divinepretender explores art

Radioheads Buddhist experience

2011-05-23T15:03:00.002+05:30

Radiohead trip continues with their latest album ->

Lotus Flower
--------------
I will shape myself into your pocket
Invisible
Do what you want
Do what you want

I will shrink and I will disappear
I will slip into the groove and cut me off
And cut me off

There's an empty space inside my heart
Where the weeds take root
And now I'll set you free
I'll set you free

There's an empty space inside my heart
Where the weeds take root
So now I'll set you free
I'll set you free

Slowly we unfurl
As lotus flowers
'Cos all I want is the moon upon a stick
Just to see what if
Just to see what is
I can't kick your habit
Just to fill your fast ballooning head
Listen to your heart

We will shrink and we'll be quiet as mice
And while the cat is away
Do what we want
Do what we want

There's an empty space inside my heart
Where the weeds take root
So now I'll set you free
I'll set you free

'Cos all I want is the moon upon a stick
Just to see what if
Just to see what is
The bird lights float into my room

Slowly we unfurl
As lotus flowers
'Cos all I want is the moon upon a stick
I dance around the pit
The darkness is beneath
I can't kick your habit
Just to feed your fast ballooning head
Listen to your heart

A good interpretation of the lyrics ->

The Lotus is the symbol of the single dogma of Buddhism: that even the lowest person as the root of the lotus is in the foulest mud can become the purest cleanest flower. Not even dust will stick to the petals of a lotus. Non-attachment is enlightenment. The lotus flower is the symbol of believing in the possibility of one's own enlightenment.

The moon is also a Buddhist symbol: it only reflects the light of the sun imperfectly, as a person only reflects, imperfectly, one's experience of the surroundings. Since we have choice of how we reflect our world, as we can change our own mind, we each have the opportunity to teach others how to become free (be a Buddha). Having that on a stick means being able to control one's own mind, which is another way of saying enlightenment.

The second person in the song is trying to feed their ego, which is the opposite of enlightenment. Maybe that person is spiritually better off in a self deprecating addiction, or they would get a fat head.

Radiohead-Fog-Com Lag

2011-04-10T19:38:00.002+05:30

Lyrics ->

There's a little child
Running round this house
And he never leaves
He will never leave
And the fog comes up from the sewers
And glows in the dark

Baby alligators in the sewers grow up fast
Grow up fast
Anything you want it can be done
How did you go bad?
Did you go bad?
Did you go bad?
Somethings will never wash away
Did you go bad?
Did you go bad?

A good interpretation of the lyrics ->

It's inspired by the supposed haunting of the studio in which Radiohead recorded Amnesiac, -
The lines
'There's a little child running round this house, and he never leaves, he will never leave'
refers to the ghost, and
'did you go bad'
questions why the boy's soul couldn't pass on, with the typical view on ghosts being that they were unhappy, angry or evil in life.

Baby alligators in the sewers (the original title)refers to the urban legend regarding the baby alligator pet-craze in America in the 1980's - when the baby alligators outgrew their tanks and became unmanagable, they were flushed down the toilet into the sewers where legend has it, they grew huge.
In the context of this song, Thom is saying that the little things you brush beneath the carpet or tuck away inside yourself to forget about will only grow bigger and more dangerous and weigh heavy on your soul.

From Wikipedia about the song ->

"Fog (Again)" is a short acoustic song (2:19), featuring Thom Yorke on vocals and piano. This version was recorded at an acoustic set, widely known as 'Le Reservoir', which Yorke and Jonny Greenwood did for the French-German TV station Arte. It was also featured in a third season episode of The O.C.. The original "Fog" appeared on 2001 single "Knives Out", in a 4/4 rather than 6/8 time signature, and as a mainly bass and percussion-driven song, in a style in keeping with their work of the Kid A/Amnesiac period.

The original version of the song, which runs 4:03 in length, features in the animated film adaptation of Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly, along with other Radiohead songs, the B-side "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy" and "Skttrbrain (Four Tet RMX)". "Black Swan", from frontman Thom Yorke's album The Eraser, is also featured in the film, which was released in July 2006.^[9]

Trivia on Deep Throat

2008-05-27T19:18:00.004+05:30

Highly recommended, the porn is shot really well and and editing is really amazing...the movie provides really funny jokes and considering that it was pivotal in the sexual revolution of the world it truly is a masterpiece...This really is a gr8 movie...

Filmed in only 6 days.
The highest grossing film ever to be made in the state of Florida (as of mid-1999).
Possibly the most culturally influential porn film ever made. It provided the code name of the mysterious Watergate whistleblower. It also moved pornography from the underground into the mainstream, a position the genre has enjoyed for 30 years. Lovelace later became an anti-porn crusader and claimed that she was forced at gunpoint to perform in this movie. This claim has never been proven. One of the first hardcore sex films to be shown in mainstream movie theaters. It is the subject of the documentary film, Inside Deep Throat (2005).

