On the subject of Pirates

Pirates have been part of popular culture for centuries. They make memorable characters in comics, books, movies, amusement parks and video games. Recently too, pirates have been in the news. The Somalian Pirates have been ruling the waters off the Horn of Africa for the last few years. Americans have taken an interest recently as one of their ships was hijacked. The Navy Seals came in to rescue the captain.

Johann Hari makes an interesting theory about these Somalian pirates. He says there’s some redemption happening for all the environmental and economic devastation that the western powers have caused in Somalia. I quote from the article:

The story of the 2009 war on piracy was best summarised by another pirate, who lived and died in the fourth century BC. He was captured and brought to Alexander the Great, who demanded to know “what he meant by keeping possession of the sea.” The pirate smiled, and responded: “What you mean by seizing the whole earth; but because I do it with a petty ship, I am called a robber, while you, who do it with a great fleet, are called emperor.” Once again, our great imperial fleets sail – but who is the robber?

The debate of course continues with governments and Navies of the world breaking their heads on it.

Across the world, Pirate Bay founders were sentenced to 1 year imprisonment and a fine as well. Of course, it hasn’t detered anyone. The Swedish Pirate Party added 3000+ new members within seven hours making them the fifth largest political party in Sweden. It seems the ruling has only made online piracy more active. And one can still use Google to find unauthorised copies of any music or video.

Coming back to the fun we have with pirates in popular culture, Morgan Meis does a piece on this fascination. He writes

Abdi Farah Juha, a resident of Puntland, puts it succinctly: “They wed the most beautiful girls; they are building big houses; they have new cars; new guns.”
And why shouldn’t they? These men are pirates, and pirates are cool.

[...]

The pirate is, quite literally, taking a chance. In doing so, pirates reenact the basic process that everyone goes through in becoming a person. You start out with very little sense of the world, and you gradually gain experience and put it all together. Pirates are simply less complacent than the rest of us.

I will leave with visuals of some of my favourite pirates (or representation of pirates)

Captain Jack Sparrow

And this one for the laughs

Red Beard

Cheerio, Mateys

Mary Jane or Meri Jeb

In the song “Pichle Saat Dinon Mein” from Rock On, there is a line that I distinctly heard

“Present Mili Ek Ghadi, Pyaari Thi Mujhe Badi
Mary Jane Ka Ek Packet, Meri Denim Ki Jacket”

This is what I definitely heard. I checked some Hindi Lyrics website, this is what I get

“Present Mili Ek Ghadi, Pyaari Thi Mujhe Badi
Meri Jeb Ka Ek Packet, Meri Denim Ki Jacket”

What is Jeb ka ek packet? Doesn’t make sense. I am tending to believe it is “Mary Jane ka ek packet” (Mary Jane, for those not familiar with pop culture lingo is Marijuana)

Music that shaped Rock

Well the votes are in, the essential ones any way.

The Top Ten

1. All along the watch tower
2. Stairway to Heaven
3. Knocking on Heaven’s Door
4. Bohemian Rhapsody
5. American Pie
6. Cocaine
7. Mustang Sally
8. Norwegian Wood
9. Imagine
10. My Generation

What’s with these songs?

A. Look at the number of covers they have generated
B. At least three of those songs have launched new genres in rock
C. Besides the original artist/writer, these songs have boosted the careers of many other artists
D. Each of these songs represent or have started a new movement

The Next Ten

1. Layla
2. Smoke on the Water
3. Locomotive Breadth
4. Freebird
5. Bad Medicine
6. Me and Bobby McGee
7. Echoes
8. The End
9. Sultans of Swing
10. Woodstock

Iconic songs they all are.

The full list is getting compiled. Send in your list asap

Songs that have had the greatest influence on pop culture

The Americans elected Dubya twice. The same Americans selected Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 songs that have shaped Rock and Roll. Like their choice for president, we don’t like their choice of songs. Run DMC, LL Cool J, Dr. Dre, Arrested Development do not rock and roll make, racial emancipation may be.

So we take matters into our own hands. Here’s calling out to non-Americans and by implication like minded gentry to help build this list.

Send me the rock and roll songs that you feel have done any of the following

1. The greatest influence on culture
2. That you identify yourself the most.
3. That you would wish you had with you when you get marooned in a desert island

Right here on my blog, we would be building the list vote by vote. So write in using the comments section and keep checking on the final list that gets built.

