The more I listen to this Iron Void, the better it gets. Even with a song like burden of regret and it's thinly veiled "tribute" to Candlemass. I still haven't heard The W'izard album from last year. Witch's Brew doesn't have a bandcamp page and ordering from the label costs 40 euros with shipping. What the fuck. Listening to jumalhamara. Finnish black metal. One song lasting 17 minutes. I'm at the mid-song interlude. All drone and atmosphere. Then the band kicks in with some wild percussion, noise and static. This is quite arty and avant-garde stuff. The first 8 minutes made no impact at all and then they show of all their different influences. Noise, shoegaze, drone, a little bit of post punk and goth and amidst all this, black metal is just the canvas. 18 minutes well spent. What is it about South American stoner/ psych/ doom bands? La Hell Gang is the latest and they sound like old Ganjas. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Just listen to The Ganjas instead. List your top 10 stoner/ psych/ doom bands from South America. Now there's a list I could sink my teeth into.
We start recording again this week. Excited. Maybe put down some vocals over the weekend. I Zombie, Hangman's Hope, Bones of My Brothers, Mortal Science, Harvest of Kings and Doombringer. Doombringer came together very quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly. Feels a little on the short side. It's going to be a long album unless we use mortal science and Harvest separately. Flight of Sand has mostly been discarded now which is a pity. I liked that song. Maybe a couple more will get done too by the time we're finished. Should be fun.
This Ogre is just great. Still on the playlist. It hasn't really changed all that much since March. Thou and Lord Mantis are still firmly on top. Ogre, Greenleaf, Godhunter, Grand Magus, Herder, Ride for Revenge, Howls of Ebb and Mekong Delta round out my top 10. The new Earth sounds great; Godflesh and Witch Mountain are going to have albums out but I don't see anything else breaking into that list. Listening to The Great Annihilator. It's been a Swans Sunday.
It's always a pretty great feeling to go to show where I'm not playing and still see a couple of random people in djinn T-shirts. Went to Insurrection last night to watch Orchid and Nihilus and both bands were pretty good. Also bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in some 4 years and the general vibe was friendly and peaceful. I think trendslaughter last weekend didn't work for me simply because of the whole attitude. A bunch of uber kvlt people who are all just trying a bit too hard and it sometimes just feels a bit fake. Walked out halfway through Dying Embrace's set and didn't stay for Impiety but Orator was absolutely brilliant. Could have done without the drunken idiot storming the stage and waving that human skull over his head though. In other news I've been on a massive JCVD trip lately. Saw Wake of Death, 6 Bullets, Enemies Closer and Welcome to the Jungle over the last couple of weeks and all 4 movies were entertaining to various degrees. In still other news, AMC has announced they'll be bringing The Preacher to the small screen. I guess this was inevitable after the success of The Walking Dead but I'm unsure about this. ...and djinn is sort of back again. we're playing in thane sometime in may and then hopefully record the rest of the songs by the end of the year. if we have a 2nd album up on bandcamp by this time next year, then i think i'll be quite happy. Thane should be good. Last time was great. Watching India play in New Zealand right now is quite depressing. There's plenty of talent but it's not coming together. Although Ishant Sharma is doing well in the tests, Jadeja and Shami continue to grow. Good signs but will be a while before we win abroad. And saw a few more movies. Confession of Murder is the most fun action/ thriller movie I've seen in a long time. The car chase scene was ridiculous but the movie had just enough bite to be quite good. Thor: The Dark World was surprisingly entertaining and so was Arnold's The Last Stand. Stoker was pretty good too. Effective and creepy. American Mary had so much promise but the last 30 minutes just ruined it a bit for me. And the fucking cop with the strange Brit accent. Katherine Isabelle was great though. The most likable horror heroine in a long while. This new Ogre is something else. Some absolutely killer jams, great songs and the nasal ozzy light delivery somehow fits perfectly. Album of the quarter. Other mentions go out to Godhunter, Indian, Grand Magus, Dephosphorus, The Wounded Kings, Conan and Mustach. It's been a pretty great year so far and a lot more to come.
A friend died, the band was killed and work is killing me. What a splendid week.
I spent all evening smiling vacantly at relatives I hadn't seen in years and won't see for more years.
Its going be a long week. I resent having to do anything on my off days.
Sunday, December 08, 2013
This new Rudra album is great. Easily the best thing they've done. The guitarist they got on the last album is really ripping it and the songs are finally, proper Vedic metal. The band sounds tight and like they mean it. Well done. "RTA" is Rudra's finest hour.
