Saturday, February 2, 2008

The Beatles in space…and we’re happyish

So it has been decided, the Beatles’ Across the Universe, is going to be sent into space by NASA on February 4. To be more specific, a Beatles’ tune is going to be our medium of communication with aliens (not the ones that jump over fences, and make dinky rafts that promptly sink when put in water).

Are we earthlings OK with this?

Let’s put it this way, if it wasn’t the Beatles, which band or musician would you have representing our rock?

I have no problem with the Beatles (after all, they are my second favourite band of all time). But I would rather have had my favourite, The Band…but what song? I would go with Acadian Driftwood, but you’d be hard-pressed finding an alien that understands what a ‘gypsy tailwind’ is.

Then of course, there’s the Starman himself, David Bowie.

Martians, however, would be rather perplexed at why they have never been privy to a spider. Bowie’s Space Oddity might be a good choice, after all spacelings may have seen quite a few of our bumbling astronauts prancing about like cosmic retards in their oversized nappies.

But why send Pop at all, what about Rock? Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir would be a nice — if a tad ominous in an ‘onward Earthy soldiers’ way — touch. Stairway to Heaven might go down a treat, what with all Dick Planty’s wailing, and hedgerow bustling. You can almost picture a bug-eyed and well-travelled Neptunian, describing a hedgerow to his partner: “It’s about four feet high, and meant to offer privacy to beings that average five feet in height…go figure.”

Then there’s the likes of Slayer, Slip Knot, Megadeth et al. There’s something to be said for using these dimwitted draft-dodgers’ music as the theme from Earth, the TV Show.

I’m pretty sure the lines, “I am eternal terror my quest will never end/I'll trap you in the pentagram/And seal your battered tomb” from Slayer’s Face the Slayer, will be a right showstopper at the annual Saturnela festival on…errr…Saturn.

Many will take umbrage, or may even be affronted, by the fact that jazz, blues and classical weren’t even thought of.

But honestly, would you rather listen to Earl Klugh tweetering on about nothing; Howlin’ Wolf wailin’ about why his lady left him (neatly skipping the fact that he’s an alcoholic, wife-beating, whore-monger), or Bach playing something so opulent, it screams of a pomposity that no other race — apart from star-eating Xerxons — deserve to boast about? Though not.

So it brings us back to pop…what’s that you say? Country?! Hmmm…country.

Let me tell you why country is such a bad idea, it doesn’t even deserve consideration.

For one, Rednecks shouldn’t be representing themselves, let alone an entire planet. Second, anyone who sings while wearing one of the world’s most bizarre headgears needs to be locked up, not asked to provide the message for interplanetary communication. And finally, who listens to country anyway? Imagine if an alien landed on earth and said, to the first passerby: “Hi ya’ll! How’s the li’l ladeh and ol’ dadeh that left when you was a little lied. An’ how’s Billy, and the boys at them Last Chance Saloon? An’ how’s yer cheatin’ art?” You’d probably nut the little green blighter and tell him to sod off to Texas. The whole world will become Texas. Every krypton-pickin’ alien in the universe would call us the good ol’ boys from Earth! Do you want that? No!

So we’re stuck with the Beatles, and Across the Universe.

I wonder what all the mullahs and Mein Pope will make of the fact that humanity is going to be represented by the words “Jai guru deva om”?

Anyone out there reckon the million Indians working for NASA had a hand in the selection?

Review of the week

Title: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Director: Andrew Dominik

Cast: Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Rockwell

Certification: R

There are certain characters in history, on whose lives, so many films have been made that it has rendered them almost unwatchable. Jesse James is one such character. According to Wikipedia, that unmatched and now rather accurate webopedia, there have been 18 films made about the criminal (with four being made in the last 10 years).

So when director Andrew Dominik decided to make film number 19, he knew he had to have a foolproof plan. Thankfully he did.

With Brad Pitt playing Jesse James, star wattage was assured. All he then needed was a suitably cowardly Robert Ford, and in Casey Affleck he found a perfect poltroon.

The story focuses on Jesse James’ life after the disbanding of the original James Gang. What’s left is a ragtag (and frightfully petty) band of aspiring train robbers and yellowbellied hangers-on that is kept in tow only by the knee-buckling levels of fear Jesse conjures in them.

Sam Rockwell plays Charley Ford, brother of Jesse’s would be assassin. And it is Charley who becomes Jesse’s right hand man in the final sunsets of the infamous outlaw’s life. Unbeknownst to him, Charley would also hold the lynch pin that Jesse would so prod him to pull.

