Figuring it out in NYC

So I had the pleasure of watching what is one of my favorite movies now -- Paris, Je T'aime

I think it's brilliant and the wiki entry does a good job explaining it. So if anyone has seen it, my favorites:

-- the hair salon segment with the bald (!!) sales rep trying to sell product. The thing is, the entire short treats the line, "I love you" like a punch line to a commercial. Someone sat down, through their stone realized that it's become a punch line to sell everything from car insurance to perfume endorsed by the now skanked out Britney my-nipples-point-in-different-directions Spears. So, why not create a commercial selling anything but to fit in with the meme of the movie, have the punch line reverberate around Paris?

He gets there, gives the ladies at the salon a makeover, there's a picture shoot and each frame is a commercial almost for something. In the end, he leaves the head honcho n a flowing black dress, as he walks off into the subway, the evening sun bouncing off his receding bald pate.

The phrase then repeats all over Paris. It's just a punch line, to a product, nothing else.

-- the short where the old man is convincing the younger woman to "leave Gaspard"

"But he won't like it!"

"It's your life, you have to live it...besides, I'll take care of him"

In a continuous frame, we go from an older man planning to have his young mistress leave Gaspard to be with him to it being an old man, advising his daughter to step away from her baby so she can meet friends and have a break from him while the old man, the grandfather takes care of him. It's still love. But just another version.

--------------------

Bill Maher sends a black, twenty something female reporter to 'caucus' people. She goes to the "Ah! My Nappy Hair!" Salon in LA and speaks with 6 black women getting their hair done.

It's interesting that it's no longer the pundits spin of gender vs. race. Hilary is NOT a black woman. Woman yes, black no. And why does gender not win out: "I look at her and don't see my mothers strength in her", quips one black woman. So there goes the argument of black women being in a quandary

--------------------

The candidates don't even listen to the words of the songs they pick for their campaigns (wait! they have campaign songs now? Yeah, no one told me either)

In '84m Regan wanted to use Born in the USA (and Bruce Springsteen said no but that's another story). The first line of the song is "I woke up in the evening"! That it self reflects poorly and should give you some clue what the song is about -- a cynical Vietnam war vet

Romney used "A Little Less Conversation" by Elvis. The next line is "and a little more action". So, if I read this right, the theme of the party is, "get laid!"?

Hilary is using KT Tunstall's "Suddenly I See" and Barak had will.i.am write him a song which I think is a much better idea

--------------------

So I'm watching this show on BBC, Brit comedy it is:

Guy 1: Wow, did you hear about the latest scandal in the US?

Guy 2: Yeah, it's almost as big as Watergate gate

G1: Watergate gate?

G2: Yeah, watergate gate

G1: I think it's just Watergate...

G2: Don't be silly! Watergate means a scandal about water! That's why it's watergate gate

G1: No, actually, I think 'gate comes from Watergate. So you know, it's Camillagate. Like Watergate

G2: Don't be ridiculous, it's not a system where you take the last four letters of the last scandal and apply it to the next one!

--------------------

Right so I was watching this program and later they revealed that a woman on it was a porn-star under the moniker Ashlynn Brooke. Now she didn't look like one (not that I am commenting on *how* they are supposed to look) but I wikied her. And in all fairness, to avoid controversy, yes, I did check out the 'images' section on Google. Anyway, I still maintain, that like reading Playboy for the articles, I wikied her. They also had her myspace page.

Now, I have always been fascinated by the divide between facebook and myspace and there is no denying it really does exist.

So, I checked hers out to see who comments on her page. I mean, who would right, add a porn star to be cool or whatever.

Her page is here

You have guy's leaving her rose gif's to thank her for adding them, you have this chap wishing her for valentines day. I mean what do you do, troll myspace friends and leave them scraps? No, I'm sorry, I know I am being judgemental but dude!

Anyway, the point isn't to spit vitriol but I've been fascinated by the divide between facebook and myspace. And it undeniably exists right? So my point is I've moved from one limited circle to another. Delhi has it's own (albeit more democratic than Bombay in the sense more variegated economically than Bombay but still limited). And I realized even Boston comprised rich kids, my school comprised smarter kids than the average demographic of the state, my roommate agreeable from the backwaters was a philosophy major, applying to law school. So not representative.

My point is there is another demographic that I will never be familiar with. Boston, NY, none of them are representative. And such a pity.

--------------------