Beatle News # 30: Sunday Grammy’s 2014

 Beatle News # 30 : Sunday, 26th of January, 2014

2014 – This Sunday, at the 56th Annual Grammy Awards, The Beatles were awarded with the Life Time Achievement Award. Added to which, Paul McCartney bagged the award for Best Music in Film (previously known as the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video) for his song, ‘Live Kisses’. The two living Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, performed the song ‘Queenie Eye’ together on stage (‘Queenie Eye’, is a song from McCartney’s solo album NEW, released in 2013). Besides that Ringo Starr did a solo on stage as well; the song ‘Photograph’, from his 1973 solo album RINGO.

This Month – This Year
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(* Special Note: Unfortunately I did not get to watch Grammy Awards, in fact it’s been a while since I last saw the Grammy’s anyway. Heard about the winners and the show only later.
Plus, The Beatles receiving the Life Time Achievement Award, don’t you feel it’s a bit late in the day? They should have been awarded this at least three decades ago.)

Nuwan Sen & The Beatles (Beatle News)

Beatle News # 29: What is store for 2014

 Beatle News # 29 : George Harrison gets Hitched

George Harrison & Pattie Boyd on their Wedding day

• 1966 –  George Harrison marries Pattie Boyd, at the Leatherheads and Esher Register Office. Brian Epstein & Paul McCartney were the best men. Soon after which, the couple fly to Trinidad for their honeymoon.

The Bungalow where Pattie Boyd and George Harrison lived (1965 – 1970) in Esher

•  2014 (news i) – The re-release of 13 Beatle Albums (released between 1964 and 1970), are due in USA, ahead of the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles first American concert (which took place on the 11th of February 1964 at the Washington Coliseum, Washington DC). The 13 Albums will be sold in unison as a ‘Collectors Edition’ box set.

Beatles box set (2014)

• 2014 (news ii) – The two living Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr are set to perform for this years Grammy Awards, but it’s not confirmed whether they shall perform together or separately.

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Happy 22nd Birthday to Logan Lerman

Today, my favourite youngest actor, Logan Lerman, turns 22.
Whishing him all the best for a fabulous future ahead of him, and may he highly succeed in his further endeavours.

Meet Bill (2007)

I discovered him back in early 2009, when I watched Meet Bill (2007). Almost instantaneously I was a fan of his. He was a superb actor. If another kid played that part in this movie, he (the character that is) might not have been that likable. But Logan Lerman, makes this; smart assed, weed smoking, rebellious teenager; with a twisted penchant for women’s underwear and a vocabulary full of swear word; really likable. In the end though, this adorable kid ends up helping the lead character, Bill (played superbly by Aaron Eckhart) battle his mid-life crisis demons.
It’s after watching this movie, I realised, I have actually seen him in many a movies as a child star. I just didn’t know him back then. He had starred in The Patriot (2000), What Women Want (2000), Riding in Cars with Boys (2001), and The Butterfly Effect (2004). I don’t remember him in any of these, for I watched them long time ago. Except for maybe in The Butterfly Effect, I have a vague memory of the younger Ashton Kutcher (who played the lead), for the kid had a pretty prominent role in it, and I watched it back in 2005. Thus not that long before I saw Meet Bill.

3:10 To Yuma (2007)

Post Meet Bill, I have seen many a movies starring young Mr. Lerman. From the excellent remake of a classic, that was, 3:10 to Yuma (2007); to the movie loosely based on actor George Hamilton’s trip with his mother and brother to Hollywood in the 50’s, where Lerman played the young George Hamilton, in My One and Only (2009); to the pathetic waste of time, that was Gamer (2009), of which the only saving grace was, Michael C. Hall’s superb portrayal of the villainous character; to the child friendly ‘Oky Doky’ fantasy film that was, Percy Jackson & the Lightning Thief (2010).

Post that am yet to see any of his more recent films. Am really keen on watching The Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012) and Stuck in Love (2012).

And again whishing this adorable actor, all the best for a bright future.

Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense
(P.S. Also see, my IMDB critiques related to Logan Lerman- Top 5 Nouveau Comedies (2001 – 2010), No Name, from 2011)

A Multitude of Awards

I have been nominated for a Multitude of Awards (December 2013 & January 2014). All the nominations were by the same gentlemen known as, Tom Ford (no not the fashion designer, but a Café blogger).
One for, The BLOG OF THE YEAR 2013, which he nominated me for on the 11th of December 2013. As some of you know I was ill at the time, thus found out much later. And for 7 other awards; Versatile Blogger Award, Shine On award, Reader Appreciation Award, Most Influential Blogger Award, The Most Creative Blogger Award, Dragon’s Loyalty Award and an award jestingly called The “Not featured on Freshly Pressed” WordPress Award; for all of which he had nominated me on the 7th of January 2014, and I found out on the 9th of January, 2014; but I never got around to working on the post for these awards till now, thus sorry for the delay Mr Ford.

