The Masquerade

Hell's Angels -- 2

2005-10-02T05:22:00.000-07:00

Feathered Mask (le original) said...
This has been shamelessly plagiarized off the website:
http://www.halloweenghoststories.com/terror/tales1-19.html

As he walked toward Benevento’s Restaurant, he wondered how he could convince Michelle to follow him to the cemetery. He stopped midway to his destination, opened the beer and poured it all down the front of his pants. A chill ran through him now that it had grown colder, but he had to cover the fact that he had soiled himself to avoid her questions. Arriving in the parking lot, he hid behind a dumpster and waited.
As he heard the familiar engine, he strode directly to the car as she parked. “Come with me, I need to show you something,” he said in his most convincing voice.
“You’re all wet,” she huffed getting out of the car.
“Where are we going; do you have any cash cause I really need some stuff?” she interrogated him caring more about the answers than about the man.
“On break, I took a stroll to have a smoke and I think I found someone’s stash of pot plants” lying convincingly, knowing her weakness.
“Really!” she breathed.
As they walked she droned on about the bad day she had and how stressed out she felt. He couldn’t help but think that she would use any excuse for a fix. “ I got a fix for you, a high you’ll never fall from” he thought to himself.
Even now, leading Michelle to certain death he had reservations. At one time, just being with her was his comfort and treasure. Then the drugs took over, resulting in a cold, monotonous relationship devoid of the love they previously shared. Dismayed, he wondered what would happen to her. These creatures would surely end her earthly existence, but it stated that they were collecting souls. “What would happen to her soul?” he chillingly thought, now considering making a break for it to escape their clutches and Michelle’s eternal damnation.
When they reached the wall she complained of being tired and wanted to go get some stuff. He grabbed her from behind, cupping his right hand over her mouth attempting to silence her. She writhed in his grasp reaching to pull his hair. He could hear the leaves shuffling close by; they would be here soon. It was too late, the choice had been made and her fate was sealed.
Michelle lost all muscle control for the brief moment she gazed into those yellow eyes. No greeting this time, it wasn’t necessary. The legion had their mortal servant. Half her throat was torn from her body while Ron held her, hand still over mouth.
“You’ve done well,” it supportively stated. “Come with us, there is much to discuss and plan.”
Ron followed behind the creature’s lumbering stride. He cautiously inquired, “What becomes of those souls collected?”
It stopped suddenly, turning to him it despicably replied, “They feed the fires; it is beyond the reach of your comprehension, mortal.”
As they reached the end of the wall, another of the creatures stood grasping a large mound of earth, intact. A staircase cut of soil and rock led down beneath the wall. Descending, he could see by the yellow glow of the walls. “Just like the eyes,” he thought to himself. He was led to a room by one of the legion and told to wait.
This gave Ron time to think. He wondered how many legions of outcasts there were at one time, leading to entrepreneurial thoughts. After what seemed an eternity, the legion’s leader arrived. He turned and asked, “ when I have completed my work for you, is it possible for me help other legions and increase my kingdom?”
“So desolate in this life, so greedy in the next,” the creature roared with hellish laughter. “ I do believe so, there is nothing that forbids such,” it replied as if approvingly.
Just then another stood at the entranceway, beckoning the leader. He could only hear the guttural, groaning voices, but couldn’t make out a word of the Latin-style language. It didn’t matter being deep in thoughts of finding another legion when his work was complete. “I gotta find out about these earthly treasures and comforts that were mentioned,” he thought with avarice.
“A unique and pleasant turn of events,” it gasped while lumbering toward him. “A count has been taken, we have achieved 665 souls with the addition you brought,” it stated contently.
Ron was quick with this train of thought and the guilt he felt over Michelle’s demise diminished rapidly. “You’ll need one more. My employer may still be at the restaurant. Let me bring you the 666th.”
The creature put its hands on Ron’s shoulders reassuringly. It smiled, pursing back its lips, laughingly answering, “you already have.”
Ron Cossi’s final scream didn’t last long and ended in a blood-gurgling moan. “I never liked relying on mortals,” the creature spoke to the twitching carcass one last time before being whisked back to hell.

Hell's Angels ... my take on it!

2005-10-01T12:22:00.000-07:00

Feathered Mask (le original) said...
This has been shamelessly plagiarized off the website: http://www.halloweenghoststories.com/terror/tales1-19.

