Archive for the 'Culture' Category
Saturday, May 3rd, 2008
i’m a cereal killer.
» It makes me sad that the JB seems to be losing steam. [Also, that I can't get my paragraphs to separate, no matter how many <br> tags I stuff in.]
» What do you fellows make of things in Pakistan these days? I’ve been out of touch, but I’ve heard about the dilly-dallying over restoring the judiciary. Although, I don’t know if that would really matters. Scandalous, considering I was briefly involved with the Student Action Committee, for whom the judiciary is a major concern.
» The job search is — or should be — go. Any tips?
» Here are the Arsenal Ladies.
Tuesday, April 15th, 2008
a couple of things.
» from the city of london comes the news that testosterone and cortisol might be controlling the global economy. with all those hormone surges, i’m glad i’m not working in the city or on wall street.
» here is an article from the april issue of good magazine on “eggcorns—a type of common and somewhat logical language goof named after a misspelling of ‘acorn’”
Monday, April 7th, 2008
oh, khuda ke liye!
Apparently this is in chaste urdu, and apparently, its doing rather well too in India.
Though, obviously, it can’t touch this:
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
Pakistani men, a gift to women. It’s official now.
Carrying on from Boy’s post… this proves what we always knew was true.
If girls today swoon over the long locks of Dhoni or the swagger of Sreesanth, one almost feels sorry for them. Those of us who lost our adolescent hearts to Imran Khan in the eighties had it better.
Sunday, April 6th, 2008
everybody come down.
like this article in the guardian.
Thursday, March 27th, 2008
zeitgeist, insight or both?
I’ve never really tried to get into Dylan (although I did love ‘things have changed’ from wonderboys, which was also a very good film.)
However I came across a cover version of ’senor’ by Calexico and Willy Nelson which I really liked and I thought I’d throw this question out there.
Does it really matter if culture is timeless or not? For instance if Bob Dylan doesn’t really have that much relevance for me (although I know Atomsmasher is a big fan), surely it doesn’t diminish the value of his work and the immense contribution it had on the cultural life of America. Similarly, I doubt people will really understand the Simpsons twenty years from now but do we really care? Read the rest of this entry »
Saturday, March 22nd, 2008
english chelsea fan, this is your last game; we’re not galatasaray, we’re sparta f.c.
how strange is this?
and what is the legacy of 68? i find it difficult to read accounts of the events of that year around the world, since i’m not sure how much of it is simply nostalgia and romanticism.
Friday, March 21st, 2008
an iron fist in a velvet glove.
well, there are lots of questions and ideas to explore there. the one that jumped out at me from the post was the relationship between income levels and some sort of ‘cultural awareness’ [sorry to resort to such a such crude term; i think i need to read up on my cultural theory =/].
first off, i think there are elements of local and global cultures that would be above any income-cultural awareness equations, if any such equations exist of course. so, take, for example, cricket in pakistan. yes, there was a big increase in the numbers of basketball hoops at elite schools and massive bungalows in the 90s, and there are the exclusive golf courses too, but i’d say the passion for cricket works on a level above wealth.
we could say the same thing for many music icons like nusrat fateh ali khan, noor jehan, nazia & zoheb, vital signs, junoon, etc.
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
cowabunga, yaar!
i think if we do any more navel-gazing we’ll frighten off any readers we might have. anyways, someone to whom we should be very grateful has uploaded an episode of the mighty turtles dubbed in urdu (videos at the end of the post).
after i’d gotten over rediscovering what a terrible accent they gave michaelangelo, this got me thinking about shared cultural experiences in a country like pakistan.
one think which strikes me about western countries is that there are common cultural landmarks which are easily identified by people from all strata of society. my theory is that this makes it easier for people from even lower income families to reach their potential, especially in careers which require the ability to socialise successfully in order to be successful.
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
the feathers will fly.
