Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

A Non-Encounter With Salman Rushdie

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Amitava Kumar is currently at Vassar College, and Salman Rushdie was recently scheduled to be a guest speaker. Amitava, as an accomplished critic and essayist, was suggested by the college to introduce Rushdie, but Rushdie vetoed it [see update below]:

Salman Rushdie came to Vassar College earlier this week to deliver a lecture for the Class of 2010–but he made it clear to the organizers that he would cancel if I was involved in his visit. I had earlier been asked to introduce him, and then, well, I was disinvited. Mr Rushdie and I have never met, although I have heard him speak several times. I presume his dislike of me has to do with essays like these that I have written about him in the past. (link)

The essay Amitava links to is a long, partly sunny and partly sour critique of Rushdie, ending with a review of Shalimar the Clown. I think Amitava’s best criticism is probably the following: Continue reading →

You, Too, Can Take Your Brownian Crisis To Prime-Time

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As luck would have it, while at the frigid ND bunker and prancing around in nothing but her tropical New Orleanian wear, your intrepid guest blogger caught a cold and was forcibly isolated from the other monkeys and community computer for a week. Eeek achoo eeek! Hey, the New Orleanian cold front of 75 degrees and 80% humidity just hit yesterday, and this macaca yearns for a mint julep on her sunny porch.

anchal_joseph.jpg

While mired in the hurricane-force sneezes and sea of wadded-up tissue paper, cable TV overcame me and I fell prey to such eye-searers as As The World Turns, Dr. Phil and America’s Next Top Model. Dear Supreme Geek Council, please do not oust me from your favor for this transgression. Your humble servant was merely … ummmm … getting to know the enemy … yeah, that’s it.

Anchal Joseph of Homestead, FL wishes to go beyond model immigrant; she wants to be a supermodel. This 19-year-old sports flawless dark skin, ass-length hair, blue-tinted contacts and a desire to show her people that dark women can walk that catwalk, too. With tears threatening to evict her fake baby blues, Ms. Anchal informed Tyra Banks, Jay Manuel (a planet in the neighboring galaxy is missing its weirdo) and J. Alexander (and I do not quote), “Where I come from, light skin and light eyes are preferable to dark skin and eyes. I want to show them that I am just as beautiful.” Fair enough. So, why the blue contacts? If you want to win on your looks, where is the need for the prop? Then again, Anchal is the only one out of 36 who doesn’t transform into a vavoom covergirl when adorned with that other crutch – lots of makeup. She looks pretty much her beautiful same. (Aside: Check out this definition for anchal)

Conversely, the only personal features I find appealing are my brown skin and black eyes. My hips could use several circumlocutions of the block and 5’4″ isn’t anything to write Elle about. This isn’t to say that my extended family has risen above the inanity of Anchal’s experiences; in fact, I’ve been on the receiving end of such remarks for 12 more years than her. My dark skin has never bothered me, even when met with reproachful stares from the kuppai that populates my end of the South. To each her own pathology or just another plea for Reality-TVTM attention?

Speaking of this past week’s TV, was it the NyQuil crooning or did a segment of Chaiyya Chaiyya open a scene of the Smith premiere? Continue reading →

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The Aunt Jemima Problem

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Here’s the problem in a nutshell. If you’re a CEO of an iconic brand, do you modernize the branding of your product if it is associated with a country’s racist history? If so, how do you do this without either losing brand recognition or whitewashing the past?

The original label

In 1885, Camp Coffee started producing a liquid coffee and chickory concentrate. They marketed the product by associating it with the coffee that kept Imperial soldiers fueled in the mornings:

To ensure Victorian consumers got the message that they were drinking the same treacly caffeine concentrate designed to fortify soldiers subduing the colonies, the kilted Gordon Highlander was shown being brought his drink by a Sikh manservant. [Link]

Of course, times change. The sun went down on the British empire, dusky Britons moved in and took over the cornershops. They weren’t quite as fond of this label as Victorian customers were.

So, in the 1980s, a compromise was reached:

In the 1980s, the label was moved to the back and later the Sikh bearer’s tray was removed but he remained standing. [Link]

This new label was a bit bizarre. It had the Sikh servant with his fist up, like he was about to punch the Scottish officer in his face.

