#peter singh

The Rocking Sikh, Peter Singh from my hometown of Swansea, he passed away today age 74, he was a true original artist ...                                               ‘ I don’t smoke dope I don’t drink bourbon, all i wanna do is shake my turban ‘ 

(Armando Iannucci, 2020)

Adapting novels for the screen is always hard. Harder still when the novel you're adapting is long, and as sprawling and detailed as the original Chuck D's David Copperfield, and surely borderline impossible if you're going to try and fit the whole thing into a little over an hour and a half.

As his follow up to The Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci attempts the trick even New Jersey’s David Copperfield may have balked at. To me the one flaw in Iannucci's grand design, the one aspect of the adaptation he can't entirely work around, and thus the one distinct and sort of undeniable flaw of his movie is that in being based on a book concerned with a group of individuals in trying circumstances leading complicated lives, he simply doesn't have the screen time in which to really flesh the shades of these individuals out to make this the work of complexity it probably should be, and most disappointingly of all fails to really, truly get under the skin of the question that the story opens on, of whether David Copperfield is the hero of his own story.

Still, even if Iannucci's movie fails to get all of the detail of Dickens work down (it's unlikely any movie could) it succeeds on its own terms as being a damn fine movie anyway. It's sort of hard to believe it is only its directors third feature, so startling is the leap forward in creativity from the already terrific Death of Stalin. The aforementioned criticism of the movies lack of properly fleshed out characters (and it really is basically my only criticism of the film) is offset to a degree by the genuinely flawless ensemble assembled who from top to bottom do a bang up job in bringing these characters to life and finding in whatever few scenes that they get a way to bring a taste of just what they are all about. 

It's cinema's shorthand, the way you get around the fact that you can't go on for a dozen pages describing the inner workings of a characters mind. If you find yourself an actor capable of realizing some of that detail in a glance, or the way they deliver a line, then you are already on your way to understanding the economic power of the medium, and Iannucci, always a tremendous director of actors, has found a whole host of them. Chief among the getting a lot out of a little brigade must be Rosalind Eleazar, Gwendoline Christie, Darren Boyd, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Aneurin Barnard, Anna Maxwell Martin. 

The likes of Victor McGuire, Peter Singh, the great Peter Capaldi and Paul Whitehouse, Lynn Hunter, Bronagh Gallagher, Daisy May Cooper and the marvelous Benedict Wong all vividly etch themselves into the memory, some in a single scene, others across many, but each with that inimitable Dickensian rogues gallery, salt of the earth flavour. Morfydd Clark is wonderfully distinct in her cleverly cast dual role, and finds pathos in the midst of the broad comic purpose she serves in the movies second half. Jairaj Varsani impresses with his maturity as a young David, and most importantly matches the same sort of energy as Dev Patel at the centre of it all. For anyone impressed beyond belief at his Oscar nominated work in Lion (I wasn't) this is something on a whole other level. Not only does he manage the trick of making the sometimes wayward, abrasive titular character likeable enough to want to share in his experience, but greater still is his physicality, watching him move on screen is a delight in itself in all his gangly wonder, the stars of the silent era (to which the movie briefly pays tribute) would be proud. 

Perhaps greatest of all are the holy triumvirate of Tilda Swinton, Hugh Laurie, and Ben Whishaw. In Whishaw's Uriah Heep the great tragedy of the movies shortcomings is most embodied, a character who could easily deserve his own story, is here left to Whishaw to elevate beyond the villainous, and he is triumphant, equally vivid in his gnarled physicality, he is the dark to Patel's light, and the two of them are magic together. Speaking of, Swinton and Laurie might be a movie double team for the ages, him the straight as an arrow, dry as a date maypole for her, the mad may queen, to dance around. The little moments of dramatic, empathetic seriousness they get to mix in among the comic hijinks, brilliantly, quietly executed as only great ones can pull off.