Ron stormed to the far corner of the kitchen where the employee coats were stored. He grabbed a six-pack of beer and hid it beneath his jacket, which he had draped over his shoulder. The exit was much less dramatic than he had wished, but it was unwise to cause a commotion while committing a crime.
Making his way down the street he could hear voices emanating from Hillsdale Cemetery. In the light of a nearly full moon he could see the group of teens laughing and carrying on while passing around a bottle. True to his misanthropic nature, he would attempt to avoid interaction with this bunch. A difficult task it being a late September night with leaves crunching underfoot with every step.
Ron followed the outskirts of the cemetery until he reached the opening to a path that ran parallel to a stonewall built some century and a half ago. He strolled for about ten minutes before the temptation of that first brew became too great. Hopping up onto the wall and situating himself comfortably, he began drinking away his sorrows. Thoughts of the dead end job he left behind were not foremost on his mind. The girlfriend he lived with, the one he once loved and was now desperate to be rid of consumed his soon to be inebriated brain. She would be at the restaurant two hours from now to pick him up while bleeding more cash from him to support her drug habit. Anger and dismay welled up inside him.
“A normal man would’ve dropped her after Chad,” he remarked aloud while swilling down the last of his fourth German beer. A painful memory that haunted him; his girlfriend and his only friend locked in a passionate embrace. As a result, he didn’t trust anyone and withdrew inward, shutting out most people and the society around him.
Far off he could hear leaves crunching; the sound was getting louder as someone approached. “Probably some teen that couldn’t hold his liquor,” he postulated aloud, grinning at the thought of some punk kid puking his guts out, heaving his last meal. Just then he realized that all had fallen silent, except the crunching leaves. He could no longer hear the jubilant teens. Taking another drink he looked up to see two dull, yellow eyes staring back at him from a tree. Ron froze in terror unable to breath.
The shuffling of leaves was much louder now and at a speedier pace as if someone; no, more than one were running in unison. Thinking quickly, he reached for a loose stone beside him to use as a weapon, but something from behind grabbed his wrists. The cold, clammy hands possessed long, sharp nails that were digging into his skin. Struggling in vein to break loose from his captor’s hold he noticed the yellow-eyed creature had dismounted his perch and was heading toward him. Fear seized his whole body as his bladder failed.
At that moment he saw a most frightening sight. A thing of human size and proportion also possessing dull, yellow eyes and blueish skin was dragging one of the teens by his hair. Stopping in front of the creature that had seconds before descended from the tree, it held out the unanimated body like an offering.
Ron, unable to move, watched in horror. The demonic-looking, tree-creature leaned in close to the teen. It spoke in a gasping, guttural voice, “Greetings, oh desolate one.”
When the carcass that was held before it didn’t respond, verbally or physically, Ron was witness to what nightmares are made of. The creature pursed its lips back while opening the creaking jaw. Lowering its head in a swift motion it attacked. With one vicious bite, half the teen’s throat vanished.
It turned toward Ron. Blood stained its blue cheeks. He thought his heart would surely stop while staring into those yellow, lifeless eyes. As the creature approached he could feel the grip on his wrists grow tighter.
In the same fashion it drew close, only inches from Ron’s face. A guttural groan spoke, “Greetings, oh desolate one.”
Feeling ill from the stale stench of the creature’s breath, he began to sweat. His mind raced. Lips began pursing inward as before, revealing gums so decayed they were barely able to hold the jagged teeth in place.
With nothing to lose, Ron replied, “desolate?”
Lips returned to their previous state as the creature turned to the one that held the bleeding teen. Speaking as if triumphant, “ah, a communicator.”
Standing upright, the creature spoke “yes, desolate. It is written that mortals desolate and despairing in their existence may aid those cast out in the gathering.”
Confused, Ron asked, “what is the gathering; how were you cast out of it?” There was nothing to lose, he figured by all rights he should have been next to that poor teen bleeding into the fallen leaves.
“No,” groaned the creature. “We are a legion of outcasts, banished to this place as punishment; punishment for insufficient service to the master.”
As he tried to comprehend the words, realization struck. His wrists were no longer being held. Turning slowly, he could not see anyone or anything behind him. He looked back to the creature that had spoke to find its hideous face once again inches from his own.
“Are you desolate?” whispered the creature. Once again the lips began curling backward. “Explain yourself, mortal ” the face with drying blood on the cheeks insisted.
Thoughts he now voiced never entered his mind during this time. He muttered endlessly about his hatred of others. Describing the verbally abusive boss he had, he spoke of intentions that would never be carried out. Revenge so sweet that only a sadist could derive pleasure from such actions. The creature listened intently when he stated that his only happiness was derived from sitting alone, drinking himself into blackouts.
As minutes passed, Ron felt more comfortable. The one-way conversation seemed almost therapeutic, until he reached Michelle. He spoke of his two-timing girlfriend describing drug abuse, deception and love turned sour.
“Enough,” the creature said. Convinced that Ron was a desolate one of use to him, he excitedly gasped, “You shall bring us the souls of mortals. In return, you will receive what earthly treasures and comforts we can provide; as well as a minor kingdom in one of the nine regions of hell.”
“Earthly treasures and comforts,” he questioned the demonic jinni that stood before him.
“We can discuss mortal issues later,” the creature replied. “First, are you interested in a kingdom after you’ve left your mortal coil?” Intrigued, Ron just shook his head affirmatively.
For the next few minutes the creature unveiled a tale almost too fantastic for Ron to believe. It described hell as being divided into nine major regions. Each region was further subdivided into major and minor kingdoms. Mortals could attain a minor kingdom for themselves with service in the earthly plane. Once duty was completed, the minor kingdom was set-aside for them.
In order to complete the service, each legion needed to collect 666 souls. Upon completion, legion members were allowed back to their respective regions of hell with all previous powers and form restored. Immediately following the receipt of soul 666, the mortal’s kingdom was reserved.
“Bring to us the one you call Michelle,” it insistently gasped.
“Michelle,” he repeated.
“Michelle,” the creature reiterated, “when shall we expect her?”
“But what of the earthly treasures,” he probed.
“That will be explained later at the sealing of our covenant, but first you must acquire for us a soul,” it groaned.
He looked at his watch. Michelle would be in the restaurant parking lot to pick him up from work within a few minutes. “I can present her to you within the hour,” shuddering as he responded feeling a mixture of fear and glee.
He lowered himself from the wall preparing to fetch his first soul for his newfound, evil friends. “Mortal,” it commanded. Turning slowly he saw the creature’s outstretched arm, the hand held his last beer. He heard the creature laughingly, “you may have need of this.”

(TO BE CONTINUED)

Tango with a Rose!

2005-09-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

The other day, after a dance recital, I received a long stemmed yellow rose from my teacher. When she handed me the rose, my teacher said to me..."These roses are like modern dance..they're weird, but they smell sweet". It was really very sweet of her, but it immediately made me a tiny bit sad, because roses usually remind of how ephemeral life is. They're so beautiful, smell so sweet, and yet die so soon.

I returned home after the recital, and immediately put the rose in a dry plastic mug (the rose had a tiny waterfilled plastic container attached to the end of the stem, and so I didn't need to put it in water seperately). The flower was already wilting by then, but thrilled me, the fact that it was the only other living presence in the house. I immediately picked it up, and danced the Tango with it. Twas quite an experience, that! And that's also when I also got to smell the flower's fragrance...a faint yet distinct sweet fragrance...dancing the Tango with a rose, to Jean Luc Ponty's music (not very conventional for Tango)!

I decided after that to give my rose the best possible life I could, and so I dance with her everyday, and put on all my favourite music cd's for her, and keep her in the sunshine. I also noticed her head drooping, and taped it straight again (I felt that a living thing ought to hold its head up straight). I decided to write this blog for her so that she gets her 15 seconds of fame , coz a life without a single microsecond of fame is a life wasted. When she dies, she will be wrapped up gracefully in wax paper, and then buried.
Anyways, I'd recommend dancing with flowers to everyone...when you smell their fragrance while dancing with them in your arms, that is when you know that they're responding to you. Shows how universal the appeal of dance is!

Blog is backkk

2005-09-28T23:13:00.000-07:00

I have my blog restored. For that jerk who had hacked in - GROW UP !

The Dance of the Damned Souls

2005-09-09T20:56:00.000-07:00

"Here, esctasy wears the same skin as agony."- Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Film maker.

I am one of the fortunate damned souls. I feel like dancing a wild dance of abandonment in the middle of a carnival. It's barely been 38 hours since I've been back in my university town, and I'm already at work, trying to undo any traces of discipline that might have settled into my system over the summer. Liberty is a beautiful feeling. The celebration of excess and collective indulgement is perhaps the greatest thing that the Greeks and the pagans passed on to us...the word 'carnival' comes from the latin word 'carni'-'vale' meaning "the festival of flesh"...The moments when you know you're screwed and do nothing about it...those are the moments when the mind abandons reason and conventions, and experiences the ancient, primal carnival that is rooted in all souls.

It is tragic that the city whose culture was so rooted in celebrations and music, New Orleans, would have to face the wrath of the merciless Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans will always be a living, breathing presence for me and all theatre students. It was New Orleans and her magnificent Mardi Gras carnivals that brought together my dual fascinations of feathered masks and theatre. Farewell my beloved New Orleans. We shall meet again.

The Arc of Iscariot

2005-08-01T09:45:00.000-07:00

I wonder what it would be like to be Judas Iscariot, sitting alone in the middle of a circle of blood in the desert, twelve hours after the Crucifixion.
What if blood was so thick that sand could not soak it up? Or for that matter, what if it did, and what if there was an entire oasis fed solely by blood?
~I am fascinated by deserts, thorns and blood.

Liquid Diamond on a Glass Roof..

2005-07-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

Ranters and ravers are welcome..this is after all, Cafe Masquerade..freedom of expression..atleast fer a while! And the cheesefest begins!

And here's a few funny/wierd/ nice/scary moments of mah early life :

Me the Brat: I was in Kindergarden, n was made the 'Moon' in the class play. I got to wear a shiny blue scarf and stand on top of a table (was a tiny kid). I wanted to be the Sun ofcourse, and was preety jealous of the girl who played the Sun. She had a nice bright yellow scarf with orange glitter on it, and also a higher table to stand on. During every rehearsal, when it was time to speak my lines, I would say "I am the Sun"! Lol!

My first trip to Europe: My dad's job involved a lotta travel, and when I was six, he took me along to the Netherlands and Germany. I was absolutely thrilled, and loved Amsterdam...saw the artist Rembrandt's house on a very rainy day. I still remember the big raindrops on the green glass roof of the boat that took us through the canals. A nice man wiped my windows for me so that I could see..they had fogged up in the rain.

