Monthly Archives: January 2006

Looking for Comedy? Look Elsewhere

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I’ve been spending all day trying to figure out the Albert Brooks/Sheetal Sheth movie Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World. After sitting through the movie, I had no idea what Brooks was trying to do or what he was trying to portray to the audience. A day later, it’s no better. I still have no clue. The movie was boring and confusing. Brooks’ whiny self deprecation got old quick, and I am not sure how much humor really can be found in a movie that attempts to get all its laughs through constant cultural miscommunication. The East-meets West and terrorist jokes get old really quick, and I am actually a little puzzled that a studio executive thought it would be enough to make a commercially successful film. Maybe I missed the point. Actually, I am sure I did but I was too bored during the film to search for its meaning.

From Seattle Weekly’s review:

He’s lost in India. That’s where his character, named Albert Brooks, goes on an improbable U.S. government mission to find out what makes Muslims laugh, so that we might better understand them. His ventriloquist act bombs in New Delhi; Al-Jazeera tries to recruit him for a sitcom called That Darn Jew; nobody gets him, and he doesn’t get them.

That Al-Jazeera scene, that is one of the two funny scenes in the film and it features singer Shaheen Sheik.

From Salon’s review:

When he [Brooks] asks the audience, during his stand-up performance, why there’s no Halloween in India (“Because they took away the Gandhi” is the punch line), the joke is supposed to be kindergarten-caliber, and, of course, the audience isn’t supposed to laugh. Brooks sets himself up as the butt of the movie’s big joke — a well-intentioned Western comic attempts cross-cultural outreach and just look what happens — but his bombing is simply painful to watch. It’s not entertaining, not even in a twisted, sadistic way, and Brooks’ obsessive attempts to engage his audience only coat the movie with an egotistical veneer. “Looking for Comedy” pretends to be a plea for understanding, but it isn’t about what Muslims do or don’t find funny; it’s only about Brooks’ failure to make them laugh.
And his failure isn’t fun to watch, its painful. The saving grace for me in the film was of course Sheetal Sheth. Yeah I am biased, but despite sticking her with an Indian accent, Sheth’s performance was good, and believable. Her timing was right on, and in spite of being in this film, I think she could be the next desi to break through, breasts or no breasts.

I also must admit I did enjoy Brooks’ embracing of desi menswear, the kurtas, the sherwanis, the mojdis, (thankfully no lungis or dhotis) however inappropriate his clothing selections might have been for the occaision. Anyway, check out the film if you are feeling lucky, want to support Sheetal, or are a glutton for punishment. But if you are looking for comedy, I suggest looking elsewhere.

Click here to read more reviews of the film, and click here to read more from the mutiny on the movie.

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Hare Krishnas supporting ‘Intelligent Design’

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Secularist Meera Nanda writes that American Hare Krishnas filed an amicus curiæ brief against evolution in the intelligent design case in Cobb County, Georgia (thanks, Razib):

ISKCON devotees in Allahabad

It is these I.D.-creationists who are leading the current barrage of anti-evolution lawsuits… They have found enthusiastic allies among the Hare Krishnas… who have been actively propagating their theory of “Vedic creationism”, “Krishna creationism”, or “Hindu creationism”, as it is sometimes called…

Earlier this year, the Hare Krishnas filed an amicus curiae brief supporting I.D.-creationists… Hare Krishnas appealed to the court to keep the anti-Darwinian warning stickers. As the stickers only attack Darwin without endorsing a specifically Christian God, Hare Krishnas see them as an opportunity to introduce Vedic creationism into American schools. They know that once one religion gets its foot inside the door, all others will automatically get equal time to bring in their own creation stories and cosmologies into science classrooms in America. [Link]

The ID’ers don’t mind since it gives them multi-culti camouflage:

`I.D.’ is often accused of being a scientific-sounding cover for Christian creationism. The ID-ers conveniently use the support of Hare Krishnas to paint themselves in multicultural colours. Prominent I.D. theorists (Philip Johnson, Michael Behe) and some Catholic creationists have endorsed Vedic creationism. Any enemy of Charles Darwin is their friend… [Link]

ISKCON creationism sounds just as nutty as the ID’ers:

The intellectual force driving Vedic creationism is a pair of American Hindus, Michael Cremo and Richard Thompson, both resident “scientists” of the Bhaktivedanta Institute, the research wing of ISKCON. Cremo recently published a huge book, Human Devolution: A Vedic Alternative to Darwin’s Theory… While Cremo insists he is offering a “scientific” alternative to Darwin, almost all of his evidence comes from paranormal phenomena, including studies of extra-sensory perception, faith-healing, reincarnation and past-birth memories, UFOs (unidentified flying objects) and alien abductions…

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‘If I spoke Punjabi’

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Almost fifty people are running to become Canada’s latest South Asian MPs:

Who wants to be a Canadian millionaire (USD $14.92)?

