Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest

Finally a movie that lived up to and surpassed all my expectations.

To think that a studio had enough faith to grrenlight a project based on an amusement park ride itself is quite dumbfounding. Somehow that bulb that went on in some studio exec's head is turning out to be one of the largest grossing franshices of all time.

The movie is an absolute thrill ride and the critics trying to look for flaws in the storyline and improper characted development can all go kick/kiss their own asses. I mean its supposed to be a fantasy tale and I think sometimes they are so engulfed in their supposed expert knowledge of films that they deceive themselves glaringly.

When a studio and director make a movie, they obviously have some objective in mind. Not every movie is made with its purpose being to achieve blockbuster status. Some are made purely from an awards perspective. Some are made for creative satisfaction. Heck some are even made cos the director is the producer's girl's husband's brother's son.

The purpose of this movie is to earn as many dollars as possible. Far too many movies are into futuristic action and mind blowing stunts. So lets do something diff. Lets go back and do something no one expects .. a pirate movie which has so much scope for old fashioned action .... smart men, smart-alec women, dirty fat men, some weird sea creatures, some crazy ass ships ... add a touch of expected turns in a movie such as this like cannibalism, myths about Davy Jones' etc etc. Now lets get an A-list star cast and see what happens.

Well the first pirate movie was a blockbuster in its own right and definitely made a ton of money. And I think Johnny Depp deserves full credit for that. His take on a weird crazy cowardly pirate was jus brilliant. And for someone familiar with his body of work, he performed as expected and showed all the sceptics too why he should be considered one of the finest acting talents we have.
He has always had the guts to do very diff movies .. I don't think any one of his movies was similar to anything else. And he has the talent to pick out characters so quirky, even their names are screwed up. This is a gist .... Gilbert Grape, Don Juan De Marco, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, Donnie Brasco, Ichabod Crane, Sands, Sir James Matthew Barrie, Willy Wonka ... and now Jack Sparrow. One of his rumored movies for 2008 will puch the boundaries even further .... Shantaram.

But this one was pure magic all the way through. Pure high octane action with weird characters, magic ships, crazy sea animals, Davy Jones himself and finally he gets to kiss the girl.

Somehow I can't put it in words why this movie is so excellent, but maybe this write up was bang on the money.

http://www99.epinions.com/content_242914987652

All I can say is that go watch it, enjoy it and wait eagerly for the next one due out next summer.

Cheers.
M.

Make sense ?

I saw this ad on craigslist today.















It says "Beautiful 27" gently used Sharp TV with remote"

so I assume this is opposed to ads which state
" Not so beatiful 27" very roughly manhandled Blunt TV with batteries but no remote"

Well whatever rocks their boat ... or the marbles in their heads.

Cheers.

My Forbidden Face

Just finished a book called "My Forbidden Face". Its a real life account of a young girl growing up under the Taliban.

I don't think the writing was impressive but that maybe cos it was an English translation of the French original. But the facts stated were shocking to say the least. I had heard about all the rules the Taliban had enforced but not in such descriptive detail.

Here is a sampling of the rules : ( forgive my lack of talent at scanning)





















Anyways it was a good read ... and makes you wonder why ppl twist religion into whatever they want it to be. How can anyone honestly think that such constricting rules and ridiculous punishment is the solution to cleaning up society ?

Crazy ppl.

Anyways till next time.
Cheers
Moj.

Bombay Blasts - July 11, 2006

I was wondering what to exactly put down for this section when I read a write up abt it on another blog. I don't think copy pasting is a blogger's technique ... so credit where its due.
A very good read. Sensible statements. And alas ... all of it is true.
http://expertdabbler.blogspot.com/2006/07/business-as-usual.html

We are never gonna be pro-active abt this .. lets jus face it.
Sad times.

Independence Day 2006

Chronology of events :

Friday, June 30

Spend 2 or 3 hours at work taking printouts of reservations, driving directions etc for the big weekend.

Fly out at 7pm from Minneapolis, headed to NYC.

Touch ground at 10:30 pm and reach Vyju’s house at 11:30 pm.

