Jesse Lee Kincaid - “She Sang Hymns Out of Tune”
Wes Anderson, I know you didn’t listen to my recommendation for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, but this song seriously belongs in your next film.
Rizwan Khan (Tanay Chheda) is a Muslim child who grew up with his brother Zakir and his mother (Zarina Wahab) in a middle class family in the Borivali section of Mumbai. Rizwan is different from the other children and no one, including his mother, can understand why. However, he has certain gifts, particularly a special ability to repair things. His difference leads to special tutoring from a reclusive scholar and extra attention from his mother, all which leads to a heightened level of jealousy from his brother Zakir, who eventually leaves his family for a life in the United States .
Despite this resentment, as an adult Zakir (Jimmy Shergill) sponsors Rizwan (Shahrukh Khan) to come and live with him in San Francisco after the death of their mother. It is at this time that Zakir’s wife, Haseena (Sonya Jehan) diagnoses Rizwan as having Asperger’s syndrome. Rizwan also begins to work for Zakir and in the process he meets a Hindu woman, Mandira (Kajol) and her young son, Sameer or Sam (Yuvaan Makaar), from a previous marriage. Mandira is a hairdresser by profession. Despite Zakir’s hostility to the match, they marry and settle down in the fictional town of Banville, where both Mandira and Sameer take Rizwan’s last name as their own. They also live next door to the Garrick family. Sameer is close to their young son, Reese (Kenton Duty and Michael Arnold) while Mark (Dominic Renda) is a reporter and Sarah (Katie A. Keane) is a friend of Mandira.
The Khan’s perfect existence gets disrupted, however, after the September 11 attacks on the twin towers in New York City. Mark goes to cover the war in Afghanistan and dies there. At the same time, the Khan family begins to experience post 9-11 prejudice in their community and Reese begins to turn against Sam as well. One afternoon, an argument between them turns into a racially motivated schoolyard fight between Sameer and a number of older students. Reese tries to stop the fight but is held back and Sam is beaten so badly that he dies. A shattered Mandira blames Rizwan for his death stating that Sameer “died only because his name was Khan.” She then tells Rizwan that she no longer wants to be with him. When he asks her what he has to do to be together with Mandira, she tells him that he has to tell the people of the United States and the President that his name is Khan and that he is not a terrorist .
Rizwan thus sets out on a journey that takes him from one US state to another, in order to first meet President George W. Bush and later President-elect Barack Obama. During this quest, he travels to Wilhemina, Georgia and befriends Mama Jenny and her son Joel. Later, in Los Angeles, he prays in a Mosque and overhears violent rhetoric from Faisal Rahman (Arif Zakaria). He reports this to the FBI but there is no response at that moment. Later, while waiting in a crowd to meet President Bush and repeating again and again, “My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist,” Rizwan is arrested and placed in a prison by police who misinterpret his statement.
While in the prison he is tortured as a terrorist suspect and meets the psychiatrist Radha (Sheetal Menon) who believes he is innocent. He is later released after a media campaign by some Indian student reporters Raj (Arjun Mathur) and Komal (Sugandha Garg) and Bobby Ahuja (Parvin Dabas), who prove his innocence by unearthing his attempts to inform the FBI about Faisal Rahman. After his release, he returns to hurricane-hit Wilhemina to help Mama Jenny and her son. His efforts attract media attention and numerous Muslims come to help as well. At the same time, Reese confesses to Mandira and reveals the identity of the boys who beat up Sam. She informs Detective Garcia (Benny Nieves) who has been assisting her on the case, and Detective Garcia arrests them.
After they are brought to justice, she joins Rizwan in Georgia. At the moment she arrives, Rizwan is stabbed by a follower of Faisal Rahman and is rushed to the hospital. With Mandira’s help, Rizwan survives and meets President-elect Barack Obama (Christopher B. Duncan) who tells him: “Your name is Khan and you are not a terrorist . “
” —My Name Is Khan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I attempted to count the tropes here, and I honestly lost track a paragraph or two in. This is Oscar bait on steroids; Stephen Daldry must be shivering right now.
Is Anderson Cooper Gay? is a question on Yahoo Answers. The answers are golden.
The comments on the blog post linked in the answer are even better.
Anderson is not gay, he’s just extremely shy and a self proclaimed “geek.” If any of you actually watched Regis and Kelly you would know this. He’s even admitted that he hates going to parties and drawing attention to himself. Have you ever heard of a shy gay guy who hates drawing attention to himself? No because they don’t exist. Furthermore, Anderson used to play dungeons and dragons when he was in high school. Have you ever heard of a gay man who played that game? And if any of you people actually toke the time to read his book, you would have noticed the many references he made to his straightness i.e. “I used to see all the girls with highlights in their hair and fruity drinks in their hand and I never know what to say to them. I’d look down at my boots and see blood stains.” Page 8, first paragraph. The reason why he never denies that he is gay is simply because he has very large gay following, and he knows that he would lose thousands of these viewers if he did.
