Back after a hiatus
I'm back with some big news, me babies. I'm engaged to be married to Divya, the gal stuffin chow in the picture. Everybody, give me a high 5! She's a sweetie with a heart of gold. But more on that later. I don't want to join the hordes that feel obliged to bore the general population with their incessant squeeing about their newfound soul mates. From me, you'll only get some interesting posts every once.
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VS
I finally saw Infernal Affairs. I'd wanted to see this film even before Marty decided to plagiarize it as The Departed. I was aghast to observe that the Marty's story is ditto down to the last detail (except for the romance which gets a Hollywood twist).
Infernal Affairs, which is a Hong Kong production, seemed more slick to me than a lot of Hollywood thrillers which get killed on cliches'. Minimal dialogue and the effective use of visual cues, traditional and high-tech, to progress the plot makes for more attentive viewing. The visual consulting of Christopher Doyle is evident in the film.
Marty had his star cast and his ability to New-Yorkise a script like Infernal Affairs going for him. But it is disappointing to know that he does'nt bring anything new into the script apart from the snappy dialogue, a murky romance and an irreconcilable ending.
This has left me wondering now - why did the Academy finally shower him with awards for a film that that does'nt even come close to his all of his original work till now?
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In other news, I've been listening to a lot of Frank Zappa since last night and digging the musical philosophy of The Mothers of Invention. Music for the here-now, with no past or future. Music that combined medieval precision and futuristic experimentation to come up with sounds that were very contemporary. Yes, they were contemporary because i think i was born a good thirty years late.
And Zappa was quite an articulate spokesperson for his music too - his interviews are very stimulating and educating. He truly represented the quintessential sound of the 60s-80s and was'nt ever bullied into the genre "stereo"types of record houses back then. He eventually segued into independant music production.
By his own admission, people either love his music or abhor it and compare it to noise. I used to count myself in the latter category till lately. But through one night of listening only, I have discovered the exquisite genius in his experimentation and am gorging on his material.
Here's some of his stuff on youtube for you to sample:
Cosmik Debris
Stinkfoot
Whippin Post
Montana
City of Tiny Lites
Apostrophe
Curses on youtube management for castrating the song endings!
And here's a little treat:
Zappa composing on his Synclavier