On 14 September 2000 the British Board of Film Classification authorized for the first time the uncut release of this film, as part of a policy change to censor adult films less and children's films more.
Budget for production cost: $22,000.
Reported to have grossed $600 million, as of 2002.
The most successful film of all time in terms of the budget to box office returns ratio. Estimates vary but it's approximately 25,000 to 1. In comparison, Titanic (1997) has a ratio of less than 10 to 1.
The profits from this film were used to set up a production company to finance more "mainstream" films. One of those productions: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
According to one of the books by Linda Lovelace, director Gerard Damiano originally signed a deal that entitled him to collect about one third of the profits this film generated. He was "convinced" to sell his percentage for about $100,000 because his backers were reportedly members of an underworld crime family.
For some reason, the film contains a number of references to the James Bond film series. The James Bond theme song can be briefly heard in the soundtrack. Dr Young, at one instance, refers to himself as "case 007". And (Terence) Young is also the name of the director of most James Bond movies up to when Deep Throat was made.
This was picked as one of 100 landmark films of all time in the new "Radio Times Guide to Films 2007", compiled by the magazine's film reviewers and staff. Radio Times' film editor Andrew Collins justified the choice by stating that the list is not about cinematic quality, but about the influence a film had on society. "'Deep Throat' is not necessarily recommended for everyone," Collins said, "It's a quite badly made film, but to deny its influence would be pure snobbery."
On the 23rd of February 2008, Dutch public television aired the complete and uncut movie. It was the first time that hardcore porn was shown on public television in the Netherlands.

Deep Throat to you all...

Tarkovsky on Romanticism

2008-04-08T18:04:00.002+05:30

Would you agree to call your films Romantic?

No, I would not.

Yet we find in them such recurring motifs as Romantic journeys in search of one's identity, absolute values; we are dealing with sacralisation of the world, search for the sacred, mythologising of events; finally, we have faith in the original purity of the spiritual culture an artist is to express. The spirit of all this is very Romantic.

You said it very beautifully but I get the impression what you've characterised here isn't Romanticism at all. What you've just described has absolutely nothing to do with it. I guess Romanticism... Whenever I hear the word "Romanticism" I get frightened. Because Romanticism is an attempt... it's not even an attempt, it is a way of expressing a world view, a perception of reality in which man sees in real events, in the real world, more than there really is. Thus when you mention something sacred, search for truth, etc. — for me this...

This isn't Romanticism?

This isn't Romanticism because I do not make reality larger than it is. For me reality is in general much greater than what I can find in it, much deeper and more sacred than I'm able to perceive. Romanticists thought life was much richer than what they could see, i.e. they were guessing, they believed life was not so plain, that there was depth in it, a lot of what we call the exotic, metaphysics, what in itself escapes our cognizance, what cannot be grasped through knowledge. They were guessing it, were attempting to express it. Let me use an example: there are people who can see an aura, a certain multi-coloured glow around human body, those people have certain senses developed to a higher degree than most people. I spoke not too long ago to one such man in Berlin, a Chinese — he could treat you, he knows perfectly well what your condition is, how you feel, what are your problems — he can see all this in the aura.

This phenomenon was confirmed by the Kirlian photography.

Yes, these experiments are related to it — but such person simply can see this aura with his own eyes while romanticists tried to invent it, to guess that it should exist — while a poet can see it.

You might say: but there were poets amongst romanticists. Of course, I'm not denying it. There was Hoffmann whom I simply adore, there was Lermontov, Tyutchev, one of the deepest, a staggering poet, there were many of them... It's all true. But can we really call them romanticists? — They are not romanticists, absolutely they are not romanticists. And Hoffmann is a romanticist. So when they tell me: Romanticism... Obviously — the form used by these artists becomes sort of dignified, enlarged, beautified, ennobled. I think life is beautiful enough, there is enough depth and spirituality in it that it's not necessary to change anything — it is us who should take care of our own development, in the spiritual sense, instead of attempting to make reality more beautiful. Therefore this Romantic costume results from a lack of faith within man or faith mostly in products of one's own imagination.

That's solipsism.

Yes. For me personally Romanticism, or at least one of its important ingredients, seems something quite different. Well, Dovzhenko once said very aptly that even in a muddy puddle he could see stars reflecting. This sort of image I can understand perfectly. But if someone said he could see the "starry hosts of heaven" and an angel flying around, it would be a sanitised, allegorical form, totally untrue, removed from life. But that's the key, Dovzhenko could see it because he was a poet, life for him was much fuller, filled with spirituality, than for those who searched in reality around them merely an addition, a supplement to their own creative activities. For a romanticist life provides a mere reason to create while for a poet creation is a necessity because from the very beginning the spirit that's alive in him demands that. Thus an artist, a poet — as opposed to a romanticist — understands better than anybody else that he becomes God-like. That's logical. This is what ability to create is all about. It's as if this ability was assumed from the very beginning, it does not belong to man. A romanticist on the other hand would always attempt to find in his talent, in his own creative activities, some particular beauty.

Or a mission.

A mission. Beautiful. Here I would agree with you completely.

There is a word in Polish, "wieszcz," we say for example that Adam Mickiewicz was the nation's "wieszcz," a prophet, a seer who revealed before the nation concealed truths...

Yes, yes, yes. Except this isn't Romanticism.

How so?

Also Pushkin was someone like that, and later many artists as well, they are present even today and they serve... I believe that Romanticism — in a narrower sense — manifests itself when an artist is intoxicated with self-adoration, he creates himself in his art. That's a Romantic trait I find abhorrent. Also this self-confirmation, this unending self-presentation is not a result of his art, it is its goal. This is something I do not find very agreeable and in general this is the Romanticism I don't like, stuffy, terribly pretentious, pretentious paintings, artistic concepts, etc. As in Schiller when the hero travels on two swans. Remember that? That's kitsch. That's simply kitsch. By the way, in Russia, and I think in Poland, there were never artists who would talk so much about themselves as Novalis, as Kleist, Byron, Schiller, Wagner.