Pretty Colours! : During my early years in Delhi, a lot of Russian and Bulgarian dance troupes would come to perform there. I remember watching one such show...it was outdoors, on an open platform, somewhere in the vicinity of Connaught Circus, and I was just fascinated by the colourful costumes.

Scary Clowns!: Upon a visit to Appu Ghar (an amusement park in Delhi)when I was six, I chanced to see this mechanical clown in a glass box. The clown laughed continuously, and I found something very diabolic in that laughter. It scared the life outta me! I cried my nights for a week after that incident.
--I visited Appu Ghar again when I was 16. The clown wasn't there no more. I guess it scared a lotta people!

The 'Butterfly': This is probably one of my more cruel moments; however, I didn't intend for it to turn out the way it did. I saw a pretty blue butterfly sitting on the wall. Now I'd seen plenty of people catch butterflies in nets, and even though something seemed wrong about the idea of catching it, I was going to let it go immediately. I went upto the butterfly, and managed to catch it pretty neatly. I was really proud of myself, and was rushing show it off to folks when the unexpected happened. Half the butterfly flew away, and the other half remained in my hand! It was bizzare, and I still haven't been able to figure out how it happened! I was left with two blue half-wings between my fingers. I never tried catching butterflies after that.

Beads

2005-06-24T20:13:00.000-07:00

I get my wisdom tooth surgically removed tomorrow..seven hours away from now..maybe I'll wear them around my neck..I want to keep them...I'm rather excited actually..I've never had teeth plucked out before, or any kind of stitches, for that matter, and have heard rather interestin stories about 'em. Yep..I'm excited..novelty of any kind fascinates me..

Post-show

2005-06-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

It was painfully warm inside the Green Room. The room was small, and had more people in it than was comfortable. There were atleast eleven loud girls inside. The chairs had already been taken up by roller bags and makeup cases. The tables were strewn with makeup stained tissues. The air was saturated with heat and the smell of makeup. The music from the show was still ringing in my ears; but it wasn't pleasant anymore. I would've done anything to get it out of my mind. Keeping my eye on the white rose I had received after the show (courtesy the sponsors), I changed as quickly as I could into comfortable capris and a blue top. Most of the other dancers were done by the time, and were all asking each other if they would go to the after-cast party. Ten minutes later, we were all outside, breathing in fresh oxygen for the first time in the last 17 hours.
After a couple of unsuccessful shots at playing pool at the after party, I headed to the refrigerator, looking for some kind of refreshing juice or even coke. I found a bottle of Clamato Caesar, and I took it to be regular tomato juice..and I gulped up the greater half of the bottle. Something tasted not so tomato juice-ish about it. By the time I realized it was actually Ceasared Vodka, my head was already spinning. I remember tilting my head back to laugh and not being able to get it back up again..loll! A friend of mine was leaving n I was going to hug her at the base of the staircase, and I ended up hugging the empty air on the other side...dayum..that was the end of my new year's resolution of no drinking this year. Some resolutions are unintentionally broken I guess.
I was awakened by a phone call in the morning. Some lady who wanted to speak with my mom. The hangover was wierd..it wasn't particularly painful. It was just odd..irregular..rather like nebulae in the sky. My mind was empty; I had absolutely nothing in there. My hands ended up typing two words of their own:"Conscience Kills."
Anyways, I'm glad the first set of shows this summer are over, I really want to relax and read now, and get back in touch with my friends. I missed them all...and I missed all my bloggie friends too. Hugggz to yall.

The Terrible Twosome!

2005-05-26T13:15:00.000-07:00

Here is yet again another combination of two random unrelated events put together in one bloggie. :D

The Story of a Stage Smile:

I've learnt a good lesson over the last few days...the lesson that when one is performing on stage, every last thing, right down to the smile, needs to be practised. I mean, it's different from being rehearsed..there ofcourse has to be some degree of sponteneity on stage..something needs to come from within and react to the circumstances during the performance rather than come mechanically through practice...but at the same time, it is terribly important to mechanize certain things that looks good so that they come automatically when it is required. The right smile is one of these things. There are many different smiles ofcourse (evil smile, sly smile, happy smile, wide grin,etc), and everyone probably has their own unique smile. In my field, I've encountered many young performers (especially females) who ended up having their smiles cosmetically altered by surgery etc. That in turn puts the pressure on me to get the perfect right smile on stage. As for me, it took me a session at the mirror to figure out the right smile for my face. Once I figured it out, I let my muscles memorize the way they were pulled during the smile...the longer this is done, the easier it will be for the muscles to remember that smile...and yeah, it can get pretty painful holding a smile for a long time...muscles need to develop stamina at smiling! It actually hurts to smile the right smile..but then, as my dance teacher back in India used to say.."you know you've worked hard enough at something when it hurts till you can't take it any more, and that is the moment that you know that you are ready for the stage".

The Girly-girl Story of How I got that Perfect Purse:

Over the last few months, I've developed an obsession for purses n handbags n chic luggage. It's a bizzare obsession...I'll go buy the smallest handbag if its design catches my eye, even if I can't fit more than a pencil in it. Take for example the purse I bought yesterday..it'll hardly fit any more than my cell phone and few more items..perhaps some makeup etc, but I just had to have it. What appealed to me was the print on it..printed bags are all the rage here at the moment and I really dig em. I saw a friend once carrying a rather large purse with a group picture of The Beatles printed on it...it was simply gorgeous..the picture was lined with lotsa rhinestones too, so the whole thing was pretty sparkly. From the moment I saw that bag, I knew I had to get a printed bag as well. The ones I saw at the stores hardly fit my taste though..I saw some with pictures of Paris Hilton printed on them, and others with dogs and cats and more with grafitti printed on them..none of these quite appealed to me and they were beyond my price range anyway. Then, just yesterday, I happened to walk into a store and I saw the perfect printed purse sitting there. It wasn't too big, was perfectly priced, and best of all, it had the perfect print on it. It had high fashion modelling images of designer outfits in front of some of the coolest monuments in the world..the Eiffel towerin Paris, leaning tower in Pisa, Sphynx in Egypt etc (had the city names written on it too)..sort of colourful and cool at the same time:D So I got me my pursie!

Interestin High Fashion Images

2005-05-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

I was watching the season finale of America's Top Model yesterday, and I saw some really cool bizzarre makeup stuff on the photoshoots and other stuff elsewhere that I thought were really interestin. I wish I could post pictures but here's sum o the stuff I tried describin in words to makeup for it:

1. There was a photoshoot themed 'wildlife' or sumfin...had the models makeup n dress up like African safari animals. My favourite was the gazelle..the model had two horns on her head, n her face was painted white with black stripes across it. Very striking eyes. Striped outfit too..gorgeous.

2. The makeup for the Seven Deadly sins--very very cool...red makeup for Anger, Green for Jealousy etc..the makeup went into their hair a bit too..just gorgous.

3. This is from a fashion show in which my friend was a model..the theme of the Fashion show was Heaven Hell n Earth (Dante's Divine Comedy)..my fave bit was the 'ice hair'...blue frosted makeup n pale blue hair..gorgeous silver outfits n lipstick.

Anyways..these were sum recent fashion images I found interesting..it would be great if anyone could add sum o their own. :D Have fun yall...n wish me fer my shows..I got two comin up day after tomorrow so its crazy rehearsal season. :D Njoi!