20th Century Post War History in Five Minutes – IV

We move to stanza four in this history series

Hemingway, Eichmann, “Stranger in a Strange Land”
Dylan, Berlin, Bay of Pigs Invasion

“Lawrence of Arabia”, British Beatlemania
Ole Miss, John Glenn, Liston beats Patterson

Pope Paul, Malcolm X, British politician sex
JFK, blown away, what else do I have to say

The period is 1960 – 1963

Hemingway: Personality
Ernest Miller Hemingway, part of the group called “The Lost Generation” and author of classics like “A Farewell to Arms“, “For whom the Bell tolls” and “The Old Man and the Sea“. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1953, Nobel Prize in 1954 and dies in 1961.

Eichman: Personality
Adolf Eichmann, referred to as the “Chief Executioner” of the Third Reich was captured by the Mossad in Argentina in 1960 and tried in Israel for crimes against humanity and the Jewish people. His hanging is the first and last civil execution in Israel.

Stranger in a Strange Land: Bestseller
Stranger in a Strange Land is a bestselling science fiction novel by Robert Heinlein first published in 1962. The story is about a man born and raised by Martians who comes to Earth, a extra terrestrial version of Mowgli and Tarzan. The name of the title comes the Bible. In the Exodus, when Moses is forced to flee, he says “And she [Zippo'rah] bare him a son, and he called his name Gershom: for he said, I have been a stranger in a strange land.“

Dylan: Personality
No explanations required

Berlin: Place
Capital of Divided Germany, Berlin was the centre of the Cold War with the Berlin Wall being built in 1961.

Bay of Pigs Invasion: Event
A big fiasco when 1500 Cuban exiles funded and trained by the CIA under the sponsorship of Kennedy invaded Cuba in April 1961. Within four days, 90 exiles were dead and the remaining were captured, tried and sentenced to 30 years imprisonment. The top brass of CIA including Allen Dulles were sacked.

Lawrence of Arabia: Movie
David Lean’s classic starring Peter O’Toole and Omar Sharif released in December 1962. Nominated for ten Academy Awards, finally picked up seven including Best Picture and Best Director. In the entire film, there are no dialogues spoken by women. Peter O’Toole lost the Best Actor award to Gregory Peck in To Kill a Mockingbird

British Beatlemania: Fad
No explanations required

Ole Miss: Institution
Ole Miss is the name given to the University of Mississippi. It has the largest archive of Blues music as well as the only place in the US legally allowed to grow cannabis.Ole Miss had always been a “whites only” institution. It became a major site of the Civil Rights movement. In 1962, James Meredith, a black was denied admission. He filed a lawsuit which he won but it was overturned by the Governor repeatedly. Finally, the Court of Appeals held the University and the Governor in contempt and ordered US Marshals to escort Meredith into the University. The US Marshals had to face off with rioting white students. Kennedy had to send the Army to quell the uprising. James Meredith finally began classes at Ole Miss.

John Glenn: Personality
John Glenn became the first American to orbit the earth when he flew into space aboard Friendship 7 in 1962. He later became a senator and in 1998, at the age of 77, flew into space again on board Discovery to become the oldest astronaut.

Liston beats Patterson: Event
In 1962, Liston took on Floyd Patterson in Chicago to become the heavyweight champion of the world. The bout was over in the first round with a knockout. A rematch in 1963 had the same result. Liston went on the meet Cassius Clay in 1964 where he was knocked out in the seventh round.

Pope Paul: Personality
Giovanni Montini was elected the pope in 1963. He took the name Pope Paul IV. His biggest legacy was the condemnation of birth control and contraceptives, a view that Pope John Paul II continued to expound.

Malcolm X: Personality
In 1963, when speaking on the Kennedy assassination, he said “chickens had come to roost” and it was something that made him glad. In the ensuing public outcry, Malcolm X was virtually a persona non grata.

British Politicians Sex: Event
John Profumo, Secretary of State for War, lied in the House of Commons about his relationship with Christine Keeler. After further revelations including the fact the Ms. Keeler had relationships with a Soviet attache (triggering rumours of a possible KGB operation), Profumo resigned claiming responsibility for misleading the House.

