PG Wodehouse - The Jeeves Series

Where can one begin with Wodehouse? He is often described as the greatest English comic novelist of the twentieth century. He has written 96 books over a remarkable 73 year career. His works include novels, collections of short stories and musical comedies. I will describe here what is arguable called his most popular series of novels, the Jeeves and Wooster series.

PG Wodehouse

The stories follow a simple pattern and are virtually interchangeable. Bertram Wilberforce Wooster, a genial if somewhat dim-witted young aristocrat and his valet Jeeves get entangled in a scenario that inevitably involves an aunt, a friend from Bertram's schooldays, one of his many nemeses and several ex-fiancees. In the course of the story, one or several of the ex-fiancees proposes to a panicked Bertie, knowing full well that he would never turn a lady down, while Bertie does his best has to safely reattach her to his school chum. Also, there is usually a prank/robbery that Bertie has to perform in order to help blackmail a nemesis into allowing his daughter to marry the school chem and/or parting with vast amounts of money for a similar good cause.

 

Some of the books in the Jeeves Series

And now enter Jeeves, he of the infinite sagacity. A fish-eating, Spinoza-reading valet who all but controls Bertie, Jeeves is the magnificent intellect who ultimately manages to extricate his form his self-inflicted troubles.
One might find a storyline childish, even boring. But the books are highly intricate in a comic sort of way and manage to create rib-tickling humour. But what makes these stories so immensely enjoyable is Wodehouse's language. It is truly a class apart.
Take for example Bertie describing his former love interest, Honoria. It is a typical Wodehousian mixture of simile.
Honoria - is on of those robust, dynamic girls with the muscles of a welter-weight and a laugh like a squadron of cavalry charging on a tin bridge.
Or this:
As a rule, you see, I'm not lugged into Family Rows. On the occasions when Aunt is calling to Aunt like mastodons bellowing across primeval swamps... the clan has a tendency to ignore me.
Or the oft-quoted.
If not actually disgruntled, he was far from being gruntled.
They are also classically informed as in:
He groaned slightly and winced, like Prometheus watching his vulture dropping in for lunch.

To sum up, in the words of Christopher Hitchens His attention to language, his near faultless ability to come up with names that are at once ludicrous and credible, and the intricacy of his plotting are imperishable.

Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie in the roles of Jeeves and Bertie

PS: Also see the wonderful TV adaptations of the Jeeves and Wooster series where Bertie's role is played marvelously by none other than Hugh Laurie (of 'House' fame) with Stephen Fry in the role of Jeeves. This role of Laurie's is poles apart from his other, more recent one and that he manages to excel in both is a testimony to his testimony to his tremendous acting abilities.

Hugh Laurie as Bertie in the TV adaptation

Contributed by Malhar Mehta

The Doors (Movie)

The Doors (Movie) is the story of the famous and the influential 1960's rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.

The Doors is a 1991 movie directed by Oliver Stone of the Wall Street/ Platoon fame. It stars Val Kilmer as Jim Morrison and Meg Ryan as Pamela Courson.

Although titled "The Doors", the film mainly focuses on the life of the lead singer Jim Morrison. It depicts his rapid rise to fame as a young rock and roll star and his equally rapid descent into the world filled with drugs and booze. it begins with Morrison's arrival in California as a curly haired boy, where he meets his future girlfriend Pamela Courson and encounters Ray Manzarek with whom he goes on to form "The Doors"

As the movie progresses we see Morrison introducing his band-mates to psychedelic drugs and we see the all important and controversial highlights of his life, including the famous Whisky a Go-Go concerts and the controversial appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.

