George Harrison: The HBO Documentary

 

Trailer

Don't you trust nobody, old chap!

A couple of weeks ago, I was an accomplice in someone's crime. A crime of a trivial nature meaning to do no one no harm but only a pleasant surprise. The intended victims are relatively young; hence their heart should be able to take the shock of the deceit!
The modus operandi was planned with the daughter of my friend (RM) calling to get contact numbers of my friend way back 6 months prior to the event. What event? My friend and wife's 50th birthday and 20th wedding anniversary. That was it. RM never called back.
She single handedly right under her parents' noses managed to arrange the venue, the caterers, contact all the relatives and friends secretly, sneak out some of the family photos for the slide presentation, organize the invitation cards, get the caterers, arrange the itinerary of the day and at the same time juggling with her work in college. She managed to cough off some of pocket money and squeeze out contributions from conniving relatives.
On D-day, her uncle, was to take the parents out a night out. In the pretext of wanting to check out the surprise party venue for his own social function, he managed to hoodwink my friend and his wife to the party and ....SURPRISE!!!!
My friend and his wife were flabbergasted, shell shocked but pleasantly surprised! They could not believe that their little girl had managed to contact all their old friends and relatives and arrange the whole event under the noses living under the same roof without the knowledge of her 16 year old sibling. My friend could not believe that his almost 80 year old who was ushering in the entire guest, whom my friend checks regularly for his well-being, decided to stay mum. And his mum too! All was forgiven in the name of meaning well.
RM handled the whole extremely well to earn complements from all attendees. My friend, who was undecided about sending RM to study overseas - being a young girl whose street-smartness was suspect, decided there and then she was up to it!
Talking of surprise birthday parties, I remember how my other half single-handedly (with the cooperation of friends and relatives, without the knowledge of my four then young blabber mouth kids) arranged my surprise 40th birthday party without  inkling to any of the occupants of my home!
Lesson in life to learn - Like the cowboys in the Wild West would say, "Don't you trust nobody!'

more pix

Soap opera in real life!

Now that The Star is 40 years old, they decided to publish some of their old newspaper articles, bringing fond nostalgic tinge in our otherwise mundane lives!

Soap opera in real life as seen later in trial! This 

case got everybody excited. They did not have 

Fox TV and CI channels then! News like rape,

infidelity, murder and masala excites people then

and now! 

The start of University and College Act 1971.

Thugs chasing old cops (ACP Bala 

and subordinate) meeting by chance

after umpteenth years!

Note: ACP Bala mentioned here!

A few things we can note is some of the topics are the same. In some aspects, we are way too conservative now - we do not see swim suits now and the newspapers did not pixel out or bleep out cleavage and armpits!
ACP (Assistant Commissioner of Police) Balasundram who, with his boss, the feared DSP (Deputy Superintendent of Police) used to give hell to bandits like Botak Chin is seen in one of the photos. Aging gracefully, now almost 80, has put his swashbuckling gun wielding days behind for a quieter environment with his children and grand children!

When I was king!

2nd October 2011....
In a bar somewhere in India...
"Sorry, Saar! Today is Dry Day - Gandhi Jayanthi - No alcohol today."

Well, it was definitely not a dry day for the 10,000 odd runners in the Adidas King of the Road race who were wet drenched with their own sweat trying to outbid their inner naysayers to complete the 16.8 and 10km road race on one the new highways in the Klang Valley called New Pantai Expressway (NPE).
The morning started with runners armed with their armamentarium of cardiac heart rate monitors, foot pod pacers, I-pods with headphones and all the necessary paraphernalia, fuel belt (not for rocket launchers, but to fuel their energy and hydration needs) as if they were off to war.
After parking their vehicles (not horses or Humvee), all contestants made it to the starting line in front of the mammoth stony structure of Sphinx-like lion-head atop Sunway Pyramid. After being flagged off at 0645h as scheduled, we went to war on foot trying to beat the challenge put up by the concrete ugly monument of modern man called highway. From Sunway, the war path took us to the beginning of NPE near Sek 14 where we ascended on the elevated road. It was a relieve to act like a king of the road on the highway weaving from right to left at your fancy as the road were closed to traffic between 0300h and 1100h. On a normal day, the warriors would have all been road kills to break-neck speeding Malaysian drivers!

The battlefield extended through the toll booth where we pass through without paying dues, like royalties. After about 9km, we retreaded down the highway and made it back to the starting pen. 

It was a well organised run with no rush and people falling all over the place trying to get their start, drinks or finishing goodies.

I managed to finish the duel of 16.8km in 1h44m while my partner in crime who seems to be improving by leaps and bounds by the run finished his in 1h35m!

