It is all a ploy to entrap you!

It Felt Like a Kiss (2009)

Screenplay & Direction: Adam Curtis

At one look, it reminded you of Billy Idol's music video 'We didn't start the fire!' It is a collection of certain events from our past accompanied by songs from that era. Narration which is the lynch pin of any documentary is glaringly absent. It appears like a series of videos narrating a story and can be described as an experimental film.
The film starts in the autumn of 1958 with a scene of a man getting up in his motel to open the window shades to the crooning of a song of that era. The camera shows him lighting a cigarette, feel unwell, perhaps with a hangover or even suffering from melancholy! The snippets continues with inter-playing of various significant events to mankind. In essence, it shows changes in people life style, pop music, America's interference in other country's affairs and the spread of HIV. The theme of the flick is to show how America set about to remake the world 50 years ago.
1958 was an important year. In a joint press statement, Khrushchev tells Nixon off of how the Russians were going to overtake US in space exploration. Back at home, housewives are seen bored, withdrawn, smoking too much and drinking way too much coffee. Children play their toys alone. The ad man are hard at work trying to make an impact. A young Saddam Hussein flees to Egypt after a revolution in Iraq to become a CIA agent. Lee Harvey Oswald arrives in Moscow -? possibly working for KGB, CIA or nobody. Rock Hudson's wife files for divorce. She is a lesbian. He is a homosexual who married her to cover his sexual preference. Somewhere in the jungles of Congo, HIV virus is transmitted from chimpanzee to human. Fighting in Kinshasa begins. At the same time, some other chimp is being trained by NASA to beat the Russians at space expedition.
Homosexuality is considered as sickness of the mind and ECT is advocated as a form of therapy. Lou Reed, a bisexual, a reputable musician till today is one who is treated this way at the age of 17. He describes in his song later of how ECT made him numb and devoid of all feelings.
Life goes on...
People get killed, people get lonely, single parties are organized to make couples meet, TV occupies an important place in the living room, ads and game shows fill the slots. People express the inner hopeless feelings. Guns are becoming popular. Corporations are getting important with many board meetings.
In 1963, the CIA finally attacks Bay of Pigs to assassinate Castro after multiple earlier failed attempts - an exploding cigar that did not explode, an exploding shell that failed when Castro went snorkeling, poison in his shoes and spraying LSD in a studio. The Bay of Pigs invasion also failed!
The enraged Lee Oswald bought a rifle by mail order. Sexual liberty is slowly surfacing and people are comfortable discussing it on TV.
1962... Carole King discovers that her babysitter, Eva was regularly beaten by her boyfriend because he loves her! King and her hubby write the song 'He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)' - title of film - to be sung by The Crystals.
The fight in Vietnam escalates. In South Vietnam, a Buddhist monk immolates himself against the corrupt American backed regime of General Diem. Looks like child pornography is slowing making its entry to the limelight. And Eva the baby sitter becomes Little Eva with her hit number 'Locomotion'.
Enos, the chimp, orbits the Earth passing over the jungles of Congo where he is from, where down below, the CIA was busy organizing a coup d'état. The American backed rebels capture the elected leader Patrice Lamumba. He is taken deep into the jungle, shot and his body is dissolved in acid! The coup brings in CIA supported dictator Joseph Mobutu, the most corrupt and violent dictator known to Africa. It appears that human to human transmission of HIV continues with the war weary American intelligence officers and peace keepers being feted by voluptuous hip swaying Congolese performers!
Scenes from Rock Hudson and Doris Day's 1958 film 'Pillow Talk' are recurring theme in this flick. Now, you see the connection. In 1985, Hudson would die from AIDS related illness. Songs get more depressing like this one from Skeeter Davis 'The End of the World' as more depressing scenes of depressed people are seen.
In 1963, another coup is organized by CIA. This time in Iraq where the elected government is overthrown because it is too close with Moscow. The Ba'ath party is appointed instead with Saddam Hussein part of the regime. His job was to massacre the hundreds found in CIA's outdated list! Later, Terence Young, the director of 'Dr No' and 'From Russia with Love' glorifies the feat in a telenovela, 'The Long Days'. Can you see how Hollywood is trying to justify the changes in the world?
Back home, JFK is assassinated. The 26 second snippet of the assassination is the most examined shortage in man's history but no one agrees on what happened. At the heart of the mystery is the behaviour of the 'magic bullet' which behaved like 'a jumping jack' causing many entries and exits.The Warren report accepted the 'single bullet' theory and denied conspiracy.
People are increasingly becoming individualistic, indulging in self destructive behaviours...
The Twin Tower WTC's construction is discussed. About that time, a wealthy Saudi businessman, Mohammed bin Laden is constructing a new road to Mecca. 12 out the 19 hijackers in 9/11 would be born or have been brought along that road.
The ad-man continues with women liberating ads...
The golden era of pop began to splinter. People wanted to be free to be themselves. They found a new way to control the inside of their own head. The Black Power consciousness increases, so does violence, gun culture...

