Spent the day reading 23 documents on Indo-EU pact and European Foreign Policy ! phew !
I am sweating Clean Development Mechanism and WTO legislations at the moment !
As far as the movie count goes , I chewed upon some cool movies too ... Dan in Real Life , A Few Good Men, 21, Young People *Bleep*ing, Stranger Than Fiction , Good Luck Chuck, American Gangster etc ...
The dialogues in the last movie reminded me of the play I acted in, for the Black History Month , at the American Information Resource Centre. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, it was surely one of the best plays I did ( Perhaps, second to the adaptation of the French Absurdist play Amédée which we did for the University Arts Festival ).
I played the part of Levee , naturally the coolest character with the funniest & punchiest of lines ;)
Here's the plot summary from wikipedia....
In a Chicago based recording studio, Ma Rainey's band players, Cutler (trombone), Toledo (piano), Slow Drag (double-bass) and Levee (trumpet) turn up to record a new album of her songs. As they wait for her to arrive they banter, tell stories, joke, philosophise and argue. As the play unfolds it becomes clear that the tension is between the young hot-headed trumpeter Levee who has dreams of having his own band and veteran players Cutler and Toledo.
By the time Ma Rainey does turn up in full regalia and entourage in tow the recording schedule is badly behind, throwing the white producers Sturdyvant and Irvin into more and more irate disarray. Ma's insistence that her stuttering nephew Sylvester should do the voice intro to the title song causes more havoc. As the band waits for various technical problems to be resolved the conflict between Levee and Cutler reaches boiling point and violence ensues. Finally, when Levee is simultaneously fired from the band by Ma for his insubordination and then rejected by Sturdyvant who had offered to record his songs his anger becomes too much and he stabs Toledo, killing him, thus destroying any possibility of a future for himself.
Some of Levee's lines from the play....
"I might be a different kind of fool, but I ain't gonna be the same fool twice."
" Ain't nothing gonna happen to Levee. Levee ain't gonna let nothing happen to him. Now, I'm gonna say it again. I asked the gal her name. That's all I done. And if that's being a fool, then you looking at the biggest fool in the world...'cause I sure as hell asked her."
" I don't need nobody to tell me nothing"
" Life ain't shit. You can put it in a papery bag and carry it around with you. it ain't got no balls. Now, death ... death got some style! Death will kick your ass and make you wish you never been born! Thats how bad death is ! But you can rule over life. Life ain't nothing."
"Nigger talking about life is fair. And ain't got a pot to piss in"
Niggers got a right to be dissatisfied. Is you gonna be satisfied with a bone somebody done throwed you when you see them eating the whole hog?"
"I'm Levee. Just me. I ain't no imitation nothing !
"Levee got to be Levee! And he don't need nobody messing with him about the while man - cause you don't know nothig about me. You don't know Levee. You don't know nothing about what kind of blood I got ! What kind of heart I got beating here . I was eight years old when I watched a gang of while mens come to my daddy's house and have to do with my mama any way they wanted."
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