My bed has turned into an intermittent black hole. It started a month ago when a carefully rolled joint just disappeared. No puff of smoke, no blinding flash of light. Just gone. That was followed by 2 pairs of scissors, a CD of Undying Inc's debut ep, my earphones and a couple of james lee burke books. All vanished without a trace. A ghost with a penchant for origami and slam or a homicidal spirit biding its time in the company of some burke. That Undying Inc CD is enough to drive the living to murder. Don't know what effect it'll have on the dead. I'm irritated a lot. Annoyed and impatient with people. Unwind Inc. A weekend without work after a long while. Show tomorrow and practice at some point today. Been a while. Should be good. I'm not confident about Hangman. So set list is Weird Tales, I, Zombie, Book of the Fallen and Hangman. Yippie! I should come up with easier parts to sing. So finally, 30 minutes on stage. I, Zombie and Weird Tales. Haha! I, Zombie came out really well. Best live version yet. Weird Tales was a bit off in the first half but settled down nicely after that. Overall, a patchy set but a few people liked us. I wish they'd kill Mickey already. The scene with Jon Voight and Elliot Gould was absolutely brilliant. Right down to the hallucination. Generally well written and acted but James Woods is unnecessary and very, very hammy. Overall, Ray Donovan is worth following. Season finale tonight and it was pretty good. James Woods got a bullet in the head, Mickey's still around and Ray got lucky.
The first time I heard "for god your soul" I was 16. Impressionable age. Autopsy had already happened but when Shirinc went "For god your soul... For me your flesh", something just switched on in my head. John Tardy on Infected and Chris Reifert on An act of the unspeakable were the 2 other defining moments of death metal vocals growing up. So thanks to this wondrous thing called YouTube...
The mango is in season. Blog me this, blog me that. Old lines remembered, repeated. There's something off with this new Necrophobic. Cleaner. Heavier. A mid week off is never eventful. This one was quieter than most. The mango is in season. The king is hungry. The royal taster died. In his sleep. 51 days ago. The king is hungry. The dog sleeps. Stretched out. Big fellow. This Gutslit T shirt is very comfortable. I'm sitting by the side of the road. The mango is in season. Umbrella's are out, the rain comes and goes. The light from the street is blinding me. The noise from the street can't touch me. The mango is in season.
Saw Lunchbox. Would have been the perfect Indian film to send to the Oscars. I liked it a lot. Irfan and Nawazuddin are absolutely brilliant but that woman did a good job too. By the end of it, I was rooting for the lovers to unite. This new Eibon is pretty great. 2 long songs than can be called sludge but a bit more varied and dynamic than the last 2 albums. File it next to the new Pombagira which is also pretty great, has 2 long songs and can be broadly classified as sludge. Still watching Lost. Jack has to be one of the most annoying TV characters ever written and its all getting a bit unnecessarily complicated. Season 4 turned out pretty great but then Season 5 fucked things up. The whole time travel conundrum was solved with lame philosophy. Annoyed the crap out of me. Sat through about 45 minutes of World's End and its pretty dull so far. Hopefully will get better. Finally got my hands on The Baby. Damn that was a hard find.
Another Sunday and another show. Its not as regular as that sounds but here we are again. The air conditioning is off and the place is a sauna. We're the second band on the lineup with 50 minutes to kill. Should be fun. Couple of bombay bands to look forward to and Threinody who will hopefully play Disembodiment. They'll turn the a/c on soon. I can't remember the lyrics to Weird Tales. Oops. Soundcheck @ 3. I finally have comfortable seating. Always at a premium. Very poor turnout so far. I hope it gets better. 5 CDs sold which is not bad. Ontologus are some kind of tech death I guess. Sound quite good. We're up next. Empty hall. Maybe 50 people if you count the waiters. Bad scene. Although considering we've played to 5 people and a dog, it's not actually bad at all. Well, the djinn fans seemed to like what we did. Major sound issues aside, old faithful Weird Tales ended things nicely. I, Zombie turned out quite well too. Shepherd are a great band but they need to sort out the vocals. Big fat grooves, good songs. When they're instrumental they give off a K2B vibe. Other times its abrasive noise rock. Very good either way. Threinody up next. Fucking killed it. Disembodiment was the wow moment for the night. Awesome song. The other 3 were pretty good too. Especially Schism and Blade. It was a genuine pleasure to see a proper thrash band. No unnecessary labels. My pretty pink drink is over and I must make my way home.
