rantlust

Posted by papi on June 09th 2008 in Architecture, Art, Far East, Raves, Religion, Travel
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“You know it might be just this one anonymous glory of all things, this rich stone forest, this epic chant, this gaiety, this grand choiring shout of affirmation, which we choose when all our cities are dust; to stand intact, to mark where we have been, to testify to what we had it in us to accomplish.”

The quote is Orson Welles talking about the cathedral at Chartres, and it’s from the movie “F for Fake” but it could just as easily have been about the topic of this post. Borobudur - a tapestry of stone, a rich stone forest, an epic chant. I’d read about Borobudur in history textbooks, as the lesser known sibling of Angkor Wat, and I’d long had a desire to visit the temple and see for myself if it matched up to its formidable reputation. Earlier this year, an anthropologist friend researching urban planning in the nearby Javan city of Jogjakarta urged me to visit, and I did not need to be asked twice.

Borobudur is located about an hour away from the city of Jogjakarta in East Java, brooding over the surrounding paddy fields. It is rather too close for comfort to the active volcano Gunung Merapi, and the latter has over the years been a constant concern for the safety of the temple. However, Borobudur has survived not only the vagaries of Merapi’s explosions and numerous earthquakes, but even human attempts to destroy it. It still stands largely intact, a testament to the endurance of faith.
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Posted by tafkap on November 30th 2006 in Religion, Society, Technology, Thoughts, Travel
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I flew to Chicago over Thanksgiving for a wedding. Yeah - perfect timing. I don’t consider myself to be a person with too many prejudices, but I was surprised by thoughts that went through my mind as I observed people at the gate and on the flight on my way back to Boston.

A middle aged woman. Friendly. Reading an article. It was entitled something like “Why I am against prayer at games - an Evangelist’s story”. Must be from Kansas or something. Probably hates Boston.

An elderly African American couple. Flying to Atlanta so they said. The man had a newspaper in his hand and he was doing a crossword. I am irrationally surprised.
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Posted by crewcut on July 02nd 2006 in Far East, India, Movies, Religion
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One of the last scenes of Superman Returns, which I watched all the way to the credits, shows an Indian nurse going to check on our injured hero, only to discover that he has flown out of the window.

On remarking to my wife that it was nice to showcase an Indian playing the role of the nurse, especially with Indians being one of the largest ethnic segments of nurses in the US/UK/Middle East, her immediate response was that the movie may have been localised for each region. Western audiences would see a Caucasian nurse, Far Eastern audiences would see an Oriental, and so on.

It could be possible. There was a Malayalam movie called Harikrishnans, which originally had 3 different endings, each tailored to different religious demographics. With the controversy that it created, they finally released the movie with only one ending.

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Posted by papi on June 30th 2006 in Religion, Society
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Old Mother Hubbard
Went to the cupboard
To get her poor doggie a bone,
When she got there
The cupboard was bare
So the poor little doggie had none.
— old English rhyme

I was taking my customary evening walk around the neighborhood yesterday, and saw all these tightly rolled wads of newsprint scattered in front of all the houses. Usually there are brightly printed coupons from the local pizzeria or laundry offering a free deal or some such nonsense, but these were different. They looked like tiny pamphlets, and they were everywhere. Overcome by curiosity, and against my better judgment, I picked one up. In cold, sober tones of blue and grey, the following headline jumped out at me:

Clear Body, Clear Mind – A Publication on the World’s Most Effective Purification Program.

You guessed it… Scientology had found its way to my doorstep.
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Posted by anupcs on May 19th 2006 in Books, Movies, Religion
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Fellow blogger bab and I went for an early showing of “The Da Vinci Code” today (from work).

The book was highly readable despite a lack of style. Dan Brown keeps us on the edge but he has the annoying habit of filling his paragraphs with italics. How much emphasis do we really need?

The movie, which is sure to unseat MI:III from the top of the box office heap this weekend, religiously follows the book with very minor variations. Some scenes are omitted and some of the secret code is different. I wasn’t that pleased with the performance of Tom Hanks, an actor I have deep respect for. He didn’t have to try very hard to portray Robert Langdon. Audrey Tautou was ideal for the part of Sophie Neveu. (I am glad that Kate Beckinsale, who’s best when fighting vampires in skin-tight clothes, wasn’t chosen for this role, as was rumored.) Sir Ian McKellan, Jean Reno, and Paul Bettany do a good job in supporting roles.

I felt that the movie got slow at times, more so than the book. However, the end result is not as bad as most of the critics made it out to be. I would suggest waiting for DVD though.

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Posted by renéejo on April 18th 2006 in Journalism, Religion
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Because of the world’s biggest movie star’s couch-hopping and cradle snatching ways, we have been overwhelmed with news about him and his ‘religion’. We now know more about Scientology than we really care to know.

Sara Lawrence of The Independent went undercover to investigate Scientology and has written a piece about it. An interesting read.

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Posted by riyer on April 06th 2006 in Books, History, Mythology, Religion, Technology
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The earliest known manuscript known as the ‘Gospel of Judas’ has surfaced after 1700 years and sheds new light on Judas’ role in Christ’s betrayal (or does it?). You’ll find this fascinating story here

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Posted by tafkap on April 04th 2006 in Religion, Society
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If you are an atheist living in America, it probably serves you to keep a low profile. According to a new study by the University of Minnesota Department of Sociology, Americans have a very negative opinion of atheists.

Researchers concluded: “Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in ’sharing their vision of American society.’ Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.”

Disturbingly, Atheists are “seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public,”

While general levels of tolerance seem to be on the rise, it does not appear as though atheists have made much progress.

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