Big congratulations are in order to Shahid Kapoor and Kangana Ranaut on their Filmfare Awards!! I know awards are bullshit--believe me, I know--but that doesn't mean it's not nice to see two of the finest young talents working in Bollywood be appreciated. And two young talents who spent many years slogging away in the trenches. Shahid Kapoor has just blossomed post-Jab We Met. I haven't seen Haider (yet. haven't seen it YET!) but I have seen almost all of his other recent work and though not all the films were wonderful, SHAHID was wonderful in them.
And you all know my love affair with Kangana. Oh, Kangana~~ I've loved her since Gangster and I'm just so… proud? I don't know if that's the right word. But here is an actress who just hung in there when lesser mortals would have given it up and packed it in. Through horrible rumors, heartbreak, more heartbreak, sexism, and worse. She kept on acting.
(It's probably too much to ask for a Kangana-Shahid starrer next… but can we have one? Please?)
Anyways, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts--Penn's Sunday School by Penn Jillette, one half of magic duo Penn & Teller. And Penn got me thinking. He was talking about the Super Bowl and how a New York Times article had kind of talked him into that it was a big cultural deal and he should be doing SOMETHING for it. But when he went around talking to his friends about their Super Bowl plans, they were like, "Penn, did we do anything for the previous 48 Super Bowls?" And he was like, "No." "So what makes this one different?" And it struck him that he'd been unconsciously talked into worrying about it by the article.
And there are so many things like that, especially now, where the media bubble hypes things or talks us into believing narratives that aren't really true or that aren't really true for us. But because they get cycled around the insular media-sphere it seems way more prevalent and important than it really is. All those outlets copy everything from one another. It's really pathetic. The state of journalism.
And nobody questions them. I've been enjoying Glenn Greenwald on this topic. He had a couple good pieces recently--one on the hypocrisy of the "Je Suis Charlie" free speech movement(i.e. "free speech for what I believe and censorship for everybody else" movement) and another on Jon Chait's unbearably whiny piece on the the oppression of white guy journalists with publishing platforms and large audiences.
Here's one of my favorite Kangana moments.
And I couldn't find the clip I wanted of Shahid getting ready in the morning but… actually, Chance Pe Dance is one of my favorite Shahid performances ever. He's AMAZING in this film.
And you all know my love affair with Kangana. Oh, Kangana~~ I've loved her since Gangster and I'm just so… proud? I don't know if that's the right word. But here is an actress who just hung in there when lesser mortals would have given it up and packed it in. Through horrible rumors, heartbreak, more heartbreak, sexism, and worse. She kept on acting.
(It's probably too much to ask for a Kangana-Shahid starrer next… but can we have one? Please?)
Anyways, I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts--Penn's Sunday School by Penn Jillette, one half of magic duo Penn & Teller. And Penn got me thinking. He was talking about the Super Bowl and how a New York Times article had kind of talked him into that it was a big cultural deal and he should be doing SOMETHING for it. But when he went around talking to his friends about their Super Bowl plans, they were like, "Penn, did we do anything for the previous 48 Super Bowls?" And he was like, "No." "So what makes this one different?" And it struck him that he'd been unconsciously talked into worrying about it by the article.
And there are so many things like that, especially now, where the media bubble hypes things or talks us into believing narratives that aren't really true or that aren't really true for us. But because they get cycled around the insular media-sphere it seems way more prevalent and important than it really is. All those outlets copy everything from one another. It's really pathetic. The state of journalism.
And nobody questions them. I've been enjoying Glenn Greenwald on this topic. He had a couple good pieces recently--one on the hypocrisy of the "Je Suis Charlie" free speech movement(i.e. "free speech for what I believe and censorship for everybody else" movement) and another on Jon Chait's unbearably whiny piece on the the oppression of white guy journalists with publishing platforms and large audiences.
Here's one of my favorite Kangana moments.
And I couldn't find the clip I wanted of Shahid getting ready in the morning but… actually, Chance Pe Dance is one of my favorite Shahid performances ever. He's AMAZING in this film.