As his fame grows, Morrison becomes obsessed with his on on stage image of the "Lizard King:". From here onwards he begins to self destruct as efficiently as possible with his life spiraling into the haze of drugs and alcohol and affairs with a number of women, most notably rock critic Patricia Kennealy with whom he has  a number of mystical sexual encounters involving drinking blood and other witchcraft. The movie ends with his death at the age of 27 in a bathtub in paris. In the final scenes we see his grave site which is a Mecca, even today, for his fans who have scribbled obscenities and messages all over it and over the surrounding tombs/

An important theme through the movie is death and Morrison's infatuation in it. This comes out in his haunting lyrics, and the soundtrack of the movie is brilliant, being composed of some of The Doors' greatest songs. Probably the best part about the movie is the songs and the amazing performance by Val Kilmer who uncannily looks exactly like Jim Morrison in the movie. This is probably one of Val Kilmer's best performances.

However the movie has been widely criticized, especially by the other band members who state that it only dwells on the inebriated Jim Morrison, the Lizard King and not on Jim Morrison the person. It only shows his drug infatuated side but does not really capture what made him tick. The movie is sure to shock you with its excesses and there is a lot of drug/alcohol/sexual content so if you are easily offended, then do not watch it. But on the whole, I liked the movie and the acting was great and the performances felt so real that the movie could pass of as a documentary.


Here is the Trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRoaUXvo4Gk
(Sorry, all the trailers I could possibly find on YouTube are all mysteriously disabled against embedding)



**Just a point I wanted to reiterate, this movie has A LOT of very inappropriate material like drug and alcohol abuse, sexual content. Aptly Rated R on IMDb. Please take this into consideration before thinking about watching this movie. Thank You.


Contributed by Jash Banker

Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer is a mathematician/singer/pianist/songwriter/satirist/musical theater expert. He's known mainly for the humorous songs he wrote in the 50s. Here, I'll introduce you to a few of his creations, though I will recommend that you check them all out.

The Elements Song - This is by far the geekiest. Tom Lehrer sings the names of all the elements of the periodic table which were known at that time (practically all the named ones)

Interestingly, Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) is a big fan of Tom Lehrer and has performed this song in the Graham Norton Show. He does a pretty good job at it!

Tom Lehrer has loads of funny and satirical songs. I will link you to a few of them:

The Masochism Tango - A funny song about a couple that seems to be head-deep into BDSM. The lyrics is pretty cool. Check it out!

Here's another humorous take about an Irish lass that probably didn't like her family much:

The Irish Ballad Live Concert (Which has been disabled for embedding)


And, finally, a satire on research in academia:

The Lobachevsky Live Concert (Again which has been disabled for embedding)


Tom Lehrer also came up with a rhyming line ending in the word orange, which doesn't have rhyming words in English:

Eating an orange
While making love
Makes for bizarre enj-
oyment thereof


I would suggest you look up all of Tom Lehrer videos on Youtube. He is an awesome fella.
Tom Lehrer's channel on Youtube. (I think all his sings are on this)


Contibuted by Antariksh Bothale

The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind is a fantasy novel written by Patrick Rothfuss.

My name is Kvothe, pronounced nearly the same as "quothe."
... I have stolen princesses back from sleeping barrow kings, I burned down the town of Trebon, I have spent the night with Felurian and left with both my sanity and my life. I was expelled from the University at a younger age than most people are allowed in. I tread paths by moonlight that others fear to speak of during day. I have talked to Gods, loved women, and written songs that make the minstrels weep. 
You may have heard of me.


This is the introduction that Kvothe, the protagonist of the The Name of the Wind, gives to himself as he settles down to narrate the true story behind the legend that he is. This tells you a great deal about him. That he is great hero, that he is a prodigy, not disinclined to breaking the rules, and the last but not least, that he knows how to spin a good tale. (A little vain, maybe?)

THis is the first book in a trilogy, like most fantasy offerings these days, and so doesn't contain all the good stuff, but it's enough to make you want to devour the sequel, and then wait desperately for the third. I stumbled upon this gem when I consulted the top 100 fantasy and sci-fi books flowchart, and it said, "If you like HArry Potter..." or something of the sort. But the truth is, Harry, as lovable as he is, could never hope to pull one-tenth of the brilliant, attention-catching, and hopelessly insane stunts Kvothe pulls while at the University. He is brilliant, determined and cocky, and nearly escapes unscathed from large-scale foolishness. Nearly. He also stumbles around looking for a girl whose name he isn't sure about. Where she lives is also a mystery for him, and he has no idea who she is. But he's sure about one thing, after meeting her all of two times--he's in love with her.

