unemployed - that's me. part of the great unwashed. it's whatever time blogger says it is at the end of this post, and i'm still in my pyjamas. i feel like winona ryder in reality bites, and possibly a little bit like ethan hawke in reality bites, also. i would rather feel like janeane garfalo in reality bites - let's face it, like janeane garfalo in any reality, really - and not like winona or ethan. but i am safe; i know i will never spend days and days on the couch, smoking and whinging into the phone to a 1900 psychic; i know i will never be driven to steal because i am convinced the establishment owes me snickers. i know i should have a shower and brush my teeth and eat something, and possibly even watch reality bites in order to effectively separate myself from these fictitious characters. but one feels what one feels - and today, i'm feeling a tad winona.
i used to love winona ryder. i loved her in edward scissorhands and i loved her in little women. i loved her in heathers and i loved her in mermaids. hell, i even loved her in welcome home, roxy carmichael. but then after how to make an american quilt (which i never watched, by the way), i kinda lost interest in her. maybe i wanted to be just like her. maybe she was my first subconcious girl-crush. now, whenever watching reality bites, i sometimes wish she would stop talking; most of all, i really wish she'd worn a bra in that end scene where she's stomping away from ben stiller and she's in that doily dress. maybe, just maybe, it was the angry bouncing that put me off. whenever i'm watching another one of my trashy favourites, bring it on (that has nothing whatsoever to do with winona ryder), i wish that someone would introduce kirsten dunst to a full support. you're sexy, your cute, yes - but saggage is never a good thing.

what a weird week. let's start at the top and work our way down, shall we? monday - valentine's day. the boy and i have no time for hallmark days, so that took care of that. at the office, the men in charge decided they would take the wimmin out to morning tea to (according to the email invite received the week before) 'show us how much they appreciated us'. well. aren't we spoiled. at the cafe across the street (no kidding), we were greeted with a beautiful sight - a table fit for an anorexic princess. there were five muffins. halved. divided between two plates. i. kid. you. not. oh, and and a strawberry freddo each (my motto in life - if you're not going to do something properly, don't bother doing it at all, and if you have nothing nice to say, say it loud. excuse the attitude today, i have a hangover - but keep the sentiment. half a friggin muffin? come on!). so, half a muffin and a cup of coffee later, we returned to the office feeling, no doubt, 'sufficiently appreciated' (i gave my freddo away). left work early to prepare myself for publishing dinner (read about that at my other blog). so that was monday. tuesday night was spent watching the oc and then catching up on taped desperate housewives. i 'argh!'ed out loud when bree delivered her party-killing one-liner - talk about left field! wednesday at work i was told i was 'no longer required' (i work on an 'as needed' basis anyway, so i was a little mystified at being given 'the talk' - weird), so that night was stay-at-home comfort curry cookup night. thursday day was spent at the verandah offices at deakin, thursday night at a pub in south melbourne toasting (repeatedly) two good friend's engagement. this morning i wake up with a hangover, and do the only thing for it - eat a large bowlful of leftover curry and drink a beer-mugful of tea. then the phone rings. both the receptionist and the relief receptionist are not in today. could i possibly come in to work? i'm in an on again-off again relationship with my employers. at least i know it's not me - it's them.

thanks to a mate of mine who had a couple of spare tickets, mark and i got to go see 'bride and prejudice' last night, a week before it opens on general cinema release. i was actually supposed to interview gurinder chadha over the telephone a couple of weeks ago but it fell through, which was a pity - the woman's a legend, and is right up there with bjork as far as personal heroes go. anyway, back to the point. as 'research', i read heaps of reviews about the film, mostly from uk media. a lot of reviews were not too positive, saying the film didn't go deep enough, and missed the subtleties and nuances that make pride and prejudice such and excellent piece of work. there was other criticism of the whole bollywood thing - the song & dance numbers etc... (and another on the main actress, aishwariya rai's english being a liuttle stilted... hello? this person probably also complains about penelope cruz's accent... even though she is a little irritating, you get my point, right?). initially i think my viewing the film was coloured by these opinions, but i think i did something these people didn't while they were watching the movie - i made a concious decision to stop over-analysing, and to just sit back and enjoy the ride.
i swear, i think the whole bollywood genre is the most over-analysed film genre there is. i truly believe that the majority of bollywood cinema is made with one purpose in mind - to entertain. it's pure escapism. so can we please stop carrying on about how unrealistic it is? i think that's meant to be their appeal, and just quietly, i think the people that make these movies are well aware that it's highly unlikely that troupes of dancers are wandering the plains of switzerland, just waiting for someone to burst into song.
anyhoo. getting back to 'bride and prejudice'. i thought it was an excellent film, and demonstrates gurinder chadha's adaptability and excellent sense of humour. i was talking about it at work today, and had to explain to a fellow employee what the premise of the film was about.
well, you should have seen the huffiness.
how dare *they* do that to austen?
the already pale countenance paled slightly more, nearly to the point of translucence. this person was horrified, i tell you. positively horrified.
you don't understand, they said. i really like pride and prejudice. i mean i really, really like it.
well, i said. so do we.

whenever i'm at amazon's website, i can't help but smile every time i see this in the top left hand corner of the screen:

it makes me feel like my mum and my nani are stuck in the amazon site somewhere, asking me what the deal is.
if you get what i'm on about and you're looking for more desi humour, go to badmash.org.
dishoom, baby.

gig last night went alright, but then again i am the last person you should ask if you want to know how i went - the only things that seem to stick with me are the silences. oh, how morbid. sounds sad but i think it holds true for anyone who performs. unless i have a rip-snorter of a gig where everyone is rolling around in the aisles (so to speak), i come away feeling a kinda blah. oh well, done's done.
recently, two bollywood actors who pretty much shaped my bolly-world when i was a kid, passed away. amrish puri was one of a handful of actors that always played the bad guy. he was scary as crap, the quintessential villain. i'm sure he was a great guy in real life, but he was the stuff of my childhood nightmares. for you non-bollywood types, here's some trivia - apart from the two hundred odd bollywood flicks he starred in, he also played the monkey-brain eating villan mola ram in 'indiana jones and the temple of doom'.
then last week i heard that parveen babi had died. i was quite shaken up by this news, especially since i found out about it by chance when my boss at work asked me if i'd heard the news about some bollywood actress that had passed away. the thing that made me the saddest was that she'd turned into a bit of a recluse, and she was all alone at the end. for someone that gave joy to so many, it seems unfair. my cousins and i loved her - she was the one we fought over 'being' when we re-created bollywood films at home, because she was the prettiest. thank you, parveen. i hope you're in a happier place now.