Favorite Video of the Week: Nimbooda


Nimbooda from the movie Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam

For a long time after watching this video, I was obsessed with creating my own Chicana version of a Bollywood musical number. I imagined made up cholas and chachas dancing in the Lincoln Mini-Mall, Bollywood style. Afterall, the Indian women on the screen didn’t look all that much different from the Latina women in my neighborhood. I asked around to see if some film student would be up for the idea, but no luck.
This video for Nimbooda (Hindi for Little Lemon) is one of my all-time favorite Bollywood scenes. The costumes are beautiful, the choreography amazing and the song extremely catchy. It features Aishwarya Rai, considered by many to be the world’s most beautiful woman (too bad she wears blue contact lenses) and is from the excellent film ‘Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam.‘ It’s the usual Bollywood story of forbidden and unrequited love, deliciously enjoyable and equally frustrating!

humdilchuke.jpg
Continue reading

Los Angeles as Subject

riots_sm.jpg
Los Angeles Riots, 1992 (somewhere in Pico-Union)

Next Saturday, The Second Annual Los Angeles Archives Bazaar will be taking place at The Huntington Library in San Marino. I went last year and was fascinated by the various groups represented and the amount of resources there are for even amateur, wannabe Los Angeles historians. Check it out if you can, and don’t eat beforehand. They’re offering free lunch too!
Continue reading

Rainbow Brite

fairfax_punks111
Fairfax High School, 1980s

I’ve been scanning in old photos and decided to post the more amusing ones here.
This one’s a picture of my punk friends and I in high school. We tried our hardest to be anti-social and chose this remote spot of the school to sit at during lunch. We wanted far away from the crowds of students and from the other, mostly male punks that were misogynist enough to get on our nerves. We were an ethnically diverse bunch: Portuguese, Jewish, Cuban, Colombian-Irish, Finnish-Jewish, Chicano and Mexican.

Favorite Video of the Week: Les Rita Mitsouko


C’est Comme Ca-Les Rita Mitsouko

I first came across this video on the Tam Tam Books myspace page. I was intrigued, was this video recent? The music sounded a bit retro but I couldn’t tell. In any case, I’m a sucker for thespian chimps. Equally compelling is the awkward style of dancing by the singer, Catherine Ringer, a herky jerky, stiffed backed series of rhythmic lurches. I did a bit more investigating and found out the video was from 1987. Imagine that? A full 20 years later and the Emo kids are still rocking Catherine Ringer’s look.
Continue reading

The People’s Palace, Glasgow

potato_king.jpg

From the random photos series, an ode to the potato! I took this photo (apologies for the quality) at The People’s Palace in Glasgow. It’s an awesome museum dedicated to documenting the lives of average Glaswegians. Highly recommended if you ever find yourself in Scotland! Beware of the Branston pickles.

On another note, I’ve been playing with the theme of this blog as the previous one wasn’t compatible with all browsers, so please excuse my mess. 🙂