As a character, one thinks that with his striking looks (red hair and green eyes) and prodigious talent for almost anything he puts his mind to, perhaps the author loves him a little too much. But then you wince at the punishments he earns and laugh at his form of revenge over his Malfoy-like rich-boy arch-enemy (a song called 'Jackass, Jackass), and you start loving him too. He also has a sad past, makes several mistakes, and ultimately turns out not ot be a real legend after all.

Read The Name of The Wind because you like Harry Potter, and because you don't. Read it if you prefer heroes over anti-heroes, and if you don't. Read it because it's just another fantasy coming-of-age book that's special.

Both the books written by the author

Contributed by Ruhee D'Cunha

Urban Shots - Bright Lights

The book is a compilation of 29 beautiful short stories, edited by bestselling author, Paritosh Uttam.

It's a perfect cocktail - right amount of ingredients - be it comedy, drama, suspense, thriller, crime, biography, romance, fantasy. Few stories figuratively intoxicate and leave you in want of something more of it.

The book takes you on a joy ride from posh Bangalore colony to a flat in Jaipur. Amul has the innocence of a child. Maami Menace has a petty neighbour, who has a solution to every problem but yet she doesn't try them on her own. Stories such as It's All Good, The Pig In A Poke and The Weeping Girl are based on the current topics of recession, fraudulent mails and conning. Across The Seas and The Raincoat have emotional quotient attached to them. Father Of My Son is my favourite, which has a father backing his son's proposal of marriage. Hot Pants increases your interest  exponentially as you proceed with the story. The Peacock Cut is a literary delight and the choice of words has infused life into an otherwise ordinary story.

A low-point being that there were many proof-reading mistakes of apostrophe, inverted commas and even spelling mistakes. Also some stories appeared to be routine blogging stuff and a few wore the look as if they were translated from Hindi.
Apart from these, the book is just a perfect read and is prescribed dose of musings of urban life. It is worth the money you spend on it. My personal favourite being - Father Of My Son.

Paritosh Uttam

Contributed by Prakhar Singh

Gimme Shelter (1970)

"The music that thrilled the world....and the killing that stunned it."

Gimme Shelter is a 1970 'rockumentary' film about the Rolling Stones with a primary focus on their infamous Altamont Speedway Concert which led to the murder of at least one fan. It is directed by Albert and David Maysles.

The Altamont Speedway Concert was a free concert organised by the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane in December, 1969. About 300,000 fans attended the concert. It was a concert along the lines of the famous Woodstock music festival held four months earlier. Notable bands included Santana, Crosby Stills and Nash, Jefferson Airplane, Grateful Dead and the Rolling Stones. A California biker gang called Hell's Angels was hired to provide security. They were armed with knives and paid with beer. As the concert progressed the crowd became extremely unruly and the Hell's Angels employed violence to control the crowd. All this tension culminated in the stabbing of Meredith Hunter, a young man in the crowd, by a member of the Hell' Angels.

The 'rockumentary' begins with some footage of the Rolling Stones' Madison Garden concert and shows footage of them recording and a photo shoot of Charlie Watts with a donkey. But the action quickly shifts to the Altamont Speedway Concert, depicting the initial enthusiasm of the fans and the mounting tensions as the crowd and the Angels become more and more unruly. The various bands try unsuccessfully to calm the crowd down with the Mick Jagger saying. "Who's fighting and what for?"

The documentary also depicts the emotions of the band members as they watch a recording of the concert. Fans at the concert were shocked when the Rolling Stones continued playing amidst all the violence. The same shock and remorse is reflected on the front man Mick Jagger's ashen face as he watches the chilling death of Meredith Hunter on film. The Stones went on to record many great hits and are still the greatest rock n' roll band in the world today but they were never the same after the Altamont Concert.

