Things I Like

Right now I am reading The Maias. Its a door stopper of a book and I want to bunk a day's work and curl up and devour it all in one gulp. Sadly I snatch reading time here and there to take it in. Thus far it is a classy soap that loves exclamation marks but that is just the plot, there is so much going on and Eca de Q is having so much fun and at the same time it is a sprawling, leisurely commentary on 19th century Portugal and I am entirely captivated and can't wait to finish it and restart all over again. Also I think I really really need to visit Portugal because whatever little I have seen and read (Mysteries of Lisbon, you are perfect) has been so absorbing and interesting that you have to remind yourself that these people are writing about themselves as the backwater of Europe.

I spend way too much time on tumblr, its like a rabbit hole you fall into and then you reappear and you want to write #IDK #holy fuck #excuse his beauty #obsessive replaying #cuz why not - because those are the tags you see along with other even more incoherent fangirling tags and then you realise that unlike most of tumblr which is VERY YOUNG you are on the wrong side of 40 and well perhaps a lyricist like Johnny Flynn doesn't quite deserve that and on that note here is his song, I am Light.  Only Nick Drake is rotated more often in Chez Anu. Pic Source here. And IDK is I don't know:)

And lastly, three cheers for Caravan which gets top marks not for being a great mag but for actually posting my favourite short story, Ras, in a new translation.  Even Indian cinema couldn't ruin it, not that it didn't try (to be fair it wasn't bad).

Tumblring

Blogging after awhile.

Partly because of tumblr where I have been blogging a fair bit. It started because tumblr is an easy platform to catalogue interests and allows a bit more text than the purely visual pinterest.  On the other hand you can't have a lot of text like blogger - its a sign of the times that blogger now seems text heavy! Though my blog started as a catalogue of blouses in various decades, the material I found turned out to be an interesting insight into the early decades of the 20th century in India and its proving enjoyable thus far.

And then there's tumblr itself.  It's ruled by young people (the average age on the site is 24, most American) and gifs, as a result it is filled with youthful angst, silly things and the kind of trite sayings that are lent profundity only because it comes from young people experiencing life.  Consequently, its a place where a simple thing may get reblogged many times over while interesting pieces get little love. Nevertheless there are a lot of niche sites that cover everything from literature to science to art and its a bit like rummaging through an attic unsure of what one may find. Naturally in the context of my own blog I visit a lot of vintage fashion and history blogs and most are beautifully curated and informative.

On the whole tumblr is divided between fandom (of these the Sherlockians specifically Cumberbitches, Hiddlestoners and Whovians seem to be prolific and witty) and creatives-there are a good deal of illustrations and the like on the site, perhaps obvious given tumblr is such a visual platform. More well established folk like the New Yorker, Atlantic, Paris Review et al also post often and in some ways its easier to follow than visiting individual sites. Searching is easy because you can follow tags in a way that is hard with blogger and overwhelming with twitter.

Its a little hard to use facebook after tumblr, partly because tumblr has a more laid back vibe and there aren't the constant changes and privacy concerns of facebook. Except of course that tumblr is more a community of strangers than your friends or family. And tumblr is its own sealed world - almost no one I know uses it.

How long it will last I cannot say.  There is only so much cataloguing or curating one can do. Maybe next stop vimeo.....except I don't make movies:-)

PS: Of course the Tam in me has noticed that there is a davara-tumbler.tumblr.com :-) And the most popular Indian movie blog around seems to be dhrupad - interesting to see a lot of old movies finding new life on the Net but expect a lot of gifs.