Robert Ford, frustrated by the constant accusations of cowardice, immaturity and ineptness — leveled by, among others, Jesse — is never a key member of the Gang (although, ironically, it is his action [sic] that has the most profound effect).

Brad Pitt is very good as the paranoid, and mentally distraught James: His passion is as ferocious as his bouts of melancholy are dark.

But it is Affleck who is the real star actor of this film. His sneaky eyes and slimy smile epitomise the cunning of a man well-heeled in the ways of trouble-dodging. His blasé attitude towards the preservation of anyone else’s skin but his is so realistic, that I’m surprised no one has taken a potshot at him yet.

‘The Assassination of Jesse James’ may have some solid acting, and a decent script (also courtesy Dominik) but it needed more…it needed some magic. And the Merlin that answered the call was Coen Brothers’ staple, cinematographer Roger Deakins. Deakins’ work speaks volumes of the man’s prowess behind the camera. He was the man behind the gorgeous looks of films such as ‘No Country For Old Men’, ‘Jarhead’, ‘Fargo’, ‘O Brother Where Art Thou!’ and ‘The Shawshank Redemption’.

If it wasn’t for Deakins’ sublime vistas, and light play reminiscent of Freddie Young, ‘The Assassination of Jesse James’, would have been a moderately good film. But as it stands, it’s a very good one.


Rating: 3 and a 1/2

Thursday, January 31, 2008

Is this the best art on the Web?


Check out this awesome website
www.neosurrealismart.com
Here's a sample of the art it offers:

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Forget Mel, get a load of this world history

A US college professor with a knack for wit and a whole lot of time on his hands compiled a 'new' history of the world using students' exam answer papers. Be warned this may cause you to laugh until you die.

The inhabitants of Egypt were called mummies. They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by Camelot. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere, so certain areas of the dessert are cultivated by irritation. The Egyptians built the Pyramids in the shape of a huge triangular cube. The Pramids are a range of mountains between France and Spain.

The Bible is full of interesting caricatures. In the first book of the Bible, Guinesses, Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree. One of their children, Cain, asked "Am I my brother's son?" God asked Abraham to sacrifice Issac on Mount Montezuma. Jacob, son of Issac, stole his brother's birthmark. Jacob was a partiarch who brought up his twelve sons to be partiarchs, but they did not take to it. One of Jacob's sons, Joseph, gave refuse to the Israelites.

Pharaoh forced the Hebrew slaves to make bread without straw. Moses led them to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Afterwards, Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. David was a Hebrew king skilled at playing the liar. He fougth with the Philatelists, a race of people who lived in Biblical times. Solomon, one of David's sons, had 500 wives and 500 porcupines.

Without the Greeks, we wouldn't have history. The Greeks invented three kinds of columns - Corinthian, Doric and Ironic. They also had myths. A myth is a female moth. One myth says that the mother of Achilles dipped him in the River Stynx until he became intolerable. Achilles appears in "The Illiad", by Homer. Homer also wrote the "Oddity", in which Penelope was the last hardship that Ulysses endured on his journey. Actually, Homer was not written by Homer but by another man of that name.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock.

In the Olympic Games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled the biscuits, and threw the java. The reward to the victor was a coral wreath. The government of Athen was democratic because the people took the law into their own hands. There were no wars in Greece, as the mountains were so high that they couldn't climb over to see what their neighbors were doing. When they fought the Parisians, the Greeks were outnumbered because the Persians had more men.

Eventually, the Ramons conquered the Geeks. History call people Romans because they never stayed in one place for very long. At Roman banquets, the guests wore garlic in their hair. Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March killed him because they thought he was going to be made king. Nero was a cruel tyrany who would torture his poor subjects by playing the fiddle to them.

Then came the Middle Ages. King Alfred conquered the Dames, King Arthur lived in the Age of Shivery, King Harlod mustarded his troops before the Battle of Hastings, Joan of Arc was cannonized by George Bernard Shaw, and the victims of the Black Death grew boobs on their necks. Finally, the Magna Carta provided that no free man should be hanged twice for the same offense.

In midevil times most of the people were alliterate. The greatest writer of the time was Chaucer, who wrote many poems and verse and also wrote literature. Another tale tells of William Tell, who shot an arrow through an apple while standing on his son's head.