2 JD’s with coke before heading to bed ( at 4 am)

Nik, Appu and Anusha make it the same night too.

Saturday, July 1

Appu n me head to New Jersey to rent that cars for the weekend ( since NY city rates are ridiculously high)

We meet Satish ( Nik’s friend) and rent the cars around 9:30.

It is 11 o clock by the time the lazy asses Vineet, Vasavi, Vyju, Nik and Anusha join us at New Jersey.

We pick them up and head to Ocean City, NJ to spend some time at a water park.

The drive is too long cos of the frikking traffic … taking 5 hrs where it should have taken 3 and we spend about an hour an half playing different water games and coming down slides and generally getting wet n wild.

Get some stuff to eat and change of clothes and then head back to Vyju’s place.

Everyone takes a bath and gets changed and heads out to party, after a nice big peg of JD mixed by Girish who has joined us now.

Reach club TONIC at 1 am in the night and start drinking and partying. I remember about half an hour of the night cos after that I was in my zone and doing all wild and crazy things with everyone. I was letting myself go and having awesome fun. I had to look at the pics later to know what was happening even.

Around 2:30, after 6 of us have downed about 250 dollars worth of booze ( 2 ppl weren’t drinking) … I pass out …. Then I puke … then the bouncer throws me out ….. the cab driver pleads with everyone to not let me puke in the cab and I still do …. We come home by 3 …. Everyone lends a hand in cleaning me up and everyone’s asleep by 4.

Sunday, July 2

Everyone is up and taking their baths bright and early after 2 hrs of sleep again to head for the white water rafting place.

They finally manage to wake me up around 8 o clock and tell me the events of the previous night which I have no recollection of. I don’t remember dancing, taking my shirt off, grinding with the ladies, passing out, being brought home …. Nothing. Total amnesia.

We reach the white water place at 11:30 just as the buses are pulling out and none of us has time to change into our gear and so some of are wearing jeans, and everyone is in thick cotton t-shirts which are not the best thing for a journey on the river. Well at least we had life jackets and our oars to paddle with. ( Well at least Vyju had it before she lost it in the river and one of the other rafts had to pick it up .... she and her crazy arm power)

Anyways we picked a good day for rowing cos the tide was up cos of floods the previous week. He only problem was they stuck all 8 of us on one raft and we had no guide. Yea thats great when 90 % of the group has never rafted before. So our boats goes left, goes right and goes circling around on the river with us having no idea how to straighten it out. The we get hit by this big wave and our raft is filled with water.

So this guide from one of the other rafts starts yelling ... you guys we r gonna get you a guide but start bailing that water now now now. Now all this excitement with barely 2 hrs sleep is bloody invigorating. And I am still recovering from last nights activities. Anyways after we get our guide he teaches us when to paddle staright and when to back paddle and which side should do what when etc etc and we handle it much better.

Some interesting conversations happened on that raft about cross dressers, steak, potatoes and vegetarian restaurants ... yeah i told you we were all drunk.

Anyways after that we got washed up, ate some hot dogs ( complimentary of course) ... well the vegetarians had to do with chips .... and headed back home.

Then we went and rented 2 movies ( which we never got a chance to see) and then went out for dinner to Pizzeria Uno in Forest Hills ( another place in NYC). I got the NY Strip Steak .. which was very good and then we all headed back sooooo sleepy cos we got very little sleep for 2 days in a row and had too much activity.

Monday July 3

Appu, Girish n me get up early one more time to head to New jersey to return one of the rental cars and by the time we got back it was 11:30. Vineet and Vyju had to work, so the rest of us at that time ... Appu, Nik, Anusha, and me head to Saravanas ( The Saravana Bhavan from Madras) and met up with vasavi and we eat a great meal there. Idli's vada's and dosa's and oothapam's .... great stuff.

We then head to Dave and Busters and played a few games and Nik won a few coupons so he could buy Vyju her soft toys .. some ppl never grow up !!!!

