Smashing Life!

It’s been a bit since I posted for random fun and not a book review or such. It is what happens I suppose when time becomes scarce and you lose track of it.

To start with, a quick update on the goings-on in my oh-so-eventful life:

I’m a father now and that’s a whole experience and story all its own, it has been intense and fun and chaotic and a testament to my wifes patience and ability to not punch me at times.

For the moment the 9-5 remains as it ever is, though many days are way more over-booked and hectic than I care them to ever be – but for the most part my life is good, my loved ones are happy and healthy and we’re good so I have no complaints, only gratitude.

Honestly I don’t know how many people I’ve met can sanely go their whole lives with no other mental outlets – interesting or even engaging hobbies, creative pursuits, mental challenges, etc, etc! And no, in my book, partying, drinking, shopping, endless gossip and being a workaholic doesn’t count.

Thankfully though, I have my hobbies, writing and reading to keep my imagination and mind from atrophying – (I like that term, so sue me). It definitely helps because it’s actually shocking how few people I know that I can just sit and have a chat of even slight substance with anymore – granted I’m an introverted, lazy, anti-social arse most of the time, but people are so lost in their lives and lost in material fixations and goals, that meaningful interaction, thought, introspection and REAL imagination is something I do mourn for a little when I look around my “real” (read: physical) world. But it’s good to know and feel that while somewhat isolated and odd-ball, I’m not alone in the world and that eases my mind.

In the meantime though, I’ve started on my second book project (and had to stop myself from starting a third, whose idea just popped in and had to be noted down hurriedly for later!) and I think it’s looking pretty good thus far. Of course this is all bearing in mind that my first is still not published, all the while my comic career stays afloat and alive – who would have thought this would be the case over a decade ago, even me, who was fortunate to be close to the centre of India’s comic industry; creating in a mostly dead-space and fighting for acceptance and somehow having made a tiny niche. It’s both a daunting and a heartening feeling and the rollercoaster of it is an experience all its own.

OKAY THEN!

Enough with the “me” talk, must move on to other things now.

First up I want to share this amazing thing – a series of images by photographer Martin Klimas from Germany who has done unbelievably stunning things with high-speed photography, such as these images and the ones below which are part of a series he has done that are porcelain figurines dropped and photographed at the moment of impact.

These are not new, but I came across his work years ago and some shots are still on my computer and every so often I roll past the folder and they don’t cease to fascinate.

Now, while it sounds like there should be nothing spectacular about this, the timing and the way he’s done it have produced mind-blowing results that really add to the sculptures imact (pun intended) in a unique way! In addition to this series he has also done a series on colours bursting apart which I’ve sampled as well.

There’s also a series which I think is brilliant and I believe he is working on now (and fans of The Big Bang Theory will appreciate!) that is basically him putting paint over very powerful speakers and photographing the results, samples of which are also here for your enjoyment.

This gallery contains a bunch of samples in the highest resolution I could find for you to (like me) gawk at for a while!

Enjoyed that? I’m glad.

To close out the day and to usher in the tilt of the week as we move toward the weekend, here’s some hilarious stuff for you to get a chuckle out of as you sit and (again, like me) pretend to be hard at work!

Here is a movie trailer for what looks to be one of the funniest and cleverest and most brilliant concepts and one that despite its age is imminently worth watching even today, over a decade ahead:

“Where Do We Go Now?” (Arabic: وهلّأ لوين؟ w halla’ la wayn) is a 2011 film by Lebanese director Nadine Labaki. The film premiered during the 2011 Cannes Film Festival as part of Un Certain Regard. The film was selected to represent Lebanon for the 84th Academy Awards, but it did not make the final shortlist. The film won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival.

It tells the story of a remote, isolated unnamed Lebanese village inhabited by both Muslims and Christians. The village is surrounded by land mines only reachable by a small bridge. As civil strife engulfed the country, the women in the village learn of this fact and try, by various means and to varying success, to keep their men in the dark, sabotaging the village radio, then destroying the village TV.

Where do we go from here? (2012) Trailer

As a concept and from what can be seen in the trailers and the reviews, this is the kind of movie I want to see more of and wish people would be willing to watch more instead of the commercial, trashy, cliched dreck that they eat up with several spoons and then forget an hour later like the Chinese food cliche!

Cheers!