Am I am missing something? Has to be.
Everybody gets it except me. Like some memo that I have managed to miss. How else can I explain the sway that hindi movies hold over all the people I know? Every new release imported from the shores of the motherland is awaited like another Sachin century. They know the Stars, the plot, the back story.
And I? I couldn't care less. For me every new movie is another example of overacting by a bunch of aging stars who avoid looking their age like the plague.I cannot understand the fascination for all things Bollywood. There was a time when the trite song-and-dance, hero-villain junk was meant to be for the masses. People justified their cartoonish fantasy story lines as an escape for people whose daily life was a struggle for survival.
Fair enough.
But what are all my friends escaping from? Can they not handle a story which might not have a happy ending or where the protagonist has no love interest? Would they feel disoriented if an on-screen relationship was not developed in 7 minutes of lazy film making by way of a rehashed song sequence under the Golden Gate Bridge?
Speaking of songs, is it not time we put that whole song and dance routine to rest? Every movie has them. Can none of the new breed of talented directors figure out a way to keep an audience engaged without the hero bursting into song?
And what of the actors? Why is it that Mr. Amir Khan played a college student in Raang De Basanti three years ago and his new movie has him playing one again? Am I expected to suspend disbelief ( a skill that one has to master to watch Bollywood fare) and believe that this 45 year old man is supposed to be in college???? Could they find nobody else who looked the part and could pull off such a *demanding* role?
Speaking of aging gracefully, who is going to break the news to Mr. Bachchan that at 70yrs it is OK for him to look his age on the screen and that we will not think less of him if his toupee goes missing for a scene or two.
Don't get me wrong. Its not like everything out of Hollywood is Oscar-worthy. Some of the crap coming out of L.A is so vile that a song or two might actually lessen the pain while watching these gems!
The advice I get the most often goes like this: "Its mindless fun, Yaar!! Leave your brain at home and enjoy!!!"
I am not sure I can leave a vital organ behind and drive myself to a theater showing one of Bollywood's best offerings but one thing is clear as day: While "3 idiots" plays to packed houses in the bay area, I seem to be the only idiot who does not understand what the fuss is about.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Friday, December 4, 2009
Et tu, Tiger?
How the mighty have fallen.
The last of the untouchables has been caught with his pants down. A lot as been said about what actually happened and how Tiger managed to hit a fire hydrant and a tree all within metres of his driveway. None of that really concerns me. What does concern me is how all this came to pass. How did a guy who can get up and down from a garbage bin, get caught out like this? How did a person with so much to loose risk everything for a mulligan (or two, or three.....)?
The fact that Tiger was caught with somebody else does not surprise me. That's what the rich and the powerful do. What shocks me is that he was stupid enough to get caught! He with his unlimited resources, his private jets, his luxury yatchs and private islands, he with the savvy of a seasoned politician goes to Vegas for his hi-jinks???? Vegas? That's were the wannabes go. That's were the working class goes to live the life that they think the rich have. Imagine going to a club with your friends and bumping into T.W!!! What next? Barack and Michelle catching a performance of Cirque De Soleil?!
What I like is how T.W is handling the media madness. He has decided to hide. No interviews, no public apology (except on his website), no date with Barbara Walters tearfully begging the fans for forgiveness. The public has a short memory and in a few months some other joker will be caught with his hand in the cookie jar and then the hyenas will move on. Remember Kobe? He was accused of rape. A few years and a championship later all is forgotten.
One has to remember that Tiger has not had a normal childhood. When most teenagers are smoking behind the gym and talking about girls, he was winning the U.S Amateur (3 times). When most young men in their 20s are enjoying their new-found independence he was winning majors. He was married and had 2 children by the time he was 32. He has never had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of being a successful, rich, world famous athlete (however forbidden they might be).
It will be interesting to see which Tiger shows up January for the first PGA tournament on his calender (Torrey Pines). Will we see a distracted Tiger? Will we see a Tiger who is suddenly vulnerable or will we see a Tiger with a sharper focus? If he does decide that the best way out of this is to win and win big then 2K10 might yet be the Year of Tiger. Remember that while he was in Australia having his alleged tryst with one of his mistresses, he trounced the field to win the tournament. Imagine what a hyper-focused Tiger will do.
