This article from Salon is the one exhibit I need to show to everyone I know that believes shampooing every alternate day is "good for health"! Hit the link for an informed, in-depth look at yet another example of human artifice.
I have a question, though: Can you actually use Sunshine Dish Detergent to shampoo? What agents, if any at all, should one use to clean out their hair? And how often? I'd ask a doctor, but I'd have to pay just for them to show me their coat lapels. So i f anyone knows, please reply to this post!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Sunday, January 13, 2008
Movie Roundup - Jhoom Barabar Jhoom
Welcome to the first article in the Movie Roundup series. I would like to begin with an almost forgotten release of the past year, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead!
Two strangers await their loved ones at the Waterloo train station in England. Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta) share their anticipation and stories, and it soon becomes apparent that these are two characters as unlike one another as can be possible.
But egos are not all that clash in this colorful tapestry of love, revelry and romance. The truth is soon let out, and it is completely the opposite of the perceived: neither Steve nor Anaida arrive at Waterloo station. Rikki and Alvira have been indulging in a subtle play of deceit and lies in order to get to know one another, to the extent of truth-or-daring and exchanging phone numbers. When each attempts to meet the other's faux-lovers, the web of fibs weaves deeper. Alvira's "Steve" (Bobby Deol) is actually Satvinder Singh of the local optician store; a mamma-loving-lady killer sanitization of the superhero Steve. And Rikki's "Anaida" (Lara Dutta) is Laila, a call-girl with a tongue to match her earthy profession.
As Alvira and Rikki both cling to their agony uncles to help animate their crafted mates, events conspire to present the pairs with a dance competition at the local Indo-lounge club. Rikki and Alvira fire up their partners and wage a choreographic jugalbandi that concludes with Rikki and "Anaida" as winners. But all the while, it almost seems as if the true battle is between Alvira and Rikki, attacking each other for not saying the truth that neither knows of. Both go their separate ways, heartbroken.
But fate, it seems, has a way of its own. "Steve" falls for "Anaida", and after a sequence of confusions and confessions, Rikki realizes that Alvira loves him. A frantic search later, Alvira and Rikki are in each other's arms, and the camera leaves us at Waterloo station, where the gypsy (Amitabh Bachchan) who has seen these events pass, recreates the beginnings of the lies that prefix this one of many such love stories he has seen.
The movie's story is told from various perspectives, but it is this last that feels inspired and spunky in an otherwise laboriously-paced tale. The length really begins to tell on you in the post-interval sequences, when the director begins to indulge himself with the kind of darbari settings and Urdu dialogs that we so enjoyed in his last; but here they seem more contrived than anything else, in the midst of locations that span from suburban London to cosmopolitan Paris. Even the lively performances from Bachchan and Deol fail to hold up the audience's interest for long, as do the slick cinematography and . Nor does a historic moment in Hindi cinema - the scene with Bachchan and Deol in the motorcycle with the sidecar, same as their respective fathers a quarter of a decade ago - rekindle an excitement deadened by the cloying opulence of the proceedings.
The three people you end up feeling most sorry for, however, are Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa, the music direction team, because this is easily the most variegated, hummable, and soulful music you will find in the year gone by. The title track and Bol Na Halke Halke deserve special mention as two of the trio's very best compositions. The brilliance of the tracks has inspired some very special music videos; the latter song's picturization even touches subtly upon the oneness of Alvira's and Rikki's countries of origin by illustrating the similarity of their respective religions. It is a shame that when the soundtrack ups the ante and expectation, the movie can't even hold that level. Just another example that goes to show you that mediocre storytelling isn't covered for by brilliant packaging. All that glitters ain't gold. But when you hear the sound of the sparkle, you almost wish it were so.
Warning: Spoilers lie ahead!
Two strangers await their loved ones at the Waterloo train station in England. Rikki Thukral (Abhishek Bachchan) and Alvira Khan (Preity Zinta) share their anticipation and stories, and it soon becomes apparent that these are two characters as unlike one another as can be possible.
