Work-Week
I'm traveling to a conference in New Orleans mid-week, and will be spending the next few days getting my presentation ready. I'll most likely return with a post in a week or so. Meanwhile, as ever, feel free to use the comments box for links, remarks, the usual. I'll probably check in there too. Take care of yourselves.
(Illustration: A panel from a work-in-progress comic on Bollywood.)
posted by girish @ 8:00 AM
50 Comments:
Lisa Rosman on Jessica Lange and plastic surgery.
Michael Guillen on Ray Harryhausen.
Acquarello on Raoul Servais.
Jim Tata: A reader's self-diagnosis.
If it is still in existence, make sure to have dinner at Arnaud's in the French Quarter. I got wonderfully drunk on their special coffee.
I hadn't heard of Arnaud's. The last time I was there was two years ago. I remember the beignets at Cafe Du Monde. I'll be curious to see how live music has revived there, post-Katrina.
I love the illustration.
Thanks, Frances.
Cool pix on your site.
Cafe Du Monde is seriously overrated, in my opinion.
Hey, David. You got any recommendations for beignet joints or watering holes in N'Awlins?
I noticed that one of the best jazz clubs there is open (Snug Harbor) and another is closed (Funky Butt).
I'm sure you all have already seen this but just in case you haven't: Filmbrain on La Chinoise.
I can't speak for beignets, but my favorite bar is Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop; this may be a cliche, since it's probably something of a tourist attraction (being the oldest bar in the country), but its atmosphere, dank yet cozy, is just irresistable. Dark, quiet, good music and, when I've been there, not crowded at all. I'm assuming it survived the flood - I haven't actually been to New Orleans since 2001.
Thanks, David.
(That is an utterly neat name for a bar.)
I like your new "cities and images" post.
And I'm not sure if you've seen Steven Shaviro's post on V For Vendetta.
Jonathan Rosenbaum's 10 Overlooked Noirs at DVD Beaver.
Harold Ramis interview in The Believer.
Girish, thought you might find this interesting: Pitchfork Media interviews Neko Case (she talks about songwriting and musicians she likes, and also has some unkind words for certain popular singers, who use "auto tune," a technology I didn't know existed).
Also, tonight on the Charlie Rose Show, Sasha Frere-Jones interviews Fiona Apple. I'm not much of an Apple fan, but the interview might be interesting (comes on late, though, on the West Coast -- 11:30 PM to 12:30 AM).
Shree 420 was actually a good movie. There once was a time when there were good movies made in Bollywood. The funny thing is the word '420' (char sau beez) is so over used in Bollywood cinema now.
Neat pic though
girish, since I mentioned Shree 420, I have to mention the one thing that goes hand in hand with the movie, provided you still remember a bit of Hindi :)
'Mera joota hai japani, yeh patloong englistani, sar par lal topi roosi, phir bhi dil hai hindustani'
Michael, thanks for that link. I hadn't seen that. (I noticed on Sasha's blog about the Fiona interview--I'm a fan of hers.)
I especially liked this bit from that Neko Case interview:
Case:...And if Celine Dion is supposedly the great singer that she says she is why is there auto tune on every fucking word in her songs? Can't you just hit it, Celine? Do you have another baby book to shoot? You gotta paint your baby to look like a pot of peas? What are you doing that you can't be singing in the studio? It's your fucking job!
Pitchfork: Hey, that baby book is beautiful.
Case: You know that's the grossest thing I've ever seen. That was so nasty I almost had to hate some babies for that. But babies came back and said, "I'm not responsible for this, they made me do it." So I decided that I still love babies.
Sachin--Know and love Hindi. (Didn't move here till after undergrad.) And 420 was one of the most common cuss-words we used as kids...
David Hudson has a post about the new FIPRESCI journal Undercurrent.
Which includes this forum on film criticism.
girish, then you know what to think of a person who gives his phone number to you as:
420-9211
:)
Nau do gyaara. Haven't heard that in a dog's age...
'Mera joota hai japani...'
The very mention of this song makes me smile, but my favourite songs from Shree 420 are easily 'Ramaiya Vastavaiya' and 'Pyaar Hua Iqrar Hua'. What a great era for music that was!
Yeah, Girish, that was one of the best parts of the interview. When Case said "that was so nasty I almost had to hate some babies for that" I just burst out laughing. Good stuff.