The Renaissance was an age in which more individuals felt the value of their human being. Martin Luther was nailed to the church door at Wittenberg for selling papal indulgences. He died a horrible death, being excommunicated by a bull. It was the painter Donatello's interest in the female nude that made him the father of the Renaissance. It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.

The government of England was a limited mockery. Henry VIII found walking difficult because he had an abbess on his knee. Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops, they all shouted "hurrah." Then her navy went out and defeated the Spanish Armadillo.

The greatest writer of the Renaissance was William Shakespear. Shakespear never made much money and is famous only because of his plays. He lived in Windsor with his merry wives, writing tragedies, comedies and errors. In one of Shakespear's famous plays, Hamlet rations out his situation by relieving himself in a long soliloquy. In another, Lady Macbeth tries to convince Macbeth to kill the King by attacking his manhood. Romeo and Juliet are an example of a heroic couplet. Writing at the same time as Shakespear was Miquel Cervantes. He wrote "Donkey Hote". The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote "Paradise Lost." Then his wife dies and he wrote "Paradise Regained."

During the Renaissance America began. Christopher Columbus was a great navigator who discovered America while cursing about the Atlantic. His ships were called the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Fe. Later the Pilgrims crossed the Ocean, and the was called the Pilgrim's Progress. When they landed at Plymouth Rock, they were greeted by Indians, who came down the hill rolling their was hoops before them. The Indian squabs carried porposies on their back. Many of the Indian heroes were killed, along with their cabooses, which proved very fatal to them. The winter of 1620 was a hard one for the settlers. Many people died and many babies were born. Captain John Smith was responsible for all this.

One of the causes of the Revolutionary Wars was the English put tacks in their tea. Also, the colonists would send their pacels through the post without stamps. During the War, Red Coats and Paul Revere was throwing balls over stone walls. The dogs were barking and the peacocks crowing. Finally, the colonists won the War and no longer had to pay for taxis.

Delegates from the original thirteen states formed the Contented Congress. Thomas Jefferson, a Virgin, and Benjamin Franklin were two singers of the Declaration of Independence. Franklin had gone to Boston carrying all his clothes in his pocket and a loaf of bread under each arm. He invented electricity by rubbing cats backwards and declared "a horse divided against itself cannot stand." Franklin died in 1790 and is still dead.

George Washington married Matha Curtis and in due time became the Father of Our Country. Them the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the Constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.

Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. When Lincoln was President, he wore only a tall silk hat. He said, "In onion there is strength."

Abraham Lincoln write the Gettysburg address while traveling from Washington to Gettysburg on the back of an envelope. He also signed the Emasculation Proclamation, and the Fourteenth Amendment gave the ex-Negroes citizenship. But the Clue Clux Clan would torcher and lynch the ex-Negroes and other innocent victims. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposedl insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.

Meanwhile in Europe, the enlightenment was a reasonable time. Voltare invented electricity and also wrote a book called "Candy". Gravity was invented by Issac Walton. It is chiefly noticeable in the Autumn, when the apples are flaling off the trees.

Bach was the most famous composer in the world, and so was Handel. Handel was half German, half Italian and half English. He was very large. Bach died from 1750 to the present. Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.

France was in a very serious state. The French Revolution was accomplished before it happened. The Marseillaise was the theme song of the French Revolution, and it catapulted into Napoleon. During the Napoleonic Wars, the crowned heads of Europe were trembling in their shoes. Then the Spanish gorrilas came down from the hills and nipped at Napoleon's flanks. Napoleon became ill with bladder problems and was very tense and unrestrained. He wanted an heir to inheret his power, but since Josephine was a baroness, she couldn't bear him any children.

The sun never set on the British Empire because the British Empire is in the East and the sun sets in the West. Queen Victoria was the longest queen. She sat on a thorn for 63 years. He reclining years and finally the end of her life were exemplatory of a great personality. Her death was the final event which ended her reign.

The nineteenth century was a time of many great inventions and thoughts. The invention of the steamboat caused a network of rivers to spring up. Cyrus McCormick invented the McCormick Raper, which did the work of a hundred men. Samuel Morse invented a code for telepathy. Louis Pastuer discovered a cure for rabbis. Charles Darwin was a naturailst who wrote the "Organ of the Species". Madman Curie discovered radium. And Karl Marx became one of the Marx Brothers.

The First World War, cause by the assignation of the Arch-Duck by a surf, ushered in a new error in the anals of human history.

