2008: the Year of Schadenfreude

So, here we are, ending 2008 like we started it here at 3rdworldimagineer—sick as a dog. Granted, the Jan 08′ vintage was a tad stronger than the ‘09 looks to be (unless the Berkeley Department of Public Health has something to share with the class) but it’s still enough to knock us on our ass, [...]

Slumdog Millionaire

Well, I finally saw it. And read the book. And reviewed the soundtrack (what did you do?).
And for the first time in years, I have to say that the movie was a HUGE improvement on Vikas Swarup’s ambitious but flawed novel about the first winner of India’s Millionaire, fictionalized to W3B. With its recurrent filmi [...]

I MADE THIS

Here’s the article I wrote for Sunday’s New York Times. Read it and weep, haters. For everybody else, please enjoy!

Making sense of Mumbai

Today’s post is inspired in part by the SAJA-coordinated lecture series “Understanding the Mumbai Attacks”, moderated by Rome Hartman, with Mira Kamdar, Mr. Rushdie, and one of this 3rdworldimagineer’s favorite journalists, Mr. Suketu Mehta.
The lecture was notable for many things, but what struck me most was the blatant emotionalism that charged the speakers and audience [...]

Coronation of the Mash-Up Queen

Oh M.I.A.  I remember when I would play your debut Arular  at a party just to see what would happen, thinking,  I wonder if people will dance? Or bludgen me to death. I recall the joy I got from picking out your Bollywood riffs and knowing your political references. Remember those days?
Now you are on [...]

OMFG, A.R. Rahman/M.I.A. collaboration

If you’ve been following the Slumdog Millionare phenomenon, you may already know that venerable Indian composer and Bollywood kingmaker A.R. Rahman has collaborated with Sri Lankan grime-goddess M.I.A. on an original song called O…SAYA for a the Slumdog Millionare (aka indiawonderkindfilm) soundtrack, marking yet another thing that makes this work AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE, AND OSCAR SHOE-IN. [...]