Michael Jackson: The man in the mirror

Ok well the boy has died, while he was still a boy! Peter Pan he was really, I thought it was a joke everyone made that Jackson never grew up, but it was true. He was an upside down person. The curious case of Michael Jackson is the name of the movie it seems.

He was remarkable, really. In December 1988 when i was a very little kid, i bought my first music tape, from money i had borrowed and stolen, It was Michael Jackson's BAD. I 'blogged' about it even then, before computers before blogging, before the internet, before mobile phones, i had to blog my purchase of something heavenly and I did, in my rough notepad that had my curious notes and drawings. It was a blog, now that i think about it. (see pic)

Everyone knew Michael jackson....but no one really knew Michael Jackson. His friends and relatives knew maybe. Maybe Lisa Mary Presley came to know him and left him! But to the rest of the billions of fans and critics, he was a super showman only. All his appearances, his music, his videos on MTV, his interviews, his stage performances, were manufactured, and heavily choreographed, edited and sanitized. Nothing was raw. His music was edited and re-edited, polished and smoothened. Sony took care of his promotional activities, everything was managed.

So all we fans/critics have ever seen of him was what was fed to us. What they wanted us to see.

I think the 80s era and the timing made him a lot more famous than he himself imagined. And it slowly got into his talented head. He was always a victim though, no matter what charges the media put upon him. He has cried and cried that he does not know what's going on, he was a little kid who had whims and cute desires, that the grown up world did not understand. Even if he DID like little boys, he did not want to sexually molest them, but wanted to be with them coz he related to them, he was a little boy himself! He may have been physically older, but he was just a little boy it seemed, a victim.

This guy became really famous. So famous that he ceased to become a human being. He had to become larger than life, hence the huge promotions, the huge statues, the grand entries, the big spending, as the show was getting bigger, the fan base huge, and this manufactured pop artiste was to be presented as such. It was all bound to collapse, really.

My heart goes out for the lonely little boy who died young at 50! It's so fitting that he almost broke the internet when he went away! Now everyone is listening to his music again, and watching his music videos and stage appearances on TV/net. Everyone.

He did went as far as fame can take you. He went to the end, and it turned really ugly at the end. I always wondered what he thought when he looked at the man in the mirror. I now think about that more often while I look at the mirror too.

Star Trek -Movie Review

Star Trek......... i waited and waited to watch it....little did i know that i had already watched it in the trailers of the movie on the net!

It had nothing in it which was new....the old star trek (TOS) series, made in 1966, had depth, vision, complex storylines, character development....and to top it all, sometimes it had surprise endings, a shock at the end of the 40 minute episode leaves me gasping even today.

Episodes took years to write, and scripts were drafted and redrafted several times before it was filmed. The graphics were not CG, but what do you expect in the 60s? But they made it up with awesome stories.

Small example:

In one episode Kirk and his people go down to a planet to meet an old scientist, but they are kept prisoners there, and they find out andriods(robots) are made there by that scientist, who look and behave like humans. Kirk is also duplicated and an andriod kirk is sent to the starship, with the real kirk kept as a prisoner. The episode progresses and Kirk fights it out and escapes, as he implanted some quirk in the andriod Kirk so that Spock gets the hint....Kirk also falls in love with a beautiful female andriod. Later they find out the old scientist who is such a genius, is in fact an andriod duplicate of that scientist who died decades ago. All this in one 40 minute episode.

There were many episodes like the one i mentioned above, which had so much depth and coolness, apart from being technically correct from a physics and astronomical point of view, that it was a treat to watch them.

STAR TREK (2009)

Oh where do I start? This movie is a treat if you don't know anything about Star-trek, if you are an 18 year old with your 15 year old girlfriend, this is THE movie to watch, thrills, laughs, special effects, emotions, and all of this served the fast food way.

But no, i have done the mistake of being a trekkie. I watched the original series (in rerun episodes on Star World in 1995) and well....my bad luck!

This movie feels like the fast forward button was pressed throughout.

There is an excellent opening sequence when Kirk is born, it set my hopes high for the rest of the movie. Then the second scene of a kid Kirk, getting chased for speeding, set my hopes even higher.

After that all was a big let down. Story: how can the fucking story be one-dimensional, when they have so many dimensions and black holes in the plot? beats me! But they did it!!

It was a simple good guy(Kirk) who is rash and brash, fights with so obvious bald/tattooed/MOGAMBO bad guy. We saw in the trailers, we know he's the bad guy. He will obviously fight Kirk/Spock.