Friday, September 20, 2013
I discovered a new coffee shop a while ago. They made a damn good cup of cold coffee. Then they didn't anymore. It's back on the menu today. All is right again. I no longer know which day of the week it is when I wake up.
The new Fister is ridiculously good. Unbelievably heavy.
I'm about halfway through Chennai Express and I'm enjoying it. Shahrukh Khan hams it up but that's the only brand of comedy he knows. Deepika Padukone looks stunning and manages to be funny with her ridiculous accent. Sathyaraj though is an inspired piece of casting. Would have been easier to go with someone like Prakash Rai but Sathyaraj fits the bill to perfection. Hopefully, the next one hour of the movie won't drag. Silly, ridiculous fun. Way better than any of Shetty's other films so far.... And the second hour didn't drag. Silly, ridiculous fun and a new found sense of respect for SRK. So Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor. There's some sort of backlash against Moffat for not picking a female, black or Asian as the new doctor but honestly, I think Cripaldi will be a good fit. I don't want to see a female, black or Asian Doctor Who. Does that make me a mysoginistic racist? I suppose so. All set to watch The Conjuring tomorrow. Its been getting some rave reviews from serious horror fans so hoping for a few chills.... And missed it again. Will probably watch it at home now whenever the dvd pops up. The new Orator is disappointing. The riffs are all kind of straight forward and that evil atmosphere of the EP is missing. Kind of a decent, modern death-thrash album. In the time that I started this post and now, I've been watching Battlestar Galactica. Almost done with it now and its pretty fucking great. Katee Sakhoff is so hot but Tricia Helfer is simply awesome. 6 and Baltar start off awkward and annoying but once the chemistry kicks in, their scenes together is one of many highlights on the show. The show itself starts off in sci-fi territory but moves to pseudo spiritual mumbo jumbo in season 3. Edward James Olmos is perfectly cast and the other actors grow into their roles nicely.
I finished Battlestar Galactica and then some. Started watching Lost on a friend's reccomendation and season 1 was pretty good. Season 2 is a bit muddled. Either they're all dead or they're all in some strange reality show. I hope I'm wrong. Another 4 seasons to go before I'll find out. The album is almost upon us now. Release in the first week of September and a bunch of shows to go with it next month. What I'd really like is a collage video to "7 Year Witch". Lots of clippings from old witchy movies should be fun. More excited about the album than I've been about anything in a long, long time. Well, release didn't happen. Delays. Album's up on bandcamp and its also up on Bunalti. Considering all the albums I've stolen from there, it's probably karma. Anyway, felt pretty good to see it up there. Our best show so far was in Thane. Who would have thought. People moshed to 7 Year Witch and there were about 50 odd people nodding their heads in a suitably ponderous manner. I couldn't stop smiling. So much for bringing the doom. I set a timer to harvest my fear. I overslept.
Strange thing happening over the last few days. A missed call at around 11.30 from an unknown number. Yesterday and today I picked up. It turned out to be a cross connection. I eves dropped. Man and woman. Talking in Hindi. Making plans to meet. Identical conversations on both nights. The woman is loud and the man is whispering. It's happened before. They're always having the same conversation. At least when I've answered and listened in. Maybe they talk about other stuff when I don't answer. Don't know why I didn't put this up before. We got on a Motorhead tribute. People seem to like it.
An unexpected holiday. Chilled out evening. The same old faces led me to abandon ship and skip across the water. To dry land and safety. Malazan black metal is now a thing. Caladan Brood. Pretty good Summoning worship. Is there an Anomander Rake yet? I don't care about the CDs you've bought and don't care about your work. I'm hoping you'll shut up and in the meantime, I'm simply practicing what I preach. Reassure, empathize, summarize and say goodbye. With a smile. Yeah, this malazan black metal is pretty good. In TV news, Arrow is kicking ass. The show scored a big win with its casting of Slade Wilson. The fights have gotten better and last week the whole "Moira Queen. You have failed this city" ending was badass. Community restarted. First episode was a bit lazy but I'm hoping it'll pick up. One of the better blogs on the internet might have breathed its last. If you have any interest at all in movies of the forgotten, kvlt, B to Z type, then go pay http://ninjadixon.blogspt.com a visit. You might get lost but it'll be a trip worth taking. The new Nick Cave is terrific. After the angular noise rock of Grinderman, Cave returns with the Bad Seeds to carve out a beautiful set of songs.
