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I’m taking a break. So here’s a fantastic Bollywood dance number.

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Hey, everyone. So I sat down to write something about this horrific discussion of domestic violence on The Spearhead – which some of the Man Boobz commentariat have already started discussing here – and, well, I just couldn’t do it.

I need to step back a bit from this blog for a little while to clear my head and maintain my sanity. So I’m going to take a bit of a break – maybe just a few days, maybe a week – and post nothing but interesting videos and other things having nothing whatsoever to do with misogyny or the manosphere. You all, of course, can treat this any any other thread as a totally open thread to discuss whatever you want, including the regular Man Boobz topics of misogyny and general MRA shitlordery.

I’m going to start off with the dance number that first got me hooked on Bollywood music some years ago. This is from the 1998 film Dil Se, a drama about love and terrorism. But in Bollywood, even serious dramas have dance numbers, and Dil Se’s dance numbers are gorgeous and a little surreal.

The music from the film is by A.R. Rahman, a prolific and popular Bollywood music director best known in the US for doing the music for Slumdog Millionaire.

And  yes, that is Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan dancing on top of a moving train without any safety harness or stunt double or CGI trickery. (Well, there are a couple of brief bits where a double might have been used.) Enjoy!

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cloudiah
11 years ago

You deserve a break. Here are some adorable gifs to help you remove the misogynistic toxicity:
Only hellkell can tell us if this is Biscuit.
It’s a sleepy duckling.
This cat knows how to communicate enthusiastic consent to being petted.

cloudiah
11 years ago

One more:
Penguins. Hopping.

Stevie
Stevie
11 years ago

Well, I certainly understand that any decent person needs to surface for air and take a well-earned break from the horrors that you tackle.

Also I am due to spend 36 hours in Mumbai at the beginning of May, and I will say hello to Bollywood for you!

Rachael P-McG (@StuffedFantod)

“He who walks in the shadow of love
Will have paradise beneath his feet.”

Tulgey Logger
Tulgey Logger
11 years ago

From your writing, I’ve been thinking that you’ve been burned out by all the misogyny, lately. Have a good break, David!

My personal favorite Bollywood piece is this one, from another Shahrukh Khan movie called Don:

I mostly like it because of how bombastic and egotistical it is. I don’t know what any of the Hindi means, but I would not even remotely surprised if it was just five straight minutes of “I’m Don, I’m awesome.”

The Kittehs' Unpaid Help

Internet hugs if you want ’em, David – you’ve more than earned a break from the scumlordery of the MRM. Hope you have a great break and get lots of kitty petting in!

Some Gal Not Bored at All

Enjoy your well-deserved break! You do something that I am sure that I could never do and it is incredibly valuable. Thanks! Take care of yourself.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

That’s not Biscuit, but it is his M.O.

David, I totally understand the Spearhead’s brand of shitlordery driving you to a break. I’m not sure I want to discuss their deep, well thought out views on DV. /sarcasm

Enjoy the break.

drst
drst
11 years ago

This may appall the Bollywood purists but this is the dance number that got me hooked on “So You Think You Can Dance” – Katee and Joshua BEST COUPLE EVER!

Viscaria
Viscaria
11 years ago

“Pet me pet me” cat is a less gigantic version of Tiggers. That cat never stopped being a weird, adorable kitten.

hellkell
hellkell
11 years ago

cloudiah: I made that cheese and nut loaf. It was delicious, we’ll be making that again.

augochlorella
augochlorella
11 years ago

I’m going to take this as an excuse to post this video. It makes me wish I grew up in India in the 80s.

If you could have spirit music videos the way people have spirit animals, this would be mine.

cloudiah
11 years ago

So glad you liked it, hellkell! I didn’t end up making it (because of all the weekend drama), but I pretty much have everything so I’ll probably make it next weekend.

Cthulhu's Intern
11 years ago

Oh, speaking of Bollywood, I’m really new to their movies and have been thinking of getting into them, since I really enjoy what few scenes I’ve seen (the good ones and the, um… not-so-good ones that are still good in their own way, I think you know what I’m talking about.). Does anyone here have any good recommendations?