Why did all of them had to be 17 year olds? Space wars were being fought as if it's a PS2 game and the video game's main Hero is stuck in a situation and certain cheat codes and fast button pressing will take him out of that situation...yes the way the characters were giggling and pressing buttons it did feel that way. But here they were saving planets.

Scotty says this is like shooting at a moving bullet, while being blindfolded and riding a horse, just to explain to the 15 year old girl sitting in the theater watching Star Trek just how much of a nerd/geek/techie/genius he is!

Spock actually drops Kirk to die on an icy planet. No comment on that....

This was a STAR TREK cartoon version! Kirk and Spock have Archie-Reggie type fights!

Maybe in a two hour movie they were trying to cram up everything they got to make it fast, furious and hard-hitting and didn't have time to breathe.

Or maybe i'm right.... the fast-forward button was left on!

Vicki

the coolest Gods of the universe part 1: Lord Shiva

Lord Shiva, the much revered, and one of the most amazing Gods of this cosmos. There is so much about Him, it's mind-boggling!


Lord Shiva is one of the Three Primary Gods, Lord Bhrahma is the Creator, Lord Vishnu is the Preserver, and Lord Shiva the Destroyer.

He is the lord of Dance!

He is the most mysterious Gods of the universe, and also the most contradictory.

He is seen as the Supreme God.

He is sitting in Mount Kailash, right now, in the Himalayas. Yes, that mountain, which shines like a diamond, is a strange figure in middle of the forest of mountains, like a flower growing in the middle of a puddle, and nobody goes near the Kailash mountain, nobody can touch it! Forget the bermuda triangle, take a look at a real heaven on earth, sort of like Superman's crystal home in the north pole........How cool is that!?

Shiva is Pure Consciousness; the masculine principle of the universe.


He is the one who is making the universe end and a new universes begin! Like the center of the Galaxy where new stars are given birth and old stars dissolve. He is beyond time and space, as you might have guessed. The universe, which has all those aspects is under His control.


Lord Shiva, takes pleasure in smoking, drinking and generally enjoying and making merry! He is the universal vibration for dancing, so its very apt too! He is also the most broad-minded and cool God that I have learned about, doing things that are beyond our level of understanding. Which even if we try to understand or comprehend, we'll get lost and our limited minds will think of those acts/deeds/truths in a wrong light.


I could go on about the astounding things, but the main thing here is the attitude of the God. He's is ultra-cool! He is the essence in Michael Jackson/Beyonce's dance steps! He is not very easy to explain, and that is the beauty! We really don't know nothing about Him! We don't! We know a few things, and those are facts, not mythology as is widely believed. Yes...TRUE facts, and your believing or not believing is not going to change those facts, because the believing/not believing part is just your ego, nothing more.

We really need to change our attitude towards the Gods and the so-called Mythology though, it's very hard to understand them anyway, so why have a negative or a disbelieving attitude?

Next week: Lord Krishna


Vicki

'Fuck!'

Fuck is one of the most beautiful words.  The English language should be proud of it.  I don't think any other language has such a beautiful word.

It is one magical word: just by its sound it can describe pain, pleasure, hate and love.

Besides the sexual meaning, there are also the following uses:

• Fraud: I got fucked at the used car lot.
  
• Ignorance: Fucked if I know.
  
• Trouble: I guess I am fucked now!
  
• Aggression: Fuck you!
  
• Displeasure: What the fuck is going on here?
  
• Difficulty: I can't understand this fucking job.
  
• Incompetence: He is a fuck-off.
  
• Suspicion: What the fuck are you doing?
  
• Enjoyment: I had a fucking good time.
  
• Request: Get the fuck out of here!
  
• Hostility: I am going to knock your fucking head off!
  
• Greeting: How the fuck are you?
  
• Apathy: Who gives a fuck?
  
• Innovation: Get a bigger fucking hammer.
  
• Surprise: What the Fuck?
  
• Anxiety: Today is really fucked. 
  

As you can see there are not many words with the versatility of 'Fuck'.

But if we ALL are using it, if Presidents and Vice-Presidents are caught on the microphone using it, if everybody knows about it, young people, old people, men, women, kids, everyone you can think of.......then why is this word so powerful?  Why does it still have that sting in it? the word "GOD" has lost all its power, the word "SEX" has still some sting left, and this F word is all stingy, after all these years.

And why do i have a bad feeling writing this piece on the F word? As if I'm going to be arrested for this!?  As if my friends now would not talk to me!?  Why is this word, which is SO out there, invoking such paradoxical and hypocritical feelings?

