Geek of All Trades

Sick day with Aamir Khan

I was home sick today, and spent the day in bed watching DVDs on my computer.  I watched Lagaan - one of my most favorite Bollywood films, mentioned previously here - and several episodes from the first season of Bewitched, and then another Bollywood film, the bizarre comedy-melodrama (yes, you read that right) Ishq. 

Ishq, like Lagaan, stars Aamir Khan (left above), which means that when all was said and done I spent about six and a half hours with Aamir Khan today.  He's adorable, so I don't really have any complaints - but quite unlike Lagaan, I can't really recommend Ishq for the faint of heart or for those who don't already have a taste for Bollywood and a sense of humor about how bad it can be when it goes wrong.  It was an odd, odd film - part slapstick comedy, part socio-political diatribe, part violent melodrama. 

The songs were fun, though - bad, but fun.  I went back and watched most of them again when I was done with the film.  That's the best thing about Bollywood DVDs - they usually have song menus that allow you to skip right to the songs.  The people who make these DVDs knows that the songs are the parts most likely to stand up to repeat viewing. 

(A still from the best naach-gaana in Lagaan, the brilliant "Radha kaise na jale")

Aaawww!

Isn't this set of picures the cutest thing ever?  Visit the link, and click on the little arrow above right of the picture to see the next picture in the set.

So sweet!

The Killer Abs

I headed out to a dive bar in Allston last night to hear my assistant Chris and her band, the Killer Abs.  The Killer Abs are five women ranging in age (I'm guessing) from about 25-40.  They play mostly punk covers - the Clash, the Sex Pistols, &c - with a few other things thrown in.  For example, their set last night opened with the "Fat Albert" theme and ended with a medley that included the Beastie Boys' "Fight For Your Right (to Party)". 

They absolutely rocked.

What they lacked in technical chops they more than made up for in energy and humor.  The drummer beat the stuffing out of her kit - she hit the drums hard.  Chris kept a driving pace on the bass.  The singer - the youngest and most petite of the bunch - kept a snarl and a smile.  "Fuck you," she shouted at the end of the set, "and thanks a lot."  There may be nothing more fun than punk performed with a postmodern sensibility. 

The Killer Abs play frequently around Boston, often at the Abbey Lounge in Somerville and occasionally at the Middle East in Cambridge.  If you are in the area, it's worth giving them a listen.  It's a fun show. 

Oh ... oh my.

I recently joined the discussion forums at the BollyWHAT? website, and I am really, really glad I did.  I've already learned a pile of cool stuff, and added still more and more flicks to the growing list of Hindi films I have to see.  (I know GOAT is getting some visitors from the forums, so a warm "namaste!" to all of you as well.)  And I read a fantastic interview of my beloved Shabana Azmi, an interview that included this delicious, delicious tidbit, in response to a question about shooting Fire:

In fact my husband complains that I've done a kissing scene with a man in another movie and I don't look as convincing as I do with Nandita [Das], and he wants to know what that's all about.

kher!

They did have some chemistry, didn't they? 

I've seen a couple more of Shabana's films since I posted the first installment of the GOAT Indian film list - I know I'm due to update that - and I remain as convinced as ever that Shabana Azmi is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.  Here's some more gratuitous Shabana. 

   

vaah!  I've turned into such a fangirl! 

Wayback catblogging

Today's catblogging installment is a historical look at Demetrius as he was when he first came to live with me.  Thanks to the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, I was able to recover some pictures of Demetrius that I took in those days and posted on my first website in 1996.

         

When Demetrius first came to live with me he was a young cat, not really any longer a kitten, but not quite fully grown.  He had been born in Brooklyn, in my parents' back yard, one of a litter of three.  After my father rounded up the kittens (their mother practically placed them on my parents' doorstep, but kept herself out of reach), my parents found homes for the other two kittens, but they kept Demetrius, who was the cutest and fuzziest and softest in the litter.  After a number of months, though, it became clear that Demetrius wasn't a happy cat.  He got along well with my parents' other cat, good old Lysander (now of blessed memory), but he lived in terror of my father and hid under the bed all day, only emerging late at night when my father was asleep and the house was quiet.

   

And so, when I decided it was time to get a cat, my parents offered me Demetrius.  They bundled him into the car and drove him up to Boston, stopping partway to feed him a little chicken from a roadside Roy Rogers.  At my house, Demetrius stayed under the bed for a while, but after a couple of days his curiosity got the better of him and he emerged, meowing.  It wasn't long before Demetrius blossomed into the talky, insistent, demanding, and still slightly skittish cat who has made me smile for the last ten years.  The pictures in this post show you what he looked like in the first few weeks after he arrived in Boston.

   

   curious cat!

  cat on the move.

 

No irony intended

News that the state of California had executed its oldest death row inmate hardly caught my attention.  D.'s only comment after we heard about Clarence Ray Allen's failed appeals on the radio this morning was, while he hates the death penalty as much as anyone, "if it isn't cruel and unusual punishment to execute a 55-year-old man, then it isn't cruel and unusual to execute a 75-year-old man."  I told him he could feel secure in the knowledge that Governor Schwarzenneger and the California Supreme Court agreed with him. 

I hate the death penalty, too.  I hate it (among other reasons) because it substitutes revenge, one of humankind's basest impulses, for justice and mercy, which are among the more elevated and elevating aspects of the intellects God gave us.  I've heard it complained that such arguments can only be made by people who haven't lost loved ones to violent crimes.  That's exactly correct, but I think its correctness only proves my point.  No one has ever expressed that idea better than my old law school friend, J.D., who was at the time one of the staunchest law-and-order hardasses I'd ever met.  J.D. said, "If someone did something to hurt my mother, I wouldn't want them in jail for life.  I'd want to kill them with my bare hands."  She paused, and then added, "that's why I'm against the death penalty." 

