the black lullaby

He comes out of an alcohol induced coma and the first thing he sees is the lightning on the wall. He studies the room carefully, his eyes searching for his own breath in the darkness. There is lightning once again. This time the flash enables him to see all the books around him. The room he is in is a library of some sort. He steps out of the bed and makes his way to one of the shelves, the cold outside makes him feel naked, even though he is clothed from neck to toe.

His eyes have now adjusted themselves to the darkness and so he reaches for one of the books. He knows the writing. It isn’t his, but it is about him. He recognizes the words, each and every one of them. He knows the story, it is his own. He scans the room again and it dawns on him. These are all the chapters of his life spread out before him. There is more lightning, it is harsh and stings his eyes when it flashes through the windows. He covers his ears quickly because he knows that an ungodly sound of thunder is to follow. It does. A book falls off one of the shelves. He walks over to it and picks it up and then, begins to read it.

***

What does not matter to you will continue to not matter through every season that changes. Through the hot and the cold, the light and the dark, the good and the bad, that which means nothing will continue to mean nothing. But that which does mean something takes control of all your emotions. When something that matters to you is taken away, the world, according to you, begins to change. Your mornings and your nights start merging and it becomes difficult to tell between what is right and wrong.

I know these things because I’ve had something that mattered to me taken away once. No. Not taken away. I lost it because of my foolish ways and my immature beliefs. I understood what it felt like to hate and it consumed me. My tongue was dry with a thirst for blood and in my mind the devil had created his workshop.

The funny thing about love and hate is that they don’t exist without each other. For to hate someone you must love them first. Hate is as much an offspring of love as Lucifer is of heaven.

But as we all find out in time, love builds where hate destroys. I’ve loved and hated in equal measure and I have held on to the kind of pain that no one should feel. But… in letting it go I’ve also discovered a kind of freedom and beauty that makes me whole, at last.

***

There was confusion upon his lips. He remembered this chapter of his life. He remembered it all too well. But he did not remember the last paragraph. Where had it come from? Its presence on the page somehow completed the chapter. But that was the thing. This was the one chapter that had always remained incomplete. He had grown certain that that was how it would be forever and ever. But now, it was complete. There was a smile on his face and he didn’t know why. There was happiness in his heart. He couldn’t understand it. The storm outside was slowly passing. He could hear the sun preparing to rise in the distance. The happiness inside his heart grew and grew and grew until he thought he was dreaming. He wasn’t.

He understood at last that he had forgiven and had been forgiven. He walked over to his bed once again and looked out the window. The rain was slowly ceasing. He gazed into the gloomy sky and said: ‘thank you’ and then lay back on his bed. It was then that he noticed a yellow rose on his pillow with a note attached to it. He picked up the rose and quickly read the note. There came yet another smile that occupied his face with no intention of leaving anytime soon as tears of joy rolled down his cheeks.

The note read: ‘you are welcome’.

And it’s called the Young Lions Television Championship. Let me tell you a little bit about this. A few weeks ago, the advertising people of Colombo decided to send 3 people to compete in two interesting challenges at the Cannes Film Festival. Nice huh? Well anyway, the challenges are as follows. Each country will first host a local challenge to decide on who will represent them at Cannes. Then the winners fly to Cannes to compete with selected individuals from other countries.

The two challenges namely are… The Young Lions and Roger Hatuel. The second one is more for marketing people but I was very skeptical when my bosses nominated me from my agency to partake in the Young Lions Challenge. So the beginning was a bit tough because I didn’t have a partner. I’d decided that I didn’t want to take part in the challenge and given up on it completely when a friend from another agency called up and asked if I wanted to partner her, she is an art director and I’m a writer so the combination worked.

Throughout that day however, there were more challenges. She decided to go with someone else, I decided once again that I didn’t want to do the challenge and all was good. But later in the same day, she sent me a text saying that we were on. So I thought, what the hell? Right…

Things have been interesting since then. I soon learned that we had to compete with six other local teams, making the total challenge between 7 teams, which meant that we now have a one in seven chance of winning this thing. The odds sounded good and I got more interested. Then on Friday, the seven teams were summoned for the brief… basically we were asked to come up with television scripts to make marketing people understand the importance of advertising and why it works. So it became a bit more interesting.

So my partner and I began brainstorming and before too long we cracked an idea and went on to develop scripts. We handed them in on Friday and got ready for round two.

Saturday – we were called back to the Taj and each team was asked to pick the name of a Creative Director from a bowl. Luck of the draw and all. The seven Creative Directors watched as were told how to conduct our meetings with each of them. From the corner of my eye I studied all seven of them. Here’s a bit about them…

Sujoy – the first time I met him was when he spoke at a Creative Director’s meeting after last year’s Cannes Awards. You see he won his first Cannes last year. However, our scripts had certain local elements to them, so I was concerned as to what Sujoy could add to it.

Anusha – I’ve known Anusha from around and I’d heard a lot of her work. I’ve done voicings for her and I’ve socialized with her. But I didn’t know how we would discuss work with her, should we pick her.

Digby and Rajeev – both very interesting personalities, both full of spunk and spark of their own, both very talented. But again, there was concern as to how we would take them through what we had done and what they would add to it, no offense to them, simply our insecurities of not having spoken to them on work before.

C – the woman who introduced me to the advertising industry. I was handpicked by her and mentored and I owe 85% of what I know to the woman. She was my boss for five years and I knew of the kind of value she would have added so that was cool.

Soruban – the Executive Creative Director of LOWE, where I’m currently employed at. Soru was also my first ever Associate Creative Director when I joined JWT all those years ago.

Russell – who was my boss for two short months when I was at GME, he is someone I have a lot of respect for and admire. I know of his visual thinking and of how much he can bring into something as simple as what we’d done. I secretly hoped we’d pick him.

