The Duckworth/Lewis trophy
Aaaah it doesn’t matter if it’s London, Birmingham, Cardiff.
India v Pakistan.
Not terribly exciting so far? I’m kind of desperate for an India v England match, really. (Pakistan’s batting looks particularly threadbare.)
I have such a huge lady-crush on Deepika Padukone
I mean
I have seen none of her interviews, and I know absolutely nothing about her as a person
the only film of hers that I’ve seen is Om Shanti Om, and I didn’t care for the movie or her performance
but she is just. so. fucking. beautiful.
Sammy took that bird’s breath away.
(Source: ruedesarchives, via insideshewantsrevenge)
arumai prakasam is pretty good. you should watch his short films on you tube… even the jaguar driver is a short film guy.
Ha, I figured. :) Got any recommendations that I can start with?
Title Track | Delhi 6
In honor of flying to New Delhi in less than 24 hours. Cheers.
(via fuckyeahsouthasia)
The rules of kednaping
So I finally saw Soodhu Kavvum.
And it. Was. Awesome!! As good as I’d hoped it would be. No—better!
SPOILERS FOLLOW.
(or, if you will, spoilers kavvum.)
Aaaaaa where do I start. Hm. Well, I’ll stick to my tried-and-tested format.
Pluses:
- There were no real heroes or villains here. There are scam artists and kidnappers with hearts of gold, who stick together and go out of their way to be considerate to their victims; straight-laced politicians who are abusive, self-righteous assholes; police officers with stellar records who are actually RAGING PSYCHOPATHS. There are no victims or perpetrators; we are all complicit in the functioning of a society that’s rotten at its very core. And this film knows how to drive the point home—by making it as funny as possible.
- It’s really funny. It gets funnier once they kidnap the minister’s son. Even funnier when we meet the “Doctor”. AND THEN IT GETS FUNNIER.
- The film knows how to use its music. And the music is fantastic.
- The car chases are wonderfully filmed, and the violence—for the most part—is cleverly shot. The back and forth editing towards the end works rather well.
- HOLY SPOT-ON CASTING, BATMAN. The guy who plays Arumai Prakasam? Pitch-perfect!
- Lots of neat little touches that have you chuckling long after you’ve left the theatre, like the Chief Minister eating pizza, or the poster of T Rajender next to Kesavan’s bed, or Sekar in a hurry to get ready by 8 in the morning, complete with vibudhi across his forehead, only to spend the rest of the day drinking himself into a stupor.
- Perfect ending, machi.
- PSA: NEVER STASH YOUR GUN IN THE BACK OF YOUR TROUSERS. I HOPE YOU’RE LISTENING, SAM AND DEAN WINCHESTER.
Minuses:
- The film takes its sweet time establishing its characters at the beginning; this part could’ve used some real editing.
- The dynamic between Kesavan, Sekar and Pagalvan at the beginning is really cool; however, this is mostly ignored in the second half as there is a Sudden Overdose of Plot (TM).
- They really, really overdid Bramma’s psychopathy. While giving as heavy a build-up as possible, they show him literally burying a criminal alive. For a minute I wondered if somebody had mistakenly spliced a scene from a horror film into this one. He kills indiscriminately; when he does catch our kidnappers, he has them driven to an abandoned warehouse, locks them in a pitch-black room, wears night goggles and almost beats them to death. Like, WOW. There were people in the theatre actually laughing at that. I could only watch in open-mouthed horror.
- There is absolutely no role for women whatsoever. None. One of the main characters has an imaginary lady friend who dresses in skimpy clothes that he keeps asking to “Shuddup”, and Arumai has an overprotective mother who keeps getting beaten-up by her husband, and whose hysteria over her son’s kidnapping is taken advantage of and played for laughs. That’s it. These are the only two women who have more than two minutes of screen time.
For all its awesome, at the end of it all, the movie’s actually kind of depressing—y’know, there is no triumph of good over evil. But it was so fucking well done. It’s just excellent cinema, yo. I highly recommend a watch.
