There’s something completely disarming about The Polyphonic Spree. Best known for “Light and Day” from Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the one part Beatles, one part Beach Boys, one part non-sectarian choir, one part refugees from a Hair hippy band kicked butt on Craig Kilborne tonight. Try out their Sgt. Pepper-ish flash game.
At the Asian American International Film Fest, “Bicycles & Radios” wins the shorts jury award. “Kal Ho Naa Ho (Tomorrow May Never Come)” and “Travellers and Magicians” tie for the audience award. I didn’t get a chance to see Travellers and Magicians, but the other two films were fantastic. Tomorrow May Never Come in India is like the Indian Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — in its home turf very popular but not considered to be the best example of Bollywood, but goes gangbusters overseas. Here, it is critically acclaimed, even though it perpetuates some Indian stereotypes of Chinese, Catholics and homosexuals. However, even with those factors and some bizarre warping of city geography (the main character managed to run from St. Luke’s Hospital to Queens to NYU Midtown to the Brooklyn Ferry!) it was absolutely faithful in its love affair with New York City. The idea of breaking out into a Bollywood dance number on the (real) Brooklyn Bridge, on top of the ruins of the Brooklyn Stores in the Empire State Park, or in a Queens neighborhood actually works. It takes the Broadway Musical Motion Picture into the 21st Century. Rent it from Netflix.
I’m off to Rhode Island tonight for another conference Wednesday night. Honestly, I’d rather not go on this trip — it’s going to be raining all the way there, and I have to drive on I-95 at night, and I’m not holding too much expectation in the published sessions. At least P– is going along with me.
Polyphonic Spree is definitely… strange. 😉 One of the magazines (Entertainment Weekly? Time? I forget now) did a profile on the group, and the photo of them and the story – they seemed like a freaky cult (the harmless kind anyway).