From The Sun King to Ubu the King: Paris- a City in Theatre

2005-05-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

Paris is a city that lives on many levels, and theatre is an art that exists on many levels. There is the theatre on stage as well as the theatre of life, and as Shakespeare himself said, "All the world's a stage and all the men and women mere players". The city of Paris, among some of the other great cities in the world can be seen as theatre itself, for on its stage, we saw the theatre of blood, the theatre of revolution, of the great arts, and the theatre of theatre itself. I noticed that Parismania was going around blogdom, and thought I'd write my own bit on one of my favourite cities, through the lens of theatre.

Louis XIV of the Bourbon dynasty, was known as the Sun King. There's a famous opera on him by the name of The Sun King . But beyond that, he's also known as the founder of classical ballet. Ballet began in his courts, and he himself was a good dancer. He was also exceedingly fond of theatre. One of his famous court playwrights was Moliere, who wrote the comedy Tartuffe mocking religion (I watched a BBC production of it; it's a hillarious play). But most significantly, it was Louis XIV that shifted the capital of his kingdom from Paris to Versailles. As you can imagine, the folks weren't too happy with that. Paris had always had a special place in the hearts of the French...at a time when not all Frenchmen spoke French (there were the Catalans and the Germanic peoples within the French kingdom), Paris was the one city that they could all refer to with certainty.

Darlings, you should see the beauty of it...this was a city purified by blood sacrifices..slaughter rituals..there is something beautiful about a city washed with the blood of a revolution..the heads of the executed were paraded around the streets of Paris on the tops of long sticks ( I guess that's one of the famous images of the French Revolution.) The French Revolution was not merely a revolution of economic forces (it has often been interpreted as the struggle of the middle class (bourgeois) against the aristocratic orders)..it was a revolution of ideas...I see it as the revolution to make Paris the heart of Europe once again...Paris was made the seat of the revolutionary government..oh, and I must mention, a number of theatre actors got high places in the revolutionary government.

Another reason I love Paris: the pure bluntness of the theatre there. Alfred Jarry, a great French playwright in the late 19th century wrote a play called Ubu Rois (Ubu the King), during the late 1890's. The first word in the play was "merdre"(shrite/ shit)! The play also had the king chasing his guests around with a toilet plunger...all this in the midst of a Victorian audience. What can I say...Jarry knew his rum well. Jean Cocteau, another famous experimentalist theatre director (who later turned into a great film director), came up with the concept of 'ballet realiste'..dance theatre in which movements were rough and jerky rather than smooth n classical. It's ironic, considering the fact that ballet realiste was in the same place where classical ballet was born.

One cannot understand Paris without living the Revolution, without living through the cabarets, the dadaists, the artists..This is the city where it all began..it's where it'll all end...the city of knowledge (the first Encyclopedia was compiled in Paris, by Diderot and his mates, during the French Enlightenment). That city is MINE. There are folks that go to Paris and there are folks that dwell in Paris...as fer me..I live Paris.

*Just as a tip to would-be tourists to Paris..from eyewitnessed experience, if you pick up a souvenir at a shop, don't remark "it's too expensive!" or you might end up getting chased out of the store like a friend of mine.

Fragments of Midnight Musings

2005-05-10T10:39:00.000-07:00

These are some random thoughts that I chanced to pen down last night at around 2:30 am, while I was intoxicated with sleeplessness. This was all that was left in my mind after some hours of watching a French movie and working on costuming simultaneously.

On Her:
She is beautiful...so beautiful..so close, and yet so teasingly beyond. She wanted me to explore Artaud and the Theatre of Cruelty. She knew how fascinated I was by him...how much I needed to experience him. she made sure I did. She made it all happen- coincidence by coincidence...nothing was a coincidence really...it was her all along...she knows me better than all the rest..knows my jealousy, knows my absurd ways, my randomness, my sponteneity..she knows my needs...I wonder if they coincide with her needs as well.

On Him:

Whenever I think of that notebook, I remember him..the great gush of inspiration, of creative evergy that bounced off him every time we interacted..that great cosmic understanding. Human love is too narrow a word to describe it..it was never love on a human level..it was a great fusion of untapped creative energy- a flood on both sides...strange..the thought of Turkish dervish dancing calms me..not as a consolation..but as a feeling of having a certain peace that he doesn't, knowing a certain secret about the universe that he d0esn't...It's strange..knowledge creates a human being..man is not defined by his friends or what he does..he is defined by what he knows. It's very strange that I wrote all this in a notebook where I usually write notes from interesting university texts. today I've broken the convention of seperating the public and the private..my private is here for all to read, open to interpretation to any who would choose to do so.

Random eh?

Boogiedoom!!!

2005-05-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

Teehee!! I'm back!! I moved back home fer the summer..woohoo for the sun! So now, instead of spending all my time in sidewalk cafes drinking coffee and discussing Nietzsche and brilliant film directors with friends, I spend my days choreographing for a bunch of upcoming shows, and catching up on tv and naming my toy cats (I've got two tiny new toy kitties, a brown one and a white one spotted with grey)..loll..damn..I think I left my mind back at the university..but heck..toy cats are cute..:D Once I figure out how to use the photo post thing, I'll prolly post pics of 'em. Anyways, I hear another Star Wars episode is coming up, and though I'm not a die hard fan, I do find the series significant just because of the profound influence they've had on media. Everything is sweet n polite n bright here..actually..lol..I miss dark media and the semi-intoxicated, contemplative evenings...I guess I'll miss it even more next year after I'm done for good..actually, the very idea of being done my degree scares me...folks often ask me what the hell I'm gonna do with a degree in history n drama...lol..and one oughtta videotape their faces when I tell em I'm gonnabe an avant garde film maker and a dance anthropologist, or atleast I plan on being either or both of those things..it's annoying really, the way 'useful professions' are brought up against the artistic ones..lolll..I mean, I'm sure doctors, lawyers, software engineers and blah blahs are 'heroes', but damnit, they would all be zombied out without the entertainment folks around..heck..I'm on a directionless rant now..the effect of too little caffeine over the last week..lol..anyways..have fun yall

Verses from My Pure Years

2005-04-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

My mind has been injected with a poison I'm rather fond of. I cannot think like I used to. I cannot be at peace with the world the way I used to. Occasionally, I can be at peace with myself, knowing what I know, but to the world, I am a dissenter, and as I was told today, I talk like " a character out of a bad movie". Lol..I couldn't help but smile when I heard that..actually, I nearly laughed my head off..the idea was hillarious! It was only yesterday that I'd watched a brilliantly bad film..well, I'd call it a brilliantly brilliant film- twas Sin City. My friend and I rushed to the beer store afterwards, only to find it closed...No, I don't drink like a fish, and no, I'm not perennially drunk...but yes, after a film like that, one needs to be drunk. It's an instinctive need...to watch an action film, and then get drunk and smash some windows and feel the blood trickle down your fist, and relish the feel. A few years ago, I wouldn't have liked the blood and gore in the film, but yesterday, I found it absolutely brilliant..the dialogue, the darkness, the hillarity of the gore..ah, I must mention..people get eaten in the film, heads get chopped off and start talking by themselves..blissful movie. My mind has been poisoned by Nietzsche and Sartre, by Meyerhold and the Dadaists, by the Theatre of the Absurd and the Theatre of Cruelty...the wide eyed innocence and serenity that my mind once posessed is quite lost, and yet I relish this tempestuous restlessness. I remember that innocence not with nostalgia but amusement, especially when I realize the ironic fact that I'm a greater fool now then I was then. The following is a poem I wrote when I was 17 and in grade 12 in High School, before I quit writing poetry:

A Tribute

It seems to be some distant place,
where angels run through purple vineyardsunder yellow skies,
playing tug of war with branches of summer wine,
filling life into celestial baskets of cherries.
Yet these angels I found under Virginia skies
in department stores and shoe stores,
waiting at the subway station for the 2'o'clock train, running minutes late
but never anxiously glancing at their watches
They scent summer in the dead winter grass,
and see dandelions under the snow.
They bear the weight of the world upon their eyelashes,
can be robbed of life,
yet never be stripped of laughter.
They run free through life's gardens,
intoxicated with the joy of living,
yet never lurching into the pits of stress.

