The Prestidigitator

Like most people, I thoroughly enjoyed Jon Stewart’s drawing and quartering of Jim Cramer on The Daily Show last week. It tells you something about the cultural zeitgeist when a television comedian is the one who ends up taking the mantle of journalism.

The episode, despite being immensely uncomfortable to watch, was catharsis in many ways. It was also refreshing to see Stewart finally come down on Cramer (unfortunately, a scapegoat for the real problem – financial news networks) in an expletive laden interview/skewering.

But isn’t that part of the problem? Selling this idea that you don’t have to do anything. Anytime you sell people the idea that sit back and you’ll get 10 to 20 percent on your money, don’t you always know that that’s going to be a lie? When are we going to realize in this country that our wealth is work? That we’re workers and by selling this idea that of “Hey man, I’ll teach you how to be rich”…how is that any different than an infomercial?

…

I gotta tell you. I understand that you want to make finance entertaining, but it’s not a fucking game. When I watch that, I get, I can’t tell you how angry it makes me because it says to me, “You all know.” You all know what’s going on. You can draw a straight line from those shenanigans to the stuff that was being pulled at Bear and at AIG and all this derivative market stuff that is this weird Wall Street side bet.

How come journalists back in India never hold our politicians’ feet to the fire like Stewart did?

(PS: I did feel sorry for Cramer.)

Once in a while, you read a book that is an entirely intimate and personal experience. It’s extremely gratifying but unnerving to read about a protagonist who shares your traits, quirks and personal philosophy. This was one such book for me.

This Book Will Save Your Life is a satire of affluence and it’s pitfalls. Richard Novak is a self made man who is obsessed with health food, art, culture and pretty much nothing else. A fit of unexplained chest pain forces him to reevaluate his life, loves and family. This is a story about a man who attempts opening up to a world and is surprised in the strangest of ways.

Richard reconnects with his brother and son and opens himself to the idea of intimacy. In the meantime he makes friends with a movie star, a reclusive screenwriter and all the while, his house is slowly being devoured by a sinkhole. This is more of a dark comedy where you inadvertently laugh at a person’s misfortunes than at his sense of humor. What’s amazing is that A M Homes is a woman; and for a woman she shows an in depth knowledge about the inner workings of men.

On the surface, this seems like light reading but at the end of it you will be left with a surge of hope and maybe, just maybe, it’ll save your life.

An exhaustive review here.

http://www.amhomesbooks.com/

Radio Host: What’s your latest obsession?

Hank: Just the fact that people seem to be getting dumber and dumber. You know, I mean we have all this amazing technology and yet computers have turned into basically four figure wank machines. The internet was supposed to set us free, democratize us, but all it’s really given us is Howard Dean’s aborted candidacy and 24 hour a day access to kiddie porn. People…they don’t write anymore – they blog. Instead of talking, they text, no punctuation, no grammar: LOL this and LMFAO that. You know, it just seems to me it’s just a bunch of stupid people pseudo-communicating with a bunch of other stupid people in a proto-language that resembles more what cavemen used to speak than the King’s English.

Radio Host: Yet you’re part of the problem, I mean you’re out there blogging with the best of them.

Hank: Hence my self-loathing.

-Californication (Episode 5)

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/07/11/1183833599460.html

Sith Lord, Emperor Palpatine…er…Pope Benedict XVI has ‘corrected‘ erroneous interpretations of the 1960s reforming Vatican Council. As of now Protestant churches are not really churches and the Orthodox churches are ‘wounded churches’. But he does admit there are elements of truth in the aforementioned churches. The humility!

The new document, issued by the Doctrine of the Faith, which the Pope used to head, reaffirms traditional teaching that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true church…

What puzzles me is the temerity with religious leaders voice opinions these days. As if the two tablets from the mountain weren’t restrictive enough, the man went on to bring forth The Ten Commandments for Driving.

To think…people like these get taken seriously!

PS: The resemblance is uncanny though. Also, for those who didn’t quite catch the reference, the title is a quote by Palpatine from the film. (Click here for audio)

This piece of news is perhaps the best I’ve heard in a while; mostly because it’s just plain hilarious.

http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india/06_2007/cia-helped-in-toppling-communist-govt-in-kerala-43293.html

Ellsworth Bunker, an American diplomat has revealed that the CIA financed Congress led agitations against the Communist government when EMS came into power back in 1957 in Kerala. That’s right. The CIA actually thought the Kerala Government would pose a threat to it’s national interests. They actually thought Kerala would turn India into a threat like China or the Soviet Union. Instead of doling out so much cash on trying to silence the government, all they had to do was come down and talk to the average Malayalee! We’re not that threatening, are we?

If you sense a condescending and cynical tone to the above post, that’s because I’m a true Malayalee.

Ranga Shankara (JP Nagar, Bangalore) was host to the play, Butter and Mashed Banana. Directed by Ajay Krishnan, this was an amazingly humorous yet profound look at our system of censorship.

It’s a three act play wherein the first act details the illegitimate birth of the protagonist (conceived on a night of ill advised but passionate love) to a Shiv Sena/Right Wing father and a CPI(M)/Left Wing mother. The conflict of ideas begin long before the child is born but the effects are life long.

In the second act we see that the protagonist is now a famous writer who has become a celebrity but his own countrymen know little of him as his book, “Bahabah” is banned by the Censor Board which deems it too offensive.

Freedom of Speech is your fundamental right, but you can’t say whatever you want, you know.

