everyone's a winner, we're making our fame

First of all, one of my straight, male classmates proclaimed before class that he loves some new Taylor Swift song, and played it three times proudly before lecture started. Yes, I am sure I am doing much to strike fear into you all regarding the future of medicine.

Secondly, due to some (though not all) resurrection of my internet service, song of the week is back. Of course, for my first song of the week of the new year, I choose a song that is way past its expiration date. However, I wasted several hours of my life yesterday watching the Golden Globes, and I decided that it was only fitting to post this song in celebration of the several wins Slumdog Millionaire scored. Sure, it's a thin movie, not heavy on substance, and has its issues, but the same could be said about Juno and Little Miss Sunshine in previous years, and it's the Golden Globes- it's supposed to be light in substance.

Still, the one thing that, to me, was far beyond reproach in the movie was the soundtrack. And, as I previously mentioned, while Paper Planes was ubiquitously lifted left and right last year for various purposes, a lot of the song seemed to mesh well with the movie. If I'm not mistaken, both the original version and this DFA remix were featured in the film, and both worked, at least for me.

Now, I know the DFA remix takes an element of punk out of the original version. I figure most people already have their hands on the original version. I enjoy listening to that version too. The original is just the kind of f*** you that it seems only M.I.A can pull off these days. Perhaps other people are aware of music this lyrically incisive, and if so, please do share. But she's a tricky one, Maya, interlacing a catchy beat that lulls you into thinking you're listening to a slow jam, and then, hello, gunshots ring out. Even more subversive, a cash register rings out with it. There's nothing to write about it that hasn't already been written, to tell the truth.

The DFA remix robs the song of all of the sneaky slaps in the face. What it gets in return is a pace that's frenetic. I'll admit, one of the reasons I like this version so much is that it is the top of my playlist when I am on the treadmill. No matter how lazy I am feeling, regardless of how much the idea of moving my feet seems distasteful, this song comes on and it's autopilot time. I think that's why the remix worked in Slumdog. It's been a long time since I have visited Mumbai, but the thing that cities like Mumbai and New York and probably London (I've never been there so I'm speculating) have is this pulse, this drive. It's what I have always loved about visiting such cities. It's pure insanity sometimes, but there is such a beat, such force propelling you forward in such. You have no worries of stasis in such places. These are not the suburbs. There is a current, and it doesn't take much to get swept up into it.

So, there you have it. In other news, there is a very entertaining (to me) discussion about Slumdog, Anil Kapoor, and SRK going on at Ultrabrown. Reading my own comments on it, it's hard for me to believe that I once offered up Anil Kapoor to my mother as an example of why so many Indian women do not end up with Indian men. I said to my mom, "According to these movies, if you look like Madhuri Dixit, you're lucky if you end up with Anil Kapoor." She half-heartedly tried to argue with me for all of 15 seconds.