Amitabh Bachchan "slams Slumdog"

It seems that the world is abuzz with Slumdog Millionaire, and not just because it won 3 Golden Globes. Media sources around the world claim that Amitabh Buchchan, a Bollywood Super Star, has "slammed" Slumdog, saying it portrays the "underbelly" of Indian society, and gives false impressions to the western world.

The BBC quotes Buchchan, saying "If SM (Slumdog Millionaire) projects India as [a] Third World dirty underbelly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky underbelly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations. It's just that the SM idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative [Golden] Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not."

I do not agree with him. Yes Slumdog does portray a poor India, but also a wealthy. No movie shows every aspect of a culture. If you were to believe that a country is only what is shown in movies then everyone in India is constantly breaking out into song and dance; and Everyone in the US is either a Cowboy or is employed by the Mob. The movie doesn't change my image of India even though it may have shown it in a less than glamorous light. I think it is just as unfair to undervalue the poor and third-world-like conditions as it is to overvalue the splendor. Everyone deserves the right to be recognized regardless of their status. Ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away. I think these are the words of a man who is afraid that the film will reflect negatively on him rather than his people and culture and should be given little credence.

************************************************************************************

Upon further investigation I feel compelled to amend my previous statement. It appears that Amitabh Bachchan has been taken out of context. Not only by the BBC, but by most of the Indian Media sources. I found his blog, and his most recent post states his frustration with how the media has latched onto his statement that was merely a rephrasing of a number of emails he has recently received. I didn't believe his claim at first, but upon reading the original blog, I feel that I am forced to agree. The original blog stated:

"The Salon du Cinema team meets me at the entrance to Paris-Nord station and after an exchange of greetings and flowers and video and stills, out into the wet and cold Paris streets, chased by a huge group of women, who scream and shout and clap, making you wonder what it is that I may have done to receive such an enthusiastic welcome in a country that hardly knows who I am. But, Fouad my driver and sincere personal guide during all my recent visits to the city [Paris], gathers me quickly into his car and drives off. They are migrants or asylum seekers from nearby or distant country and are begging he informs me. My ego brought into place I am saddened by their plight. Conditions the world over are so similar. Perceptions differ, but the reality of life and existence, unchanged.

On blog, comments for the film 'SlumDog Millionaire' and the anger by some on its contents, prompt me to say the above. If SM projects India as Third World dirty under belly developing nation and causes pain and disgust among nationalists and patriots, let it be known that a murky under belly exists and thrives even in the most developed nations. Its just that the SM idea authored by an Indian and conceived and cinematically put together by a Westerner, gets creative Globe recognition. The other would perhaps not."

I find his initial comment to be surprisingly similar to what I feel. The same conditions exist in all countries; and although he says that the same recognition might not be given on a global basis, I disagree. I think that the same plot could have been set in almost any country, portraying similar economic and social disadvantages, and it would have been hailed with the same accolades.

The story is a hybrid of the horrifying and heart lifting. The acting was superb, the cinematography just as great. The soundtrack was wonderful. This movies is, and should be credited for more than just the plot and culture.

Perhaps Bachchan, is just an overrated Bollywood star trying to keep a grasp on the fame he has gained over the years. I think it is more likely that he is just a poor celebrity caught in the propaganda produced by the Mass media with the hopes of profit. Poor guy. Makes me glad that I'm not a celeb.


*Most of this comes from recent emails with Sarahhh....I couldn't resist!

Here goes

This is my first official post from my brand new iTouch. I think I prefer the old fashion computer way, but this will work in a pinch. Besides, it's too freaking cool not to post from here!

Oh yea I know I said it was supposed to be here in a week but apple is amazing and it came in yesterday. The day after ordering it. Sweet!!!

My new iTouch!

It should be here in a week. I can't wait!

Rock & Roll

I have this song stuck in my head. It's been there since 6:45 am. At this rate I fear that it will be there for the rest of eternity. I just might be ok with that.

D.) It is written

I accidentally treated myself to a movie today, Slumdog Millionaire. A serendipitous moment to be sure. It was delightful. I laughed, I cried, I muffled a scream; well, if I hadn't been alone in a half-full theater that's what I would have done. Regardless, this movie was terrific. Perhaps the best movie I've seen in a while. Hands down better than 7 Pounds, which I watched last week but was left with so little of an impression that I couldn't even find the words to blog. Slumdog Millionaire on the other hand. Ugh! Fabulous. It's based on the book Q & A by Vikas Swarup, which I will be buying soon and reading with in the next decade or so, and I'm considering going to see it again. The only other movie I've seen more than once in a theater was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and this blows Harry out of the water.

Here's the trailer, let it inspire you. Then go buy tickets, and come back here so we can talk about it. Please. Now! GO!!





*Edit* After doing a bit more research, I decided to buy Q&A. I'm anxiously awaiting it's arrival and will devour it instantly.

Another Day, Another Dollar

I'm currently laying in bed, eating toast with homemade apple butter, listening to Dave Brubeck, and thumbing my way through Mansfield Park. What could be better? Perhaps what I have planned for the rest of the day!

