Life, Crap, Etc.

“When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”

– Unknown

[love this picture .. and, no, she's not asking for "permission" to come upstairs .. it's more like she's saying "haul your ass down .. I'm hungry, AGAIN!]

Stolen Lives (“La Prisonnier”)
Written by : Malika Oufkir

“If I could have ripped out the earth with my teeth I would have. I dug, I scooped out the earth, I no longer thought, I no longer existed, I had become a machine. Digging, scooping, digging, scooping…”

A testament to the endearing power of the human spirit, “Stolen Lives”, written by Malika Oufkir, is the haunting tale of Malika and her family’s twenty-four year incarceration in a desert jail.  The story starts in 1972 as Malika’s life is shattered when her father, Generat Oufkir,  is executed for his part in an attempt to assassinate the King of Morocco.  Along with her mother and five siblings, Malika, then nineteen, is imprisoned in a penal colony. The Oufkir family spends the next fifteen years in prison, the last ten in solitary confinement, until they manage to dig a tunnel and escape. Their freedom ends five days later, however, when they are captured and return to prison. In 1996, after twenty-four years of solitary confinement, starvation and torture, the Oufkir family is finally granted permission to leave Morocco.

With the help of Michelle Fitoussi, editor of the French Elle magazine, Malika recalls her family’s struggle for survival in the harshest, most astounding circumstances.  She tells of raising her brothers and sisters, teaching them good manners and attempting to provide them with some semblance of a normal life. They celebrated Christmas and birthdays, saving up rations to make cakes and fashioning toys out of cardboard.  Even through the worst moments, Malika will surprise you with her sense of humor.

This haunting tale, as shocking and upsetting as it is, is written beautifully and purely from a factual point of view.  Do not expect melodramatic flair.  Instead, Malika’s honesty and simplicity shines through to express the dire horror and fear the family lived through for so long.  The Oufkir family’s courage, determination and dignity are an icon of the triumphant mind and soul over strongest adversary!

Don’t they make an absolutely fab couple?! ..
love you guys! .. loved the apartment, esp. the “London” corner! :)

[Amruta and Karthik honeymooning in the Maldives!]

After a bit of a hiatus from watching tv, I’ve been fumbling through some of the sit-coms running these days.  I have to say I’m totally shocked!  I feel a little left behind, but “The Family Guy” .. oh my god, it’s actually GROSS! I mean short of the cute alien, the show is terribly offensive and in such bad taste.  (not to mention, it’s so NOT just a cartoon .. it should be “R” rated)  I wonder if I’m the only one that feels that way.  Where are the sit-coms like the “Cosby Show”, “Three’s Company” (yes, I’m THAT old!), “Friends”, “Will & Grace”, etc. ?

And have you seen “The Sarah Silverman Program”?  I was completely horrified just 10 minutes into the program!  What on Earth is wrong with peoples’ sense of humor?  The particular episode that I happened to see was the one where she (i.e. Sarah Silverman) finds out she’s 9 months pregnant.  The woman didn’t actually have a clue all those nine months!  Perhaps we’re just a generation of jaded sit-com addicts, where we need more sort of “shocking” comedy to make us laugh.  Which actually does or could make sense, if you take into account the theory of laughter .. what makes us laugh, is really, something completely unexpected.

I’m so glad Jay Leno got his contract renewed.  Apparently, there were rumors that NBC was about to replace him.  And, now, it seems like Conan’s on his way out (don’t like him much, anyway!).  The Jimmy Fallon show is great!  But I think he’s going to have a really tough time living up to the SNL expectations.  We’re going to be expecting something brilliant from him, every single night .. whereas “Saturday Night Live” was a once-a-week show.  So far, it seems like he’s inviting all his friends and buddies.  I love Drew Barrymore’s appearance on the show.  She was so comfortable and totally herself.  Later in the week, I believe she hopped across to Jay Leno, where she looked absolutely glam and all decked up!  I also quite enjoy Ellen’s show (err.. and love the dancing bit!).  :)

Maybe I’m getting older or more finnicky.  I don’t know, I just really miss the shows that I grew up with.  Shows like “the Cosby show”, “Three’s Company” (remember Mr. Roper?!) .. gosh, he was a riot!  I never did get why poor Chrissy was always getting replaced.  And there will be nothing in comparison to “Will & Grace”, which I always felt should really have be called “Jack & Karen” since they were (in my opinion) funnier of the foursome.  Will was just so up-tight and Grace with her attitude and breakdowns, gosh she was annoying!  Karen was THE best! .. I loved her character and how she portrayed it.  She was just the perfect choice for the “Karen” character.

