#3 All-Hands

The year is 7000 BCE.

Or 13000 BCE.

The exact dates don’t really matter, but stay with me.

The ‘Cuevas de las Manos’ or the ‘Cave of Hands’ in Argentina is a cave that houses some incredible rock art, often regarded as the most important piece of art in the Americas.

While the entire cave has some really cool art, one particular design element led to the cave to be named such: the hands.

Just imagine. A collage of hands. Pasted across the walls. From thousands of years ago. What were they thinking? Was it a wall of fame? Was it a religious ceremony? Did they have too much of ancient Cheetos and wanted to wipe it off some where? We’ll never know.

But what we do know is that it was probably the first ever ‘all-hands’ recorded in the history of mankind.

(For the uninitiated, ‘all-hands’ is a company-wide meeting that is organised to mostly discuss company-wide stuff. It’s derived from the shipping term ‘all hands on deck’ which called for the entire crew of the ship to be on the deck. You know, to discuss icebergs and all)

Now that offices are opening again, you too have a chance of colouring your walls red.

And becoming a part of history.

Just don’t let HR know.

Let’s dive into edition #3.

The Round-Up

1. The Oscars were... forgettable. ??

Samuel L. Jackson won an Oscar. Riz Ahmed won an Oscar. But what will you most likely remember? The Fresh Prince of Bel Air smacking the dude who voiced the zebra from Madagascar.

Oscar viewership has anyway been at an all-time low , and incidents like these just make you miss the good ol' Oscar ceremonies. (Remember when they randomly delivered pizza during the ceremony and made a huge deal about it? Loved it.)

2. The RRRoar is for real! ??

Ok admittedly I haven’t seen RRR yet (Bangalore cinema tickets, ssup?) but I think it’s worth applauding that this film has been doing stellar business across the country and has gotten decent reviews as well. Rajamouli, take a bow. Another one in the bag.

3. Sharmaji Namkeen was sweet. ??

I call this film the spiritual sequel of ‘Do Dooni Chaar’ and damn, there’s just something so charming about the portrayal of Delhi and its whimsical characters. Rishi Kapoor plays BG Sharma with ease, while Paresh Rawal’s portrayal of the same character lacks a bit of nuance, I felt. Sheeba Chaddha though! ??

It’s a breezy film that you should definitely watch this weekend. :D

Bharatiya Creator Inc.

1. Why Spotify’s New Ad Campaign Is A Goldmine For User Generated Content

I think we have a clear winner when it comes to ads released in the IPL 2022 season. But I think the films have more than just mainline advertising potential. Now that lip-syncing music has become 2nd nature due to Reels, Spotify India can literally ask its millennial and GenZ audience to recreate their version of the campaign using IG. They may discover tracks on IG music, but ultimately stream them on Spotify. ??

2. The Sadhgurufication of Content

He was on Joe Rogan’s podcast. He was on Ranveer Allahbadia’s channel. Hell, he was also on Tanmay’s second channel. Is he prepping us for another Sadhguru podcast? SaveThePod? I don’t know how I feel about this.

3. That’s What Shree Said: LIVE in Studio!

I recorded an episode of my podcast with indie artist Aanchal Bordoloi at the awesome WeWork at Church Street, during the weekend. We had a great conversation around the music scene in India. The episode is currently in post-production, and was the first time I recorded the show at a proper studio. Follow the pod here so that you don’t miss it when it’s out!

Shoutout to the Opennjam fam for helping me do this.

This A Great Podcast

• Instead of two songs, I'm recommending the Get Sleepy podcast incase you've been having a tough time hitting the sack.

That’s it for this edition of shreemail. Let me know if you liked it? I love reading your comments and messages tbh.

I’ll see you after two weeks. Please get your ACs checked before that.

And perhaps your walls cleaned too.

Best,

Shreevar Chhotaria