The Altamont Concert has often been cited as the perfect metaphor for the death of the free love 60's. This chilling documentary is a must watch for any fan of the rock n' roll.

Coma - A Book Review

Coma, written by Robin Cook, is a first medical thriller of the modern day. The book is a journey into the inner workings of a hospital. It talks about the evils of one of the noblest professions. The author, being a medical practitioner himself, describes the medical procedures and activities of the hospital in a work-man like yet genuinely interesting fashion. He blends the non-fiction realm of medical sciences into the world of narration. Cook transports the reader into the medical arena and yet keeps one attached to the real world.

Susan Wheeler, the protagonist, along with a group of four other medical students, is working as a trainee at the Boston Memorial Hospital. Patients at the hospital, undergoing routine surgery, mysteriously slip into a coma and never regain consciousness. Baffled by these cases, Susan decides to investigate the mystery behind these cases. What ensues is a highly intense drama. Through the journey, the dilemmas and problems faced by a woman in a so called "man's" profession are also highlighted.Fighting against the scorn of her colleagues and attempts on her life, this brave woman steadily uncovers the unbelievably hideous truth.

The book, with its serious tone and gripping story line, keeps you on the edge the entire time. The author succeeds in maintaining the suspense of the plot till the very end. The climax has the potential to send a chill down the spine of the reader. A magnificent plot, brilliantly written, makes it a must read for thriller enthusiasts.

Coma was later filmed into a popular Hollywood movie by the same name starring Genevieve Bujold, Michael Douglas and directed by Michael Crichton.

A Trailer for the film 'Coma'

Contributed by Alekhya Audi

Firefly

"Burn the land and boil the sea, you can't take the sky from"
                                                                                                             - Ballad of Serenity

Firefly is an American Science fiction television series created by writer and director Joss Wheadon who shot to fame with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Set in the year 2517, the series deals with the adventures of a renegade crew of Serenity (a spaceship) after its arrival in a new star system. The main cast of the show contains nine characters living on Serenity, who Wheadon describes as "Nine people looking into the blackness of the space and seeing nine different things."

500 years from now, it talks about the aftermath of a gruesome universal civil war where the only two surviving superpowers of the world USA and China fuse together to form a central Government called Alliance which controls everyone and everything. As the Alliance continues to break havoc on the world      ( variety of moons and planets), the enigmatic captain of serenity Malcolm Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) and the crew of his spaceship, who had been on the losing side of the civil war, so what they can to restore the order to their surroundings.

                                         

Trailer

In many people's view Firefly is one of the best Sci-Fi series ever created. It is a whole new version of intergalactic adventures where there are no aliens but very real human beings with a rich culture in the eminent future, It garnered applause for its commendable job of interweaving two disparate genres - Sci-Fiction and western and hence stands at a staggering 9.3 rating on the IMDb. However it was cancelled shortly after 11 out of its 14 shot episodes were aired. The post airing success and the resurgence pleas led to the production of  "The Serenity" and comic "Those left behind."

 

Poster of Firefly 

Poster of Serenity

It remains to be one of the best science-fiction series, better than most you'll see in the theatres. Also, the opening song, Ballad of Serenity is hard to miss.

Ballad of Serenity

A must watch!

PS-Somebody be nice and upload it on DC.

Contributed by Madalsa Singh

West Wing

Aaron Sorkin's brilliantly crafted drama, West Wing, revolves around the day to day activities of the President of the United States (aptly nicknamed POTUS) and his senior white house staff as they go about negotiating through various different political and legislative issues not to mention the very many terrorist activities. Though that may sound boring to many, once you start watching, you get so engrossed its hard to let go, trust me.

