There is a new Blog in Town

Alrighty people - for all those who have faithfully over the past two months checked in to see what I've written - I've shifted home .....

So for the same me and media fun - tadka laga ke -

Pop Culture Curry or or http://www.popculturecurry.com

If you like the new blog - show us your appreciation and follow it - warna ..... :P

If I were a Boy

What would you do if you were a boy ?

Moreover, I know this song is trying to make a point, by turning the tables and showing men how they behave but does it just come across as a big ass whine fest ? With a title like that, the rest of the song is honestly uninspiring, but never the less - its definitely food for thought.

I wanna Hold your Hand ......

This one is for all the Gleeks out there ....

This week's episode was all about God, and more importantly about the bond between parents and children. Kurt Humml's dad is in a coma. Kurt is devastated as he already lost his mother when he was a child. Kurt sings a song to express his feelings. Believe me when I say, the song he sang was the last one I ever thought I'd hear a boy sing to express his love for his father. Kurt narrates a short story before singing the song. When his mother died, at her funeral he felt bereft like nothing would be normal again. At that moment his dad held his hand and gave it a tight squeeze letting him know he would always be there.

The following video is the audio only :D  

The visuals for the song are absolutely beautiful, with images of a young Kurt on a bicycle and his father teaching him how to ride, Kurt and his father at his mother's grave, Kurt and his father having a tea party .... all the things we did with our parents.

Now I find the choice of song absolutely amazing, completely unexpected and yet it fits so beautifully. Because what is more poignant than the image of a young child holding his parent's hand.

This one is dedicated to my mommy - I want to hold your hand <3

And to the Beatles, who are turning in their graves because Chris Colfer sang the song better than the original all I have to say is - Let it be ;)

Wise men say... Only fools rush in

This week a post on the Indian Make Up and Beauty Blog got me thinking about love...


When we fall in love, how does that love endure through the ages ? Which part of the person do we fall in love with. Is love just a habit thats truly hard to break ? How does the world around us teach us to think about love ?


A gentleman by the name of William Shakespeare wrote a sonnet that tried to answer some of these questions. The beauty of poetry is that is always poses as many questions as it answers so, have a read, have a smile and feel the lurrrve ;)

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

 Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

 Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

 That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

It is the star to every wandering bark,

 Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

 Within his bending sickle's compass come:

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

 But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

If this be error and upon me proved,

 I never writ, nor no man ever loved.



    William Shakespeare   

    (1564 - 1616)

I read this poem when I was 15 and I still come back to it on days when the cynicism of the world pulls me down. To quote Taylor Swift, 


"I'M not a princess, this ain't a fairy tale


I'm not the one You'll sweep off her feet,

Lead her up the stairwell

This ain't Hollywood, this is a small town,

I was a dreamer before you went and let me down

Now its too late for you and your white horse, to come around...."








For those days - I pull out my book of sonnets and fall in love in love all over again :D

Sita Sings the Blues

A few days ago I saw an absolutely wonderful little film called Sita Sings the Blues.The film is an animated re-interpretation of the Ramayana as "the greatest break-up story ever told".

I've always had a bit of a grouse with the Ramayana because of the way Rama treated Sita. I can not understand how a man becomes maryada purushottamma with the way he treated his wife. I understand this is  way before women's lib and colonialism but something about abandoning your pregnant wife in a forest is quite inhuman. I've always felt for Sita, maybe even pitied her a bit. For all her love and devotion all she got was a kick in the behind. I know right wing Hindutvadi's will disagree but let me be clear here, culture, religion and mythology just like literature, art and film are always open to interpretation, they belong to everyone and no one at the same time. Ergo no one has the right to claim supremacy of one version over the other.

Many might consider Nina Paley's version to be rather irreverent to the Hindu epic that it is based on but I think like every piece of art, it is curious, it questions and prompts one to think about what it is to be a woman and what it is to be a woman who loves a man too much.

Originally I was a bit surprised that a piece of art like this came from an American woman. It was a bit jarring initially but once I got over that bit, I think Nina Paley has done justice to the story of the Ramayana. She has not belittled Hindu Culture but has understood what is at the heart of a great story and has appropriated it.

