Category Archives: Arts and Entertainment

“Mamlet” in The New York Times

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The New York Times runs excerpts of three winning selections from the American Conservatory Theatre’s “Write Like Mamet” contest, including my brother’s “Mamlet.” I have no doubt that if Shakespeare were alive today, he too would pepper his prose with an occasional f-bomb:

“MAMLET”
By Nihar Patel (Los Angeles)

An empty stage. All performers are dressed in modern business suits.

CLAUDIUS (Ricky Jay) You are a gentlemenly fool. And you haven’t closed a castle in months. You’re old hat, and that comes from downtown.

MAMLET (William H. Macy) Old hat? Old hat. Let’s wait Claudius. Claudius, wait, back up here … I can close, all I need are those Elsinore leads. I want them and I want them posthaste.

CLAUDIUS Go to Norway Mamlet. Will you.

MAMLET Give me two good leads. Anon.

CLAUDIUS Just go to Norway.

MAMLET I don’t want to go to Norway.

CLAUDIUS Go to Norway, Mamlet.

MAMLET Where does he get off to talk that way to a Prince? It’s not …

CLAUDIUS Will you get out of here. Will you get out of here. Will you. I’m trying to run a kingdom here. Will you go to Norway? Go to Norway. Will you go to Norway?

MAMLET You stupid [expletive] [expletive].

Mamlet stabs Claudius.

The New York Times: Channeling Mamet (free registration required)
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Evangelical ghazals

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Afternoon TV is so funky sometimes. Today, the Christian channel was not showing a silver-haired white guy with expansive hand gestures, clad in a shiny double-breasted suit. Instead, it was showing a desi couple, the guy with those huge uncle glasses, singing a ghazal in Hindi, interleaved with clips of folk dancing.

The ghazal sounded completely traditional, but instead of being about love, melancholy or a Hindu / Muslim / Sikh God, it was about Jesus and Mary. ‘Prabhu,’ which usually refers to a Hindu or Sikh God, meant Jesus in this song, ‘Yehuda’ was Judas and ‘Yeshu’ was God. The song, broadcast by the South Asian Gospel Broadcasting Network (who knew?), was subtitled so New Yorkers could groove along. Talk about using the tools of the masters — this concoction merges the ghazal (which originated in Islam), Indian folk dancing and American-style televangelism.

Pardon my parochialness, but I’ve never seen this before. Fusion? Talvin and Karsh got nothin’ on the church. Similarly, I’ve always been fascinated by how omnivorously religious many Hindus are. They practice it like metareligion where other ‘one-and-only’ deities are merely slotted into the pantheon. I often see Bollywood philms where a Hindu protagonist’s idea of the holy trinity is to pray at a temple, a church and a gurudwara all in the same day. And many Punjabi Hindus attend their local gurudwara instead of temple. I’d imagine it all drives hardcore monotheists crazy.

Watch the video: torrent (MPG, 38 MB). Free BitTorrent downloader required: Windows, Mac.

Related post: The fight for the proselyte

Zakaria, Fareed Zakaria

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Foreign policy mandarin Fareed Zakaria has launched a new weekly show called Foreign Exchange on PBS stations nationwide (via SAJA). It’s odd to see the omnipresent guest turn host, even stranger to hear someone with a prep school, Anglicized Bombay accent hosting an American TV show. But, as always, neocons and Zakaria fans (I count myself among the latter) will wet themselves.

Watch the trailer. Here’s the show’s official site and bios of the Zakaria brothers.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3, 4

Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria: in Chicago on WTTW; in San Francisco on KQED; in Washington, DC on WHUT; in Seattle on KCTS; in Tampa on WUSF; in Denver on KRMA; in Oregon on OPB; in Kansas City on KCPT; in Salt Lake City on KUED; and others; check TV listings.

I blame the “Vestern” influence…

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A sizzling performance by dance group during the Pond’s Femina Miss India 2005 in Mumbai on Sunday ( TOI Photo/ Uma Kadam. )

I’m so confused. And yes, I’m American-born. I’ve gone to several brown cultural shows at major Amreekan universities, and the filmi/”fusion” dancers don’t look like this. Metallic hot pants and Come-prance-with-me-in-Switzerland-in-the-rain boots? What the-? Continue reading →

Air India launches daily direct flights to Los Angeles

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Pay up if you bet the long lines at LAX couldn’t get any worse:

Air India will now fly daily to Los Angeles, three times from Delhi and four times from Mumbai. “These flights provide the easiest connection for passengers. Incidently, the flights to LA are AI’s longest flights with 20 hours of flying time and do not involve change of aircraft,” said Air India’s Director for Public Relations, Jitender Bhargava…An estimated two million passengers travel between India and the United States annually. No US airline currently operates a non-stop service to India. [WebIndia123.com]

WebIndia123.com: Air India commences direct flights from New Delhi to Los Angeles

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Updates on the Shakti Kapoor scandal

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• Shakti Kapoor investigates allegations. Finds Bollywood casting couch doesn’t exist.
• Stars return to the scene of the crime. But what happened to the stains? (Check out the photo caption)
• Aman Verma also caught by an undercover sting. Reaction here ranged from “Aman who?” to “Aman who?”
• Producers’ Guild withdraws ban on Kapoor. Realizes it shouldn’t throw stones from a glass couch.
• Indian government takes aim at the messenger. Messenger sees its ratings soar.