JFK Blown Away: Event
As Billy Joel says, what else do I have to say.

One more stanza to go. Next week

20th Century Post War History in Five Minutes – III

Sometime back I had started off on an exercise to decode Billy Joel’s epic, if I may call it so. I completed two stanzas. Since they were all published quite some time back, you can quickly view them here

Stanza 1
Stanza 2

Today, I’ll decode stanza three.

“Little Rock, Pasternak, Mickey Mantle, Kerouac
Sputnik, Chou En-Lai, “Bridge on the River Kwai”
Lebanon, Charles de Gaulle, California baseball
Starkweather, homicide, children of thalidomide

Buddy Holly, “Ben-Hur”, space monkey, Mafia
hula hoops, Castro, Edsel is a no go
U2, Syngman Rhee, payola and Kennedy
Chubby Checker, “Psycho”, Belgians in the Congo”

The approximate period quoted in this stanza is 1957 – 1960

Little Rock: Place
Little Rock Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas was the center of American Civil Rights movement. In September 1957, nine Negro children were denied entry into the school in spite of US Supreme Court ruling in favour of racial integration. President Eisenhower ordered US Army’s 101st Airborne Division to escort the students to school.

Pasternak: Personality
Russian writer
Boris Pasternak (1890 – 1960), author of the classic Doctor Zhivago was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1958 and did not accept it under pressure of the Soviets.

Mickey Mantle: Personality
US Baseball star
Michey Mantle (1931 – 1995) is considered to be among the greatest baseball players ever playing for the New York Yankees, In 1961, he became the highest paid baseball player of that time.

Kerouac: Personality
US writer
Jack Kerouac (1922 – 1969) was one of the leading lights of the Beat Literature movement in the fifties

Sputnik: Space Program
Sputnik, Russian for satellite, was a Soviet space programme where unmanned space ships were launched with the objective of collecting data for studies. Sputnik 1 was launched in 1957.

Chou En-Lai: Personality
Chinese Premier
Zhou Enlai (1898 – 1976) was the premier of China from 1949 till his death.

Bridge on the River Kwai: Film
David Lean’s 1957 film based on the novel by Pierre Boulle picked up seven Oscars including Best Actor, Best Script, Best Director and Best Picture.

Lebanon: Place
Country in southwest Asia, capital Beirut, there was a brief Civil War in 1958 (resolved with intervention by the US) between the Christians and the Muslims which later surfaced again in 1975 and dragged on till 1990.

Charles de Gaulle: Personality
French president
Charles de Gaulle (1890 – 1970) was leader of the Free French Forces in the second world war and head of the provisional government. After the war, he became president of France, now called the Fifth Republic from 1958 till 1969

California baseball: Event
In 1958, two top baseball teams Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants moved west to California. Brooklyn became LA Dodgers while New York Giants became San Francisco Giants

Starkweather homicide: Event
Charles Starkweather (1938 – 1959) was a serial killer who was executed by electric chair in 1957. Bruce Springsteen’s song Nebraska is based on the life of Charles Starkweather

children of thalidomide: Event
Thalidomide was a drug introduced by German company Grunenthal in 1953 as a sleeping aid and an anti-emetic for pregnant women suffering from morning sickness. It was launched in over fifty countries. Later, Thalidomide was found to be destructive to fetal development. Around 18,000 fetuses were damaged. Off the 12,000 born with defects, 8000 survived the first year. Further these defects became genetic and were inherited by the survivors descendents.

Buddy Holly: Personality
US Singer
Charles Holly (1936 – 1959) was the pioneer of rock and roll and inspiration for an entire generation. He formed his own band The Crickets. He died in an airplane crash in 1959 (The Day the Music died) and is immortalised in Don McLean’s son American Pie.

Ben-Hur: Film
1959 William Wyler film, always features in the top 10 films of all time, still holds the record for most number of Oscars with 11.

space monkey: Event
Between 1948 to 1961, the United States experimented with monkeys as passengers in unmanned space flights.

Mafia: Organisation
Probably refers to the growing Mafia influence in labour unions, government policies, casinos, etc., in mid fifties and sixties

Hula Hoops: Fad
The hula hoop, a traditional toy over 3000 years old, was introduced in the United States as a commercial toy by the Wham-O corporation selling over 100 million in 2 years.