The rules for the awards are somewhat similar, so like what Tom Ford did for the last 7 awards, I am doing the same thing. Just making one post for all, including all the rules.
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So Here are the rules as follows:-
1. Post pictures of the 8 Blog awards.

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2. Thank the person who nominated you, and post a link to his/her blog.

So Thank you Tom Ford for these prestigious awards, here is a link to his Blog Café, (http://thomasjford.wordpress.com), in which he serves up some delicious movies, music, books and you name it. Of course he’s changed the theme more recently, though I preferred the way it previously looked, like a black slate/blackboard and written on with white chalk.
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3. Select an amount of bloggers you feel deserve all these awards in one go, and write something about them, and let them know as well.
So my nominees are :-

Cindy Bruchman (http://cindybruchman.wordpress.com)
Cindy is fellow film buff. I came across her blog somewhere mid-last year, and she has been one of the most regular visitors on my blog since. She is also great photographer, a history teacher and a published author. I have great respect for her.

William Jepma (http://williamjepma.wordpress.com)
Billy the kid, is another film buff, and a student. I came across his blog in April/May last year, and have been a great fan of his reviews, and he’s checked out, liked and commented on my blog too a few times. I’ve really enjoyed reading his reviews, whether they are about movies that interest me or not, and to my comments (on his blog), he always has a kind reply with smiley face attached to it. I consider him a blog-pal. I feel, if we were to meet in real life, he’s the kind of person I might have a great rapport with.

Smealek’s poetry (http://thephilosof.wordpress.com)
Smealek’s blog, I came across around the first week of December, and he has some amazing poetry on his blog, and he’s been pretty frequent on mine, although I hardly got to post anything much last month.

Alina’s Literary Vittles (http://literaryvittles.wordpress.com)
I came across Alina’s blog, on the 1st of Dec 2013, a fellow bookworm and film buff, and occasionally she might write a post on something else entirely. On Fruit, for example. Ha!! Check out her blog you’ll know what I mean.

Robert Mudge (http://robertmudge.net)
Robert Mudge is a quadriplegic (after an accident that happened in 2001, in which a friend of his was killed), a great survivor, and a very brave person to move forward, and not let his disability pull him down. He definitely deservers all the recognition. And somebody has already nominated him for ‘The Blog of the Year 2013’ award, and now he can add one more star to it, along with rest of awards.

Bharti Singh (http://bhartisingh.wordpress.com)
Bharti has a photography blog that I stumbled across towards the end of December, while I was still recovering. She has taken some beautiful shots of New Delhi. Lot of foreign films try to show India as a dirty, filthy country. But there are plenty of places that are kept very clean especially in the capital city of India. Delhi itself has so much to offer. Check out her blog, you’ll enjoy it.

Righteous Robert (http://righteouscinema.wordpress.com)
Another fellow film buff, who has some amazing reviews on some really terrific movies.

Shaj’s Films (http://melovefilms.wordpress.com)
Yet another film buff whose blog I came across back in October 2013. Although she hasn’t written anything much recently, it’s worth checking out some of her older reviews. Especially her posts on good Indian movies.

J. James 36 (http://jjamesreviews.wordpress.com)
Yet another interesting Film Blog, I came across early last month.

Today I watched a movie (http://todayiwatchedamovie.com)
Last but not the least. There is an interesting story attached to the nameless character that does a blog called ‘Today I watched a movie’. He had first liked my post on ‘Eat Pray Love – The Mantra of Life’, back in January 2013; and I mistook him for friend of mine, Benoît. (Look at the two pictures below, the resemblance is uncanny, especially if you saw the earlier Gravatar image of the guy doing ‘Today I watched a movie’, Benoît too loves doing funny faces). So I e-mail Benoît, as well and commented on this blog, happy to hear from him after such a long time. Alas, I was wrong. But Benoît too was pretty surprised at seeing a picture of his doppelganger, and wrote back to me.

