La La Land

What a joy .......and such a beautiful title. A movie I really really wish I could have caught on a large screen.

Damien Chazelle actually brings out a la la land. The visuals, the cinematography...it was quite transporting.

It is a movie about love and dreams,  and how they the two talk to each other...at times in sync and at times walking parallel lines with wonderful intersections. A movie that lives as much through movement and rhythm, as words and actions.

There's so much symbolism in the movie that you know you've got but the half of it.

It starts dramatically. A flyover in LA, bumper to bumper traffic and suddenly everyone breaks into dance to 'another day of sun'. A city of dreamers....or a dreamers destination...of possibilities....and then we slowly zoom into two of the dreamers, who are also stuck in the jam.

Mia (Emma Stone) an aspiring actress and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) a serious and committed pianist, who dreams of having his own Jazz cafe.

Each of them holding onto their dream, also living the hard life of grounding and livelihood, compromising their art, their hopes....looking for that breakthrough....and they find each other.

The movie follows the seasons to show the highs and lows in Mia and Sebastian's seemingly idyllic relationship. As I read somewhere, 'Life may not pan out the way you'd desired but true love makes it worthwhile - this message lies at the heart of Chazelle's basic but soul-stirring tale'. 

The underlying conflict between hopes, wishes and reality never seemed so real, beautifully brought out by a sequence, triggered by just a strain on the piano, where they both drift into a world that could have been. Haunting and beautiful.

The movie left me with a smile on the lips, a tear in the eye and a  flutter in the heart........all la la land stuff.

Perspective is Everything

Lovely talk, especially so that quirky British sense of humour !

And of course the basic idea....'perspective is everything'

Sridevi - A little tribute

It's strange, but the news of Sridevi's death has touched a personal space deep within. It almost felt like losing someone I know, a friend who lived afar, the resonance felt that deep.

She feels like someone I've grown up with....like having been part of that journey..... movies which were bold, funny, thought provoking.......and above all else spontaneous. 

Some of my favourites which come to mind are Lamhe, Chaalbaaz, Kshana Kshanam, each of which I've seen more than once. 

There's a certain naivety, energy and spontaneity to her which even on screen made her so real....real enough to touch from so far.

May her soul rest in peace.

Know more about your brain

Interesting...

To Look Anew....

My latest obsession is this word game, 'word connect', a game where you make an x number of words out of a set of jumbled letters. As with any game, it's a progressive one, with levels of increasing difficulty, or maybe 'challenge' is the nicer word.

Vishakha, thanks for initiating me into it :)

While I whirled through the initial 300 levels (I did mention obsession right:), it's now reached a stage where I can't make the needed words at one go.

I've found something interesting. I can struggle for five minutes, ten minutes, even fifteen and not find the word. I'll shut down, and reopen a few hours later, and more often than not, this time round I'll get it. 

Old lesson I guess, but a lovely reiteration. 

Don't look through the same lens. Especially when you're trying to resolve an issue....it's critical that we get that other perspective, change vantage, clear lens. At times just space and time can give it to you, at times you may need to make a conscious effort to get in another perspective.

And this comes through so clearly even in something as simple as a word game.

To be able to look anew .....a pathway to being more fully there.

The Failure Of Success

A write up from Ideapod:

We are all born creative genuises and its the education system that dumbs us down, according to NASA scientists.

At TEDxTucson, Dr. George Land dropped a bombshell when he told his audience about the shocking result of a creativity test developed for NASA but subsequently used to test school children.

NASA had contacted Dr George Land and Beth Jarman to develop a highly specialized test that would give them the means to effectively measure the creative potential of NASA’s rocket scientists and engineers for use in specific problem solving areas. 

The test turned out to be very successful for NASA’s purposes, but the scientists were left with a few questions: where does creativity come from? Are some people born with it or is it learned? Or does it come from our experience?

The scientists then gave the test to 1,600 children between the ages of 4 and 5. What they found shocked them.

This is a test that looks at the ability to come up with new, different and innovative ideas to problems. What percentage of those children do you think fell in the genius category of imagination?

A full 98 percent!

Listen to the story directly from George Land, even his context building was fascinating.

Peacocks at KBR

It's such an exotic looking bird, that even if it's every morning, I can't but stand and gape. 

In fact yesterday the thought in my head, which I guess also inspired this post.......if you think God, it almost makes me wonder what kind of a mood he was in when he was working on the peacock. Like he not just used the colour palette in full, but used imagination to play around...and mix... and match and go fully overboard.

Like he was showing off just for me (the peacock I mean :)

Two peacocks amidst the early morning sunrays

The bare tree made such a lovely backdrop, or should I say foredrop

I could tell he was going to fly, and I waited to catch a picture in flight..... but it's like he just sat there figuring, and just after I started to walk he flew :)

A peahen by a little water pond

Peacocks on the rocks

Picture perfect profile

They're so used to walkers, they settle this close to the walking path

Five peacocks in one picture !

A feature that adds so much colour (pun fully intended) to the walk !