For Jaipal Massey-Singh, Bal Gosal and Jagtar Shergil however, Saturdays for the past month and a half means knocking on doors, listening to complaints and plaudits and eating take-away food… All three men are running in the Canada’s 23 January general elections… [Link]

Fluency in Punjabi or Hindi is virtually a prerequisite for the ethnic vote. In the Punjabi area of Vancouver, the streetsigns are in Gurmukhi:

Nearby, a volunteer makes comforting noises into a phone receiver, before hanging up and saying wistfully, “If I spoke Punjabi, I would know whether or not I was promised that vote.” Mr Gosal says he campaigns in three languages, Punjabi for his largely Sikh constituents, Hindi for other South Asians and English for the rest. [Link]

‘If I spoke Punjabi, I would know whether or not I was promised that vote’If s/he spoke Punjabi, s/he’d also endure a cross-examination about his/her marital situation, village ancestry and parents’ health before being force-fed chai and laddoos. Michael Bloomberg also attempted speaking in Urdu in his re-election campaign for NYC mayor:

During his re-election campaign, Mr. Bloomberg soaked up the city’s diverse communities by hopscotching across its ethnic neighborhoods, and he even studied Spanish. He recorded campaign commercials in two Chinese dialects, Russian, Urdu and Korean, among other languages. [Link]

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Police nab speeding Mann

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Yesterday while at the gym I was looking up at the TV and noticed the news was running a re-cap of a spectacular car chase. This is pretty ho-hum for LA television. There is one on every day. Police in Houston were in hot pursuit until the driver went up a ramp the wrong way, and smashed headfirst into another car. Immediately afterward, a woman jumped out of the car and moved in between the two cars. I assumed that maybe she was attacking the offending driver. Because the television was muted I didn’t get the whole story. SM tipster “Kanti” tips us off to the real story. Apparently the woman was primarily rushing to the backseat of her own car to make sure that her baby was okay. What about this crazy driver? Watch the video. Click2Houston.com reports:

The man who led police on a dangerous chase through three counties appeared in court early Thursday morning.

Jatinderjit Mann, 31, was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon — the weapon being the gray BMW he was driving — and evading arrest…

Mann is being held in the Harris County [Houston] Jail on a $55,000 bond…

The 90-minute chase reached speeds of 100 mph. From the restaurant, Mann led officers east on Beltway 8 past Highway 59 before turning around and heading north on Interstate 45 near Conroe, where he turned around and headed back to the beltway…

Some officers were upset that they were not allowed to do more. Under the department’s policy, they were not allowed to hit the suspect’s car, which some officers believe would have ended the chase a lot sooner. [Link]

This whole thing started because Mann was apparently making racial slurs and using abusive language at the restaurant he was at. Some women complained, and when police were called he took off in disgust. Apparently Mann is a Brit:

The suspect said very little in court. He kept asking if he could speak to the British Embassy. The judge told him he could speak to the British Consulate. Mann is a British citizen. [Link]

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The Magnificent Seven

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Two of Time Magazine’s Persons of the 20th Century were the duo of Sir Edmund P. Hillary, and Tenzing Norgay. Their accomplishment was simply mindboggling. In an era in which there existed the most rudimentary of climbing gear, the two men became the first to summit Everest on nothing but heart.

On May 29, 1953, Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tenzing Norgay of Nepal became the first human beings to conquer Mount Everest–Chomolungma, to its people — at 29,028 ft. the highest place on earth. By any rational standards, this was no big deal. Aircraft had long before flown over the summit, and within a few decades literally hundreds of other people from many nations would climb Everest too. And what is particularly remarkable, anyway, about getting to the top of a mountain?

Geography was not furthered by the achievement, scientific progress was scarcely hastened, and nothing new was discovered. Yet the names of Hillary and Tenzing went instantly into all languages as the names of heroes, partly because they really were men of heroic mold but chiefly because they represented so compellingly the spirit of their time. [Link]

Tenzing was born in Tibet and grew up in Nepal. He was one of “Chomolunga’s people,” and so it was fitting that he was part of the first summit. Almost every great prize in moutaineering to be won, has now been won. Still, every mountaineer worth a dime aspires to one goal, however impossible it may seem. The Seven Summits. These are the tallest peaks on each of the seven continents: Kilimanjaro, Denali, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Carstensz Pyramid, Vinson, & Everest. To date, less than 130 climbers have bagged all seven peaks and not a single one has been Indian, which is especially surprising given that India lies in the shadow of Everest. Well Gautam Patil is out to change that.

