I met an old-timer who said they used to drop acid and sleep atop Sigiriya, but the place has taken on a more commercial and quasi-spiritual role now. It was built by a king as a sort of retreat and used as a monastery. Now it’s a prime tourist and cultural destination. Hence it’s a bit odd to see a Japanese beer commercial shot up there. There’s a bunch of people eating, um, deep fried cream filled coconuts and then drinking some bracing beer. I hear the whole thing cost Rs. 25,000 (I’m presuming they used stock images).

3D, at least at the Majestic Theatre in Colombo, kinda sucks. Just watched Iron Man 3 – a very good rebuild on the franchise – but it was made actively worse by being in 3D. First off, I think it got 3D post-production, which is lame. The only real effect is blurring one character in talking scenes, giving a weak depth of field. In exchange, you get an extremely dark screen with completely washed out colors. The images is so bad that things like sets and scenery disappear, you can just barely follow the plot. It’s such a rip.

Two of this years ‘best’ movies are films I don’t really want to watch. Argo and Zero Dark Thirty. Both feature a fictionalized focus on the American military and I just don’t feel like the protagonists are really the good guys. The ‘War On Terror’ is a fundamentally abusive war and canonizing little victories therein just doesn’t ring true, especially from here. Having the Argo award presented by Michelle Obama (otherwise an excellent dancer) is just weird. As film (and film profits) get more and more global, this type of jingoism is more and more out of place.

This sweet video shows Mr. Sugathapala, security guard at the New Monis, on the Galle Road just before Beruwela. I think I’ve seen him, energetically directing traffic. In this touching video, it shows him just smiling and enjoying his day. Most security guards aren’t so nice, but some of them really are. It’s sweet to see this gentlemen featured online, and his words of advice are really quite sincere and relevant to us all.

This is pretty amazing. It’s Psy’s Gangnam Style video with Mahinda’s head. And Wimal Weerawansa. And Ranil and Mangala. And Anarkalli. It looks the best on a tiny Facebook video window but still pretty good. It looks like they’re using this app to add faces to the video, but still quite creative. Casting Wimal as the dancing boy was a good touch. Mahinda’s Gangnam style.

Dolphins are our mammal cousins that got tired of the land and evolved back into the sea. They’re generally pretty cool and/or cheeky and quite intelligent. Hence it is appalling to hear that around 50 dolphins were massacred in the Kalpitiya area, apparently with dynamite. In the video above you can see dolphins in Brazil actually helping fishermen by herding fish and communicating. Around Kalpitiya dolphins are quite happy to swim with passing boats because they’re not scared of us. And they shouldn’t be. What a terrible and senseless thing.

Bob Marley is a trishaw God here. The most popular international non-prophet in Sri Lanka would probably be him or Che Guevara. Right now, Che Guevara seems to be winning (judging by trishaw art) but Bob Marley is much better IMHO, having not killed people or run prison camps. Anyways, since he died his sons have been carrying on the reggae/rastafari tradition, including one Julian Marley, who will be gracing our shores this Sunday.

Sri Lanka’s own JehanR has become a bit of an Internet sensation, riding his short films to a cameo spot in YouTube’s 2012 Rewind. His videos like ‘Shit Sri Lankan Mothers Say‘ and ‘Arranged Marriage Song‘ have gotten heaps of views, landing him a job at YouTube in the process.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand is famous mainly for dying and setting off World War I, which in turn set off World War II. It thankfully wasn’t a trilogy. Above, however, is a photo of him killing something. In this case an elephant, in what was then Ceylon, AKA Sri Lanka. Honestly, looking at that photo makes me want to assassinate him a little bit. Perhaps the elephants had their revenge.

I saw this on Conan of all things, with comic Charlyne Yi explaining how Sri Lankans kept mistaking her for a boy. And telling her so. There’s a lot of stuff things Sri Lankans say to, well, anyone that can seem rude or odd to outsiders. Questioning gender is one of them, here are a few others.