But this is Romantic individualism, one of the main distinguishing features of Romanticism.

That's egocentrism, thinking only within the bounds of "And what else is there for me?", that's terrible pretentiousness, a need to make oneself the centre of the universe. The polar opposite is another world, the world of poetry which I think of as Eastern, as Eastern culture. Take for example the music of Wagner or, I don't know, Beethoven — that's an unending monologue about oneself: look how poor I am, all in rags, how miserable, what Job I am, how unhappy, how I suffer — like nobody else — I suffer like the antique Prometheus... and here is how I love, and here is how I... You understand? I, I, I, I. — Not too long ago I deliberately listened to music from the 6^th century B.C., it was classical Chinese ritual music. It offers absolute dissolution of individual in nothingness, in nature, in cosmos. That's the polar opposite in quality. Whenever an artist sort of dissolves himself in a work of art, when he himself disappears without a trace, this then is unbelievable poetry.

I'll quote an example which I find utterly spellbinding. In mediaeval Japan there lived many painters who would find shelter at shoguns' courts or stay with some feudal lords — Japan was partitioned into many provinces back then — and they were excellent artists, highly praised, they would reach heights of fame. And having attained this, many of them would suddenly disappear, walk away. They would disappear completely and then reappear at another shogun's court as completely unknown individuals, under different names, and they would begin from scratch the career of a court painter creating works in a totally different style. And in this manner some of them would live five or six lifetimes.

Humility...

This is not humility. One could, I suppose, call it humility but I would rather use a different word — for me this is almost like a prayer in which my own "I" has no significance. Because the talent bestowed upon me was given from on high and — if I'm indeed given this talent — I'm somehow distinguished. And if I'm distinguished it means I should serve it, I'm a slave, not the centre of the universe — it's all clear. You quite rightly mentioned humility but this is something much more important than humility.

Now we are close to Andrei Rublov...

Indeed, he was after all a religious man, a monk...

But the characters in your films are like Romantic heroes, they are always on a path and this journey-pilgrimage becomes initiation: for example Stalker is built around a typically Romantic initiation pattern.

In that case... I don't think you would claim Dostoievsky was a romanticist? But he is no romanticist — as shown by his epoch, his outlook on life. Yet his heroes are always on a path too.

More like in a labyrinth.

Doesn't matter. It's always the same story of man searching, marching towards his goal, like Diogenes with his lantern. Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment — that was the same thing of course, not the slightest doubt about that. Alosha Karamazov — yes, of course. He is also always on a path — but he is no romanticist. That's why when you say "man always on a path" — this isn't necessarily a defining feature of Romanticism, that's not what's most important in Romanticism.

8 1/2

2008-01-20T01:24:00.000+05:30

Last scene of 8 1/2 by Fellini

The script critic celebrating Guido's decision of not shoot the movie ->

You've made the right choice.
Believe me, today
is a good day for you.
These are tough decisions, I know.
But we intellectuals, and I say we
because I consider you such,
must remain lucid to the bitter end.
This life is so full of confusion already,
that there's no need
to add chaos to chaos.
Losing money is part
of a producer's job.
I congratulate you.
You had no choice.
And he got what he deserved,
for having joined such a frivolous
venture so lightheartedly.
Believe me, no need for remorse.
Destroying is better than creating
when we're not creating those few,
truly necessary things.
But then is there anything
so clear and right
that it deserves to live in this world?
For him, the wrong movie
is only a financial matter.
But for you, at this point,
it could have been the end.
Better to quit
and strew the ground with salt,
as the ancients did,
to purify the battlefields.
In the end what we need is...
some hygiene, some cleanliness,
disinfection.
We're smothered by images,
words and sounds
that have no right to exist, coming
from, and bound for, nothingness.
0f any artist truly worth the name
we should ask nothing
except this act of faith: to learn silence.
Do you remember Mallarmé's
homage to the white page?
And Rimbaud...
...a poet, my friend, not a movie director.
What was his finest poetry?
His refusal to continue writing
and his departure for Africa.
If we can't have everything,
true perfection is nothingness.
Forgive me for quoting all the time.
But we critics... do what we can.
0ur true mission is... sweeping away
the thousands of miscarriages
that everyday... obscenely...
try to come to the light.
And you would actually dare leave
behind you a whole film,
like a cripple who leaves behind
his crooked footprint.
Such a monstrous presumption
to think
that others could benefit from the
squalid catalogue of your mistakes!
And how do you benefit
from stringing together
the tattered pieces of your life?
Your vague memories, the faces of people
that you were never able to love...

Guido ->

What is this sudden happiness
that makes me tremble,
giving me strength, life?
Forgive me, sweet creatures.
I hadn't understood. I didn't know.
It's so natural accepting you,
loving you.
And so simple.
Luisa, I feel I've been freed.
Everything seems so good,
so meaningful.
Everything is true.
I wish I could explain.
But I don't know how to.
So. Everything is confused again,
as it was before.
The lights!
But this confusion is... me.
Not as I'd like to be, but as I am.
I'm not afraid anymore
of telling the truth,
of the things I don't know,
what I'm looking for and haven't found.
This is the only way I can feel alive
and I can look into your faithful
eyes without shame.
Life is a celebration.
Let's live it together!
This is all I can say Luisa,
to you or the others.
Accept me for what I am,
if you want me.
It's the only way we might be able
to find each other.

