Krista Allen, chocolate cake, and the troll(s).

The other day I came across a film, "Emmanuelle: A World of Desire". It apparently is a sequel in a series of TV movies under "Emmanuelle in space". It starts out with a voluptuous woman tracked down by aliens (who are, physically, surprisingly similar to our species -for reasons you will soon understand) specifically for her sensuality. The aliens had heard about the human race and the gift this race had for making/creating pleasure when they felt the need for it. They travel from their home galaxy, eons away presumably, facing all the known dangers of inter-galactic travel to learn about this amazing way of creating pleasure at will and to study this aspect of the human species. The sensual lady from the opening scenes is then brought on to their star-ship, where she is suspended in a dream state and they experience her persistently erotic dreams. And through her dreams they begin to understand the human race and its abilities. She then takes the captain of the ship down to the earth and teaches him this skill. The rest is a string of inter-species steamy "love-making". The back story I just suggested (not that its awfully important), might not be very accurate, as its based on my interpolation of the plot based on the few dialogues i could be bothered to listen to. I wanted to get the plot right for this post, but the amazing skill that the aliens were after was the real interesting bit, so i skipped to the important parts just like every-time i tried to watch it "cover to cover". This is a good movie. Seriously, it is. Setting aside the somewhat tiring camera movements and the idea of inter-species sex, which by the way apparently needn't be so bad, it had what I think was an interesting premise. An alien species studying and documenting us like we do the other species on our planet.

I didn't set out to write some sort of a review for a softcore TV film (it can be really hard to do justice). This has as much to do with the film as it (the film) has use for its plot. A long time ago I watched, on the discovery channel or somewhere, about a species of ants where the two parents compete so hard to give their off-springs as much of their genetic print as possible that in some cases the insects end-up being exact clones of one of their parents. And this was a fascinating thing. This was fascinating because i could play the observer without having to judge or live with the consequences it entails. The thought gave me a brilliant idea. The thought of being a third person observer. What would be the things that an observer would find fascinating about our species. I thought it was a brilliant idea and could be equally brilliantly exploited for a story/film/documentary. And to my sad awakening I realised, I was too late. Although it hit me well after the film's other revelations. This was the premise of the Emmanuelle films, although they handled the matter from a very different, albeit equally enticing, perspective.

Same story with my idea for a narrative. I was searching for a suitable story to go with my narrative that went chronologically backwards. I'm not talking flashback, but rather more persistantly & continuously reversed. And the other day I watched "Momento". And it was just brilliant. I, very probably, couldn't have done it anywhere as well. But I had the idea too. It was a matter of time before it saw daylight.

Its the same story with my ideas for hotel services and regenerative braking and epic stories of good men on a bikes/cars being chased by the bad men in stealth bombers across forests, deserts and the lot. These were stories i had in mind long before I had known any Michael Bay films or the  "Die Hard" films (which are a load of fun by the way).

This isn't a rant about my brilliance and my incredibly superb cognitive capabilities that are going untapped. It could be, but it isn't. I'm not confident/assertive enough to go down that road. This is about the fact that we are unique and individual in many ways but that doesn't mean we are incapable of similar thought processes. Not everything I have in my head is mine and solely mine. To make such a claim you would have to be willfully blind-sighted and narrow-minded or be Apple or Microsoft apparently. I know porn films with more substance in their plot than these lawsuits. I do not want to come out as un-capitalistic (because i am not), but the fact is, we are clearly capable of non-unique (and sometimes shared) brilliance (& narrow-pedantry), hard as that might be for some to accept. You don't sue your neighbour for putting the same amount of choco in her cake or sugar in the milk, or having the switch for the power socket right next to the socket, exactly like I do in my house. Scratching an itch on the arse isn't the intellectual right of the first gorilla to do so is it? This small minded bickering needs to stop and now. Before every one down the street with a smaller lawyer stops making chocolate cakes and the babies stop getting their milk pleasantly sweet. I want my chocolate cake like she bakes it and her daughter can have my brilliant shoe knot that can be un-done blindly with one-hand for her dress, oh sorry did i say dress? I might have meant shoes.

I wonder why she said dress when it should be shoes...Maybe she did say shoes. No, she definitely said dress. Anyway

Honour, glory & other ideas

 In the early 20^th century there was widespread public acceptance of the eugenics movement across the world. Apparently in the 20's the high-school & college texts talked about the immense benefits to be had by applying eugenic principles to the population. Of course after the war, or probably somewhere during it, it lost favour in both political and scientific places. The eugenics scene is slowly resurfacing afraid of any prejudices it might have to endure in light of its somewhat dark (if not colourful) history. The eyebrows it raises are ethical/moral as well as scientific. But that is not the part i want to expand upon. I don't know enough to stare back at the scientific eyebrows and don't agree enough with the moral ones. 

