sshhhh...

an awwww... moment

two Bengali Economists & Nobel Laureates meet in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on Dec 25.

Left: Dr. Amartya Sen (Economics, 1998)
2nd from right: Dr. Muhammad Yunus (Peace prize, 2006)

bla time on christmas eve

dude, where's my car?!

my first blizzard, my first snow shovelling, my first falling squarely on my ass on the snow... and almost cracking my pelvis...
I think I will stay away from ice-creams for quite some time.

some wise words

And when your life is in the toilet and that blue water is swirling around your head, just remember: The sky is also blue, and as we all know, the sky’s the limit.
(It’s important to hope, but vodka does not remove bloodstains from white linen.)
- from A WORD OF ADVICE.

when we were pirates

always a pleasure

... to watch you act. Anthony Hopkins.





a still from Bobby

tragedy in art and soliloquy: part II

Inspired by this post, I hereby dedicate a portion of my day-to-day posts to the great Shakespearean tragedies. This section will time-travel into the minds of the valiants who refused to die "many times" before their death, through pre-raphaelite and neoclassicist images that sought "refuge" in tragedies.
Please listen to Henry Mancini's "Romeo & Juliet" while going at it, to heighten your sense of sadness.
[tragedy in art and soliloquy: part I]

... For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Juliet and her Romeo.
Romeo and Juliet. Aaah... young love! And how it torments! For the very young, very naive and very beautiful Juliet, "It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden..." and for the young, passionate Romeo, "all this is but a dream". The two young lovers get trapped and torn between two warring families in Verona, Montague and Capulet. "My only love sprung from my only hate", mentions Juliet.
This saga of Shakespeare's 'Lyrical Period' is merciless, and the two love-birds are doomed from the beginning. "Alack, there lies more peril in thine eye..." The impending tragedy is obvious.
ACT III, Scene V: images by Dicksee [top-left] and Brown [top-right]

ACT IV, Scene IV left image by John Opie

No happy endings. Everyone dies at the end. Mercutio dies, 'accidentally and dramatically', in a duel between Romeo [a Montague] and Tybalt [a Capulet and Juliet's cousin], but had enough time to wish A plague o' both your houses! right before he passed away. Romeo slays Tybalt, and as a punishment, goes into exile. Juliet refuses to marry Paris, as she is secretly betrothed to her Romeo already, and goes into mourning. Herbal medicines and potions come to the rescue. Juliet gulps down some to go into a comma, so she can escape away with Romeo after she is taken to the family crypt. Misinformed about the staged death, a grief-stricken Romeo haggles with the Apothecary [There is thy gold, worse poison to men's souls] to buy some poison, kills Paris on the way, and drinks the poison to die on Juliet's lap. O true Apocotheary! Thy drugs are quick! Thus with a kiss I die. Juliet wakes up, sees the dead, and stabs herself with his dagger. Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die. And the two lovers lie dead together.

Surprisingly, it is not considered one of Shakepeare's 'great tragedies' like Macbeth or Hamlet. The tragedy stems more from mistiming, or misfortune, than individual flaws of the two lovers. The long-running feud ends at the price of the two lovers' lives.
ACT V, Scene III: Romeo at Juliet's Deathbed by Füssli ;





The Reconciliation of the Montagues and Capulets by Leighton ; Death of Romeo and Juliet by Millais;

happy grazing

its moo-time once again !! and so is A&T Balconism.




A Moo Sonnet
Your absent heart's the image of my need
Your hollow eyes I fill with my desire
These vacancies are all that I require
For food on which my fantasies can feed.
The hands that hold you here are undefined
The lips that kiss you now you must invent
My touch transformed into an argument
That finds its major premise in your mind.
We make of soundless tunes new harmonies
Embrace each other's fancies in the night
And find in these uncertainties delight--
We share, not selves, but possibilities.
I make myself your dreams though we're apart
Come fill the empty spaces of my heart.
[disclaimer: poem source unknown]

Are you THE ONE? [ real world part - II]

Ladies of the Butterflies: Amazonian and Elizabethan .

Are you THE ONE? [real world part - I ]

“Look at us...I'm frozen, you're dead...and I love you.”

Some dude wants me to believe that I have a Second Life waiting for me in some cyber world, far more real, far far more interesting than the one I have right now. It is just a click away. Hide away into a world of avatars, fountains, birds and live with people that you can pick and choose.

		Fembots are in. So, are cosmic narcissism, eternal youth, ’Beautiful People’ fantasy, and extraordinarily narcissistic vanity projects.