Oh for a name!

2005-04-21T01:53:00.000-07:00

Folks..awrite..hehe..Imma ask sumfin of yall in this post:

I'm getting involved in yet another dance group. This time, we decided to take the Sufi direction, and focus the troupe on covering ancient persian, anatolian, syrian, pharaonic egyptian, moroccan, spanish, turkish..basically central asian with a sufi flavour and some moorish gypsy influences.. We're kinda lost on names, perhaps coz it's exam time here..we just can't seem to think straight..and so we thought we'd ask people with different perspectives..so I'd be really happy if you folks could suggest some names for us--in any language..English, Persian, Urdu, Arabic, or even Greek or sumfin. Some of the names we were looking at were Ancient Mirrors, Shadows of Gabriel's Wings, etc..the theme is sort of like a wanderer of time n space (right out of Led Zeppelin's Kashmir), sumfin with a mystic touch to it, sumfin eternal and yet ephemeral at the same time. I'd really appreciate some nice names guys..and besides, it's nice to see the different directions of thought and perspective..coz in the end, it's all perspective..whether it be spirituality or art or love or cruelty. Even the act of porn, when perfected in its adoration, I'm sure leads to the same end. Lol..awrite..I'm prolly still high. I watched Sin City, the movie today, and found it awesome, and highly recommend it to everyone.
I'm gonna allow anonymous comments fer this post..lol..so the anonymice are gonna prolly come n have a cheesefest in here, but who the hell cares..as long as they give me some interesting names! So gimme name!

ps: I was on the verge of asking a homeless man for a name...just for the sake of exploring perspectives.

Random Musings on Tomorrow

2005-04-20T01:16:00.000-07:00

Musings on Tomorrow, the morning:

Well, judging from the fact that it's nearly 5 am, there won't be much of a morning left by the time I wake up. I'll probably be making a few trips to get some work done and then head downtown fer window-shopping, if I'm lucky with time.

Tomorrow, the evening:

I'm gonna go watch the movie Sin City with a friend. It's been ages since I last saw a film in the theatre..I believe my last one was Mira Nair's Vanity Fair, sometime in October 2004, barring the screenings I had to watch for film class. Anyways, I'm real excited to be going back to a normal film theatre like a civilian rather than an analyst.

Tomorrow, next Wednesday:
Done exammies and be heading home!

Tomorrow, next month:

Working, hopefully at something I like! Possibly making a film with a few friends n submitting it for a short-film festival. Will be done the first set of dance shows, and preparing for the fests in July, provided invitations come in from the carnival fest like they did last year.

Tomorrow, next year:
Outta here! Will probably be visiting India for a dance intensive and to meet family n friends and my boi again! Might try tripping upto Nepal with mah boi, coz I wanna show him the Chitwan National Park there..simply gorgeous! Hopefully I'll have better luck in the casinos in Kathmandu than I did last time (I lost 100 Indian Rs. in them slot machines, but heck, I was only 15)

Tomorrow, few years from now:
Settle in some cosmopolitan city, New York, if in North America, otherwise, in Europe...Paris would be a dream come true. Others would include Prague, Milan, London. Would probably settle as an avante garde film director or a new age dance-theatre choreographer. If all else fails, a starving, wandering novelist. If all else seriously fails, will sit on the streets in Prague, near the biggest tourist hotspot, and paint sumfin on cheap paper and hopefully get tourists to buy my crap. My my..the starving artist years sound like fun!

Tomorrow, ten years from now:

1) Make a pilgrimage to the places I consider sacred: Israel (the Church of Nativity and Church of the Holy Sepulchre and other New Testament locations), some Sufi tombs in Persia and India, St. Petersburg in Russia (the greatest pilgrimage spot for avant garde artists), Vaishno-devi and Kamakhya in India (I haven't been to either, both have always fascinated me), possibly the mouth of the Ganges, I forget the name of the place.

2) Give a shot at being a dance anthropologist, and use it as an excuse for more travel- Morocco, Turkey, Algeria, Ethiopia, Egypt (Egypt for the sake of my boi, he's always wanted to go to Egypt! Wud be fun I guess), and ofcourse my favourites, France, St. Petersburg and Moscow. Will try and make a documentary film on some lost dance forms in some of remote places.

3) Found a residential dance, film and theatre arts academy in the city I end up living with. Drive around in the Beetle that mah boi's promised to buy me (teehee!).

Tomorrow, in a Few Hours:

Wake up and curse my alarm clock.

It's 5:19 am. Too lethargic to sleep. Enter the vampire. Fuck the practicalites. Long live the surrealists, Gothic romanticists and existentialists. Long live Jean-Paul Sartre. Fuck damn chirpin birds.

oo...that's how imma die!!

2005-04-18T00:05:00.000-07:00

Lol...I got the link for this quizzie from Caraf's bloggie..tells you how you'd die. Here were my resultz:

"Your death will be by gunshot, probably because you are some important person or whatever."

Tadaa!! John Lennon ishtyle!!! Lol..I always say..if you're gonna fizz out anyway, might as well fizz out famously :p Mah next four most likely causes were: Natural Causes, Drowning, Disappearance and Suicide. Hmm...I dun mind drownin or natural causes or suicide...heck I dun wanna disappear though!! I'm scared o that! Always have been!! I was wonderin if any of you guyz had any preferences in how ya wud wanna go:D wud be kool to read new ideas, since almost every blogger has written atleast one post mentioning death of some kind!

Ballet of Absurdity

2005-04-14T22:10:00.000-07:00

My rarest moments with art are those centered around jealousy. I work as a choreographer for half the year, and a few nights ago, I had a confrontation with the mother of one of my troupe members whether there were any other dancers in my troupe of her stature. The instant I heard that, I was annoyed, as I usually am around boastful parents..I gave the lady a cold answer..I can't stand bragging of any kind. But then, the possibility of the other girl actually being better than me began to haunt my head. The whole idea was very disturbing, and I got home, turned my cd on loud, put on my ballet slippers, and embarked on a three hour long rampage trying to explore every possible movement through space. There was a particular arabesque sequenceI had been trying to incorporate within the choreography for months, but hadn't been able to master it. That evening, I attempted the arabesque again and proceeded into a split from it, and managed to do the entire thing within 20 seconds. I tried it over and over again, and it worked every time. The feeling was that of cynic disbelief..I feared that I would wake up the next day, and find it gone...I was afraid to go to sleep for that reason. Sure enough, I woke up the next morning, tried the move first thing, tore 5 muscles in the process, and ended up on the floor. What can I say? The ironic confirms the absurd. Jealousy is the most productive of all emotions.