Castro: Personality
Cuban Dictator
Fidel Castro overthrew American backed Batista and till date is not recognised by the US.

Edsel is a no go: Event
Ford Edsel was a special division building what Ford called experimental cars. It became a big marketing failure and the word Edsel is synonymous with any marketing or business fiascos. There were various reasons including mechanical faults, bad name and also bad looking grille “like a Merc sucking a lemon“. Between 1958 and 1960, 100,000 cars were sold compared to a sales target of 200,000. The division was later merged with Mercury.

U2: Spyplane
The Lockheed U2 was a high altitude spyplane with the US Airfroce. In 1960, a U2 plane with pilot Gary Powers flying from Peshawar was shot down by the Soviet Union leading to the U2 crisis. In 1962, a U2 flight took photographs of the movement of missiles in Cuba.

Syngman Rhee: Personality
President of South Korea
First president of South Korea, he was forced to resign after student-led protests and demonstrations.

Payola versus Kennedy: Event
Payola is the payment of money by music companies to radio stations to play their songs as part of the normal schedule and not as a sponsored programme. In the late fifties and sixties, the FTC authorised by Robert Kennedy launched a series of investigations into Payola

Chubby Checker: Personality
US singer
Ernest Evans (born 1941) launched the song The Twist which popularised this dance-music form.

Psycho: Film
1960 Hitchcock film, scared the shit out of America. After the film’s release Alfred Hitchcock received an angry letter from the father of a girl who refused to have a bath after seeing Diaboliques, Les (1955) and now refused to shower after seeing this film. Hitchcock sent a note back simply saying, “Send her to the dry cleaners“.

Belgians in the Congo: Event
Congo, later called Zaire and now known as Democratic People’s Republic of Congo, was a Belgian colony which got independence in 1960.

There are three more stanzas which shall be decoded in due course.

Kill Bill

I watched Kill Bill again the other day on television. Being a trivia hunter, I focused my attention to observing the millions of obscure references and “inspirations” that Quentin Tarantino inevitably places in his movies. Here’s a quick list that I can recall and write about without much researching and cross checking.

1. The snakes: The five members of the Deadly Viper Assassination squad have names of deadly snakes found in mostly in southern US except for the Black Mamba. Am sure everyone knows the names of the snake but just to fill up this post, here they are

O-ren Ishii – Cottonmouth, a pit viper with a heat sensing organ that helps it locate warm blooded prey

The Bride – Black Mamba, found in Africa, extremely venomous and chilling to look at

Bud – Sidewinder, a rattlesnake belonging to the pit viper family, found in the deserts of North America

Elle Driver – California Mountain Snake, not posionous but a constrictor, it eats other snakes as well

Vernita Green – Copperhead, a sort of a viper, venomous but not enough to kill humans

2. D-VAS aka Deadly Viper Assassination Squad: Remember Pulp Fiction? Uma Thurman acted in a pilot episode of a serial called Fox Force Five featuring five people who save the world. The serial was never approved. QT expanded Fox Force Five into DVAS

3. Game of Death – Uma Thurman riding the yellow motorcycle wearing an yellow tracksuit

4. Charlie Brown – Sakichi Sato’s bald head

5. Hattori Hanso – Hattori Hanso was a 16th century Ninja serving in the Japanese imperial army. He has many legends to his name. There have been many TV serials in Japan based on the life of Hattori Hanso and the actor who played HH in these serials, Sonny Chiba, aslo played his namesake, the master swordsmith, in Kill Bill

6. Crazy 88 Eye Masks – From Kato (Bruce Lee) in the Green Hornet

7. Star Trek: Old Klingon proverb, “Revenge is a dish best served cold”

8. Last one, There’s a hoarding of “Red Apple Cigarettes” at Tokyo airport. Butch (Bruce Willis) in Pulp Fiction smoked Red Apple cigarrettes

And there are many more. Dialogues lifted from movies, scenes copied, character names inspired, etc.

Typical QT

Blogging is getting out of hand

The last post on this blog was many many months ago. I just don’t seem to get the time or the mental bandwidth to keep updating it. But these occasional hiatuses will reduce over time.

