WTF - I

A man who had a penile implant to cure impotence is 'rising to the occasion' whenever his neighbour opens his garage doors. In a call to BBC Radio Merseyside the man claimed the remote control for his neighbour's garage was on the same frequency as the electronic device in his groin.

[...] He said: 'Every time my neighbours park their 4x4 I get an erection. It's embarrassing.' - via India Uncut

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In what must surely be one of the summer's more bizarre events, hundreds of people are expected to gather in a hall in central London on August 5 to pleasure themselves in aid of charity. Prizes will be on offer for those who clock up the most orgasms and those who can masturbate the longest - the current record, according to the organisers, is a chafing eight-and-a-half hours. (Related link: Masturbate-a-thon 2006) - Also via India Uncut

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Less shocking or less of a WTF, are these two news articles of events organized by people... the first understandable as an indulgence for many and the latter as a lifestyle choice for some...

A field of dreams - Pornutopia!

and

From an Amish to a swinger...thats quite a change! Ran into her story at this Yahoo! article about the swinging convention in Las Vegas (aaah..this is what they mean by 'What happens in LV, stays in LV! ;))

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Every dog has its day

and other "news" from India - all mostly gleaned through Amit Varma's blog, India Uncut

Reality-TV like sensationalism ran rampant in India over the weekend...

Boy rescued after two days in well First a TV tamasha as millions watched the drama unfold live on Indian television ....then a bigger tamasha as politicians try to get free footage from the 'event'...

Loo allowance: Hike in salaries, laptops and now fancy toilets - the Jharkhand politico's desire for perks seems boundless with the government now sanctioning Rs 1,50,000 for each legislator to upgrade the toilets in his house.

"Show me Vajrasana": That's what Oscar Fernandes, a member of the Congress Working Committee, reportedly asked a candidate he was interviewing for "a post in the National Student's Union of India (NSUI), the student body of the Congress." - via India Uncut

Vaastu Shastra: That's the latest battleground between M Karunanidhi and J Jayalalithaa. The lady isn't happy with where she sits in the state assembly, and is blaming the gent of using Vaastu Shastra to determine who sits where. - via India Uncut

Sit erect, right now -- via India Uncut

Why? Well, because Mallika Sherawat is doing something. Consider these incredible lines from Indiatimes:

Whatever she does, it makes you sit erect. Whatever she wears, it titillates you. Her intention is clear to make your attention pin-pointed on her sensual parts. She is sultry Mallika Sherawat, who always says it script demands. [Sic, naturally.]

And finally...
Every dog gets his day in court.. Veerappan's dog in court!!! - also via India Uncut

Iranian voices

I am currently reading My Sister, Guard Your Veil; My Brother, Guard Your Eyes by Lila Azam Zanganeh.

Will try to write a detailed review later but for now..here is an excerpt from the introduction by the editor, Lila Azam Zanganeh, to give you an idea about the book.

'The gap between the multifaceted realities of Iranian political and cultural life and the simplified image one is often fed by politicians and mainstream media alike remains mind-boggling.' The book aims at closing that gap by offering a wide ranging look at Iran from the perspective of some the country’s most astute observers and commentators and strives to open a 'series of vibrant perspectives on concealed Iranian realms.' - Adapted from the Levantine Cultural Center's Uncensored Iranian Voices page.

The book includes some well-known and some not-so-well-known Iranian personalities like:

• Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran^
• Marjane Satrapi, author of graphic novel, Persepolis 1 and 2 and Embroideries*
• Celebrated filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami $
• Actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, Oscar-nominated for House of Sand and Fog & acted in the 4th season of the hit sitcom, 24)... 
  

Read a more detailed review of the book and also hear Zanganeh weigh in on the growing tension between the U.S. and Iran on the Tavis Smiley show on NPR.

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^ Azar Nafisi - Author of Reading Lolita in Tehran converses with Robert Birnbaum of The Identity Project.

Transcript of interview with Nafisi on PBS

Interview with Nafisi at Powell Books

Audio Interview with Nafisi on NPR's The Connection.

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* Persepolis author Marjane Satrapi talks about why Iranians don't think sex is sinful, the hypocrisy of American saber-rattling over Iran, and why George Bush and the mullahs are "the same."

Couple of interview with Satrapi

An Iranian Girlhood - Time magazine on Persepolis

AsiaSource Interview

Audio interview at Coastal Carolina University

Audio interview on NPR

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$ Abbas Kiarostami Interview
Transcript of Kiarostami's conversation with Bill Horrigan, the curator of media at the Wexner Center.