Revolutions and Crows

2005-04-14T02:52:00.000-07:00

It's 5:52 am by my computer clock, and I hear a fuckin crow cawing outside..the realization that another night has passed sinks in..I've never hated a creature as much as I hate that crow..the sun aint up yet..why the fuck does the world have to come to life so soon? It's peaceful at night, with no human beings yakking around, and no critters making their stupid mating calls. Nights are my most productive parts of the 24 hour cycle, and yet what do I do? I squander the hours away playing Bookworm on the computer. The French Revolution assignment sheet lies on my lap happily..knowing that it wont be touched for another couple of hours. And so now, when I'm finally tired, I feel productive and sleepy at the same time..hmm..Heyyy...I just realized..there's gotta be only one other man who'd hate the early crow more than I do..and that would be the man waiting to be taken to the gallows at dawn..reminds me of an Iron Maiden song called Hallowed be Thy Name. Hmmm....now I hear a rather interesting bird outside..at first I thought it was a human whistle, but then it started garbling..quite sweet actually..made me smile..lol..I just realized how much assignments and exams dehumanize a student..oh well..why the fuck am I wasting time here? damn

Peace my brethren

2005-04-09T21:26:00.000-07:00

I was saddened to hear about the circus fire in Mumbai and the death of those circus animals. From what I've read in books, animals have very sharp instincts, and I can just imagine the turmoil, the agitation, and the pure fear and helplessness they must've experienced when they saw those flames dancing around them tauntingly. Life is so cruel..I guess human beings are the cruelest of the cruel..I read in the news reports online that there are rumours of arson. Four sea lions were among the animals killed in the fire..A sea lion..a creature of the water..killed by the opposite element..
Those animals were more than just animals..they were performers..more disciplined than most human beings..they had a purpose in life besides survival..they performed, and felt the same exhileration after their performances that we do. Every creature knows when it is being watched and when it's act is being enjoyed...that too is an instinct. This is not to suggest that I advocate animals being used for entertainment, but I do feel that the circus animals reach a state between beast and humans through their art and discipline. May the ten dogs, seven cats and four sea lions rest in peace...for catching those balls on the tips of their noses, for jumping through rings , or running around the circus arena, they shall always be my brethren in art.

The Damned Life of a Student

2005-04-05T00:13:00.000-07:00

Here I am..writing a damn essay at 3 in the morning..and concentration ain't my ally tonight..though the subject I'm working on would have more than fascinated me at other times..Russian theatre during the early Soviet years (1917-1928)..as well as the avante garde theatrical experiments and mass festivals..the Kirov Ballet and the Proletkult....my mind begins to float happily even as I write those words..but the minute books and research are involved, it runs away..my muse of theatre..wherefore art thou? Why hast thou forsaken me?

Let this day henceforth be known as Good Monday.
The Tuesday sun has not risen yet.

The Best of Classic Science Fiction

2005-04-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

Books...yessss...I've always loved stories, from as far back as I can remember. When I first learnt to read, I didn't exactly like the idea of reading a story..it seemed like too much trouble..I was content with pictures. Interestingly enough, though I wasn't fond of reading, I used to keep myself updated with the best stories to read. A favourite genre of mine was Adventure. Well, my favourite genre is still Adventure, and Science Fiction makes a close second. I'm not much of a romance reader, though I have enjoyed some classic works of romance. Alright..here's my list of my fave science classic fiction books along with a tiny blurb about a few of em.

Science Fiction:
H.G Wells: I highly recommend his works to anyone who hasn't read em already. The eeriness of his pessimistic and yet symbolic, almost prophetic works sends shivers up my spine even today, almost a century after the time that he actually wrote.

War of the Worlds: The best alien invasion book I've ever read. I like H. G Well's writing style..he manages to keep the reader interested in his work despite his outrageous premises. He was ahead of his times, as are most great writers.

The Time Machine: I had nightmares because of this book. Alright, so not nightmares, but trouble going to sleep. The book talks about a futuristic world in which mankind has evolved into two distinct races, one that lives on the ground, and one that lives underground. The underground race is quite horrific, and the book I read had creepy pictures to go along with the description.

The Invisible Man: I was first exposed to this piece as a radio play, and found myself fascinated by it. I later went on to read the novel and loved it!

The Island of Dr. Moreau: I didn't read this book until much after I had read the first two Wells books. I ended up reading this one for an independent study project I did for high school. This book has an interesting premise..a man gets washed ashore on an island, where he finds a mad scientist and his assistants trying to create human beings by physically mutilating animals(carnivorous ones as well)..and ofcourse the animal-turned humans feel the pain..but are strangely docile..until!!! I was fascinated by the concept of the semi-bestial race.

Just as an aside, I recently found out that H. G Wells' books were all the hype in Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917. Wells visited Russia, and there is a famous photograph of him chatting with Lenin inside the Kremlin.

Brave New World (Aldous Huxley): I read this book a while ago, and found it very ahead of it's time..it was written decades before cloning was developed by genetic engineers, and yet mentions a process very similar. I found traces of possible Cold War politics in this book, infact, in all of H. G Well's books as well. Then again, it might just be me..I was told by my high school English teacher that I interpret science fiction in a post-modern, almost Marxist fashion.

Jules Verne: This is my other favourite Science Fiction Author, after Wells. I've enjoyed almost all his books and I love his blend of science fiction with adventure. These are my faves by him:

Journey to the Centre of the Earth: ooo-la-la! What a book! This was my first science fiction read ever..I even saved up pocket money to buy this book when I was 10. I saw it in a school book fair and knew I just had to have it!! C'mon! Who doesn't wanna know what lies at the centre of the planet?! It's about three men going down an extinct volcano in Reykjavik, Iceland, and their adventures in the belly of the earth. Full of lava bursts, streams of freezing water, unearthly paradises... did I mention monstrous creatures and contact with huge primitive men?

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea: Another gorgeous read! About a huge, mysterious submarine which is almost a nation in itself, and an even more mysterious submarine captain! There's speculation that the mysterious captain (Captain Nemo) might have even been Indian.

Around the World in Eighty Days: The title is self-explanatory! One of my faves of all time..full of adventure..and yes, they make a stop in India as well!

Arthur Conan Doyle (The Lost World, When the World Shook): Well..he's the one that wrote the Sherlock Holmes stories. While the Sherlock Holmes stories fall under the mystery, suspense category, Doyle also has another set of shorter novellas which are strictly science fiction. These include The Lost World, When the World Screamed/Shook, and a few others. Nice reads!

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (R. L Stevenson): An interesting premise, though I can't stand Stevenson's writing style.

I think all these science fiction books have been made into movies, at some point or the other. Though some of the movies are truly great, while others could've been better, I still recommend reading the books, coz most of the time, the plots in the books are more exciting!

These are some of the better known works that I've read. Others would include a bit of Azimov, Anthony Piers (Isle of Woman), and a few Russian writers. The ones I haven't read yet, but really want to include:
Brave New World Revisited (Aldous Huxley), 1984 (George Orwell), The Black Tulip (H. G Wells), Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, along with a few others.

I don't know if Medical Thrillers would fall under the Science Fiction category or not, but some of them do have that futuristic element, so I thought I'd include them in the list as well.
Robin Cook's Brain, Coma, etc. There was also this other book I read (the title escapes my memory), about some children who are created by an accident, and are scarily brilliant. I'd be thrilled if someone could tell me what the title of that is.

