I want to believe

If travel is searching
And home what's been found
I'm not stopping
I'm going hunting
I'm the hunter

Heard these words last night whilst trying to find the right music to lull me to sleep. The opening lines to Hunter by Bjork. I've listened to the album and this particular song countless times but never really paid attention to the lyrics all that much. It was striking to hear this on the eve of my departure on my first (of hopefully many) travel adventures at home.

Coincidences abound this past week. And this just continued that trend. What does it all mean? Is it all some cosmic conspiracy trying to point me in a certain direction? Or the overactive imagination of a sleep deprived excitable mind?

The Scully in me thinks it's the latter. But the Mulder wants to believe.

P.S.: Forgot that the very next song on the album starts off with the lines

All these accidents
That happen
Follow the dots
Coincidence makes sense
Only with you

Spooky!

Japan

The promised sequel..

I wrote this while I was literally on the road. Meant to publish it as soon as I could find time and internet to add some media to provide context, but couldn't find the two together until just now.

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Hiroshima to Fukayama - the gorgeous gorgeous expressway to the tune of Seadrum by Boredoms - the perfect marriage of sight and sound. Ah, bliss. I fucking love you Japan!

The swells of the song are so perfectly matched to what I'm seeing that it almost makes me wonder if it was written whilst the members of Boredoms were driving through this very route. Perhaps in a bus much like this one. Such a dear thought.

It's no wonder this country has produced some of the most amazingly creative minds. How can one live here and not be inspired! So wish I didn't have to leave here so soon.

When I came on this trip I thought it was probably my one and only chance to see Japan. But now I'm almost definitely coming back for another visit. Or three.  Heck I'd live here forever if I could. Now there's an idea...

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A Belated Rant

I wrote this a little while ago (while I was on a plane iirc) and never got around to publishing it. 

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I've never been able to act my age. As a child I was too grown-up, too serious. My mom's main impression of me as a child is how I hardly ever laughed. I distinctly remember my uncle once asking me what I keep thinking about so intently. I think I was about 10 or 11 at the time.

As the years passed I started growing down, rather than up, as my best friend used to put it (with regards to herself not me). I can be quite silly these days. Be ridiculous and random and laugh, laugh and laugh. Not in public, mind. Just with a select few. But with those chosen few I can be positively nutty.

I'm writing all this now because right at this moment I feel quite the opposite of all that. I feel drained of all joy. For no reason in particular. Nothing bad has happened to me. Unless forced socialization over a fairly long period of time counts as a bad thing. I need to crawl back into my shell and lie low for a while. To recharge. Sadly I've put myself in a position where this isn't immediately possible.  I need to take a break. Alone.

Is solitude even possible in this bustling nation of mine? I'm actually on my way to another country atm on a short trip. Not alone though. Quite the opposite of alone. I'm part of a tour group. Ugh. Kill me now. 

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This turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophesy in some ways. In others...well, I'll publish the sequel, also written some time ago.. However, I'm quite determined that my first ever experience of a packaged tour shall remain my last as well.

Aaranya Kaandam - a delicious treat of a film

I finally got to see Aaranya Kaandam today. And it made me smile. Nay, grin. Not all through. But at the very end, very definitely. And also through a lot of parts along the way. Quite a few laugh out loud moments as well. It wasn't all love though. I found myself puzzled and confused about where it was going and even how I felt about it as I was watching it, but it all came together eventually and the lingering note was yum.

Lip-smackingly good also was another tamil movie I'd heard a lot about and only just got to watch recentishly - Jigathanda. Contrary to my Aaranya Kaandam experience, however, that film had me in thrall almost right from the word go and never let up its iron hold over me until the intermission (and boy what a stunning sequence the one before said intermission is!). I was quite enraptured with it till that point. What followed was, admittedly, a bit of a let-down though still very good. That it wasn't nearly as interesting on second viewing speaks to how much the film hung on its twists to hold one's interest.

I suspect that Aaranya Kaandam will be unlike Jigarthanda and actually reward a second (and possibly more) viewing(s). Yes, it had its twists too. Or perhaps, surprises is the better word. But it's not only from them that its yumminess derives.