Abbas Kiarostami Critical analysis of landmark international and independent cinema

Guardian Unlimited Film Interviews Abbas Kiarostami

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Also by Lila Azam Zanganeh

Americans Return from Afghanistan
Relatives of victims of Sept. 11 create a relief fund in Afghanistan for casualties of U.S. bombings.

Not at One With Nature
Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses a skeptical Parisian's perspective on the great American outdoors.

Literary Cafés
The two most popular Literary Cafés have different ways of bringing poetry (and prose) to the people.

Women in Afghanistan
The United Nations marked International Women's Day with a conference on Afghan women, with guests Kofi Annan and Laura Bush.

Russian Mafia
Lila Azam Zangeneh reports on why the Russian mafia is no longer thriving in New York City.

La Boheme, But Few Bohemians
Lila Azam Zanganeh wants to know why New York lacks avant-garde opera

Lila Azam Zanganeh discusses Giorgio Fabre's new book about the relations between Hitler and Mussolini. (Also appeared in NYT, Nov 7, 2004)

Out of Africa (June 2005; NYT, free subscription required) What is a literature that does not exist? One that takes root far from an emigrant writer's native land, where his work is barely read, if at all? Togo's best-known writer, Kossi Efoui, addressed this remarkable paradox of his continent's literary heritage when he asserted, ''For me, African literature is something that does not exist.''

Succès de Scandale
Lila Azam Zanganeh American readers have long felt guilty about loving Lolita. As Vladimir Nabokov's nymphet heroine turns 50, Lila Azam Zanganeh traces the impact of a novel that has become both an icon and a cultural cliche. (She is currently at work on a book about Vladimir Nabokov.)

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Why They Don't Hate Us

Axis of People: Arguments Against Us and Them, a discussion about Why They Don't Hate Us with author Mark LeVine, Middle East historian and widely noted as "a leader of the new generation of scholars of the modern Middle East and Islam, Globalization, and Popular Culture, and an award winning musician who has performed with some of the greatest artists around the world."

“Mark LeVine proposes a different way of thinking about "us" and "them" in the Middle East: instead of seeing a "clash of civilizations," he calls for historical understanding and the creation of an 'axis of empathy.' This is a necessary and illuminating work.” — John Wiener, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine.

This book offers a groundbreaking exploration of the roots of the current conflict between the United States and the Muslim world. LeVine argues that the idea that most Muslims hate the United States or the West is a useful fabrication that helps fundamentalists on both sides to maintain political, economic or cultural power in their societies through the spread of what LeVine calls an Axis of Arrogance and Ignorance. He also offers a critique of the works of writers and others who have been crucial in the "branding of Islam" as a source of violence and backwardness in today’s world. Against such views, he advocates an Axis of Empathy as the only strategy that can bring about a long-term solution to the current situation.

Coincidences & Luck

Coincidences or in other words - just goddamn plain luck (good and bad!)

The one that got away....didn't!

A golfer hits three holes-in-one at the same hole on the same course on three consecutive Saturdays

Watch this video - Baseball ball hits the passerby in the head. A funny baseball game incident or accident, based on whose viewpoint you consider ;)

Good Riddance

Ta Mok, Khmer Rouge Head Facing Genocide Trial, Dies

These are the people that they thought of when they coined the hindi phrase: 'dharti pe bhoj'! Or as my mom might say....Good riddance to bad rubbish!

Authors to read: Hari Kunzru

Before today, all I had heard about Hari Kunzru is that he is British-born but of 'Indian-origin' and that he writes very different imaginative novels.

I had heard of him when he wrote his first book, The Impressionist, a few years ago and recieved a £1.25 million advance for it!! (Review of The Impressionist and an interview).

Just learned that the "The Impressionist was named as the winner of the 5,000 John Llewellyn Rhys award, the second oldest literary prize in Britain, but for the past 15 years it has been sponsored by The Mail on Sunday. Kunzru rejected the award, citing the newspaper’s ‘editorial policy of vilifying and demonising refugees and asylum seekers’. Kunzru demanded that the paper donate the prize money to the Refugee Council."

Also his author bio at contemporarywriters.com mentions that : In 2003, Hari Kunzru was named by Granta magazine as one of twenty 'Best of Young British Novelists'.

Apparently he has two more books since viz. Transmission in 2004 (Review) and more recently a book of short stories, Noise, that that I had not heard about untill I just saw Jai Arjun Singh's review of the same.

Also read this piece of fiction, Beyond The Pleasure Principle, from him in the Guardian. Very difficult reading...not for light reading at 10.30 in the night, for sure. I'll have to try to read it again some other time!