Celebrity Gossip

Sad and sorry was how I exactly felt when I saw a picture of “Lindsay Lohan” crying when her handbag went missing, I really don’t understand what’s the fun in enjoying to see celebrities specially female celebrities in misery or in odd postures or situations. And it’s not just in the US, just few nights back, in Karachi I spotted an amateur photographer at a concert trying to capture one of the female performers when she bent down to pick up a piece of paper, there was nothing to see but he did try his best to capture “something”. And indeed we have seen personal pictures of celebrities and even politicians and there sons and daughters poured out on the internet just to have maximum clicks on someone’s stupid Google ad.

What surprises me more is the fact that not a single person asked any of these sick people to have a life and learn to behave instead people add spice to such websites and blogs by leaving their cheap remarks and comments.

Our sick behavior of treating them as some sort of a public property leaves them no privacy in life, we keep them under a keen observation and take advantage of anything, the slightest of it the moment we get a chance. How insensitive it is that the very celebrities we otherwise claim to adore, love and respect get disrespect, hatred and humiliation in return from the very people they spent there whole lives entertaining.

Is that what our celebrities deserve from us ? This is the question we shall all be asking our selves today.

Boss with brains, the size of a pea.

I am totally sleep deprived and too tired right now for anything but I have to get this out of my system, I just have to tell this to some one or I wont be able to sleep.

Well I was at this beautiful art exhibition yesterday when I noticed a reporter, his press card boasted his employment with one of the cities leading English daily and he was asking people their opinion about the exhibition I noticed he didn’t had a photographer with him so I asked him what visuals would he be using for his news report of this opening of the exhibition. At which he replied that he has a CD of the images on display and a printed catalogue of the art work, pictures out of which would be used for the purpose. So I replied that the visuals will then be only about the art work and not the opening of this exhibition, I then showed him this image which was in my digital camera at the moment and asked him wouldn’t this image, or something similar would make a better visual shot for the story at which he said something that totally shocked me. He said ” after looking at this picture my boss will say half of the image is out of focus, and he cant use it”. At this statement I decided to remain silent because after that anything said to guy would have been useless.

Woo-doo And Art Don’t Mix

I cant keep it in my system any more.. Really No, Not any longer, I have to let it out, I have to say it out loud and clear. So here it is:

It was just day before yesterday. It was a clear evening. The sky was shining blue. The weather was just right, a bit towards warm, enough to make me sweat a bit in my non Air-conditioned car but it was a fine day.

I entered this absolutely amazing art school dotted with brilliant faces of young art students who are studying to become eminent artists in the future. Housed in this School of art in a beautiful gallery, and I was completely taken back the moment I entered this gallery.

A hall of the gallery was lined with digital displays showcasing a number of video art peaces, which is a fairly rare site in Pakistan. I expected something out of the box, unique and impactful much to my dismay none of the videos were up to my expectations besides only a few and they too could a bit more creativity.

There was a small installation and a few more artworks made some really good and some just average. In all the show was not a total disappointment.

But then it was announced that we will also be the witness of a performance. Now this sounded interesting so I decided to stay a bit longer and only minutes later for ladies dressed in Black entered the gallery. They sat on the floor cross legged in a circle and instantly a music began to play, and with the start of this music these four ladies started to move their upper body in a circular path. Then they stood up and went to the other part of the gallery up stares and then when they came back to this hall again and chose a different corner to sir and move their body with the music.

It was that very moment I felt a chill go through my spine. “OOH MY GOD !! ” I thought “this cant be it !!”. I had never thought faith healers exist among artists and in art schools. I realized that this gallery was possessed by an evil sprite, a dispirit evil sprite and these four women, In the name of performance were trying get rid of the vicious evil ghost. Like all faith healers these troupe of four never declared that they would be performing a ritual here to purify the space or the devil’s evil shadow would have gone away for the time and wouldn’t have been cough unexpectedly by surprise.

