*UPDATED NOV 1st* Added 'New York' to my list of films to watch.

( Here is a list of movies I've seen and movies I wish to see. )

...I have a few Google Wave invites. Eight, to be exact. Personally, I hate Wave. I was hardly even mildly interested when I got an invite, but I thought 'what the heck' and accepted. But it's slow. And it has a ton of bugs. And it's boring. I'm just on there because my boyfriend loves it and likes to send me messages through it. :p I guess having a lot of friends could help me enjoy it more, but I can't do much about that. ;) And I still like emails better.

BUT I have a few invites lying around, so I thought I might as well offer them up. Comment here with the email address you'd like to use for Wave, or comment without email and then send me a message with it if you'd like to keep it private. But please comment here first-- easier to keep track. =) First eight to comment get invites. If there even are that much people reading my blog, and then people who read it and want an invite. Because that's really doubtful.

So, I just read Taran Adarsh's review of Kurbaan over at Bollywood Hungama, and was met with a few frown-inducing things. I feel like being bitchy at the moment, and look! Here's an outlet! :p Bear with me and please don't take me too seriously. Seriously.

He said: "Movies are not meant to merely entertain, but enlighten and educate as well. They need to prick your conscience and in the process, make an attempt to make this world a better place."
I said: "Enlightening cinema is always cool when done right, but movies can be meant to just entertain if they feel like it! Leave the feel-good masala films alone."

He said: "Hemant Chaturvedi's cinematography is super. The film bears an international look all through."
I said: "So, it has to look international to be classified as 'super' now?" (I said I just felt like being bitchy. :p)

He said: "As for Kareena, KURBAAN reiterates one fact yet again: She's the best in the business. No two opinions on that!"
I said: "There's always going to be two opinions. There's going to be 2 billion opinions, judging by all the people in the world. I don't think she's the best in the business. Just because you say it's so, it doesn't make it a fact."

Note: I do not hate Taran Adarsh. I respect Kareena as a person and mean no slight to her at all. This just tickled my un-funny bone.

In regards to these "why white girls watch Bollywood" posts from Filmi Girl and veracious, I have decided to write something of my own. It's advised that you read at least one (though I highly recommend recommend both!) of their posts before reading this, or it won't make much sense. Though, mine will be less general and calculated, and I don't think anyone other than myself will relate to it-- but WHATEVER! I just feel like writing! :p If you want to be all deep and awesome about this, please do go read their posts. I'm just exploring the not-so-deep side of me today.

Jumping right into it: I never really had any 'internal conflict' (as Kiran commented on veracious' post) when watching Bollywood. Thoughts of exoticism, objectifying, etc. (as they stated in their posts), never once crossed my mind. I just viewed Bollywood films as any other film, as I think in the end we are all film viewers, regardless of ethnicity, and all those in whatever film industry have the same goal: to make a good film. I admire something/someone beautiful, different, intriguing (and all those nifty adjectives) in a Bollywood film just as I would any Hollywood one. But what veracious and Filmi Girl have written about is still very important to consider and sit down and think about sometimes, because a lot of what they talk about is actually out there. I can attest to that from personal experience, particularly on the objectification and cultural appropriation topics of their posts. In the mesh of cultures and people that is the USA, it's hard not to at least once. I'm sure none of us in the blog world here like it, but it happens.

As for me, I'm not worried about going wannabe-Indian and being insanely crazed about their culture, because that's not what I'm trying to do. After all, how can I, when all I know is like 2% of what others do? I appreciate, love, fangirl(lol), and admire, and sometimes join in on things I like, but I'm not being all weird about it. But sometimes I do get worried that what other people think of me is the opposite. I own two or three salwars (not as much as I would like as I have to buy things over the net, and we all know how hard it is to predict a good fit. :p) and have worn them out and about a few times, but I just treated it like any other article of clothing. If someone asked me about it, I would tell them what it was. When I lived down by Cincinnati, where there's a large-ish Indian population, I even got complimented by a few families from Andhra Pradesh (who were all awesome people and the highlight of that day). I don't think anyone got the impression that I was trying to be something I'm not, because I wasn't. I just like it, so I wore it. And really, my love of Indian films is a part of me now, so while I certainly am not Indian, wearing a salwar or bindi occasionally IS me. It's something I love, so it's become a part of me. And I don't mind displaying it outwardly. Hopefully no one sees it in a negative way, but I try not to worry about that very much because I know my intentions are nothing but good.

...If that made any sense at all to anyone else. :p

Another thing with wearing bindis that is kind of (or totally) unrelated... Whenever I wear them, people always ask me if it's a piercing. xD I find it really funny, but also a chance to educate people, which is always fun. =) My sister and I met this little girl once who liked it, so we gave her one-- and she wore it! It looked awesome with her Hannah Montana t-shirt. ^_^

I've been thinking for a while that my blog's layout is just too... blah. But I'm not sure what to change it to, or if I should change it at all. Uhm... help?

If I did change the theme/layout, I was thinking maybe one of the 'bloggish' labeled ones, and something with blue colours. Easy on the eyes. I like Bryant and *maybe* Blue Crush (though I'd get rid of the icky orange). I'd still keep the loffly Trebuchet MS font and probably add a background image for both. But I'm still kind of attached to my good old Flexible Squares layout. :p Only the other colours in that layout are blinding and I'm too petrified to majorly alter the colours on my own.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Like, WOAH! forceiswithyou directed me to layouts by refuted , and they're awesome! What do you guys think of Blue Swirls and Clean Blue? I think Blue Swirls might win me over with its... swirliness.

( ...and read mine below! )</div>

Not even enough to make an LJ cut today, I'm afraid! But that's okay, because I'm not really in the mood to report news, anyway. xD

First off, we have a nice video interview with Karan Johar, where he talks about Wake Up Sid and My Name Is Khan. He also says he loves both Twitter and Bollywood Hungama (though, don't we all?)!

Yahoo! India Movies has an brief article up where it says that Anushka Sharma is working on another Yash Raj film with Shahid Kapoor. Makes you wonder if the three film deal is true, doesn't it? It would suck to have to limit yourself to just one company.

This article lists who Farah Khan says are the topmost infuential people in her life, but that's not what I noticed. It says that Om Shanti Om was her first film. Wtf?

filmi_girl  shared this article on racial profiling on Twitter this morning and this similar one a few days ago. I think as many people as possible should read these.

Sorry for no Bollywood news today-- it's things like this that make me feel put-out from that sort of thing, and make me want to cry.

I feel like all of this coming to me in so short of a time is some sort of a sign, and when I graduate from University as a journalist, I'm going to do something about all of this.

Peace and love.