JOHN DIES AT THE END - BEST FILM OF 2012

I’ve given up on mainstream Hollywood movies (as noted before in my blog).  I tried to watch LINCOLN the other day but only made it about 20 minutes in.  It is typical to reduce a complex historical figure like Lincoln to MTV soundbites.  I’ve written before about how Stephen Speiberg is my least favourite director.  http://rgdinmalaysia.xanga.com/660725052/why-i-wont-be-seeing-the-new-indiana-jones-film/

Don Coscarelli on the other hand is a director whose work I’ve always enjoyed.  PHANTASM and BUBBA HO TEP are both great films but JOHN DIES AT THE END, his most recent movie, may be his greatest.

In fact it’s the best film I’ve seen released this year.

Clever, creepy, funny, highly original, the story of two average young dorks and what happens when they take the drug nicknamed “soy sauce” which has the power to break down perception of dimensions not to mention the power of life and death, time travel etc. told as flashbacks is the most unique narrative I’ve seen in a long time.

Told in flashback, every frame of this movie is crammed with visual surprises, funny dialogue, odd characters, I’m left with thoughts about mortality and about what’s real and not real....John dies at the end? We all die at the end!

THE 10 BEST RECORDS OF 2012 PLUS HONORABLE MENTIONS

Here are the 10 best records I heard in 2012.  For more detailed reviews of them, search my blog as I’ve written about all of them in 2012. I’ll just say again I LOVE YOU IT’S COOL is such a great record – mysterious danceable fun – exquisitely produced.

1. Bear in Heaven  - I Love You It’s Cool
2. Ultravox - Brilliant
3. The Sunchymes – Let Your Free Flag Fly
4. Sleigh Bells – Reign of Terror
5. Weird Dreams – Choreography
6. Bob Mould – Silver Age
7. Paul Weller – Sonik Kicks
8. Violens- True
9. Maximo Park – The National Health
10. Candle Thieves – Balloons

Here are some honorable mentions....Also reviewed by me on my blog throughout 2012.

The Vaccines – Comes of Age

Twin Shadow – Confess

The Straylings – Entertainment on Foreign Grounds

The Corner Laughers – Poppy Seeds

Tindersticks – The Something Rain

Christian Bookshop – Christian Bookshop

John Cale – Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood

The Sugarettes – Destroyers of Worlds

Marriages - Kitsune

The Crookes – Hold Fast

Slink – Desert Gem

A BRIEF CHARACTER SKETCH OF MY UNCLE - AN AMAZING PERSON

One of the most interesting meetings with family I had on my recent Hyderabad trip was with my father’s brother 

My uncle is the second child in the family of four the oldest brother having passed away in 2000, my father being third, and a sister being the fourth.

He originally studied accounting and completed an MBA and then worked for the Indian government as a financial officer.  However, in his early 30’s, he had a religious awakening and resigned from his job joining a Hindu social welfare group

He lived very simply and devoted his life to meditation and charitable acts.  Now at 82 he still gets around by motorized rickshaw and lives in an old age ashram.

A truly remarkable person.  Priorities are personal but those who commit themselves to something greater that helps humanity deserve admiration.

   

THOUGHTS ON MY TRIP TO HYDERABAD, INDIA

The following is the rough draft of an article I've written for my university magazine.  Photos from my trip can be seen on my Facebook page.

I recently visited Hyderabad, India, the largest city in the state of Andra Pradesh and India’s fourth largest city overall.

This was my first visit to India.  My father was born and grew up near Hyderabad but immigrated to the United States when he was a graduate student.

We stayed in the nearby suburb of Secunderabad in an old British style club called the Secunderabad Club.  This location was close enough for us to travel to Hyderabad for sightseeing.

Among some of the attractions I saw:

CHARMINAR MOSQUE – “Charminar” loosely translates to four towers.  This holy place, which dates back to the late 1500’s, reminded me of a four sided Arc de Triomphe the way it towers above this crowded portion of the city which also contains the Ladd Bazaar a great place for shopping.

GOLCONDA FORT -  11 kilometres west of downtown Hyderabad is this former main line of defence from Moghul invaders. It sits on top of a steep hill and has evening light shows and daily tours.

BIRLA TEMPLE – Also on a hilltop vantage point is this historic temple, the largest in Hyderabad.   An incredible nightime view of the city can be seen here.  The Birla Science Museum (which contains a dinosaurium and planetarium) is nearby.

But for me the greatest part of this trip was meeting a number of my relatives whom I’ve not met before.  Aside from two cousins who also immigrated to the USA, I had not met any of my father’s family prior to this trip.  The get together lunch we had was one of the most unique experiences of my life.

I can’t speak about other areas of India but Hyderabad was a lot more modern than the perception of India I had from books and movies.  This coupled with the introduction to my own family members made this a very special trip indeed.    

  

MY UPCOMING TRIP TO HYDERABAD, INDIA

Going to India next week for the first time.  My father is an Indian who emigrated to the United States before I was born but  it’s never worked out for me to visit India before.  I will be visiting Hyderabad my father’s home town.  I’ll have to plan a future visit if I want to visit the Taj Mahal but plenty to see here.

Will write about my trip after I come back….

JUST SAY NO TO SUSAN RICE FOR SECRETARY OF STATE

Right now, we are knee deep in the screening process not specifically labeled as such wherein a name is floated around by a president as a possible nominee for a cabinet position.

The position in question is Secretary of State as it is widely known Hillary Clinton will not be staying in the job much longer.

The rumors are President Obama would love to nominate Susan Rice, UN Ambassador, Democratic Party apparatchik, and Obama crony to the position but this would be a huge mistake and the final nail in the coffin for those who believe that Obama is any sort of foreign policy progressive with any real belief in international law.