I really do have to watch it again. For one, I saw it on DD National (let me here express my gratitude for their Best of Indian cinema showings every Sunday and Monday nights that've given me the chance to watch so many good films I would never even have heard about otherwise..with subtitles!) and the cuts/bleeps seemed both extensive and excessive. And thankful as I am for the subtitles when watching a film in a language I don't know (at all or very well), they are rather distracting when it's a tamil movie because my brain keeps insisting on checking their accuracy and takes me out of the film. But even putting those issues aside, this is the kind of film that demands repeated viewings by its very nature. So much stuff to mine. So much deliciousness. Ah! 

So long, and thanks for all the notes

If there's one thing I'll most definitely miss when I move back home, it's the live music. I guess I'll find some even there, but I doubt it'll be anywhere near what I've had the chance to experience here in the U.S. The sheer variety and quantity astounds me when I think back. Even living in middle of nowhere America, I managed to average about 20-30 shows a year, from genres ranging the entire spectrum pretty much. And I've only ever been disappointed once or twice in all that time.

I really wish I could've squeezed in more shows these final few months. But sadly, winter slows things down and there's been a dearth of live music. I did make it a point to visit New Orleans last week though, as one final trip inside this country before I bid it adieu. Went to no less than 9 shows in 4 days, and 4 weekdays at that! So much music. Highlights were Mike Dillon going wild, Helen Gillet being reliably awesome, and the Preservation Hall band's jaw-dropping jazz.

I thought that was the last of it for me since I leave in 3 weeks. But I just found out, to my uncontrollable excitement (hence this post after the long hiatus), that one of the best bands I discovered last year is playing in Chicago mere days before I fly out from there! I refer to Good Willsmith, of course. As it turned out, there was much more awesome music left for me to uncover last year after that discovery. Yet, if I had to pick one defining record that captured my imagination and, in a sense was the theme for my 2014 musically, it would have to be The Honeymoon Workbook. It was the record that reignited my passion for music and got me drinking in all I could. I really wanted to try and see them last year, but couldn't make it happen (I even passed through the same city they were playing in, only a few hours too soon). So I'm extremely thrilled to have this chance to see them again. And they're not just playing on their own. It looks like there will be other artists from and/or related to their Hausu Mountain label. This is going to be so awesome. I can't fucking wait.

It will be the perfect note to say farewell for the present to a country that has amply fed my appetite for that very special experience of live music. So long, and thanks for all the notes.

Sort of unrelated (or only obliquely related, since I just noticed that the post I linked to above about GWS also has an eerily similar unrelated note) - AMT just started following me on twitter. Like just now, right before I started writing this post. How weird is that. Also, whoa! I mean, AMT is THE live music band, and here I am thinking about writing about live music, and BAM! I have a new follower and it's them! Freaky. o_O

Haider

What an ambitious adaptation of Hamlet! Worth every second of the scary 45 min drive it took to watch the first day first show of this amazing movie. I was enthralled from start to finish except for a minor misstep or two (only one that stands out in my memory is the odd placement of a song that broke the flow of the film). Some really really good performances. Kay Kay Menon and Irrfan Khan, of course. But also, Shahid Kapoor and Shraddha Kapoor. Even the players of the smaller parts left an impression.

And then there was Tabu. She owned the screen in every frame that she was in. It was simply impossible to keep my eyes off her when she was in a scene. If ever I take up acting, she's the one I'd aspire to be like. What an actress.

Visually and aurally too the movie was a treat. Especially the music. It lingered on in my head even after I walked out of the theater. That's usually a sure sign of a movie that got to me. This one sure did. I really hope I can watch it again on the big screen. Very seriously thinking about going back again next week right after (like driving straight from the airport) I get back home from a week-long trip. I hope the DVD comes out soon as well. Must have it.

Next up in my VB movie to-watch list: Maqbool and Omkara. Was having trouble finding copies of those here in the U.S. So looking forward to finally acquiring them when I go back home.

P.S.: Here's a review of Haider that does it justice, more justice by far than my meager words could do.

Kaminey

What a delicious rollercoaster this was! I knew going in that it would be good, but man. Shahid, I forgive you for all those godawful movies. Vishal Bhardwaj, this is what I expected from you. Not a confused, uncertain step here. This is the movie I should've watched first. Not 7 Khoon Maaf.

On the other hand, better save the best for last. Speaking of which, so so so looking forward to Haider tomorrow. First day, first show. Don't think I've ever done that for any film. Better sleep now so I don't oversleep and miss it.

Probably shouldn't have picked Kaminey to watch tonight. Hard to calm down after such a ride. *grin*