I'm taking Mom and Aunt Eileen (who was a surprise visitor this weekend, those cheeky Fast girls...), to the Smithsonian's and the Kennedy Center for one of their Free performances. I'm really quite excited. Haven't been to the KC before, so I'm really looking forward to it. It was really fun walking around town with them yesterday. They were both so excited to be there, and Eileen even teared up a few times. It's kind of nice to be able to make dreams come true. I just have to try to forget that I've seen these things a few million times already, and try to recapture the awe that they first invoked.

Ok, on to other things. Sarahhhh I watched Burn After Reading last night, I didn't seem to enjoy it as much as you. But I also watched it with my mom and aunt, so I think maybe next time I'll watch it with someone my own age, perhaps it will be better. I'm not holding my breath though.

So I'm working my way through Mansfield Park, as I've said a few times already, and I find myself wanting to discuss it with someone else. The themes in this book are great, and could lead to some really superb conversations, but alas, no one else is reading it. I think that is a sign that I need to join a book club, or find one online or something. Unless YOU want to read it! We could start our own cyber book club. It could be quite amazing, people from various places around the country coming together to discuss a common book. Sounds down right glorious to me.

Since this post was pure drivle (and not the good kind) I should end it with something of substanance. Like a poem, or proverbial phrase, or cleverly hidden book recommendation. So I'll leave you with the words of Frosty the Snowman,
"Happy Birthday!"

A Query

Is the corrupter to blame if someone is corruptible? Who is at fault? Should the blame fall to the weak minded individual who allowed themselves to be corrupted, or to the villain who took full advantage of the situation? Is there even such a thing as a victim, or should weakness be categorized as a crime?

Of course as with all things, this can most certainly not be the truth in all situations. For to be absolute is to be extreme, to be zealous. And a zealot, weather noble or otherwise, is a force that can rarely be contained.

A Post?

Let's see. I'm sitting at work, which should mean that I'm working. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately?, this is not the case. I'm really only here because I've pissed away all of my vacation time by sleeping and being utterly useless. But I don't regret my decision to be a waste of space, it was delightful, and I plan on continuing the pattern into the new year.

What else. I'm waiting on two movies to come from amazon, Mansfield Park, and The Happiest Millionaire. I'm quite excited about both of them, although perhaps more excited about the Austen film. It has inspired me to re-read the novel, and I find myself thinking and speaking a bit Austenian, not intentionally of course, but so it goes.

Mom's coming to visit (almost typed mum, strange) New Year's Eve through the weekend. Not sure what to expect. I'm sure it'll be fine. I've been trying to come up with cheap and entertaining things to do. The Newly opened American History Museum is on the list, and perhaps the Native American Museum and the Air and Space Museum. Mom hasn't done the Smithsonian thing, and I haven't seen much more for that matter, so it should be somewhat entertaining. Also planning a visit to Arlington Cemetery, and maybe a trip into Arlington, VA. I've never been, but I've heard it's quaint.

I feel like there was something else I was going to say. Something maybe important, but probably not. This is a rather pathetic post. I was hoping for something better, something deeper. But once again it's seems to be about movies and books. The story of my life, or rather the stories of what my life should be? Depressing, and I'll go no further for fear of disheartening my many readers.

Ok, that's all I suppose. I hope you had a happy merry christmas and all that jazz.

Jamie is...

tired and lazy. but i'd like to make a new post. maybe someday soon.

Things of Coraline, and books, of course

i saw a trailer for Coraline on tv the other night. I was so excited I squealed and made everyone in the room be quite. The 11 year old I was babysitting was the only one in the room, or house. So he sat there quitely staring at me wondering if I'd gone mad. Perhaps I have. But I think I'm just mad for Coraline.



What else, let's see. I've read a lot of books recently, only one worth mentioning: SLAM, by Nick Hornby. I've been a Hornby fan for years, and SLAM was no exception. It's the story of Sam, the 16 year old narrator who gets his girlfriend pregnant and learns to deal with the consequences. It reminded me of Catcher in the Rye. That is of course if Holden Caulfield knocked up his girlfriend, and was obsessed with Tony Hawk. It is a terrific read, and I highly recommend it for teens, and adults, and anyone who is of the human persuasion.

Also in book news, my friend Danica just gave me my Christmas present. A Lion Among Men, Volume Three in the Wicked Years. I'm so freakin' excited. I've been wanting to read this since it came out in October, but I didn't want to pay for it. And now I don't have too! Hooray! Thanks Danica!

I was going to write about other things. But now I'm so excited about my new book that I just can't! Well that and I'm at work and should probably do some of that too!

My most recent i-Tunes purchase

Zooey Deschanel. M. Ward. She & Him, delightful.

Note to self:

write a blog entitled, "These aren't my shoes!"

Politics of Preschool

If, by Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!


Ten points if you can tell me what else he wrote...without looking it up!

Ohio

booked a ticket home.

feels like this...




doesn't feel anything like this...

Seeker of Truth

 

I've sort of been thinking about getting a tattoo. I'm thinking about this one on the top of my foot with the dandelion seed wrapping around my ankle.

