Brown Motion

I had no idea who Queen was until I saw the Oscar winning movie titled 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. While bit long in the tooth this biopic showed the ascendancy of a rather unlikely chap from an Indian Parsi family, born in Africa, becoming the rock and roll legend of the 70s and hall of famer after death. As the voice of the band he formed and what came to be known worldwide as Queen, Farrokh became Freddie Mercury, the lead singer.  I do think his success had a bit of luck in that he found the unlikely trio as his support cast to play guitar and drums. The movie meanders predictably at times to show what becomes of success and yet drives the audience into enjoying with the cast.  The guy had preacher like charisma and could get millions to stand on their feet and sway to his voice and music. While similar in tone and tempo to contemporaries in music at the time like Abba or Wham the music did have a high energy to it.  It also tended to not be always predictable and w...

A love story worth 45 years told in 100 minutes.  On some gravelly, scenic and quiet beach in England.  It is a comedy drama set to a of bunch of Mozart, Beethoven and some other classical masters I cannot recognize.  It is a directorial debut for Dominic Cooke. Leading actor Saoirse Ronan, who I last saw in a film called Ladybird plays her part as Florence Ponting, the female interest of a student, an unknown British actor, who has just received his diploma in History and earned high honors.  He lives with his two young twin sisters and parents in a dowdy cottage in some rural part of England.  The story is something of a love at first sight event with its magic and mystery.  It is about life.  Its myriad turns some unexpectedly brilliant and some utterly devastating.  It is about innocence and honesty.  It begins when Florence first lays eyes on Edward where the latter is rushing to express his joy at earning a first class in History...

What is Fusion? We exist because of it.  Earth as we know it is only possible because of our sun.  The sun is nothing but a fusion factory.  It generates energy every second by fusion of hydrogen nuclei into helium.  A lot of energy.  Enough to keep us ticking until we decide to end it ourselves. But I wanted to discuss another type of fusion.  Another type of mixing.  And blending.  To form something new and different than the parts that went into it. Fusion is a concept has been in vogue in pop culture for the past couple of decades.  You see it with food.  Indo Chinese or Tex Mex or Asian inspired American.  Then there is fashion.  A whole slew of artists have made careers fusing and melding together different art forms to someone's delight and to some not. Then there is fusion of ideas.  Some great writers borrow from legendary styles and meld it with their own flavors to create something worth reading.  ...

Touted in the local Marathi community (that which hails from the western Indian state) as an evening of music with local talent and a special guest from Pune, it was marketed through social media to those that crave said entertainment. Myself not an avid listener and marginally enlightened about the Indian classical style, was not as intrepid as the spouse who was excited at the prospect of some socializing and getting an earful (of melodies). But being the Memorial Day weekend in the states (honoring war veterans) and us being in the local zip code (not having left town) for the entirety of it, I complied and we made it a date night. Drove to appointed venue which was a Yoga Studio when not used for sundry gatherings.  On the second floor in an office complex not far from home.  Warmed by the setting sun and poorly ventilated the desi gathering was quickly appearing to be a quagmire.  Couple that with largely carpet seating - remember the audience otherwise was th...

In Austin Texas.  I hung out in the lone star state for few days this month for a conference on the subject matter that pays my bills.  But there was lot of action outside the programmed event.  Clearly it was more fun. My last trip to the deep south had been over 15 years back.  Austin was on a road trip from Galveston to Dallas - sort of a detour if you will.  It is the state capital.  It has a few things to see and do.  Other than visiting the state capitol building, which is an impressive architectural feat I did not remember much.  I decided to fix it. With all the fixings.  First came tacos.  On a food truck.  Corn made into dough called Masa, rolled and lightly cooked on a griddle or pan yields tortillas which topped with grilled and marinated meat (pig, cow, fish depending on how you lean) from the animal (depending on your mindset you can go exotic and get intestine or brain or head or hoof or tongue or stick to ...