"the [real] world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth." It’s a choice between two pills, as Morpheus has warned Neo. One blue, which would enable him to wake up safe in his bed but never learn the truth about the Matrix. "You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.” The other is the red, which would allow him to "see how deep the rabbit-hole goes".

And finally, it is believed that if one's mind cannot adjust to the implanted reality that results in a Schizoid Embolus, a lobotomy is the only solution.

... when tiny things happen a million times

"The journalists kept pestering him: 'What is this programme? How dare you think that something that works in Bangladesh can work in the U.S?' It was in this context that Clinton said, 'This guy deserves the Nobel Prize.' "

Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh wins Nobel Peace Prize, 2006.
It's a great, great honor!
... When tiny, tiny things start happening a million times, it becomes a large thing. It lays down the foundation of a strong economic base. With women participating in building this economic base, it becomes the foundation for better social and economic future ...
In the future the question will not be, "Are people credit-worthy", but rather, "Are banks people-worthy?"
The bank that started off with only $27 in 1976, now has 6.6 million borrowers, of which 97% are women. Even beggars are eligible to get Grameen loans, without interests. The micro-credit schemes of Dr. Yunus was introduced in different countries all over the world [that included the Clintons introducing it to some of the poorest communities in Arkansas, in the United States].





happy pictures of the win!

weatherMan

Florida Weatherman attacked by a roach

sorry...

couldn't hold myself back from posting this video. Looks like our house-favourite is going national, and international big time. And I am not apologizing for this cheesy image. See the video and judge yourself: The Stewart Factor on MSNBC.

tragedy as art & soliloquy, part I

Inspired by Toski's post, I hereby dedicate a portion of my day-to-day posts to the great Shakespearean tragedies. This section will time-travel into the minds of the valiants who refused to die "many times" before their death, through pre-raphaelite and neoclassicist images that sought "refuge" in tragedies.
Please listen to Tchaikovsky's SwanLake while going at it, to heighten your sense of sadness.


She shall be buried by her Antony.
No grave upon the earth shall clip in it
A pair so famous...
Antony and Cleopatra. This was true love, in a true love-hate relationship fashion. After losing the war to Octavius, Antony denounces Cleopatra. "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me". Cleopatra stages her own death to get Antony back in her life which backfires on her. Antony, not being able to bear the pain, takes his own life. His asks Eros, his aide, to do the dirty deed for him (which drives a guilt-ridden Eros to commit suicide) and finally after several failed attempts wounds himself bad enough to die in Cleopatra's arms. Not one to back down, Cleopatra, refuses to surrender to Octavius, and intends to meet her love in her afterlife. She silently takes the bite of an asp in her hand. "Where's my serpent of old Nile? For so he calls me".

Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear, Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come.

Julius Caesar. A story of envy, ambition, power, honour and patriotism. Ignoring soothsayer's premonitions, Caesar faces death at the Senate in the hands of the conspirators, who have taken oath to save Rome from a supposedly corrupt Monarchy. And such treachery is too much to bear for Caesar. "Et tu, Brute?" says Caesar, and "Then fall, Caesar..." says Shakespeare. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears...", says Marc Antony at Caesar's death and drives the Romans against Brutus. Caesar's ghost haunts Brutus to warn him of his impending defeat in the war with Antony and Octavian "thou shalt see me at Philippi". Brutus and Cassius commit suicide rather than falling into the hands of enemies.

... and the cow goes moo

Bringing color to a mundane existence, a means of self expression, symbolism, or feeling beautiful, for whatever reason, the live body has, time and time again, become a canvas for art. On top of that, 'live' body and 'dead' paint, share a symbiotic relationship of the static and the dynamic.

my body is a wonderland

collage cow of London

give me a live elephant anyday

These days, cows seem to be our greatest sources of artistic inspiration. Dull, inane cows with body paints [CowParade] are taking over the world (Denver being the latest victim), and I find that disturbing... even more disturbing than lip plates. Somewhere, there is a disconnection. The last time I checked ART 101, there was a distinction between body paint and body art.

I ask myself, why have cows suddenly become our sources of inspiration? Have we turned towards cows for our symbolic or spiritual means of expression? If so, what good will come out of cows turning into rockets or stegosauruses, or ovens? Do we relate to cows more than any other animals for that matter?
How will these awaken me, you ask? I look at it and all I get back is a bland "moo". Now, go figure!

Boston Moo

Denver Moo 01

Denver Moo 02