A cool idea:
Bring Your Own Film Festival
made cooler by holding it
on the sandy beaches of Puri in the eastern Indian state of Orissa
and chilled to sub-zero by
..allowing any film in any format
But how do we know the films are any good? How's this for a guarantee -
The first edition of the festival in 2004 screened a collection of films rejected by that year's Mumbai International Film Festival 2004.
The good folks making it all possible have a blog. I like their promise: no hierarchy, no bureaucracy, no hassles....just sun sand sea and cinema...and more...
(Update: well, whaddayaknow, they have a website too.)
If I was in India, I would be Puri-bound right now.
Read more about Bring Your Own Film Festival on a website brought to you by our former colonial overlords.
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
What's Playin' Here
Joel and Ethan Coen's screenplay of "Blood Simple". How can anyone write this good?
****
Kuknoor's "Iqbal": If the underdogs are always winning, why are they still called "underdogs"? Sorry but I think it's time we have a film celebrating the rich, arrogant overdog.
The film is described by most people as "sweet". Why? "Sweet" is the equivalent of "nice" and "interesting". Just because a film lacks an antagonist (which in this case is presumably the environment, the lineage and the economic realities - holy moly, that's some antagonism!) does not by itself make it "sweet". Still, Naseer's "go to hell" dialogue was worth the $1 rental fee. And no, bouncing a cricket ball off those buffaloes is just not cool (sayeth the man who masticated almost an entire goat to a juiceless pulp over the weekend.)
****
Petra Haden, daughter of jazz basist Charlie Haden, doing a jaw-dropping rendition of The Who's "I Can See For Miles". It's an a capella re(de?)construction of a song I love dearly. Every guitar lick, every chord progression and every rhythm guitar strum is recreated with voices. Ms. Haden's version and the original song appear in succession on the iPod. What fun. Google around to find the mp3.
****
How's this for an insane, far-out idea: a Tuvan throat-singing punk band singing Motorhead and Joy Division songs. I have 2 Mp3s of Yat-Kha singing Motorhead's classic "Orgasmatron" and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". It is plain nuts is what it is. I dozed off with the ear-buds still in my ear and those creepy low-frequency vocals gave me nightmares all through the night. You can download those 2 amazing covers here. Listen now, thank me later.
****
****
Kuknoor's "Iqbal": If the underdogs are always winning, why are they still called "underdogs"? Sorry but I think it's time we have a film celebrating the rich, arrogant overdog.
The film is described by most people as "sweet". Why? "Sweet" is the equivalent of "nice" and "interesting". Just because a film lacks an antagonist (which in this case is presumably the environment, the lineage and the economic realities - holy moly, that's some antagonism!) does not by itself make it "sweet". Still, Naseer's "go to hell" dialogue was worth the $1 rental fee. And no, bouncing a cricket ball off those buffaloes is just not cool (sayeth the man who masticated almost an entire goat to a juiceless pulp over the weekend.)
****
Petra Haden, daughter of jazz basist Charlie Haden, doing a jaw-dropping rendition of The Who's "I Can See For Miles". It's an a capella re(de?)construction of a song I love dearly. Every guitar lick, every chord progression and every rhythm guitar strum is recreated with voices. Ms. Haden's version and the original song appear in succession on the iPod. What fun. Google around to find the mp3.
****
How's this for an insane, far-out idea: a Tuvan throat-singing punk band singing Motorhead and Joy Division songs. I have 2 Mp3s of Yat-Kha singing Motorhead's classic "Orgasmatron" and Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart". It is plain nuts is what it is. I dozed off with the ear-buds still in my ear and those creepy low-frequency vocals gave me nightmares all through the night. You can download those 2 amazing covers here. Listen now, thank me later.
****
Friday, February 24, 2006
Slow Down, Gandhi
Not posting any mp3s here, so wontcha Google for "Sage Francis" or "Slow Down, Gandhi", scroll down to CNET's music.download.com page (or Amazon) and get the mp3. Angry political rap - just the way I like it.
Now it's whistle blower vs. the pistol holder;
Case dismissed, they'll lock you up and throw away the key witness
Justice is the whim of a judge, check his chest density
It leaves much room for error, and the rest left to destiny
...
Slow down, Gandhi, you're killin' 'em
Now it's whistle blower vs. the pistol holder;
Case dismissed, they'll lock you up and throw away the key witness
Justice is the whim of a judge, check his chest density
It leaves much room for error, and the rest left to destiny
...
