Happy Wednesday! And Happy Ms Marvel Finale Day! I’m gonna try to finish it today, but I make no promises. I do promise to finish it eventually, and write a lovely review/discussion area, so hold on to your thoughts for that, it is coming shortly.
I’ll start!
Reading: I finished all the Anne books! I am destitute! And I am about to go on a long stressful trip. Maybe time to read comic books again! Reread the Ms Marvel books after I finally finish the series?
Watching: Ms Marvel! I watched the first two episodes, and now I’m gonna try to do episode 3 and 4 and 5 and 6. For FAWAD!
Thinking: Okay, at dawn on Saturday I hit the road for my sister near Boston. I’m giving myself to Monday evening to get there, so I just need to average 6 hours of driving a day. I’ll stop whenever I get tired and find a park to walk in or something, or just nap in the car for 10 minutes. I’m thinking apples and peanut butter sandwiches and bottles of iced tea for car snacks. That seems doable, right? Even though I tend to get panic attacks when driving on highways and/or fall asleep? And at the end of it, Nephew(s)!!!! Hopefully Nephew B doesn’t arrive until after I am there and have bonded enough with Nephew A that he doesn’t freak out when his parents disappear for 12-36 hours. My sister and I look sooooooooooo similar, maybe I just pretend to be Mommy and hope he doesn’t notice?
Listening: Pump up car songs! I think “Ranam” is perfect, especially since I might be driving by Detroit.
Now, question for you! What tips do you have for long long long car drives?
dontcallitbollywood 
Where are you planning on sleeping overnight? I hope it’s not in your car!!! If you don’t have hotels booked, I recommend the Hotels Tonight app. You can find really good last minute deals in your area.
Now on to more fun stuff …. you get to meet Baby SRK today!!!! I am sooo excited. He was a bit of a terror all morning so I’m hoping he got that out of his system and decides to be cute when he sees you!
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Oh, I’m gonna find cheap motels on the way. I don’t want to plan too much because I don’t want to feel locked into a plan and then drive more or less than I feel up to. However, I am considering sleeping in the car once Tiny Baby arrives if I need to be that far away from Tiny Baby.
And yaaaaaaaaaay! I get to meet Baby SRK!
On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 11:34 AM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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READING: I read the white tiger and I totally hated it but also get why it won a booker prize. Also one of my major problems with the film was that I could really feel that the author was a South Indian with the way he described everything as it felt out of his depth.
WATCHING: No Indian movies this week as the only movie I watched was Prom (2011) and A Beautiful Life (2011). Prom was a run off the mile Disney romcom that I have watched a million times and every time I devour it even though I know what’s going to happen. A beautiful life is a wonderful movie that is so tragic and depressing but also so beautiful in some ways. An interesting link to Indian cinema is that Shu Qi (main actress of a beautiful life), is part of the original movie My Girlfriend is a Gangster 3 which Singh is Bling is a remake off. She plays Amy Jackson’s character.
Listening: I have been listening to Back to Black by Amy Winehouse and Right where you left me by Taylor swift this whole week. Again no Indian connection except for the fact that I myself am Indian. However since I have been in a sucky mood, break up/toxic relationship songs have been perfect for me.
Thinking: I mentioned previously about my terrible mood. So because of that I have become philosophical this week. Reflecting on my past friendships and how most of my friends have used me. How I only have 2 really good friends, but on the positive side a lot of people have 0 good friends. So at least I’m better than them.
My tips for long long car drives is too not take many breaks and try to procede as fast as you can. Leave early in the morning and just drive straight and only take food/bathroom breaks when necessary. Even for those breaks make sure to not spend too much time as you want to be out of the car as soon as possible.
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2 really good friends is a great number of friends! I will also say that I feel like I have gotten better at finding and keeping healthy friendships the older I get. I have about 5 really really good friends now, and I met all of them after age 25 and they didn’t become really really good friends for a while after that because it takes time, especially as you get older.
