Shivji bihane chale

Nah, I am not going to make this all about embedding youtube videos here...

But, not too long ago I had mentioned that this song from Munimji (an old Hindi movie, 1955, I believe) was my favorite video to watch over and over [just like I couldn't get enough of White & Nerdy] at one point in my life, and thought I must keep it handy here, in case I get the urge again to be obsessed by it...

The playful yet artful lyrics and dance, the folksy feel, the rollicking and roguish tempo the number presents are all just brilliant in my mind.

The caricature-like portrayal of Shiva is balanced beautifully by the actor, playing the part of Shiva, with his dance movements and his expressions...

What can I say? Some things just catch me at the right time and I am bowled over by them! Isn't that what Life is all about?!

White and Nerdy

Quite by accident the other day I was drawn to the laptop screen by this very catchy song that D was playing from YouTube.

It was just too darned irresistibly funny for me, so, I ended up making him play it about a dozen times back-to-back!

Of course, it *had* to be Weird Al:-)

It is apparently based off Chamillionaire's Ridin' (Dirty) - a song I had been blissfully unaware of until then.

Laugh if you will, but, I was filled with nostalgia staring at something that looked like Time-Independent Schrödinger equation as background for part of this song!!

-[(h²/2μ)∇² - e²/r]ψ(r) = Eψ(r)

Except, h is Planck's constant, whereas Schrödinger equation uses the reduced form h/2π or ħ.

[OK, no light bulb jokes, and no physicist jokes either - except maybe one: You might be a Physics student if... you pause a Weird Al parody video to read the equation in the background to see if it might be right!]

But, the part that has made me watch this over and over is the part where Donny Osmond dances along - it is unbelievably ROFLOL for me...

Now, the disturbing part is that I do have Stephen Hawking's books in my library, and love MC Escher's impossible reality graphics (who doesn't, right?!), D and I own the Star Wars trilogy and Monty Python VHS tapes (I know, we should get the DVDs soon), and I spent a lot of my grad student days watching Happy Days (and Dick van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore) on Nick at Nite, and Star Trek... D has even written a transliterator of sorts for Klingon (and Qenya)... D and I play Trivial Pursuit, Scrabble, even Boggle for fun...

Well, most of the above are inevitable part of my Master's in Physics and then a Master's in Computer Science, so, I guess I can't be all that nerdy ;-)

Yes... I need to get out more, but, with baby Ana keeping me busy and working full time, I take what decent laughter I can get :-)

Man of Constant Sorrow

It was one of those weeks where I was too tied up to visit and edit my queue on Netflix, so, was stuck with D's choice. Usually, his choice of movies sort of don't agree well with mine. I have been pleasantly surprised at times, so I always give it a chance.

Anyway, that's how I happened to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou?

To me, a movie is just a movie, actors are just actors. I try not to gush about them too much or trash them too hastily.

Don't get me wrong: Movie is a wonderfully creative medium and I am quite awed by it at times. I do find a lot of movies very entertaining. I love watching movies if I am in the right mood for it. Quite a few movies have left an impression on me about the artistry, cinematography, story, direction and such. So, as a medium, I absolutely tend to appreciate it.

I am digressing...

Although I was blissfully unaware of the movie until then, I sort of liked O Brother, Where Art Thou? but, I especially liked the music in this movie a lot.

A lot of bluegrass music, and american folk music in general, is a new discovery for me as I did not start learning about them until recently.

Therefore, I had not heard this apparently very old and popular song Man of Constant Sorrow until I was treated to the Soggy Bottom Boys' version in O Brother, Where Art Thou?

I am not sure why, but I am quite taken with this song. It's sort of like I can't explain why I get all teary eyed every time I hear a powerful rendition of Amazing Grace - the melody moves me, hits the right notes - am not sure it is the lyrics that get me... this is the most-requested piece at home when D plays his concertina or tin-whistle






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p.s: although I don't have an audio clip to put up here, there is a sample available here if interested.