Gandhi at the Bat: The Mahatma Meets the Yankees

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the venerable "Father" of India, and leader of the Indian Independence movement, apparently had a secret life as a New York Yankee. Or so says the short film, Gandhi at the Bat:

In 1933, Mohandas K. Gandhi made a top-secret trip to the United States. For reasons of national security, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt requested that all records of the visit be expunged from the public record... However, baseball historians have long swapped stories about the mysterious appearance of a pint-sized pinch-hitter who batted for the New York Yankees... (more)

- from Gandhi at the Bat

Is it true? Well, the newsreel- footage certainly looks real, as do the Yankees. But according to Mental Slapstick (the company that produced the film), Gandhi at the Bat is actually a "mockumentary" based on humorist Chet Williamson's New Yorker essay by the same name.

Too bad, as "Gandhi" apparently knocks the leather off the ball, not to mention there's something exciting about watching India's favorite hero playing America's favorite pasttime (a bit like eating peanut butter with chocolate).

If you want to see a real newsreel of the real Gandhi, watch this clip of his last meeting with Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the "father" of Pakistan, just before the partitioning of India.

Do the Hustle

Watch this video of inmates at Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu, Philippines:



John Travolta and Mark Wahlberg have nothing on these guys. However, who exactly are these guys, and why are they doing The Hustle in a detention center (otherwise known as "prison")? Here's the answer:

The dancing is compulsory for all 1,600 inmates at the prison in the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Centre, except the elderly and infirm.

"Using music, you can involve the body and the mind. The inmates have to count, memorise steps and follow the music," Mr [Byron] Garcia told the BBC news website.

"Inmates say to me: 'You have put my mind off revenge, foolishness, or thinking how to escape from jail, or joining a gang'," he said. (more)

In other words, the dance routine is part of the prison's rehabilitation program, and according to security consultant, Byron Garcia (the man who developed the program), it's not just about 'doing The Hustle.' The prisoners also break it down to Michael Jackson, the Black Eyed Peas and even Gregorian chants...

Strange? It depends on who you ask. In Mexico City, Mexico,women inmates are allowed to keep their children with them in prison, and in Lithuania, prison officials sponsored a beauty pageant for inmates in which the winner was crowned "Miss Captivity." In comparison, disco-dancing seems relatively benign.

What is interesting, though, is that these videos are some of the most watched on the Internet, and also the most popular media exports to ever originate from the Philippines; the second most popular media export from the Philippines, coincidentally, is a low-budget, independent film called The Bet Collector (Kubrador), which happens to be distributed by The Global Film Initiative (the sponsor of Bluescreen and this blog):