The phrase comes from an ee cummings poem, Seeker of Truth




seeker of truth

follow no path
all paths lead where

truth is here


what do you think?

A random assortment of thoughts

Well, it is November 5. The day after the election, as I'm sure you are well aware. Obama has been elected president...and there was much rejoicing...yay. Well much rejoicing from my little corner of cyberspace, but perhaps, not from the entire country. A little traipse through facebook status' proves this point. Although I have refrained from any political talk, so far, I will say a little about my disappointment with most of the religious right. Perhaps most eludes to more than is really the problem; some of the religious right. In particular those who are so fearful of an Obama lead country that they forget that God is well aware of our tiny little country and our tiny little politics. He's prepared for Obama. Trust that his will is better than ours. Stop acting like you have giant a gherkin thrust up your backside. The more you segregate yourself from the leadership of our country, the more you divide our country. Don't blame the president if we can't be united. Blame yourself for not looking past differences and working together as a body. Moving on...

My story for NaNo WriMo is coming along...slowly. Perhaps way too slowly. At this point I'm approximately 6000 words behind schedule. I don't have anything to do tonight, so I'm hoping to catch up. Although I'm not really sure what's going to happen so Susan, so I'm finding it difficult to write.

In honor of NaNo WriMo, and in an effort to keep myself from being too distracted, I've decided not to read any books this month. This is a big step for me. I generally average 2-6 books a month. For the past two years. Going cold turkey might be a bit extreme, but so far it seems to be OK. I guess I'll have to see what kind of state I'm in at the end of the month. Maybe I can break my addiction to books, and return it to the hobby state. That would probably be a good thing.

I think I'm going to make it home for Thanksgiving this year. It would be the first time I've been home in almost a year. And the first thanksgiving with my family in two years...three years? I'm not sure. But it's been awhile. It would be good. Hopefully plane tickets will keep dropping, or at least stay the same until I get paid on Friday.

In other news, according to my mom, gas prices have dropped to an astonishing $1.98 in Northwest Ohio. How amazing!

California voters turned down a constitutional amendment to allow gay marriage. I'm not sure I should type how this makes me feel, but I hope someday we'll all be allowed to make our own choices, and our own mistakes. Gays and pregnant women included.

Ok, I said I wasn't going to talk politics, I guess I haven't done so well adhering to that claim. Maybe in the next post.

I just wrote 518 words in like 5 minutes. Why can't I do that with my NaNo? I'd be caught up in like an hour.

Ok, last piece of random information. I've discovered another new musician. Meaghan Smith. She sounds a lot like Nora Jones, except she has this amazing music video. Watch. Listen. Enjoy.

Untitled

Susan looked down into a puddle that was quickly forming in the steady rain. She saw a reflection of herself. Her nut brown hair; her nut brown eyes; her nut brown freckles sprayed across her button nose. Everything seemed so, ordinary, So boring. She thought. Something’s just stay the same, but why do I have to be one of them?

She sniffed, and wiped her nose on the back of her sleeve and looked in the puddle one more time. There she sat. Sad, and lonely, looking sour as a lemon. But then, quick as a flash she winked. Or rather her reflection winked. Susan froze unable to tear her eyes from the doppelganger staring up at her from the watery mirror. There it was again! Definitely a wink! But that couldn’t be possible, Susan hadn’t winked. And then the most extra-ordinary thing happened, her reflection grinned, tilted her head and beckoned Susan to follow her.

“What? Do you want me to follow you?” she asked the puddle, her voice cracking with uncertainty. Her reflection grinned from ear to ear and nodded her head. “But…how?” The reflection smiled at Susan, and then lifted her hand and pointed one slender finger at her. Susan stretched out a finger gingerly touching its tip to the surface of the puddle.

If Susan had been paying close attention, perhaps she would have seen the reflections eyes twitch, just slightly, barely noticeable. If her mother had been there she would have noticed the twitch, she always noticed when Susan twitched; and the twitch always meant the same thing. It meant that Susan was up to no good. But her mother wasn’t in the alley, and Susan wasn’t paying attention the reflections eyes.

Her finger grazed the surface of the silvery water, just for a moment. Just long enough to tell that the water wasn’t water at all. It was something much thicker, much colder, and much more frightening. And with a whoosh, and a splash, Susan was gone.

NaNo WriMo

"Art for art's sake does wonderful things to you. It makes you laugh. It makes you cry. It makes you want to take naps and go places wearing funny pants. Doing something just for the hell of it is a wonderful antidote to all the chores and "must-dos" of daily life. Writing a novel in a month is both exhilarating and stupid, and we would all do well to invite a little more spontaneous stupidity into our lives."

Well, I'm going to do it. I'm participating in NaNo Wrimo for the very first time. Wish me luck!

Music of Chance

"Nashe understood that he was no longer behaving like himself. he could hear the words coming out of his mouth, but even as he spoke them, he felt they were expressing someone else's thoughs, as if he were no more than an actor performing on the stage of some imaginary theater, repeating lines that had been written for him in advance." ~Paul Auster