Deadpool meets Fleabag, Noir debuts, Behind BTS. and hills have stories too. All of it in this week's newsletter
Hi,
If you are new here, welcome to Dis-Content, a weekly curated newsletter determined to add serendipity to your life.
If you have walked this alley of the internet before, hopefully by now, you should have seen some good changes happening in your Youtube or Netflix suggestions.
Either way, let us get this underway.
Video
Phoebe Waller-Bridge was a fresh breath of air for our TV watching habits.
Killing Eve - A few days ago, I came across an interesting observation about Killing Eve. We have seen femme-fatale assassins before and we have also seen punching-above-their-weight honest female cops but we have rarely seen them at loggerheads. Killing Eve does that and gives us two amazing characters to root (?) for.
And then there is Fleabag. A show which we kept going back to during the pandemic, perhaps for that one scene at the Bus Stop.
Point being, Phoebe is one of the best writers in TV right now, and when she speaks we should definitely pay attention. Which brings me to the first video.
“Disarm the audience with comedy and laughing; then punch them in the gut with Drama”
Speaking about Fleabag, if there is one character who probably does more camera-talking than Flea, it has to be Deadpool.
Slightly weird putting them together but you see it right? So does screenwriter John August. Here we have, both Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Ryan Reynolds dissecting their craft.
Movie
This week’s movies belong to the modern-masters making their debuts in low budget cult films and giving us heady doses of noir.
BRICK
Brick - Before Rian Johnson took on Star Wars, and much before whatever Looper was (Time Travel? Fantasy?) Johnson made one of the most unique debut films starring a very young Joseph Gordon-Lewitt.
The IMDB blurb reads - A teenage loner pushes his way into the underworld of a high school crime ring to investigate the disappearance of his ex-girlfriend. - and it doesn’t do justice to how cool the film actually is.
Chacha Ebert broke it down perfectly here .
P.S. A young Johnson edited this film on his laptop!
BOUND
If you watch the above trailer, all it takes is the first 10 seconds for you to notice the directorial stamp. The Wachowski siblings made their directorial feature film debut with Bound. I don’t think one can ever discuss the Wachowski’s filmography and not include Bound.
“Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who longs to escape her relationship with her mafioso boyfriend Caesar (Joe Pantoliano), enters into a clandestine affair with alluring ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) “
Here is Chacha Ebert once again. Read, please.
Music
Have you ever heard of BTS?
There are usually two ways to answer this.
One, you haven’t heard of them.
Two, you brandish your BTS Army membership card and talk about how Jin’s Freddie Mercury tribute brought a tiny tear to your eyes.
If you belong to the first category, allow me to give you a very tiny tour into what makes these Bangtan boys click. We start in familiar territory. A cover of Coldplay’s Fix You.
BTS is led by Kim Nam-Joon, better known by his stage name RM (Rap Monster). As a kid, he learnt how to speak English by listening to Eminem lyrics. In 2018, he came out with Mono - a solo album and I, for one, did not expect this. This sounds damn good by all standards.
Reading
This week on the reading section, we take you to the mountains. Three stories from the heights of mountains all bringing forth a different mystery from Indian history.
The mystery of RoopKund
I remember the first time I learnt of RoopKund. A bunch of us were hanging out (of course, Pre-Covid) and a friend’s friend just dropped this into the conversation. It seemed implausible back then. But here it is, in form of a New Yorker piece. Also, you can even hear the piece if you feel like it. Click on play
The mystery of Nanda Devi
This article is about one of the most audacious acts of espionage conducted ever in our subcontinent.
This happened at the peak of the Cold War. as US and India undertook a risky mission of delivering a nuclear payload with China and Pakistan keeping a close watch. This story could easily have been a blockbuster movie but for the good-old nature to remind humans of their place.
The mystery of French Alps
A plane crashed into the French Alps back in 1960s. On board the plane was a high profile passenger, Homi Bhabha, the father of Indian nuclear program. An international consiparcy theory ensued. Was Bhabha killed to thwart India’s nuclear program? More than 50 years after, the story keeps unfolding. Thanks to Global Warming.
And here is an extremely weird French Graphic novel about the same incident.
Read this wildly imaginative graphic novel here.
Bonus Read
How old is your dog? If you are doing the good old dog’s age into 7 to find their human age equivalent, you might be wrong. Turns out dogs don’t grow like humans. You would need some understanding of mathematics, logarithms in particular.
Podcasts
Twenty Thousand Hertz
What is the story behind the famous Netflix sound that we keep hearing before every episode? Hint - A wedding ring.
As a budding audiophile, this podcast is an education and they really upped their game for the 100th episode! Highly recommended.
Quiz Time India
I think by now you can tell that this is a plug , a promotion, and a subterfuge but anyway, this week on the podcast we have an excellent (If I may say so) quizzing/trivia exchange session. We sit down across from Manas Deep and discuss Cricket, Bollywood, History, Biology, Football, Ecology and more.
Design Pataki Podcast
Cindy Allen is the editor in chief at ‘Interior Design’ magazine. A magazine which turns 90 years old. I had quiet a time editing this one. Some interesting points made which are applicable to any young artist promoting their work.
Housekeeping
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