Stand out acting performances by Martin Sheen as president Josiah bartlet and Alison Janney who portrays White House press secretary CJ Cregg has already become a household name. Other notable characters are Bradley Whitford as Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman and Richard Schiff as White House Communications Director Toby Ziegler.

It ran for a total of 7 seasons starting in 1999 winning 26 Emmy's including 9 in its first season itself.

No wonder it has been called the F.R.I.E.N.D.S of the Drama world.

Promo of the TV Show

Contributed by Dhairya Manek

Hustle - The Con is On

grifter: swindler, person who swindles you through deception or fraud

 

Hustle is a BBC show about a crew that pulls the long con. A long con is an elaborate scheme to swindle people for truckloads of money (Like in Ocean's 11, only better). Each year, BBC comes out with 6, one hour long episodes. All of you should atleast view one or two episodes if you haven't seen it.

The crew is an interesting mix of characters and humor, like most British TV shows is fairly classy. The schemes are realistic and each episode is scripted and shot beautifully.

Here's a snapshot of the show. Have a look for yourself.

The show will keep you hooked and is a must watch for people who like movies like Ocean's series, Italian Job. The pilot is one of the best TV episodes I've seen and is definitely worth a shot.

Contributed by Rushabh Shah. 

The Gods Themselves

If you haven't read anything by Isaac Asimov yet, there's probably no better place to start. Originally written as three consecutive short stories, and available as a single novel now, The Gods Themselves is one of Asimov's best work, at par with the Foundation Series. Like a lot of his other works, The Gods Themselves deals with aliens who live in a world very different from ours. This particular species inhabits a dying parallel universe whose  last hope for generating energy leads to catastrophic results on Earth. In case you're not sure about investing time to read an entire novel, just read the short story 'Nightfall' and you won't be able to stop yourself.

Contributed by Anshul Awasthi

Bartimaeus: Ring of Solomon

"The Ring of Solomon is a prequel to the Bartimaeus Trilogy that came out in 2010 and is definitely worth a read for any real fantasy fan.

Ring of Solomon

For the uninitiated, the Bartimaeus Trilogy is a fantasy series by Jonathan Stroud. The protagonist, Bartimaeus, is a five-thousand-year-old djinni with a mean sense of humour and uncanny wit. The trilogy follows the career of a teenage magician Nathaniel who enslaves Bartimaeus in modern day London where magic and politics go hand in hand.

The Original Trilogy

The prequel, is set in 950 BC in Jerusalem where Bartimaeus serves King Solomon who has the ultimate magical weapon, the Ring of Solomon. (Nothing like the ring in LOTR) and retains the sense of humour of the original trilogy.

The series and the prequel are a must-read just for its brilliant sense of humour. Each chapter also contains some footnotes referred from time to time which are really awesome.

Quote:
“A dozen more questions occurred to me. Not to mention twenty-two possible solutions to each one, sixteen resulting hypotheses and counter-theorems, eight abstract speculations, a quadrilateral equation, two axioms, and a limerick. That's raw intelligence for you.”
― Jonathan Stroud, Ptolemy's Gate"


Contributed by Rushabh Shah

Family Guy's Take on The Star Wars Triology

George Lucas's Star Wars universe took yet another new turn. From the creators of the hit Fox Series, Family Guy, came the Star Wars prequel.

Episodes IV, V and VI remade into one hilarious trilogy. Fans of both Star Wars and Family Guy would find them to be quite enjoyable.

Laugh It Up, Fuzzball: The Family Guy Trilogy consists of three episodes. The first one Blue Harvest was made in honor of the film's 30th anniversary. After, the positive response it received it was followed by two direct-to-video sequels Something, Something, Something Dark Side and Its a Trap.

Trailer for Blue Harvest

The following two episodes were also aired on TV after removing profanity and sexual references (which people obviously thought made them less interesting :p).

Trailer for Something, Something, Something Dark Side



Trailer for It's A Trap

The episodes are hilarious and maintain the standards of Family Guy. Worth a watch is our take.

PS - This article is a contribution from Sharvil Thatte.