But ghost were not the only ones who they managed scare away. I noticed many people some well noted people too moved away from these faith healers when they started their fourth and final part of the ritual. Now the air felt heavy and I felt a strange numbness in my mind, but I continued to watch.

Moments later as their performance or the ritual ended I was totally light headed and the gallery felt a bit more silent and the air around me a little darker and I realized I was not the same any more, Now I was not living in to any misconceptions, I was certain that I know nothing, NOT a WORD, of the thing called ART. My brains remained numb for almost 2 hours after that.It may have been an evil sprit they wanted to get rid of, which may have taken a refuge in my brains somewhere. I am not sure if they got rid of this evil sprit but surely they did ended up eliminating all traces of finery from Art that evening.

The sun was now an dull shade of orange, the air was heavy with smog while I was on my way home totally exhausted, splattered with dabs of blue with a soul dipped in grey of nothingness.

And this is what it comes to for a subject called ART

I remember when I was at school out teachers never taught us anything about fine arts, I was always particularly interested in paintings when at school but there was not a single teacher who would teach me how to paint or tell us about an art gallery. The only thing we were taught as children was to barely draw and all I remember drawing through my whole primary school life was parrot, car and a house with a tree. When we entered secondary schooling we were asked to draw diagrams, an outline drawings of different body parts or instruments out of physics and chemistry labs and like the rest of my class mates I remember I too used to trace them out of our books on our note books. In short throughout our schooling we actually taught nothings about fine arts at all, we did not knew what paintings were, we had never heard the word sculpture and we had absolutely no idea what so ever what Fine art actually was.

In college of course no one cared least to entertain such follies fine arts covers so actually throughout my whole academic life I was taught not a single word of fine arts. And this is not just me but almost 90% of the schools which at operating around the country specially the ones with the government teach almost nothing of fine arts to its students. The only art form we are taught of at schools is literature but that too is taught at such a superficial level that literality plays like those of Shakespeare seems to be mare stories and poems seem similar to nursery rhymes.

This means that our educated lot of people (and also the ones to come) are really oblivious of art, from any sense of design or visual harmony and incapable of appreciating any form of art. Which explains why a teacher at NED university teaching architecture rejected one of Piet Mondrian compositions (traced copy) submitted as an assignment by a student with a remark which read “Not interesting enough” and no the teacher did not knew anything about Piet because the next day when the student told his teacher that the work was a copy of “Mondrian” he was told ” I don’t care where you have copied it from but next time copy something which make sense ” … What else could possibly have made sense to him for a composition to be made only with straight lines, Only God knows.

The thoughts were triggered after visiting this: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rumana-husain/2381830913/

Entertainment ruined by Ads

Today is Eid a day when local TV networks air programs specially produced to provide sheer entertainment to the public. I usually don’t watching much of TV but I was just watching this comedy serial on hum TV since Ramadan, it was to conclude today with special longer Eid episode. I started watching “faiz manzil kee Eid ” at around 8pm today but after every five to seven minuets of drama the viewers were feed with ten to twelve minutes of advertisements which would go in loops, being repeated twice, thrice or even more times during every single commercial break. Even during the drama the highly annoying interruptions of Pepsi “lemon ka Jhatka” time check between the dialogs and punch lines made me completely loose interest in the whole thing I ended up switching off my television set..

Advertisements being pushed down our throats make me puke.. And yes I am not ever drinking Pepsi Twist, I don’t want to increases their blood sale for the announce they cause every 30 minutes or so through most Tv/Radio broadcasts in the name of time checks.

Dolls by Artist Kari Byron

I was searching for myth busters on the web and landed on this website displaying wonderful dolls designed by no other than kari byron herself.

Her collection includes a series of dolls titled politicians, and they way she had portrayed politicians holding long scrolls of speeches and with ugly faces and wires and spikes growing all over them to hurt any one who comes too near is absolutely amassing and reminds me of the politicians of my own country.