Edgar Allan Poe Meets the Fuzzy Teddybears

2005-03-27T01:45:00.000-08:00

Death is repulsive! ugh! I have a dead flower in my living room. It crackles when one touches it, and the leaves and the flowers feel like crinkled newspaper. The leaves are a thoroughly grotesque sight in themselves...they remind me of dead locusts that I once chanced to see in Delhi, after a huge swarm of them attackeed the city and had to be exterminated with mass chemical spray. There was something about the carpet of those dead locusts lying upside down in Delhi that day..one could smell the chemicals in the air..the noxious fumes almost felt godsent. The crackle of the dry flower that I heard today reminded me of the crunching of the exoskeletons of those locusts lying on the floor on that fateful Delhi afternoon. I'd always believed that death was graceful, perhaps peaceful and beautiful as well...but today I found death to be utterly repulsive.,Death is beautiful when far away..even intriguing perhaps..there has been much art centered around the subject..perhaps death is beautiful when studied in it's representative forms...vampires are gorgeous, sleep is beautiful, death onstage is metatheatre, Emily Dickinson's poetry is a good read when bored...but real live death is plain disgusting. I wonder if my repulsion to death is a sign that I'm alive..or whether I too am dead, without having realized it, like Bruce Willis' character in M. Knight Shyamalan's The Sixth Sense.

Funny how I write all this at 5 am on Easter Sunday..when the world celebrates resurrection and spring and all things alive. Life beats fiction at irony at times.

Some More Join the Soire!

2005-03-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

Aha!! Told ya it wouldn't be much of a party without some people arrivin later than others!! Here's some more merry folkz joinin Cafe Masquerade in random order:

CrrouchingTigerr: He's a fun crabby (the zodiac!) A fellow music lover and awesome person to hang around with!

Sebia: Ooo...I love this girl's blogs!! Infact, I've seen more of her in the blogworld than actually chattin with her on Indiatimes. But the times that I have had with her online have been wonderful!

Pearly: What can I say? She's sooo cute! *runs to ishh cream machine*

Songbird: Teehee!! This gurl's mah partner in adventures!!! From investigating stoic philosophers online to tryin to get history lessons outta black sheep(baa baa), mah times with this gurl have been full of big grins and fun!

Rumplestiltskin: The party can't be boring with this chap around! He'z hillarious and best known fer his classic ending line -- "Indulge!"

Ice Princess: I've met her just recently, but we get along great and she's a lotta fun to hang around with! She'z adventurous...wants to sky dive someday, along with bungee jumpin and rock climbin all the other scary things!! I'm gonna watch n cheer!

Word_Smith: One Word to rule them all!! This one's the master of forging words together and he comes up withs some pretty neat stuff! I've met him fairly recently, and was thoroughly impressed! We had some awesome conversations about Milton and Machiavelli and other thinkers and writers. He'z a lotta fun when ya get to know him, though I haven't seen much of him as of late.

Iranians and Indians- ancient cousins?

2005-03-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

Ancient languages and cultures have always fascinated me. I've learnt a good deal about the origins of some ancient Indian words through a study of the Iranian language and traditions.

I'm generally more interested in the ancient culture that came in with the Aryans, or later, the Parsis rather than the interactions during and after the post-10th century invasions, just coz I find distant history more intriguing and mysterious. Recently, an Indiatimes friend pointed out to me that recent historians have ruled out the idea of the Aryans invading and settling in ancient India. However, going with the theory that the ancient Aryan races crossed through Iran before settling in India, or perhaps migrated from Iran itself, I found a number of similarities between the Kurdish language and Sanskrit.

Just thought I'd share a few commonly used words that are the same in both Hindi and Iranian. A lot of these words have Arabic roots, but some do predate the Arabic influence:

main(me)
Baccha (child)
sikke (coin)
sib (seb/ apple)
murg (the bird!)
kabootar (pigeon)
sabzi (veggies, comes from the iranian root word sabz meaning green)
chashm (means 'eyes', hence 'chashma', aka 'glasses' in hindi)
ishq (madness..is used more commonly to refer to love)

Another thing I noticed was that the Iranians tend to make their words round, like the Bengalis. 'Yaar' becomes 'yor', but the meaning remains the same.

I was told by a Russian speaking friend that the Russian word for fire is 'agun' which is the same as the Bengali word for fire, and similar to the Hindi 'aag' and Sanskrit 'agni'. And ofcourse, there've been numerous researchers in the last century who've traced some of the Indian languages to the Indo-European Aryan family of languages. In the end, it might be my own biased speculation, but I'd like to believe that the Iranians and Indians were linked by more than just common invaders.

Interesting how I'm writing all this on Nurooz day.

The Greatest Hollywood Films

2005-03-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

I just came back from film class, and on my way back, I was thinking of the films I would rank as the greatest films ever made. Disclaimer: This list ranks only the ones that I have watched. You can't judge what you haven't seen. I personally have a penchant for historically based films. Here's my list of those films, which in my opinion, are the greatest ever made (I'm trying my best to be impartial here):

*Planet of the Apes (1968, starring Charleton Heston): This is perhaps the most brilliant film I have ever watched. Simultaneously brilliant and frightening, it mocks every belief that human beings draw emotional comfort from, including religion and the dominance of the human race in terms of intelligence. The first time I watched it, the copy was dubbed in Japanese, with no translated subtitles. Ofcourse, that killed the joy of it until I watched it several years later, in English, and was thoroughly shaken by it!

*Master of Disguise: Cheesy, hillarious, and brilliant in the way that it makes fun of all the other movies of the last few decades!

*The Lord of the Rings trilogy- the best made trilogy I've ever watched. Emotionally inspiring, it's got the best special effects I've ever seen. Someone somewhere on the internet claimed that they saw a car driving past the Shire in The Fellowship of the Ring. I rewinded my copy of the movie several times to the mentioned spot, and never saw any car.

October (Russian, silent): This is a silent Russian film by the director Sergei Eisenstein, who is best known for his movie Battleship Potemkin. The film depicts the storming of the Winter Palace during the Bolshevik Revolution. The montage effects (Eisenstein's speciality) are brilliant, and I think the greatness of the film lies in the fact that it is a film which recorded a real historical event, with much of the cast consisting of individuals who had actually participated in the real event in 1917.

*Woodstock: One of the best made documentaries of all time. Made in 1970, it covers the Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. I'd rate it among the best of all movies because of its depiction of the great human spirit.

*The Last Temptation of Christ: This movie is among the best because of its cinematography and montage effects. It also has a brilliant spin on the story of the crucifixion. I'd say the Christ portrayed in it seemed fairly human to me. The best Jesus film I've watched. Also interesting was the official disclaimer at the beginning, that the movie was not based on the gospels.

*Apocalypse Now: These is my favourite film about the Vietnam War (I'm not a war movies fan). Very vivid and exciting depiction of rituals. One of the last scenes in the movie, the scene of the rituals, made me realize how beautiful chaos is.

*Terence Hill & Budd Spencer films- (The Two Missonaries, Murphy's War)-Any movie by Hill and Spencer is great because of their wonderful acting, but I especially recommend The Two Missonaries and Murphy's War. The two movies both show humaness, but in very different ways. The Two Missionaries is a light comedy, while Murphy's War is a more serious movie about one man choosing to fight the enemy alone.

*Terminator II (Judgement Day): for it's universality and best thrill factor. It was one of the few movies that made me grip the edge of the chair during the chase scenes. Plus the actors developed the characters very effectively.

*Amadeus: a Gothic take on the life of Mozart. Explores the darker side of human nature, and
contains some of the most profound dialogues I've ever heard.

*Moulin Rouge: This movie deserves to be ranked among the best because of the variety of ideas it brings together, ranging from the Bohemian revolution to royal Indian courts to human emotions like jealousy. It also does a wonderful job of putting in different genres of music and dance, like the Cancan and the Argentine Tango. Not to mention the gorgeous colours and music.

*AI: Though this movie is more talked about in terms of the emotional intensity, I like the spirit of adventure in it. I loved the idea of the humans of futuristic world still having the same emotions as we do. But the best part of this movie is undoubtably the Carnival of Flesh of the Meca. The idea goes right back to the age of the Romans where people amused themselves by watching other people get eaten by lions, and yet takes place in a futuristic setting.

