This is from the A.O. Scott's review on the movie "Whip It" in the New York Times:

"The leader of the rival squad, Iron Maven, Bliss’s nemesis, is played by Juliette Lewis, whose scenes with Ms. Page have an extra dimension of pop-culture resonance, since Ms. Lewis was the Ellen Page of an earlier era."

Ms. Page here is Ellen Page. I know that I would feel the pop-culture resonance that A.O. Scott spoke about, and now I want to see the movie just to see two women, who personified the whip-smart but awkward girl in two different eras, interact with each other. The funny thing is that Juliette Lewis was Juliette Lewis before I was old enough to appreciate who she was or what she represented. Which is to say that I have only a second-hand memory of the cultural significance of an actress, and I can still appreciate how she fits into pop culture, despite the fact that we are talking about the pop culture of an earlier generation. Which is to say that I watch too many movies and spend too much time on Wikipedia.

This is what my playlist looks like right now-
Elisa- Dancing
Chantal Kreviazuk- Leaving on a Jet Plane
Jewel- Hands
Madeline Peyroux- Between the Bars
Kings of Convenience- I Don’t Know What I Can Save You From
Lord of the Rings- Gollum’s Song
Turin Brakes- Rain City
The Decemberists- Of Angels and Angles
This blogpost isn’t about anything in particular. Just listen to these songs and tell me if you like them.

I was sitting in my college library, working on my friend’s laptop. Sifting through the music on her laptop, I found the Amelie Soundtrack. Suddenly, the lights went out. And in the dark, the first few bars of Le Moulin rang out. If you’ve heard La Moulin, then you’ll know the part when the accordion stops and the piano starts playing. Try remembering how the piano starts. Better still, play the song as you read this. Now imagine the fluorescent lights in a large, dark hall flickering to life with this music. If you can do this correctly, and if you are in company, like I was, then you will do what I did. Breathe deeply, reign in the urge to smile broadly, and feel like the universe went out of its way to make you very happy.

Of Things I Like And Things I Learn

I like beginnings. I also like ends. Some of my friends would tell you that I like everything, but that is not true. I do not like the colour yellow ochre, and neither do I like it when quotation marks are used randomly. But, as usual, I digress. And I like digressing quite a bit.
So, I like beginnings. I like the beginning of a new year, and there hasn’t been a single year of school that I haven’t looked forward to. I like the chance to start afresh, I like how everything can be different. And most of all (and this is close to being my most favourite thing in the whole wide world)- I like the possibility that things are going to happen. New things, things which have never happened. The whole world could change in innumerable ways, and I don’t know how. It’s enough to make one giddy with joy.
But if one must begin, one must begin the right way. With the right mindset, observing the correct rituals. I believe in rituals. They are the primary reason why I can never be an atheist. Because, when I pray, or when I light an incense stick, I honestly believe that the act in itself is significant, that lighting that stick has indeed brought me closer to God. It’s a childish understanding of rituals, I am afraid, but one that has stuck with me nonetheless.
So, as I was saying, I believe in the right ritual. And starting something new with the right frame of mind. You see, I have a problem. I don’t learn lessons very well. I am always eager to learn them, however. Tell me a fable, and I will take it to heart. If only for the next day or so. If self-improvement books weren’t so corny, I would read them all. I am a strange sort of masochist.
So, because I don’t remember my lessons for long, I must remind myself of them periodically. I have a tiny notebook in which I write everything I learn. Of course, it takes a fair bit of reminding to actually write in it. I also have favourite books and movies that I keep going back to. Which, at last, brings us to the much-awaited point. I just saw Amelie.
*big grin*
I love the movie. Love it to bits and pieces, and then I join the pieces together and love it again. The Amelie Soundtrack is one of my favourite albums, right up there with the White Album and In Absentia. I listened to Amelie when my bus rolled out from Calcutta on a rainy dawn. I listened to Amelie in the backseat of a crowded bus, and I listened to Amelie in the dark, under my blankets, in the middle of the night. I love the music, and I love it only slightly less than the movie itself.
Which is why I reserve Amelie for special occasions. For those days when I need something to tilt my chin up. To learn, again, those tiny lessons which I keep forgetting. To not be cowardly. To not be too fond of stratagems. And to seize tiny moments. Oh, and also to not be afraid to lay yourself open once in a while, even if it’s to expose yourself for the cotton-candy stuffed bag of marshmallow mush that you really are.
So I watched Amelie again. I’ve taken note of my lessons, and hope to remember them when I wake up. For my third year in college.

