The pickled-looking Chancellor Palpatine raised his hand and squawked, “…the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galactic Empire, for a safe and secure society.” George Lucas’ latest Jedi mind-trick is to convince us that he is a political commentator. Whatever. I was more intrigued by the Galactic Empire [thanks to Doowan for the link] [...]
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I have been making jokes about this in the recent past. Even thought I’d do a post on it here. Arthur Krystal beat me to the punch. In the New Yorker [May 30th] is his review of At Days’s Close: Night in Times Past by Roger Ekirch. Krystal opens the review with a bit of [...]
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I am supposed to be researching film distribution networks in Delhi. So what is my take on the two blasts that have happened, perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not – at theatres showing Jo Bole So Nihal? In many ways, it seems like a circle of sorts being completed. The frisking and security checking that is a [...]
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As I mentioned, yesterday we went to hang out at Washington Park for some sporty fun. The park is an amazing urban space. Someone recently was grouching that Chicago parks have no character and I wish they had come with us to see how much character and life they do have – from people, natch. [...]
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Beautiful, gorgeous day. Went to the Washington Park and saw some sports. Along for the ride were P. & friends. It was quite fun. Afterwards, a short and unsuccessful bid to buy a cast-iron skillet. This coming week promises tons of time-wasting activities – at least one of which is to go see SW3. On [...]
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They took back the town of Karasu and the rebel Bakhtiyor Rakhimov quite easily. Karimov’s Special Forces did. This dream-land of djinns and paries [Samarkand o Bukhura o Farghana and, in particular, Afrasiab are home grounds in those dastans] is now a repressed dictatorship where civilians can be killed for being “Islamists”. That bounding Freedom, [...]
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Let me say it people, even at the risk of eternal damnation. I liked Kingdom of Heaven. I even liked Orlando Bloom’s second assay as a blacksmith. Has everyone forgotten ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ already? So am I, like Saladin, now destined to be a heathen in Limbo? What I like about the film is [...]
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Freedom, as they say, is growing in leaps and bounds. And, one of the places it is leaping right over is Pakistan. In an announcement leaked to press, and surprising only to the South Asia Desk at State, The General has decided to “stand for elections after his current term expires in 2007″. Of course, [...]
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It is through Richard the Lionheart that we get Saladin [neÈ Salah ud Din Ayyubi] into Western cinema. In most cases, these were small roles or even just dialogue. His character was peripherally important to the story of King Richard – the noble savage who personified the purity that eluded King Richard’s crusading brethern. Hence, [...]
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In Gitmo, reported Newsweek, “Interrogators, in an attempt to rattle suspects, flushed a Qur’an down a toilet”. Since the publication of the report, 9 people have died in Afghanistan in widespread protests [in Jalalabad, they burned the Pakistani consulate]; the protests have spread to Pakistan; and to Indonesia; Shaukat Aziz is mad; the Saudi’s are [...]
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A good friend forwards me a link to this press release. It is but one of many Focus on the Famiy type missives littering the net, my inbox, my mailbox, and my television screen. The press release posits a diametrical opposition between Evangelicals and gays, but also takes as given that which is to be [...]
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Note: Ralph Luker cements his name in the future history of blogging by writing a wonderful article for AHA’s Perspectives. He was kind enough to recommend me for a how-to piece. While I am thrilled to see my name in AHA’s publication, I am weirded out by the fact that it is not my dissertation [...]
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This week’s post is essentially going to be a cut and paste job, and starts with a long quote from Mahmood Farooqui, who’s doing work on Dastans [epics] – While I have been aware of the existence of something called Dastans in Urdu literature, I had never mustered courage to pick up the odd volume [...]
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I have finally upgraded all my machines to Tiger. As usual, this was a smooth upgrade. Apache & PHP needed some tweaking afterwards. Mail re-imported everything [and seems like it has changed it's mailbox format]. Safari’s RSS capabilities should be useful for some [am I the only one who hasn't climbed the RSS bandwagon?]. Dashboard [...]
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Back in the days, the Afghan refugee camps were a must-visit for NY, DC and LA celebs [see Charlie Wilson's War]. Such hasn’t been the case in a while. Angelina Jolie, who spreads Goodwill as a UN Ambassador, is currently visiting the camps outside Peshawar. She has been there before in August 2001 and published [...]
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(written by dacoit) The British-Sri Lankan singer/toaster/artist/producer M.I.A. has been anything but missing in action lately, blowin’ up the (cyber)spot on a worldwide(web) scale for the last few months and garnering mention in the US, Britain and Canada (though she is nowhere to be found in the press outside of Europe or North America as [...]
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First, read this. Sunday, we went to the Sox game, which was great. While shivering in the stands, Mian Ji Rajeev tells me that there is an Op-Ed in the NYT that I will enjoy. On cricket, he says, with a smirk. I haven’t stopped steaming since. In my irritation, I even co-penned a letter [...]
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Most of you already know about the Oxyrhynchus cache; for those outside the classical world’s orbit, the documents, collected at the margins of a once-Greek ghetto at the Nile’s bed, from a humungous ancient trash dump, contain very, very old versions of Greek classics, the Bible, etc., thought to be unreadable. Turns out if you [...]
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In my bedroom window, as a curtain, hangs a flag. It is green red blue, all primary colours, with what looks like an olive branch in the middle of it all. I saw the flag in December 2003 and fell in love. I had to buy it. The man who was selling flags, by the [...]
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Today is May Day. Celebrated around the world, esp. by Rob. So, Happy Day to one and all. Before the links, a poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz – the poet who more than anyone speaks for the workers of Pakistan against the dictators – translated by Agha Shahid Ali. I was gonna translate a poem [...]
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