Friday, August 19, 2005

These boots are meant for blogging?

Continuing with new girly avatar that I seem to have assumed, I post a link to this. Found the link to this super-popular blog quoted in one of those "blogs to watch out for" columns in the paper today.
Even if you are not obsessed with the shoes, or not obsessed with someone who is obsessed with the shoes, still if you would notice, the Manolo, he has a strange way of writing.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

There is no way a band like this would make it across the border

I didn't say that, the masked man did!

Slipknot was here yesterday, and under a lot of restrictions, they performed in front of few hundred people. I have never seen a Speed Metal /Nu-Metal live act ever before, so it was a one-off experience.

The live-show was incredible, with few of the nine-member masked band doing nothing on stage except walk around jump on and off everything and emote the lines. You really open your eyes and watch. When the vocalist speaks, there is a dramatic helicopter sound in the background, to corroborate his dramatic lines like, "We have a big family of friends". It was no wonder they have been voted the Best Live act.

But... the big but comes right here..... It was no music... 30 minutes through the show, my ears became comfortably numb, I couldn't cope with the 450 BPM, and my breaths and heartbeats were seriously out of sync. Some years ago, I would have probably enjoyed it, but now, I think I am growing too old for it. Give me some good old-school rock/metal anyday.

There were adrenaline junkies all around, and as I have wondered before, I couldn't understand the point of mindless fan following.

Friday, August 05, 2005

A thousand wishes such as these...

Outdated review, but I am pretty outdated too. I finally, watched "Hazaaron..." last weekend. Afterwards it was a deluge of ideas. I will start from genesis:

My dad's is a huge family, so as expected, I have lots of cousins. My cousins are a wide age bracket too: The oldest being 50 and youngest 15. And the motley crew includes: a teacher, a lawyer, an activist, two PhDs in Maths, one pursuing PhD, one doctor, three engineers, one MBA. For now lets focus on the cousin who is an activist: She is the only one who is different. She works for Women's rights with one of the Communist Parties. She was married to a gentleman who happened to be Gen Secy of the same party: a big man. Now he is no more. I have never met her. She is a lot older and any important event when I could, I always had exams. But I would like to discuss a lot of things with her, today. I would like to listen from her about what drives her. I would like to know why she doesn't desire that her children live a life with simpler pleasures.

I would like to ask her why she believes that brandishing the flag would give women the power they need. Do these women seek it in the first place? Would the reservation in LS they demand create more cases of "Rule by Proxy"? What about ensuring they deserve it? What about the country? Doesn't the power to change come with power itself?

Because, as I see it: all things around change, but the activism remains in this sort of static plane: it does not change with time. As in the movie. "Idealism for the heck of it" is not convincing to me. But I guess thats what our parents generation was gifted by their parents.

I am still confused about all the above, and hence, I reserve my opinions on the activist, Siddharth till a later date.

The only character I truly identify with is Vikram. He is born in a middle class family in a small town. His intelligence, humor, ambition, predictable dreams, love and his "desire to fit in" is all typically middle class. He is brash, he is shameless, he is clearheaded. and he is the one ultimately at loss, always.

The character which grew was Geeta. At least thats what the director tried. Initially blinded by love, and later discovering the bigger purpose, she was there to save the day. She didn't stay back because of any idealism, but because she felt the need to. But I guess women are like that. It helps that the actress is a spitting image of Smita Patil.

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Adidas set to buy Reebok

Now who said, "Impossible is nothing"?

*Edit*
As an aside, I remember the take on the above by a Local Chinese SportsWear Brand in Beijing: "Anything is Possible". Those guys can pirate anything.