But egos are not all that clash in this colorful tapestry of love, revelry and romance. The truth is soon let out, and it is completely the opposite of the perceived: neither Steve nor Anaida arrive at Waterloo station. Rikki and Alvira have been indulging in a subtle play of deceit and lies in order to get to know one another, to the extent of truth-or-daring and exchanging phone numbers. When each attempts to meet the other's faux-lovers, the web of fibs weaves deeper. Alvira's "Steve" (Bobby Deol) is actually Satvinder Singh of the local optician store; a mamma-loving-lady killer sanitization of the superhero Steve. And Rikki's "Anaida" (Lara Dutta) is Laila, a call-girl with a tongue to match her earthy profession.
As Alvira and Rikki both cling to their agony uncles to help animate their crafted mates, events conspire to present the pairs with a dance competition at the local Indo-lounge club. Rikki and Alvira fire up their partners and wage a choreographic jugalbandi that concludes with Rikki and "Anaida" as winners. But all the while, it almost seems as if the true battle is between Alvira and Rikki, attacking each other for not saying the truth that neither knows of. Both go their separate ways, heartbroken.
But fate, it seems, has a way of its own. "Steve" falls for "Anaida", and after a sequence of confusions and confessions, Rikki realizes that Alvira loves him. A frantic search later, Alvira and Rikki are in each other's arms, and the camera leaves us at Waterloo station, where the gypsy (Amitabh Bachchan) who has seen these events pass, recreates the beginnings of the lies that prefix this one of many such love stories he has seen.
The movie's story is told from various perspectives, but it is this last that feels inspired and spunky in an otherwise laboriously-paced tale. The length really begins to tell on you in the post-interval sequences, when the director begins to indulge himself with the kind of darbari settings and Urdu dialogs that we so enjoyed in his last; but here they seem more contrived than anything else, in the midst of locations that span from suburban London to cosmopolitan Paris. Even the lively performances from Bachchan and Deol fail to hold up the audience's interest for long, as do the slick cinematography and . Nor does a historic moment in Hindi cinema - the scene with Bachchan and Deol in the motorcycle with the sidecar, same as their respective fathers a quarter of a decade ago - rekindle an excitement deadened by the cloying opulence of the proceedings.
The three people you end up feeling most sorry for, however, are Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa, the music direction team, because this is easily the most variegated, hummable, and soulful music you will find in the year gone by. The title track and Bol Na Halke Halke deserve special mention as two of the trio's very best compositions. The brilliance of the tracks has inspired some very special music videos; the latter song's picturization even touches subtly upon the oneness of Alvira's and Rikki's countries of origin by illustrating the similarity of their respective religions. It is a shame that when the soundtrack ups the ante and expectation, the movie can't even hold that level. Just another example that goes to show you that mediocre storytelling isn't covered for by brilliant packaging. All that glitters ain't gold. But when you hear the sound of the sparkle, you almost wish it were so.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
The Best Dancer in the World
It's funny how a string of discoveries can lead to some truly stupendous results. Me and my roommate, Andrew, rode one such wave of discovery when we started on another foray of exploring music this Monday. Andrew came home that evening, all happy and in a music mood, and asked me to play some nice loud music. Both of us being the techno/electric/trance fans that we are, I figured a trance track would be the best thing to play. I turned up with Lee Cabrera's mix of I Watch You on YouTube. Good song, and a very nice video, which was mostly a mix of other trance videos. One particular sequence towards the end, which had this girl and guy doing a street dance bit, was really awesome. Through sheer luck, Andrew, who was randomly browsing through videos on Azureus Vuze, downloaded the video that had the exact same sequence in it; and we had no clue of who that song was from till Andrew found it! It turned out to be Axwell's Feel The Vibe, and it's easily one of my all-time favorites now.
