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Random Things

A.k.a “Further Notice”.

I am currently watching movies at the rate of one and a half per day. However I’m buying movies (DVDs, that is) at the rate of four per week. Which makes it the first time in a long while that I am consuming something faster than I am getting it. Oh, no, wait. I have also borrowed DVDs at the rate of five per week, so maybe that evens things up a bit.

I wonder how many people will buy this because of this coming out.

I ordered myself a copy of The Complete Bone: One Volume Edition for Christmas and New Year ( yes, yes, excuses are indeed possible when you make your first amazon.com purchase). This one’s the paperback version, of course. The Hardcover Limited Edition ( 2000 copies, each numbered and signed by Jeff Smith) sold out, and as Ms. Vijaya Iyer over at the Boneville website told me, it would have cost me an additional 50$ to get it shipped, in addition to the $125 price. Which is, as many would agree, a slightly high price to pay for a 1150-page graphic novel. How am I getting this then, the humble softcover version, you ask? (You must ask, for Amazon’s international shipping rates suck bigtime. In fact, I would venture to say that they suck harder than an acrophobic vacuum cleaner stuck atop a palm tree.) Oooky-san to the rescue again!

Finally bought Jacques Tardi and Leo Malet’s The Bloody Streets of Paris. Which shows how much timing and patience pays off. The original price of the book, if you’ll recall me saying at the beginning of this year, was above 600 Rs. I found it, in a half-hidden ( which I definitely would have never entered if not for a book about the Grateful Dead in America that I saw on display. And to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t even have dreamed that the place would have TBSOP if not for the two ladies inside talking about “Oh-one-of-those-graphic-novel-thingies-You-know-I-read-Corridor-and-hated-it” and “I-don’t-know-why-people-make-such-a-big-deal-out-of-them.”

“Thank you, Sarnath Bannerjee”, I breathed, once the lady in question kept the book back and I checked the price tag. It was on sale for 300 Rs. Less than half of the actual cost. Whoopee-de-yay!

Also picked up Once Upon A Time In China: A Guide To Hongkong, Taiwanese, and Mainland Chinese Cinema from the same place. Which was kinda ironic, because we got trounced the same evening in a quiz that was heavily Sino-specific (something tells me I shouldn’t say Sino-erm-oriented…). And a pack of 1960’s Gold Key and Tower comics.

I don’t believe this, but I actually saw a Bill Hicks CD (Philosophy: The Best of Bill Hicks)on sale at Music World the other day. The price was outrageous, because it was a Music Gallery Import ( 600 Rs, would you believe that?) The only good thing about this discovery is that I already have a copy of this particular CD, the one that adgy burned for me. Hyuk.

I haven’t bought the soundtrack of Kisna yet, because there are rumours of a 2-cd Collector’s Edition floating around, with additional background tracks. Remember Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities? I bought it twice because of the Edition later that came with MF Hussain postcards. You don’t catch me unawares twice, nossireebob.

Currently reading: A Barnstormer In Oz, Philip Jose Farmer’s take on the land of Oz and its inhabitants and what happens when Dorothy’s son (who’s a pilot) lands there and, among other things, proceeds to have a crush on Glinda The Good, who is “more beautiful than mom ever told me she was. And she has better legs than anyone I’ve seen.” Hyuk.

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31 thoughts on “Random Things

  1. Oh-one-of-those-graphic-novel-thingies-You-know-I-read-Corridor-and-hated-it

    I quite liked Corridor actually… but I am a sucker for any material that deals with ‘relationships’. I met the man as well at the Bangalore launch of Corridor. He is quite cool in an anti cool kind of way.

        • Almost all autobiographical graphic novels ( I admit I havent read too many) but the style of storytelling in Corridor is almost like a page-by-page homage to Sarnath Bannerjee’s influences. His way of introducing characters, meandering into single/double-panel biographies, or talking about events – these are like comics 101.

          As a first attempt, it’s laudable. But I wish he had put a little more thought into it.

          I think u will enjoy Marjane Satrapis’s Persepolis and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, if you enjoyed Corridor. Will pass on the digital versions to you sometime.

    • I shall not buy the cd until the movie is released – when Ghai finds out that it tanked and the only way to make more money is to release the Collectors’ Edition to us collecting Indians.

  2. I keep hoping one of these days I will recognize one of these books!!! Man, where in heavens do you keep all these books? I probably have 1/50th of your collection, and I have no space :-(

  3. Readers who can afford the book will definitely buy Howl inspite of the movie though there are more movie-goers than readers. Personally, I would rather watch Miazaki’s movie version (2-D animation at its best) than anything else :P You will buy it anyways, which means I wouldn’t need to shell out money!

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