The holocaust is estimated to have claimed 17 million human lives. in a span of 4 years. People killed in open air shootings, ghettos, camps and other such terrifying ways. It was a state initiated - sponsored and engineered operation carried out as a solution to, what they concurred to be, a national/universal problem. This was carried out without much public resistance from the subjects of the state. The public opinion on this solution, apparently ranged from indifference/passive complicity to acknowledgement.

Here is what i'm getting at. We say the pain of war is sometimes necessary for upholding values like freedom. We give moral justifications to questionable actions all the time. The "ends" some times call for unthinkable "means". Just as long as your ends are white enough. We go through war killing men, justified by a notion of superior ideas. My problem isn't really with war, or men killing men or even with having a notion that your idea is superior to mine. The problem is when you justify murder for your idea and then proceed to glorify it, but you disapprove of/scowl at/frown upon/admonish/castigate and condemn your enemy for the same. It doesn't seem to be as much about the superior idea as the superior guy. I'm not getting at the hypocrisy of the act (which it could be) but at the seemingly gaping discord between the rules we set and the rules we follow ourselves.

Alas 36 years, 2 months, 5 days.. if only...

if i was half as gud as i cud b, i would have done 10 times better than i have.i'm the biggest "if only". i'm the rock on the edge that can only roll back. i'm the Texas Petawatt, without its Ti:sapphire crystal. the world could be glittering... if only....


i'm alchemy.

ThanQ, who?

Have you watched any David Lynch film? Well, I hadn't. But, people who made the films I enjoyed, really liked "Eraserhead", and his films in general. So, I decided to watch it. I got "Eraserhead", "Blue Velvet", & "Mulholland DR." & decided to start with "Eraserhead". Its B/W, moving slowly, weird hair, future with waist high mechanical levers, no whizzing electrons - Stopped it and watched something else - Some days later, I notice it, and give it another go. Now continue with weird head sizes, mutilated babies - I resolve to sit through it - Bursting mutilated babies, creepy-crawlies. I love a dystopian, decadent future setting, but that wasn't what I would imagine. I didn't like it. Far from it.

 I was confused if I was allowed to hate it. I haven't tried to see it again so far. So, I forgot about the other two. Some time later I try "Blue Velvet". Its not as uncomfortable. I like it, in-spite of its few weird parts. I believe you need to be stoned to get into the mood of these movies though. And I think his movies are more about moods. Few days ago I watched "Muloholland DR." and really sat through the whole film enjoying it. Trying to figure out the bizarre things going on. Well it was those 2 hours of excitement. And every now and then I find myself trying to decipher the film. I'm asking myself if I enjoyed it & do i still enjoy it. Its like the "girl in blue".

Now, to the point of all this. Sometimes, logic isn't the answer. And it alright to not have a coherent ending. Sometimes a face gives you a fleeting glimpse of fulfillment, moments of frantic searching, a few hours of paralysed hope & makes your day. And it continues to brighten my days every now and then with nothing but a  tingling feeling and a blue hue. Butterflies brighten the day. I mean we have all chased butterflies. Well mine was wearing blue. And so thanQ girl in BLUE.

Dr. Strangelove & Why you should stop worrying, and love war

Many beautiful and truly amazing things have come from merciless dictators, destruction and war. Sure war always is a very sad thing for its time but it has always given the future a spectacle. I know I wouldn't last two fleeting seconds in a war, but its war that gave us the SR-71, the jet engine, nuclear power and ofcourse Dr. Strangelove.

See the lot who constituted the third world and see what they can take pride in now. It generally is either something that has always been there or something that people (who generally are historians from history) said existed. I can't say they should all have taken sides in the cold war, they had more pressing things like nation-building to do. All I'm doing, is pointing out that the war did the others some good. This was the war that started the space race and put man in space fifty-odd years after his wobbly first flight and then onto the moon. Sure, you will say "India played a major role in WW-II, what good did it do us?". Apparently, after the war India emerged as the world's 4th largest Industrial power which might have played some-role in leading to our independence. Indirectly, its war that gave you the french wine, the Italian suit, brought motor-racing to this country, and may-be in a way gave us motor racing itself.