Vyju and Vineet met up with us and then we headed to this Blues club BB KING, where 4 guys were playing as the Beatles ... all dressed as them, their Sargent Peppers costumes, their regular suited version and also their Indian mystic version. They sang a lot of Beatles songs and even though my knowledge of their music is shaky I had a good time cos it was very diff experience seeing a live band and eating good food and drinking some fine Merlot.

After that we headed to “Superman Returns” and honestly as a fan of the original 1978 version ... I thought it was very good. If you know the history of Superman u will definitely enjoy it. At least the casting of Superman and lex was spot on.

Headed home to sleep again.

Tuesday Jul 4 – Independence Day

Appu headed out early to go meet some other friends and hand over the other car, so Vineet could go return it.

Anusha left a little earlier cos she had to leave back to Virginia.

Vyju, me n Nik went to this Irish pub called The Kettle and watched the Germany – Italy game, which was simply awesome, drank some Heineken, ate some chicken wings and chicken nachos.

We then headed back to Nyc and watched this movie called “The Devil Wears Prada” ..... which was a chick flick but it was certainly a very good one. Meryl streep was outstanding and Anne Hathaway was also very good.

Then headed to our fav good old Bubba Gump and ate a nice dinner with lots of shrimp and a huge chocolate cake which Vyju had to pack for home cos it was just too big. ( and which she is gorging on as I write this)

Thats abt it. Headed back home. Slept at 1. Woke up at 4. Caught a plane at 6. Back to work at 9. Damn life now.

That was Independence day vacation !!!!

The namesake / Jhumpa Lahiri.

I finished The Namesake a couple of nights ago and apart from the fact that the suthor is a very pretty woman, the book is quite a good read too. Jhumpa won the Pulitzer price for her earlier book Interpreter of Maladies and you can see why.
She has a talent to speak in such a way about each of the characters in her novel, that you immediately feel like you are them or you sympathize with them.
I felt like Ashoke, Ashima, Gogol, Sonia, Moushumi, etc had become a prat of my life for a few days.

There were lots of incidents and references we can all relate to ( especially if yu have studied and lived in the US) and I think it was tale of human nature more than anything. Each character has their own peculiar charcteristics and it really was a very good read.

I hope to keep this reading habit going, though my next one is a mammoth 700 page beast called The Agony and The Ecstacy - A novel of Michelangelo.

Lets keep our fingers crossed.

Life of Pi : a novel / Yann Martel.

Finished the book "Life of Pi" last week.
It was very different from what I thought it would be like. From my friend's introduction to the book I knew it was a lost at sea kinda adventure but the treatment was refreshingly different.

To keep a whole novel centered on one person ( okay .. 2) with no other characters other than a few pages here n there is quite a feat and then to do it in such a way that you are thoroughly engrossed is pretty remarkable.

Pi is a unique character and the novel is a great testament to the character that Pi is. Its quite stunning what a person will do to survive if there are no other options. Like Pi says "you can get used to anything"

I really loved this book and highly recommend it. The last few pages are indeed thought provoking.

Cheers.

Letter from Husband to Wife - Brilliant

This being the Soccer World Cup fever time .... this letter makes perfect sense.
If its cricket world cup time and you're in India .. everything is still applicable.

____________________________________________________________

Dear Wife,



1. From 9 June to 9 July 2006, you should read the sports section of the newspaper so that you are aware of what is going on regarding the World Cup, and that way you will be able to join in the conversations. If you fail to do this, then you will be looked at in a bad way, or you will be totally ignored. DO NOT complain about not receiving any attention.


2. During the World Cup, the television is mine, at all times, without any exceptions. If you even take a glimpse of the remote control, you will lose it (your eye).


3. If you have to pass by in front of the TV during a game, I don't mind, as long as you do it crawling on the floor and without distracting me.


4. During the games I will be blind, deaf and mute, unless I require a refill of my drink or something to eat. You are out of your mind if you expect me to listen to you, open the door, answer the telephone.


5. It would be a good idea for you to keep at least 2 six packs in the fridge at all times, as well as plenty of things to nibble on, and please do not make any funny faces to my friends when they come over to watch the games. In return, you will be allowed to use the TV in the afternoon, unless they replay a good game that I missed.


