in search of his missing donkey. His journey brings him closer to the truth of everyday life in the violence-torn State.
“When shooting in Pahalgam, I realised children were comfortable with guns. It is like a part of everyday life for them. When we went there, they looked at us with all our shooting equipment, not at the guns. They were too busy checking us out to bother about anything else.”
“When shooting there we only wanted to show the real life. I had heard some Quranic verses there at some dargah. I thought I could use them to send a message of hope. I wanted to use the azaan for a nice purpose, a beautiful thing, not for any wrong deed.”
Indeed. The film begins with an azaan and verses from the Holy Quran wherein the believers pray to the Almighty to show them the right path, not the path of those led astray. It also ends with the right path, a fulfilment of a little dream. “Yes, I took help from research scholars in Kashmir. At the end I wanted to show the positive power of a dream.”
“I learnt early to follow people. I am very interested in faces. I understand so many things from human faces with all their imperfections. When the camera is on, people become conscious, but once it is off, they become normal again. That is the time to observe them. As a cinematographer and a director, I am still trying to improve. Perfection is never on my mind. But frankly, cinematography is not very technical, filmmaking is. For instance, in ‘Tahaan’, we needed shots of Pahalgam trees denuded so that we could take a shot of a mosque in the distance. If the trees were full of leaves, then the mosque would have been invisible. Similarly, the time of the first snowfall… it has its own charms. To capture all that on camera is a joy.”
“The world is changing, there is change all around. Multiplexes are encouraging all kinds of cinema. Cinema is a group experience, the film has to be watched inside a theatre. It is never the same thing to bring a DVD home. ‘Tahaan’ is presumably coming at the right time.”
“Everything changes with time. Landscapes change, so do people. Cinema is changing. There is marriage of film and digital platform. The digital technology is coming in a big way. For some time, the tail will wag the dog, then the dog will wag the tail.”
Editing Wiki:
Update: Did you know there's an Indian cinema task force? Today is my holiday and I'm enjoying the 'Wikiride': "Welcome to the Indian cinema task force! We're a joint task force run between WikiProject Films and WikiProject India to ensure that Indian cinema-related articles on Wikipedia are written in an encyclopedic style, in a neutral manner using verifiable and reliable sources."
A wiki user edited my additions shortly after I made the changes in the Tahaan page. He also gave me a few links to get started and about Indian wikipedians. It's good to know the community and the system. There are many Nepal-related pages that need urgent editing and additions. I am trying to learn to fulfill my conscience's call.
September 6, 2008
On your own
Inspiring
Helmut NewtonI was looking for some online creative writing courses. I prefer British English — the one I was taught in school. But since I work for an American newspaper, it wouldn't be a surprise if my preoccupation with the British English comes to an end. Oxford's online creative writing course is too dear and those that aren’t are too flimsy. Besides, I don’t think such a course would really help me.
In fact, I don’t relish these hackneyed posts anymore. And started ‘wilfing’ for fashion photography. Before I discovered Helmut Newton early this week, I had no idea about the role of fashion in molding ultramodern psyche pertaining to sex. The last few days were spent on studying Newton. And he is a genius.
I’d like to expand my previous Newton post. Happy reading.
Update: Night
Reading my cbox messages can also be fun! This is my favourite:
1 Jun 08, 11:51
amrita: you did a great translation of saiyyan on some site. i found that thru. so just got here to tell u this. lol It is kailash kher's best song till date i guess. tho must admit i know very fewofhissongs
1 Jun 08, 11:52
amrita: thru google. i missed that. why is this box so tiny ?
2 Jun 08, 09:47
salik: well, the box is small... that's why it's cbox not bbox- Big Box i mean...
Now don't ask me what cbox is. "I'm so funny..." ;)
I've cut some of the messages while the rest posted here are in the reverse (chronological) order. Sorry the links won't work here:
2 Sep 08, 11:26
not again: dont knw wht's goin on... sth like venom literati/caferati/wildpoetry/robotmelonandstilllookinmyplaceofbirrdwhite
19 Aug 08, 05:21
salik: hey greetings to you all... thank you
17 Aug 08, 01:09
United Voices: nice to be on ur blog... u've got a good collection of articles. gud luck
17 Aug 08, 01:07
Johan: Greetings from Holland
16 Aug 08, 09:38
Cinematography: Kodak Cinematography Master Class Series
16 Aug 08, 08:43
Static Fix: Another cool blog...
15 Aug 08, 05:34
Indie Love: Unless your name is Judas, a kiss is just a kiss.
15 Aug 08, 05:32
On Midnight Kisses: They are like children, playing at adult life. Their bodies may have grown up, but their spirits... The trick is to find your midnight kisses, then move on.