Benoît & I, Queue for Catacombs, Paris, France (25th July 2009)

Benoît & I, at Champs Élysées, Paris, France (8th Sept 2009)

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4. Say Hello to the Originator of The BLOG OF THE YEAR 2013.
(Link – http://thethoughtpalette.co.uk/blog-awards-2/blog-of-the-year-2013-award)
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5. Finally list 7 interesting facts about yourself.
(i). I’m 6ft 2½” tall
(ii) I have jet black hair
(iii) I’m a loner, but not a recluse, for I love to socialise with like minded people.
(iv) My closest friends are from various different countries, and I don’t have a single true friend, to whom I can relate to, where I currently reside.
(v) I’m a very strong minded person, yet very sensitive at the same time, it takes me a long time to heal, especially heartbreak, yet psychologically am pretty strong.
(vi) Normally Illnesses don’t frighten me, and have managed on my own in the past; but last month (Dec 2013) I got so sick, I was afraid of dying all alone and untouched.
(vii) I am still reading Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel.

*Special Note to all my nominees: Please do not feel obligated to continue this if you don’t want to. There is no pressure, I know it could be a hassle to be nominated sometimes, you are still all winners in my eyes. But if you do get the time to do so, give it a try, who knows you may enjoy doing a different post, moving out of your comfort zone, for a change. And there might be people you like, that might enjoy getting nominated too. Please do not nominate me for any more awards for sometime though.

Thank you all
Cheers
Nuwan Sen

Beatle News # 28: Le Concert en Paris

 Beatle News # 28 : The Beatles in Paris (Part-II)

Sylvie Vartan & The Beatles (Olympia 1964)

• 1960 – Stuart Sutcliffe joins ‘Johnny & The Moondogs’ (The future Beatles).

•  1964 – The Beatles appear, alongside French singer, Sylvie Vartan, and other French stars, at The Olympia Theatre for a three week engagement. The show opens on Friday, 17th of January, 1964.

While in Paris, the Beatles stayed at the five star George V hotel, and had an upright piano moved into one of their suites, so that they could continue writing songs there. It was whilst here that Paul McCartney wrote Can’t Buy Me Love.

• 1968 – The Beatles (minus George, who was away at the time), attend a reception for ‘Grapefruit’, a band managed by Apple.

•  1969 – US release of Yellow Submarine on Parlophone.

This Day, This Month – That Year

Nuwan Sen’s Music Sense
Nuwan Sen n’ The Beatles
Nuwan Sen n’ Le Paris
Nuwan Sen & The Beatles (Beatle News)

Beatle News # 27: Les Beatles en Paris

 Beatle News # 27 : The Beatles in Paris (Part-I)

The Beatles pillow-fight in Paris (1964)

• 1964 – Three of the Beatles (John, Paul & George) fly to Paris (from London Heathrow) on Tuesday, 14th of January, 1964, to appear at the Olympia Theatre for a three week engagement. Ringo followed a day later, on Wednesday, 15th, having been fog bound in Liverpool Airport. On Wednesday morning, while waiting for Ringo to arrive, the other three Beatles, take a stroll down Champs Élysées.

The Beatles in Paris 64′

This Day, This Month – That Year

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Illness & Recovery

Fellow Bloggers and other friendly followers of my blog. You must have been wondering why I seemed so silent practically the whole month of December 2013. No, I wasn’t busy with other work, nor was I procrastinating, or holidaying, but I was gravely ill.