Ugh! Just ugh! My feet hurt, I can't keep my eyes open and exhaustion overtakes me. Writing this now is a good way of staying awake and active. For a few more hours at least. Oscar season has started. DVD screeners abound. Django Unchained is ridiculous fun but what's with all the animal killing? Unnecessary but way more shocking than the 100+ instances of the word "nigger". How come no one's complaining about the gratuitous killing of animals but everyone has an opinion on that word? Sam Jackson should win an oscar. He hasn't been this good ever. Don Johnson was pretty great too. Otherwise, typical Tarantino over the top violence, great dialogue and some pretty good set pieces. Not as riveting as the last one but still pretty great. Zero Dark Thirty though was disappointing. Too bloody long, a main character who's nothing more than a cardboard cut out and loads of fine actors wasted. Also, I guess no one will know but the streets of Karachi are lined with shops with Hindu names. So much for accuracy. Its a decent thriller but nothing more. Definitely no Syriana. Planning to watch either Hitchcock or Seven Psychopaths tonight. Probably 7 P. God! Java City's fucking loud. And I have mosquito bites all over my neck. I want to shout at these people and tell them all to shut up. Easier to put on my earplugs. 2013 so far has been tiring. People everywhere are talking about "all the recent rapes". Were these people not watching or reading the news till December? Suddenly, people say they were late cause they were helping a girl get home. Where was this chivalry and how long will it last? The Times group seems to have found its bone and they're using it to target every establishment figure they can find. The Today group is using the bone to target the ruling coalition. NDTV is trying desperately to divert the focus from the ruling coalition while exploiting victims quite shamelessly. Surprisingly, CNN-IBN seems to be the only channel without an axe to grind but they too have the bone firmly between their teeth and don't seem to be letting go. I doubt if anything's going to come of all this activism though. Talk of a special session of parliament has died down. The Delhi rape case hasn't been shifted to a fast track court yet and women all over the country are still facing atrocities on a daily basis. Everything depends now on the middle class and how good their memory is. Why are the laws that most affect us, the hardest to change? A 17 year old juvenile who raped a 6 year old, chopped her up and dumped the parts in a few dumpsters is given the maximum punishment of 3 years and then released on his 18th birthday because that's just how the law works. The accused juvenile in the recent rape is also 17 and will get the max punishment of 3 years but walk out when he hits 18. The mind boggles. The funniest thing for me was how some Punjabi pop singer was targeted for misogynistic lyrics and the ensuing outrage he suddenly provoked over a song that's a few years old. The funny bit was the moral indignation of people who have no problem dancing to a hip hop song where all the women are bitches and ho's. Oh well. And the next metalhead who claims outrage over Honey Singh's lyrics is going to get a kick in the balls from me. Even hypocrisy must have some limits.
What a dull fucking day. Tired and sleepy and on the last ride home. Want to light up a fattie and fall on the bed. Probably settle for falling into bed and going to sleep.
Had a surprisingly decent masala pav today for lunch. Spicy and hot and fresh pav. Not bad at all.
The new Ancestors is really good. I have no idea why I didn't listen to more of this. There's no sign at all of the Sleep sounds of the debut and instead it feels like the perfect mix of the 70s worshiping doom sounds of the second album and the ambient prettiness of the Invisible White EP. Damn good stuff.
Sleep? Sleep! Sleep. Who has my Dopesmoker CD?
In other news, I need a break. Preferably an arm.
An ode to tomorrow Her name is unspoken Her face unknown She is who we call on The one we kneel before
Her acolytes are legion This much is known Suicide as sacrifice Power flows from blood
Her name is unspoken Her face unknown She will defeat this hell We call our world
The land will bleed Brown earth turn crimson A flood will take us all Drowned in the power of sacrifice
The world will end tomorrow or so it's said. Another doomsday prophecy comes and goes. Like the boy who cried wolf, like a million bad movies; Armageddon will announce itself. Our greatest sin, our infinite hubris.
