Hi there,
Welcome to the 2019 January issue of ‘The Notebook’.
This is a list of books, movies, blog posts,
interviews, video clips and other stuff
I found interesting and feel worth sharing.
I hope you’ll like some of the stuff I am sharing.
If you have any feedback, please drop me a line…
Here it goes…
A Book Worth Sharing:
“Travails with the Alien: The Film That Was Never Made and Other Adventures with Science Fiction” by Satyajit Ray (Edited by Sandip Ray)
I knew that Satyajit Ray wanted to make a science fiction film at one point in time. But I never knew that he wanted to call it “Avatar”.
Take a look at the photo below. It’s the cover page of the draft treatment. He had three names in mind… ‘Avatar”(written in Bengali), ‘Martian Tales”(written in Bengali) and “The Alien”.
This is a meticulously researched book on how and why this movie never got made.
“But there’s more to this book—a collection of essays, letters, drawings, articles, short stories and interviews—than the “Alien-E.T.” controversy. Chiefly, it showcases Ray’s boundless passion for science and science fiction.” – How E.T. came home: Satyajit Ray’s science fiction
There’s also the script of the film. And I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Grab this book if you want to know the mind of a genius and his creative process.
A Movie Worth Sharing:
Moe No Suzaku (1997) by Naomi Kawase
One of the most beautiful and haunting Japanese films I have ever seen. “Suzaku” was Naomi Kawase’s debut feature and it won Camera d’Or ( best new film) at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.
(On October 23, 2018, it was announced that Kawase had been selected by the IOC to shoot the official film for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.)
An Idea Worth Sharing:
“If you go to Tokyo, you’ll see there are all sorts of really, really strange shops. There’ll be a shop that, only 1970’s vinyl and like, 1980’s whisky or something. And that doesn’t make any sense if it’s a shop in a Des Moines suburb. In a Des Moines suburb, to exist, you have to be Subway, you have to hit the mass-market Immediately.
But in Tokyo, where there’s 30-40 million people within a train ride of a city, then your market is 40 million. And within that 40 million, sure, there, a couple thousand people who love 1970’s music and 1980’s whisky. The Internet is Tokyo. The Internet allows you to be niche at scale.
Niche at scale is something that I think young people should aspire to.” – Derek Thompson (via David Perell)
Read the complete article here…
A Quote Worth Sharing:
“Everybody enjoys what feels good. Everyone wants to live a carefree, happy, and easy life, to fall in love and have amazing sex and relationships, to look perfect and make money and be popular and well-respected and admired and a total baller to the point that people part like the Red Sea when they walk into the room. Everybody wants that. It’s easy to want that. A more interesting question, a question that most people never consider, is, “What pain do you want in your life? What are you willing to struggle for?” Because that seems to be a greater determinant of how our lives turn out.” ― Mark Manson
Random Stuff:
“Avatar Director James Cameron’s Daily Routine for Endurance and Stamina”
Here is a typical day of James Cameron’s regime:
— 05:00 — pre-workout — green smoothie (spinach, apple, orange, banana — heavy on the spinach, and you can see the recipe below)
— 06:00 — 1 hour workout — usually kickboxing, yoga or light weight training with high intensity intervals
— 07:30 — breakfast — sometimes tofu “scrambled eggs” or a quesadilla made with plant-cheese, sometimes red beans and rice — always a protein shake made with fruit, nut butter, pea protein — use this to wash down supplements (hemp oil capsules, MSM for supple joints, vitamin D) — B12 is a sublingual tablet — and a cup of Oolong tea
— 11:00 — mid morning snack of fresh fruit (grapes, watermelon, berries) on set
— 13:30 — lunch — bowl of soup plus any one of the scores of great lunch dishes prepared by Brad and Sandy, our vegan chefs at the studio — mexican fiesta, Indian, thai, Italian (pasta, pizza, lasagna), burgers (Beyond or Hungry Planet) — these are comfort food dishes with a conscience
— 16:30 — mid afternoon — a green salad, on set
— 20:00 — dinner — a very light meal, sometimes a plant-based burger, sometimes just some humus and pita and a handful of olives, sometimes an avocado chopped up with salsa — plus always a glass of wine for stress reduction
He is currently in production on Avatar 2, 3, 4 and 5.
Read the complete blog post here…
Thanks for reading.
Happy New Year,
Krishnendu
krishnendu sarkar 