Finally, it has been interesting hearing men talk about Tiger's misdeeds. Almost nobody I met talked about how they could not understand why he would cheat on his wife. All the talk was about how he was stupid enough to get caught! What does that say about all us married men?
I have written about why I think the rich and the powerful take such risks when they know that being caught would mean paying a high price indeed.
http://tinyurl.com/ycjtuv8
(have I finally "arrived" as blogger when I can refer to my own posts from the past?)
The last of the untouchables has been caught with his pants down. A lot as been said about what actually happened and how Tiger managed to hit a fire hydrant and a tree all within metres of his driveway. None of that really concerns me. What does concern me is how all this came to pass. How did a guy who can get up and down from a garbage bin, get caught out like this? How did a person with so much to loose risk everything for a mulligan (or two, or three.....)?
The fact that Tiger was caught with somebody else does not surprise me. That's what the rich and the powerful do. What shocks me is that he was stupid enough to get caught! He with his unlimited resources, his private jets, his luxury yatchs and private islands, he with the savvy of a seasoned politician goes to Vegas for his hi-jinks???? Vegas? That's were the wannabes go. That's were the working class goes to live the life that they think the rich have. Imagine going to a club with your friends and bumping into T.W!!! What next? Barack and Michelle catching a performance of Cirque De Soleil?!
What I like is how T.W is handling the media madness. He has decided to hide. No interviews, no public apology (except on his website), no date with Barbara Walters tearfully begging the fans for forgiveness. The public has a short memory and in a few months some other joker will be caught with his hand in the cookie jar and then the hyenas will move on. Remember Kobe? He was accused of rape. A few years and a championship later all is forgotten.
One has to remember that Tiger has not had a normal childhood. When most teenagers are smoking behind the gym and talking about girls, he was winning the U.S Amateur (3 times). When most young men in their 20s are enjoying their new-found independence he was winning majors. He was married and had 2 children by the time he was 32. He has never had the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of being a successful, rich, world famous athlete (however forbidden they might be).
It will be interesting to see which Tiger shows up January for the first PGA tournament on his calender (Torrey Pines). Will we see a distracted Tiger? Will we see a Tiger who is suddenly vulnerable or will we see a Tiger with a sharper focus? If he does decide that the best way out of this is to win and win big then 2K10 might yet be the Year of Tiger. Remember that while he was in Australia having his alleged tryst with one of his mistresses, he trounced the field to win the tournament. Imagine what a hyper-focused Tiger will do.
Finally, it has been interesting hearing men talk about Tiger's misdeeds. Almost nobody I met talked about how they could not understand why he would cheat on his wife. All the talk was about how he was stupid enough to get caught! What does that say about all us married men?
I have written about why I think the rich and the powerful take such risks when they know that being caught would mean paying a high price indeed.
http://tinyurl.com/ycjtuv8
(have I finally "arrived" as blogger when I can refer to my own posts from the past?)
Saturday, November 21, 2009
My Inner Child.
My little two year old breaks into a dance the moment she hears music. I wonder why I cannot be so uninhibited.
She always announces exactly how she feels about anything. I cannot. It seems pointless to announce "I am sad!" or "I am happy". Which adult does that?
She says "I love you" with the ease that only a child can possess. I cannot. That's not something adults say.
She eats only when she is hungry. She does not feel the need to sit down and eat three times a day just because those have been designated as meal times.
When she does eat, she eats with all her senses. Every meal is an adventure, an orgy of smell, sight and touch. I eat mostly because its something I have to do. For adults most meals are brief punctuations in the daily routine.
She wears what she wants. She picks clothes in an instinctive way. She does not care if pink and yellow do not go well together. Adults dress for others. With us its more about how others think we look. A child will never ask you "How do I look Mommy?" because she is sure that she looks great. The Mommy on the other hand......
She is comfortable naked. Totally not self-conscious about her body. We adults on the other hand get nervous at the swimming pool wondering how are bodies are being perceived.