Last weekend, completed the Star Wars saga by watching Episode III. Lucas has done a good job of linking the movie to the original story. There didnt seem to be much of a goof up. The few questions that arise (maybe subject of Episode III.5)

1. Chewbacca is introduced in Episode III. Where does he disappear and how does he meet Hans Solo?
2. Where does Hans Solo come from?
3. Yoda goes into exile. He makes an appearance in Episode V – Empire Strikes Back. What does Yoda do all this time?

Disappointments
1. Count Duku (Christopher Lee) gets a very tame exit
2. Ditto for Master Windu (Samuel Jackson)
3. Yoda vs Emperor Palpatine (One knew before hand that Yoda would lose but not die)
4. Hayden Christiansen (Anakin Skywalker) seemed too docile to evince the same kind of terror and awe that Darth Vader generated

Famous Guest Appearances in Music

Five questions on famous guest appearances in music. Answers in a week or when replies dry up

1. A pioneering jazz musician, he shared his birthday with India’s Republic Day. Starting his career as a pianist for silent films, he formed the first ever all-string jazz band with Django Reinhardt playing the violin. He is buried in the same cemetery as Jim Morrison, Samuel Beckett and JRD Tata. Name the legend and in which Pink Floyd song does he make an uncredited guest appearance?

2. One of the most brilliant guitarists (IMHO, anyway) whose career was cut short tragically, he used an old medicine bottle as his slide. He avoided the Vietnam draft as he was the eldest son and his father was dead, murdered in 1949. A big fan of Eric Clapton, he engineered to be present as a sessions guitarist during one of Clapton’s studio

sessions. He was thrilled to be recognised by Clapton who thought he was a great guitarist and invited him to play lead in the song he was recording with his band. This guitarist played one of the most memorable lead guitar riffs called the “crying bird”. Clapton played acoustic guitar in this song. Name the Clapton song and the guitarist

3. Born in 1944, John Sebastian was raised in New York’s Greenwich Village, nursery for contemporaries like Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. He formed his own band called Lovin’ Spoonful with Steve Boone on bass and Joe Butler on drums. In tune with this quiz, name the song where he guest appears playing the harmonica and is credited as G. Puglese, because he did not want to be associated with the lead singer’s frequent misdemeanours?

4. Ok, no background story or anything, straightforward question. Who plays the steel pedal guitar in CSNY’s Teach Your Children? (Easy for the Googlers, I guess)

5. Unbelievable collaboration (at least for me). Song written by Mark Knopfler, originally meant for the album Love Over Gold but discarded. Lead guitar played by Jeff Beck. For the singer, this single touched number 7 in the US, number 26 in the UK while the album of the same name sold 5 million copies featuring in the top three in the charts on either side of the Atlantic. Name the song and the singer?

Ok, done. Let the replies roll

Cheers

Howard Hughes

I watched The Aviator today. Leonardo di Caprio is quite a good actor, maybe it is the influence of Martin Scorcese. Generally, a good director can get the best out of the actors and Scorcese is among the best. di Caprio did well in Gangs of New York as well, another Scorcese film.

Anyway, this blog is about Howard Hughes. His film “Hell’s Angels” was the most expensive film made at its time (1930), especially given the Great Depression of 1929. It is probably the first major film to feature mid-air dog fights between fighter aircraft. Howard Hughes himself flew one of those planes along with several WWI aces.

The Aviator also features Alan Alda who I still associate with Hawkeye of MASH.

Interesting list of connections (from Howard Hughes)

- Hell’s Angels is also the nick name of the Harley Davidson mounted toughies who took over the San Francisco and Los Angeles pop scene (One Flew Over…, Rolling Stones Altamount concert, Electric Kool-Aid tests, etc.)

- Hercules “The Spruce Goose”, the world’s largest plane later became the model for military carriers

- I think “Jonas Cord” in Harold Robbins’ The Carpetbaggers is inspired from Howard Hughes’ life – filmmaker, aviator, aircraft mogul, special bra for the female star, etc.

- Howard Hughes is also the inspiration for William Whyte in “Diamonds are forever”

- 1932 film Scarface is based on the life of Al Capone. This film was later remade in 1983 by Brian de Palma

- The screenplay writer for Scarface, Ben Hecht has written more than 10 films for Hitchcock including Notorious, Spellbound, Lifeboat and Stranger in a Train. Brian de Palma dedicated his 1983 Scarface remake to Ben Hecht.