Luisa ->

I don't know if what
you said to me is right.
But I can try if you help me.

Who should be the president of the universe

2007-11-11T13:15:00.000+05:30

Hitchhikers guide to galaxy is so much fun, i dont mean the book Hitchhikers guide to galaxy about which they speak in the book Hitchhikers guide to galaxy, i mean the book Hitchhikers guide to galaxy itself which then in turn speaks about the book Hitchhikers guide to galaxy to make things a bit confusing....neways here is an excerpt ->

The major problem – one of the major problems, for there are several – one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them.

To summarize: it is a well known fact, that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should on no account be allowed to do the job. To summarize the summary of the summary: people are the problem.

And so this is the situation we find: a succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that very very rarely notice that they are not.

And somewhere in the shadows behind them – who?

Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to do it can be allowed to?

trash

2007-11-09T15:10:00.000+05:30

Ohell!!!!Ahhhhhh!!!Fuck me,Fuck me,fuck me.
3 brains within us.From evolu-shun you see.Man did not become MAN wihtout first becomeing RAT.RAT follow urban movement to give BUBONIC PLAGUE and keep up with brotha trends.So here goes:
RAT: Hello Brother
Human: Rat, WTF U talkin' abt,nigga mutha fucka
RAT: We have same ancestors u know
Human: Where's the vaksination
RAT: We moved from Surat u know, we tired of saying Kem Cho
Human: Saro Che teri gaand me,ERAt-DICATE
Wot followed was mushroom clouds and salman rushdie divorce.man his wife(or is it ex-wife now?) was hot according to popularist pinions.
and if indians think they can speak the english language FUCK YOU!YOU ANGLO FILE kUNT.YOU IMPERIALIST FUCHS. YOU WHO CONVERTED AND MADE URSELVES SOCIALLY IMPOTENT IN THE SHIT NATION OF INDIA,WITH YOUR DSOUZAS AND YOUR SEQUIERAS.EDDIE U ETERNAL CUNT U HEAR.EDDIE U ETERNAL OPPORTUNIST U HERE?
And then there was peace.Om Ttat svaha.Allah O Akbar Ullahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh HUUUUUUUUUUUUUuuu Akbar.I met a surd in Sams the other day, he looked at me twice. the 2nd time he said SatSri Akaal.I acknowledged with my I's down.There was pain and a 21st century isolation inside both of us.How do I no? I cud feel it u cunt,we're still part human you no.
The universe cannot be simultaneously comprehended said Rishyasringa the great sage.Or was it einstein? Mebbe both?By wot strange and fateful coincidence did EINSTEIN meet CONFUCIUS in present living times to become CON FUCK US FRANKENSTEIN.
VISHNU in all great avatars gave up after seeing chinese kung fu movies.Woe to man.
Kalyug!Kalyug!when the soul is really only arsehole.
And now for the critic who brings about an awakening.And also the bum who is a kochu moron.
Watch ye! who hear me
Visions of Jorg Buttgereit Ceylan and the unknown cunt
Who spoke & wrote bigger & grander than your regular Gaands...
published in well-red magazines & utter-redy on tongues of ox-e-moron
and paaried ox yuppies
omirbaev & djalil
sex,lies and cellotape
slut and artfart
Semage & Kasaravalli
But at all costs avoid the bourgeousie pigs
sly kunts who lead YOU CIG asHtray from elusive truth
with nostalghic beauty of image & prose
all the ists - class genre comatose
beefheart sang to disturb
the reel auteur etc(dg)hes to'ard the same 1 goal
HAI JIND U CUNT.

shopping at the local mart

2007-11-09T15:08:00.000+05:30

I went to buy orange oranges,
green beans,sweet meats,
long john silver bananas,
yellow capsi-cum
red peppers,hot potatoes,
magick mushroom,
spiced brown rice,
ladies fingers,
and a cup tom-yum soup
With above in cart I approached checkout lane of
beautiful buxom woman in uniform smiling politely
Hello Hope you found everything to your satisfaction!
My cheeks turned red instantly
Self-conscious I was reminded of apples forgotten
The hi/story of Adam Eve itself repeating?
Presently she began to scan items I placed from cart on to counter
And this is what showed up on hightech flatpanel prizescreen
2% Disodium Inosinate,6% Tocopherol(Vitamin E),
F.D and C. Red #40 including F.D and C. Blue #2
33% Silicon Dioxide(To prevent caking),
Polydextrose**,Potassium Sorbate(Preservative),
Yellow 5, Yellow 6 , Trivial amount of sugar
21% MonoSodium Glucamate
Your total is 35 dollars and 99 cents she told me
followed by a flash of shinywhiteeth
I paid and walked out heavy bags in hand feeling cheated somehow

Wednesday Nite Cinematheque

2007-05-30T10:02:00.000+05:30

Year 2007
-------------
21st March - The new world
28th March - The inconvinient truth
4th April - Brazil
11th April - Krótki film o zabijaniu (A short film on killing)
18th April - Happiness
25th April - Babam Ve Oglum (My Father and My Son)
2nd May - Tickets
9th May - Oldboy
16th May - À bout de souffle (Breathless)
23rd May - Yeopgijeogin geunyeo (My Sassy Girl)
30th May - Videodrome
6th June - Booye kafoor, atre yas (Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine)

Tentative Schedule
------------------

13th June - Days of Heaven
20th June - Kes
27th June - The Grizzly Man

Visiting Artist

2007-05-01T14:05:00.000+05:30

JD's friend Sunandini was in blore and happened 2 come 4 lesters surprise bday bash and the creative output of the evening is here.
U can c saurabh priya, lester hasina, katpadi and me (partly)...but the best is the house with jd on the top of the water tank (regals throne but regal was out patrolling the country) and deepa with her car...I wonder how these characters will age as sunandini keeps visiting blore!