Osama is 10 and is obsessively fascinated with the favourite TV show 'Bonanza'.
1967 sees his father succumb to a plane crash when he is trying to land on a road he had built. The ranch of Bonanza, now disused, becomes the site where some suburban kids start a commune to escape the increasing violence in society. Guess how became their leader? Charles Manson!
People start indulging in various relaxation techniques - scream, rejuvenation clubs, psychotherapy, etcetera. Even Richard Nixon goes to a psychotherapist to talk about his feelings of dread. In the mornings, when he would look into the mirror, he saw no one there! The man who starts the clandestine section of the CIA goes mad. He is afraid to sleep fearing terrible dreams and cannot stop talking and finally shoots himself.

Beach Boys

Doris Day is shown many times in the film. She must be representing the last of the old school of actresses who would be easy on dropping those garments. With sexual and women liberty, she must be an icon of a bygone era. She was turned down as the role of Mrs Robinson in the 'The Graduate' for her reputation as 'The oldest virgin in the world'! Day's son meets Charles Manson to offer to produce his songs. One of his song is called 'Pretty girls cease to exist'!
The Vietnam veterans return home to tell their harrowing experiences in war zones. They tell of killings and rapes of the innocent.
Bill Spector, the reputable producer of rock and roll, plans to produce the best song ever to revitalize Tina Turner's career and release her from the wife bashing Ike. Unfortunately, it only hit No.88 in the top 100, pushing Tina to brink of suicide and making Spector a recluse!
Violence escalates...
Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated and Sirhan Sirhan, a Palestian sympathetic to the Arab cause is the accused. No one, however, believes the official version. It was either the Mafia, J.E. Hoover, CIA, KGB, Ku Klax Klan, Fidel Castro, Anti Castro Cubans, a secret government within the Government or even Nixon!

.

The imaginary world seem so real and the world outside becomes like a dream.
Members of the Mason family are arrested.
It is 1969 and HIV arrives in Miami and spreads throughout America.
Then starts another phase in the life of Americans. The computers that controlled the Cold War and guided the rockets to the moon were put to a new use. They started to analyse credit data of all Americans so that they could be lent money and buy whatever they wanted and be happy.
The film ends with the sound of a speeding jet....whilst Doris Day lies down to sleep wondering what the sound is... Get it?

Nowhere people

Karma and other stories (Rishi Reddi 2007)

