{ Big Love, the pilot. }

For those of you who are interested in Big Love but missed the running, the official HBO podcast is offering the first episode for free. You can access it here via iTunes or the official HBO website. I highly recommend it.

{ "A lopsided gift. He holds them, trying to balance the difference." }

I am watching The Last Samurai because unfortunately it is very much my thing, even if it does star Tom Cruise. Gah. He annoys me beyond belief. Another thing which continues to annoy me: the need for Hollywood to take foreign concepts and traditions and supplant them with white, Western heroes. This is not your subjective landscape and it has no need to be. There's a reason your audience would have a difficult time swallowing the truth of the land without your White Hero and that's because it's not theirs to digest. The word foreign an all its connotations exists for a reason.

--

Uma dips her jar in the river, and lifts it high over her head. When she tilts it and pours it out, the murky water catches the blaze of the sun and flashes fire.

I just finished Fasting, Feasting. Desai's style has become easier to digest in the three-point-five years since I've read her work. I think that actually says more about me than it does her. In a typical fashion, the longing in the book extents beyond the last page, unresolved. And it's better that way. There are no easy answers.

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Finished season 1 of The Wire last night but I think I'm going to save season 2 for a couple of days. Tomorrow we're going to a family barbecue in N. and on Sunday, I think an aunt is coming to tie rakhis. I have no idea whether The Mother has bought rakhis for us to send, but I'll find out soon enough, I suppose.

{ you're just too beautiful. }

Look, I know - this is getting dangerously close to being a theme. BUT! I was trying to look up which episode of NCIS is showing tonight and naturally the TV was on the music channel. It was playing yet another song I've been hearing a lot of recently, except this one is really sweet, and light and generally adorable. The lyrics, however, somewhat dodgy:

you're way too beautiful, girl / that's why it'll never work / you'll have me suicidal, suicidal when you say it's over

But let not these oddly macabre lyrics put you off! It's actually a really lovely melody, and it samples Stand By Me. The guy who sings it - Sean Kingston I think? - has a really sweet voice. And the video is made of win, too! It's set in two diners simultaneously. One is in the present day, one is about 50-60 years ago and you flip between the two, with everyone dancing and swinging and all sorts of happy things. It's sort of refreshing to have a song/video that isn't about pimps, hos, ice and doh-lah.

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Am about to go downstairs and dance with Baby Gangsta Cousin. Will MSN/email after that.