14 Aug 08, 00:45
salik: kasko naak re?
12 Aug 08, 17:57
Gargi: kasko naak bhanya?
13 Aug 08, 06:35
Cinema: They Shoot Pictures, Don't They?
9 Aug 08, 01:21
Solzhenitsyn: When I was in the gulag I would sometimes even write on stone walls. I used to write on scraps of paper, then I memorized the contents and destroyed the scraps.
3 Aug 08, 19:24
Hanrsan: Happy Friendship Day! Your blog is absolutely perfect. Keep on writing. Where are you these days?
1 Aug 08, 06:25
aAkaR: :biggrin:
1 Aug 08, 05:52
Mae West: Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.
1 Aug 08, 05:50
Todd Reifers: I don't have any patience when I paint. I want results.
1 Aug 08, 05:50
William Wallace Kimball): Good art is nothing more than infinite patience.
31 Jul 08, 22:16
salik: hahaha ramro timro yo juni safal bhayo aba...
30 Jul 08, 21:38
aAkaR: face book herirachhu.. ;)
29 Jul 08, 19:57
salik: facebook hernu
29 Jul 08, 19:57
salik: fotushoot chaldai chha aajabholi
21 Jul 08, 19:37
time: learnin to be silent
2 Jul 08, 18:25
salik: ujeli... ramro chha blog ta... news haru dekhe.. upayogi lagyo malai ta...
2 Jul 08, 00:18
ujeli: Hi, I liked your blog. Please visit my newly built blog www.guffgaaf.blogspot.com Waiting for your comments and suggestions...........
18 Jun 08, 09:29
Salik: Pemuda thanks for the link...
17 Jun 08, 18:03
Pemuda Jalanan: http://pemudajalanan.blogspot.com
15 Jun 08, 23:19
nadzeem: hye there~
12 Jun 08, 16:03
Coffee: Richard Brautiga
11 Jun 08, 17:28
Moses: wiki
11 Jun 08, 17:28
Quran: translation
2 Jun 08, 09:47
salik: well, the box is small... that's why it's cbox not bbox- Big Box i mean...
1 Jun 08, 11:52
amrita: thru google. i missed that. why is this box so tiny ?
1 Jun 08, 11:51
amrita: you did a great translation of saiyyan on some site. i found that thru. so just got here to tell u this. lol It is kailash kher's best song till date i guess. tho must admit i know very fewofhissongs
30 May 08, 17:07
salik: yes anup... you can do that too... just google.. if you master Google, you can be a king!
30 May 08, 13:54
anup: i've been trying to do that. yeta presentation pani banara rakhna sakincha hoina photos haru?
30 May 08, 13:53
anup: hey salik how do you uplooad such nice images
30 May 08, 13:49
anup: all the nepalese have the time to cheer, for we live in republic nation now... so go go go
29 May 08, 12:15
27 May 08, 15:38
Grammar Usage: Taking care with your writing is like wearing the right clothes to a dress-up occasion--it's a sign of disrespect to show up in a torn workshirt and dirty sneakers.
22 May 08, 17:24
writing: just a desire to tell the story isn't enough...
22 May 08, 12:04
salik: if grammar is god... who's the devil?
21 May 08, 11:43
salik: chiyapsal has the best collection
20 May 08, 17:06
Chiyapasal: for songs..
20 May 08, 15:12
John o' Donohue: Solitude is the sense of space as nourishing.
20 May 08, 14:44
Autumn Leaves: When I googled this - 'autumn leaves miles davis'- i was surprised to see my video on the page...
20 May 08, 13:35
Gentleman: Why men are called gentleman? I wanted to know. Don't you?
19 May 08, 17:37
just like a woman: she...
19 May 08, 15:31
Allfreedownloadlinks: good place for books
18 May 08, 13:41
Salik: I'm listening to Audacity of Hope audiobook
18 May 08, 10:07
Photo blog: Feast for your eyes
17 May 08, 10:27
salik: field trip ! kaha jadai ho? :biggrin:
16 May 08, 21:33
apurwa: salik i m leavin for a field trip...we have a lot to talk about..till then keep your crazy spirit up..about concept albums i would go for 'scenes from a memory' by dream theater
16 May 08, 10:06
Apuwa !!!!!: oh man ! was dyin to hear frm you... i've been thinkin abt you a lot these days... any concept albums in ur head?
15 May 08, 18:33
apurwa: whats up man ...keep doing your crazy stuffs.....thats all i can say
10 May 08, 16:41
Are you experienced?: Not me.
10 May 08, 12:19
Salik: Some people forget to say hello. Some never say. I wanted to but couldn't say...