As an avid mountaineer, Gautam has been invited to present motivational talks at various venues including Sierra Club, REI Company Stores, and Any Mountain Company. He has shown bravery in dealing with people and situations in extreme conditions including those involving death and dramatic rescue operations. Gautam’s professional background is in Technology Product Management in Enterprise Software Products. He is a founding director of the Silicon Valley Product Management Association Inc.

He has already completed Kilimanjaro, Denali, Elbrus, Aconcagua and is currently mounting an expedition up the Vinson Massif.

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“…so whip it on over here”

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Apparently the Republicans in South Carolina’s General Assembly think that Assemblywoman Nikki Randhawa Haley (see previous post) has got that whip appeal. They have just named her Majority Whip for the South Carolina House Republican Caucus. Rediff reports:

As majority whip, Haley will be responsible for lining up votes in support of caucus priorities and setting the direction of the 74-member Republican majority.

“Haley was selected because of her proven leadership skills. She is always prepared when we go to the floor and she’s passionate about issues of concern to her constituents,” Republican chief whip Shirley Hinson said.

For Nikki this is the third leadership position she’s held in her first two years in the General Assembly.

“I’m honoured to be recognised again by my peers and I know this new position helps me serve my constituents.This position will help me drive legislation that will benefit Lexington County and the entire state,” Nikki said.

The Whip position requires you to know everyone in the state legislature because it is your responsibility to twist their arms and get them to vote the party line. It is the sort of position that would definitely help to have under your belt should you later decide to run for U.S. Congress.

In the U.S. House of Representatives, Bobby Jindal is a deputy Whip. With head whip, Roy Blunt (R-MO) vying for ousted Majority leader Tom Delay’s position, look for Jindal to seek a move up the leadership chain should Blunt win. He is exactly the type of young outsider that many disgruntled Republicans want.

My apologies to Babyface.

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I hope the Uzbeks love their samsas too

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Bukhara is a tandoori place in New York popular with many, including Bill Clinton. I’ve had one amazing meal there and one passable.

Samsas stuck to the sides of a tandoor

A NYT story on Central Asian restaurants in Queens decodes the origin of the name, the city of Bukhara in Uzbekistan. As a border culture, its food is an interesting mix of Indian, Persian and Chinese. Its samosa equivalent is stuck to the side of a tandoori oven like how roadside dhabas make chapatis.

Reflecting the influence of silk and spice trades, there are tastes of China and India everywhere. Every Bukharian menu offers a garlicky, chili-spiked Korean carrot salad, morkovcha koreyska, that is a legacy of Stalin’s mass deportations of ethnic Koreans from the far eastern Soviet Union to its western frontiers. At Tandoori Bukharian Bakery in Rego Park, a samsa – one of Asia’s many cousins of the Indian samosa – is deliciously spiked with cumin and baked against the walls of a clay-lined oven that Bukharians, like Indians, call a tandoor. [Link]

It probably got the samosa directly from Iran when the Persian empire absorbed the city. The restaurants sound a whole lot like hill stations in India:

A traditional Central Asian restaurant is little more than a stop for merchants and shepherds traveling the difficult road over the Pamir peaks; the ancient Persians called the region the roof of the world. These restaurants, called chai khanas, or tea houses, provided travelers in the most remote settlements with a place to warm themselves with pots of green tea… [Link]

There are Chinese influences on Bukharian food as well:

Farther north, bread and flour take over – especially lagman, hand-pulled noodles whose name evolved from the Chinese lo mein. Very popular among the Bukharians, lagman have been mastered by another Central Asian group, the Uighurs, who have a small community in New York… Uighurs are Muslim, and speak a language derived from Turkish… [Link]
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Portable vampyre

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A newly-invented wristwatch draws blood from the wearer four times a day and tests it for malarial parasites. It’s designed for South African miners, but it could also be useful in South Asia, where malaria is rampant.

Gervan Lubbe has developed the watch which obtains blood samples with a microscopic needle that automatically penetrates the skin twice during the day and twice at nightThe watch takes blood samples with a microscopic needle that penetrates the skin four times a day. An alarm sounds if the parasite count is above 50, before the first symptoms appear… at that point an antidote in the form of tablets should be consumed and, within 48 hours, all traces of malaria are eliminated from the body. Malaria is the single biggest killer on the African continent, claiming close to three million lives a year. [Link]

“If you wait until you get symptoms and a malaria diagnosis, you can be in bed for six months and have to take huge quantities of quinine, which can be dangerous…”[Link]

It even has a remote data feed:

With the wristwatch, each miner will walk through a scanner, similar to a metal detector, and the watch’s radio frequency will transmit the wearer’s information to a central computer.