The newest label

For some reason, after taking away his tray, they didn’t think to have him relax his hands at all. [picture after the fold, or click on the link].

Of course, this didn’t last either. Brown people being uppity like they are, they wanted yet more:

Recently, several Asian shopkeepers threatened to stop putting the liquid coffee and chicory concentrate on their shelves unless the label was changed. After such threats and pressure from race equality groups, the manufacturers have had the scene radically redrawn to show the two men sitting side by side. [Link]

So the label was finally changed to the anachronistic image of the officer and his batman sitting down for coffee together. While this might be a useful image for today’s multicultral UK, it’s absurd to imagine that it might have happened back in the day. Continue reading →

Come come my lady, you’re my butterfly, Sugar baby

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Two things are going to happen here that you never imagined you would see coming from me. One has already happened. Yes, I did in fact quote Crazytown in the title of this post. The second? I am writing a post about Fashion! Let me transport you fabulous readers to Fashion Week in London. In particular, I want to focus your attention on the hottest Indian designer in town: Manish Arora. Here is a snippet (with pictures) from last year’s Fashion Week:

As the special guest of the British Fashion Council, Delhi-based designer Manish Arora was undoubtedly under some pressure to make his mark on London Fashion Week. Although on of India’s best loved designers – his shows are nigh impossible to squeeze into – over here he’s the new boy and performing to an audience which is undoubtedly harder to please.

He seemed to pull it off. Although more costume than fashion, he gave us a spectacle that won’t be easy to forget. Models, who looked like they’d spent too much time at the village fete face-painting stall, came out in frou frou skirts buoyed by layers of coloured netting. Indian motifs and imagers covered the surface of bright fabrics, vying for position with gold embroidery, tassles and metallic discs. [Link]

So how would Manish top the buzz he created last year? How would he make his gorgeous models memorable to all the buyers? One word. Butterflies.

Damn girl. Your butt-is-err-fly!

Continue reading →

Desi Accented Pirate Talk

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Growing up in Southern California, and I’m sure Chick Pea will concur, one often grows up with an unnatural obsession with certain Disneyland rides. For me, it was always the Pirates of the Caribbean which has subsequently fostered an unnatural obsession with all things skull and crossbones. This is why it should come as no surprise that, me mateys, tis is International Talk Like Pirate Day!

At first an inside joke between two friends, the holiday gained exposure when Baur and Summers sent a letter about their invented holiday to the American syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry in 2002. Barry liked the idea and promoted the day. There have been reports that this holiday was being celebrated in the New Zealand town of Wainuiomata at least as early as 2000, after local media reported the existence of Talk Like A Pirate Day. [wiki]

Ahoy, me hearty! Today, feel liberated to say, “Avast!” and “Arrr!” and “That’s the finest pirate booty I’ve ever laid eyes on.” Go on, wear your eye patch and drink some grog at the local (desi-owned) pirate bar. Rent the Depp-makes-pirates-sexy movie of the moment, Pirates of the Caribbean, and sing along with a “Yo, ho!”

All this pirate talk made me wonder, arrrrre there South Asian pirates? Arre, matey, there arrrre…

The Mogul’s trade fleets went into the Red Sea and Persian Gulf with fabrics, ivory, and spices; attack of Mogul ship they returned with the abundant gold and silver of exchange…Topping the list were the abundant prizes of the various East Indian Company ventures, which carried off luxurious silks, ivory, jewels, and proceeds from import.

With deterioration of effective naval patrol or protection, the pickings were ripe from Cochin and Calcutta in the South, through the Portuguese trade port of Goa, to Bombay and Surat farther north. Bombay became the focal point of a most successful family-run pirate enterprise as the Angria clan gained control of the surrounding area. They established their main fortress of Vijayadurg (Severndroog) as one of several island bases south of Bombay. [link]

The most infamous pirate of the Indian Ocean was Kanhoji Angre, died in 1792.

Kanhoji initially started by attacking merchant ships of the British East India Company and slowly gained notoriety and power. When Maratha Chattrapati Shahu ascended the leadership of the Maratha kingdom, he appointed Balaji Viswanath Bhatt as his Senakarta (‘Commander’), and negotiated an agreement with Angre around 1707. This was partly to appease Angre who supported the other ruler who claimed the Maratha throne, Tarabai…Kanhoji Angre stands alone in the Indian list of early freedom fighters as the one person who stood undefeated and inflicted many casualties on colonial powers. [wiki]

Arrrrr. Now that’s what I call a real mutiny. A true Sepia Mutineer to the corrrre. For more desi pirate stories, thar be 20th – century John Boysie Singh, and Gurkha repelling pirates last year. But with all this talk of accents, I wonder what a desi-accented pirate talk sounds like. Arrrr-ay?

