a future of contentment

desperate for a new perspective - pick
up the bed, pop in a skylight, rotate the car.
talk about lawn mowers and real estate.

tots and toys control my view,
conservatism grows with wrinkles.
angst arrives in waves,
so do journal entries and paintings.

sitting in a belgian pub
in the spanish city on the bay - smoke
and glasses, grins and gaze,
16 years after highschool graduation
with my first belle, the conversation
shocks me. we were confidantes
basking in the radicalism of youth.
the foreshadow would have suffocated me,
despair in the materialistic, the selfish bore
of talks real estate and project management,
corporate context rolling out like breakfast.

i miss the absoluteness of a destination, my life
airy with greatness - i breathed consequence. now,
the embrace of roaming above the black sea
guides me, graces me with rhythm.

i know about cutting grass.

parineeta

movie review: i really need to do more than write about the movies i've seen. alas, that seems to be the only thing driving me to the computer at night. anyway, saw parineeta last night. i have no idea why we've had such great luck w/ films lately. its especially odd given our process for picking films. basically we live in a mostly white-neo-hippy-dip-only-slightly-hip corner of the city, in other words, hardly a brown skinned person for miles (since the grand pop up mansions are more readily affordable elsewhere). so, we drive to this dump of a store on aurora that sells meat in little plastic baggies with protruding bones, random spices, and the occassional packet of naan. behind a broken glass counter lies a stash of semi-bootlegged dvds. i typically ask the guy in punjabi for some 'ARRRT' film. he says, "oh they're all so terrible these days - too much hip thrusting and not enough brooding. i have nothing.' then i plead w/ him to show me something, anything. he sighs, slowly bends down, reaches inside without taking his eyes off me, grabs a handful of DVDs, and throws them on the counter. he shakes his head and wanders away to cut some more meat. anyway, so... the movie. it was really good. set in 63' calcutta - my guess is the scene bares little resemblence to the real calcutta - as i've never seen a jazz club in india, let alone one as cool as that in the film. the setting, fantasy or real, is beautiful. well shot, w/ nice touches to 'date' the film in the right era. what i liked especially, is parineeta's classic bollywood, w/ the singing and dancing and love story and propensity for melodrama, but its well done. i give it 3 1/2 stars.

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and for the spiders: movie review

yahaan

movie review: saw yahaan, a film by shoojit sircar, last night. was a very touching film. not a typical bollywood film. best one i've seen since chameli. the cinematography was very interesting. was shot in almost black and white with very sparing use of color. i really wish i had seen it on the big screen as opposed to my crusty laptop. i hadn't realized how long its been since i've seen so many images of kashmir. its a shame kashmir has suffered so much these past 10+ years. the story of hope through love is a compelling one. for a more synopsis-y type review, see: this link. i think she was a little harsh though. i thought the pace of the film was fine - i had no problems moving between the various movements. i also thought the action scenes were well done - and with the exception of the ending, not overly so as many b/h ollywood films tend to be. something that struck me was how difficult this film would be for an american to make now. in the 40s, no problem. now, we're so jaded in our 'love' stories, atleast on the artsy side of the film spectrum, that honest love as simple is this would be too foreign for its audience. it would certainly require raw sexuality, or something twisted, and less first sight type warmth. on the whole, i give it 3 and 1/2 stars. i'd have given it a 4 if it wasn't for the slightly overly 'action-y' ending. still a definite should see.