The teams were called to pull out the names and voila! I pick Russell!!!

After a serious session with Russell, we knew how to sharpen our script, as did the other six teams after having consulted with the CDs they had picked. Then, they brought in seven directors into the room. One of them would direct our commercial for us off a handycam. We had already arrived at the next step.

I looked at them once again, from one to another. I saw Praboda (Probe) and realized that I would be real lucky, should I pick his name because we’d worked on so many things in the past we had a good understanding in terms of television productions.

The stars must have been in the right place that day because I was shocked to open the piece of paper I’d picked out and see his name on it.

So the next part of the challenge is to produce the scripts we’ve come up with. We have until 12 noon on Wednesday to hand over our finished commercials and as we speak, all seven teams are out there trying to be the lucky winners who go to Cannes.

What else has to happen before we know who wins? I’ll tell you. So once we hand the commercials in then we present them at an event called The Green Chillies Festival on Thursday the 30th of April. People who come for the event get to vote for their favorite commercial and we get to hear the first comments on our commercials from the public, meaning our peers and fellow industry mates.

Then on Friday the 1st of May we will meet a panel of judges who will view our commercials for one last time and jot down their comments, with scores. Finally, on Saturday night, the 2nd of May, the winners of Sri Lanka’s first ever Young Lions Challenge will be announced.

So now… I’m really excited about all of this and fully inspired and hoping against all odds that my partner Megan and I will win. But hope is all we can do for the challenge is still at hand. The competition is all very good and it will be as interesting as ever. Who wins will depend on the idea and the execution of it in the end.

Here we go… will keep you updated on more developments. Wish me luck!

B.

Hello all, so it’s the weekend (again) and I’ve got good news.

My second book, “Living Their Lie” will be launching on the 26th of June 2009. Will keep those of you who are interested updated with more details i.e. venue, time, etc.

So the date is the 26th of June and that’s all I know so far.

Stay tuned.

Have a great weekend.

B.

In the year 2007 the story of King Henry VIII was given new life in the form of the Showtime Original Series – The Tudors. Not only has the show proven to be historically accurate but it’s also been applauded for its great entertainment value. The Tudors has just begun its third season and this year will see King Henry go through wives numbered three, four and five.

The original cast of the Tudors include Jonathan Rhys Meyers as King Henry, Sam Neil as Cardinal Wolsy, Natalie Dormer as Lady Anne Boleyn – later Queen Anne of England, Maria Doyle Kennedy as Katherine of Aragon Queen of England – later Lady Katherine and Jeremy Northam.

The video you are about  to see was created by Showtime to promote the very first season of the show and to introdue its main cast.

Before Rome, before Six Feet Under, HBO launched a spectacular series called Carnivale. The show was set in the 1930’s and captured the essence of dark bohemia with every breathing moment on every episode. Two storylines ran simultaneously, one was of a travelling circus with its unique brand of freaks and the other was of a preacher who was dead set on taking the word of God out to the world. The only time the two stories came into contact was when the preacher and a simple boy at the carnival met in their dreams. Both of them have untouched pasts that are both dark and horrifying.

An outstanding cast that also consisted of Clandy Brown and Clea Duvall came together to make this the show’s two season run a successful one, although viewers believed it should have run for at least another season. One of the most talked about things of the show was its opening title sequence. The use of the Tarot fused with incidents relevant to that time frame is simply marvelous. Have a look.

The HBO hit series ROME was aired for two very successful seasons and had to be pulled off air due to budget restrictions. However, while it was on, it was one of the most talked about shows on TV. The production was a combined effort by both the BBC and HBO. The video you are about to see is the opening title sequence of the show that starred Ray Stevenson, Kevin McKidd, Indira Varma with Polly Walker, Lindsay Duncan, James Purefoy and Ciaran Hinds.

This video was from Dancing with the Stars, the fabulous show on ABC that raked in huge amounts of ratings and featured some of the best talent around. This video features Wade Robson and an amazing dance troupe shaking their booties to the song ‘Hi’ by Psapp.

It basically introduced the new season of the show and it was one of the most popular promotional videos of last year. Have a look.

Next up is the ABC Fall Lineup Promo for 2008. The video was launched in September of 2008 to highlight the most happening shows of the ABC Network. The shows that were featured include Desperate Housewives, Private Practive, Ugly Betty, Lost, Grey’s Anatomy and Dancing with the Stars amongst others.

The naughty housewives are back at number six with yet another stunning clip. The promotional video done for the fourth season of the hit series Desperate Housewives that stars Terry Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Eva Longoria, Marcia Cross and Nicolette Sheridan was all about the new housewife who was arriving in town.

As the season began it was revealed that the new entrant – Katherine Mayfair – beautifully portrayed by Dana Delaney – was not new to Wisteria Lane but was part of the original set of residents at Fairview who’d left town a long time ago. Although the clip doesn’t feature Dana Delaney as Katherine Mayfair, it gave us glimpses into what was to be expected during the fourth season.

Kal Chakra was a supernatural TV series that ran for a very short time on Star Plus. The show starred Nausheen Ali in a triple role – as a mother and her twin daughters – all caught in a vicious battle between good and evil. The show started off when the male lead – played by Mohnish Behl – ends up accidentally killing the son of the village witch. The witch in turn curses the Thakur family and announces that Mrs. Thakur will give birth to twin daughters who on their own will cause no harm to anyone but when they’re together, they are destinned to summon an ancient power known as the Kal Chakra. The catch of course was that only one of them were evil, but the family would never know which one, so the girls are seperated at birth.

The following promotional clip was done as a music video to introduce the show and later on became the show’s opening credits as well. Enjoy.