Picked up this book the other day, another writer with Indian roots. The author is not an Indian living in India writing about Indian stuff but rather she is an American with Indian roots who spent most of living times in the confused land of opportunity.
I guess from the contents of the books that many Indians who migrated to the land of plenty ended up being confused. Confused, that they are viewed upon as outsiders in the land that their intellectual eyes opened and also as outsiders in the land that their parents speak so highly of. Confused too, as they wonder what drove droves of its citizens from a country which had all, the civilization, the bond with nature, have analysed and have stories of good virtues, conduct, culture and governance. How come a culture so highly developed failed their subjects?
This book does not give all answers to the above. It only stimulates your mind and thinks. The answers for these lie in twilight zone that borders the intricate shades of  grey.
This book is written by a lawyer with inner burning desire to write a book since the age of 9. I guess she must have immersed herself in books and fantasy land after being a single child and the odd one out in the mid west of USA where she grew, among other places.
The collection of stories tells stories without being judgmental, neither hailing nor downplaying either cultures. It picks a time in the life of someone who had landed in US by choice or otherwise.
Justice Shiva Ram Murthy
A retired judge stays with his son in America. His usual hangout is with another middle aged Indian in a particular Indian restaurant. On the blessed day of Christmas, as their usual hangout was closed, they land up  in a Mexican restaurant. After being entertained by a rude young punk and served beef when they were vegetarian, our learned retired judge was contemplating taking the establishment to courts. The whole fiasco was settled amicably with a simple apology from the restaurant.
Lakshmi and the librarian
A mid 40s homemaker befriends a mysterious librarian who finds passion in his books. Lakshmi, the protagonist, fearing the roving eyes of fellow Indians, finally picks up courage to coax the librarian who was dealing with a personal dilemma.
The valididity of love
Two strong minded desi girls, 20 something, whose priorities are different from people of one generation before their time, have to deal with the question of marriage, morality and chastity.
Bangles
A widow comes to America to stay with her son. She cannot fit into the family dynamics. She try to inculcate her kind of upbringing of her grandchildren with disastrous outcomes.
Karma
Two brothers who use to live together part ways. One is a successful physician while the other move from job to job as he cannot fit into the system. Back in India, he is a professor but managed to obtain a Green Card with disastrous outcome.
His wife starts job as a packing lady in a grocer. On his way to the employment office, he is side tacked to help an injured migratory bird. He goes out to help more injured birds as he thinks it is his karma to help them after injuring a bird in his childhood.
Devadasi
A 16 year old Desi girl, American in her thinking, and an American boy as boyfriend to complement has only the ability to dance the Bharatnatyam as her link to her Indianess, cuts a deal with her parents to learn the dance from a Master in Hyderabad if she were to follow her parents for a wedding in India. It was a time of religious unrest and she is humbled by the kind gesture of a Moslem boy when she is caught in a crossfire. An interesting discovery for me... while mostly told that the temple dancers were labelled as being married to temple deities and had to quench the desires of the priests, here we are told that it is untrue. The dancers, actually were quite powerful, having direct communications with royalties and people of power. The disgruntled individuals, unable to achieve their agenda spread lies.
Lord Krishna
A familiar story of coming of age and grappling with your beliefs and being ridiculed by the ignorant majority. Here, a teenage Hindu boy, becomes the butt of joke in a predominantly ignorant Christian Bible belt society. He is ashamed of his heritage and is thinking changing his name to suit to the society.

A good light read to illustrate that it is not necessarily 'no place like home' but rather 'any place can be home' if you make it!

Modern day colonialism

Mahaan Kanakku (மகான் கனக்கு, Tamil; 2011)

Since everybody is talking about the Wall Street 1% standoff, looks like even Kollywood has joined the bandwagon. This flick is more of a social drama but since they need to finance the bills, they half heartedly included some silly college romance which just died abruptly when the female counterpart told the hero (Jeeva) on the face that she came to study and speak of love and romance is only after studies (sic).
Coming to story at hand, the Jeeva's brother-in-law, an Accounts' professor has been financing Jeeva's studies all the way till MBA. He has to secure a hefty loan to enable Jeeva to sit for an external examination to work overseas.
Once word gets around that he needs a loan, all the bank agents and call centre agents starts breathing down his neck to get his signature on the dotted lines.
Trouble brews when due to the banks' inefficiencies, the professor is charged interests over interests till the payable amount snowballs.
The bank employs private collection agents to retrieve the payments. Unfortunately, these companies use strong arm tactics and public humiliation to get their work done. Unable to stand the embarrassment, the professor, his wife (Jeeva's sister) and their preteen child kill themselves!

MBA student's 

extra-curricular activities

Jeeva, only later realizing the mess that they were in after their untimely demise, swears revenge. Armed with his MBA, Kollywood philosophy, playing with technicalities of the law and how businesses function, he with a few vagabonds to act as the staff of his mega-million company, managed to bring the mega bank (OCOC Bank, which lent the Prof. the money) and the collection agents done on their knees.Yeah, right!

Sweet revenge

The interesting part, as in most Bollywood/Kollywood court drama scenes, is one when the hero has the final say. His last piece of advice is that people are trapped in lure of money (loans, credit card etcetera) constantly dangled in front of everyone hoping to entice everyone to be a debtor. Once the borrowers are under their clutches, the big banks, mostly foreign owned, who were invited by the country to stimulate business and economy have started playing the role that the colonial masters did six and a half decades ago. They exert control and dominance and it is pre-Independence days all over again. The locally owned banks followed the modus operandi of their foreign counterparts. The hero ended his rebuttal (he had his own lawyer too) by suggesting to the presiding judge that banks should be nationalized. The judge in his judgement freed Jeeva and recommended to the Legislators to look into the possibility of nationalizing banks!
(RS take note! Be a kind Ah Long!)

