90 & Going Strong

On March 3, 1923, two people named Briton Hadden and Henry Luce started a venture that would eventually become the world's largest weekly news magazine and an institution for years to come. Personally, I used to read it so that I could feel smart and not guilty about the weekly consumption of Knight Rider episodes. But that's another story. So as of yesterday, TIME magazine completes 90 years of its existence - no mean feat in today's world. And to celebrate, they've done a whole array of special features, including but not limited to a '90-Year History Of TIME in 120 seconds' and every Person Of The Year cover ever. It's like the history of most of the 20th century, done right.

Mondo Does The Oscars

The art of movie posters is a highly underrated one. Sadly, due to the overtly commercial nature of the work, they are mostly condemned to be slotted in the same category as ads for the latest brand of dual-flavoured chips. Until such time of course as they become 'retro' and, consequently, cool. But there are some people, like the good folks over at Texas-based Mondo who take this whole genre very seriously. Mondo posters are screen printed, limited editions and ready to be categorised as 'art'. This year, like last, they did a series on the Oscar nominees featuring designs by stalwarts like Olly Moss. If your idea of ideal home decor (like The Big Chill in Delhi) is a wall full of framed movie memorabilia, then this site is going to make a serious dent in your wallet. And don't forget to check out their archive for even more.

Oscar Nominees Like You've Never Seen Them

And since we are talking about the Oscars (again), here's a bit of memorabilia that most of these people would probably want forgotten forever. Mashable has compiled a list of a few of this year’s nominees (and now winners) as you've never seen them before. This includes Joaquin Phoenix as a blonde, teenage Superboy and Tommy Lee Jones in a Japanese commercial for Suntory's "Boss Coffee Rainbow: Mountain Blend" drink. Enjoy.

In Search Of The Perfect Pitch

If you type in the words 'Auto-Tune iPhone app' in Google, the number of results may surprise you. Or maybe not if, like me, you don't think that was Cher's real voice in the chorus of 'Believe'. Or that having a dollar sign in your name does not automatically mean you have a machine-generated squawk that is pitch-perfect and that's about it. Perhaps the most influential software in the music industry in the last 20 years, Auto-Tune has now become de rigueur for anybody who's won the latest mega-glorious-super-sexy-talent-search-hunt-extravaganza and expects the platinum records to just come rolling in. So much so that it has led to blue-ribbon protests at the Grammies and songs called 'D.O.A.(Death Of Auto-Tune)'. In this excellent piece for The Verge, Lessly Anderson explores this phenomenon and how it has managed to seduce the entire recording industry.

The Social Network

Online dating: the most pervasive and perhaps the scariest by-product of the social network revolution. And what makes it even scarier is stories like this one. Put up by Wired in 2007, this is the true story of 45-year old former marine Thomas Montgomery and his online relationship with a 17-year old named Jessica from West Virginia. The article documents the trajectory of the romance in detail but what really hits you is how it ends. Spoiler Alert: for those of you who've seen the 2010 documentary 'Catfish', this should be familiar territory. A great read and a scary insight into some of the repercussions of modern, ubiquitous technology.

Warning: some of the IM transcripts are fairly NSFW.

Slapped Awake

YouTube user Zachcurd asked his wife to slap him awake for 15 days in a row. This video is a documentation of that experience. It has no scientific value whatsoever and I have absolutely no reason to recommend this apart from the deep-rooted primal joy that human beings as a species seem to derive from watching other human beings in situations involving pain and discomfort. In other words: this shit is funny!

Architectural Oddities

And finally, a little bit of esoterica to round things up. From MessyNessyChic (now that's what you call a blog), here's a roundup of 12 Architectural Oddities that stand (some just barely) as a testament to human will, endeavour and the power of a good hallucinogen. This includes a house made of a 1,000 doors and a house that's pregnant. Good for a 5-minute coffee break.