Slow down, Gandhi, you're killin' 'em
A Punk Grows In Mansoorpur
This here is a picture of a punk.
(image adroitly pinched from BBC)
Hold that chuckle. Hacking, electronics, DJing...a more pure practitioner of the punk ethic cannot be found in American cities, leave alone a poor village in Bihar. Say hello to Raghav Mahato.
After I read this piece of news on BBC, I felt like playing "London Calling" loud enough to make the plaster on the walls start to peel.
Goodbye CBGB, hello Mansoorpur!
P.S.:
Now would be a great time to quote some Rage Against The Machine lyrics. Like this one, maybe?
Lights out, Guerrilla Radio!
Turn that shit up
...
It has to start somewhere It has to start sometime
What better place than here, what better time than now?
(image adroitly pinched from BBC)
Hold that chuckle. Hacking, electronics, DJing...a more pure practitioner of the punk ethic cannot be found in American cities, leave alone a poor village in Bihar. Say hello to Raghav Mahato.
"Good morning! Welcome to Raghav FM Mansoorpur 1! Now listen to your favourite songs," announces anchor and friend Sambhu into a sellotape-plastered microphone surrounded by racks of local music tapes.
For the next 12 hours, Raghav Mahato's outback FM radio station plays films songs and broadcasts public interest messages on HIV and polio, and even snappy local news, including alerts on missing children and the opening of local shops.
Raghav and his friend run the indigenous radio station out of Raghav's thatched-roof Priya Electronics Shop.
The place is a cramped $4-a-month rented shack stacked with music tapes and rusty electrical appliances which doubles up as Raghav's radio station and repair shop.
After I read this piece of news on BBC, I felt like playing "London Calling" loud enough to make the plaster on the walls start to peel.
Goodbye CBGB, hello Mansoorpur!
P.S.:
Now would be a great time to quote some Rage Against The Machine lyrics. Like this one, maybe?
Lights out, Guerrilla Radio!
Turn that shit up
...
It has to start somewhere It has to start sometime
What better place than here, what better time than now?
Thursday, February 23, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
It's All About Connections
Do you ever stay up at nights, thinking of ways of stumping - no, humiliating - your rock-snob friends? I do. As a true-blue rock-snob myself, I can't stand appearing less informed than my snob-peers.
One of the best ways of acheiving total stumpdom is to play "connect the bands". As an example, connect Steely Dan to Rolling Stones. One's from the 70s, the other from the Pleistocene era, one's American, the other British....no connection, you say?
HA! FOOL!!
Jeff Baxter played with Steely Dan. Baxter also played in "Four on the Floor", whose bassist was Glenn Hughes. Hughes played bass on Deep Purple's "Burn" (he's also that thin-voiced "bridge" singer on the incendiary title song). Blackmore was the lead guitarist on the album, and was also the lead (naturally) for the Ritchie Blackmore Orchestra, in which the piano/keyboards duties were handled by Nicky Hopkins who once played with the Jeff Beck Group (if you don't know who Nicky Hopkins is, please, take up some other hobby.) Who was the guitarist in that band? Ron Wood. Which other band did Wood play in? Elementary, my dear rock-snob...
Since most mortals are not blessed with an in-built encyclopedia, there's this cool site that lets you connect two random bands.
Now, don't *ever* lose a quiz because you couldn't connect Elvis Presley to Cream (c'mon...that one's way too easy!)
One of the best ways of acheiving total stumpdom is to play "connect the bands". As an example, connect Steely Dan to Rolling Stones. One's from the 70s, the other from the Pleistocene era, one's American, the other British....no connection, you say?
HA! FOOL!!
Jeff Baxter played with Steely Dan. Baxter also played in "Four on the Floor", whose bassist was Glenn Hughes. Hughes played bass on Deep Purple's "Burn" (he's also that thin-voiced "bridge" singer on the incendiary title song). Blackmore was the lead guitarist on the album, and was also the lead (naturally) for the Ritchie Blackmore Orchestra, in which the piano/keyboards duties were handled by Nicky Hopkins who once played with the Jeff Beck Group (if you don't know who Nicky Hopkins is, please, take up some other hobby.) Who was the guitarist in that band? Ron Wood. Which other band did Wood play in? Elementary, my dear rock-snob...
Since most mortals are not blessed with an in-built encyclopedia, there's this cool site that lets you connect two random bands.
Now, don't *ever* lose a quiz because you couldn't connect Elvis Presley to Cream (c'mon...that one's way too easy!)
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
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