Karen: You know what else is sad? Poor people who have dreams.
[pause]
Karen: Well that’s not sad as much as it is extremely funny.

.. a quote from the man who brought us such logos as Apple, IBM, etc. .. a design genius!

Talk about totally inspiring!  The entertainment world, and not to mention the web, has been totally abuzz by this most inspirational lady. I don’t think there’s really ever been so much hype about a contestant from one of the “American Idol” type of shows.  In this case, “Britian’s Got Talent”, featured Susan Boyle .. a 47 year-old charity worker, I believe, who totally blew the competition away with her stunning performance.  So much so that one of the judges said it was a “privilege” to watch her perform.  So, why all the hype?  As if this world isn’t superficial enough, unfortunately the entertainment industry is a hundred times worst.  The producer of “American Idol” (i.e. Simon what’s-his-name) makes it blunt enough by saying that they’re really looking for the next “marketable” pop sensation.  Not just a voice, but someone who’s also got the look and is able to live the lifestyle.

So, here we have a rather middle-aged, not particularly attractive lady walking up on stage announcing her aspiration to be someone like Elaine Paige ( .. of Evita fame).  We see the audience sort of roll their eyes, thinking they’re going to be subjected to yet another completely horrid performance by some old lady who wants to be someone.  The three judges squirm in their chairs and poise themselves for a quick dismissal.  The music starts and, of course, everyone’s totally blown away.  Susan gets a standing ovation from not only the audience, but also the judges.  Singing a song from Les Miserables, the woman just blew everyone away!  The poor thing, herself, was quite surprised at the reaction she got from the judges and the audience.

Immediately following the performance, the video and the story spread like wild-fire through the entertainment world and the web.  Every single news broadcaster picked up on the story, not just for a day; in fact it’s still being talked about.  Even I’m blogging about it.  The “twitter” world went crazy with how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.  Everyone from the Huffington Post, to Larry King, NBC’s Brian Williams, CNN’s Anderson Cooper were talking about it.  And I was sitting there thinking .. gosh, has the entire world become so complaicent with the entertainment industry’s “standards” .. that it had to take the humility of this very talented 47 year-old to bring us back to reality?  More than the music and her voice, I was humbled by this woman’s incredible amount of humility.  She’s not going to get a publicist like the octa-mom.  She’s not going to get a “makeover” and be on Oprah.  (I believe she’s been offered several makeovers).  She’s going to go back to doing what she enjoys most, taking care of her ailing mother.  The woman really doesn’t care much for the “possibilities” that she could very well cash out on!  I think that should be the true story!

Susan’s performance has been viewed 47 million times on YouTube (till date), and has been receiving so many constant hits that YouTube’s had to turn off the video’s embedding feature.  (Since everyone on the planet wanted to get the video running on their web-site/blog).  If she wanted to get on the “social networking” bandwagon, she really would have a pre-built platform for her.  Her fans (now in the millions) would jump at the opportunity of adding her to their facebook, or twitter account, hanging on her every word. Isn’t it incredible!?

Just in case you missed Susan’s incredible rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, here’s your chance:

http://www.lifecrapetc.com/wp-content/videos/SusanBoyle.flv

oh wow! .. while randomly surfing the web, I came across this amazing artist, Simon Evans .. this particular piece of work, titled “Everything I Have”, is literally hand-drawn pictures of ALL of his posessions! .. isn’t it amazing? .. I mean imagine the detail and how long it must’ve taken him to take inventory of ALL of his posessions! .. wow! .. [click the picture for a larger version] .. another one of his works, titled “My Diary”, is entirely made out of tape and white-out .. wow, you really have to admire the man for his creativity ..

Speaking of creativity, I’ve been trying to re-design my blog .. my previous theme was “elegant grunge” .. and, while, it was nice and all .. I thought I needed more of a magazine sort of look for my blog .. with little excerpts and blurbs .. I hope to be, now, posting more often .. blogging is just so therapeutic .. and a great way for your friends and family to see what you’re up to .. I can’t do the whole “social networking” thing .. twitter and facebook .. they just don’t make sense to me ..  well, I do see their value .. but I feel the written word needs a little more respect than a “tweet” here and there! :)  It’s probably going to take me quite a while to get this blog all figured out, since I don’t know much about CSS and all that crap!