I want this word out on the streets in everybody's lips.  (Ok my mistake, it already is out on the streets, on EVERYBODYS lips!!)  Then what is my point?  I really don't know, but i'm amazed at the different reactions this tiny little 4 letter word evokes in people, and how it's still the dog whistle of humanity. 

V

Love the Pirates!

This case is straight out of a movie, involving our internet freedom, our liberty, and our digital future.  The Pirate Bay Trial is historic.   Take a look at the dynamics of Both the sides:

The Prosecution (Bad guys) are using the following:

- generalization of facts to distort them

- assumptions based on mis-assumptions.

- 'lack of evidence' points put out of the record(selective showing)

- very very little technical knowledge

- hypothesies

- hyperboles

- involved politics

The Pirate Bay (The Good Guys) have these points:

- country law mostly on their side.

- EU law on their side.

- very good technical knowledge

- real figures given in court talk. 

- no relation with users committing crime.

- provides indexing service just like Google

- no generalization, straight to the point.

- no politics involved

- says if linking to copyrighted material is illegal, then almost every site in the world, including Google, can be found guilty.

You can guess what my side is, what's yours?

V

(thanks to a comment by 'Doh' in TorrentFreak)

one shot: Facts! Part 2

Fact 2:  " The Sun gives our body Vitamin D"

Ok.  So that is all you brilliant scientists could find, after studying the glorious Sun?  The life-prevading, the spectacular source of everything, which gives all the plants and animals (and us) life, which gives us sunlight, which the reason for the rain-cycles, the weather, vegetation, and countless other miracles.  Without which we all die in 2 weeks, that God-like Sun, you say is there to give us a Vitamin D dose, which we can get from popping a pill.

V

COMPLIMENTS GONE WRONG!

Compliments never to give....

(learned the hard way.)

• Wow you got a pretty face! (apparently they think i mean the rest of them is not good)
• Hey for someone who just delivered a baby, you look great! (this one made them furious, but i'm clueless why)
• Hey you got an awesome body!  (implies to them that i meant their face is not good)
• Wow you gotta great smile!  (makes them smile sarcastically)
• No it's like you may have put on weight very very slightly, not more than a pound max.  (the lesson i learned is that i gotta follow the 'LIE! LIE! LIE thru your teeth!' rule, and just say they look skinny/wafer thin)
• Hey how come you're so pretty, when your parents are so ugly? (this one is obvious.  Don't say it to them in front of their mother.  Or father.  Or both.)
  

V

one shot: Facts! part 1

Fact 1: "95% of the human DNA is useless, hence is known as Junk DNA."

Okk.....soo..... just because you don't understand what it does, it's useless? Couldn't there be a possibility that your benchmark of it's use is not what it should be? No? Oh I forgot the part where you declared that you're the all knowing God of the universe.

V

(starting a new 'one shot' series where i put the known facts, that is what the scientists say... under my POV)

The missile part 2: SALE

The self-destructive missile raised a point on commercialism being important.  Here's another take:

Why is everything for sale?  I don't mean the discount sales, i mean everything in this world.....why is everything for sale?

There is a price you can pay for anything, and everything has a price.

Everything can be bought if the price is right.

The price is there, always.  It varies, but it's there.  There is a price tag on humans, on fetishes, on any kind of object, on feelings, on all the things that can be seen, tasted, heard, felt....and relished.  The price to pay can be your beliefs, desires, freedom, morals......

In a very New York like city i once visited,  i realised the place was so commercial, one could sell dirt there.

As in my earlier "one shot" post, agreed commercialism is important, but to what extent? It has crossed all limits.  It's scary.  

Sales has been a big question mark, always.  It has been very difficult for me to sell.  After getting kicked out of many 'sales' jobs,  i realised i can't sell.  I watched and interacted with the 'sales guys' and found them...well, let me not say it.

But one can't escape from Sales, as one is selling oneself all the time.  One is polishing oneself, pretending,  impressing,  listening, talking,  asserting,  dressing up,  doing plastic surgery/botox(!!), giving a job interview...... all is part of selling oneself.   

Sorry I can't meet my sales target again!

one shot: the missile

a creative person, who is not commercially inclined, and does not have the ability or desire to make an effort to be commercially successful...........

.....is like a self-destructive missile!  Even if that missile does not find a wall to hit, it will explode mid-air anyway!

For example, you know that you are a great painter, you love your paintings, and you do paint pretty well, it is still of no use to you.  There is potential, but nothing else.  But if a few thousand or a few million people believe so to, then it is acceptable to all... the very same paintings!  And you become a great painter!