The dancers in the video were really awesome, too, and it was absolutely impossible that they couldn't be famous themselves, so I looked up the comments on the video to find out that the guy was Salah, a French hip-hop dancer who is part of the Cirque du Soleil; and the girl was Sofia Boutella, an Algerian from Paris who is a Rhythmic Dance graduate of the Berkeley School of Music, and has represented France at the Olympics. She has also been part of the Vagabond Crew, a dance troupe that won the 2006 World Championship Hip-Hop Battle; and has performed with Madonna, Jamiroquai, and Rihanna. She is also a model for Nike Women.
Sofia Boutella is also very, very pretty, as I'm sure you must have noticed by now. :) Any one who wants to lay claim to the title of Best Dancer in the World should probably check these two out before say anything. Street dancing rocks...!
The dancers in the video were really awesome, too, and it was absolutely impossible that they couldn't be famous themselves, so I looked up the comments on the video to find out that the guy was Salah, a French hip-hop dancer who is part of the Cirque du Soleil; and the girl was Sofia Boutella, an Algerian from Paris who is a Rhythmic Dance graduate of the Berkeley School of Music, and has represented France at the Olympics. She has also been part of the Vagabond Crew, a dance troupe that won the 2006 World Championship Hip-Hop Battle; and has performed with Madonna, Jamiroquai, and Rihanna. She is also a model for Nike Women.
Sofia Boutella is also very, very pretty, as I'm sure you must have noticed by now. :) Any one who wants to lay claim to the title of Best Dancer in the World should probably check these two out before say anything. Street dancing rocks...!
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Importance of Knowledge
After many days of planning and procrastination, me and my roommate finally resolved to hit the gym regularly this year. With each other to keep us company, and a state-of-the-art activities center to boot, we started to take time out every evening or so to devote to ourselves and our fitness. After one such session, we returned home with a sense of satisfaction at having worked on our bodies, when my roommate picked up a packet of chips and started eating out of it with abandon.
Scandalized at this blatant squandering of all the calories we had just so painstakingly offloaded, I yelled at my roommate to hold off until at least half an hour had passed; believing, as according to popular belief, that it would cause discomfort to eat so soon after intense physical activity. As it turned out, I was wrong in saying this, because a few seconds later, he was yelling right back at me, because he had Googled up evidence to the contrary: it is, in fact, necessary to replenish the glycogen and moisture lost by the body in exercise.
Of course, my roommate, in his proving of the point, overlooked the fact mentioned on another of Google's search results: that it is important to get in the right kind of nutrients (in particular, carbohydrates) from food consumed after exercising. By eating chips, he had also consumed a significant amount of fat, which served to reduce the amount he had labored to shed. He had gone by the opinion of an ordinary member of the Internet population, as opposed to a specialist on the subject, simply because that was what he 'found' first. He had demonstrated a classic example of incomplete knowledge being as harmful as no knowledge at all.
Don't get me wrong here, While I'm not discounting the power of community and the importance of getting an opinion from someone who has had practical experience related to a topic of discussion, the extent to which these opinions are correct may be debatable. Particularly in the matter of a topic as important as our health and fitness, I would go by a doctor's blog or article, rather than a post somebody left on a forum or opinions website. On the whole, however, it is very important to get a thorough grounding on the topic in question before speaking about it as passionately as my roommate did.
This brought me to thinking about a much larger point: what is the plight of those people who do not have an opportunity to access the knowledge that my roommate was able to reach in the click of a button? There is a large section of the world population that will probably never even have access to a computer, let alone one that will allow them to connect to the Internet and obtain information so easily. And all the while, we use this immense power at our disposal casually, almost disdainfully. Putting this infinitely valuable resource to good use is something we all need to do.
