Sunday, April 30, 2006

A Love-101 model

A girl who was trying to date me once said "If you put a man and a female donkey in a room all alone for long enough, theyll fall in love". Of course, not to mention, that turned out to be our last date. But then again in hindsight when you think about it, suddenly the intense philosophy behind this statement hits you hard, real hard on the face.

And then you start wondering. Deep, dark, ominous thoughts cross your peanut sized brain and leave you all confused. So what is it for God's sake, you cry out aloud, what is the secret behind this man woman corundrum. Does love actually exist or is it just a completely random phemomena with a white spectrum, essentially meaning it is nothing but noise, which cannot in any way be correlated to decipher any kind of legible signature?? My gut feeling is it is. It is much like the random primal soup that had a zillion in one chances to have just the correct ratio of all the correct ingredients to spawn life on planet earth.

Lets for a second consider the complexity of the Love-101 model. In its simplest form it is an N-dimensional problem (assuming of course that the human psyche can be represented with an N dimensional matrix), a highly undetermined system (is Poopi really right for Poopa, doesnt Loopi who Poopa will never meet in his life the perfect match for him??), has a gazillion number of undefined parameters which need to be optimized before one can make any sense.

Now any model that has so fucking many parameters and knobs to adjust and tweak, can only be possibly approached in a probabilistic sense, meaning that you wont have an absolute answer. What you would have instead are several multiple realizations/scenarios, each of which are equally likely to happen and none of which are wrong. So while one scenario sees you making love forever to your current girlfriend, happily and merrily getting married to her till death do to you part, another scenario turns that very same boyfriend into a first rate jerk who sleeps around behind your back.

So what do you do?? For me I realize that Love-101 is nothing but Russian Roulette with a twist. There are a bunch of pistols (girls for me) lying all around me. They all have a bullet each in them but only one of the pistol has that magical silver bullet. I am going to shoot myself no matter what, the question is will I be lucky enough to choose that chamber with the silver bullet. Chances of that are 1 in 10 million (assuming an earth population of 6 billion).

But as Redd said "Fear can hold you prisoner, but hope can set you free". So I go ahead and play my Roulette convinced that Im shooting myself with the silver bullet. But am I??Moti are you reading this??

Friday, April 28, 2006

City of God: the review

Cidade de Deus, the City of God, a housing project started sometimes in the 60s in Rio that went dangerously bad and created one of the most terrifying and violent slum neighborhoods the world had ever seen (true story btw). This is the place where being a gangster is a way of life, killing people is the only way for a 13 year old to prove that hes now a man, this is where a 10 year old finally fulfills his lust to be a true man by killing of a bunch of people in a motel .
There are movies that hit you in the gut and numb your senses, movies that make you pause and think, movies that leave you with a knot in your stomach . Fernando Meirelles' Cidade de Deus is one those celluloid masterpieces that falls into this elite category. I chanced upon the movie at a SFO joint and thank God for it.

The events unfold through the eyes and the voice of a slim,black slum boy Rocket, a boy whose too weak to take up the chosen profession of his neigborhood, being a gangster, a boy who sees the girl hes mad about fall in love with the coolest gangster in the neigborhood, a boy who is too weak to avenge his brother's murder, a sacrilege in the City of Gods. Through his narration we see how Little Benji a 10 year old kid grows upto become one of the undisputed kingpins of the neighborhood, we see how knockout Ted a jovial bus conductor turns into a gangster when Little benji murders half his family, through his artistic eyes and his sole beloved possession, a worn and beaten camera we see the gang war that erupts in the City of God and the stupendous pace at which kids in the City of God race towards their doom .

The most terrifying thing about COG though, is its complete indifference to violence. Violence and murder are as normal as waking up in the morning and going to the loo. And thats where this movie scores over its more well known predecessors.

For me the star of the movie is the 10 year old Little Benji. Perfectly cast with a raspy voice and toothy grin, the 10 year old kid redefines violence. Check out the scene where he walks around a motel killing everyone in sight and laughing his raspy laugh, with glee. Also do not miss the scene where Little Benji now all of 18, rechristened Little Ze and the undisputed lord of COG, sets out to teach his challengers a lesson, "Where do you want to take the shot , in the hand or the foot?". The challengers by the way are a bunch of 10 year old kids, who dream of doing what Little Bemji once did to take over the gangster business, kill everyone so that there is no one left but them to run the business.

If you havent already seen it go see it now. Oh and if anyone has read the book let me know how it is, Im planning to buy it.

Cult Lines:
10 yr old Boy 1: The big deal is dope, you got it?
10 yr old Boy 2: If you wanna be a dealer, you gotta start as a delivery boy, see?
Boy 1: This delivery boy business is real bullshit. The time it takes being a delivery boy, then security and then manager, is way too long.
Boy 2: What you gonna do? You've gotta wait for them to die...
Boy 1: No way! I'll do it just like Lil Benji did, whack everyone and that's it!

Rocket : That night, Li'l Benji killed his dream of kill. (after benji murders a much of people in the motel)

Cabeleira: Bernice. Listen, I've got something real important to say. Tell me, you ever heard of love at first sight?
Berenice: Sure, but bums don't fall in love, they just get horny.
Cabe: C'mon, you cut everything I say to pieces.
Berenice: Bums don't talk, they just vomit words.
Cabe: Jesus, I'm gonna stop wasting my saliva on you, you sure ain't easy.
Berenice: Bums never stop, they just take a break.
Cabe: Jeez, Bernice, talking about love with you is pretty complicated, isn't it?
Berenice: Love, you gotta be kidding. You're just leading me on.
Cabe: But it's just that this jerk here loves you.

Knockout Ted: Have you lost your mind? You are just a child!
Steak and Fries: Listen man, I smoke, I snort, I've been begging on the street since I was just a baby. I've cleaned windshields at stop lights. I've polished shoes, I've robbed, I've killed. I ain't no kid, no way. I'm a real man.

Scarface Say hello to my new li'l friend, Smashing!!!!

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Infinite do loops

Crash , Four brothers, American Beauty, Weather man, Bourne Identity, Star Trek, Lost in translation.
And repeat ad infinitum or till you are brain dead, whichever comes first.