Continue reading →

‘Kal’ Starring in Rap Opera ‘The Avon Lady’

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Without LonelyGirl15 to satiate our YouTube obsession anymore, the viral video land has been somewhat quiet. That is until The Avon Lady hit the inter-waves (thanks, MadGuru).

That’s right kiddies, starring in this insanity of a rap opera video with a dinosaur Avon lady is our very own Kal Penn (as well as Superman Brandon Routh as the cop). There is a perfectly good explanation why the video is trying to be the next ‘Lazy Sunday’— because it is housed out of the same group of filmmakers of said SNL fame, The Lonely Island.

The Lonely Island is a group of filmmakers, founded in 2001 by Akiva Schaffer, Jorma Taccone and Andy Samberg… The Lonely Island has created numerous comedic films, shorts, parody songs, and music videos. They have made three full-length pilots, all of which have been rejected…The site also includes a blog from Chester Tam, often referred to as Chez. The blog, titled “Chez Chat”, gives humorous summaries of the site’s updates. [wiki]

Watch, comment, enjoy. As for me, Chez’s you tube videos and podcasts are my new inter-addiction. I cannot wait for Part II and some more Kal Penn in speaking roles.

Continue reading →

Sikh Art @ the Rubin Museum

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I’ve been getting lots of tips today about the early Sikh art exhibit opening today at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Sikh1190b.jpg There is a surprisingly effusive review of the exhibit by Holland Cotter up at the New York Times:

But what about Sikhism itself? Few Westerners have even basic information.

How many people are aware that it was conceived as a universalist, open-door religion?

Or that its view of society was radically egalitarian? Or that its holy book, the Adi Granth, far from being a catalog of sectarian dos and donÂ’ts, is a bouquet of poetic songs, blending the fragrances of Hindu ragas, Muslim hymns and Punjabi folk tunes into a music of spiritual astonishment?

This is precisely the information delivered by the small and absolutely beautiful show titled “I See No Stranger: Early Sikh Art and Devotion” at the Rubin Museum of Art in Chelsea.(link)

All very admirable and correct. The only thing I find a little odd is that the review is less an evaluation of the art in the exhibit than it is a summary of the basic points about Sikhism covered. For Cotter, the art is more a vehicle for acquiring knowledge than beautiful in its own right. Not a great tragedy, perhaps; in fact, even this short article is pretty informative. But still, it might have been interesting to hear more about how or whether this art fits into the broader picture of religious art in the Indian subcontinent during this historical period. (Call me an academic geek, but the question crossed my mind.)

The other slightly odd moment is this:

The painting is paired in the show with the workshop drawing, produced by a master artist, that served as its model. The contrast is striking. In the drawing the prince, far from being restrained, practically levitates from his saddle with ardor and leans toward Nanak as if drawn to a magnet. Mardana plays and sings with fervor of a contemporary bhangra star. It is in the drawing, rather than in the painting, that the Nanak Effect, so evident in poems and songs, comes through. (link)

Bhangra, huh? Not quite, Cotter-saab. Bhangra is secular, festive, and pro-intoxication. Nothing at all to do with Bhai Mardana. This is a forgivable slip; Holland Cotter is a dedicated art critic, and as far as I can tell this is the first time he’s ever written on Sikh-related art.

Incidentally, the Rubin Museum is doing an extensive array of programs to coincide with this show, including Sikh-related film screenings (organized through the Spinning Wheel Film Festival folks) as well as lectures. Continue reading →

Then A [Desi] Hero Comes Along

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Who said desi accents weren’t sexy? One in particular will keep me glued to the TV every Monday night, starting next Monday on the NBC sci-fi drama Heroes.