Yet for all the rambling I have done about them, the magic of the movie for me, what carries it so far beyond Iannucci's previous movies, and all the wonderful small screen work he's done is the visual. For whatever simplification his Personal History is guilty of in putting Dickens' characters down on the page, his confidence and ingenuity as a filmmaker is ever growing. He uses a stage set framing device to drop us into, and carry us out of this world, backdrop stage curtains, and film camera footage projected on walls all lend the movie just the right amount of artificiality to make it just the right amount of clear that you ain’t reading a book, you’re watching a movie. 

Plain-clothed members of the RCMP searched an auto-repair shop owned by United Conservative Party candidate for Calgary-East, Peter Singh, on Thursday night and seized several items from the business.

RCMP officials confirm a search warrant was executed at the Autopro location in the 5700 block of 17 Avenue Southeast on Thursday. RCMP members left the shop carrying a computer hard drive, additional electronic devices and a hard-shell suitcase shortly before 11:00 p.m.

The nature of the RCMP investigation has not been disclosed.

Peter Singh has not returned CTV’s requests for comment. The auto repair shop was closed on Friday; a closure that contradicts the posted hours of operations at the business’ entrance.

A representative at Singh’s campaign office says the Calgary-East candidate’s whereabouts were unknown as of Friday afternoon.

Continue Reading.

DOCTOR WHO - 10.03 THIN ICE 1920x1080 | .jpg | logofree | 2,745 screencaps | sorted

The only band that matters photographed with the only Indian Elvis that mattered.

Peter Singh was a Sikh Elvis impersonator from Swansea (if you’re still having trouble identifying him in the photo, he’s the one in the white Vegas-era Elvis jumpsuit, for god’s sake) who was billed as the support act for The Clash in a Bristol gig in 1982, which didn’t quite work as planned, regarding the support artist, as well as the main act:

“...Unfortunately this was the last gig of the tour and Peter had clearly over-celebrated at the end-of-term party. Stumbling drunkenly onto the stage he was unable to complete any more than a few lines of any song without falling over or collapsing into fits of drunken laughter. I remember him falling onto the drumkit and being unable to raise himself. After 10 minutes or so and a few attempts at singing 'Living Doll' he eventually gave up and retreated to the sanctuary of the dressing room. We took it in good part although it was pretty unprofessional.

After an extended break, The Clash took the stage, crashing into their opening numbers with their customary exhuberance. I hadn't seen them before, or particularly been a fan, but remember being impressed with the sheer passion with which they attacked each song. The gig finally gained some momentum but unfortunately this stuttered to a halt after half-a-dozen numbers or so...

There had clearly been some kind of incident at the front of the stage as Strummer was angrily bellowing into the crowd. I remember Mick Jones, his pencil-slim legs completed by a pair of Dr Marten boots, running across to aim an exaggerated kick at some transgressor in the front row, accompanied by much pointing and shouting. With that, the band downed their instruments and left the stage...

clash.wikia.com

Opposition leader Rachel Notley is calling on the United Conservative Party to remove Calgary East MLA Peter Singh from caucus until a criminal investigation by the RCMP involving alleged voter fraud is completed.

During the election, the RCMP executed a search warrant on Singh's business and seized a computer. Singh's lawyer later confirmed the search warrant and seizure were related to voter misconduct but maintained his client had done nothing wrong.

Singh and the other newly-elected UCP members are to be sworn in on May 7.

Responding to a reporter's question at a news conference Wednesday, which referenced the removal from caucus of Tory MLA Peter Sandhu during an ethics investigation, Notley said Singh should not be allowed to sit as a caucus member.

"There is a strong precedent in the Alberta legislature that when an MLA is being investigated for serious misconduct that they are asked to leave the caucus," she said, adding that during the election UCP Leader Jason Kenney refused a request by the NDP to revoke Singh's candidacy.

Now that Singh is set to become a Member of the Legislature, Notley said, "it is not appropriate to have someone sitting in that legislature who is under criminal investigation. It's really that simple."

Continue Reading.