What? No pictures?!?

For the two regular readers:

For the next few weeks, my intermittent posts probably won't have any images because I'm participating in The 21 Day Turnoff, a media fast organized by Pure Life Revolution. I know, I know. "Geez! Didn't you just do a blogging fast for Lent? What's up with that?!?" Hey, this wasn't my idea but I agree with the principles behind it so I'm participating as are most of the people at my church and several other churches in Nashville. Never fear! Photos shall be added with haste after June 16.

Want more info? Read it here. Heck! If you're in town, join in!

Bollywood Goes Gansta...

You may have read my other post about Bollywood getting a little ghetto in the midst of all the glamour but this my friends is the real deal. This isn't just ghetto, it's gritty... [found here]

When little-known Bollywood director Nabh Kumar Raju was looking for six actors to star in his movie on the underworld, he had one criterion: they should have committed or had a brush with crime at some point of their lives.
The flip side to this, Mr Raju says, was that the actors would get so involved in the scene sometimes that during a fight sequence, they would actually beat each other up.
Mr Raju confessed he was also quite scared while directing the actors.
The director said he rushed through the filming because some of them still had cases pending against them and he was worried about them not returning once they left to attend the hearings. [Link]

That director is crazy. (And looks like he suffered a beat down.) All the problems Indian cinema has had with the mafia and goes out hiring "reformed" criminals?!? Yikes! But then, if 50¢ can make a movie...

BollySimpsons

I love it! I don't watch the Simpsons very much but I'm sorry I missed this episode. I have no idea how they came up with it but I'm glad to know that someone else thought it was important to share the love! So long as you're breathing, there's always a reason to dance!

Upload videos at Bolt.

Black Moment of the Week :0)

I don't watch very much TV and this is one program that I'm sad I missed. Oprah's Legends Weekend was on a couple of days ago. It showed the event she planned out for 25 African-American women, ages 55 & up, who had made significant contributions to American culture, to be honored. In addition to the honorees, there were tons of notable guests 55 & under.

There's a bunch of photos on Oprah's website. These are just a few of the folks that were there:
Actors: Kimberly Elise, Phylicia Rashad, Alfre Woodard, Halle Berry, Angela Bassett, Pam Grier, Audra McDonald
Singers: Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey--yes, Mariah is black. Okay, or she thinks she is and we believe her--Valerie Simpson, Ashanti, Missy Elliott, Chaka Khan, Kathleen Battle, Melba Moore, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Natalie Cole, Yolanda Adams, Brandi
Models: Beverly Johnson, Iman, Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell
Choreographers: Judith Jamison, Debbie Allen
Playwrights/Screenwriters: Anna Deavere Smith, Suzan-Lori Parks, Pearl Cleage, Darnell Martin
Authors: Terry McMillan, Susan L. Taylor
Producer: Suzanne de Passe
That's the folks from just one set of photos from one day of the event. The list of nominees is here.

I really think I would have been on the verge of passing out had I been there. From what my mom was saying, (she actually watched the program), most of the attendees felt the same way. All of the women were nationally, if not internationally known, and many of them had never met. I love this photo: Alicia Keys mediating Phyllica Rashad and Kimberly Elise's mutual amazement of one another.

I just ordered a copy of the program off of eBay. It can't get here soon enough...

Update [5/27]: I got my copy and it's grrrreat!!! You can buy one from this ebayer: starrlyte23.

Kiss & Taal!

Was that a *kiss* I saw in this film?!? Admittedly, Akshaye is not my type but I can defnitely see how he's snagged so many fans. There's something adorable about a man of his build dancing as hard as he did in this film.

Because the cinematography was gorgeous and the music was unusual but very cool, I won't mention the set of dance costumes that went from fabulous to hideous and back, the really thin overly effiminent male dancer that appeared in the foreground of every number, the way that the theme music had only one variation and was played relentlessly through the first half of the film, or the fact that no one who has recently survived a house fire should show up at a function that has the potential to break into a rioting mob in which he will risk being billy-clubbed on the head.

No, these things I will not mention because overall, the film was a clever piece of work. I will however mention--to the chagrin of Akshaye fans worldwide I'm sure--that I could not help but wait for him to say, "Cut-it-out!" just for my entertainment pleasure. Yes, friends, it is undeniable, Akshaye Khanna and Dave Coulier share DNA. The world is a small place.

In love with Hindi & Urdu

I've been watching Bollywood for about a year now and I'm trying to figure out what the proper words are for love, beloved, my love, etc. I only speak English so this is all guesswork. [FYI, I have no idea what that rose thing says.]

The confusion might have something to do with Urdu versus Hindi but I've heard all of the following appear to have some one of those meanings and I'm never sure which: *weird spelling ahead*

maahiya (mere)
maahii (re)
mahabuub (mere)
mera saiyya
piya
pyaar
mahabuuba
merii jaan
prem mere man me hai
muhabbat
prem
saa nwariya

It seems like there's a TON of different ways to express the same thing. Are any of them significantly different? Are some appropriate in one situation but not in another? This is my quest. Perhaps the answers are close by. I would ask the nice old man at the market but I'm sure he finds me strange enough as it is. This question sounds too much like a pick up line...

A.C. Slater's Bollywood reincarnation - Shahid Kapoor

Why does Shahid Kapoor look like A.C. Slater sans dimple?

I pity the fool

If you've read a bit too much of my blog you've probably noticed my inexplicable affinity for Mr. T. Perhaps our sharing the first letter of our names, (or the only letter of his), is where it began. I think though, his winning feature is the mohawk. I once had a crush on a boy with a mohawk in 7th grade...

