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.

Previous post: Casting couch caught on tape

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Indian scientists create “tea pill”

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A group of scientists in India announced they have created a “tea pill,” which promises to deliver the same effect as a cup of the freshly-steeped original to those who are just too damn lazy to boil or microwave water:

The four-member team based in the northeastern state of Assam — the heart of the country’s tea industry — said the pill was ready but it would take six months to be available commercially. “The pill is absolutely safe, (it) can be chewed or placed under the tongue,” Mridul Hazarika, director of the Tocklai Experimental Station, told AFP. It can also be enjoyed in the “conventional manner by dipping the tablet in a cup of hot water,” Hazarika said. “We are sure the tea tablets will be able to freshen and cheer up a person with nearly the same effect as having a hot cup of brewed tea.” [AFP/Yahoo!]

AFP/Yahoo!: No time to make hot tea? Take a pill

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Subservient Sanjeev

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You knew it was coming: Subservient Sanjeev of the fictional Nevashut, a mini-mart at a British petrol pump (thanks, Turbanhead). Sanjeev, who’s a promo for Pringles potato crisps, is a meld of Burger King’s Subservient Chicken promo, Apu from The Simpsons and video cut scenes from those lame choose-your-own-adventure arcade games of the ’80s.

As is usual in this genre, Procter & Gamble UK strives to be inoffensive by being inconsequential. It’s not totally in-your-face, though it lays the mini-mart stereotypes down thick.

Give Sanjeev some love. Try typing: dance, run, play me a song, moustache, money, and stupid, the clips are pretty funny. I wonder whether anyone’s extracted all the possible video clips from the Web site yet.

Kittyminx thinks it’s racist viral marketing, but the humor is so corporate-colorless (try ‘punch’), I have a hard time getting my high dudgeon on:

If they did this with a black person or a Jew, a lot of people would be pissed and rightly so… The only reason why it hasn’t yet is that I’m guessing that Asians and South Asians in particular, are about the only ethnic group left that pop culture thinks its ok to make fun of. And this ad campaign probably comes from the UK… [w]here they are less concerned about “political correctness”… it also seems that the British are a lot more openly and blatantly anti-immigrant, saying things that in America are usually only said by Pat Buchanan and other wingnuts.

Update: Thanks to reader epoch, you can now see every single keyword that triggers a video clip.

Catching bin Laden? Not so much

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The NY Sun blames the former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan for hindering Osama bin Laden’s capture (thanks, Prashant):

[Former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan] Nancy Powell refused to allow the distribution in Pakistan of wanted posters, matchbooks, and other items advertising America’s $25 million reward for information leading to the capture of Mr. bin Laden… thousands of matchbooks, posters, and other material… translated into Urdu, Pashto, and other local languages – remained “impounded” on American Embassy grounds from 2002 to 2004…

A single matchbook helped lead to the capture of Mir Amal Kansi, who gunned down several CIA employees at the front gates of the agency’s Langley, Va., headquarters in 1993. Kansi was arrested in Pakistan in 1995 when a local fingered him for the $5 million reward…

Mr. Kirk [R-Illinois] said that he raised the issue directly with the ambassador. According to the congressman, she replied that she had “six top priorities” and finding Mr. bin Laden was only one of them. She listed other priorities: securing supply lines for American and allied forces in Afghanistan, shutting down the network of nuclear proliferator A.Q. Khan, preventing a nuclear war between Pakistan and India, and forestalling a radical Islamic takeover of the government of Pakistan, a key American ally.

The conservative rag may have an ulterior motive in blaming the State Department instead of the president for making bin Laden a low priority. Either way, nailing that bastard is still my #1 voting issue — 3.5 years and counting.

In other news, Pakistani businessman Humayun Khan makes a convincing case for why he’s not buying parts for nukes:

Humayun Khan… denied any involvement with the recent shipments, saying that “someone else” ordered the oscilloscopes and the switches, had them shipped to his office, then snatched them somewhere along the way. “It’s very tragic,” Humayun Khan said. “You don’t know where these things are landing. They come through and they vanish.”

Yes, boss, ‘someone else’ charged the strippers to the company AmEx, had them sent to our office and then snatched them somewhere along the way. It’s tragic, I say, tragic.