'Pyaar Hua Iqrar Hua'...oh yes. How can I forget that one. the one in the rain...fast pouring rain, an umbrella, two lovers huddled close to each other, the blowing wind, and then the umbrella flies off...To this day, most of the songs from that era are echoed by people. The funny thing is even the new generation of singers revert to songs from that time because they words meant something, they had a distinctive rhythm, a certain melody.
Girish, Mubarak, are you guys familiar with Guru Dutt's work? I often felt he was like the Indian Orson Wells -- misunderstood and unappreciated. Dejected, he gave it all up.
Sachin--I've seen about half of the Guru Dutt-directed films (which would be four, I guess), of which I probably like Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool the most.
I still have some early films of his to see, but yeah, Dutt's pretty awesome. Pyaasa's a favourite.
Dutt's awesome. And for some reason, the Indian embassy did a retrospective of him in Manila, so I managed to catch everything he directed, including two he probably did, but wasn't credited for.
Pyaasa
Guru Dutt retrospective
Noel, you've got an Ali Baba's cave of writings in your Yahoo Groups archives. I wish there was a table of contents to it for easy and quick access. Thanks for those links.
Noel and Mubarak--A while back, I discovered a Bollywood series of 2-films-on-1-disc at my local Indian store and picked up Guru Dutt's AAR PAAR and MR. AND MRS. 55. My parents loved 'em but I haven't watched them yet.
Great Godfrey Cheshire interview at MZS's place.
Harry Tuttle is setting the standard for close analysis: this is his fifth detailed post on Tsai's THE WAYWARD CLOUD.
Darren on Little Feat.
Some more on Guru Dutt. His first directorial movie Baazi came about because of his friendship with Dev Anand. The two friends has discussed if Anand was acting as lead, then Dutt would direct that movie (I do find this confusing as Dev Anand starred in some movies before Baazi but maybe it was his big break?).
The interesting thing about Baazi is that one of the earlier Indian movies to show the street smart con artist, something which became a trademark of bollywood later on. Also the lighting techniques used were different from the regular churned out work.
Kaagah ke phool is as close to Dutt's autobiography as anything. In fact, his affairs and life story were put on screen. There were rumours before that if that movie flopped, Dutt would give up movies completely.
And then there is S.D Burman's amazing music (Pyaasa especially). Considering I am named after S.D, I find a warm spot for his music. It is a bonus that his output was actually of excellent quality :)
Just noticed some of the things I mentioned above were listed in Noel's link on Dutt..good to know that I had atleast some info right :)
Didn't know that about Baazi.
Named for Sachin Dev, eh? I remember going though a big Rahul Dev phase, because his music was so influenced by (er, appropriated ingeniously from) Western music sources but still felt/sounded original.
Yeah Sachin Dev :) Undecided about my name, the radio played one of his tunes and then and there, it was decided that my name would be after him. So when I went to India with my mom 5-6 years ago, I bought her all of his music (a box set of tapes). Next time around, I will look for his cd's. The Indian industry is getting good at now re-releasing old movies and albums on dvd's and cd's.
As a youngster, I saw Rahul Dev live in concert just a year (or two) before he passed away. His remixed album done by Asha Bhosle (Rahul & I) still features every now and then on my listening horizon. One wicked album ahead of its time, much before Indian remixes became common items, yet sensible enough to incorporate a lot of the original old songs. I think it had come out in the late 90's maybe 1996 or so. I am sure you have heard of it, right?
Sachin, I don't know that remix album--I'll have to ask my mom about that one. Asha and RD made a ton of good music together back in the day.
Michael on Visconti's White Nights.
Round-Headed Boy on Kris Kristofferson's music.
Now to go catch a plane.
Thanks, girish. If you enter a title in the 'search' field, it'll spit out what posts contain that word or title. That's the best I can think of. That, or take the address of my egroups, put it in 'search domain' in advanced Google search mode, and hit 'search.'
Or just ask me. I'll probably end up doing the same thing, but I'm happy to do it...
Thanks much, Noel.
Resurfacing quickly to post a couple of links that I hope to catch up with and read when I get home.
Part 2 of the Godfrey Cheshire interview at MZS's.
Also at MZS's: 5 for the day--Parting Shots.
Barbara Stanwyck post at The Listening Ear.>
"A whole lotta bloggy asides" from Ryan Wu.
Jaime Weinman on the new Double Indemnity DVD announcement. (Bosley Crowther never ceases to stun me.)
Worth re-repeating: Angie Dickinson blog-a-thon on Wednesday April 19. Flickhead and Dennis Cozzalio have all the details.
Via David Hudson: Fred Camper on Douglas Sirk.
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