The other collections of her dolls titled “Stray Dolls” showcases a doll dark in completion, in a humble dress with a red heart on it representing love, and a sweet face. The other one in the same collection is a doll with a broken hand again a simple dress with a heart on it and a sweet face. And the third one too with same characteristics. they are a representation of people who may be considered stray b yteh society, but they have love and humanity in their hearts and they have a sweet face too, but they are often ignored.

Her art work on the website left me totally inspired and I thought I must share it with you, there are many more beautiful dolls and a couple of boxes too..

Do visit [ http://www.karibyron.com/ ] and you will love her artwork.

The Story Of An Editor I Knew.

I was writing this scrap which reminded me of HS the editor of an Urdu fashion magazine. I had first met him at my office, he was my business associate A’s friend. In a brief meeting with him I thought HS was a nice and learned man. A few months later I dissolved my partnership with A, after which HS called me for a favor. His computer was out of order and he wanted me to download a few things from the internet for him. I called him to the office at my home the other afternoon. That afternoon I was reading “Kalank” a translation by Fehmida Raiz of “Taboo” a research on the Redlight area of Lahore by Dr. Fouzia Saeed when HS arrived. The book was lying shut on the desk between HS and me, HS leaned forward and picked it up and a grin appeared on his face. He quietly flipped a few pages and stopped at the book’s photo section. He went thought all the pictures smiling at every single on of them and as soon the picture section was over he snap shut the book and looked at me with a sarcastic smile and said “Achi Kittab hai, Mager tasweerain kum hain” (Nice book, but there are only a few pictures). This was the first shock for me, I expected an editor to behave differently.

Anyways ignoring this and without replying I asked him what he wanted me to download from the internet which is when he reached his pockets and came up with a tiny, crimpled, verminous and soggy piece of paper on which a few URLs were scribbled. I opened the first URL listed and a website which had Indian movie and drama gossips appeared on my computer. Now he pointed his finger to a paragraph (written in plain English) under the heading of a Star Plus drama and asked me what is written in that paragraph, when I translated the paragraph for him in Urdu he asked me “Hum is main ja sakhtay hain, daikho is per haanth bun raha hai ? ” (“Can we go inside this, shee if the curser turns to a hand over it”)…. There was a link provided in the end reading “MORE” so I clicked it and a whole page of information for that drama appeared which is when he “Bohat Khooob” (“very good”) and asked me so save it in a folder and open all such links and save them all to a folder and burn them all to a cd along with all the pictures.

Now I knew how he managed to get all the content for his monthly magazine, out of curiously I even asked him how he will get this translated which is when he told me his assistant at the office will translate it for them. I had no intentions to become his partner in crime, but by now there were almost 20 webpages saved in this folder and were ready to be burned on a freshly provided CDR, so for a split second I thought and almost instantly an idea popped up in my head. I inserted the CDR into the writer and as I knew the editor couldn’t read anything I checked the stimulation mode on the writing software and acted as if I was writing the files for him on the disk and at the end of the process I handed his empty disk back to him.

The editor called me the other day telling me that the cd was empty, I told him I had already deleted the folder which contained his files and I cant help him anymore. Thankfully HS never contacted me again.

On the news stands around the country we find countless magazines filled with content lifted from internet and other magazines and there is no one to stop them.

Disgusting.

On a famous Fm radio station a few days back during a late night show hosted by the famous “F” a caller called from some village in Punjab. He was calling from under the Mobile transition tower to get the maximum signals but because he was a villager he couldn’t speech English or Urdu but still we could understand him. For some odd reason the host started to pretend that he could not hear the callers voice, the caller at first thought the RJ was joking, but when the pretending game continued he quietly hung up or maybe “F” disconnected him.

The caller was actually paying his hard earned money by calling a 0900- number, the caller was not abusive or obscene, he was just the voice of our major population. He was not educated, was not an elite or a rich man but he was a radio listener, a fan of the show. He should have been given the respect he deserved.

