Ding Dong Rakshasa Mar Gaya

I was gonna shut it from the mountain tops — DING DONG DING DONG vah mar gaya aur ab asha aayegi! — but since I'm playing The Matrix in the background and scanning through scholarly articles that touch on the movie (or the trilogy), I realized a couple of things:

1. I may think of him as an evil little shit but to so many others he wasn't and still isn't one. If you were 'born' and 'live' in the Matrix, telling you something else about your perception of reality isn't going to change your mind. And that's fine — some people are genuinely happier not ever knowing — but it's better to slowly and gently educated those than force them to look at something before they are ready to.
2. There's really no fucking point in remaining even a little angry at something dead, even if it had been an evil little shit while alive. My energy and resources are much better diverted to something more positive and productive. And instead of complaining of the mess and stink the evil little shit left behind for all the living to clean up, why not do something to make it better for everyone else in this swamp?
3. A lot of me runs on anger but, while anger has served me well and fueled certain passions and drive, it's now consuming me. And it's not healthy — not to mention helluva counterproductive. I must learn to ... ♫ let it go, let it go. ♫ (Haha.)

And, with this, I must focus on the lovely things.

Like, how I've taken a day off today (and how my day started with news that brought about hope).

Like, how I've finally collected my certificate in Visual Communication and spent almost two hours at the book sale held by the library at that art school. (I bought over a dozen items, mostly for my senior librarian, but a couple for myself too.)

Well, I didn't manage to make it to Mustafa to look at Hindi DVDs (those book sale items were heavy) but I guess that's how I managed to be thrifty this week. Anyway, I'm not sure I'm mentally ready to watch Ugly just yet ...

Weekend

I watched:

• The Lego Movie
  For some reason I'd thought this would be like Team America: World Police; it's not. I guess it's a cute flick for kids but it's just okay for me. My god, the message they just hit you over the head with. No subtly with this one ...
• The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013)
  I only watched this because Auntie Al's friend/client said I should — the movie will push me to get off my ass and travel, said he. The thing is, I never had daydreams like those of the titular character. If I were as bored as him at my job, my daydreams tend to run a little more morbid, like the double-decker bus in which I traveled skidding and toppling over because it cornered too quickly and too sharply, or the overhead extension on which I walked collapsing from structural faults.
  Still, I thought the scenes in Greenland, Iceland, and the Himalayas looked gorgeous. For some reason — perhaps having seen it in a book previously — the Iceland shore bit looked very familiar, exactly as I'd pictured it reading the sagas and about the geography of Iceland prior to 1400 CE.
  I don't think the movie has made me desperate to travel — in fact, as I was watching the movie, I'd thought how well seeing things at a distance (on screen, for instance) suited me. I still want to see Pangong Tso first hand and hopefully visit the medieval sites around the UK and Scandinavia while I can still walk, but it's not because of this particular movie.
• Edge of Tomorrow
  Okay, I like this more than Walter Mitty, that's for sure. One, I like stuff that fucks with time; two, I like explosive stuff. And, of course, Emily Blunt.
  EMILY BLUNT. <3
  THOSE ARMS. <3 <3
  OMG HELLO THERE. <3 <3 <3
  Also, the movie is fun and funny. The mimics were super creepy though. Ugh, so gross.
• Bhool Bhulaiya
  Bought this yesterday after the QUILTBAG discussion session (together with a replacement copy of Khosla Ka Ghosla). It's pretty decent given that it's a Priyadarshan movie and I don't have high expectations when it comes to Priyadarshan, Rohit Shetty, David Dhawan (etc.) works. I thought it was a good sign it opened with Paresh Rawal; on the other hand, the musical interludes all seemed very forced. It would've been better to just confine the music to the closing titles — I don't really mind watching Mr Khiladi lip-sync once the movie has ended.

Anyway, I need to read more. I've been reading chapters from Chris Hudson's Beyond the Singapore Girl for the discussion session and it makes me so angry that such a man exists, that such men exist. Racist, sexist, misogynist eugenicists — these people just win the genetic toilet, I guess.

I'mma borrow this book from work tomorrow.

Reads & Flicks of the Month: January

Sadly, just finished one book (a short one, really) which I started last December or even before: The Daydreamer by Ian McEwan.

Flicks of the month:

• Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na
• Salaam-e-Ishq
• Badmaa$h Company
• Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana
• Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi?
• Ishqiya
• Dedh Ishqiya
• Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania
• Jodi Breaker
• Finding Fanny
• Cheeni Kum
• Straight
• 7 Khoon Maaf
• Fashion
• Student of the Year
• Chennai Express
• Fatso!
• Teri Meri Kahani
• Kahaani
• Mardaani
• Main Tera Hero
• Nautanki Saala
• (Kick — actually, I fast-forwarded a lot because I was watching this for Nawazuddin Siddiqui)

I also watched the AIB Roast — I waited for it the entire day then watched it way past my bed time even though it was a work day the next day. I laughed a lot; I also thought a lot of the jokes were going for the lowest common denominator, but that's not actually offensive. The fact that K.Jo joined in on the gay jokes about himself raised my opinion of him — this I blame on AIB. I'm just really sorry they got into trouble for making people laugh and raising money for charity.

Who could've anticipated that good things could be deemed so bad, that there were so many nincompoops in the world?

Anyway, I waited again for 'I Am Offended' yesterday (or was it Wednesday?) and watched it way, way, way past bed time. It's worth it. I think everybody should watch it, regardless of whether or not they know who the folks in the video are; whether or not they are from/in India.

Because, for me, it is ultimately about how we can't have nice things because of selfish and ignorant and insecure assholes who make fucking loud stinks.

I mean, holy shit, nobody's putting a gun up your ass to force you to watch something on YouTube or get gay-married or whatever. Just because you don't want to do it doesn't mean you stop others from doing it, especially if whatever the others are doing isn't murdering, raping, maiming, robbing (etc.) anybody.

ARGH. SO. INFURIATING.

Holy Shit

A very rough couple of days with possibly more to come.

If you like violence so much, why don't you just kill the fuck outta each other?

Then again those walking assholes don't have two brain cells to rub together, do why am I expecting them to behave rationally?

I'm just so angry at what's happening in Peshawar. At least that idiot in Sydney provided a bit of laughter (at his stupidity and incompetence).

Going to bury my head in Bollywood movies to erase my own violent fantasies of going crazyinsane medieval on those goat-fucking kachra.