Kudos to Suresh, Adidas and the organizers.

Don't you pick a bone with me!

I take back what I said about successful Western movies needing to show flesh (lots of it) to stay on top. I stay corrected after watching Winter's Bone, another gem from my friendly Ah Long cum DVD peddler from his vast vault and arsenal of illegal digital  video decoders. This time around I had the depressing pleasure of viewing an indie production which won at the 2010 Sundance film festival and nominated for the 2011 Grammy.
Depressing pleasure must be a new entity created to highlight the act of finding solace in relating to movie scenes of the suffering of common people in their lives and feeling happy that he has overcome it. These scenarios are sine qua non of good Tamil movie in Amma's definition where she would be in red tear-welled eyes after watching a movie and say, "What a good movie!"

Jennifer Lawrence: Academy award nominee

My children, who think that everything is hunky dory in the Land of Opportunity (USA) - Starbucks, McD and everyone is cultured and learned, should watch this. The props are set in the frosty cold bleak grey hued Mid West where times are hard. Methamphetamine is a perennial problem in this land of farmers, work is scarce, men are violent, women are second class citizens where might rules. Upon this backdrop, our 17 year old heroine has to run the household with a catatonic schizophrenic mother, two preteen siblings and a farm which may be repossessed after her father jumps bail. It is a depressing movie minus the exaggeration of an Indian movie. There is no attempted rape or attempting to bed scenes and our heroine is fully clothed throughout the show!

Superior boss and humble servant?
 or maverick and suckers?

The plot takes us through her quest to discover her meth-cooking father's whereabouts to save her house and her family in a jungle of secretive and hostile white trash world in one of the Bible belt states of the country that has the biggest GDP in the world.

We won't bury 'em, anyway!*

The Traveling Wilburys, 1988. 

L–R: Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne,

Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty.

I may be 20 years a bit too late but as they say, it is better late than never! Thanks to eBay and the professional packing from the seller from Deutschland, I received my crisp untouched and uncluttered CDs (+1DVD) in the mail. Even though their second and last album was out 20 years ago, only now I had the sheer pleasure (and pleasure without of guilt of being spendthrift) of listening to this group which is said to be a congregation of the greatest in rock and roll - 'The Travelling Wilburys'. It is a collection of happy and fun filled melodies of men who have passed their prime but still have something to offer. And offer they did with lots of energy while enjoying it as they did as I can see from the music videos on the DVD.

We all know George Harrison who needs no introduction; Roy Orbison, the toupeed aphakic rocker, is supposed to be a legend but I only know his 'Pretty Woman' song, but his lullaby-like hypnotising sing-song (the pun intended) voice is nice. Bob Dylan, the high school dropout who recently was honoured with an honorary doctorate, who made headlines and was a hit in the flower power era with political statements in his folk song inspired songs like 'The times are a-changing' joined in as well. Dylan, the croaky-voiced hirsute singer (or rather talk-sings) - in the same vein as Johnny Cash and Mark Knoffler, the PhD in History doctorate from the group 'Dire Straits' - joins the spectacle. The blonde baby-faced Tom Petty of the 'Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' is supposed to be a pretty famous rocker. Jef Lynne had worked with Harrison during his solo career and Bangladesh Aid tour. The drummer, Jim Keltner, with an impressive CV to make any drummer go green with envy having played for many musical icons from the 70s onward was roped in.

On a personal note, if a tone-deaf musical illiterate like me may be allowed to comment, is that these guys had a fantastic time writing and playing the songs as they did. In the first album, the vocal chemistry is pretty good with an excellent display of strumming acoustic guitar with thought-provoking profound lyrics to match. 4 of their 13 songs from this album turned out to be classics, I think - 'Handle with care', 'Last night', 'Tweeter and the monkey man', 'End of the line'. It also earned them a Grammy in 1989.Orbinson passed on after the first album.

The second album, intentionally labelled Volume 3 lacked the zest of its predecessor. 'She's my lady', 'Inside out' (Global pollution)and 'Wilbury Twist' (silly comical song) is exciting but sadly after listening to the second album, I came off thinking that they sound like a bunch of over the top men trying to look cute and act cool but failing miserably. How sad! Excellent for easy Sunday evening listening when you are in a pensive mood!

*Travelling Wilburys, the origin; "We'll bury 'em (in the mix)" Jef used to say when there was an error in recording of their songs. This phrase evolved to be Wilbury. They thankfully did not name themselves as 'Trembling Wilburys' as they initially did. The concept of 'Travelling Wilburys' is like a concept of travelling music men or Snake-Oil peddlers who used to entertain small towns in the Wild West!

To sample more of their songs, try this!