Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?

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Happy Wednesday! I have 7 more work days at this job (not counting today). My Mom made me a paper chain! It’s very satisfying.

I’ll start!

Reading: I’m deep into the Honor Harrington series by David Weber. I highly recommend it if you like Star Trek, Tom Clancy, or Lois Bujold. Super awesome starship captain heroine who does brilliant brave things and is beloved by her crew.

Watching: Cannot recommend Phool Aur Patthar enough! So romantic, so good. I very much enjoyed watching it, and then the Zoom discussion afterward about it.

Thinking: 7 more work days! Almost done! I’m just crawling through it. But worth it to make things easier for my team before I leave them.

Listening: Did you know there’s a whole GENRE about “why did I waste my emotional labor on a man who didn’t see or appreciate what I was doing for him?” Yes, they are usually about romantic relationships, but it still works great for leaving a job of a decade with a horrible unappreciative sendoff by your boss. Anyway, “My Kink is Karma” is a great song, is what I am saying. (although the music video is a bit out there!)

So, question! For folks who know more about music than I do (which is basically every one alive in the world, I know nothing). What are good angry “you didn’t appreciate me” breakup songs? I’ve got 7 more work days, I need something to get me through!

43 thoughts on “Wednesday Watching Post: What Are You Reading and Watching and Thinking and Listening to This Week?”

  2. There is a proverb in italian: “Quando si chiude una porta, si apre un portone” (When one door closes a bigger one opens). My son hates when I use this saying (maybe because I use it very frequently), but it’s what I believe and what I wish for you Margaret and for Anonymous with all my heart.

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  4. Weirdly I have been watching things! I watched The Great Indian Family on my flight to Brazil. I had thoughts when I watched it but just now I struggled to remember it so it apparently didn’t leave a deep impression. I’m happy Vicky is having his moment and is in all the movies. He was entertaining to watch as always. They were going for an Amar Akbar Anthony ending but more ham handed overall. It was still good to see as a message, and some nice non-traditional family bits too. I’ve been watching Barzakh, in small sips, one episode to go. I wanted so much to love it but it’s very strange. It feels like kind of a waste of Fawad, though Sanam Saeed is great in her role and Salman Shahid as the patriarch chews the furniture with gusto. It’s going for fairy tale, and the setting is spectacular, but some parts feel like a play and there’s this weird CGI tree and ghosts wandering around with rocks tied to their backs. An odd one. It hit turbulence in Pakistan because there’s a gay romantic subplot between the eldest brother and the Italian cook, some of those scenes are quite lovely. I wish it all worked better as a whole. I’m also gradually working through Heeramandi, which I’m liking more than I expected. It’s like a Korean chaebol drama but with more beautiful settings and costumes and full on melodrama.

    The two breakup songs I thought of are both in Spanish, but they feel right so here they are:

    Emily

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    • Oh, The Great Indian Family, I watched it few month ago, and recently I saw the poster and was like: “I forgot this movie existed”. It’s just so forgettable. The only thing I remember is how stupid the main problem was for me, as a European. I mean, I believe the religion is our choice. Yes we are born in a certain religion, but later we decide if we want to stay or change it, but here Vicky was 100% Hindu and 2 minutes later, he was like: “I guess now I must be a Muslim”, even if he knew absolutely nothing abut this religion. I know it’s different in India, with caste and stuff, but still, I found it stupid.

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      • Yes, I mean the set-up was he was raised in a pandit family and makes all the money for by singing at religious ceremonies, so it was more than just being Hindu as a private part of his identity. But I agree that the “turning Muslim” parts were over the top and leaned on stereotypes because of his ignorance. Also the whole conflict could be resolved in one conversation with the dad. I guess I was just relieved that it wasn’t bigoted and the that the Muslim characters were sympathetic and that the central message was positive. But agree it was forgettable, I literally couldn’t remember the title or enough about it to Google it.

        Emily

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  5. Thinking: there was just a cute photoshop of Ranveer and (extremely) pregnant Dips who is about to have the world’s most attractive baby!

    They are releasing Jawan in Japan finally so I can see it in a theater in November!

    Movie watching has increased since I’ve been on vacation. I finally saw Crew, and it was really fun. Followed by something completely different, Goat Life. I wanted to like it, but it really drags in places. It takes Prithviraj’s character forever to realize that he’s not going to an office job, and if he complains in Malayalam no one will understand him. It is absolutely gorgeous though–obviously Kerala looks glorious but so does the desert. I really really liked All India Rank. Deals very well with the subject of parental expectations (like, the parents in this movie are loving and not horrible but they still put pressure on the son) and educational issues. It has a part that is very sad. I gave up on Saavi and can’t decide if I want to carry on with Mr. and Mrs. Mahi. The former is a bit silly. The latter is fine but super predictable so far.

    I am reading a mystery called Bombay Ice and I also watched Monkey Man over the weekend and it was interesting to compare two ways of explaining India to non-Indian people. Bombay Ice is OK as a mystery but was written in the mid 90s and suffers from a distinct lack of wokeness. All the Indians speak in hilariously cutesy English (“Now you are letting the feline out of the bag”) and EVERYTHING has to be explained at length to the western heroine, which results in everyone talking like a Wikipedia entry. I was impressed that Monkey Man does not do this. There’s no white guy to explain things to, and there’s almost no white guy at all, except for one minor character. For obvious reasons you kind of have to know who Hanuman is, but they take care of this by having a Ramayana puppet play shown briefly in a flashback. Hijra are also important to the story, but it’s obvious what they are and they aren’t explained. The movie assumes you’ll understand the hijra, and the corrupt godman and his connection with the government. Nothing is explicated and it makes the movie run very swiftly and smoothly (and extremely violently).