This is the first time I see AC’s lover and DAMN that boy is FINE! I don’t give a fuck if Anderson is gay or straight I’d fuck him and his boyfriend any day! Come on AC give me one night with u and your man, I’m a young hot latin girl! AC is without a doubt the smartest, wittiest, funniest, sexiest man alive! I LOVE U ANDERSON!
Ricky Martin is Under Maintenance
Is Ricky Martin a benevolent or malevolent robot?
Zardoz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Is this movie supposed to make any sense? This synopsis is sort of breaking my brain even after five reads.
LCD Soundsystem’s new single “Drunk Girls”
David Bowie’s cover of The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat”
OK, yeah, that’s good stuff.
Greatest box set ever?
“Kangaroo” by Big Star (from Third/Sister Lovers)
Few people touch on the odd and absurd angles that truly distinguished Alex Chilton from other American songwriters. He could go from deadly serious to deafeningly funny in a flash on any given collection, song, or verse — intentionally or not. “Kangaroo” was allegedly a dare song by Chilton he submitted to his producer. To paraphrase Chilton, “Do something with this”. Chilton recorded himself singing this song with his acoustic guitar. All the producer could do was add this Spike-Jones-gone-miserable multi-texture to it — and it’s the best thing ever. It’s hard to describe in words the effect of “Kangaroo.” Almost every Chilton song from Third thereafter has a similar story.
Yes. I told a friend of mine this story when I was trying to get him into Big Star, about how Alex had gone into the studio late at night when everyone else had left and recorded his basic track, both 12-string guitar and vocals, onto one track, so that the producer couldn’t separate the vocals from the guitar in the mix. And when the producer came back to him with this version of the track, Alex said, “All right. Maybe we can come up with something together after all.”
This song is so much better with all the weird feedback and loud isolated drum hits and etc on it than it ever would have been as a conventional ballad. There’s just no comparison.
something something Wes Anderson.
Something something feelings, something something 30 Rock quote, something something whatever 14 year old girls are into but so are 28 year old women.
Something something a book we all read but vaguely remember. Something something nostalgia. Something something “SOCIAL FUCKING MEDIA”. Something something this-app-is-the-second-fucking-coming-of-Our-Lord-Jesus.
Picture Of Myself!
Caption.
Witty quote. Meaningful quote. Picture of a celebrity. Picture of a celebrity’s meaningful quote.
Something something “SOCIAL FUCKING MEDIA!” rebuttal from earlier. Something something taken out of context. Something something Hey, Remember The 90’s? Something something Harry Dean Stanton crying. Something something a picture stolen from Flickr. Something something self referential. Something something trying to tank your own blogging platform. Something something “hey look at my girlfriend/boyfriend/dog/cat/rarely but sometimes a lizard”. Something something Bill Murray (obviously). Something something that was too long and I didn’t read. Something something from someone I consider a friend in social setting but in reality only hung out with twice.
Picture of food.
Caption of picture of food.
Something something something an Old might say trying to understand this here internet? Something something witty internet webzine said! Something something someone just finding out who Lady Gaga is. Something something someone who doesn’t get the internet and just spurts fountains of bullshit.
Something something drug addled. Something something witty. Something Molls said. Something trending on Twitter. Something something a quote from John Lennon. Something something Tess Lynch said that was way, way funny but would take me 20 minutes to someone who didn’t know the situation. Something something where did my day go? Something something a big, giant, blue void. Something something withdrawl. Something something a giant outdoors, something something direct sunlight. Something something ‘maybe I should eat some fruit?’.
Something something checking internet on iPhone while outdoors and drinking Jamba Juice. Something something ‘SOCIAL FUCKING MEDIA!’ makes you more anti-social. Something something “pull the plug”/empty promises/remember that diet you never started/weren’t you supposed to jog everyday? Something something terrible, never ending glowing rectangles. Something something sawn-off-shotgun and ‘living off the grid’ outside of Tuscon.
Something something reblogging something something about something something.
Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti - “Round and Round”
One of the best songs thus far this year; Pink’s graceful move to hi-fi kind of makes me want to start a roller disco revival movement, or at least add the movie Roll Bounce to my Netflix queue.
Alice Cooper - “Earwigs To Eternity”
Having trouble reconciling with the fact that such a delectable bit of garage-psych could come from the pioneer of shock rock-cum-Republican golfer*.
*Okay, technically, Alice Cooper was the name of the band rather than a solo artist back then.
