Arts and entertainment

“Would beauty transcend?”

If you haven’t already, do read Gene Weingarten’s superb feature in the Washington Post, “Pearls Before Breakfast,” which details an excellent little experiment the Post carried out. The story begins thus:

He emerged from the metro at the L’Enfant Plaza station and positioned himself against a wall beside a trash basket. By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as seed money, swiveled it to face pedestrian traffic, and began to play.

It was 7:51 a.m. on Friday, January 12, the middle of the morning rush hour. In the next 43 minutes, as the violinist performed six classical pieces, 1,097 people passed by. Almost all of them were on the way to work…

What is extraordinary is that the musician was Joshua Bell, one of the most renowned classical violinists in the world. Playing “some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made” on a 1713 Stradivarius, Bell made $32.17. It’s a fascinating story, wonderfully told, read the full thing.

And also, check out this follow-up story by Weingarten that has much chat between him and readers who reacted to the story, as well as “something enlightening about the nature of government bureaucracy versus private industry”, also neatly excerpted by The Mises Blog.

(First WAPO link via separate emails from Priyanka Joseph and Ravages, the other two via email from Ravages.)

“What I love about floors is that they love feet”

That’s a line I particularly like from a poem by Space Bar, the newest contributor to Rave Out. That section’s coming along rather nicely, I think, and the already-healthy contributors list will have a couple of new additions in the next couple of weeks that will make it rock even more. Watch that space.

And yes, just as floors love feet, my keyboard loves my fingers. Such is the level of obsession there that I fear that such a love affair can only be doomed. Its offspring, of course, exist for your pleasure.

Update: You can pick up RSS feeds from here.

Ah, family!

Vinod Nayar, Arun Nayar’s daddy, is upset because Liz Hurley didn’t treat him well during her wedding to Arun, from which he was apparently ‘ejected’. Nayar has been quoted as saying:

May be they didn’t really want my side of the family there. They didn’t even have the manners to invite my 87-year-old mother. I have totally disowned them (his sons). I want nothing more to do with them or their wives. It was important for her (Hurley) to get celebrity faces there.

No matter how much Liz may dislike Arun’s family, she should thank her freakin’ stars that it’s nothing like this one. Indian families contain unspeakable horrors. The only way to put an end to the monstrosity is to ban copulation. You with me on this?

Ok, fine, forget it. Have a good day.

(KSBKBT link via email from reader VatsaL, though not in this gory context.)

Katrina and the cow

It seems that the cow that Akshay Kumar was shown milking in Namastey London is named Katrina. Can you guess what it would have been called when it was younger?

Katrina Calf.

Ok, sorry! It might be sleep deprivation…

Previous posts on cows: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 , 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88.)

Sanjaya Malakar and American Idol

Screaming fans have lined up outside my house demanding that I post about Sanjaya Malakar. Some of them have Mohawk hairstyles, and some are even threatening to start singing. But what to say? Sanjaya’s beyond words, he’s so good and bad, both.

Here’s my theory on why he’s got so far in American Idol and why he won’t go all the way. The format of the show helps a polarising figure like him survive in the early rounds. If the viewers of American Idol had to vote to throw people out instead of to keep them in, he would have been out long ago. People who want him to stay would have faced the task of figuring out which of his opponents was closest to him, and they’d have had to vote in concert for that person. Hardly likely. (That voting mechanism helped the low-key Rahul Roy win Big Boss, as I’d mentioned here.)

Instead, as Sanjaya’s supporters vote to keep him in, people who don’t like him find their votes diffused among his many competitors. But as the show progresses, there will be fewer and fewer contestants left, and the votes of those against Sanjaya won’t be spread so thin. That is why he’s unlikely to go all the way. A similar case that I’d once written about was that of Ravinder Ravi, who, in the first season of Indian Idol, exasperated Anu Malik even more than Sanjaya bugs Simon Cowell. Ravi outlasted many better singers, but lost out in the final five.

Of course, there are other factors at play as well. Sanjaya has the backing of the immensely delightful Howard Stern, who “hopes to turn the talent competition into a farce and destroy its popularity.” The premise there seems to be that the show is popular because of the quality of its singers, which Vote for the Worst disputes by saying that “American Idol is not about singing at all, it’s about making good reality TV and enjoying the cheesy, guilty pleasure of watching bad singing.” They’re also supporting Sanjaya.

If Sanjaya progresses through the show, expect the Indian press to catch on. Right now he’s under the radar: hardly anyone watches Star World, where American Idol is telecast, and the media probably hasn’t gone to town with the story because he’s an object of ridicule for the American press. But if he comes close to winning, it’ll be reported as an “Indian Boy Come Good” story, even though he’s an American boy. Such it goes.

Meanwhile, for a few glimpses of what the American media has to say about Sanjaya, check out Manish’s post on the subject. And below the fold comes a clip of Sanjaya singing the No Doubt song, “Bathwater”: not quite as bad as the hype around him, I’d say. Certainly better than bloody Ravinder Ravi.

(Update: Comments are now open, please leave your thoughts on Sanjaya. Also, Gaurav has a technorati analysis of American Idol contestants here.)

The Great Indian Soap Opera

A headline on NDTV says: “Chappell unhappy with senior players.” Read the story, worrying stuff.

If this is a leak by Chappell, then I really don’t see how he can continue to play a role in Indian cricket any more. Either you say what you have to say in public, or you deal directly with the board, and keep your report confidential. Playing games through the media is simply not on, especially when it is so blatantly done.

His allegations should be investigated, of course. But the substance in them is a separate matter from the issue of the leak.

The other night I caught a few moments of Viruddh, the much-advertised soap-opera starring Smriti Irani. It was awful: the screenplay was overwrought, the dialogues were cheesy, the characters were caricatures and the acting was hammacious enough to be beyond parody. “It can’t get worse than this,” I thought.

But I’d forgotten about Indian cricket.

Update: Chappell denies it.

Meanwhile, I was watching NDTV a while back and one of their anchors, while chatting with Ajay Jadeja, said: “I can assure you that our source is very reliable.” Hmmm.

Piet Hein on Art

This is beautiful:

ARS BREVIS

There is
one art,
no more,
no less:
to do
all things
with art-
lessness.

You can read more by Piet Hein here, and about him here. I especially liked “Problems,” “Mankind” and “A Toast.”

(Thanks to reader Balkrishna Nadkarni for the link.)