Update on Wednesday Nite Cinematheque

2007-04-18T14:21:00.000+05:30

So v r now into the fifth screening of Wednesday nite cinematheque and who would have guessed that other then the first screening the following 3 had more then 1 audience (1 ofcourse being me ;)...though nething that grows has to start limiting itself by policies and so do v ours being ->
- movie will start sharp at 2230, lites will stay off till the end of the movie
- every1 is responsible 4 having fed themselves with solid liquid and gases b4 2230
- cells should b on silent mode and calls taken outside the hall
- no1 is oblidged 2 open the door after 2230, so unless u have spoken 2 somebody who is inside and ready to come and open the door ringing bell will have no affect

so going strong on the success we look back at the movies we saw so far and also announce todays movie -

Week 1 - The new world , review in the previous post

Week 2 - The inconvenient truth = ground breaking documentary by Al Gore, first time the key issues of global environmental catastrophe being addressed by some one of such a huge stature and power and the fact that he is not being booed for it but given credit (the docu won the best documentary of the year award at oscars and is the third highest grosser for docu's ever...the first 2 being Fahrenheit 9/11 and March of the Penguins - link to source of this information) shows that the end of the world as we know it is close and its obvious 2 every1, where does that leave us, people who knew about it all along...well as gore said it is not a political issue but a moral issue so this is precisely the mentality we need to rise above after all we are all in it together....
for me the most striking moment of the documentary was when gore puts forward a image from the government seminar on environment in which while on one side of the balance there is gold, the other side of the balance is the planet itself and gore is wondering "hmmm...there is this gold wow!but wait a minute if there is no planet is there any gold at all" so to sum it all up our greed has finally eaten up the planet.

Week 3 - Brazil = This was the most promising movie and week when we had maximum audience and maximum chaos, some because i postponed its screening so that we finished smoking b4 the movie and some because of unavoidable circumstances, but rest assured the movie was well received by everyone though no one could stay back for the end since it ended at 2 in the nite. This prompted us to have rules mentioned above for future screenings...

Week 4 - A short film on killing = Fed by jd's collection of over 300 classics we chose kieslowski for this is the real reason we have wednesday nite cinematheque, 2 c a simple story...here is a snippet by some one analysing terrence mallick (director of the new world)
-------
Malick's lack of interest in the causes of the characters' behaviors should not be understood as itself a moral judgment, as if their actions are in some nebulous way justified. This film is not a polemic, like Kiéslowski's A Short Film about Killing (1988). Rather, Malick's point seems to be that mere condemnation, or trying to determine the causes of their actions, essentially evades the fact that our world and values sometimes are unable to deal with certain human possibilities.
-------
So four weeks on we are deep into cinema...

Week 5 - Happiness = People want to c comedy but there is not a great amount of comedy in the cinematic artistic world and we cant blame art for it after all it is the reflection of the world we live in, guess there must be something deeply sad in our world or maybe entertainment is so highly exploited in our society that its earned a bad name, neways i spent some time (maybe like 5 minutes) looking for a comedy and this one has good reviews in rotten tomatoes so catch u guys tonite for a funny evening...

House with a Mezzanine by Anton Chekhov

2007-04-18T12:30:00.000+05:30

Every now and then i come across people who believe that change in a government policy or more development, roads, infrastructure, better healthcare, more policing...will make this world a better place. I find it hard to argue since am then accused of being a nihilist anarchist anti-establishment (which btw according to me is a good thing)...so i shall allow Anton Chekhov (considered one of the best short story writer) to make this straightforward dumbass point that "fuck u humans u have only screwed things up, go get a life and give every1 a break"