Stonewall

"And we felt that we had freedom at last, or freedom to at least show that we demanded freedom."

Stonewall no more.

Do you remember a time when you used to hang out in Archies Gallery? I used to. That was before we had coffee shops- a period which coincided with the time when we never had enough money to hang out in coffee shops. So we used to meet at the local Archies Gallery, and giggle over the cards. Yes, we were very unimaginative. But shops were entertaining back then, and secretly admiring a Tom Cruise poster while pretending to be asexual was still not completely lame.
I was reminded of Archies Gallery for one particular reason. I remember, on the morning of my thirteenth birthday, I went there to buy return gifts for my friends. I bought colourful pads, pencils and stickers, and little paper bags to put them in. Because I had bought quite a lot of stuff, I got something free. The guy probably gave it to me because no one else would buy it, but I loved it, nonetheless. It was a keychain, but I transformed it to a badge and kept it attached to my duffel bag for a long time afterwards. I wasn't too young to appreciate irony or irreverance, and to my unformed sense of humour, the keychain/badge had both. And it allowed me a little irreverant shrug of the shoulder each time people asked me if I really felt what the keychain/badge said. I'd say, "I just thought it's funny" and feel so incredibly cool. Honestly, I was a dork. And keep that thought to yourself.
Anyway, the keychain/badge said this- "I Miss Michael Jackson".

I was watching Aliens, when I noticed something. Ripley’s cat, which is a tabby, is called Jonesy. Now, why is that significant? It’s because tabbies are orange-ish red in colour. And Jonesy is the name of my favourite character in Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher. And Jonesy was a redhead. The movie adaptation happens to be one of my favourite movies. As is Aliens.

I needed a compass.

My father gave me a compass. It has a brushed steel casing, and the interior is black, with white and green lettering. I always knew that west lay to the right of my house, and east was between the house with the screaming baby (there has always been a screaming baby, even though they have lived behind us for almost a decade) and the pink house which has been under construction forever. Oh, I actually knew where north for what it was, and not just as a point between east and west. This was because my neighbour, a Feng Shui enthusiast. stopped me in the middle of the road when I was in my tenth standard, and told me to position my study table so that it would face the north. But north lay in the corner between the door and the wall, so that never happened. That was the first and the last time I ever spoke to him. He died last month. This month, they painted his house for the first time since I moved to Saltlake. Which was, what, fifteen years ago?
Anyway, I am going to make a survival kit of sorts, and the compass goes in first. I will carry the kit around with me at all times. You know, just in case apocalypse struck.

I love a movie where the girl tells the guy that his cheeks are adorable and that she wants to fuckin' chew on them, and where the guy tells the girl that her face is so pretty that he wants to smash it in with a sledgehammer. I think it's hilarious.
Also, I just noticed that the picture on this blog is very appropriate. I do have the habit of biting my lower lip a lot.

My Favourites

Here's a truism- there are certain things that you keep going back to. They are known as your favourite things. They don't actually have to be things, they could be people too. Then they become your favourite people. To exercise precision- there are certain things and certain people you keep going back to- they are known as your favourites. You don't always favour them above all others. For example, I am not always in the mood for The Beatles. My best friend and I don't always like talking to each other. But like the Beatles, I know that my need for her company will continue throughout my life. A thing becomes your favourite when it recognises a permanent need in you, and fulfills that need. I say permanent, because, quite obviously, people change, and concomitantly, their needs change. But you see, your favourites recognise early on that indelible part of you that refuses to change, no matter what. Which is why, it is important to have favourites, to like certain things above others, to love some people a little more. To distinguish the delible from the indelible.
Woohoo! Delible is a word!