Sitting in the park with my sandwich. Beautiful Bangalore weather. I watched some birds for a while. A pair of pigeons, a quail and a pair of mynahs. A few squirrels. A couple of dogs. Healthy and happy looking. Now their space has been taken over by a bunch of screaming idiots. Needless to say, the animals have all disappeared. I'm hungry again. So Isaac received the lamest death possible and with that any interest I had in this season of Dexter comes to an end. It seems Stevenson had to report early for the shooting of the Thor sequel but regardless, I wanted more of Isaac. Now it seems the noose is tightening around Dexter. La Guerta's after him, his girlfriend is pissed with him and maybe Doakes is coming back from the dead in the season finale. Feels like the writers are dealing with an empty closet but hopefully it'll end well. So Debra kills La Guerta. Hannah escapes from the police and Dexter is still free. Fucking crappy ending. By the end of it, my sympathies were entirely with La Guerta. Boardwalk Empire though, did end with a bang. Nucky Thompson is back to being the undisputed king of Atlantic City and there was some virtuoso television in the finale. Richard's shootout at Gillian's club, Gillian's attempt to seduce Gyp, the montage of killings at the start, and AR and Masseria screwing over Luciano and Meyer were all pretty great but Nucky turning the tables on his enemies and his ruthlessness was fucking awesome. Solid finish to an otherwise inconsistent season. Homeland is still kicking ass on Monday nights. I think Brody might eventually run for VP and probably win. Probably not. One more episode to go and Abu Nazeer is dead, Saul has been sidelined and Quinn is stalking Brody so he can kill him. Claire Danes does a damn good job of acting crazy though. And the finale was tense and ended pretty great. Estes is dead along with a 100 CIA agents and Brody is busted and on the run. Saul is in charge of things and Quinn gives Brody a free pass. Season 3 should be interesting. The entry of Huntress into Arrow was also pretty good. The initial promo pic was a bit lame but the actress is hot enough and shows some decent fighting skills. The episode was pretty good too. The plot is thickening nicely. Now just waiting for Ian McShane to turn up as a psycho Santa in American Horror Story 2. This season started off pretty lame but its turned into a very entertaining exploitation fest where the goal is pure shock. Looks like Santa's going to lay the beat down on sister Jude. Should be fun. Ian McShane was awesome. Just totally awesome as psycho Santa. Some absolutely horrific dialogue told in his inimitable style and things were great for the first 38 minutes. Then Sister Jude stuck a paper knife in his neck and the show closed with him bleeding out on the floor. Was that it? He's only there for one episode? I'll be really annoyed if he's done with the show. Oh McShane, you evil bastard. Its all good and Sister Jude is now an inmate. Oh also, the new Antimatter. "Fear of a unique identity" is some fine music. It took a few listens to sink in but there are songs here that can stand up to anything Patterson has done. A bit more layered and a bit more rock but that whole Antimatter atmosphere is present and the lyrics are still damn good. Rajnikant's Sivaji has gotten a re-release with 3D treatment. Must watch but preferably somewhere in Gandhinagar. Audiences in multiplexes are way too restrained. I want to see coins being thrown on the screen and people shouting out the dialogues and clapping and cheering. Saw it in PVR. The 3D conversion is pretty decent but the audience was pretty mellow apart from the mandatory whistles. I hope there's something good to watch when I get home. One more night of Arnab Goswami confusing the BJP for the Congress and Mohinder Amarnath wanting to be on the news will piss me off. If he really wanted to show off his integrity he should have spoken about the selection when it happened and he got sacked. Not 3 months later, in the middle of a tough series against England. And his choice for captain was Sehwag. Thank god that didn't happen. A tough home series against England. Who would have thought. So, England series lost. Damn. And the news has been fucking depressing all week. Modi on his way to another win in Gujurat and unspeakable atrocities in the capital city. Fucking savages. The title song from Drama has been stuck in my head for days now and on the way back, my taxi driver had 3 songs on his flash drive and all from Drama. Heard them on repeat through 3 cycles by the time I got home. Oh well. Another day done with a fine layer of dust on my shoes. I hope there's something good to eat when I get home.
I'm itching to talk about something that's bothering me but if I do, I might get sent to jail. So I won't. Welcome to the world's largest democracy. Instead I'll post a couple of long overdue obituaries.
