rantlust

Posted by anupcs on January 17th 2008 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Television
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As the reality TV season gets well underway with new Sanjayas in American Idol and the tired antics of a bald billionaire in The Apprentice, there is a new kid in town. It’s called American Gladiators and I happened upon it while flipping channels the other day. The show is a revival of a not so hot show from the early 90s. It pits contestants against each other (two at a time - separate rounds for men and women) in a hard competition of strength and agility. En route, they have to also overcome the show’s real stars, the “gladiators.” The new (actually on its second season) show seems to be a big hit according to Nielsen despite (or maybe because of) its obvious cheesiness. The lovely Laila Ali (Muhammad’s offspring) and the hulking Hogan play genial hosts.

The show might be yawn inducing for the reality TV deniers (you know who you are). But I was hooked enough to watch a couple of episodes though not enough to Tivo the show. It’s not the competition or the contestants that intrigued me but the gladiators with exotic names concealing their real personae. With names like Wolf, Justice, Hellga, Mayhem, they try to stop the hapless contestants from completing their tasks. Among them stands out 25 year old Gina Carano aka Crush. She’s a Muay Thai fighter and will be equally at ease at the Playboy Mansion or an Ultimate Fighting event. The word kickass best describes this superwoman. The cheers are loudest when she faces a contestant on the show. One of the audience-held signs on a recent show declared a crush on Crush. It’s not too hard to feel a crush yourself.

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Posted by meerkat on August 17th 2007 in Animation, India, Television
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This is a video from Doordarshan, Indian TV station, made many years ago. This video is called “Ek anek..” in Hindi. It starts with a child trying to pluck mangoes from a tree but fails to do so. He is dejected and turns to his sister when the topic of what is one, many and unity begin through stories set with simple music. We learn it all. This is a well made simple 2-D animation in the 70s. Another favorite 2-D retro animation of mine set in simple times is “Triplets of Belleville“.

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Posted by anupcs on March 30th 2007 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Music, Television, USA
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Even if you won’t admit that you watch “American Idol” like 35 million other Americans, you must have still heard of the cult phenomenon who is Sanjaya Malakar. The 17 year old hula dancing, shaggy haired, half Indian, half Italian, effeminate dude who will single-handedly bring down the show if he wins it. A few weeks ago, such an eventuality would have been scoffed at (Simon Cowell famously quipped that he won’t be back if Sanjaya wins Idol this season) but now it’s not looking that unrealistic. He’s the underdog that has become a strong wild horse and not because he’s a fantastic belter of songs… far from it.

Due to the efforts of his many tween fans, Howard Stern, and the web site votefortheworst.com the erstwhile shy teenager has beat all odds to make it to the top 9. On the other side of the coin, this Darwin award potential is on a hunger strike till Sanjaya gets booted off. Of late, he has become emboldened and seems almost carefree while on stage. From causing young girls to bawl uncontrollably (original here; SNL spoof here) to confounding the judges, Sanjaya has brought life to an otherwise boring season. While he is no Frank Sinatra, I don’t think he’s William Hung either. He’s definitely better than your average Karaoke singer. And no matter what Simon Cowell thinks, Idol is not just a singing competition. It’s about the whole package.

I have never voted for a contestant on Idol before but I think this year, I am going to join Stern and the purveyors of votefortheworst.com and start calling in my votes for Sanjaya.

A whole new vocabulary has sprung around Sanjaya now: if you are his fan, you are a fanjaya; if you are his mom, you are momjaya; if you start copying his wacko hairstyles, then you have been sanjaya-ed; and now, if you are a supporter of him on rantlust, you are a rantjaya.

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Posted by riyer on January 19th 2007 in India, Rants, Society, Television, bollywood
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A TV show in Great Britain has brought racism (what else) to the front-page. The row involves Shilpa Shetty, a well known Bollywood sex-symbol and a few Z grade actors. One London wag characterized them as a has-been, an also-ran and a also-ran has-been. Apparently in one of the shows Ms Shetty made references to her servants and drivers in India and from then on things boiled over on the show with Ms Shetty being subjected to frequent verbal abuse. True to form, Indians have taken to the streets in a few cities and burnt Blair, among others, in effigy. While most see this as an issue of race, I agree with Alexander Chancellor of The Guardian when he asserts that this involves - “a certain amount of old-fashioned class hatred towards this privileged Indian princess”. Race after all is an American obsession, Brits on the other hand are terribly obsessed with class.

Responding to public outcry the vitriol on the show has turned the corner and in what seems to be a tableau vivant moment, hugs and apologies have been dished out. All this may be a tad too little, too late for the has-beens and the also-rans since their careers have taken a nose-dive. One of them has reportedly lost out on a 6-figure modeling contract and another is facing similar decline in fortunes. As for Ms Shetty - she is laughing all the way to the bank - since her contract is reported to be £3,50,000 to participate in this spectacle)

For that kind of money you can wake me up in the middle of the night and call me a “Poppodam”.

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Posted by riyer on December 24th 2006 in Entertainment, India, Movies, Music, Television, bollywood
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The wife and I were catching up with some unseen flicks from earlier in the year and decided to watch “Inside Man”. The movie begins (and ends) with the audio track of the popular hindi song “Chaiya Chaiya“. It turns out that it was the 2nd time I recognized the song being used in a sound track. Earlier in the week, I was watching an episode of CSI and I recognized the notes of this song used in the background. Later I was told by friends yesterday that the same song was used in another TV show named “Smith”.

Methinks maybe they should buy a few more bollywood CDs - I would recommend Shobha Mudugal next. I love the following quote from her “…I regret the fact that classical music is turning into a museum art, to be pulled out when you want to boast about the glory of an antique old tradition…”

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Posted by anupcs on November 23rd 2006 in History, Rants, Society, Television, USA
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Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. A day when families and friends get together to eat a meal primarily consisting of a bird I really despise: turkey. Before last weekend, I knew only a bit of the history of this holiday. It was the captivating documentary “Desperate Crossing: The Untold Story of the Mayflower” from The History Channel (premiered last weekend) that provided a full account. The documentary is a re-enacted version of the Pilgrims’ journey to North America interspersed with interviews of historians and surviving members of the Wampanoag tribe.

Thanksgiving is a holdover from the Harvest festival celebrated in Britain at the end of each year’s harvest (hærfest means autumn in old English). In the fall of 1621, almost a year after they had set foot on Plymouth in modern Massachusetts, 52 Pilgrims, and 90 Wampanoag Indians gathered for a three-day feast to celebrate a successful harvest. They had waterfowl and wild turkeys, bass, cod, mussels, corn, lobsters, grapes etc. The Wampanoag also presented the colonists with five deer that they had hunted and killed. If only venison was the food of choice on this holiday instead of turkey!
(Read more…)

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Posted by renéejo on November 21st 2006 in Rants, Television
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I think this is it for washed up actor Michael Richards (Kramer on Seinfeld) after he used the N-word on a couple of audience members during a recent show.

And the apology on David Letterman (with Jerry Seinfeld as a guest) is not likely to rescue whatever he had left in his career. I think he is on crack or something. In the apology he refers to Blacks as ‘Afro-Americans’. What a nut job!

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Posted by anupcs on November 04th 2006 in Humor, Politics, Television
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A thoroughly educational video from the fine folks at “The Daily Show” (weren’t they supposed to have removed all Viacom content by now?) about the upcoming midterm elections.

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