On 11th of December 2013, early in the morning, I found myself unable to breathe, neither from my nostrils, nor from my throat, and my whole body was tightening inside me, with a severe chest pain and a heavy head. I couldn’t lie down,  couldn’t stand up, I couldn’t sit. I hadn’t slept all night. I was being paranoid, I was sure I was going to die. I knew it wasn’t Asthma I was suffering from, for that was under control, I had been using an inhaler for 1½  decades now. (I had a few Asthma attacks back in the late 1990’s, and rushed to the emergency and given the nebuliser back then. No, I knew this wasn’t Asthma related). A month before that (early on in the month of November 2013), I had hit my head quite hard on an overhanging widescreen television at a supermarket (I tend to be a bit of an accident prone generally, but nothing too serious, not always. Why, just on the 4th of January 2014, at home, the electrician cut a wire of a ceiling fan, and the fan fell down, I narrowly escaped with just a slash on my skin between two fingers, and not too deep a cut). My paranoia was worsening, I felt maybe I had internal bleeding in the head, brain damage, somehow part of me was ready for death, not really, but wasn’t sure if I had much of a choice. I was taken to the Emergency ward of a partially private hospital. There I was admitted into a ward full of elderly patients with various ailments. Different Doctors came and went, all kinds of tests, don’t even let me tell you about the indifference and attitudes of nurses and attendants, the staff. Sticking massive needles into my hand, arms. There was blood coming out all over sheets. Nobody saying anything. And no proper communications between doctors and doctors or doctors and nurses or attendants. Finally, I learnt they started off with tests for Dengue, and epidemic in this country. I did not have Dengue. I was given medication for sinus and gastritis. That night again I couldn’t sleep in the hospital. Each time I fell asleep, I woke up out of breath. No nurses/attendants around. So I went looking for them. Once I found a nurse, she gave me a medicine for gastritis. So that’s when I realised my real ailment. For, Sinus was something I’ve had for ages. If my nose gets blocked, at least I can breath from my throat. And I’ve been suffering from fissure on and off for over 1½ years now, and medicating it on an off. So it was Gastritis, my main ailment.
Still next morning, I was still quite weak. By afternoon I was taken for a sinus X-ray. The attendant asked me, that I don’t need a wheelchair, do I?, and I said no, it’s not necessary. But little did I realise, the X-ray was on the ground floor (My ward was on the top most floor) and on the other end of this massive hospital. I was already tired by then, then the wait, and then I had to find my way all alone to my ward. Worse, a nurse later came and mentioned I might have the wrong X-ray of somebody else. But she wasn’t sure.
Anyway that evening, I felt better, and I said I’d rather go home. So by twelfth night of December 2013, I was back home slowly recovering, with a load of medicine.
I didn’t switch on my laptop till the 15th, but I was too tired, I replied a comment, and that was it. I felt I was slowly recovering, so I tried to get back to my blog, and at least check some other blogs, but I was still too weak.
Then instead of improving I started to feel worse again. By 20th December, I was feeling pretty bad, the medication not working, I was out of breath, couldn’t sleep, and 21st December, I was awake whole day and out of breath, and made an appointment with a Doctor, this time in another, fully private, hospital nearby. I went and explained everything. He gave me stronger medicine. It only worsened, I couldn’t sleep again, and on 22nd I was still awake out of breath the whole day, still trying the medicine, hoping it would improve, but again no sleep and out of breath, 23rd early morning, I felt I was having a stroke, my pupils were dilated, hadn’t slept or been breathing properly for three days now. And again rushed to the emergency, this time to the all private hospital where I consulted the Doctor on 21st. He wasn’t there. But this was a better hospital, the staff well trained. More expensive, and I was admitted to a private room with just one other bed. So whole of 23rd I was in the new hospital still ill, with saline, Chest X-ray, blood tests, ECG’s, other tests the works, re-done. Anyway I was told unfortunately I had three ailments at the same time, Sinus, Gastritis and Fissure, but other than that I was OK. I was discharged on Christmas eve, late morning, 24th December 2013, after giving my medication earlier that day. They had reduced the dosage of now yet again a new lot of medication, including anxiety medication. Stress is also something I’ve had for the last four years or so, among other minor illnesses, but been self soothing myself (I only took stress medicine once, back in February 2011, for exactly a month and stopped as I didn’t want to get addicted to them). Blogging has been a great distraction on stress. But 24th afternoon I was feeling sick, and couldn’t take the medicine and there was none for the afternoon anymore, it was reduced to twice a day. By evening I felt my heart literally stop a beat. I felt I was going to die once more. Went back to the emergency of the latter hospital. I was hyperventilating.
Anyway after the ECG and pressure tests, the Doctors told me nothing to worry, I just hadn’t had my medicine yet, that was the problem. Just not to panic when I’m out of breath. I am not having a stroke, even though that’s how it feels. My heart beat stopped for a second because I was hyperventilating. That night I started the the medication.
On the 27th of December I had a pleasant surprise. On the 4th December 2013, I had written a critique on Portraits de Maîtresses (2012), directed by a young new director called, Rocco Labbé. On 27th, Rocco Labbé himself had commented on by About page, thanking me for writing about his movie, my illness disappeared, even for few minutes, it felt wonderful. That evening I checked out his two interviews on You tube, about his two short films.
And on 30th December I had another appointment with the Doctor, just to see how I was doing, and I have one more towards the end of this month. Now I’m on medication for Gastritis and Anxiety, for a month. Still feel very lethargic and sleepy, mainly due to the medication, sometimes slightly out of  breath too, but definitely am on the road to recovery. So I shall be fine. And I shall get back to my blogging ASAP. Already I’ve been commenting on other blogs, but soon I shall start posting my own as well.

Thanks to all, for not giving up on my blog.
Cheers
Nuwan Sen

Happy New Year 2014

Wishing all my fellow bloggers, friends, family and everyone else on planet Earth a very…

Happy New Year

May Year 2014 be a great year for all of us, including me.
Regards
Nuwan Sen
Bookish Nuwan
Nuwan Sen’s Film Sense
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