Another reason to hate the death penalty is the hypocrisy evidenced by so many of its supporters and agents, as illustrated so aptly in a CNN story on Mr. Allen's demise:

Having suffered a heart attack back in September, Allen had asked prison authorities to let him die if he went into cardiac arrest before his execution, a request prison officials said they would not honor.

"At no point are we not going to value the sanctity of life," said prison spokesman Vernell Crittendon. "We would resuscitate him," then execute him.   

Hindustani shaadi Barbie?

I've been haunting ebay for Bollywood movie posters, waiting for the perfect one to come along to grace my office wall.  I haven't yet found something perfect - though I've found a couple that are close - but while exploring one vendor's wares I discovered something even more strange and wonderful:  a collection of Barbie dolls with uniquely designed Indian bridal outfits. 

Tampa Rath Yatra

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law Sarah called to tell me that there was an Indian festival happening in Tampa called Rath Yatra.  She and my brother Philip didn't know anything about it, but they invited us to come down for the weekend and join them.  So we did.

Rath Yatra, it turns out, is the festival of the Pilgrimage of the Chariot of Lord Jagannath, originating in the state of Orissa in eastern India.  More to the point for our adventure in Tampa, in the United States Rath Yatra is a major Hare Krishna festival, organized and funded by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. 

The festival wasn't all white guys with bald heads in saffron robes - though there were some of them around - and we had a great time.  The Hare Krishna folks served us a yummy free meal which we ate while watching Lord Jagannath's chariot go by.

We wandered around for a while, browsing the very few vendors' tents that were there - only the movie tent was irresistable to me, and I came home with a few new Bollywood DVDs - and looking at the lovely saris and kurtas worn by some of the attendees.  There were some terrific colors to be seen, and we enjoyed the warm sunshine while trying to decide which sari was prettiest. Eventually, the dance performances began - girls ranging in age from about 6 to maybe 18 or so in resplendent costumes gave challenging, impressive classical dance performances.  (Click on the pictures for a larger version, except the second one for some reason.)

 

While the girls were performing, the chariot parked beside the stage and Krishna devotees lined up to present offerings to Lord Jagannath and receive his blessings.

All in all, we had a very pleasant afternoon.

   

After the festival, in the Tampa airport, I met a woman who, it turned out, was a Krishna devotee from Los Angeles who is involved in organizing the enormous Rath Yatra festival in that city.   But she wasn't in Tampa for Rath Yatra - she didn't even know it was going on.  She was in Tampa to visit her mother for Greek Orthodox Christmas.  (I'm sure her spiritual path makes an interesting story!)  When I showed her the program for Tampa's Rath Yatra, she exclaimed in some surprise, "Hey, this was organized by actual Indians!"   Tells you something about how the Hare Krishna community in L.A. is a bit different from the one in Tampa. 

Tagine

For chanukah, my parents sent me a gorgeous Le Creuset tagine.  A tagine is a traditional Moroccan pot used to prepare slow-cooked stews.  Traditionally they are made from glazed ceramic, but the Le Creuset is enameled cast iron.  A tagine is characterized by its wide, bowl-shaped bottom and tall conical top.  Here on my stove is my lovely new Le Creuset tagine (click on any of the images for a larger image in a pop-up window):

 

Tonight, I broke in the tagine with a recipe from the booklet that came with it:  Moroccan lamb stew with fennel and dates.  First, I sauteed some garlic some very thinly sliced fennel bulb and red onion in some olive oil in the base of the tagine.   

    

Next, I took the vegetables out of the pan and browned the lamb (in two batches, to make sure it all browned well).

Then I added some good flavorful Middle Eastern spices - cumin, coriander, cayenne, and ground ginger (along with some salt), tossed the vegetables back in, and mixed in a cup of deliciously sweet chopped dates.  Finally I added a little bit of water, replaced the conical cover on the tagine, turned the heat way down, and let it cook slowly for more than two hours.  Here's the result, served over cous cous with a little sauteed broccoli rabe on the side. 

It was fantastic.  I'm not sure I've ever cooked lamb that came out so tender.  And the flavors were exquisite - the sweetness of the dates, the cayenne's bite, the savory spices, the rich lamb, the exotic fennel all blended together in a smooth synthesis that was all of those things and yet something different still.  A wonderful, wonderful meal.  Thanks to mom and dad for the tagine! 

Search engines can't read your mind

No, no - not that Ankur.  Sorry. 

In the last couple of days Geek of All Trades started getting hits from people landing on my review of Shyam Benegal's Ankur after Googling phrases like "ankur geek" and "beauty geek ankur".  The recurrent combination of search terms was puzzling, until a little Googling of my own revealed that the TV game show (I can't really bring myself call this genre "reality") Beauty and the Geek 2 evidently features a contestant named Ankur. 

Beauty and the Geek 2's website tells me that Ankur is a 22-year-old MIT graduate pursuing graduate studies (the website doesn't say in what), who also has an interest in Indian dance.  He's supposedly one of the show's "geeks," as opposed to one of its "beauties."  He sounds pretty cute to me, but I'm not sure that's the point of the show.  Or maybe it is.  Beauty and the Geek 2 is not really my cup of tea (though I certainly have my own lowbrow pop culture fancies).  But if it's yours, and that's what brought you to my blog, please consider doing yourself this favor: when the show's over, go check out Ankur or any other great piece of international cinema.