Thursday, March 17, 2011

Ticket to Bollywood at the Kennedy Center


There were so many people who wanted to see this free show that it was moved to the Eisenhower Theater. When I got to the Kennedy Center at 5pm, the line already stretched all the way through the foyer past the Opera House.

Apparently, popular culture, whether Russian, US, or Indian, is not my cup of tea. It's visually pleasing all right but it is ersatz culture; the real thing is so much better! And the relentless, repetitive annoying beat and deafening volume don't make matters better. In pop music, why is it always necessary to punctuate the beat and hammer it over my head? I can make out both the meter and the rhythm myself; I don't need help, thank you very much. It's like canned laughter in sitcoms: I can decide for myself what's funny, and what's not. Anyway, each genre has its conventions.

Random thought: if Bombay is now Mumbai, shouldn't Bollywood become Mollywood?


Watch Ticket to Bollywood performance.

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