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    • Loved the preggo pics of Dips. I hope everything goes well for her, she seems like she’ll be a loving mom. All India Rank sounds good, I put it on my list 🙂. And I’ve been curious about Monkey Man so thank you! Just haven’t yet been in the right frame of mind for dark and violent. Sounds worth it though.

      Miss Braganza, I was wondering if you ever read Tale of Genji? I picked up a translation of the first book randomly at a bookstore on vacation and was surprised how much it sucked me in. Not sure I could even explain why. It made me wonder if it’s a book everyone reads in Japan as a classic. I saw they’ve made manga and movie adaptations.

      Emily

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      • Oh, yes, I’ve read The Tale of Genji a couple of times, and seen a couple of film adaptations. It must have been adapted to various media hundreds of times. There was an interesting English novelization called the Tale of Murasaki, which imagines the life of the author. That’s quite a fun read if you’ve read the original. I don’t think everyone in Japan reads it, but everyone I think is fairly familiar with it and might have read a bit of it in a classical Japanese class.

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        • Oh wow, now that you say that I totally remember when Take of Murasaki came out being intrigued by this female novelist from the 11th century I had never heard of, but I never made the connection. Did you like any of the movie adaptations particularly?

          At the time I read the book I did some online exploring to see if there were Genji-connected places people visit in Japan. I have the travel bug that’s going around. I’m envious of my friend who’s going to southern India this fall. She’s going because her husband has an event and is feeling a bit nervous. I pointed her to Meenakshi Sundareshkar, so sweet and showed part Bangalore part smaller city…and that gorgeous temple.

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    • I liked All India Rank because of the way it showed the student as well. When I was at that age, I definitely fell the same way where everyone seemed so passionate and I was just trying to cope. I thought it was a lovely sweet film on a subject that is talked often.

      Saavi is so funny! Its truly camp brilliance. The whole film is so stupid and the final climax runs on absolute stupidity from everyone. I would highly recommend you to watch it as it truly lifts your spirits.

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  6. I saw Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. I love the first movie so much, it’s one of my favourites films ever, so I was super excited when I saw that the sequel is coming. I even subscribed to Netflix to watch it legally. First I rewatched the original , and it’s still fantastic. And then I started the sequel and it was so BORING. I managed to watch the first 20 minutes and needed a pause. People in internet were saying the sequel is better than the original so I forced myself to keep watching and no, the sequel has nothing to do with the first movie. It’s boring, there is no passion, only the policemen and boring stuff. Everything I love the most in Haseen Dillruba is missing: the humour, the twists, Taapsee’s quirky character and the most important: Vikrant’s love, passion and presence. He is hardly there, has almost nothing to do, and he has stupid, short hair and ugly cap. What’s the point of remaking Haseen Dillruba with Vikrant almost absent and Taapsee’s character being boring? It was a waste of time.

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    • Thank you for your service! Netflix keeps telling me to watch it and, somehow, the trailer wasn’t getting me excited. Sounds like I was right.

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  7. I have upstairs neighbors from hell. They have loud thudding that my whole apartment shakes and play loud music that I can tell the lyrics in my apartment. For the ridiculous amount of rent I pay, I can’t believe what I have to put up with. I’ve complained to the building management. It gets better for a little while and then it’s bad again. I’m here because I feel so much despair. I’m stuck in this lease for another 6 months and finding a place is so hard anyway.

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    • Ugh!!!! I’ve been there. Your home is supposed to be a retreat, it sucks when it becomes a stress.

      You can probably sublet the last 6 months in that market, start looking now! At least you will feel better doing something proactive.

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  8. I’m not sure if people on the blog know but in India the telugu film Mass has become huge on social media. I decided to watch it mostly because of all the memes and the wonderful title song dubbed in hindi “Dada chalte toh mass, dada hilte to mass, dada dekhe to mass”. The love story is so formulaic that it makes sense why it has been memed so much. It reminds me exactly of the opening sequence of Aarya. But other than that, I actually enjoyed the film as its quite a stylish action film and the whole plot is very tight. I also was shocked that Nagarjuna is probably dressed the most stylishly I have ever seen a film hero dressed.

    I also watched Munjya. Honestly, I didn’t like it. Around 3/4ths of the film was building well. However than they just dragged and dragged and the final climax was underwhelming. I really felt that nothing was remotley interesting by the end. Also, the ghost ‘Munjya’ was so annoying and boring which is why I disliked it more. As he’s just a very annoying and tiring ghost. Overall, a very underwhelming movie.

    I also watched a comedy film in theatres after a long time. ‘Khel Khel Mein” was nice to see Akshay Kumar be in form again and he also looked very nice in the film. Taapsee and Fardeen were the second best in my opinion. However, I felt the film was just ok, like it was nice to watch in theatres but you can’t think too much about it or it doesn’t stay in your head for long. I found Aditya Seal’s character full of contradictions but I actually think the film would be good to discuss on the blog because of the plot setup of friends spilling their secrets.

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  10. My son started high school this week and I’m overhelmed with emotions. I’m happy and glad but also super super stressed. The school is in the city, and not in our town so there is another stress with not missing the bus, waking up very early etc. I want everything to go well (with the studies but also with the new friends) and it’s so stressful! I think I wasn’t that nervous even when I started high school.

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  11. Pingback: Wednesday Watching Put up: What Are You Studying and Watching and Considering and Listening to This Week? – MP4 Moviez – MP4 Moviez

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