Oooo, Taylor Swift! I gotta start playing that for this car trip. Good energy boosting too, because I can sing along.
I was gonna watch Prom when it first came out, and then I didn’t, and now you are making me think I should go back and try it again!
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I’m finally watching RRR (not done yet) and it’s great. Someone PLEASE hire me to play an icy evil English lady wearing a hilarious mixture of different eras of couture. I can’t act but I’m blonde, so I mean, what else do you want.
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Isn’t it WONDERFUL? And so open to a Queer reading? And also what is up with that ice cold white lady?
On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 12:06 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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It’s VERY gay in an old-fashioned way. I have no idea what the white lady is about except as a fetish thing, no woman would have a state function in the UK at that point except for the Queen but there’s a king here.
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I like to think of the White Lady and Husband and Edward as an unhealthy threesome unofficially playing power dynamics among them. Because also, what is up with Edward?
On Wed, Jul 13, 2022 at 12:29 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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I have NO IDEA what’s going on with Edward. But honestly I don’t really know what’s going on in this movie, it’s borderline Mard.
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I need to ask what do you think of Jake (the white guy who provokes Nacho Nacho), I really wanted their to be an enemies to lovers arc. So Ram, Bheem and Jake can be a happy threesome while Jenny+Alia will be the sidechicks.
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I think that is what the song foreshadows so you are right to feel that way. HOWEVER why can’t Jenny and Alia get together?
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Yes, that’s so perfect! Jenny and Alia are tired of the boys just using them to cover up their gayness, so they get close by venting about the boys . They realise they are too good for the boys and fall in love W each other. Then Jake, Bheem and Ram have a happy threesome while Alia+Jenny fall in love.
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Once again, a better movie. Someone give us money to make this.
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Reading: Just finished Wayward Son, the sequel to Carry On that I might have mentioned in a previous post. It was a lot less “chosen one fights big bad evil wizard” and more “finding yourself in a cross country road trip while fighting magical bad guys along the way” which I absolutely adored. I loved it, more than Carry On, which is apparently a controversial opinion.
Watching: Thanks to filmikudhi’s alert, I have been bingeing Koffee with Karan on Hulu. I mean, my definition of bingeing, which means I’m two episodes in. They don’t have every single episode, but a hefty amount from all the seasons. I’m starting from the beginning and it’s WILD to be ahead and think of where all these people are now. I thoroughly enjoy young Kareena and kind of despise young Aish. I had no idea Bajirao Mastani was being cast as early as 2005. And Kareena put Saif at the bottom of her list of Khans and now she’s married to him. Wild.
Listening: The Shamshera album continues to be infuriatingly good. Case and point, second single Fitoor. Uncomfy visuals and a weird wardrobe for Vaani, but a gorgeous track.
And the full album. Parinda is another great one.
And also the first song from Liger is addictive. Still don’t really understand the movie though.
The only super long car drives I’ve ever been on were with my parents, so they did all of the driving and I just listened to podcasts. But I did make a “Song to Sing Along to in the Car” playlist, and Spotify curates those too, so maybe that’ll help?
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Oh, my God, long car trips. During my entire childhood, we made a trip every year from the midwest where we happened to be living to our home in New Orleans, and due to a combination of lack of money and my mom’s fear of flying we always did it by car, which took four days in the summer heat with as many as six people (I had four siblings, but the oldest two gradually aged out) and once with six people and two dogs. In August. Through the South. Although it made for lots of funny stories, including the time our car broke down for two entirely separate reasons in the same town in New Mexico, once on the way there and once on the way back, it was not something I recall as pleasant. My advice would be: for lord’s sake stop when you want and under no circumstances refuse a bathroom break, no matter how much ground you want to cover that day.
Thinking: about a stupid research project I can’t get a handle on and it’s driving me crazy.
Reading: Mostly about said project, but also reading 50 Films that Changed Bollywood. I’ve only seen about half of them, so in the future this may be another (fun, stress-free) project to undertake.