Desi-licious

The most heated debate [by critics] centers on “Heroes,” NBC’s bold new drama about everyday people who discover they have extraordinary powers (one can teleport, another can fly, a third is impervious to bodily injury) and ultimately band together to fight evil. (Think “X-Men” meets “Lost.”) Our panelists are deeply divided on this show — they either love it or seem to be disillusioned with the genre. [link]

Looks like with this show, NBC will be finally be able to tap into the ‘sci-fi drama for Gen X’ market that had been previously cornered by the soon to be defunct WB. As for my new television crush with the delicious desi accent — it is Sendhil Ramamurthy, who plays the Indian geneticist turned New York cabbie Mohinder Suresh.

A tenured genetics professor at the the University of Madras. His father Chandra was also a professor until he disappeared from India and the accredited academic world years ago after raving about a “global event’ that would change mankind. He thought his answers would be in New York… Chandra was murdered. Mohinder moves to New York to find out why his father was killed. [link]

Boys, you can have your Lakshmi-the-cooking-show-host because us girls will have Ramamurthy-the-geneticist- professor-who-will-solve-the-mystery. The Heroes site has delicious videos online to be sure to get you addicted well in advances of the Sept. 25th premiere. If you are a fan of the intrigue that was behind Lost (first season), or a comic book geek for superhuman abilities, then this show is sure to be your cup of chai. Join me in my new Monday night obsession, as I’m sure other female mutineers across the nation will be sure to do, in a swoon worthy weekly television event.

Continue reading →

Posted in TV

Not A Chef, But She Plays One On TV

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I was happily watching The Princess Bride for about the 1000th time on Bravo (“That’s right. When I was your age, television was called books.”), and I saw the name “Padma Lakshmi” flash across the screen. A little Googling later, and it appears that Padma Lakshmi, model, occasional actress, cookbook author, and oh yeah, Mrs. Salman Rushdie, has a new gig — possibly her most high-profile one yet. padma lakshmi.jpg

She’s hosting the second season of Bravo’s Top Chef, a cooking reality show:

Known as the first Indian supermodel, actress and award-winning writer Padma Lakshmi joins the second season as host of “Top Chef,” introducing the challenges to the contestants and sitting at the judges’ table each week. Lakshmi is currently working on her second cookbook for Miramax Books due in Spring 2007, a culinary endeavor of over 150 recipes from around the world and intriguing personal memoirs. This is a follow up to her successful first cookbook, “Easy Exotic,” for which she won the International Versailles Event for best cookbook by a first time writer. Lakshmi hosted “Padma’s Passport” on The Food Network, cooking diverse and low-fat cuisine based on her best selling book, “Easy Exotic.” Lakshmi also hosted the documentary series “Planet Food” for The Food Network and worldwide Discovery Channel, in which she journeyed the world for exotic cuisine. (link)

Ok, she’s not really the first Indian supermodel — though maybe she’s the best-known in the American TV landscape. (But who was the “first” Indian supermodel?) I suppose one could make a comment about the phrase, “easy exotic,” but we’ll try and rise above that. Between “Planet Food” and “Padma’s Passport,” I prefer the latter title, though I think what she really needs to do is start her own video podcast: the Podmacast. Continue reading →

American Babel

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Back in the day, I had an Italian co-worker who had the oh-so-Italian name “Enzo” coupled with the deadly, oh-so-Italian accent. The amazing thing about Enzo was that it didn’t matter one bit what was actually coming out of his mouth – the ladies in the office always had the same swooning reaction, “oh Enzo, say ‘operating system’ again. It sounds so sexy.”

Blech.

Despite having a pretty American accent myself (with an occasional touch of TX), I knew enough about how the world worked to know that one day, just once, I’d love to hear women swoon at the Indian accent. And on that day, my proverbial ship would finally come in and perhaps a few perceived ethnic slights would be righted. But, as Russell Peters once quipped, the primary thing the Indian accent is good for is cutting the tension.“The primary thing the Indian accent is good for is cutting the tension.”

The lesson? Enzo’s Italian accent evoked the exotic beauty, power and grace of a Ferrari the same way DesiTalk brought forth the rugged manliness of Apu.

So, the following commercial didn’t really move my meter much. TV Junkie that I am, I’ve usually got the boob tube on in the background while working. And, as a result, I probably get more than my fair share of 30second pop culture. So like many of you, I’ve come across a series of TV commercials for L’Oreal Cosmetics starring none other than our own Aishwarya Rai… Continue reading →