2013 Sony World Photography Awards Shortlist 4

This photo represents an urban environment through an abstract long exposure photo at an urban location.(© Robert Gifford, United Kingdom, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Tradition. (© Reza Nezamdust, Iran, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Two Pieris brassicae rest on a plant, waiting for sunshine. (© Petar Sabol, Croatia, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

An employee of Cinema Pamir sells refreshments during the movie intermission in Kabul, Afghanistan, on May 3, 2012. Once a treasured luxury for the elite, Afghan cinemas are dilapidated and reflect an industry on the brink of collapse from conflict and financial neglect. Kabul's cinemas show Pakistani films in Pashto, American action films and Bollywood to rowdy, largely unemployed crowds in pursuit of any distraction from their drab surroundings. (© Danish Siddiqui/Reuters, India, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

People affected with dementia, their families and friends are affected on personal, emotional, financial and social levels. Mirella is 71 years old. She spent 43 years of her life with the only person she loved, 43 years of sharing, difficulties, laughs and beautiful moments; a family, a house, values handed down. For the past few years her days are cyclic, monotonous, due to her husband's illness. She tries to look forward with devotion, strength and love -- as long as there is life there is hope -- even if memories are slowly wasted day by day.(© Fausto Podavini, Italy, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Edith, Hellrider, and Dadmonster pose for a photograph. In Botswana, heavy metal music has landed. Metal groups are now performing in nightclubs, concerts, festivals. The ranks of their fans have expanded dramatically. These fans wear black leather pants and jackets, studded belts, boots and cowboy hats. On their t-shirts stand out skulls, obscenities, historical covers of hard-rock groups popular in the seventies and eighties, such as Iron Maiden, Metallica, and AC/DC. They have created their own style, inspired by classic metal symbolism, but also borrowing heavily from the iconography of western films and the traditional rural world of Botswana. Their nicknames, Gunsmoke, Rockfather, Carrott Warmachine, Hellrider, Hardcore, Dignified Queen, may appear subversive and disturbing as their clothing, but they are peaceful and gentle. "We like to get dressed,, drink meet friends and feel free , this music is so powerful . We are lucky to live in a country tolerant and open" argues one of the leaders. A precious rarity for Africa.(© Daniele Tamagni, Italy, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

14 giraffes flee after spotting lions in hunting mode. (© Frederick van Heerden, South Africa, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Return to childhood landscapes. The picture is made in Romania, on the train from Bucharest to Baia Mare in a foggy morning in autumn of 2012. (© Hajdu Tamas, Romania, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Photo taken during the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of North Korea founder Kim Il Sung in Pyongyang, on in April 2012.(© Ilya Pitalev, Russia, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

I was hanging around Jaipur, when I noticed a cloud of birds in the air. I just instinctively released the shutter. The soul of Sir Alfred Hitchcock lives here, I thought. (© Maciej Makowski, Poland, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

Pobitra Tapa mourns alone in agony, painful tears of frustration for a life wasting away, withering from HIV and a tumor in her young body. She cried, away from the eyes of her already suffering husband who has been looking after her for several weeks at the Pokhara hospital in Nepal. Losing any sense of hope, this mother of two was once an alcoholic and suspects that she got HIV-tainted blood in a transfusion years ago. Feeling alone and useless, the disease that eats up her body still allows her the strength to show firmness in front of her family but suffer a lonely pain. (© Miguel Candela, Spain, 2013 Sony World Photography Awards)

More nostalgic pix

Incredible historical pictures of life as it was...

Thanks RS for contribution.

Miss America 1924

Helen Keller Meeting Charlie Chaplin

Leather gloves worn by Lincoln to Ford's Theater on the night of his assassination. Blood stains are visible at the cuffs.

Phoebe Mozee (aka: Annie Oakley). Famed for her marksmanship by 12 years old,

she once shot the ashes off of Kaiser Wihelm II's cigarette at his invitation.

When she outshot famed exhibition marksman Frank Butler, he fell in love with her and they married.

They remained married the rest of their lives.

Very Young Lucy Lucille Ball around 1930

Two Victorian sideshow performers boxing - the fat man and the thin man.

Amy Johnson, English aviator 1903-1941 One of the first women to gain a pilot's licence, Johnson won fame when she flew solo from Britain to Australia in 1930. Her dangerous flight took 17 days. Later she flew solo to India and Japan and became the first woman to fly across the Atlantic East to West, she volunteered to fly for The Women's Auxiliary Air Force in WW2, but her plane was shot down over the River Thames and she was killed.