Let me just say that the main reason she’s being criticized now by Republicans, her actions during the Benghazi terrorist attack, are bullshit.  Her job was as a mouthpiece only and she had no direct authority in the Benghazi terrorist attack which was itself a slip-up not a great scandal.  If Bush can completely miss 09/11 and then launch a war based on a lie against Iraq I don’t see how this is anything worth such an intense investigation.  Oh I also don’t see the colossal cover-up the Republicans have alleged.  More a matter of semantic games between two corrupt political parties.

Anyway, plenty of people have laid out the reasons Rice should not be SOS.

Here are some links

Genocide enabler in Rwanda, practicing the amoral crimes against humanity style of realpolitk in Africa

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/29/rwandan_ghosts

Supporter of dictatorships across Africa especially in Ethiopia

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2012/11/20/susan-rice-is-bad-news/

Vocal supporter of Middle East wars, a hawk and a neo-conservative

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/11/28/1165415/-Susan-Rice-Vocally-Supported-the-Iraq-War-and-Every-MidEast-War-Since

Typical Israel supporter, Tried to kill probe of Gaza war crimes

http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=217170

What’s discouraging is immediately after besting Mitt Romney handily instead of going for someone who believes in human rights and other humane and just ideas lost first in the Cold War and now in the so called “war on terror”, Obama is considering nominating a more politically correct John Bolton in a dress.  Makes you wonder about Obama’s real beliefs.  I thought I was charitable saying he was an empty suit but his foreign policy as envisioned could be much more darker (and conservative).  

OORU NAITO RONGU OR ALL NIGHT LONG

The notion that the Japanese (and the Germans too) produce a ridiculous amount of perverse pornography is as much a part of popular culture as the common image of Americans as obese and stupid.

The 1991 film OORU NAITO RONGU or, as it’s known in the West, ALL NIGHT LONG has all the earmarks of stereotyped Japanese perversity – graphic bloody murder, rape, porno-type sexuality, sadistic violence, and a general overall feeling of unhealthy weirdness.

Its status as a cult film is based on its perception by film fans (mostly those who haven’t seen it I imagine) as a sort of Japanese STRAW DOGS or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE but I think it’s a lot more than that.

The three main characters, a wealthy college dropout, a nerdy brainy student, and an average joe vocational school student meet by accident at a train crossing where occurs a scene of grisly violence- a crazy man attacks and kills a young woman with a knife, a random attack as he does not know her.  The three soon to be friends make no effort to save her and only get involved when the crazy man tries to attack them.

Eventually, their association leads to a brutal rape and then revenge violence taken in turn and the deaths of two out of the three heroes.

So what are we supposed to make of all this?

Well first off, revenge movies in which something terrible happens to the narrator and he spends the rest of the film exacting revenge against those who have wronged him so that’s all there is aren’t so much movies but titillating exercises in violence and sex that have the audience conditioned to respond at certain moments.

However, ALL NIGHT LONG is a more complex animal.  This is a movie about aloneness in a highly developed society.  Many of the exterior shots are of wide open spaces but without many people around (surprising when you consider how crowded Japan seems to be).  Much of the action takes place by the ocean and a lot seems like an illusion.  The end does hint that the whole film might be occurring in the brain of the nerdy student.

Another thing about this film are the really twisted secondary characters especially the evil rich tease girl the dropout meets and Tamae, the twitchy fat student with the ability to talk any woman into doing perverse things.

All in all, quite a good film, an unsettling but still interesting take on youth, frustration, violence, and perception.

REVIEWS FOR TRAVELS WITH THE ANTI-JOHNNY APPLESEED BY RAJ DRONAMRAJU

Some great reviews on Amazon

http://www.amazon.com/Travels-With-The-Anti-Johnny-Appleseed/dp/0985480211

And a partly critical, very literal review (but still much appreciated) from Synchronized Chaos

http://synchchaos.com/?p=7046

 

 

THE NEW SILENT MAJORITY

The term “Silent Majority” was first popularized by Richard Nixon when he ran for the presidency in 1969.  He was using this term to refer to the majority of Americans who as he saw it didn’t protest against the Vietnam War, march in civil rights demonstrations or burned their bras or draft cards.  What he was laying out was a possible Republican voting majority which certainly seemed to be backed up by the huge Republican landslide of 1972.

This year’s election campaign, we were continually treated to Republican overconfidence that was not based on any sort of reality.  Polls based on real data all showed Obama with a steady lead throughout the entire year.  This did not stop the Republicans for attacking what they saw as a biased media and writing off 47% of the population (per Mitt Romney’s closed doors speech and ironically the amount of the popular vote he won).

The Republican campaign this year was loud, noisy, full of gaffes and generally chaotic much like the Democratic campaigns for president in 1968 and especially 1972.  The Democratic campaign was focused and on message (except for the minor hiccup of the first debate)

But the truth is there is as much a new silent majority now as there was back in 68 and this is a silent majority that might stay a majority for awhile (or at least until the Republican party changes itself)– single women, Hispanics, young people, African Americans, Asians, and enough working white people (both single and married) to tip voting totals into the Democratic "win" column.

This is a silent majority forged out of the economic times we live in, the insulting and elitist comments of Republicans which seemed especially phrased to offend as many people as possible, policies on women’s issues and immigration that drive groups into the arms of Democrats etc.

In reaction to Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 after three straight Republican election wins, a massive well financed right wing hot air machine came into being starting with talk radio and turning into Fox News.  While this organized many likeminded conservatives it also has increasingly turned off key groups especially younger people who have a wider view of the world and have felt firsthand the negative effects of trickledown economics.

The noise the right wing disinformation machine produced is sometimes deafening but the new silent majority has felt the sting of prejudice, sexism, homophobia, and income inequality.  They know who their real enemies are.