Yes, it has been long. Please bear with me.

Over the last few weeks I have been annoyed, amused, frustrated and incensed at reading/hearing analysis relating to the increasing prices around us – food, oil, living. Analysis that puts the blame quite squarely on the developing world, or the middle-east, or anyone but here. Why? Because there are more people in the rest of the world that _combined_ use more resources than USA.

Combined.

And it’s definitely not fair for 1/3rd of the world’s population to use more oil or food or energy than North America does. Of course not.

I called up dad to find out what he pays for petrol. Over Rs. 52.00 a litre. Almost $5.00 a gallon. And we complain that developing countries like India are subsidizing their gas too much!

This NYT article is me screaming.

Indians Find U.S. at Fault in Food Cost

I was in New York a couple of weeks ago for a friend’s wedding. (Yes, another one. I am broker than broke.)
While there, we caught a Broadway show on Broadway. (As opposed to a show Off Broadway a.k.a. Chicago) My first in all my visits. Exciting.

But it wasn’t.

We saw Spelling Bee. I’d heard that it was entertaining, (and I guess it was, if you get your laughs from watching very cliched characters playing very stereotypical roles).  It was also the only show we could get discounted tickets for 3 people at the TKT counter.

So, stereotypes. The only black person on stage was the convict-on-parole bouncer.. er.. comforter who is supposed to give the mis-speller an apple juice, a hug (or two if you’re a pyt) and lead them off stage without ‘making a scene’. The Spellers? A nerdy East Asian girl with a perpetual mean (and I mean Mean) scowl on her face cause she’s got all this pressure and expectations, and is constantly misunderstood. A not-do-nerdy, horny Asian guy who gets an erection by just looking at a girl. A country bumpkin who’s a little … er… slow. A forlorn looking hippy little thing with stringy hair whose mother has abandoned her to search for spirituality in India (but still loves her). And a 13 year old conservationist with two fathers.

I guess, if they really wanted to be stereotypical, they would have had an Indian kid in there too. (Or maybe they just couldn’t find a South Asian actor in New York? Ha.)
Or maybe only gay, liberal people can raise ecologically aware children. (That may be a sufficient condition, not a necessary one.)

Anyhow.. apart from all the little things that I found annoying (and since a lot of people were laughing, I’d say that everyone didn’t) it just wasn’t a funny show. Ok, the Jesus part was funny. Have to give it that.

Jesus to Asian girl – “Child, I will not be disappointed if you do not win the Spelling Bee. But I won’t be disappointed if you win it either. Frankly, I just don’t much care about it.

Overall. Just. Not. Funny. Enough. Definitely not worth the $50 a discounted ticket.
Avenue Q, here I come.

BUT, I did get to see Indian Ocean perform at the Supper Club the next day. The last time I saw them was in college in Delhi, ten years ago. I got re-aquainted with their music and bought a CD.
Now, that was totally worth it.

So I figured out why my page was taking so long to load. I was using a ‘skin’ and I’m guessing a lot of other people were using the same one.
Anyhow it’s gone now, and my page is back to the old look.
Way quicker.

So, just when I thought that I was ‘set’, I realize that I can’t run Avid Express Pro 4.1 on my clunky G4.
I can’t understand why, since they’re both from the same era. Oh, about 18 generations old.

So now… should I buy a new Computer? Do we need Avid on dual platforms? Is Final Cut Pro enough?

Aaaaaarrrghhhh!

When I think of the circus, I remember Pune. And Mera Naam Joker.  And Fast, Cheap and Out of control. Delhi had its share of posters for Gemini Circus et al, but Pune was plastered with them.
Last semester, one of my documentary students did her research for a film on the Circus. She was/is mesmerised by it.

I have never been to the circus. Well, let me correct that. I actually have. During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as PM, one of the years ( I forget which one) was declared the year of Indo-Russian friendship. There were cultural festivals galore and one of the events was the performance of an amazing Russian Circus at the Indira Gandhi Stadium (yes, the one that looks like a spaceship!). I feel sad that I don’t remember anything more about that event. It was maybe 1989 or 1990. I was really young. What I do remember is that Dad took Deepak and I to the show. We had never been to anything like it. Magical doesn’t even begin to cover that evening. Just thinking of it now makes me feel weird. It was also one of those rare times when Dad took us out because it was something we might enjoy.

No, no, no. I’m not feeling sorry for myself. Far from it. We had a very democratic household. If you wanted to do something, you said you wanted to do it. The it would be discussed. We might go, we might not. But I never remember a time, apart from this one, when someone said to me “We should do this, you’ll like it.” We did. I did.

I guess what I’m saying is that sometime options don’t exist because one doesn’t know that they exist. As a 12 year old I didn’t think we could go to see a Russian Circus because a) I didn’t think we could afford it, but b) really, I didn’t think that it was something I could do.  Other kids did that kind of thing. Not me. Other kids’ parents took them to Appu Ghar, not mine. (The first time I went to Appu Ghar was in my freshman year at college. My, what a disappointment.)

But we went to the Circus and it is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.

Ok. I guess I am feeling sorry for myself.

I watched TV today. I can’t remember the last time I watched something on TV.
The first ad was for the Cirque de Soleil. That’s one of the Circuses that my student did her research on. I might not have even have known of them otherwise.
They’re doing Love




- A celebration of the musical legacy of the Beatles.

*sigh*

Other Kids go to watch the circus. Because a) I can’t afford it and b) really, I don’t think it’s something I can do.

So my roommate is waiting to take over my room. Now that I don’t know if I’ll leave it.
life.
ha.

Fargo is one of my favourite films.

Hope is a terrible thing.

I haven’t kept a journal in years. I wish I had.
Xanga is the closest to a journal for me. I just re-read my entries from two years ago. I could reprint those entries right now and they would be perfectly relevant. Too relevant, infact, and that’s dangerous.

I’m sad. I guess I will be, until I get myself out of this ditch.

Time, now.

I’m shooting for three days at Lollapalooza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!     (3 days, 8 stages, 130 bands)

I get a free pass for the entire weekend. I get paid. Well.

yes.