Prison Garb 1924. Belva Annan murderess whose trial records became the musical "Chicago."

Female photojournalist Jessie Tarbox on the street with her camera, 1900s.

Roald Amundsen was the first person to reach the South Pole. At approximately 3pm on December 14, 1911. Amundsen raised the flag of Norway at the South Pole and named the spot Polheim — “Pole Home.”

The extraordinary life of Maud Allen: Seductive US dancing girl who was sued for being too lewd, outed as a lesbian, and fled London after being branded a German spy who was sleeping with the prime minister's wife.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Wedding day photograph of Abraham and Mary taken November 4, 1842 in Springfield, Illinois after three years of a stormy courtship and a broken engagement. Their love had endured.

Billie Holiday at two years old, in 1917

Washington, D.C., circa 1919. "Walter Reed Hospital flu ward." One of the very few images

in Washington-area photo archives documenting the influenza contagion of 1918-1919,

which killed over 500,000 Americans and tens of millions around the globe. Most victims

succumbed to bacterial pneumonia following influenza virus infection.

Filming the MGM Logo

Amelia Earhart

Mae Questel ca. 1930’s, the voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl, Minnie Mouse,

Felix the Cat (for three shorts by the Van Beuren Studios), Little Lulu,

Little Audrey and Casper, the Friendly Ghost

Bea Arthur (née Bernice Frankel) (1922-2009) SSgt. USMC 1943-45 WW II.

Enlisted and assigned as typist at Marine HQ in Wash DC, then air stations in VA and NC.

Best remembered for her title role in the TV series “Maude” and as Dorothy in "Golden Girls".

In 1911, Bobby Leach survived a plunge over Niagara Falls in a steel barrel. Fourteen years later, in New Zealand, he slipped on an orange peel and died.

Emily Todd was Mary Todd Lincoln's half-sister. In 1856 she married Benjamin Helm, a Confederate general. After Helm's death in 1863 Emily Helm passed through Union Lines to visit her sister in the White House. This caused great consternation in the Northern newspapers. Emily Helm took an oath of loyalty to the Union and was granted amnesty.

Three days before his 19th birthday, George H.W. Bush became the youngest aviator in the US Navy.

Market Street, San Francisco after the earthquake, 1906.

All-American Girls Baseball, 1940s

Sacajawea. Stolen, held captive, sold, eventually reunited the Shoshone Indians. She was an interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark in 1805-1806 with her husband Toussaint Charbonneau. She navigated carrying her son, Jean Baptiste, on her back. She traveled thousands of miles from the Dakotas the Pacific Ocean. The explorers, said she was cheerful, never complained, and proved to be invaluable. She served as an advisor, caretaker, and is legendary for her perseverance and resourcefulness.

Zelda Boden, circus performer, ca. 1910.

A Confederate and Union soldier shake hands during a celebration at Gettysburg in 1913.

Image from the Library of Congress. July 1-3, 2013 marks the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Geraldine Doyle, who was the inspiration behind the famous Rosie the Riveter poster.

Vintage Baked Potato Cart. A legitimate fast food lunch option back in the day.

Cyclists ride in the first running of the Tour de France, in 1903.

Sergeant Stubby (1916 or 1917 – April 4, 1926), was the most decorated war dog of World War I and the only dog to be promoted to sergeant through combat. America's first war dog, Stubby, served 18 months 'over there' and participated in seventeen battles on the Western Front. He saved his regiment from surprise mustard gas attacks, found and comforted the wounded, and even once caught a German spy by the seat of his pants (holding him there til American Soldiers found him).

Nightwitches - Female Russian bombers who bombed Germany during WW2.

They had old, noisy planes & the engines used to conk out halfway through their missions, so they had to climb out on the wings mid-flight to restart the props. To stop Germans from hearing them & starting up the anti aircraft guns, they would climb to a certain height, coast down to German positions, drop their bombs, restart their engines in mid-air & get the hell out of dodge. Their leader flew 200+ missions & was never captured.

Marilyn Monroe meets Queen Elizabeth II, London, 1956. Both women were 30 years old.

Chief Petty Officer Graham Jackson plays “Going Home” as FDR’s body is borne past in Warm Springs, GA, where the President was scheduled to attend a barbecue on the day he died. April, 1945.