And, just like cleaning out the filter on a clothes dryer, you have to do something with all the blood. Anne Rice should be all over this:

… the watch’s alarm rings every 35 days to remove the small metal sieve and wash the old blood away. [Link]

India still suffers ~2 million malarial infections a year:

According to the World Health Organization, every year in India an estimated 2 million cases of malaria occur, with 1,000 deaths; and 95% of the population live in malaria-risk areas. [Link]

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NYCB’s Amar Ramasar: I Saw Him First

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ramasarx.jpg A fabulously helpful anonymous tipster sent me my newest and sweetest crush: a boy who can DANCE! Said my anon-penned GMail:

Hey gang, I was reading a NY times article about ballet and it mentioned an Amar Ramasar, an Indian-American male ballet dancer with the NYC Ballet. How cool is that?!

…I hope you write about him! Bonus points if you include lots of Billy Eliot/Center Stage references. 😛

More about this gorgeous man, whom the Voice deems “extremely promising, both forceful and softly muscular” (hell yes!)

Amar Ramasar was born in the Bronx, New York. He began his studies at the School of American Ballet (SAB), the official school of New York City Ballet, in 1992. In addition, he studied at the American Ballet Theatre Summer Program and The Rock School of Pennsylvania Ballet. In July 2000, Mr. Ramasar was invited to become an apprentice with New York City Ballet, and in July 2001 he joined the Company as a member of the corps de ballet.[nycb]

I think I’m feeling faint. A brown face in the New York City Ballet? You can’t hear my eeeevil cackle, but I’m gloating over the fact that our DesiDancer is married, else I’d have to whip off my bamboo earrings (at least two pair), smear vaseline on my face and get DIRTY. I keed, I keed…I’m all about the “sistas before mistas” principle (ahem. until someone else comes up with a feminized “bros before hos”, we’re stuck with that).

Amar said the following about his unique situation:

I actually looked at my race as an advantage because there was no one who looked like me. In New York City Ballet especially, I felt my casting has always been great. The biggest one for me was Fancy Free because, if you think of the history of that ballet, it’s not necessarily the case that in the 1940s an Indian guy was one of the sailors fighting for America. But they let me do that here, and I thought, “I’m breaking boundaries that people automatically put up for a stereotypical white ballet.” [link]

So hot. Continue reading →

Bulls don’t need breasts to get work in Hollywood

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Two Hollywood related items arrived on the tipline today and may be of interest to readers. The first comes from former SM centerfold Cicatrix. She points us to a one paragraph blurb in the New York Times which mentions that Nickelodian Films has just inked a deal for a new CGI movie slated for next year:

A young bull from Montana named Bamboo befriends a caterpillar that tells him of a place called India, where cows are sacred, free and holy. The two embark on a journey, and find the country while outwitting a group of pesky chickens.

Now that seems pretty cool. A bull in search of the promised land, looking for a place where his people can be free. The name of the movie? According to the website where the info originated, it will be titled Holy Cow. But why chickens? I would have chosen monkeys, or tigers, or elephants.

If you are listening girl…don’t ever change. Don’t ever change.

The second bit of gossip comes from former SM hit-man Amardeep. He points us to a Rediff article about actress Sheetal Sheth’s misadventures in tinsel town:

You can’t blame Sheetal Sheth for praying that Hollywood would take note of her performance in her first major film Looking For Comedy In The Muslim World and not worry about her bosom.

For, she recently told Contactmusic.com that many Hollywood agents thought she should have a breast implant.

…”About five different times they have suggested I get breast implants.”

But Sheth, who was a founder of the Hindu Students Association in her high school and later a mentor to many younger Indian students at NYU, knew her talent would suffice.

First I’d like to point out that if Sheetal had a breast implant then she’d look like a freak. I think I hope that the author of the article meant breast implants. I would write more about Sheetal’s breasts and the fact that I think she is fine the way she is, but my dad reads this blog daily and then tells my mom everything. Thus it’s best that I avoid adding detail to such racy topics.

Update: “Flygirl” informs us that a movie about a freedom seeking cow has already been made (hilarious!)

Related posts: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, ‘Looking for Comedy’ trailer, Looking for permission to film in the Muslim world

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