"THE PRINCE is on a visit to Malozyomov and sends you his regards,"
said Lyda to her mother, as she came in and took off her gloves. "He
told me many interesting things. He promised to bring forward in the
Zemstvo Council the question of a medical station at Malozyomov, but
he says there is little hope." And turning to me, she said: "Forgive me, I
keep forgetting that you are not interested."
I felt irritated.
"Why not?" I asked and shrugged my shoulders. "You don't care
about my opinion, but I assure you, the question greatly interests me."
"Yes?"
"In my opinion there is absolutely no need for a medical station at
Malozyomov. "
My irritation affected her: she gave a glance at me, half closed her
eyes and said:
"What is wanted then? Landscapes?"
"Not landscapes either. Nothing is wanted there."
She finished taking off her gloves and took up a newspaper which had
just come by post; a moment later, she said quietly, apparently
controlling herself:
"Last week Anna died in childbirth, and if a medical man had been
available she would have lived. However, I suppose landscape-painters
are entitled to their opinions."
"I have a very definite opinion, I assure you," said I, and she took
refuge behind the newspaper, as though she did not wish to listen. "In
my opinion medical stations, schools, libraries, pharmacies, under
existing conditions, only lead to slavery. The masses are caught in a
vast chain: you do not cut it but only add new links to it. That is my.
opinion."
She looked at me and smiled mockingly, and I went on, striving to
catch the thread of my ideas.
"It does not matter that Anna should die in childbirth, but it does
matter that all these Annas, Marfas, Pelagueyas, from dawn to sunset
should be grinding away, ill from overwork, all their lives worried about
their starving sickly children; all their lives they are afraid of death and
disease, and have to be looking after themselves; they fade in youth,
grow old very early, and die in filth and dirt; their children as they grow
up go the same way and hundreds of years slip by and millions of people
live worse than animals-in constant dread of never having a crust to
eat; but the horror of their position is that they have no time to think of
their souls, no time to remember that they are made in the likeness of
God; hunger, cold, animal fear, incessant work, like drifts of snow
block all the ways to spiritual activity, to the very thing that
distinguishes man from the animals, and is the only thing indeed that
makes life worth living. You come to their assistance with hospitals and
schools, but you do not free them from their fetters; on the contrary,
you enslave them even more, since by introducing new prejudices into
their lives, you increase the number of their demands, not to mention
the fact that they have to pay the Zemstvo for their drugs and
pamphlets, and therefore, have to work harder than ever."
"I will not argue with you," said Lyda. "I have heard all that." She
put down her paper. "I will only tell you one thing, it is no good sitting
with folded hands. It is true, we do not save mankind, and perhaps we
do make mistakes, but we do what we can and we are right. The highest
and most sacred truth for an educated being-is to help his neighbours,
and we do what we can to help. You do not like it, but it is impossible to
please everybody."
"True, Lyda, true," said her mother.
In Lyda's presence her courage always failed her, and as she talked
she would look timidly at her, for she was afraid of saying something
foolish or out of place: and she never contradicted, but would always
agree: "True, Lyda, true."
"Teaching peasants to read and write, giving them little moral
pamphlets and medical assistance, cannot decrease either ignorance or
mortality, just as the light from your windows cannot illuminate this
huge garden," I said. "You give nothing by your interference in the
lives of these people. You only create new demands, and a new
compulsion to work."
"Ah! My God, but we must do something!" said Lyda exasperatedly,
and I could tell by her voice that she thought my opinions negligible
and despised me.
"It is necessary," I said, "to free people from hard physical work. It
is necessary to relieve them of their yoke, to give them breathing space,
to save them from spending their whole lives in the kitchen or the byre,
in the fields; they should have time to take thought of their souls, of
God and to develop their spiritual capacities. Every human being's
salvation lies in spiritual activity-in his continual search for truth and
the meaning of life. Give them some relief from rough, animal labour ,
let them feel free, then you will see how ridiculous at bottom your
pamphlets and pharmacies are. Once a human being is aware of his
vocation, then he can only be satisfied with religion, service, art, and
not with trifles like that."
"Free them from work?" Lyda gave a smile. "Is that possible?"
"Yes .... Take upon yourself a part of their work. If we all, in town
and country, without exception, agreed to share the work which is
being spent by mankind in the satisfaction of physical demands, then
none of us would have to work mare than two or three hours a day. If all
of us, rich and poor, worked three hours a day the rest of our time
would be free. And then to be still less dependent an our bodies, we
should invent machines to do the work and we should try to reduce our demands to the minimum.
We should toughen ourselves and our
children should not be afraid of hunger and cold, and we should not be
anxious about their health, as Anna, Maria, Pelagueya were anxious.
Then supposing we did not bother about doctors and pharmacies, and
did away with tobacco factories and distilleries-what a lot of free time
we should have! We should give our leisure to service and the arts. Just
as peasants all work together to repair the roads, so the whole
community would work together to seek truth and the meaning of life,
and, I am sure of it-truth would be found very soon, man would get rid
of his continual, poignant, depressing fear of death and even of death
itself. "
"But yo.u contradict yourself," said Lyda. "You talk about service
and deny education."
"I deny the education of a man who can only use it to read the signs
on the public houses and possibly a pamphlet which he is incapable of
understanding-the kind of education we have had from the time of
Rurik: and village life has remained exactly as it was then. Not
education is wanted but freedom for the full development of spir-itual
capacities. Not schools are wanted but universities."
"You deny medicine too."
"Yes. It should only be used for the investigation of diseases, as
natural phenomena, not far their cure. It is no good curing diseases if
you don't cure their causes. Remove the chief cause-physical labour,
and there will be no diseases. I don't acknowledge the science which
cures," I went on excitedly. "Science and art, when they are true, are
directed not to temporary or private purposes, but to the eternal and
the general-they seek the truth and the meaning of life, they seek
God, the soul, and when they are harnessed to passing needs and
activities, like pharmacies and libraries, then they only complicate and
encumber life. We have any number of doctors, pharmacists, lawyers,
and highly educated people, but we have no biologists, mathematicians,
philosophers, poets. All our intellectual and spiritual energy is wasted
an temporary passing needs .... Scientists, writers, painters work and
work, and thanks to them the comforts of life grow greater every day,
the demands ofthe body multiply, but we are still a long way from the
truth and man still remains the mast rapacious and unseemly of
animals, and everything tends to make the majority of mankind
degenerate and more and more lacking in vitality. Under such
conditions the life of an artist has no meaning and the more talented he
is, the more strange and incomprehensible his position is, since it only
amounts to his working for the amusement ofthe predatory, disgusting
animal, man, and supporting the existing state of things. And I don't
want to work and will not... Nothing is wanted, so let the world go to
hell."
"Missyuss, go away," said Lyda to her sister, evidently thinking my
wards dangerous to so young a girl.
Genya looked sadly at her sister and mother and went out.
"People generally talk like that," said Lyda, "when they want to
excuse their indifference. It is easier to deny hospitals and schools than
to came and teach."
"True, Lyda, true," her mather agreed.
"You say you will not work," Lyda went an. "Apparently you set a
high price an your work, but do stop arguing. We shall never agree,
since I value the most imperfect library or pharmacy, of which you
spoke so scornfully just now, mare than all the landscapes in the
world." And at once she turned to her mother and began to talk in quite
. a different tone: "The Prince has got very thin, and is much changed
since the last time he was here. The doctors are sending him to Vichy."
She talked to her mother about the Prince to avoid talking to me. Her
face was burning, and, in order to co.nceal her agitation, she bent aver
the table as if she were short-sighted and made a show of reading the
newspaper. My presence was distasteful to her. I took my leave and
went home.

