TV Review: “Outsourced”

Todd vs. Nature

In Thursday night’s episode “Temporary Monsanity” Todd (Ben Rappaport) bites off more than he can chew as he tries to attain the unreachable in a man vs. nature scenario.

After a video chat with his parents back at home in Kansas City. He find out from his braggart brother that he has won “top salesman of the month“ and is giving them his prize for their 30th wedding anniversary –  a luxurious trip to Colorado. In a knee-jerk reaction trying to impress his parents he fibs about beating the sales mark at his job and unselfishly gives them his prize – a trip to Hawaii.

The running joke for the show continually has Todd continuing to put his foot in his mouth and feed on it for a bit.  The jokes fly as the show rides on the laurels of cultural ignorance and showcases the differences between the culturally-starved manager and the Indians that make up the staff of the office. This meaty subject gives the writers fodder to create a sharp and witty banter of one liners that stab at the norm of each culture.

Todd finds himself having to rally the staff to get them behind him, but first has to explain what Black Friday and Thanksgiving is all about in his own terms:

“They are an odd couple these Pilgrims and Indians. So if the Indians give the Pilgrims shelter, what did the Pilgrims give the Indians?” Asha asks.

“Less land to worry about? Actually they prefer to be called Native-Americans.” Todd says.

Gupta asks, “Why?”

Smartly Todd replies, “They find to term Indian derogatory.”

Cut to intro credits.

Pilgrim vs. Indian
The interoffice competitiveness of Todd and his Assistant Manager Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) brings a familiar storyline to viewers, but what makes the show unique is how it is riddled with the social mores of each characters culture.

While Rajiv is vying for his position and doing his best to out-do him as the leader of the office, he is also meeting the requirements of his culture. The show gets into the ways of the Indian culture by showing how holding a higher position paves way to better odds in landing a position as husband in an arranged marriage and also the acceptance of his in-laws.

After going into Todd’s trash and finding the sales incentive email that rewards the Assistant Sales Managers with a HDTV for beating the highest mark, Rajiv takes the opportunity to continue his rise to the top as he continues to throw elbows.

He gives his workers a sense of false hope by using his power to get the workers to break the record by offering them fools gold; free health insurance for the person who breaks the record, including coverage for their entire family. This lights a fire under the turkey’s working on Black Friday.

“They don’t even get that in the U.S.!”, Gupta exclaims.

Loss of Power
After a monsoon cuts all power to his office, he comes clean to his staff. He can’t go on with the shenanigans of having to put his staff to work through the night, trying to catch the unreachable carrot being dangled in front of them. But, the staff fully understands his dilemma – the pressures of parent approval and their culture are relateable.

Trying to cheer Todd up, Manmeet (Sacha Dahwan) tells a story of how his parents have high expectations of him too. He explains how he got stuck at work and misses his brothers graduation and how his parents’ acceptance is like day and night. “It seems unfair to push me to work hard and blame me when I do. Sometimes parents are wrong.”

As the deadline nears and Todd fails to meet the sales goals, he gives into defeat. But the staff steps up for him and offer to buy up novelty items to surpass the golden number. He thanks them for helping, but he must face the music and come clean to his parents.

The show continues to show promise by feeding off the diverse relationship between Todd and his likable staff in it’s ninth episode. The lovable characters of “Outsourced” still need more developing but names such as Gupta (Parvesh Cheena), Manmeet (Sacha Dahwan), Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) and Asha (Rebecca Hazelwood) may possibly become household names soon enough.

Rev 1 Music Review: Crowded House "Intriguer" (Concorde Music Group, 2010)

Contemporary Pop Rockers Crowded House latest release “Intriguer” (Concorde Music Group, 2010) picks up where their 2007 release of “Time On Earth” left off with a similar approach featuring introspective lyrics and fine-tuned songs.

Neil Finn is one of those musicians who always seems to be working with others and opening up the doors to allow the music to keep flowing in his Roundhead studios in his hometown of Auckland, New Zealand. Over the years, Finn has been known to collaborate with an long list of list of notable musicians, surrounding himself with many of the artists he enjoys and gels with with the likes of members from Wilco, Radiohead, Eddie Vedder and Johnny Marr from the Smiths fame.  The choice of adding Mike Hart on backup keys, vocals and guitar and Matt Sherrod on drums has given the group a solid foundation to create the quality of sound that Finn has been crafting in recent years as a solo artist.

Always the lyricist and creative instigator, Finn matches the mood of his songs with his talented bandmates by creating rich and layered songs through his songwriting and melody making. The band’s musicianship elegantly shines with the skills of producer Jim Scott who has worked with the likes of Radiohead, Wilco and the Red Hot Chili Peppers by adding depth and clarity to the backing vocals and sound effects that will pique the interest of new listeners and audiophiles alike.  