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Legit brownout

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Could there be anything better than an orgy of sepia theatre? Yes. An orgy of lesbian strippers. Aside from that, this is tops:

Los Angeles

“The God Botherers” — Actress Reena Dutt performs in an ensemble comedy about aid workers in Tambia, a place where there’s no rule of law, the last war’s ruined everything, and the next war will ruin everything else. So it’s like a session of the U.S. House acted out on stage. Mar. 25-Apr 24, Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7:30 p.m., $15-24, Pasadena Playhouse. (via Hollywood Masala)

“Pounding Nails in the Floor With My Forehead” — (Insert any random joke here about the title describing the dating scene in L.A.). Actor Mark Antani performs a one-man show originally written in 1994 by playwright Eric Bogosian. It’s a collection of eight pieces, with each showcasing a different character expressing rage and unhappiness in a humorous and witty fashion. Mar. 25-May 1, Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 5 p.m., $15, Third Street Theatre.

“Are You With Me? F**k the Middle East — What’s for Dessert?” — As character Vinay Khan, actor Ajay Mehta performs a solo comedy about growing up in India, moving to New York, and becoming the banquet manager of the United Nations. It’s partially based on his real life. We’re guessing that the part about the U.N. is fabricated, as Mehta’s performance demonstrates an effectiveness and efficiency rarely seen from the league of nations. Mar. 23-31, Wed.-Sat. 7:30 p.m., free, reservations required, The Complex.

San Francisco

“Mamlet” — Writer Nihar Patel’s David-Mamet-ized version of Hamlet gets a staged reading by members of the prestigious American Conservatory Theatre. It joins other winners of the 2005 "Write Like Mamet" contest. Rumor has it that Mamet himself entered, but wasn’t chosen. We’re assuming that it’s because his newest piece performs earlier in the evening, and the theatre didn’t want patrons to O.D. on pure street-grade Mamet dialogue. Apr. 2, Sat. 10:30 p.m., free, Geary Theater.

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Missing in Acton

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The Washington City Paper covers the M.I.A. buzz with some true musicology:

… M.I.A. [is] a battlefield acronym that’s also a play on her real name and the London neighborhood of Acton… despite being an exotic and a refugee, M.I.A. is no primitive. She found a well-worn DIY-aesthete’s path out of London’s housing estates, leading to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. As much a pop-music finishing school as anything else, Saint Martins offered an art career, but also introductions to Elastica’s Justine Frischmann, Pulp’s Steve Mackey, and electroclash diva Peaches… In her glammier shots, she looks a bit like multi-ethnic actress Rosario Dawson…

The title [‘Galang’] sounds Malay or Indonesian, not Tamil, although some experts insist that it’s actually a dancehall contraction of “go along…” “Pull Up the People” is a potential Peace Corps anthem with Baader-Meinhof attitude. “Fire Fire” name-checks the Pixies, the Beasties, and Lou Reed, but also invokes “Growin’ up brewin’ up/Guerrilla getting trained now…”

She’s been officially classified as a rapper, and though she’s no Celine Dion, that’s not quite right. M.I.A. is more of a chanter, and such vocal hooks as “Hello this is M.I.A./Can you please come get me” come as close to singing as the vocals of any monotone rocker… Arular recalls minimalist proto- and postpunk–maybe not Wire or the Stranglers, but definitely Suicide, T. Rex, and Bow Wow Wow…

There are but a handful of conspicuous samples on Arular, including the sitar bit that opens “Hombre”–ironically, given that the tune is a lustful plea to a Spanish-speaking hunk. (Sitars, by the way, aren’t prevalent in Sri Lanka, which feels almost as Indonesian as Indian, and where the dominant music is baile, derived from the Iberian dance music of the island’s former Portuguese rulers.)

Billboard reveals M.I.A.’s given name is Mathangi ‘Maya’ Arulpragasam (subscription required). The magazine says she’s viewed by some as not a mere Asian, but rather the potential savior of UK rap (Dizzee Rascal has plateaued). She swaggers, saying she signed with XL Recordings because it was closest to her house, and so they’re lucky to have her. There’s this delicious little bit of braggadocio: she says she told the label, ‘Trust me, you’ve been looking for me,’ dropped off the ‘Galang’ tape, and they called her back 20 minutes later. She says her dad asked her not to use his name as the album title (maybe it increased his risk in the field?), but she refused. She’s sad he chose his cause over his family.

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Aasif Mandvi on tonight’s “Law & Order”

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Actor Aasif Mandvi plays the role of irrational Judge Patel on tonight’s episode of “Law & Order: Trial by Jury”:

Assistant District Attorneys Kibre (Bebe Neuwirth) and Gaffney (Amy Carlson) prosecute a young nanny Katie (guest star Elizabeth Moss) who is accused of murder for shaking an infant and bashing in her head — but they run into a stone wall when the presiding Judge Patel (guest star Aasif Mandvi) intentionally blocks every move they make. After Kibre rejects Gaffney’s desperate offer to resign to blunt the judge’s irrational ire, they discover the tough defense attorney has coached his client well and intends to point the finger of murder elsewhere. [NBC]

Some argue that placing the word “irrational” before “Patel” is redundant. I must disagree, and for no good reason. Continue reading →

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