Wednesday Nite cinematheque Kickoff

2007-03-22T17:55:00.000+05:30

Come, spirit.
Help us sing
the story of our land.
You are our mother;
We, your field
of corn.
We rise...
from out of the soul
of you.
~prayer in Powhatan

The first screening at the wednesday nite cinematheque was an event enjoyed by all present and it was unanimously decided 2 make it a weekly event.
The first screening "The New World" was in ways just the perfect movie to kickstart this phenomenon ---
While the purpose of wednesday nite cinematheque is to experience new worlds and visions by great minds in the artistic world of cinema (contrary to the corporate world of cinema where cinema is a source of revenue, here the commercial value of cinema has zero importance)...the movie also in a way was about exploring the very concept of exploration....
- while in the beginning the Europeans are surprised to see the new world, towards the end we see the total surprised reaction of the native on reaching England where he has come with a bunch of sticks with instructions from his leader to tie a knot for every white man the native encounters, and more importantly to meet this God that white men talk about so much.
- The New World was about love in its purest form where it knows not of anything other then giving and expressed through Pocahontas it spoke of a culture where these values were intact.
- Through the time of Captain Smith spent with the tribes the film maker observes the striking contrast between the peaceful and happy natives with the ever fighting (lots of infighting and politics) attitude of the settlers...smith reiterates through the rest of the film that the only truth in his life were the time spent in the jungle with Pocahontas (though throughout the movie this name is not uttered) but the film maker is not going to take the easy way by setting the direction for the movie, Captain Smith still slave to his own personality knows he does not deserve her love and abandons her for other missions...
- The movie asks very fundamental questions, in one scene we have Pocahontas asking John Rolfe - "Why does earth have colors?"
- It was a typical Terrence Malick movie...poetic, expecting the audience to surrender to the movie, lots of space which some people would refer as slow...
- A lot of effort went in recreating the history, apart from extensive research a lot of natives out of the 3000 who speak Powhatan today were employed to teach the language to the native actors, the movie was given a seal of approval by the Tribal Heads of Native Americans..more then a million feet of reel was used and more then 2000 females were auditioned for the role of Pocahontas before selecting 14 year old actress Q'Orianka Waira Qoiana Kilcher, her age probably the reson why the intimate scenes have refrained from even a kiss.
- the movie was shot entirely in natural light like all Terrence Malick movies

While the movie garnered only a measly 12 million compared to 75 million by Brokeback Mountain it was by far the most loved movie of the year in the Cult Cinema section.
A interesting review of the movie...

Watch this space for next wednesday movie announcement...

SPUN

2007-03-20T23:06:00.001+05:30

You know I take the pussy
seriously. Let me tell you.

You gotta take the pussy seriously.
I mean, there's a priority for a tight ass.

But if it's hairy, I go for the tits.

But if the tits are hairy,
hey, it's right back to the pussy.

But you've gotta speak
to that pussy, son.

You know, really talk to it.
You make a vow to it.

Now, no nation has
ever been so ready...

...to seize the power and the
freedom of the pussy as our own...

...and we must all care for that pussy.

Today, we do more
than just celebrate the pussy.

We re-dedicate ourselves
to the very idea of pussy.

I mean, friends, ask not
what the pussy can do for you...

...but what can you do for the pussy.

The Postman

2007-03-20T09:27:00.000+05:30

Trivia about the italian classic Il Postino and its hero Troisi ->

Troisi literally gave his life to make Il Postino. He was aware of his heart condition and was told that he needed treatment, but he believed that the making of this film was more important. He died 12 hours after the camera stopped rolling...

This trivia helped me put my own feeling aroused by the movie in the right context.

Bought and Sold (from 'Too Black, Too Strong')

2007-03-16T22:03:00.000+05:30

Smart big awards and prize money
Is killing off black poetry
It’s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
The lure of meeting royalty
And touching high society
Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.

The ancestors would turn in graves
Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
How our souls were sold
And check our strategies,
The empire strikes back and waves
Tamed warriors bow on parades
When they have done what they’ve been told
They get their OBE's.
~ benjamin zephaniah

What is OBE? out of body experience does not seem 2 fit well.

Only arrogance and zero Art

2007-03-11T17:55:00.000+05:30

Hollywood seems to be capable of making only the most ridiculous movies coz the only thing they care about is themselves and according to them the rest of the world is barbaric and stupid. i doubt Mel Gibson has the slightest idea about nething he is making coz his only purpose is to make a thriller and find situations to put in some nicely shot violence scenes..the only thing that changes from one movie to another is the type of weapons.
I have never seen a more stupid movie, instead of accepting that he is incapable of understanding nething about this evolved culture because he is an idiot he has ended up making a big budget movie for other idiots to feel very nice that they are living in this system and any other system that existed before them was corrupt and violent.
Mel Gibson has shown his own insanity through the movie, and the movie has nothing to do with Mayan Culture which he is also very aware of but sadly i know many people are going to be seeing this movie to form an opinion that all ancient cultures were barbaric and we have made so much progress...overlooking the fact that in fact we are the most barbaric people who ever lived on this planet.