She moves on and never lingers on a past issues. She will never tell me two days later that she was hurt by my refusal to take her to the park. Adults on the other hand.......we will hang on to a perceived slight for days.
And then she will "grow up". Become more of an adult. Responsible, practical, calculating, the child in her gone forever.
I have posted a link to a talk on children's education. It talks about how we need to tap into our inner child to be creative and how our education system is built to kill that kind of creativity.
How schools kill creativity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
She always announces exactly how she feels about anything. I cannot. It seems pointless to announce "I am sad!" or "I am happy". Which adult does that?
She says "I love you" with the ease that only a child can possess. I cannot. That's not something adults say.
She eats only when she is hungry. She does not feel the need to sit down and eat three times a day just because those have been designated as meal times.
When she does eat, she eats with all her senses. Every meal is an adventure, an orgy of smell, sight and touch. I eat mostly because its something I have to do. For adults most meals are brief punctuations in the daily routine.
She wears what she wants. She picks clothes in an instinctive way. She does not care if pink and yellow do not go well together. Adults dress for others. With us its more about how others think we look. A child will never ask you "How do I look Mommy?" because she is sure that she looks great. The Mommy on the other hand......
She is comfortable naked. Totally not self-conscious about her body. We adults on the other hand get nervous at the swimming pool wondering how are bodies are being perceived.
She moves on and never lingers on a past issues. She will never tell me two days later that she was hurt by my refusal to take her to the park. Adults on the other hand.......we will hang on to a perceived slight for days.
And then she will "grow up". Become more of an adult. Responsible, practical, calculating, the child in her gone forever.
I have posted a link to a talk on children's education. It talks about how we need to tap into our inner child to be creative and how our education system is built to kill that kind of creativity.
How schools kill creativity
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY
Friday, November 6, 2009
The Little Giants
Sachin Tendulkar is India's greatest sportsman. A living legend who has broken all batting records and at the age of 36 is still going strong. At 5'5", he is a small man and an anomaly in the sporting world where mutant giants are more commonly found now than ever before. The list of small men who have gone on to do great things in the sporting arena is a very small one. The lack of stature has to be compensated by a freakish talent and a scheming mind. Today a small person can all but forget about a career in sport.
Individual sports have become the domain of the big and strong. Only a team sport like soccer and basketball allow for a small person to contribute by playing a specific supporting role. Ussain Bolt and Juan Martin Del Potro are just the start of a new generation of sportsmen that are bigger than any we have seen before. Old thinking used to be that the big guys will never be able to move as well as the smaller guys but modern training methods and nutrition is resulting in big fellas who can move like cats!
Where does that leave the Indians and the Chinese? The average height of the Indian male is 5'4". How are we expected to compete in a world of giants? Maybe we need to be smart about which sports we choose to play. The reason why Indians have had success in cricket is because it is predominantly a skill-based game. Its also the reason why we produce many great batsmen and spin bowlers but not enough fast bowlers because that's when being big and strong is a prerequisite.
Soccer is one game where we might have a chance. Skill and speed on the soccer pitch can go some ways to compensate the lack of height. It would still be a huge challenge. Imagine trying to stop a rampaging Didier Drogba; all 6'2" of him! Baseball is another game where you would think that being big would not be too much of an advantage. But this is far from true: Fast pitching requires big strong bodies and so does hitting home runs off those pitches. I looked up the Yankees roster for height information and was shocked to find that Derek Jeter, who does not look too big on TV, is 6'3"!
And so I live out my sporting dreams vicariously by watching the real "giants". Nothing gives me more pleasure than watching SRT coming down the track and hitting Glenn Mcgrath (all 6'5" of him) back over his head for a six. Or watching Maradona hustle and hoodwink his way through a wall of massive defenders! It is the ultimate triumph of will over circumstance, of guile over brute force, a real-life David-v-Goliath: how can you not cheer for that?