I think bits like the clip below can bit quite funny to some (me included) and quite blasphemous to others. Irrespective it is a fascinating piece that is at once, honest, ironic, sarcastic and genuine.




The use of Jazz music is rather interesting. Personally I find it lends a beautiful transferability to the story so that no matter where in the world you are, you can feel for this woman. It takes an essentially rooted story and makes it universal.




Now Sita Sings the Blues is a part of the copyleft movement and therefore is available online at great resolutions for free. You can also watch it in its entirety on Youtube.

For more information - or if you are just plain curious visit the website.

Now I know a lot of people will disagree with what I've said. All I have to say is please do watch the film in its entirety before you form an opinion.

Cheers !

Power ! - Kanye West

The music video for KanyeWest is a visual portrait of Power as described by its visual artist director Marco Brambilla. From the moment I saw it, I was stunned at what the director has managed to accomplish in 90 seconds. The concept is deliciously simple yet stunningly complex. The camera zooms out to reveal more and more until you see the entire picture. However the nuances of the image, the movements synced to the music are all amazing.
Conecptually the video is designed to make a statement on the sexuality of celebrity and power, and manages to redefine the way we look at all things "epic".

For everyone who is curious about how Brambilla technically managed to shoot a video like this,
 Brambilla says,

"I shot images of the casting, people who came in as dancers and models and actresses in the various poses, and then it was put together as a photograph originally," Brambilla said. "We had very little time to shoot it. We only had a day to shoot it, so I basically know exactly how each element would look, where each element would go and how the whole piece would choreograph, because there's about 24 layers of video in the piece, and they are all interconnected. So it's almost like a visual ballet in a way, and it had to be pre-planned in a very specific way to make it cohesive and to make it work. That was the most challenging part of it: how to [translate] it from a still, a painting, and then make the painting come alive into the filming and the photography."

Brilliant !!!!

ALso - for anyone interested in the Symbolism of the video -

MTV Cheat Sheet and another entertaining analysis that has Kanye West as a Masonic initiate - Go figure :P







Some more buzz on Power :

Pretty Much Amazing ,
Pigeons and Planes,
MTV

Love, Sex and Magic !

It says something when one of the loveliest chic flicks of the year is Sex and the City 2. You can take away the amazing costumes, the drop dead gorgeous sets and the absolutely delicious looking men and you would have four exceptional women and one riveting script. The story by itself isn't much, it seemed more like an exceptionally long episode of the series. However the dialogue of the film takes each scene from passably mediocre to an absolute delight. Unforgettable one-liners include Samatha calling Rikard,  "Lawrence of my Labia" and Carrie referring to the law of men cheating on their wives with the nanny, "The Jude Law".

Ideologically, the film is every feminist's wet dream and worse nightmare combined. As each woman successfully navigates and negotiates with centuries of tradition to create their own rules, they also succumb to the constraints of womanhood with their own love of fashion and all things outwardly feminine( wheres the sporty girl in sweats ? and why is the bra-less nanny a lesbian?). While The film is an ode to third wave feminism - it begs the question as to how we see ourselves - as women first or just as human beings. Now one can hardy dismiss gender as irrelevant but Sex and City at once tries to redefine what it means to be a woman and while being caught in the traps of of traditional gender roles.

I would have loved to see Miranda, yell at the boss and file a sexual harassment law suit. Quitting and running just seemed to lack spirit and almost seemed to endorse letting men get away with sexism. I would have preferred Carrie with a little more maturity and little less materialism. Charlotte and her inability to handle her children even with help was a big wtf moment - you have a nanny and your husband bathes the kids !!! Samantha was just perfect !!! She stole the show with her unashamed sense of self and her defiance of everything the world has ever told a woman she must be.

Theres just something about movies like Sex and the City 2. I'm not sure if its how you can enjoy them with all your girl friends, how riveting everything on screen is or just how much you've grown to love these women over the years, whatever it is - it re-affirms my faith is the magic of the movies !