*Gladiator: Speaking of Romans, were we? I'd rank this movie amongst the best for the costumes and sets. So many subtle hints through costuming...makes one think

*League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Well, I've watched films that bring together comic book characters,different mutants, historical figures or races of Middle Earth, but this one was rather novel in that it brought together some of the characters from classic novels together. The characters included Sir Rider Haggard, the Invisible Man, Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde, Dorian Gray (my personal favourite), Tom Sawyer, Captain Nemo and Wilhemina Parker. The plot isn't much, but the sets are good, and the characters are portrayed in an interesting manner. A surprise was Naseeruddin Shah in the role of Captain Nemo.

Some Foreign Films that I highly recommend:

Amelie (French), Circus (Russian), Jesus of Montreal (French), Carmen (French, based on the opera), Gabbeh (Iranian)

More Brilliantly Colourful Movies:

*Batman Returns

*Batman Forever- also features Jim Carrey at his best as The Riddler.

*Vanity Fair (Mira Nair, 2004)- Based on the classic novel, which I've never had the patience to read(due to its incredible thickness- twas one of the fattest books ever written) . I recommend this movie more for its use of colour than the actual plot. Brilliant colours have always fascinated me, and this movie is colourful not only visually but also in it's use of sound (!) Very stimulating for the senses.

Flicks I'd Recommend for a Good Laugh:

*It's a Mad Mad Mad World *The Great Dictator (Charlie Chaplin)

*CannonBall Run * Revenge of the Nerds

*The Liquidator (British) *The Princess Diaries

*License to Drive *Adventures in Babysitting
*Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle III *Waynes World(highly recommended for rock lovers)
*Oscar
*Austin Powers movies
*Encino Man
*Shanghai Noon
*Happy Gilmore
*Rush Hour
*Monty Python movies
*Dr. Strangelove or How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

My Favourite Christmas Movie: Home Alone II: Lost in New York

My Favourite Actress: Julie Andrews, fave movies featuring her: Mary Poppins, Victor/Victoria, The Sound of Music

Some other greats:

Quo Vadis
Gone with the Wind (which didn't impress me much actually, I found it overhyped)
The Raid on Entebbe
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Almost Famous
Usual Suspects
Bedazzled
The Merry Widow
Arachnophobia
Jesus Christ Superstar
etc

The End

Raindrops on roses, whiskers on kittens....

2005-03-04T18:45:00.000-08:00

With a rink tink tink and a merry old drink, welcome ye all to my bloggie, aka The Masquerade!

A masquerade, as yall prolly know, is a party (usually themed) which people attend in masks. The term connotes both a celebration as well as concealment; however, I've decided that my bloggies will be free and open. It's meant more to be along the lines of Cafe Masquerade..forum for speech...and mad ranters and prophets are more than welcome to add their comments..for where would the world be without them?

AND NOW....here's introducing some of the partiers (mostly interesting folks I've met on indiatimes), in the most random order!:

Lizardking259: A classic example of a serendipiduous meeting! This guy knows most music like the back of his hand, and he and I have had some wonderful conversations in Russian. Yep, he's one of the few I've met on indiatimes who can speak Russian! And ofcourse, his adventures in Moscow, a place that I've always wanted to visit, are fascinating to hear about! *kak dela lizzy?*

Puppydogeyes: No party can ever be complete without this awesome chap who turns up absolutely everywhere, with most innovative names and costumes!! He's one fun and creative dude with a badge on! *salutes the MPD chief*

Tanvi: Teehee!! one of the champions of the muuah revolution, and a person I absolutely adore. This chirpy li'l queen is a fellow iced cappucino addict, and is always a pleasure to come across and her cheerful presence always livens up indiatimes. *hands tanvi big cookie* cheers gurl!

Awbrel4us: Aka boochoo!! Well!! *takes a deep breath* this one's one of the most interesting people i've ever met! I dunno how many of you've met him on indiatimes coz he isn't much of a regular there. I woudn't know where to begin if I were to introduce him...from stories of O' Henry to Nietzsche to the extensive knowledge of the 17th century pirates' code of conduct to motorbiking semi illegally on the beach to French lessons to adventures in Delhi and beyond ... (those would be my montage shots, amongst many more, if I were to make a movie)..but for now..i'll just say..i'm really lucky! *grins gleefully*

Jellyeyes: Jellymelly!! If jello is around, can marshmellow be far behind? and hence melly! This awesome gurl's my pantene twinny and fellow warrior against birdphobiacs! *salutes MPD leiutenant*

Misty: Misty the misterious and mistical!! Another wonderful gurl that i really enjoy chatting with and wish i saw more of. She reminds me of a cute cat! If I ever get a kitty someday, I'm gonna name it Misty! Meaow!

NV: My very trustworthy mate with whom I talk about some of the most random things(example: how cotton candy is called buddhi ki baal in India!) He's a genuinely sweet chap that I think everyone on indiatimes likes, and with good reason. He never fails to greet his friends, and is very approachable, friendly and trustworthy. *cheers nv!*

Vance: Every place has a hero, and I think vancy is the hero for the ladies on indiatimes. When I say hero, I don't quite mean it in a bollywood movieish sense, but a hero in chivalric qualities, more like the medieval knights, coz vancy's always quick to defend his lady friends during ugly situations. And ofcourse, like most chivalric heroes , he's most admired by the indiatimes ladies! He's my uncle (vancle), and a person I truly respect. Oh, and I must mention, he's hillarious at times as well. *Hehe cheers shancle!

Snazzz: I always lose track of how many z's he has in his name. If there was ever a person who worked on the element of the unexpected, it would be Snazz. One of the interesting chats I had with him included a discussion of the movie Amadeus (a gothic take on the life of Mozart, a movie I highly recommend to everyone) and the character of Salieri in it. The majority of my encounters with him have been quite enlightening.

Priti: This gurl's mah warrior godess, and I absolutely adore her! I haven't run into her much of late, but she totally rocks! *muuuaaah pritz*

Keshi: My lady! *bows to Kesh* I've gotta thank her(along with everyone else) for putting up with my bizzarre id's on indiatimes. She's is one of my best friends on indiatimes. Perhaps this is really abstract, or perhaps it's totally coherent..I wouldn't know...but I find Keshi to be a celebration of the versatility of human nature in it's most unveiled form. When I see Keshi, there is no exaggerated attempt at being something she's not, and I find a certain purity, a great beauty in that. And not to mention, she has this wonderful ability of putting new people immediately at ease, and have a good time with anyone she's with. AND she's also a fellow Freddy Mercury fan! She's another individual who works on the element of the unexpected, and is just a fantabulous person!

Enter the musicians!

Capt'n Jack Sparrow: He's better known as Tambourine ofcourse, but I always thought the Capt'n name suited him betta! I've learnt a good lot from this extremely talented musician. He was also incidentally the one who introduced me to Bob Dylan's classic song 'Tambourine Man', which made it's way upto my top favourites pretty soon. *salutes the capt'n!*

AmericanPoet: Hehe..a rocker+ party animal..if you know this chap, fun times are guaranteed!

Ash_b1: He's one of the first good friends I made on indiatimes, and is an amazing poet, who's blog is filled with writing that will touch your soul.

Well..the list is by no means complete..but it is 1 am and I've been at this fer a long time! And in any case, most folks in a party arrive later! 'ave a good one folks!

ps: I hate punctuation