Human height averages around the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height
Individual sports have become the domain of the big and strong. Only a team sport like soccer and basketball allow for a small person to contribute by playing a specific supporting role. Ussain Bolt and Juan Martin Del Potro are just the start of a new generation of sportsmen that are bigger than any we have seen before. Old thinking used to be that the big guys will never be able to move as well as the smaller guys but modern training methods and nutrition is resulting in big fellas who can move like cats!
Where does that leave the Indians and the Chinese? The average height of the Indian male is 5'4". How are we expected to compete in a world of giants? Maybe we need to be smart about which sports we choose to play. The reason why Indians have had success in cricket is because it is predominantly a skill-based game. Its also the reason why we produce many great batsmen and spin bowlers but not enough fast bowlers because that's when being big and strong is a prerequisite.
Soccer is one game where we might have a chance. Skill and speed on the soccer pitch can go some ways to compensate the lack of height. It would still be a huge challenge. Imagine trying to stop a rampaging Didier Drogba; all 6'2" of him! Baseball is another game where you would think that being big would not be too much of an advantage. But this is far from true: Fast pitching requires big strong bodies and so does hitting home runs off those pitches. I looked up the Yankees roster for height information and was shocked to find that Derek Jeter, who does not look too big on TV, is 6'3"!
And so I live out my sporting dreams vicariously by watching the real "giants". Nothing gives me more pleasure than watching SRT coming down the track and hitting Glenn Mcgrath (all 6'5" of him) back over his head for a six. Or watching Maradona hustle and hoodwink his way through a wall of massive defenders! It is the ultimate triumph of will over circumstance, of guile over brute force, a real-life David-v-Goliath: how can you not cheer for that?
Human height averages around the world
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_height
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Head Scratchers.
1. Volume of ads on TV: Ever notice how the volume suddenly shoots up when a commercial starts playing on television? There I am watching my favourite show at a nice soft volume and all of a sudden the volume shoots up.......it feels like Billy Mays has suddenly walked into my living room. Why do they do this? Do they think that by shouting at me I will buy their product? What I do not understand is why my television's volume control does not attenuate the spikes in volume from the TV signal.
2. Junk mail from credit card companies: I get at least two offers from different banks asking me to sign up for a new credit card every week. Who is giving them my address? How do get I off this mailing list? Just how many credit cards does one man need anyway?
3. Designer Jeans: When you buy a 50,000 dollar car, you get something for that money: speed, luxury, safety, curb appeal. What exactly do a pair of jeans that cost 200$ do for you? They are just a pair of denim trousers! How different can they be than the ones in Costco?? What's the use of spending all that money when there is no easy way to tell them apart from the 20$ ones. I suggest that anybody wearing designer jeans has to wear them with a t-shirt that clearly states the maker and the cost. Something like "Denim Alert- 500$ Jeans below!"
4. Mattress ads on radio: Just what is up with those mattress ads on the radio? Sleep train/Sealy/That number bed.......I should not be knowing so much about mattresses! How often do people need to change mattresses anyway? Where I come from we never change mattresses; you use the same one till you die (or the flees asked you to leave). The mattresses in this country are built like tanks. What could possibly happen to a mattress like that? 800$ for a mattress!!! Are you kidding me?
5. License plate frames telling us which school you graduated from: Why do people have licence plate frames that have the names of their schools on them? Why, Sir, have you put that on your car? Is it to let us all know how smart and special you are that you went to this college? Are we supposed to assume that having a "Stanford Alum" frame means you are smarter than the rest of us? Do not tell me its out of pride for your Alma Mater. I do not see folks from Modesto Community College doing this. Are they not proud of the school they went to? Here's the rule: if you want to flaunt which "top-rated" school you went to, you need to be driving a S-class at the minimum. Makes no sense telling the world how special you are while you drive around in your 8 year old Honda Accord!
2. Junk mail from credit card companies: I get at least two offers from different banks asking me to sign up for a new credit card every week. Who is giving them my address? How do get I off this mailing list? Just how many credit cards does one man need anyway?