And It Was All Pink

From cooking tips to finger tips, what used to be Palate culinary studio at Santacruz (W) is now a space dedicated to sprucing, buffing and painting your nails. Tips n Toes opened a couple of weeks ago with pink wallpaper, beaded curtains, floral chairs and Coldplay on the speakers. Can I see the polish in a Strawberry Swing shade please?

We visited yesterday with a pair of feet that needed serious help and a heart that looked sadly next door at the vacant shop that was once Attic.  With the hope that at least some parts of us would be saved, we took a seat at the tiny Tips n Toes and opted for a pre-work Express foot file and polish.

If you're expecting a plush nail space, then you would be better off at a Jean Claude Biguine type place. This one's cute and comes from Hong Kong returned Sonia Srivastava, who wanted to start a place that's dedicated to nails, and not mix it up with other beauty services.

Glass Slipper

The first thing we noticed at Tips n Toes was not the pretty chairs that could be birthday bouquets, but how nice the staff's feet looked. Mobile advertising? What was conspicuously absent though, was reading material to keep us entertained during the 30-odd minute treatment. Some magazines would be nice. Our pedicurist named Cinderella - seriously, that's her name - took good care of our feet, checking to see how we wanted our nails filed, handing us colour charts and recommending shades. After this, she worked quietly unlike many chatty pedicurists and for that we were thankful.

While the pedicures at Tips n Toes range from Rs 300 to Rs 750, you can also get a reflexology foot massage here that costs Rs 500 for thirty minutes.

After a quick final soak, our feet with scarlet nails and silver toe rings were finally ready to face the world in open-toe sandals.

Could summer be near?

Getting there: V396/20, Bir Sagar, ground floor, end of 17th Road, Santacruz (W), call 9833684022 or visit www.tipsntoes.in, for women only.

See our free monthly listings of super job openings in the city, from working at social media firms to landing gigs at design studios and brand consultancies.

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bpb is looking for Features Editors with 3 – 4 years editorial experience for its Mumbai offices. Job comes with the risk of getting fat from food reviews and broke from store scouting. Also required are summer interns. Email your resume to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Moe's Art is looking for a PR Executive who is a BMM Graduate/Post Graduate with 1-2 years of experience in PR. The candidate should have a flair for writing, good communication and networking skills.  Email your resume to-  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Elan Celebrity & Talent Management is looking for  talent managers for their modelling team. Candidates must have background knowledge of media. Email your resume  to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

OnCourse Global is an education consulting firm that is looking to hire 'mentors' to help students who are applying to study abroad. Applicants must have strong writing and communication skills, a keen interest in education and a basic understanding of study abroad opportunities. Individuals who have studied abroad are preferable.  Email your resume to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Conde Nast India is looking for a writer and curator for its website cntraveller.in with digital writing experience. Email resumes and writing samples to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . They're also looking for a Senior Account Manager- Ad Sales for Vogue India. Candidates must have a minimum of 2-4 years experience in advertising sales. Email your resume to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Jack in the Box World Wide is looking for a digital media planner, preferably with over 4 years of experience in this space.   Email your resume to  at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Smile Foundation is looking for an executive trainee in the resource development department. Send your resume to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Webly is looking for a young copywriter who is passionate about the web and can be responsible for writing and engaging content for Webly’s clients in the online marketing space. Send in your sample work  along with your CV to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Imagine if you had a Google exclusively for Hindi movies – we have. Such a service would have helped us one hot summer many years ago when we were trying to finish a paper on Indian cinema. There was a link between Kurosawa and the early Guru Dutt films, and we were desperate to establish it. Neville Tuli and his merry band must have heard our incessant mutterings as we searched for material, and here they are with an answer.

A Private Screaming

Neville Tuli and Osianama Learning Experience (OLE) are launching a an education project called The Osianama, which aims to be the world’s largest archive on Indian and Asian cinema. In the works for almost two decades (yikes!) Osianama hopes to provide free access to in-depth information on 'the last 300 years of India's art, culture and cinema'. The second part of the project—dates to be announced- will include a museum and almost 100 books on various themes and personalities of Indian cinema.