Take the example of the Indian organization Mahiti, run by Vijay Rasquinha and a group of his colleagues. One of the private limited's many projects is the provision and maintenance of an IT training infrastructure for rural areas, based on the concept of paying it forward. Essentially, the organization sets up several systems in these areas to train children and young adults on the skills required to become competent and productive in the world of IT. Once they have trained a core set of people, the company hands over the infrastructure to the area's residents, allowing them to teach the rest of their community. They make themselves available for any support that the users of the infrastructure might need. This is one of several companies that is committed to realizing the limitless potential of spreading knowledge, and thus creating power.
The best way to exercise the power and privilege granted to us by the easy availability of knowledge, is by expressing our selves as clearly and loudly as we can, in order for the uninitiated to learn from our experience of it. We need to share our knowledge and use it to empower. We must thirst for knowledge, and spread it. But we must also remember that incomplete knowledge is more dangerous than none at all, and must take care to completely inform ourselves before paying it forward. Only then will the 'complete' power of the community be realized.
Scandalized at this blatant squandering of all the calories we had just so painstakingly offloaded, I yelled at my roommate to hold off until at least half an hour had passed; believing, as according to popular belief, that it would cause discomfort to eat so soon after intense physical activity. As it turned out, I was wrong in saying this, because a few seconds later, he was yelling right back at me, because he had Googled up evidence to the contrary: it is, in fact, necessary to replenish the glycogen and moisture lost by the body in exercise.
Of course, my roommate, in his proving of the point, overlooked the fact mentioned on another of Google's search results: that it is important to get in the right kind of nutrients (in particular, carbohydrates) from food consumed after exercising. By eating chips, he had also consumed a significant amount of fat, which served to reduce the amount he had labored to shed. He had gone by the opinion of an ordinary member of the Internet population, as opposed to a specialist on the subject, simply because that was what he 'found' first. He had demonstrated a classic example of incomplete knowledge being as harmful as no knowledge at all.
Don't get me wrong here, While I'm not discounting the power of community and the importance of getting an opinion from someone who has had practical experience related to a topic of discussion, the extent to which these opinions are correct may be debatable. Particularly in the matter of a topic as important as our health and fitness, I would go by a doctor's blog or article, rather than a post somebody left on a forum or opinions website. On the whole, however, it is very important to get a thorough grounding on the topic in question before speaking about it as passionately as my roommate did.
This brought me to thinking about a much larger point: what is the plight of those people who do not have an opportunity to access the knowledge that my roommate was able to reach in the click of a button? There is a large section of the world population that will probably never even have access to a computer, let alone one that will allow them to connect to the Internet and obtain information so easily. And all the while, we use this immense power at our disposal casually, almost disdainfully. Putting this infinitely valuable resource to good use is something we all need to do.
Take the example of the Indian organization Mahiti, run by Vijay Rasquinha and a group of his colleagues. One of the private limited's many projects is the provision and maintenance of an IT training infrastructure for rural areas, based on the concept of paying it forward. Essentially, the organization sets up several systems in these areas to train children and young adults on the skills required to become competent and productive in the world of IT. Once they have trained a core set of people, the company hands over the infrastructure to the area's residents, allowing them to teach the rest of their community. They make themselves available for any support that the users of the infrastructure might need. This is one of several companies that is committed to realizing the limitless potential of spreading knowledge, and thus creating power.
The best way to exercise the power and privilege granted to us by the easy availability of knowledge, is by expressing our selves as clearly and loudly as we can, in order for the uninitiated to learn from our experience of it. We need to share our knowledge and use it to empower. We must thirst for knowledge, and spread it. But we must also remember that incomplete knowledge is more dangerous than none at all, and must take care to completely inform ourselves before paying it forward. Only then will the 'complete' power of the community be realized.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Child sweatshop shame threatens Gap's ethical image
I gained an invaluable insight into the lives of the people that enable the American lifestyle from this article in The Guardian on how Gap manufactures their clothes. Truly, some shocking stuff. Do consumers in the United States really know about this...?
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