3. Designer Jeans: When you buy a 50,000 dollar car, you get something for that money: speed, luxury, safety, curb appeal. What exactly do a pair of jeans that cost 200$ do for you? They are just a pair of denim trousers! How different can they be than the ones in Costco?? What's the use of spending all that money when there is no easy way to tell them apart from the 20$ ones. I suggest that anybody wearing designer jeans has to wear them with a t-shirt that clearly states the maker and the cost. Something like "Denim Alert- 500$ Jeans below!"
4. Mattress ads on radio: Just what is up with those mattress ads on the radio? Sleep train/Sealy/That number bed.......I should not be knowing so much about mattresses! How often do people need to change mattresses anyway? Where I come from we never change mattresses; you use the same one till you die (or the flees asked you to leave). The mattresses in this country are built like tanks. What could possibly happen to a mattress like that? 800$ for a mattress!!! Are you kidding me?
5. License plate frames telling us which school you graduated from: Why do people have licence plate frames that have the names of their schools on them? Why, Sir, have you put that on your car? Is it to let us all know how smart and special you are that you went to this college? Are we supposed to assume that having a "Stanford Alum" frame means you are smarter than the rest of us? Do not tell me its out of pride for your Alma Mater. I do not see folks from Modesto Community College doing this. Are they not proud of the school they went to? Here's the rule: if you want to flaunt which "top-rated" school you went to, you need to be driving a S-class at the minimum. Makes no sense telling the world how special you are while you drive around in your 8 year old Honda Accord!
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Its all been done!
A couple of years ago a young author, Kavya Vishwanathan, had her book pulled from the shelves because it turned out that certain passages of her book were almost identical to passages from some other author's books. Unfortunately, being charged with plagiarism can spell the end of an author's career.
This begs the question: How does one define "original" work? What characteristics does this work need to have to be considered truly original? Can anything be truly original? Take a look around and you will see many examples of new work being done that has more than a trace of some earlier work. The music industry is littered with examples of hit songs that have had parts of other songs. I have yet to hear of a singer or a band having their career destroyed because they wrote a hit song that sounded like another hit song!
Show me your favorite piece of software and I guarantee you that it has parts that have been re-used from other software. Just a small portion of any software is the secret sauce; the rest is just standard plumbing that is re-used again and again.
It is acceptable in certain professions to have your influences clearly visible in your work. Painters, fashion designers, architects and composers have all borrowed ideas from their influences to create new work and we never accuse them of plagiarism. Why is it so different with books? If I used a word-processor to cut and paste from 50 books to come up with my own original story, would that be stealing? Yes, you would find similar sentences and phrases but would that take away from the fact that I have created something new?
The fact of the matter is that very little around us is totally new. Its all been done before albeit in a slightly different form.
There is a famous story of an artist who took another artist's painting and created his own work by erasing parts of the original. Would this qualify as new art? Would creating a dish with leftovers from last night qualify as a new dish? Would it make a difference if the leftovers were made by me or were from a restaurant?
I am not condoning passing of somebody else's work as your own. All I am saying is that if you look real closely, almost all new work will have traces of something from the past.
The link below is a YouTube video created by taking clips from other existing videos on YouTube and creating a new piece of music. Take a look!
http://tinyurl.com/c9b4th
This begs the question: How does one define "original" work? What characteristics does this work need to have to be considered truly original? Can anything be truly original? Take a look around and you will see many examples of new work being done that has more than a trace of some earlier work. The music industry is littered with examples of hit songs that have had parts of other songs. I have yet to hear of a singer or a band having their career destroyed because they wrote a hit song that sounded like another hit song!
Show me your favorite piece of software and I guarantee you that it has parts that have been re-used from other software. Just a small portion of any software is the secret sauce; the rest is just standard plumbing that is re-used again and again.
It is acceptable in certain professions to have your influences clearly visible in your work. Painters, fashion designers, architects and composers have all borrowed ideas from their influences to create new work and we never accuse them of plagiarism. Why is it so different with books? If I used a word-processor to cut and paste from 50 books to come up with my own original story, would that be stealing? Yes, you would find similar sentences and phrases but would that take away from the fact that I have created something new?
The fact of the matter is that very little around us is totally new. Its all been done before albeit in a slightly different form.
