Baraka: Behind the Scenes/ Excerpt

You can watch it on youtube if you are interested, it's broken up into 10 videos. Its not the same as watching it on the big screen, but at least you could see it. Absolutely worth it.





Balinese Monkey Chant:



Kecak (pronounced: /'ke.tʃak/, roughly "KEH-chahk", alternate spellings: Ketjak and Ketjack), a form of Balinese music drama, originated in the 1930s and is performed primarily by men. Also known as the Ramayana Monkey Chant, the piece, performed by a circle of 100 or more performers wearing checked cloth around their waists, percussively chanting "cak" and throwing up their arms, depicts a battle from the Ramayana where the monkey-like Vanara helped Prince Rama fight the evil King Ravana. However, Kecak has roots in sanghyang, a trance-inducing exorcism dance.[1]

Can you Name the Rock Bands in this Picture?

Apparently there's more than 50 bands in this picture. A friend of mine got 22 already, I can spot some of 'em but won't pen 'em down until later. I'm actually working today!

Baraka

The title Baraka is a word that means blessing in many different languages. IMDB rating is 8.1

The movie was filmed at 152 locations of 24 countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cambodia, China, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Nepal, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Tanzania, Thailand, Turkey, and the United States. It contains no dialogue. Instead of a story or plot, the film uses themes to present new perspectives and evoke emotion purely through cinema. The film was the first in over twenty years to be photographed in the 70mm Todd-AO format.

Cinemagic is finally back in Kuwait, and Baraka is the first for the rooftop screening. Looking forward to it.

Lexulous: The Not-So-New Scrabulous.

Yes, I know I'm the last person to have figured that out. Unless you found it after the 20th of this month :-P

I think most of us in the blogosphere are Scrabbly people and facebook friendly, probably know about the Mattel Hasbro /Scrabulous lawsuit that started about a year ago. As you can see, BBC and alot of other newspapers gave alot of attention to the application being taken down by Facebook; but just NPR.COM seems to have acknowledged the progress of the story! I just hate it when there isn't a follow up. Because something else came along. Red hot. And left like that, never quelled in the recesses of our minds. We never have closure. I just think news sites should allow personalized accounts which could email you follow-ups of stories you choose to select for updates.

Apparently I've been missing Lexulous since the 1st of January. It's renamed and it has now has 8 letters instead of 7, different points for tiles and some other tiny tiny tweaks. It's made up with a progress graph and a private notes feature. All your bingos, wins, other esteem boosters,etc are still viewable. Scrabble has put out its own application which is unfortunately only available to U.S and Canadian users so I can't even find something about it to criticize. Scrabble application developers claim Scrabble would still be preferred as the creator Alfred Butts spent ages during the Depression to tweak it to perfection. But Butts probably had the time to while away on it then. Either way, one mans meat is another mans poison, and I'm all for Lexulous. Mostly because thats our only choice.

Office Politics.

In the kilometres of the company car given to you. On your cell phone bills they receive. It's lit by the lights in the false ceiling. It's marked on the white board. It's oozing enough office politics to make you tear your hair out. It's ticking off but it's behind you right now as well, peering over your shoulder at your screen. It's everywhere . Kiss some butt, ostracize someone else, make someone the scapegoat, ignore someones mistakes. It's one big gooey dollop of bullshit.

But there's nothing you can do, is there? If you're not playing the game, you are being played with.

Unbloggerliness

Pardon me for my utter unbloggerliness! But while Obama and Slumdog Millionaire rock the world, I've switched on my kick-some-butt mode. The subliminal effect of the changes made in the office by my boss must have worked. Was working on this kick ass deal that I finally won yesterday, that snared my indispensability during these crazy times. Buddies being made redundant and companies here being liquidated, shutting shop and squeakily grinding to a halt is alot of what we talk about over coffee these days.

Okay, it wasn't just work that kept me from clogging this spot. Picked up a new book, Basketcase; signed up for some online MBA classes; bought some 23 bootlegged DVDS , discovered Lexulous (Scrabulous blinged up and pimped out to look different) and drank enough Friday night to make me feel like a boiled cabbage all of yesterday. Thats mostly caused by too much drinking and no dancing. I usually dance, right next to the speakers. Though I guess it depends on who you are with. I found myself following my buddies meander out of the smoke filled tent, over to the beanbags. "We're getting old" said both the grinning 32 year olds I was with. As we scooted away at an early half past one, I make a mental note to put more thought into who I drag along to these things with me. One more venting opportunity left undanced.