In the third act, the protagonist decides to change things by entering politics where he finds the system to be far too corrupt to change. The ruling and opposition parties fight over him to yield disastrous yet comical results. There is this one line by the opposition where the leader quotes the Blabbermouth Law of 1952 (Sayterius Minimus) which states, “Thou canst sayest what thy wants.” Call me lame, but I thought it was hilarious.

I thought the play was very well written and in spite of being slightly over the top still managed to tackle issues like freedom, morality, religious fanaticism and sexual awakening (or the lack of it).

And yes, there is music as well with some great lyrics and guitar strumming (by Ajay Krishnan himself). The three actors are excellent and the script is laced with dry wit and irony. It does manage to get the point across, albeit in a very humorous way.

If this play comes your way, I suggest you NOT miss it. At 100 Rs a ticket, it’s a great way to spend a Sunday evening!

Drop the cause and join the line.

Something made you cry, it’s the dirt in your eye.

PS: Butter and Mashed Banana is apparently used on a hangman’s noose to tighten the knot (Thank you Google!).

What exactly are these so called ‘Moral Values’ that so many self righteous pretentious hypocrites of our country keep touting? Really?

This is a long due post. It will not  arrive at any conclusions and it will not do anything about the ’situation at hand’. Like most passive youngsters (!), I cannot do anything about it and if given the opportunity, I would prefer apathy over any sort of activism. But sometimes, the things you see around simply get far too depressing and not to mention plain annoying!

Do I like the media? No. Do their justifications on sensationalizing news make sense? Yes, to an extent. Are right wing protests (read Shiv Sena and the likes) against the media justified? Are you bloody kidding me?

1. Shilpa Shetty/Richard Gere: An over enthusiastic ‘peck’ suddenly becomes prime time news material and in no time the ”moral brigade” of our country go on a rampage. The absurdity of the situation lies not only in the fact that the media hyped a somewhat not so innocent kiss, but that the protesters actually thought it was ‘offensive’! Now, haven’t they really noticed the sleaze (thinly disguised as entertainment) invading Cinema halls and homes?

2. Banning Sex Education in Maharashtra:  Now, forgive me when I say this…but sex really isn’t that much of a secret as we think. I mean…we have over a billion people in the country, it’s not like NOBODY’S thinking about it! And if you manage to peek it to our rich culture, you’ll agree that sex was very much a part of it. I will not elaborate but it baffles my mind that some of these idiots think that sex shouldn’t be discussed in schools. Won’t kids go looking for other sources? Isn’t that bad? Why is it that this bothers so many people, educated teachers and parents even?

3.  Star News Office Damaged: A Muslim boy(22) elopes with a Hindu girl(16) and become ‘news’ on Star News. Hours later, the Hindu Rashtra Sena ransack the office, smash furniture and vehicles. Where does this end?

Sometimes, I think the root cause for all this is religion itself. Man has fought ever since the concept of God was discussed and debated. Maybe what we really need is a Brave New World kind of scenario where religion is banned, children are created not born and the bounds of ethics and morals are clearly defined.

This is but a tip of the iceberg. Our country is in more of a mess that you and I think and unfortunately, most people are slight variants of myself; commentators.

In keeping with my whole Garden State/Zach Braff fan boy image, here’s the ultimate ZB homage video. Just after I got it from Pangu, I found out that Zach Braff actually posted it on his blog as well!

The video is so bad that it’s actually pretty damn good. I think I’ll be humming this for a while!

I don’t care what you say,

In a non gay way, I love Zach Braff!

Hilarious!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_gebFHutLw]

Disclaimer: You may NOT want to waste your time reading this crap.

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I remember reading in the Hitchhikers Guide by Douglas Adams that mice were the most brilliant species on the planet and over the last few weeks, my flat mates and myself have been victims to that satirical yet cruel truth.

I fall asleep in the living room (if it can be called that) next to my laptop a.k.a Natalie thanks to the numerous amounts of time I spend online. Imagine by surprise/shock when a furry little creature brushes past my leg in the wee hours of the night. After loud curses, I wake up Rajeev who I discovered wasn’t really asleep. So, being the Malayalees that we are, decide to catch the little rascal. Being the Malayalees that we are, we fail. For a whole damn week. Soon, Arijit manages to ‘drown’ one in the commode. Don’t ask, won’t tell. That’s when we realized it wasn’t just one.

Night after night, we (mostly just me) were plagued by nightmares to the extent that I even started screaming like a girl when Manish and Rajeev threw papers at me which due to the lack of electricity were misunderstood to be flying mice.

Finally, after placing rat poison at various strategic locations, our little friend falls dead at the feet of the merciless Arijit. Literally. Here’s hoping that the little jerks didn’t find time to raise a family!

On another, equally unimportant note, I finally decided to buy the Sony Cyber Shot DSC-W35 which I’d been eyeing for quite a while now…

I recently happened to watch Thank You for Smoking, a brilliant satire on the American tobacco industry, lobbyists and political correctness. It’s amazing how thin the line between right and wrong and good and bad is; how an effective argument is all it takes to blind one to logic.

See, Joey, that’s the beauty of argument. When you argue correctly, you’re never wrong.

This movie is NOT an anti-smoking campaign like I had previously thought, it tries to convey, albeit humorously the merits of’ ‘choice’; why we needn’t swallow everything we’re given or accept every societal demand.

Soon after, I began thinking why something like that wouldn’t be possible in India…mostly because (forgive me), the majority of people aren’t smart/bothered enough to counter years of conditioning and also it takes a certain amount of moral flexibility to argue for a wrong cause. I had to soon change my mind though…

Bihar: People demand right to cheat in exam

But then again, argument takes a whole new meaning in India!