I’ve been waiting for today to roll around for a few long years. Today Arcade Fire’s new CD is finally released into the wild. I’m heading out at lunch with friend and driver, Shaft, to get my own copy. We may have to eat in the car. I mention it here because the album has been tastefully named after the John Kennedy Toole novel, The Neon Bible. Their last album made a 2004 best books list (you can read about it in this post where I also bust out a Holden Caufield reference). I have also managed to work the band into a post about 9/11 that featured a video of the band singing with David Bowie. I’m a little shameless in my enthusiasm is what it comes down to. Additional reading: The NYT Sunday Magazine fawns over the band and TTT’s Frank says (paraphrasing) - believe the hype.
In other media: I had no idea that Jhumpa Lahari’s The Namesake was being made into a movie until I saw this on Very Short List. VSL handily provides this Venn diagram so that you’ll get the gist:
The post also mentions that the movie is kind of a big deal because it stars several huge Bollywood actors that you’ve never heard of. Skeptical? I ask only so I can then link to Bollywood for the Skeptical site (see what I did there?). If you do nothing else, listen to the beginning of Song 1 - the horns, the Superfly guitar riffs, and especially the song’s only lyrics “makow!” - are amazing. I guarantee you’ll be grooving to it all day long, yelling “makow!” at everyone you see, making it your official song for when you come up to bat in the major leagues, and figuring out how to make it your cellular ring tone.
Which isn’t to suggest that The Namesake is a Bollywood musical with great music - it’s not. However, it is based on a great book. I’m just continuing to be shameless in my enthusiasm. Makow!
March 6th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Incidentally, I’m not sure if you ever read The Hater on the Onion AV Club, but there was a HUGE debate about the lameness/coolness of AF’s guitar smash on SNL. Just throwing it out there.
March 6th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
I’m familiar with The Hater, but I haven’t been following the debate. I saw the guitar smash, and I still have it on my TiVo. All I can say is you must reserve any judgment on the band until you are in the same room with the band. The Great Pumpkin always visits them because they are so sincere.
March 7th, 2007 at 10:28 am
A dj on KUT, the Austin NPR station, used that as his intro theme song while we were there.
The old lady and I always got a kick out of it. But we thought it was “Wakow!”
March 7th, 2007 at 11:41 am
Dr J: “Wakow” would not have aided my alliteration in the post title. Ergo, “makow” is correct. I’m glad to hear that the song was put to good use. I’m still trying to figure out how to make it a ring tone.
March 7th, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I just wasted twenty minutes trying to find a definition for Makow and Wakow in various online Hindi-English dictionaries. Is it just an idiomatic expression or is it a word? I must know! Is it Hindi or Urdu? Is it the same thing as “wow!” or “she’s hot!” or is it one of those little words that means “the greatness of God exists in all living creatures?”
I’m losing it now….
But I can’t wait for this movie.
March 8th, 2007 at 9:59 am
Upon further review, it does appear that the word is “wakow” - I interpret it to mean “woohoo” or equivalent.
To be crystal clear - I don’t think that the song is going to show up in the movie - I just had to link to the songs as a result of mentioning Bollywood. It would be sweet if that song showed up in the movie.
No luck making the song my ring tone yet.