Office Buzz: Discipline at Work

There's a buzz at work today. It's been there for the last 4 days which is why I havent been here.. I think there the silence was loud enough last year that the dissent and demotivation was heard clear. At the beginning of this year, the boss imposed a few changes. Get here at half past 8. We used to stroll in around 10 the whole of last year, enough time to work up an appetite for lunch. Lunch Break is now strictly 1-2 if we plan on heading out for lunch. New PCS, with decent sized monitors. I couldn't stand the neglected desktops with curbed access, so I'd cart my laptop too and fro and enjoy limewire, power DVD, Skype, photo story and word biz. These new pcs doesn't give us admin access. He alloted a budget for some renovation and told us to throw in options for consideration.
I'm not fazed. In fact, I don't really mind. We can still leave early. The pretexts of client meetings reigns strong. I've got vasta (Kuwaiti term for influence) with the IT department. I hope the buzz lasts, it's gotten everyone inspired and on their toes after a very long time. This means I don't have to put the audio recording of his afternoon snore. Instead, I'm going to google what painting I wanna put in my space.... Tallyho!

Ventage

There isn't any more home made rum, nevermind whisky. I even got up to rummage through the fridge a second time. I won't again, it's freezing yonder my red quilt. Frosty hitchiked to Kuwait on a piercing breeze for the week, as predicted by the news.
It's been a while since I've come back here. It's the same with its haunting silence. The tastefully painted walls close in on me and the elegantly furnished apartment seems to be missing a soul. The quilt on the bed folded, untouched. How can red look so cold?

I struggle with the internet usb for 10 minutes before I get it to work, there is no way I would survive a quiet night here. My hard drive full of some unwatched Miyazaki has been forgotten at my desk at work. The cable here hasn't been fixed since forever either. I had spent an hour driving around without switching on the radio, self imposed silence to find the source of the cacophany in my head. Delayed reaching the bleak enforced quietitude of my own home. God, I hate staying alone. Apparently melodramatically so.

I let musicovery unfurl its 70's rock at me, and discover the Electric Lights Orchestras "Last Train to London". The sound permeates the corners of the room and I fall asleep, table lamp still gowering at the walls. Wednesday I'll make sure I'm not short on some whiskey philosophy.

I dedicate this song to me, ha!

The tone at 00:30 reminds me of the beginning (again 00:30) of Simply Reds "Sunrise", non?

Career Counsellors in Kuwait. None.

As I commented on another blog yesterday, ideas of career change have been swishing and plopping loud in my mind. I am in a pretty good job, particularly good for the evolution of this blog, but the dissatisfaction due to unproductivity is not worth the lack of sanity I feel with my utterly idle mind, that is soon going to resemble melting cheese at this rate. I don't want to clamber a ladder thats leaning against the wrong wall.
I got in touch with Bayt for some advice, but they said they couldn't dish out any; and to go to another One which I can't name. I wound up sending my CV there, which landed up with someone who apparently knew too many people I knew. I didn't care too much about who he told how much I was making, but never mind common friends- he also knew some of the management from my company. You know that shoot-me-in-the-head-now feeling you get once in a while? Yeah, t'was mine to feel just then.
Anyways, I tried to get my mind off that, and have sent my beautifully consolidated career crisis summary to three career advisors. I hope one in particular replies back, he has an excellent source of articles that have been particularly insightful. Another may just not respond too kindly because I researched his name on facebook and sent him a message about my plight. Heh. He had a kindly face and a cool FB profile pic of him dressed as a Roman gladiator. It might work. In case nothing works, I'm applying for this.

Hash pipe, Ass Wipe.

Blogging during the Economic Crisis.

I really wasn't due for another post today.... I have so much to catch up on - blogs to read that is, and blogs to comment on. I wake up with only three teaspoons of creativity everyday and it gets very hard to distribute. Besides, the faster I spew out posts, the lesser sense each one makes.

No, seriously, I haven't a clue how you all do it. If you have more than 20 blogs even to follow, and each one of 'em disgorges a post every other hour; there's still alot of content even if I wouldn't be exaggerating there. Then blogging a post that is good enough to make you believe you successfully vented, it rapes your schedule, if you have one. If you don't have a schedule, you don't even realize that you should not be on BBC's news in pictures, the most recent in daily comics or Science's most recent discoveries. There just ends up being no darn time for work!