There is a famous story of an artist who took another artist's painting and created his own work by erasing parts of the original. Would this qualify as new art? Would creating a dish with leftovers from last night qualify as a new dish? Would it make a difference if the leftovers were made by me or were from a restaurant?
I am not condoning passing of somebody else's work as your own. All I am saying is that if you look real closely, almost all new work will have traces of something from the past.
The link below is a YouTube video created by taking clips from other existing videos on YouTube and creating a new piece of music. Take a look!
http://tinyurl.com/c9b4th
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Practice! Practice! Practice!
I recently read an article about Jerry Rice (the legendary NFL wide receiver) which talks about how he has re-dedicated his life to trying to become a full-time professional golfer. He will be playing in a Nationwide tour event next year and hopes to make the cut.
Studies have shown that to be really great at something, a person has to spend close to 10,000 hours perfecting it. This means that if somebody were to practice 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it would take close to 14 years to reach their goal! Please keep in mind that all that this means is that you will get really good at something. It does not guarantee fame and fortune.
We all have a list of things we would like to take up. Somebody wants to learn the guitar while somebody else wants to paint. Some of us might even make an effort to join a class or two for a few months only to quit. Sometimes we quit because life intervenes( kids/job/career....) and sometimes we quit because we realise that this new activity actually requires a certain amount of dedication and practice! Take up any new activity and after the honeymoon period is over comes a time when things get tough. This first uphill climb is where most people question if this is really what they want to do. Some actually make it through only to encounter the next climb which is steeper!
Most of us will not be able to give 10,000 hours to something but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be good at anything, it requires dedication and hard work. Keep in mind that many of us have already been in our respective fields for over 14 years. How many of us can truly say that we are world class in our respective fields?
We live in an age where everybody expects instant gratification. Many of us have seen commercials on television describing a product that will give instant results. Exercise equipment manufactures will claim that you will see results within a couple of weeks. A software product will claim to teach a new language in weeks and a book will claim to be able to teach you a computer language in 21 days!
I was once told by a well known drummer that if I treated music like a mistress all I would get in return would be some decent sex but if I treated music like a lover then I would get a relationship that will last a lifetime. Never having had a mistress, I cannot confirm his theory but his point is well taken: We get back from our endeavours what we put in.
So while I sit around making up excuses as to why I cannot make time to practice, I will be watching Mr. Rice closely over the next few months and rooting for him.
Studies have shown that to be really great at something, a person has to spend close to 10,000 hours perfecting it. This means that if somebody were to practice 2 hours a day, every day of the week, it would take close to 14 years to reach their goal! Please keep in mind that all that this means is that you will get really good at something. It does not guarantee fame and fortune.
We all have a list of things we would like to take up. Somebody wants to learn the guitar while somebody else wants to paint. Some of us might even make an effort to join a class or two for a few months only to quit. Sometimes we quit because life intervenes( kids/job/career....) and sometimes we quit because we realise that this new activity actually requires a certain amount of dedication and practice! Take up any new activity and after the honeymoon period is over comes a time when things get tough. This first uphill climb is where most people question if this is really what they want to do. Some actually make it through only to encounter the next climb which is steeper!
Most of us will not be able to give 10,000 hours to something but the fact of the matter is that if you want to be good at anything, it requires dedication and hard work. Keep in mind that many of us have already been in our respective fields for over 14 years. How many of us can truly say that we are world class in our respective fields?
We live in an age where everybody expects instant gratification. Many of us have seen commercials on television describing a product that will give instant results. Exercise equipment manufactures will claim that you will see results within a couple of weeks. A software product will claim to teach a new language in weeks and a book will claim to be able to teach you a computer language in 21 days!
I was once told by a well known drummer that if I treated music like a mistress all I would get in return would be some decent sex but if I treated music like a lover then I would get a relationship that will last a lifetime. Never having had a mistress, I cannot confirm his theory but his point is well taken: We get back from our endeavours what we put in.
So while I sit around making up excuses as to why I cannot make time to practice, I will be watching Mr. Rice closely over the next few months and rooting for him.
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