Archive for the 'Television' Category
Saturday, May 17th, 2008
a.p.p.e.a.s.e.
can you say “PWNED!”?
Monday, May 12th, 2008
Japan!
For a recovering tetris addict and fan of Takeshi’s castle, this is pure gold.
Sunday, March 30th, 2008
To boy: The carrot cake missives
Ah, but the point is, it isnt foreign music, in a language you dont understand, isnt quite the same as a song which do understand, and you recognize that the lyrics are bad. I think it makes the whole experiance poorer.
Also, it seems our conversation was rather prescient: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7321147.stm
Al, for your benefit, amongst the innumerable avatars of inanity that graced our conversation earlier today, i can recall
1) a debate on whether musicans who write songs with bad/meanigless lyrics should be sold into slavery
2) a hybrid inductive/deductive hypothesis for the question that has long troubled us (used in its broadest sense) - “where do the pretty girls go in winter?”
3) what is the one pakistani song you hate to love.
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.
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
amanat ali.
have you heard of this guy? from faisalabad, he’s got one heck of a voice, and he’s just 20 years old. these are from the Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007, where he finished 3rd.
Saturday, January 26th, 2008
thank you very much
what can i say, atomsmasher? i’m a romantic at heart, and a sucker for slickly produced romantic-comedy-musicals. i suggest you give it a go. jab we met isn’t half bad for what it is.
ANYway, moin akhtar is definitely a legend. i think live comedy is probably a culturally confined thing to a large extent. but then moin akhtar’s comedy is also physical - in terms of his costumes and acting, etc. - so i’m not sure what sort of reception he would receive in europe or north america, even if he performs in english or greek or polish or something.
poor junoon - they put out a string of good albums, only to end up the whipping boys of pakistani music critics everywhere, especially at the baja. funny that salman ahmad started off with vital signs. i still have some respect for him because of the music junoon made in the 90s, like "neend aati nahi", or "khudi", or "jugal bandi". i never got into the sufi-rock they started taking so seriously - they were a rock band.
i still like ali azmat though. he’s taken a new direction and some of his social circus stuff is pretty good. he has one heck of a singing voice, and i’ve heard he puts on an excellent live show. i just think he should stay away from hosting television shows, however. sometimes pappo yaar - the show on aag - is just painful and distressing [wait for the "final thoughts" for something especially excruciating].