22 Apr 08, 18:02
lens culture: Photography from China
22 Apr 08, 18:01
K Vijayaraghavan: A moving story on true humility
22 Apr 08, 17:59
Photographs: An Atlas of the Human Body
22 Apr 08, 17:57
National lampoon: "Not one of the three potential presidents."
22 Apr 08, 14:34
Groucho Marx: "I find television to be very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go in the other room and read a book."
19 Apr 08, 11:36
Bhagat Singh: "Bombs and pistols do not make a revolution. The sword of revolution is sharpened on the whetting-stone of ideas."
18 Apr 08, 16:40
Emo Philips: You have to wait ten days to buy a gun in LA. I can’t stay mad that long.
18 Apr 08, 16:39
Marcel Archard: Women like silent men. They think they’re listening.
18 Apr 08, 16:37
Socrates: By all means marry: if you get a good wife, you’ll become happy; if you get a bad one, you’ll become a philosopher.
18 Apr 08, 16:37
Source unknown: The Virgin Mary was an unwed teenage mother.
18 Apr 08, 16:36
Joan Crawford: Love’s a fire, but whether it’s going to warm your heart or burn down your house, you never can tell.
September 4, 2008
The same old story
More updates: Sep 6 afternoon
i.
Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes (1959)
Finally, I contributed something to Wikipedia.
The picture of Absolute Beginners' cover was missing on the previous page. I am so happy that I got a chance to upload it! Remember my Wikipedia post?
ii.
Fashion photography today tranced my sparkly eyes:
"In his Self-Portrait with June and Models, (Helmut) Newton aims his camera past a naked model and into a tall mirror where she is reflected. There are five people in this 1981 image, shot in Vogue's Paris studio, not counting the man in the car, who we see through an open doorway on to the street. First there is Newton, in raincoat and plimsolls, and the model herself, both of them reflected in the mirror. Much closer to us, so much so that she is somewhat out of focus and cropped at the knees and shoulders, is the model again, seen from behind. Between this standing nude and her reflection is a second model, seated. All we see of her are her knees, calves and feet, wearing a pair of extremely high heels. It is as though these legs could make up for the part that has been cropped from the other model. To the right of all this, is Newton's wife, June, observing the scene. She, too, is a photographer, but today she is just looking.
The longer I look at this photograph, the more mysterious the image gets and the more questions I have. It's a scene drilled with gazes. Your eye goes between the people and into the shadows, and from things seen to things imagined, and eventually you're led through the door, to imagine what it would be like to be the guy in the car, turning and looking in for a second as he passes by."
- Adrian Searle
You can find a copy of Helmut Newton's Self-Portrait here.
Update: Sep 06 (morning)
On Helmut Newton's work
"Newton's contribution to the history of 20th century photography lies not merely in his extremely provocative approach but also, and more importantly, in his prescience and intuition, in his ability to imagine and visualize women exactly as they are today, at the dawn of the third millennium: women who take the lead rather than follow it; women who love and desire whenever and whomever they like, and in whatever way they like; women full of health and vigor, enjoying the resplendence and vitality of their sinewy bodies, bodies over which they themselves have sole command; women who are both responsible and willing. Anticipating the sexual revolution which came with the advent of the birth-control pill, the women of Helmut Newton's world are women who know and get what they want; they are far removed from the weak, compliant sex-object dominated by the misogynist macho. And this is the reason why Newton's work has been found so shocking, for his staged photos thematize the discovery of this new kind of freedom and the fantasies which this freedom engenders."- Françoise Marquet's review of Newton's work
Woman examining man, Saint-Tropez/Helmut Newton, 1975 (link)September 3, 2008
Right now
shawl
lifeless mouse
empty seat
unreal smile
loud bass
cold
facebook
hangover
can't explain
gravity
and i love her so
Two films
Gandhi (1982)
Richard Attenborough
Ben Kingsley
August 27
9:49
This thriller shows Gandhi and M.A. Jinnah in powerful roles than I had expected. I was so curious about Jinnah (Alyque Padamsee) who is still a such a mystique figure! Once I had read a graphic book about Nehru when I was too young. That was all I had actually read about his upbringing. His thick volumes in the Indian Library used to draw my eyes but I couldn’t muster courage to begin those big volumes. (I feel guilty each time I see Ulysses lying untouched on my bookshelf...) "Read him,” Prasad, one of my senior colleagues and another wonderful person I've met so far in India, suggested me and I wonder when I'd find time do my readings.
The film is a delight. Those who don’t watch boring ‘old’ movies but have seen Gandhi — My Father should at least watch this classic. Those who don’t know history shouldn’t pass judgment — and you don’t learn history in four-year university course.
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
A few special effects were mind blowing. This Guillermo del Toro’s film is known for its cinematography. The wonderful balance between a fable and the reality is worth emulating.
September 1, 2008
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