Author: Devanshu Mehta

SerendipiTV

~ Devanshu Mehta ~ Leave a comment

There are two feelings that deserve words in the dictionary to describe them:

  1. The feeling when you are randomly flipping channels and accidentally discover that one of your favorite movies is playing on a channel you never watch.
  2. The feeling when you discover that an artist you love has put out work (e.g. music) that you didn’t know existed.

I came up with a word for the first one: Serendipiteevee. It’s what I felt when I just discovered A Hard Day’s Night was playing on a channel called Palladia. That such a channel exists is proof of a benevolent God; because how else could a channel no one has heard of even survive?

I don’t have a word for the second feeling– discovering new music by a favorite artist. But that just happened when I found that Beirut put out a delightful song called Mimizan for the  charity compilation album Dark Was the Night. Watch it below (or here); how can you not smile while listening to this [video]: Continue reading →

Music Monday: Very

~ Devanshu Mehta ~ Leave a comment

The audio cassette that got most play in my room between 1994 and 1995 was The Pet Shop Boys’ album Very. Every single song is a gem. I just descended in to some serious emotional nostalgia, listening to the whole album again after a long time.

Here is Can You Forgive Her:

And, for the Pet Shop Boys fans, this interview Andrew Sullivan did with them is what reminded me of how much I really loved their music 15 years ago.

Travelog: Mumbai- 30th November, 2008

Mumbai, 30th November 2008
~ Devanshu Mehta ~ 1 Comment

Mumbai, 30th November 2008– the morning after:

Mumbai, 30th November 2008
Mumbai, 30th November 2008

The people yes
The people will live on.
The learning and blundering people will live on.
They will be tricked and sold and again sold
And go back to the nourishing earth for rootholds,
The people so peculiar in renewal and comeback,
You can’t laugh off their capacity to take it.
The mammoth rests between his cyclonic dramas.

The people so often sleepy, weary, enigmatic,
is a vast huddle with many units saying:
“I earn my living.
I make enough to get by
and it takes all my time.
If I had more time
I could do more for myself
and maybe for others.
I could read and study
and talk things over
and find out about things.
It takes time.
I wish I had the time.”

— The People, Yes by Carl Sandburg

And Just Like That…

~ Devanshu Mehta ~ Leave a comment

my video crossed 1,000 views in 4 days on YouTube. 🙂

Thanks to Karthik at Milliblog, BeatlesTube.net and In The Life of The Beatles for sharing it! And to anyone else who shared it that I don’t know about.

[P.S. If you find/know-of any other site that has linked-to/embedded my video, let me know.]

UPDATE: It seems that, at the moment, if you search for “The Beatles” on Google or YouTube, my video shows up on the first page. And, it’s now approaching 3000 views in five days.

Silly Comedy Week: The Invention of Time Machine, Man

~ Devanshu Mehta ~ Leave a comment

So- three silly comedies over the past few days. Quick thoughts:

  1. The Invention of Lying: The story of a parallel universe where no one lies, and one man (Ricky Gervais) discovers that he can. It takes its premise to its logical conclusion, which is usually funny. Especially funny if you like Ricky Gervais. Also, half-way through the movie, it reinvents itself as the invention of religion, which helps the premise remain funny until the end. Oh, and most of the movie was shot here in Lowell, Mass.
    The number of really top notch cameos in this movie is staggering– Edward Norton, Philip Seymour Hoffman,  Jason Bateman, Jeffrey Tambor, Tina Fey, John Hodgman. And, obviously, Stephen Merchant.
  2. Hot Tube Time Machine: A little bit of funny and a little bit of nostalgia. Movies about the ’80s are probably better than the real thing. Part super gross out comedy, part male bonding comedy, and part nostalgia, which makes it Back to the Future crossed with The Hangover. And the Back to the Future connection is acknowledged- Crispin Glover shows up in the past and the present. And the recurring joke with his hand is inspired.
  3. I Love You, Man: Paul Rudd and Jason Segel star as really, really good friends. The movie is fine in general, but the writers have a very keen sense of the weird rituals of adult men trying to become friends. Especially the non-bar/sports men of this world. And there are many of us.

So there you have it. Three comedies, all good, none great. All worth the price of admission.