It's not like there isn't enough suffering already. But history always seems to show us that mankind has never wafted into a more developed society. Rather, we got here with a bang, a little smoke and some damage. The next war, when it comes, will exterminate the human race and most life they say, but a stagnant pond will kill all life in it anyway. War might not be the solution, but it might be just the problem that will bring us the solution. Ironically Mars has always been the place where we have searched for life. Mars is the God of war.

Dreams........

I’m brilliant. Or atleast many people say so. I work the time of the day when there are specs in an otherwise blank sky and rest when my eyes get sensitive and there is that thing in the sky from which all the heat and light seems to come. I have atleast as many dreams as I have legs and that is more than what most of my people can even imagine to think about. I plan to tick my boxes quite regularly and add a few boxes here and there. My today’s box was to get to the tree across the cool solid black river and rest on the other side. The heat thingy was peeping on the horizon and I wanted to finish the day on a high. The journey began with a lot of speculation and talk about no one ever making it across ever, about rolling things, strange sounds and prayers and good byes and tears. But I wasn’t worrying. I was too awesome to be scared. I began and on the way saw a few crushed brothers. All this body count was only raising the height of my podium. You only need to be a big enough hero to be God. I was planning the return journey all the while. People needed to bow to my awesomeness, this was my duty and right at the same time. My mind was playing a background score all this while to accompany this march to greatness. The crescendo was peaking (with visions of people bowing) when something came rolling past with the Doppler effect and everything.

Just when I began to think of stories to fit this incident and trumpet it as a voyage………………….. CRACK! (my exoskeleton) SPLAT!(my fluids) and a few more CRACKS!!’s and SPLAT!!’s ………………..thats how my story would have been if was alive and not crushed by the next rolling thing (humans, I now hear, call it a bicycle). The 1^st rolling thing stopped my background score crescendo while the Doppler effect of next wheel ended with the peak killing me. That was the 1^st box I had intended to tick. So many dreams for nothing. I would have been sad I guess if I were alive. Or atleast people tell me so. But then dreams only matter to give purpose to life. I’m now neither alive nor need a purpose to be as I am.

-Mr Centipede (not sure when - somewhere mid august 2010)

An obituary to the many poor centipedes that lie crushed on our roads because of all our bicycle traffic.

R.I.P all you hundred legged ones.

Who's got to be saved by whom???

There are many problems with the present chase for change. The problem is not necessarily in intention, but in perspective. We, humans, operate and discuss on a very different time scale. A few thousand years is a long period of time in our considerations but isn't much on the time scale on which the earth and the eco-system function.

There is much talk about us, as a species, becoming powerful and crossing the limits of peaceful co-existence and there by disrupting the careful and meticulous balance that nature has developed over a span of a few million or so years. There is talk about the need to act fast and amend our ways to save the planet. There is talk about seas becoming more acidic and the composition of the atmosphere itself changing. About ice melting, sea levels raising. About so many species being wiped out, our population increasing and a lot of other things. And all this, they say has happened due to us over a short span of a few centuries. They say failing to act immediately can cause repairable damage to the planet. It definitely is an alarming prospect to consider the possibility of the tiger disappearing. I mean after all that "T for tiger" learning and writing as a kid. But my problem with all this (apart from the fact that i can't think of any thing else to tell the next generation what T stands for) is the assumption that we are powerful enough to do things to the earth and damage it.

Yes we are powerful enough to do things to this planet. And also foolish enough to think that the planet needs saving. If anything, it's we who need saving. What we are doing will cause damage that we cannot recover from. But its a matter of a few thousand or so years for our astonishing planet. If the speculation about the dinosaurs extinction due to a meteorite or some such calamity is true, it is that calamity that changed the path of evolution and lead to the present state just as something similar led to the state in which the dinosaurs were until the catastrophe. A calamity can cause a radical change in the direction of evolution. It may just be the case that what we are doing now on our planet is a catastrophe we are building and creating. It might just be the calamity that our planet need to direct the evolution in a new direction. Anything we do might be a bit too much for us to take, but is a matter just a matter of time for the planet. The planet, no longer ours due to our non-existence, will still thrive and be as diverse as we can possible imagine after our self called change.

The way we act now is not for the better or worse of the planet. The planet knows perfectly well how to take care of itself and its dwellers, whoever they will be. Our actions for change are not acts of benevolence, but steps that must be taken for self preservation. Surprisingly evolution seems to have reached some sort of an inland delta where the survival of the species isn't on the priority list. We seem to have lost track and imagine on a time scale so small that not only do we not see the effect of our actions but we also seem to be believing that we can destroy a system that has evidently recovered and indeed flourished after a few event that were calamities and disasters to the then inhabiting species.