India's contribution to English

2007-02-16T13:20:00.000+05:30

Encountered this word on Southpark and it not even beeped like all other abuses...

choad

/chohd/ n. Synonym for `penis' used in alt.tasteless and popularized by the denizens thereof. They say: "We think maybe it's from Middle English but we're all too damned lazy to check the OED." [I'm not. It isn't. --ESR] This term is alleged to have been inherited through 1960s underground comics, and to have been recently sighted in the Beavis and Butthead cartoons. Speakers of the Hindi, Bengali and Gujarati languages have confirmed that `choad' is in fact an Indian vernacular word equivalent to `fuck'; it is therefore likely to have entered English slang via the British Raj.

u guys know of any great indian words now part of english? its high time the exchange went the other way...i can think of chutney, curry....

Sex, Lies and Videotape

2007-02-08T13:30:00.000+05:30

Graham - I remember reading somewhere that men learn to love the person that they're attracted to and that women become more and more attracted to the person that they love.
Ann - God. That's beautiful.That's really beautiful.I like that.
Graham - I'm just quoting.

Quotes withing quotes within quotes...but then all have 1 source (which is tending to zero) so plagiarism, orignality, uniquness, intellectual property is all bollocks...thoughts and ideas can never be owned, can never belong...only dead things can belong, can be owned...
- this is my bike, fine.
- this is my idea, fuck u.

A review on Kubrick's "The Shining"

2007-02-08T12:02:00.000+05:30

Kubrick did a marvelous job in giving one of the most spine thrilling horror flicks, as usual his forte being extremely strong and at the same time subliminal images, and ofcourse Jack Nicholson. Interestingly the movie holds the record for most takes for a scene in a film...125 times...

While it would have been great as a horror flick i ended up finding this very interesting interpretation of his work on this website.

Excerpts

And in a final stroke of brilliance, Kubrick physically
melds the movie audience leaving his film with the ghostly
revelers in the photograph. As the credits roll, the soundtrack
ends, and we hear the 1920s audience applaud, and then the gabble
of that audience talking among themselves - the same sound the
crowd of moviegoers itself is probably making as it leaves the
theater. It is the sound of people moving out of one stage of
consciousness into another. The moviegoers are largely unaware of
this soundtrack, and this reflects their unawareness that they’ve
just seen a movie about themselves, about what people like them
have done to the American Indian and to others. Thus to its very
last foot, this film is trying to break through the complacency of
its audience, to tell it, "You were, are, the people at the
Overlook Ball." The opening music, over the traveling aerial shots
of a tiny yellow Volkswagon penetrating the magnificent American
wilderness, is the "Dies Irae" ("Day of Wrath"), part of the major
funeral mass of the European Roman Catholic Church. This movie is
a funeral, among other things. And it was Hitler’s Germany,
another genocidal culture, that first produced the Volkswagen. At
the end of the movie, in the climactic chase in the Overlook Maze,
the moral maze of America and of all mankind in which we are
chased by the sins of our fathers ("Danny, I’m coming. You can’t
get away. I’m right behind you"), the little boy Danny escapes by
retracing his own steps (an old Indian trick) and letting his
father blunder past.

A 13 minute docu on Kubrick as an artist

Interesting Quotes by Stanley Kubrick

2007-02-08T03:49:00.000+05:30

Quote 1

I believe that drugs are basically of more use to the audience than to the artist. I think that the illusion of oneness with the universe, and absorption with the significance of every object in your environment, and the pervasive aura of peace and contentment is not the ideal state for an artist. It tranquilizes the creative personality, which thrives on conflict and on the clash and ferment of ideas. The artist’s transcendence must be within his own work; he should not impose any artificial barriers between himself and the mainspring of his subconscious. One of the things that’s turned me against LSD is that all the people I know who use it have a peculiar inability to distinguish between things that are really interesting and stimulating and things that appear to be so in the state of universal bliss that the drug induces on a "good" trip. They seem to completely lose their critical faculties and disengage themselves from some of the most stimulating areas of life. Perhaps when everything is beautiful, nothing is beautiful.

An interesting snippet from Anton Chekhov’s - "The Lady with the toy dog"

Sitting side by side with a young woman, who in the dawn seemed so beautiful, Gomov, appeased and enchanted by the sight of the fairy scene, the sea, the mountains, the clouds, the wide sky, thought how at bottom, if it were thoroughly explored, everything on earth was beautiful, everything, except what we ourselves think and do when we forget the higher purposes of life and our own human dignity.

Is Gomov on LSD or just horny i dunno

Quote 2

The great nations have always acted like gangsters, and the small nations like prostitutes.

In the current scenario we could choose to see

- America as a gangster, financing tyrants like Saddam world over and then jumping in to perform its own genocide like a mega advertising campaign for its weapons.

- India as a prostitute...if you are an indian and have not figured out that you belong to a whore nation, then i dont want to break your illusion...

On a brighter (actually black and white) note here is a 9 minute flick by kubrick before he made any of his feature films.