Update: Not working right now is seriously not a very good idea. The ripple effect in Kuwait of the crisis has about 150 workers laid off in a steel factory, 300 in an electronics company, 10% of a banks managerial staff, and 50 Kuwaiti employees between 6 brokerage companies, etc I'm going to try to do some work now. Even though, this wasn't the inspiration I was talking about at the end of my last post.

Dispassion in this Recession.

I can't get myself to work. There are some valid reasons and then there are some not so valid reasons. The former overpower the latter. I may be biased about that, but I obviously don't think I am.

I feel like I'm doing cart wheels on the edge of a cliff. A tarnished reputation is just a weaker armor. I'm rebelling really, after a bitter sweet clash between my employers and me 6 months ago,when they refused to accept my resignation and bribed me with a pay raise. I buckled and quit my fight, sold my soul, and thus, Clogspot became my rebellion; and faithful time consumer. It's been 6 months, and I'm in a whirlwind of slack. The 6th month of slacking isn't even a phrase you are allowed to say. Slacking is allowed in days, if not hours; but never months. It would take me one dedicated day to pick up and rock again, but I just can't seem to right now. I can't seem to slap some motivation across my seemingly ADD plastered face
.

A memory slithers into my mind. ..... Could I have stumbled across a solution?

Friday Market Souq

Yesterday being my one day off for the week, I wound up too lazy to follow my plan to check out the Wespa folks getting their game on out at Mughal Dine. The couch had an Asphodel shaped groove, and refused to let me off it. Not until I was really hungry, and discovered my fridge was empty. No, actually it wasn't. But what was in there wasn't supposed to have something green on it.

So I drove around in the sunshine searching Shawermas and reached Shuwaikh. The light was beautiful. There were no Shawerma shops in sight. And my pangs of hunger were getting louder and sounding suicidal. Then it dawned on me, The Friday Souq. Kuwaits version of a Flea Market between the notorious public pet clinics and the animal market. They have lots of little food stalls and the light was perfect to catch some colors.

Materials

Friday Flea Market Fashion. I thought some of them would make great costumes for theme parties, they could look regal combined with the right accesories.

Leather jackets. These are second hand.

Art and Decor

Toy colors

Fake Plants. As green as they come.

Okay, I oughtta put this blog away and give the hallucinogen influenced anime I'm watching my undivided attention. I'll blog about it later though, I'm sure heh.

Of Cats and Men.

I live with a friend who is a freak about fur :- not fur as in a fur shawl but fur as in animal sheddings. She hates it. This had prompted me to try to both subliminally and directly convince my friends since the last 6 months, to adopt a pet on my behalf. No matter how great my hypnotic tactics were, my evil scheme was unfortunately not genious enough. After all, I was trying to convince them to keep the animal at their place while I promised to clean, groom, walk, feed and most importantly love the pet. They claimed to know how reliable my commitment gets when something shiny is waved even in my peripheral vision.

Somewhere down the line, someone did "get" me a cat that was to reside with him. It was coincidentally already several months old and it's kitty cuteness had been replaced with a potty trained bum . Since grooming and walking were mostly subtracted from the deal, I got the feeding,cleaning the litter, and loving it part.

I know I oughtta be obliged, but I can't help feeling that I got the funny (not worse) end of the deal. He is a cat person, and wanted one all along minus its crazy kitty heydays. I adore the cat, and can't imagine abandoning it. But I wish he hadn't.... Now I need to make new friends yonder the current bunch; 'coz these have deemed me a partial pet owner already.My hope lies in getting some strangers love me enough to get me my own puppy which they would keep for me. Life is tough.

This was the adorable munchiken who won me over.
This could've been the adorable munches I've wanted all my life.
a mutual symbiosis evolves over time, turning into a black hole of convenience and a tangled spider web of utter rationality.

Weekend Bliss

Smoke swirling up from the burning cigarette, the sunlight streaming in from the french window highlights the hypnotic designs. Jack Johnson playing from the credits of Curious George on the TV, it doesn't matter to me that I've just woken up and saw just the last 20 minutes of it. I'm not even hungover from last night but have enough pictures on the camera here on the table that would make you think otherwise. I remember all of it though, especially the fact that someone successfully helped me find out that it was Pearl Jams "Smile" that I was singing the two chorus lines of, " I miss you already, I miss you always". I'd googled and youtubed it several times in the past 8, yes 8 months; but never went beyond the 4th page to realize it was Pearl Jam. The sense of closure over placing a song thats been on the tip of your tongue has it's own sense of satisfaction to it.