Sylvia Kristel died a while back. Oh Emanuelle! This saddened me just because of how incredibly awesome Kristel is. An awesomeness that death cannot take away. Jaspal Bhatti died in a road accident. This was tragic. Flop Show was an integral part of growing up with DD and Bhatti was quite an accomplished satirist with a few good years left in him. A while back I was trying to make more room on my laptop and ended up deleting my entire collection of erotic photographs. Ugh! Don't go on a deletion spree at 2 am when you should be sleeping. It will never end well. Sylivia Kristal, Soledad Miranda, Monica Belluci, Barbara Bouchet, my collection of beautiful butts. All gone in the blink of an eye. The places I got them from don't exist anymore so that's that. Special mention to Ray Stevenson and Yvonne Strahowski in the new season of Dexter. Starhowski for being the hottest woman ever on Dexter and Stevenson for being the most badass. I hesitate to call him the villain of this season. He's almost sympathetic and there's a part of me that wants the character to live on to the final season next year. I hope the show ends with Isaac disappearing Dexter. Preferably dumping his body in the same ocean that Dex uses and then going off to find his Argentina. Stevenson is absolutely riveting as Isaac and his scenes with Dexter are the best things in this season. Excellent casting. Makes me want another Punisher movie. In other news, Arrow is proving to be quite good. The voice over and dialogue is still hokey but I'm addicted to this show right now. Also, all of the little asides to the DC universe are a fanboy's wet dream. Deathstroke, Deadshot, China White, The Royal Flush Gang and Huntress makes her debut next week but the coolest reference so far has been "taking the last train to Bludhaven". Whether Nightwing will make an appearance is doubtful but it was pretty cool all the same. There's been tons of great doom metal this year but the only album that physically and emotionally exhausted me was the new Worship. Terranean Wake is truly the stuff that suicides are made of. There's a sense of hopeless despair here that just overwhelms. There's a new Antimatter out. "Fear of a Unique Identity" it's called and I'm waiting to play it tonight once I get back and the city's fast asleep. We're almost up to December and the good shit shows no sign of stopping. Detailed report will follow the next time I'm back here. Now, weather. The last 10 days or so have seen biting cold, a mini heat wave and now rain. Global warming? Possibly.
Been a long time since I came here. So much has happened. So much. I've been published in a newish magazine called 'Mandate'. You can find my article on comic con express in the latest issue. Sandwiched between an Amar Singh interview and an erotic photo spread. Not bad at all. Comic con express sucked a bit though. Crappy Indian comics which may not last beyond the first issue battling for space with DC and Marvel comics that you can find at Landmark, loads of kids in costume and a claustrophobic feel. I spent most of my time there outside. The time to do a review of GoW has passed. I might be the only person in the world who loved it without reservation. Oh well.
Doctor Who!? Rant time. New season is sucking ass. Well, not that bad but weak. As usual, episode 1 started with a bang. The Doctor had to break into a Dalek asylum. An asylum for Daleks who were considered too extremely crazy by other Daleks. Just that bit is enough to get me smiling. But it ends with a crazy Dalek helping the Doctor by wiping him off their memory banks. The Doctor goes "I'm the Doctor!" The Daleks go "Doctor.... Who?" Super ending and tied into last seasons tease nicely. Or so I thought. That first episode was followed by Dinosaurs on a Space Ship (self explanatory), A town called mercy (drab western pastiche) and The power of three (great start, weak ending). And now, we're at the halfway mark and its "The Angels take Manhattan" time. The Weeping Angels. Rory and Amy will leave The Doctor. River will turn up again in all her smug glory, the statue of liberty is a weeping angel and I'm still hoping for a surprise or two. The new Dinosaur Jr. album has been dominating my playlist. Mellow, slightly spaced out and at times beautiful alt rock. This one and the new Torche have been my 2 biggest surprises of the year so far.
I hate working on sundays. Have I mentioned that before? Today just crawled.
Weekend was pretty good. Had a decent jam session and "book of the fallen" seems to be taking shape nicely. Also, there's some classically trained vocalist who might join us next weekend to try out some vocal harmonies for "I, Zombie". Should be interesting.
Been watching Jeeves and Wooster again. Its amazing how good Hugh Laurie is the mostly clueless idle rich bachelor but in terms of acting, Stephen Fry as his know all valet might just be the weak link of this pair. Its still a lot of fun though. The farcical plots, clusterfuck endings and constant bullying by the aunts is all quite amusing.
Planning to watch Farscape next. I used to think that blue skinned alien was damn hot when I first saw this on TV. Let's see if memory holds true.
Coffee the colour of mud Will keep me awake tonight Tomorrow I see another dawn But tonight I see the sun
I'm really liking all these bands that are using Hindu mythology in their lyrics. I guess it started with Jon Nodveidt and his haunting lyrics on that Kali song but so many bands seem to have taken it as a starting point and really run with it. The new Witchrist is full of it, as is the new Rahu. Both bands also have terrific artwork and Witchrist might be coming at it from a more Thai, Malaysian perspective while Rahu have taken quite an obscure approach to the whole thing. I must get hold of that "The quest for the vajra of shadows" LP. Looks spectacular.