6. Please, please, please!! If you see me upset because one of my teams is losing, DO NOT say "get over it, its only a game", or "don't worry, they'll win next time". If you say these things, you will only make me angrier and I will love you less. Remember, you will never ever know more about football than me and your so called "words of encouragement" will only lead to a divorce.


7. You are welcome to sit with me to watch one game and you can talk to me during halftime but only when the commercials are on, and only if the halftime score is pleasing me. In addition, please note I am saying "one" game; hence do not use the World Cup as a nice cheesy excuse to "spend time together".


8. The replays of the goals are very important. I don't care if I have seen them or I haven't seen them, I want to see them again. Many times.


9. Tell your friends NOT to have any babies, or any other child related parties or gatherings that requires my attendance because:

a) I will not go,

b) I will not go, and

c) I will not go.


10. But, if a friend of mine invites us to his house on a Sunday to watch a game, we will be there in a flash.


11. The daily World Cup highlights show on TV every night is just as important as the games themselves. Do not even think about saying "but you have already seen this...why don't you change the channel to something we can all watch?" because, the reply will be, "Refer to Rule #2 of this list".


12. And finally, please save your expressions such as "Thank God the World Cup is only every 4 years". I am immune to these words, because after this comes the Champions League, Italian League, Spanish League, Premier League, FA Cup, etc.


Thank you for your cooperation.

Your Loving Husband,

TAMIL - DA MACHI CODE

I was gonna write about something else but this came through the email chain and just had to put it up. Brilliant stuff.

Robert Lingam I.P.S (Vijayakanth) visits Madurai to deliver a lecture
in college about public safety. The head pujari of Meenakshi temple is murdered. He was stabbed to death, but before dying he lies down in the robotic break dance position next to a shiva lingam, the message clearly being "call robert lingam". He had also smashed the breasts of a goddess statue and hung a bell with a chain from her hip. Also clutched in his hand is the Congress party manifesto with the 49% reservation for OBCs underlined with his blood.

Pujari's grand daughter Mahalakshmi (Sneha) had just returned from USA with a degree in cryptology, symbology, singing and group-dance. She cuts short her weekend trip to Chennai and returns to Madurai upon the murder.

She meets Commissioner Lingam at the murder site and together embarkto solve the murder and in the process "witness the biggest cover up in Hindu history". "My 'Thaatha' used to insist that me and my brother play hide and seek inside the temple", said Mahalakshmi.

"Why the congress manifesto? Why the underlining on the reservation part? Was your thaatha going to lose his job as head-priest to an OBC candidate?",puzzled look on Lingam's face with knit eyebrows."Thaatha always said reservation was plain bull shit"

"What?"

"Bull shit - very rarely he used english but whenever this topic used tocome up, he wud use that term"Lingam's eyes lit up. "That's the clue...yes, bull shit, oh Rama how did i miss that", excited he clutches Mahalakshmi's wrist as they bolt out of the murder scene.
"Where is the biggest Nandi bull statue in this temple complex?"

"by the east gate"

"Let's go".................

Lingam put his hand into the orifice which was the asshole of the
Nandi bull statue. His fingers felt the cold touch of an ancient palm leaf. Pulling it out Lingam attempted to read under the flickering light of the solitary lamp post nearby.neatly written in outdated tamil script were the lines,

"Kai Anchu, Vaai Nooru Periya bookukule oru chinna book"
"Ah", Lingam sighed.
"What does it mean?"
"I have heard both these lines before...but in a very different context"
Lingam looked skywards for some divine intervention to help him solve this new clue. Towering into the skyline in front of him as dawn was breaking,was the tall gopuram of the temple. Quickly turning around, a smile danced on Lingam's lips as his sight fell on all the five towers. "The five towers, phallic symbols...the five Pandava brothers, We need to get to a library,I need to see the original copy of the Kama sutra", "this early in the morning?" asked Mahalakshmi as they hurried towards Lingam's jeep.

As they jeep hurtled towards the town library, Lingam explained, "
Few temples in India are famous for their erotic art and architecture.
The kings built those to encourage population growth. For centuries, there has been rumours of a secret society that guarded a secret behind such art and symbols, a secret so powerful that if revealed would shake the very foundations of conservative culture."