Watching: Still no time/mental energy for a movie, although the plan was to watch Loop Lapeta. I am still hoping for something to fill the void left by Little Things, though, so I watched the first episode of Kota Factory. Although I half expected it to be very dark and upsetting (shot in black and white, potential for bullying plot), I found it very funny and sweet, while still calling into question the whole test-based system. Looking forward to the next one.
Also, don’t judge, slowly working my way through Ranveer vs Wild. I watch a few minutes on my breaks at work, enough to come to an audience-participation point, and then I participate, and go back to work and find out what happened on my next break. I know that Ranveer is not actually going to be torn apart by wolves, so it’s pretty stress free and diverting.
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Watch Ms Marvel!!! It has Fawad in a very Miss Braganza kind of role. And I would never judge someone for watching a silly TV show.
And yes, bathroom breaks, and I am currently at the garage getting my a/c recharged because it’s Very Important.
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Seriously spent a long time yesterday trying to figure out if Ms Marvel is available with a Disney Plus Japan subscription. Results still inconclusive.
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I know a lot about long car trips. We were supposed to drive across the country this summer but the price of gas put a stop to it, but still we regularly drive 6-8 hours over the mountains to see family in the Bay Area. Apples are good. Bags of pretzels are good, my favorite are those giant snyder ones. Podcasts are good, and also local radio is enjoyable. Treats are necessary. A treat could be a jerky stick or a piece of candy or a soda. But doling out treats either every hour or when a certain destination is reached helps.
Now that I need glasses to read, I don’t read. I am constantly interrupted while reading, not just by the kids, and every time I am interupted I have to remove the glasses and refocus my eyes to see who is interrupting me, and by the second time I feel like it isn’t worth it. I HATE that moment of not being able to see the interrupter. So I don’t read. We went backpacking and I didn’t bring a book, it would mean I would have to bring the glasses, and my excuse was I never have time to read on family trips anyway. As it turned out it was a fishing trip and I had plenty of time to read. But while I could have been reading in the mountains I know that while reading I wouldn’t have been able to see the mountains around me. Still though, I should have brought a book.
I watched Ms. Marvel with the 7 year old and spouse and I (ish) have been watching the HBO mini series on Chernobly. Humanity is @#$~! up!
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Yesterday I ended up pulling over at every single official rest area to park, walk around and stretch, and then leave again. So, that was my treat. But I think being able to walk and stretch and look at grass and trees is the Best Treat of All.
I briefly, like for 8 months when I was 12, needed glasses just for my astigmatism and not for distance. It was HORRIBLE. I ended up spending most of my time with the glasses perched on the tip of my nose. And then, thank goodness, my eyesite got worse and I was able to get distance glasses and just wear them all the time. My hope for you is that your distance vision gets just a smidge worse so you can upgrade to bifocals!
On Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 8:56 AM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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I told my family that I demanded to watch an Indian, movie this afternoon, and while looking Netflix brought up RAnveer & Bear Grylls! Bear Grylls is the guy my kids love because he drinks his own pee and eats bear poop. So I’m not watching an Indian movie – instead we’re watching Ranveer play his “Crazy Ranveer Persona” with Bear Grylls. Also Ranveer is talking in Hindi most of the time, which is an interesting choice as I’m sure Bear Grylls doesn’t understand it and Ranveer speaks perfect English.
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Oooo, now I kind of want to watch this!
Also, my nephew is obsessed with Poop right now (as in, “Guess what Mommy?” “What?” “POOP!” [hysterical giggling]), which I thought was just a toddler thing, but are you saying he will never fully grow out of it?
On Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 2:01 PM dontcallitbollywood < comment-reply@wordpress.com> wrote:
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He may grow out of the poop phase by 25, but I have a 48 year old brother-in-law who is still in it.
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Sigh. It’s really not as funny as he thinks.
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