Last weekend, I had a surprise visitor. A friend I hadn't seen in about 5 years and who was angry with me over something I wrote suddenly turned up. Just like that. "Aah, what's happening?" It was strange but I think I've changed a bit since I last saw him. Anyway, was good seeing him but damn I know some real grumpy old men.
This new season of masterchef is killing it. The cooking has been spectacular and I'm hoping for an Andy vs. Wade final although the odds are against them. Also, Marco Pierre White has this incredible presence. Half Sean Connery in The Untouchables and half Danny Trejo. Badass.
Oh, did I mention they turned "epic beard man" into a movie with Danny Trejo? its called "Badass" and its a full on 80s c-grade action film. Trejo can't act to save his life but even at 60 he looks the part. This is one old man you don't want to mess with.
Also saw a whole bunch of horror movies. The Collector was a nasty slasher film but quite well made. The Divide was surprisingly disturbing and although a bit too long, was still pretty good. Monsters had a great premise but didn't really live up to it. The pick of the lot was Juan of the Dead. A Cuban zombie film filled with amoral but likable characters and which somehow ended up as a feel good zom-com. I really liked this one and I'm not very big on zombie films.
There was one more thing I wanted to write about but I'll be fucked if I can remember what right now. Anyway, here's the trailer for Gangs of Wasseypur 2. August 8th can't come soon enough.
"This bourgeoisie government can only be brought down from within"
Saw Bara over the weekend. Based on a novel by U R Ananthmurthy, it stars Ananth Nag as an upright District Collector and C R Simha is a communist leader in the same district. The district, which is nameless but somewhere on the Karnataka, Maharshtra border based on dialect is drought hit and ignored by both the central and state governments. Both men work towards trying to help the people of this water less district while being rendered mostly helpless by the powers that be. One scene in the movie really got to me. Simha tells Nag that he's a big fan of the socialist literature and books that Nag's uncle writes and quotes the above line to Nag from one of his uncle's books and hints that Nag is actually part of his uncle's idea to bring down the Bourgeoisie government from within. Simha is serious but says his lines in a very casual friendly manner but Ananth Nag's reaction was a spectacular bit of acting. Half surprised that this brash and loud village leader reads his uncle's intellectual works and half amused at his conspiracy theory. Fabulous bit of acting from 2 superb Kannada actors. Its a pretty good movie and made me wonder where Simha is these days. It also reminded me of his stunning performance in and as Tughlaq in Karnad's play. That was goose bump inducing. They don't make Kannada movies like they used to.
This is the scene but the whole movie's up on youtube. No subs.
In other news, PVR has a special Wednesday offer where you can watch a movie for a hundred bucks and seventy if its a Kannada movie. So off I went and after much inner debate, decided to see "paper boat". Naveen Krishna is the hero in what is probably the worst Kannada movie I have ever seen. Hilariously bad, Krishna manages to solve the world's problems in 2 hours. He gets a start by reselling flowers left on graves, then forms a nationwide team from society's rejects who he rehabilitates and starts a "software" business in a slum and sells laptops for 2500 rupees and finally creates a security software that solves all of the world's security problems. In between all this he also finds Osama Bin Laden and tips off the Americans, tricks Dawood Ibrahim into coming to India and kills him, eradicates hunger in the world, eradicates racism in Africa, fascism in Europe and corruption in India. All of it through his SoS organization and special software. There are plenty of moments right through this film that will make you giggle but there was one moment that will forever stay with me. Krishna launches his revolutionary laptop and there's a scene where a little boy is using it to learn the English alphabet. The graphic on the laptop screen says "A for Aero Plain" with a photo of a nice big passenger airplane to go along with it. That kid will go far. Probably go abroad and teach the Americans some English. This is how we do it. Utter shit but so many laugh out loud moments that the movie has a charm all of its own. This is a movie that I must somehow get a hold of, sub it and upload it on the great internet for the world to see. Unbelievable.
Also saw Gangs of Wasseypur last weekend and it blew my mind. The best Hindi film I've seen in ages and probably ever. Detailed review and opinion coming soon but probably after a second watch. For now, "keh ke lunga".