The neuroscience of vessels
Vessels are a weird thing, and because of the recent failure to address two of the more notable ones I thought it might be time for me to talk about my theories on the relationship between angels and the people’s bodies they sometimes inhabit.
This is really cool! I love, in particular, the explanation for Swan Song—it’s so neat and exciting at the same time. I’m only left to wonder why consuming demon blood made such a difference—and only when it came to housing Lucifer. With a vessel so carefully cultivated for him, why the extra physical enhancements right at the end?
This is beautifully explained and leads to a bunch of cool ideas, although I’m kind of militantly opposed to giving away any of Sam’s credit for Swan Song. The confusion between the vessel’s thoughts and the angel’s thoughts, both operating over the same neural network, is plausible.
As for the demon blood, Lucifer himself tells Sam that it’s the demon blood that gives Sam a seat at the table during Swan Song. I know the idea was floated that Sam had to be hardened physically to accommodate Lucifer, but I was never clear what that was meant to be about. I tend to go with the idea that Sam needed to kill Lilith *with his power* to properly break the last seal, and to do that he needed to be hopped up on demon blood (and practiced at using the power). This worked, but it also made Sam dangerously powerful as vessels go. Pride was always Lucifer’s downfall, and it prevented him from taking Sam’s challenge seriously. If Lucifer had had the sense to leave Dean alone, Sam might never have resurfaced.
I was more open to ideas about Lucifer’s behavior in Swan Song before S6 began. Given the way Lucifer treated Sam in the Cage, I don’t think anything that happened in Swan Song had any degree of approval from Lucifer, except perhaps Michael and Adam’s coming along with them. To me, though, that looked more like Michael trying to keep Lucifer above ground so they could finish their fight.
I don’t think it really takes away any of Sam’s credit? If anything, it makes that ~by the power of love ending of Swan Song even more spectacular—Sam resurfaced not to push back Lucifer and jump into the Cage, but to have Lucifer do it for him. The idea that their identities blurred into each other right at the end—it’s such an incredibly exciting idea. I love it.
I would accept Sam having to drink demon blood so that he could be the one to kill Lillith; except it’s implied that Nick had to drink gallons of the stuff just to be able to barely contain Lucifer, and Sam, too, despite him being the one true vessel.
in my Human Sexuality class we discussed how women are taught to sit vs how men sit. men take up as much space as they want, because they are oooo men yes men take up 3 seats if you need to yes men
but women are taught to take up as little space as possible, cross your legs keep your arms in your lap don’t even use your whole seat only use half the seat
it’s bullshit and any time I’m sitting next to some rude asshole on the bus who tries to take up half my seat I give them a nasty look and say “would you mind sitting in your own fucking seat?”
men sit like that because of balls
would u like me to sit that way because my boobs are to big?
why would you spread your legs because of your boobs
God i hope that isnt actually a discussion in a classroom for fucks sake
lmao idk where patheticboy43’s balls are located but if they’re such an issue you need to spread your legs wider than the Grand Canyon on a crowded bus then you better see a doctor cause that ain’t healthy
I have male genitalia & I don’t need to spread eagle when I sit down, I sit quite daintily which has always annoyed my father.
Like most things gender, it has nothing to do with biology and all to do with socialization & hetero-patriarchy.
(via bittermeggirl)
(Source: namethatgifblog, via insideshewantsrevenge)
The neuroscience of vessels
Vessels are a weird thing, and because of the recent failure to address two of the more notable ones I thought it might be time for me to talk about my theories on the relationship between angels and the people’s bodies they sometimes inhabit.
This is really cool! I love, in particular, the explanation for Swan Song—it’s so neat and exciting at the same time. I’m only left to wonder why consuming demon blood made such a difference—and only when it came to housing Lucifer. With a vessel so carefully cultivated for him, why the extra physical enhancements right at the end?
(via monicawoe)