Additional material on the Deluxe copy of the album includes a DVD of videos recorded in Finn’s home and some show material at Auckland Town Hall in Finn’s homeland of New Zealand. Fans of the Crowded House will be happy to see a live version of one of the oldie but goodies, “Don’t Dream (It’s Over)” and Neil donning a debonair new stash.

Finn gets everyone around him involved, adding the usual suspects of special guests to the mix including his son Liam and his wife Sharon, who add guitar and background vocals respectively on “Isolation,” a song with warm and echoing voices surrounded by fluttering organ keys which ends by bursting into a high pitched chaos.

“Amsterdam” saunters through the streets, taking the listener on a slow and plodding jaunt with Sherrod's slack beat and leaving the listener with a bad taste in their mouth and a sense of paranoia with lyrics: “And the rain came hard / A million people on a protest march / Every choice, every path was mistaken.”

The slow pace of the song puts a damper on the mood, setting the stage in a torrential downpour of emotion, shaking things up with a certain sense of uncertainty with fluttering organ keys by Hart. Finn paints the setting as a place where no one can be trusted, even the storyteller on the song; “Every temptation, and device / All the diamonds and the spice / I would give anything for the sight of an honest man.”  

The revelatory song “Twice If You’re Lucky” starts off with beautiful keyboard melodies and showcases Hart and Finn's harmonies.  Songs such as “Archer’s Arrow” may even be relying on past success, with fluttering keys may even resemble the ivorys that make up the song “Private Universe,” a song from the group's fourth studio album “Together Alone.”

Although “Intriguer” flows with beautiful music and lyrics, the moodiness of the songs can seem unrelenting. Crowded House may not get much radio play, but the band's craftsmanship may be what is the most intriguing part of this latest release.

Movie Review: “Almost Famous

Producer Cameron Crowe (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” “Singles,” Jerry McGuire”) sets the stage with a barrage of great performances by his cast in “Almost Famous” (2000) giving us another piece of rock ‘n roll memorabilia with this coming of age story. The film follows William Miller (Patrick Fugit) in his infancy as a music journalist who gets a chance of a lifetime getting a gig with Rolling Stone Magazine, following the band Stillwater as they travel the on the road to stardom and losing his dreams and innocence along the way.

The movie is based on similar experiences of Crowe’s early career as a music journalist, teaming up with the likes of Ben Fong-Torres, the editor of Rolling Stone and chumming it up with the seasoned pro Lester Bangs after a meeting that took place in his home town in San Diego. Bangs was the antithesis of what Rolling Stone offered in their rag. He was most famous for his scathing and abrasive style of music criticism through his rants in Creem Magazine and other rags of the day –  always telling how he saw it with no holds barred.

Crowe showcases the relationship William has with Bangs and his hard facts about the music biz amidst his struggles with the assignment. Although the depiction is not as Gonzo-ish as one would expect, he plays Bangs as a mentor to the budding writer, protecting him from the ugly truth of how things actually work out there in the real world and reflecting what may have been Crowe’s had experienced back in the day.  Strong performances by Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Philip Seymour-Hoffman and Billy Crudup seem to parallel the help that newbie Patrick Fugit may have needed in this role as a lead actor in this film. While some scenes that had to focus on such a character, a few overzealous ticks in his dialogue revealed his own experience as an actor. But then again, Kate Hudson’s navel always seemed to distract from little things of this nature.

Crowe’s skill in direction and incorporating the detail of sound and the novelty of the era really sets the mood for the film. His penchant for picking out a solid soundtrack is well-known. He fills the gaps between with sounds from Elton John, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart, Simon and Garfunkel, Yes, and Led Zepplin to name the most notable. Additionally, he pulls off making the music of the fictitious band Stillwater seem real with the help of legendary rockers Peter Frampton and his ex-wife Ann Wilson of Heart fame. His attention to detail by adding props, the garb of the musicians of the era, and the slouch and slang of the days sets the viewer back in the saddle of the days of when sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll were a responsibility to a generation. Crowe takes it upon himself to make these situations feel like that reality for the characters in his film.

In the scene where William experiences his first concert, the viewer takes on William’s perspective as he follows the band from back stage to within the dimly-lit, smoke-filled arena. He is guided by the band’s lead guitarist Russell Hammond – as if he is being guided into another state of consciousness. The muffling sound from the awaiting crowd comes to the forefront as they hit the stage. The silhouettes that reveal the equipment of half-stacks and stage lighting flash across and into his eyes blinding him. He has made the big time. His bearings are found and his biggest dreams are fulfilled.

Soon he is jumping on the bandwagon and living the life of a rock star; eyes and ears open wide free from the realities of his overbearing mother, or the responsibility held as a journalist. He is suddenly thrown into the world of love, lies and managing his own life. The voice of reason can be found by many of his adversaries throughout the film, but it turns out that they all have their secrets to hide and the important lesson that he learns is to be true to himself and tell it how it is.  

Turns out in the end, it was a good thing he listened to Lester.