Thursday, January 10, 2008

UAE eases changing of jobs by expatriate workers

Dubai: In a move to ease changing of jobs by expatriate workers, the United Arab Emirates has ruled that employees, who had completed three years in a company, no longer need a No Objection Certificate from their employer if they a want to shift their job.

However, no ministerial decision has yet been issued in this regard, although, the practice has been applied at the Ministry of Labour for the past four months.

Previously, the ministry asked for an NOC from any employee who wanted to change his job. In the absence of the certificate, a six-month ban was imposed

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Mars, the true Red planet

MOSCOW: Russia is leading the race to complete a manned mission to Mars and could land a Russian on the Red Planet by 2025, a leading scientist was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"We have something of a head start in this race as we have the most experience in piloted space flight," the director of the prestigious Space Research Institute, Lev Zelyony, told Interfax news agency on Tuesday. The goal of becoming the first country to land a human on Mars is "technically and economically achievable" by 2025, he said.

Mars is the most prestigious prize for the Russian space industry if it wants to boost the country's "scientific and political prestige" through manned space flight, he said. "We lost the race to the moon," Zelyony said.

The United States achieved that goal on July 20, 1969, when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong became the first man to set foot on the moon. The last manned US mission to the moon was the December, 1972 flight of Apollo 17.

Sunday, January 6, 2008

Issi Miyake and the nostalgic nose

It was the scent that got him first; the feel of her hands came after. The bottle of Issi Miyake fell to the floor spewing out its fragrant contents at his feet.

The memories flooded.

He could see her before him, as if conjured genie-like from the multi-coloured bottle. His hand reached out for something to support him as his knees buckled under the weight of regret and reflection.

Her image turned her back to him and walked to the bed, where it sat looking up at him.

She smiled.

He looked away and glanced at the bare light bulb that dangled from the broken lamp fitting. Her smell was strong.

He looked at her; she smiled again, this time slightly unsure.

“Don’t you remember me,” she said.

“Only too well,” he murmured staring at the rapidly-evaporating puddle of perfume that began to cool his toes.

“Once that’s gone I will be too,” she looked at the bottle, stood up and placed a hand on his cheek: it felt like an anvil had been dropped on his chest.

“I know.”

“Do you miss me?”

“Too much to feel it anymore.”

She held his head in her hands and he inhaled deeply. The smell reminded him of his youth, of long drives and New Radicals; of midnight stealth and unbridled passion.

It reminded him of what he had lost.

He cried, she sighed.

The scent dimmed, and she looked towards the window. “This too shall pass. You should know, that’s what you always said,” she giggled slightly, and then seeing his pained expression looked away.

The smell was ebbing and he breathed in ever-deepening gasps. He wanted it in his lungs, in his marrow. He would never see her again; this was his last chance to be part of his past.

“Why did you go?” she asked, toying with the end of the bed sheet.

“Why didn’t you stay?”

“What for? So that we could both be single at 70?”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Oh D— you know so little about life. You reduced your life to emotional carnage; you created the monsters that trouble you today. All I ever wanted was normalcy.”

“We can still have normalcy.”

“I have normalcy.”

The image before him shimmered, faded slightly and then refocused. She was leaving.

He breathed deep again, and sat on the bed by her side.

“It could have been great.”

“My darling, it was great. We, however, weren’t great enough to make it last,” she smiled and ruffled his hair.

“Maybe next time?” he said as he watched her rise and head for the window.

“Maybe.” She turned and looked at him. She was crying now. Her tears didn’t come in sobs, they trickled. She had emancipated herself from his cruelty, but her tears still genuflected.

“I’m afraid one day I will awaken and be unable to remember,” he said, his voice now had a pleading timbre to it.

“Don’t worry there’s always Issi Miyake,” she said and disappeared.

He watched her fade away and the air left his body in a great sigh. It soared and he with it. He looked down on his form from on high: a frail man bent under the weight of misspent years.

He watched the man pick up the bottle and lay its disappearing contents on his pillow. He watched as he lay on the bed and placed the pillow in his arms.

That’s how they found him the next morning. The coroner said he died of a heart attack.

At his wake one of his friends joked that he died due to a perfume overdose.

“That room stank of Issi Miyake,” he laughed, and the room did too.

At the back of the room, a woman wept. She reached into her handbag for a tissue, and found it next to her bottle of perfume. She clutched the bottle tight. It was now her link to him. The fragrance would always remind her of the last thing he ever smelled. Even in death, he had linked himself to her.

She would never escape…now she would stop trying.