Back to School

The Osianama will launch this March, and from what we hear, this portal will not only be boss in terms of solid facts, there will be plenty of opportunity to formulate interesting cross linkages. The site will include more than 25,000 original print advertisements, song synopsis booklets and rare novel covers, as well as photography from the 1840s, masks, posters and lithographs plus daily updates. Sounds interesting. Too bad we can’t redo that paper however.

Getting There: Enter your email address here, to be notified when the site is public.

Mumbai’s art district’s newest claim to frame is Gallery 7, slated to open in March. A nocturnal sneak peek a split-level, two-storey space with huge windows, whitewashed walls, a pretty spiral staircase and exposed ducts snaking along the ceiling. The gallery promises to showcase contemporary art, but seemed to have curiously little wall space – stay tuned for the full review!

Getting there: 63 Oricon House, Rampart Row, Kala Ghoda, Fort.

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

Google Glass: It's Almost Here

Google Glass. Yes, I have been really excited about this "shape-of-things-to-come" technology for a while now. But the news that it will most probably be available for consumer use at the end of year is cartwheel-inducing. The fact that it'll retail for USD 1,500, not so much. But while some us are saving up (or figuring out what to sell, whatever works), any motivation required comes to us in the form of the newest demo video released by the good people over at Mountain View. Shot entirely using The Glass (I foresee a whole new lexicon of tech slang in the near future), this is pretty much as close as you'll get to trying it out in the real world. Unlike Joshua Topolsky over at The Verge, who did. And had a blast, an experience he's detailed in this piece.

Brain Damage & The Genius Within

Falling on your head and getting a concussion, being struck by lightning, being beaten by muggers, a stroke: not exactly a laundry list of 'things with positive effects on humanity'. However, in the case of people affected by Savant Syndrome, that's pretty much exactly what they are. This is a condition which causes people who are mentally impaired (usually due to extraneous circumstances like the ones listed above) to develop remarkable creative skills. This article by Adam Piore at PopSci lists several of these cases, which include a man who never played an instrument in his life and is now a virtuoso piano player. A fascinating look into what is probably the most poorly understood part of the human body: the brain.

Oscar Oddities

By the time you read this on Monday morning, the more enthusiastic among you will already know the results of the 85th Academy Awards. And kudos to you. Somehow, waking up at 6AM to stare bleary-eyed at a TV doesn't quite hold the same charm it used to a few short years ago. But, in honour of the only award show that the entire world has been tuning in to for many years now, here's a piece put up by TIME listing out the more unusual Oscar records over the years. Like this one: the longest movie to win an Oscar is the original Russian version of 'War & Peace' with a run time of 431 minutes. And the number of people who've sat through the entire thing is probably around the same number too.

PS: For the hardcore fans, or just the nostalgically inclined, here's a little something more: a retrospective of the Best Picture winners compiled by filmmaker Nelson Carvajal.

The Top 10 Brazen Heists

And since TIME does such a great job in compiling lists (they even have an app for it), here's another one. Everybody loves a good con, but the best ones are always the spectacular ones, the ones that involve grand tales of derring-do (I've always wanted to use that word in a sentence). And since spectacular diamond heists seem to still be in vogue, TIME has compiled a list of the ten best stories that fit that criteria. From the infamous Mona Lisa robbery of 1911 (which involved the extremely complicated method of ripping it from the wall and stuffing it under a shirt) to a Swedish cash depot raid involving helicopters and bombs, this list is proof that Ocean’s 23 may not be that far-fetched a possibility after all.

The Best Bus-Stop Ever

A well-thought-out and well-executed ad is always a pleasure to see. Especially if it involves real-life situations. One of my favourite ads in the recent past has been TNT's 'Push To Add Drama' series. But this recent effort by Qualcomm isn't too shabby either. It involves a bus-stop, a hoarding and a url. And dog-sleds. Enjoy.