COMING SOON TO A SCREEN NEAR YOU....
WITNESS THE GREATEST COVER UP IN HINDU HISTORY
A SECRET SO DEVASTATING THAT IF REVEALED COULD LEAD TO EVEN MORE
CATACLISMIC POPULATION EXPLOSION.....
WAS THE MOST NOTORIOUS PIECE OF INDIAN LITERATURE ORIGINALLY PART OF
THE GREATEST EPIC POEM EVER WRITTEN?
WERE THE MEN AND WOMEN OF THE KAMASUTRA THE SAME GODS AND GODDESSES GLORIFIED IN ANCIENT TEXTS?
CONTINUING WITH THE MODERN INDIAN TRADITION OF BLATANTLY APING THE
WEST....
A.M.RATNAM PRESENTS
CAPTAIN in
THE DA MACHI CODE
'SO CORNY A DARK MAN'
PONGAL 2007

Unlock the code ........in the head

After keeping this page open for an hour and trying to figure out what to write about, inspiration strikes in the form of a dear friend's classic quote "Drunk ppl always mean what they say".

So True.

They say that when u'r drunk, u always speak the truth. Its when you let go of your inhibitions and speak whats on your mind. You might finally confess that you love a particular person ( never mind u might be confessin to a clay pot in the corner of your room), u might say who u hate the most in the world .... even to his face ... hopefully he's drunk too and thinks its the most hilarious thing he has ever heard !!!

But memory reminds me that there was this one ocassion when I was so piss drunk and at the top of my powers .... it was a house warming kinda thing when some friends of mine moved into a new place. and on this auspicious day I blew the lid off a hidden little scandal going on in our quaint little town. Never mind that the whole thing involved one of the girls who were playing host.

So I start by saying that P( for sake of privacy) loves A(ditto). And that P has confessed many times to me that he loves A. and that A is cute and smart and sexy. And blah blah blah. And I go on and on and on like the Blue Collar Comedy Tour ..... being stupid, crass and utterfly fun for everyone. And obviosuly except for P and A, everyone else is having a grand ol fun time.

And the grand finale .... puked on their carpet. U have to remember this was the first day they moved in ... and they had to live with that stain for the duration of their stay there .. 2 yrs I guess ... before the owner figured he likes wooden floors better and stripped all the crapet off. Hehehehe .. yeah I have to take part of the credit for that.

Poor girls. But I missed the point compeltely ..... the whole story about P and A was made up. It was just that ... a story .... a figment of my imagination. This means that I was piss drunk just enough for me to unlock the part of the brain where imagination comes active and truth and confessions go dead. If this is an art, I have to master it to make it perfect. Like they say .. Practice ....... so here's to more nights like that before that special someone comes along and I am shackled by the wonderful bonds of a relationship or better/worse still ... matrimony. God help this poor lil crazy drunk guy.

Well memories .... what else does one have as age catches up ??

Cheers
Mo.

One down, one more to go

Finally managed to catch the Da Vinci code last night and it must be said I have never entered a movie hall more confused than for this one. On the one hand I loved the book, where mom disagrees, and on the other hand I had one set of friends telling me they loved the movie and another set saying they hated it.
Wiping the slate clean is not something I am really good at. With all that background I must say I really enjoyed the movie. Nothing surprised me and in hindsight that might be one of the reasons a few ppl didn't like me cos you whats going to happen if you have read the book. But I thought it was wonderfully photographed and Ron Howard being a pretty conventional director, doesn't surprise you too much.
I think if you are the kind of person who can actually concentrate for 2 hours or so to try and figure out whats happening ( if you haven't read the book), you'll definitely enjoy the movie.
There might be others looking to go to a movie to eat some popcorn and chat with their friends about the ranuchy or funny scenes ... well nothing for you guys unfortunately.
Audrey Tautou has been a favorite since Amelie and she is immensely good as Sophie. She brings the necessary innocence, incredulance and feistiness required.
Tom Hanks to be quite frank, was a let down. Thinking from the director's point of view ... I am guessing he told Tom we don't have any real dramatic scenes for you here and so lets just underplay the character throughout .... and if that was the aim it was done superbly. My only issue with this being that in Dan Brown's books Langdon has already been established as the thinking man's Indiana Jones, so you do expect a little more energy in the character.
There are very few scenes where he is genuinely surprised and this may be because they are trying to show that in his head most of the puzzle has already fit together, but I am not so sure abt that. After all Teabing only introduces Langdon to the concept that the Holy Grail is not the chalice but the sacred womb of Mary Magdalene, and Langdon should be shocked but he is just surprised. Just a few touches missing here and there.
Silas i thought would be more of a hulking individual but the guy has definitely acted well.