I can hear the calls to prayer in the distance, resonating between here and the blue blue sea. Now Chatz clambers onto the couch, and acts like she's accidentally stumbled on my lap for a cuddle. She looks like she wants to raise an eyebrow to question why this keyboard is more interesting that her feline cuteness. I think I''ll leave you to smile.....

God on Facebook

Yesterday a friend started a group on facebook about God and his existence. It was a long time coming as views are always imposed upon each other by a few people we know. Few days ago a pastor had commented on my horoscope related status message saying I should read Jeremiah something:something. My friend responded with a " hayle yeah, can aaah heeir an ammmen??" He is an utter atheist, and I as a rather diplomatic agnostic didn't quite deign to comment despite being rather amused.

His little facebook group has caused quite alot of uproar though, enough even that three of us common friends who had met up yesterday to catch up, ended up facebooking each other aross the table between sips of whisky and deep pensive drags of nicotine. Yea, it would be obvious which side we'd be on, huh?

Either way, it is working out as more of a revelation than it intended to be. Almost everyone on the group is at work today, and it hasn't slowed the pace of the argument at all! Profound questions carefully worded and trivial ones slapped on the group wall, and someone seems to think that Moses is Noah, heh. Either way, it's only pastor guy on the defence right now and I hope some mroe people join him because the profound and trivial questions alike are increasing tenfold with each person being added.

I haven't added too much as alot of the basic questions are covered and yet unanswered due to Pastor guys busy schedule, but I did try to update myself on whats the latest from the Science teams argument. This debate between Dawkin vs some Collins was pretty interesting. I know it's from ancient 2006 , but it seriously doesnt make it less interesting to read, really, no. Gonna see how either side has evolved their arguments from there.

Stanford Commencement Address.

I really needed a dose of this today! Steve Jobs (05)in this video, and Oprah in 2008.

Chivalry and The Modern Woman.

So it started like this:-

(over msn, of course.)

Gaia (about a guy tryin' to woo her)

He's taking me to Bahrain for Valentine's!

Me (rather envious)

Ooooo la!

Gaia

But I ain't letting him pay for the air fare

Me (the trip there ain't really expensive)

Why not? let him, lol
Gaia

nah.. :)

Me
yea i know what you mean

Though.. i have sometimes found disadvantages to our independent-women-type mindsets

Gaia
sometimes? most of the time actually, but then cant help it..
Me (I ignored her comment and went on, but in retrospect I wonder why she'd think it's most of the time)
~~See, guys are supposed to be providers ,yea? But we're like hey, i can take care of myself! Almost everytime, the guy seemed offended if rejected.... and then they don't really offer help again. I think we get ousted from a category of women-who-need-men. It seems like we disrupt the innate nature of mans need to be the man for a woman. If we don't let 'em, they will do it for someone else to fulfil that sense of obligation.......
Me
just experimenting with one of the species since i can study his behaviour lol. Does it make sense?
Gaia ( after 6 minutes)

yeah it does...
we shouldnt deprive them of their need.. :D
Me
heh i know it sounds suspiciously beneficial to us, but when it comes to your own man- doesn't he need to feel he is being all man for you? Ensuring they are needed, so to say?

At this point, I realize she is actively ignoring me so I drift off wondering what might be the elusive accurate balance. If a guy is being nice to you, shouldn't you let him? Let him know he is taking care of you even though you may not need it? He offers to change your tyre, but you could've called the repair shop. You could've driven to that far away place by yourself, but he says he'll take you. We say we can do it ourselves, but we love a guy doing things for us as well. So why not just let 'em? Maybe this is how nature has filtered down mans nature of being a provider?

I tried so hard but I couldn't find a way to get rid of the idea that it looks like modern woman gets to have her cake and eat it too! Honest, it isn't.

I just found another link from a woman's persperctive.

4 in the A.M

Remember how I said I had I had to go to Arifjan for my paperwork on the 3rd? Well, the above picture summarizes my luck for the day.
The previous night, I was at a wedding half heartedly sipping on a superbly diluted Vodka that tasted like utter Sprite. I hadn't slept a wink but the redbulls kept me as awake as they kept me edgy. Always a funny combination. Anyways, the puncture was not even the worst part ironically enough. A friend still managed to get me to Arifjan on time, where I waited in the biting cold for 4 odd hours to be told that my paperwork was not complete. Argh indeed! Now I'm at my desk sleepy as ever because I slept all day yesterday and wound up stayibng up almost all of last night. I need to return to my time zone seriously. Well, I need to go find a solution for my series of yawns. Any rememdies, folks?