The Man Who Shot Bin Laden

Osama is dead and Zero Dark Thirty has already made over a $100 million at the box office. But the person who actually pulled the trigger is now retired with arthritis, tendonitis, eye damage, a broken marriage and no pension. And his story of the entire operation leading up to what is probably one of the definitive moments of the decade (if not more) is the subject of this extensive piece put up by the Centre For Investigative Reporting. Phil Bronstein did a series of interviews with 'The Shooter' (as he is referred to) and this is a brilliant look at the workings of an elite force that was tasked with the most monumental missions in recent history. And if you're one of the whiny "I can't be bothered to read anything that's over a 1000 words" types, there's a helpful animated video on the page as well that will only take up 18 minutes of your time. Captivating stuff.

Indian School Posters

And I leave you with a little trip down memory lane, at least for those of you who've studied in the Indian school system. A kind soul on Reddit helpfully scanned and posted a collection (http://imgur.com/a/v95aq) of Indian school posters from back in the day when you apparently needed to be told how an Ideal Boy "brushes up his teeth" and "joins N.C.C." and "playing with tools" was a bad habit. Mostly published by Indian Book Depot, this fairly politically incorrect collection is a reminder of simpler times. And probably now falls under the category of "retro chic". My personal favourite: the 4-panelled 'Moral Stories'.

What: CrossFitOM goes to Colaba, Delmonte Fashions, plot no 10, 2^nd Pasta Lane, opposite Colaba market, call Dheepesh Bhatt on 9820028098, Rs 7,500 per month. 

Why: After training pretty much every film celebrity this side of the Sea Link, Mumbai's CrossFit guru Dheepesh Bhatt now brings his fab abs to South Bombay. Along

with three trainers, he's set up aThe routines are gruelling but effective - we've seen our friends shrink and get super fit - so put that macaron down and go sign up. PS: We know of another Bandra yummy coming to South Bombay soon. We'll keep you posted!

When: Hamstring quartet from Monday to Friday, five batches of one hour each (choose your batch time: 7 am, 8 am, 6 pm, 7 pm, 8 pm).

In this weekly column, filmmaker Danish Aslam will be your purveyor of the finest quality random facts, useless trivia and other esoterica from the world wide web. He lives mostly behind a keyboard and may or may not be a wizened old green man who speaks in grammatically incorrect aphorisms. You can find more on his home page http://pictually.me/dontpanic

Best Of Web

No, that's not a typo. That's the name of the series of viral videos that Luc Bergeron aka Zapatou has compiled. For the fourth time now. This latest installment is, like the others before it, a mashup of the best videos over the last few months. Most of this edition focuses on extreme sports in some form (although there's a little bit of everything) and, sadly, not all are real. But after the 4th helmet-cam shot of a person jumping off a building, you're too riveted to care. 10 minutes of your life that you will not regret.

A Brief History Of Male Actors Who Got Scary Skinny For A Movie Role

Daniel Day-Lewis isn't the only method actor who can undergo terrible physical transformations for a role. He may be the person who's done some batshit crazy stuff the most number of times, but at least as far as weight loss goes, there have been some memorable (and scary) attempts at method acting by a whole host of men. BuzzFeed has a compiled a fascinating list of male actors who got thin for a role that shows you the lengths that some people can go to get into the skin (pun…well, intended) of a role. My personal favourite: Christian Bale in The Machinist. That is some scary shit.

You Had One Job!

How many times have you felt like yelling at someone's cockup with the words: "You had one job!" Now you can share your pain with the world thanks to a website, http://hadonejob.com that showcases some of the best examples (excellent ironic usage) of ridiculous mistakes made by people. Warning: excessive viewing of this site may cause an epidemic of facepalms. Great to make yourself feel superior to the majority of the human race though.