Yes, well I return to Mr. T. because he is returning to TV. This time he will not be sharing his testimony on TBN. No, he will be hosting his own talk show. Dear God! Where have all the writers gone? He, like Amy Grant a la Three Wishes, will be traveling around the U.S. to give advice to those who need it.

I need say no more, for he has said it all:

"My show ain't no `Dr. Phil,' with people sitting around crying," he said. "You're a fool — that's what's wrong with you. You're a fool if you don't take my advice."

I promise I didn't make this up. Read it here.

Bad fashion and blasphemy

Darling Beth has forever marred the glory of my Bollywood boyfriend by brining this display of lamentable fashion--and whatever in the world he was doing with his hand--to my attention. [Link] Need I say again, "People, film is forever!"

Two things are wrong with this photo:

1. Hrithik's wife failed to help him get dressed and style his hair the day this photo was taken.
2. Kunal Kapoor is supa fine AND looks like Jesus. <--blasphemy

The "e" word vs. the "f" factor

I and another Bollyblogger, were discussing the guilty pleasure of relishing in the "otherness" (although haters might use the "e" word) of Indian pop-cinema.

[The real question everyone should be asking is something more like, "Why is the 'e' word only applied to people from places of warm climates?" Allow me this conjecture. Pull out a world map and notice that a country's "e"-ism lessens in near direct proportion to its distance from the equator. Brazil? Dead on the money. 10 points. I mean, for all we know in the West, Brazil is a big rainforest/bikini dance party. Russia? Negative 1 points. Kenya? 10 points. For real, Kenya is like the only safari location outside of Busch Gardens Tampa. Obviously, Australia scores about the same as Argentina. Which brings us back to our friends in India whose rate on the "e" scale is right up there with Miami, FL.]

No, my friends, in truth it is not about the "e" word, it's about the "f" factor. A little something called "flair." Baz Luhrmann, who directed one the best films ever [Romeo + Juliet] explains it in his own maddening way:

[When a] story is comic tragedy it's quite complicated, even though its execution is simple, because it's high comedy and high tragedy. And that form exists in the theatre and in Shakespeare and it lives in Bollywood movies! They carry on high tragedy and then a musical number..." [Link]

How could that combination be anything less than endearing? Throw in some eyecandy as actors and you've got a hit! Bam, that's flair!

Tom Cruise...going the way of Whitney & Bobby

Am I the only one that thinks Tom Cruise is using the same stuff as Whitney Houston?
Furthermore, can someone somewhere assure me that snap music really IS just a trend...

Where did all the soul go?

Help me somebody!

Once again, I'm probably late on this but I just now heard the track "Music" from Leela James' album. The first verse ends, "Can't go back to yesterday/Can we just put the thongs away/And fall back in love with music/Nothin' but the music."

Word. What she said. People don't sing no more.

Tell me where your soul's at.

Also, for the record, I was planning to grow my hair out before I saw the cover of her album.

Something like A Doll's House

I saw Kuch Naa Kaho a couple of weeks ago. It was a cute film. It was recommended to me by the nice old man who runs Suraj Imports. It features heir to the Bachchan throne, Abhishek and Miss Universe herself, princess Aishwarya Rai. There was nothing too exciting about the movie. Overall, it was just cute. I loved how ridiculously sinister and reminiscent of Tom Cruise the "bum husband" was. In fact, he gave up a little too easily at the end. And that was the most memorable part of the film. Little Aish standing up to her big bad husband in a public setting no less. It absolutely gave me flash backs of reading Ibsen's A Doll's House in high school and being told, "This was absolutely shocking at the time it was originally performed." I'm guessing this falls under that category.

Black Moment of the Week :0)

Actually, this would be better entitled "Black Moments of Two Weeks."

The first involves a young filmmaker from Nashvegas, Bobby Poole who made a short film called The Earl Thompson Movement that was screened at the Nashville Film Festival. I really enjoyed it. The story was interesting, concise and relevant. Admitedly, a great part of my delight in the piece is the fact that it was shot on video instead of film. [Very encouraging to us broke folk!] Bobby's a really nice guy and he's from Hampton Roads, VA where I grew up but I digress...

The second, and don't act suprised, is Akeelah and the Bee! As my ChinLao friend Kanya said, "That movie was SO cute!" I think the marketing for the film was a little off though because it doesn't really catch the essence of Akeelah's character. The trailers I've seen don't show nearly how spunky she is. Come on y'all she's from Crenshaw! Get it right. The trailer I've seen was all "suburban PTA meeting" or something. And God help the people who made the movie poster! The child's profile looks like an abandonded Muppet with a bad wig! On the positive side, one of the things I liked about the film was that it got away from the bilateral black-white racial paradigm that's normally seen in American films. The main characters are black, mexian and chinese. (And people have the audacity to ask me why I love southern california!)

Warning: Color Purple reference to follow.
Also, I want to give a shout out to Angela Bassett for killin it as a single mom in the ghetto! When Akeelah came home late one night, I was squealing in frightened anticpation like Mousy before she got clocked by Miss Sophia.

Friends, contrymen, SUPORT THIS FILM! Please let Hollywood know that somebody out there will watch a film that features black characters who are not pimps, hos, strippers, gansters or over-the-top comedians. Otherwise, none of my films will get made and I'll have to write about white people for the rest of my life! *End panic attack.*
See the movie. I promise you'll thank me.