From what I’ve seen, there also really needs to be a video game that’s a tribute to Bollywood action movies.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Sorry, I know nothing about Bollywood, but I do have some adorable sloths.

melody
11 years ago

Have any of you watched: White Rainbow? Its about the treatment of widows in India.

http://youtu.be/mUoFty0Dobs

Morgan
Morgan
11 years ago

I can see everyone else is posting random, unrelated stuff, which is probably a good idea, but I have to admit, I followed the links that David provided, and have some reactions:

I read the Spearhead article, and it was obviously horrible, but it was also classic Spearhead, and the wildly drawn incorrect conclusions on the story drawn by the commentariat were absurd to the point of being funny.

Indeed, I found that some of the most horrible comments were not from the Spearhead at all, but from the site where the photoessay itself was published, with commentary from people, who, judging by their handles, were probably women themselves, engaged in the most vitriolic, victim-blaming rhetoric that could easily hold its own against the most seasoned of MRAs.

raindog2
raindog2
11 years ago

I thought you might like this. I love this. It’s so insanely American.

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@Morgan

I’m not up for an expedition into the horribleness, but if you find any specimens you’d like to bring back for examination, I am totally up for studying them here. 🙂

I hate the victim-blaming that comes up in cases like this. I get the impulse to want the victim to have done something wrong so that you know if you do the right thing, you’ll be safe, but I will never understand acting on that impulse.

The thing that really struck me (yesterday, when I was holding more spoons) was how many people apparently believe that you should never have anything to do with someone who has spent time in jail/prison and that she deserves it for that reason. Do people really think we should just avoid convicts forever? Why do we even let them out of jail/prison? (I mean, I know why, but I also wouldn’t write someone off forever without considering what they’d done and, in most cases, why.) People are such assholes.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

So does this “never have anything to do with anyone who’s been in prison/jail” apply to people who made bail and a plea? How about if it was for pissing of a cop for daring point out the cop was acting illegally and endangering people by doing so? Probably a free pass right?

How about if we reword it to someone who couldn’t make bail and no plea was offered, so got assault charges on their record? And hey, if they’ll piss of a cop, who kows what they might do!

(FYI, this isn’t pulled from my ass, my ex-FWB pointed out to a cop that he was stopped behind the cop, at a green light, and texting a driving isn’t even legal…got punched in the face and plead out of assault charges…but an arrest is an arrest is an arrest?)

And yeah, I get the root of the victim blaming, I used to be of the “if I follow the rules I’ll be okay” variety too. That was two rapist ex’s and a gaslighting narcissist ago.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Also, the “why” factor — shoplifting for the hell of it is worse than for food, not that either is nearly severe enough to make one a pariah. Of course, the good looking white boys I knew who did it for fun were unlikely to get caught at all (unless they were holding hands?)

Tangent, cuz I’m angry still. Who put gay white men in charge of the GLBT movement anyways?

(And Jesus Christ, if the conversation about the trans* murder rate wasn’t infuriating enough, I’m currently waiting for a reply regarding the holocaust, yeah, he went there)

Some Gal Not Bored at All

@Argenti

Of course, the good looking white boys I knew who did it for fun were unlikely to get caught at all (unless they were holding hands?)

What a coincidence! The guy I knew who shoplifted for fun was also a good looking white boy! When he finally got caught, he got sent to some sort of group therapy! (My sister loved him, they were 18, misandry, bad boys, hypergamy, something, something, rage?)

Hugs if you want them for the Holocaust conversation. That sounds unbelievably frustrating. Sorry.

Marie
11 years ago

David, I hope you have a good break. I don’t comment here much (more recently though) and wanted to send you good wishes.

katz
11 years ago

Have a good break. Since this is an off-topic thread, here’s Barklemore.

Argenti Aertheri
11 years ago

Some Gal — thanks, I gave him a math lecture and he seems to be avoiding replying (watch me get a reply once I post this >.<) I mean, the expected failures, and comparing holocaust deaths to the general death rate, from all causes? Dude’s just trying to skew the math so he can repeat about how deadly heart disease is (he’s a life-extension trans-humanist // occasional pain in my backside)

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