The movie does lack in solving the puzzles mentally for us and that is for sheer lack of time. If he had a 5 hr canvas to do this movie it could have been the book verbatim but thats the problem the screenplay writer always faces. Poor chap had to live up to writing the screenplay for the second most published book in history. He had no chance.

Overall the movie was 3 stars outs of 5 , and in my opinion the book is 5 out of 5. My mom thought the book wasn't very well written but I couldn't put it down after I started it, so i thought it was a mighty fine read.

There was a disclaimer in the end saying that all characters are fictitious etc .... and the Censor board in India even put that notice at the beginning of the movie if I am right. In spit of that I hear TN and AP have banned it. Absolutely ridiculous. More absurd than the Rs. 2 per kg rice. Do these ppl even know what freedom of expression means ? As in the case of Aamir Khan .. apprently you shouldn't show or say anything that goes against popular opinion. This must be what Galileo felt like when the church was persecuting him. After all the earth was round.

Well my interest in the whole topic has been revived again and I have already made notes of 4 books to read up to research the history of the church and how the whole Jesus mysery panned out. lets see what wall that drives me to climb.

Till later.
Adios amigos.
M ( that looks like the female symbol between two legs, doesnt it ?? .. weird position though)

Things to do

Hopefully I will be able to catch the Da Vinci code this weekend, as also X-Men 3 which seems to have got off to a bloody huge mega blockbuster start.
Hugh Jackman was definitely born to play Wolverine and add the stellar cast this time and its worth the admission price just to see Kelsey "Frasier" Cramer in a blue suit.

I think Val Kilmer would have made a better Dr. Langdon but I'll wait to comment on that after the movie.

Had an interesting conversation with a friend today about which one of us was the bigger loser and it ended as inconclusive as whether Ganguly deserved to be thrown out or Chappell !!!!!

Building a few online profiles here and there ( none on any wedding sites though) .... just good old fun friendship and timepass right now.

Looking forward to July 4 weekend. Hoping to have a ball in the East Coast again. Camping and White wate rafting among the planned attractions. Lets see.

Been sick as a dog for 3 days now and I hate that. I prefer being a dawg.

Well nothing much to comment on right now. Work is becoming more boring by the minute. I need some inspiration or some brandy in lukewarm water. The latter seems to be easier to obtain. And after being advised of the health benefits by a friend recently ..... can't do without it for long now.

Need to start setting up that mini bar a s a p.

well more later.

Cheers.
M.

Mission Impossible 3

I'm writing something here after like a year, so I'm probably gonna be real rusty.

Just got back from the first day show of MI:3. I am a Tom Cruise fan because more often than not his movies are entertaining.
Of late he has gotten a lot of bad press. He has made some crazy statements and his love affair with Katie Holmes does look a lil made up. But I don't think that is any case to hold against his movies.

The one thing about the MI:3 movies is that its a pure adrenaline rush and made now to showcase Tom as the master of all. So if you don't like that idea don't go watch it.

I don't understand people who go to the movie and say it didn't make logical sense and that it was rather fanciful .... what did you expect ... another Shawshank or Schindler's list ?? For pure popcorn entertainment and some awesome, if unbelievable stunts, it was definitely worth the money.

Tom Crusie delivers ..... and u have to look at it as a Rajni movie or Amitabh in the 80's movie. Pure entertainment was indeed delivered.

More later !!!!