But really some radio channels are just for a few educated English speaking, society conscious, civilized people of the city who do not want to acknowledge that in our country more than 70% of the people live below the poverty line. Such a radio station cant afford have a paindo,s Voice on air, it’s worst than airing abusive language, actually English songs with abusive words are a popular pick on such Fm Stations, But Punjabi Speaking Paindo will really give the better half of the country a heart attack.

In our Country people who live below the poverty line should not be allowed to raise their voice, they should not at be allowed to call a radio station, they should never be shown on any television station and their issues shall never be discussed.. Yeah that will really make them disappear.

Ooh! What ?

You Morons!! These underprivileged verminous creatures, you don’t want to see the faces of are the ones who are feeding you, they are the tax payers, the farmers, the workers and the labors who work hard to keep this country moving. They the major part of our population. They are the real people of the country you live in. If you cant give respect to these underprivileged people of our country, get the Fuck out of my country.

Random Thoughts On Art

I met Amin Gulgee today and an urge to pay his beautiful gallery a visit over come me. In our country Art is thought to be something for the elite only. Some art galleries and a few snobbish artists who I wouldn’t ever name here, have created a misconception that art is only for the learned and rich few of the world.

A few years back I visited Amin Gulgees’ art gallery, I was not that learned on the subject but thanks to my esthetics for art his work deeply touched me. The dialogues I had with his sculptures of egg and hands trying to forcefully open the shell and enter the real dimension to discover the truth behind the mysteries of the world were unforgettable. While I was in his gallery he taught me several things, he described his work, he taught me how to feel a sculpture and although he was very busy he took out time to guide me through and talk to me. Only an artist of his stature could have done such a thing.

I have known some artist who are so snobbish that don’t even talk to you. In an exhibition meat a local senior artist who had her work on the display. When I said hi to her they way she responded back made me feel that I was not welcome. She briefly replied “Walaikum” raised her chin in shear pride and walked in another direction.

It is not so that all our artists are like this lady, there are only a few in the lot. I have seen that most of the artists I have meat like Amin Gulgee, Appa Raffat Alvi, Tipu Javari, Usman Ghouri and Rashid Akbar have taught me something or the other about art, they have been sweet, patient and have taken pleasure in guiding me although I have not been a student of any one of them but they are my teacher and I respect them dearly.

Art I not something through which an artist should boast about his skills, it is something an artists should use to spread his message to the masses. Art is not something only a few can look at and take pleasure from, it is for everyone to enjoy. As Riffat Alvi once said, ” My Art gallery is open to every one, he can be a rickshaw driver or a child, every one has a right to look at art and enjoy it, If a child will come and look at paintings she/he will enjoy the colors and if a lay man will enter the galley he can also enjoy splashes of colors or may notice some forms, while an artist can see the depth in the painting but at least every one will benefit from it”

I really hate the way some art galleries close their doors for people to visit exhibition if there are potential buyers looking at the work, I have been once denied access to one of the art galleries in Clifton just because there was a customer about to make a purchase. Also it is really irritating when people at art gallery ask “where are you from ?” does an art enthusiast has to belong to an art school or an organization ?

Art is for everyone, art is knowledge, without knowledge you cant understand anything let alone art and for an artist not only knowledge is mandatory but he also needs an eye to look through the superficial layer of the life which surrounds him. In art schools they teach us to censor Meera but they don’t teach us to peel through the superficial layer of life, they don’t teach us to look for the river “Dajla” in a drop of rain. They just teach us to splash paints on the canvas at which a new born child is better at.

Art is not something that can be taught, it cant be contained or created, it is a part of our soul which waits to be discovered. If you kill your soul everything dies with it and if you nourish it everything within it nourishes. Art is a sense to feel love, colors beauty and Allah. Art is the soul of the world. You cant contain, you cant master it you can just learn from it and let others now of it’s beauty.