Watched Transformers and found it all too snickerworthy. I just don’t know how one can keep a straight face at the slo-mo shots, the flybys and the military hardware droolfest – especially after that brilliant sendup of Bay done in Hot Fuzz. I won’t say I had high hopes but I was really looking forward [...]
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It is really hot out there; the White Sox are in a really bad shape; there is too much test cricket; Lahore is literally melting in 110 degree heat; after an initial good batch, the Marathon mangos are letting me down; my friends are intent on rubbing it in my face; I would like to [...]
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The Barn Owl’s Wondrous Capers (Penguin India, 2007), Rs. 395 Corridor (Penguin India, 2004), $13.00 by Sarnath Banerjee Many moons ago Sepoy posted about the forthcoming ‘first ever’ graphic novel from India, Corridor, by Sarnath Banerjee. I picked up Corridor in Delhi a few years ago and recently learned that Banerjee had a new ‘second [...]
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Just what we’ve all been waiting for: the animated version of Persepolis is being screened at Cannes this week, and that means it should get a general release later this year. There are some great trailers on Satrapi’s MySpace page that include some pretty sweet air guitar and “Eye of the Tiger” renderings by the [...]
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The Bus Driver Who Wanted to be God & Other Stories (Toby Press, 2004), $12.95. Jetlag (Toby Press, 2006), $12.95. The Nimrod Flipout (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006), $12.00. Pizzeria Kamikaze (Alternative Comics, 2006), $14.95. It’s one of those days when you find yourself in a new part of town with an hour to kill, [...]
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“(Our hero’s name gets no points for subtlety either.)” – Karen Olsson reviews Mohsin Hamid’s book starring a young Pakistani man named Changez.
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A response by William Dalrymple Manan just looked through the amazingly long discussion your review provoked- very flattering to see people engaging with the book. A few small points, and please feel free to post any of this that you want to: 1. Re your comment: There is plenty to call Dalrymple on – 1. [...]
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There is an obvious point that can be made about contestations over the meaning of 1857′s Ghadr [Rebellion] in history and memory of South Asia by simply listing the various terms attached to that event: Sepoy’s Mutiny or Rebellion, First War for Independence, The War/Rebellion of India, Jihad for Freedom, and most recently, The Uprising. [...]
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As part of the Year End Clearance®, below are posts that I started at some point in last year, never finished, and will never finish. I would like them to stop haunting my Write tab – so I am deleting these half-finished, half-started thoughts and giving them a public burial. Below are the dates, topic [...]
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Had all things been normal, I would have been on a panel this Sunday morning, at the AAS in Boston. Instead, I could only hope from a distance that Countervailing Connections: Islamicate Mobilities in Imperial Moments proved to be the barn-rouser that I had imagined. So, today’s late – very late – list of readings [...]
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I admit that I find it extremely hard to post here. In general, for a variety of reasons, I have very little energy for anything. Last night, I saw 300 – the war porn movie. Usually, I’d expect myself to post some snarky review talking about Xerxes the cuban transsexual. Or at least some comment [...]
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Locas, by Jaime Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books, 2004), $49.95. Palomar, by Gilbert Hernandez (Fantagraphics Books, 2003), $39.95. Locas and Palomar, the incomparable works of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, a.k.a. Los Bros Hernandez, are my new favorite graphic novels. The comics of Los Bros feature a shocking, original and excellently drawn cast of curvaceous, sassy and powerful [...]
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Sepoy recently forwarded me this fantastic translation of David B.‘s short comic “A Bomb in the Family.” Besides showcasing David B.’s incredibly clean lines and evocative sense of design, this short piece gives us a nice absurdist depiction of living with war but not in war.
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Dink, who is survived by his wife, Rakel, and their three children, was charming, soft-spoken and eloquent. He was respected and beloved by many Turks who disagreed with his views but admired his courage in stating them. He was hated by just as many. [via] When I wrote about Dink yesterday, I had written of [...]
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I mean, really, how can EVERYTHING get cock-ed up by this Administration? A farce of a public trial and a lynching later, they managed to convert a bloody tyrant into a shaheed – it is downright pathetic. They should have thrown him back into that spider hole in which they found him along w/ some [...]
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I don’t usually read anything written by politicians during their run-up to declaring candidacy or elections. Hence, I have missed out on this or this or that, etc. etc. (you get the point and I am tired of searching on Amazon for Richard Nixon’s campaign books). And yet, a few days ago, I walked into [...]
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Chicken with Plums, by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon Books, 2006), $16.95. _____________________________________________________________ Gadzooks! Every time you turn around these days there’s a new Marjane Satrape graphic novel for sale. The graphic novel translator’s league must be burning the midnight oil at HQ in the North Pole churning out translations of our favorite French cartoonists in English, [...]
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Probably the most disturbing thing about the Joan Didion article on Dick Cheney in the New York Review of Books this month is that she tries and tries, but she can’t really figure out what makes him tick. Is it ideology? No, none there, really. Is it will to power? Maybe, but that’s not really [...]
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Numerous reports have surfaced in Indian publications over the past 24 hours ridiculing the copy editing of General Pervez Musharraf’s recently published memoir, In the Line of Fire. Most of these reports are nearly identical, and all cite as a source a report by The News International, the English language publication of Jang. The reports [...]
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I promised, a few sundays ago, that I would tackle Martin Amis’ long-ass screed. And some emails were exchanged w/ the usual suspects but the post remains only partially written. It was becoming another rant. I tire of those. How many times can we point at the absurdity and vapidness of thought? There must be [...]
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