Our Bombay slugger as Cupid: who knew?

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jumping the broom not the shark.JPG Here. 🙂 Enjoy some light wedding fare:

AS the sun started to set over Miami Beach on March 19, Rita Nakouzi, a consultant on fashion and lifestyle trends, and Touré, a writer and pop culture commentator, were married on the sand behind the Raleigh Hotel in the South Beach area.
“O.K., who’s got the bling?” asked the Rev. Joseph Simmons, a Pentecostal minister, who was looking for the couple’s wedding bands. Also called Reverend Run, he is best known as a member of the pioneering rap group Run-DMC. The crowd of 120 included his brother, the hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons; the CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien; and members of Miss Nakouzi’s family, who had flown in from Beirut, Lebanon, where the bride was born.
…”We fit very well together,” said Touré, a correspondent for CNN and a contributing editor to Rolling Stone magazine. “She’s somebody who can go with me from a 50 Cent concert to a Toni Morrison reading and be equally comfortable in both places.”

Wait, wait…don’t tell me. I know what you’re thinking– why should you care? Aside from the fact that Reverend Run is cool, that’s a fair question. Heck, why does the Mutiny care?

The answer lies within the story of how they met, during one magical night at a Lenny Kravitz video shoot at Limelight NYC: Continue reading →

Tragedy at Bhangra Blowout

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This year’s Bhangra Blowout festivities ended in tragedy, as 20 year-old Ranjit Singh was fatally stabbed outside an afterparty for the event, held at the Old Post Office Pavilion in downtown Washington, D.C. The stabbing occurred around 3 a.m., almost an hour after the sold-out party ended according to police.

According to the story from the Washington Post,

after a fight broke out, a 5-foot-8 man of either Hispanic or Indian ethnicity, wearing a white shirt and braces on his teeth, pulled out a knife and fatally stabbed Ranjit Singh, 20, of Phillipsburg, N.J., police said. Two friends of Singh’s pursued the attacker until they were stabbed by him at 12th and Pennsylvania, police said. The assailant escaped in a green car, and Singh’s two friends were taken to a local hospital.

According to the Post article, and an article in the GW University newspaper the organizers capped party entrance at 1250 people, half the amount from the previous year, and had more security than required by the Old Post Office Pavilion. Partygoers also needed to pass through a metal detector because the pavilion is part of a federal complex. I am not really sure what more the organizers could have done to prevent such a tragedy.

When I was at GW, part of the reason BB was so successful was that fights and other such nonsense was checked at the door so that all could revel in the weekend. It wasn’t just about the show or the party, but about people coming together as a group, as one collective, as a sea of sepia youth. Maybe I am just being nostalgic, but we didn’t have to worry about being killed.

GWU said it would conduct a full review of Bhangra Blowout and decide if the event should be run differently, or if it should even continue to be held at all.

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Bhutan designs democracy

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While Nepal’s king does away with elected governance, the Himalayan hamlet of Bhutan gears up to embrace it. The country just unveiled a new constitution, which will convert its monarchy into a multi-party democracy:

King Jigme Singye Wangchuk says the draft will be sent to all 530,000 citizens, asking for their views…The king told the country’s only newspaper Kuensel: “The sovereignty, stability and well-being of the country must be placed above everything else. The country is more important than the king.” King Wangchuk assumed the throne at the age 16, the fourth ruler in the Wangchuk dynasty that came to power in December 1907. The transition began four years ago when the king handed down powers of daily governance to a council of ministers and even empowered the national assembly to force a royal abdication if the motion was backed by three-quarters of its membership. [BBC News]

You can read the constitution on its official web site, presented in both Dzongkha and English. Check out Article 9, Section 2 (via Boing Boing):

The State shall strive to promote those circumstances that will enable the successful pursuit of Gross National Happiness. [Constitution of the Kingdom of Bhutan]

Let’s hope promoting “gross national happiness” means sweet, sweet bourbon will now flow freely out of every tap in the kingdom. If that’s not the case, The New York Times’ travel section offers up a list of Bhutan’s other major selling points.

BBC News: Bhutan unveils new constitution

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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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