10 More Bets You Can't Lose

There seems to be a surfeit of videos that need to be shared today, so I'm just going to club them all together. You might want to clear your schedule for the next few minutes. First up, Richard Wiseman is back with yet another compilation of party tricks that will make you popular, amp up your sex appeal etc. etc. You remember the last one, right? This is more of the same, and this time there are some that make me wish I could also see the reactions of the people that they're being done to.

Grand Theft Auto In Real Life

For all you Grand Theft Auto fans awaiting #5 anxiously, here's something that should help tide you over. This short film directed by Gevorg Karensky uses live action and CG to create a GTA-like experience that pretty much fulfills all the "I-wish-I-would-do-this-in-real-life" thoughts you might have had while playing the game. That, and it's a pretty cool story.

What: bpb & the Coup Card’s Show and Tell booth with free picnic treats at the Farmer’s Market, Nakshatra Van at Maharashtra Nature Park, Dharavi, two minutes from BKC, for more information call 7738934888 or visit http://farmersmarket.co.in.

Why: Apparently, the Nakshatra Van is “Mumbai’s Hyde Park” (according to Farmer’s Market founder Kavita Mukhi), so why haven’t we been yet? Remedying that this Sunday, the Scouters and the Coup Card team will be at the Sunday Farmer’s Market with a show-and-tell booth. Show us something fun – get your guitar along and play us a song, recommend a book you’re reading this weekend, whisper a secret in our ears, bring your bum because it’s cute - and we’ll give you free picnic treats in exchange!  Bring friends and picnic blankets.

When: Season’s greeting on Sunday, February 17 from 10 am to 3 pm.

Imagine this: Some of India's top artists wearing silly pajamas at a 5 day art slumber party, sliding down the staircase banister of a super luxe beach house in Marve. On the last day - February 15 - you get to easel your way in!

Contest: bpb brings you + 1 an all access pass to the prestigious and private RPG Annual Art Camp hosted by Harsh Goenka and Vickram Sethi (Arts Trust) at the fancy CEAT House at Marve. Follow us on Twitter @bpbmumbai at  11.30 am today, February 13, to know more!  And spray for the best!

This One Time At Art Camp

In existence for 15 years, the RPG Annual Art Camp started on February 10 this year and will go on until February 15. The guest list of participating artists includes Anjolie Ela Menon, Paresh Maity, Vijender Sharma, Avishek Sen, Mithu Sen, Samit Das, G. R. Iranna, T. M. Azis, Rajan Krishnan, Manoj Vyloor, Shijo Jacob, Prajjwal Chowdhury, Lavanya Mani, Sathyanand Mohan, Jagannath Mohapatra, Pransanta Sahu, Chandra Bhattacharjee, Pradeep Mishra, Milburn Cherian, Nandita Chaudhuri, Suryakant Lokhande. At this marathon art slumber party, the artists live and dine together, paint, indulge in creative discussions and critique each others’ works. Okay, so maybe they don't really wear silly pajamas, but we’ll never know. You might if you win the bpb contest.

And at the end of this Camp, the art works created by the beach are auctioned off in the city where bidding starts at about 50 lakhs. We’re going once. We’re gone.

Winner Takes All

Here’s what’s on the bpb contest winner’s agenda: You plus a friend will be driven to and back from this pretty Marve art pad on February 15, where you will spend the entire day with the artists. Watch them put their finishing strokes on their masterpieces, discuss art with them even if you end up sounding like a fool and share their lunch - the Last Supper at the Art Camp.

Maybe you can even take one of your own paintings for a critique - come on, be brave- and be smooth enough to get a crash course from multiple artists, with the beach as your backdrop. You may or may not carry your cartoon print PJs.

Getting there:For a shot at winning the contest, follow us on Twitter @bpbmumbai today, February 13 and RT our contest tweet. To crash the party without the bpb access pass, learn to scale walls and make friends with fierce guard dogs.