I was alone this weekend, and for the most part, I spent it catch up on office work. But as an indulgence, I decided to splurge on foreign films. I chose four, and the helpful woman behind the video store counter told me there was a special - 6 for $15, so I picked up 2 Hollywood films to round it out. So, two long days later, I found that I’d chosen 6 winners:
The Story of the Weeping Camel (National Geographic) - a lovely story. No sex, violence, “action” - just a straight-up story about how a camel that rejects its colt is brought round by a violin serenade. English subtitles.
Water (Deepa Mehta) - Marvellous film about the lives of widows in India in the 1930s, about the time Ghandi is released from prison. I watched the subtitled version before I realized that the second DVD had an English version - not dubbed, but filmed simultaneously in English. I think I preferred watching it in Hindi.
Talk to Her (Aldo Almodovar) - Twisted plot but presented, as Almodovar generally does, in a human and interesting way.
Free Zone (Amos Gitai) - Great film about an Israeli, a Jordanian, and a Jewish-American ... but wait, the Israeli is from Europe via Auschwitz, the Jordanian is a Palestinian Israeli, and the American comes to Israel to be told that she’s not really Jewish. And when they end up in the Free Zone to conduct some business, they seem compelled to play out an age-old dynamic. Excellent acting.
Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch) - Of all the movies, I thought this one a big gimmicky - it could have been more. But I enjoyed it as a film to watch while multitasking - it was perfect to turn my attention to while waiting for content to upload a very slow website.
Proof (John Madden) - Excellent film. It was disconcerting, but that was the point, being taken on the same ride as the protagonist. It would have been even better if the ending hadn’t been quite so formulaic, but it is a Hollywood film, so I wasn’t expecting anything that deviated from the norm.
Seeing has how nothing has been on television for weeks, this has been a welcome treat. Now it’s nose to the grindstone again.
There’s something about Bollywood movies that just draws me in. It’s something about the not-so-stereotypically Hollywood plot lines, the choreographed dance numbers, the refreshing lack of sex scenes. Lucky for me, our local multi-culti channel shows Bollywood movies on Sunday afternoons. I don’t watch them all that often - a lot of them are pretty B-list - but once in a while something catches my eye, and today I thoroughly enjoyed Chal Mere Bhai, a comedy-drama revolving around two brothers in love with the same woman. A perfect diversion for a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Somehow, I’ve never really gotten into the whole MySpace or Facebook thing. It’s one thing to have a blog; it’s another to fill out forms that require me to disclose personal information in a central place that could be used as a clearing house for identity theft. But a friend who keeps changing his email address invited me to be a Facebook contact, and reluctantly, I filled in the absolute minimum to sign up. And then another friend invited me, and another ... So now I am a reluctant community member, and find myself requesting my forgotten password on a regular basis to be able to link in. But I don’t want to “share” and “poke” (I know that as a euphemism for sex, so find it a rather smarmy phrase) and “write on walls”. It’s not that I’m technophobic - I’m in the technology business, after all - but it just doesn’t suit me. (I already find it annoying having to block provocative invitations from younger men in far-off countries who find me through skype - do I need to fend off more credit card theft types trying to convince me to become his fiancee for purposes of fencing stolen goods? I think not.)
Anyhow, I started doing some research on Facebook, and came up with a YouTube video (below) from a Hindi acapella group called Penn Masala. Aside from being an extremely witty video (and perceptively insightful, given the reported behaviour by the stalker/killer on the West Virginia campus) , the group’s regular music is great. It combines English and Hindi lyrics, and North American and Indian sounds, and it all comes together beautifully. I’ve always been an acapella fan, from a guy group popular in the 80s and 90s, whose name escapes me at the moment, to the Flirtations, to Sweet Honey in the Rock and the Canadian Four the Moment, and Bobby McFerrin when he does his voice-pure performances. Penn Masala is a wonderful addition to my admittedly eclectic musical collection. What a wonderful side-effect to my facebook experience!
So we’re unexpectedly in Portland for the weekend, and it’s so tempting to go out and “play” instead of catching up on the various things that make up a huge backlog of work. The hotel filled up with soccer families during the day, so the pool is full of kids, and hotel is full of gangly teens, a number of which I swear were playing soccer upstairs from us last night. Staying in my room instead of hanging out in the atrium with the parents and kids had its advantages, though. I watched an excellent movie, The Last Kiss, with Zach Braff and Jacina Barrett. (Caution: The site is barriered by Flash, and once it loads, the music is pretty loud. In short, it’s a film about how various people handle the adversities in their relationships - more interesting than most Hollywood productions.
Life is too short not to be the best you can be. Me? In no particular order: Woman. Wife. Mother. Grandmother. Aunt. Friend. Business owner. Writer. Musician. Jew. Scrabbler. Traveller. Lesbian. Taxpayer. Volunteer. Blogger. Social critic. Voice of reason. PITA. Inspiration. Visionary. Advocate. Convert. Pet owner.