Its a Kick Ice Movie !

Finally, I made it to the big screen to watch the spectacular animatronics(!) of the newly released ICE AGE -2 - The Meltdown . For one who was totally amazed by every bit of ICE AGE (2002), this sequel was long awaited but thoroughly satisfying.


While Manny (Ray Romano) , Sid( John Leguizamo) and Diego(Denis Leary) were back at their usual comical best, the inclusion of a new creature- possums- Crash & Eddie voiced by the whacky duo SeanWilliam Scott and Josh Peck was a real bonus. Ray Romano(of Everybody Loves Raymond fame), Denis Leary ( of I want my MTV fame) & SW Scott (known from American Pie & Dude Where's my car) displayed their pedigreed humour, in their distinct style. The comical confrontations and dialogues between these characters were very laughable!

Kudos to Queen Latifah for playing exceptionally well the mammoth who thinks its a possum! and as always the Scrat's antics left entire audience in splits.

I'm wishing for ICE AGE-3..The Blackhole! ( or whatever)

PS: 90% of the theatre audience was adults and 30+ ! Whoever said Indian audience craves for Hollywood ACTION movies..ICE AGE 2 really kicks ice!

Kurt , dead and in Top 3!

Its been more than a decade since the Grunge God closed his eyes for eternity, and truly! God has his mysterious ways . Even today his lyrics (or anthems as we call it) touch the heart of millions, is vouched by the recent VH1 poll for the "Favourite Lyric". What more, this is the verdict of 13000 music lovers from UK, the land which has offlate prided itself of producing some of their own newage/ pop/rock acts( Coldplay, Embrace, Arctic monkeys to name a few)

Nirvana's "Smells like Teen Spirit" ranks third in poll, after U2's "One" and The Smith's "How soon is now". The ever starving grunge fans like me were injected with a fleeting dose of happiness just to know that the world still remembers Kurt Cobain's anthem masterpiece, long after his demise.

Since the mid nineties, The Rock world has witnessed plenty of one-song wonders, and where, shelf life of a rockstar has reduced to his lowest, and also where the critics & fans have written off musicians overnight!

Amidst all these the Grunge God survives.. for his true followers, his cult, worship him relentlessly and will never lose sight of his words.

Of Rice Wars and Telly Sets!

The election fever is gripping every part of Tamilnadu and currently there is a head-on war of promises between the ruling AIADMK and their arch rival DMK. In the past, we have witnessed cold wars and cola wars but sample this:

The Democratic Progressive Alliance lead by DMK had announced the supply of rice for Rs 2/- kg, if voted to power. While the AIADMK initially quetioned the fiscal feasibility of this proposal, apparently bitten by the popularity of this scheme, has now pledged a much more cheaper package: Amma has promised to supply 10 kg rice for Rs 3.50 a kg and another 10 kg rice free thus offering rice for Rs 1.75 a kg. The opposition is now crying foul, alleging a violation of election code.

Earlier, in a truly one of its kind ways to woo the voters, the DMK pledged one colour Tv set in every household, " to provide a recreation and general knowlege mechanism for the tired farmer to relax after a hard day's work" and watch SUN TV, a network owned by the partymen who also own the majority of the cable networks that trasmit them. The Tv will definitely not provide this piece of knowlege though: that the Present Value of the future(& unending) inflows of cable rental is much more than the cost of an low end Akai or Aiwa 20'Inch CTV.

All in all, nobody cares about poverty, hunger, female infanticides or foeticides anymore...Its all about dominating airwaves, and capturing BPO marketshare! But one thing is for sure ..A poor ration card holder could have never had better!

Having Steamed rice while watching Sun TV at home ..shall no longer a dream be!

Had a Good Night , thanks to Good Luck!

So my movie watching binge continued but suddenly sprang a surprise for me yesternight in "Good night, and Good luck". Altlast, I can safely say that the horrible weekend blues from last Saturday that seemed neverending has positively ended!

David Straithairn gave a powerful, mindblowing and incisive potrayal of 'Edward Murrow", the renowed reporter(of CBS) of the 40s& 50s, who is supposed to have pioneered modern day broadcast jounalism, especially the coverage of wars and issues affecting American civil liberties. Excellent performances from the support cast backed by a powerful screenplay secured this movie 6 oscar nominations this year. I always liked Grant Heslov as an actor, ever since "Faisil" in TrueLies but now, his screenwriting skills are starting to grab serious attention. Probably that's why he has frequently collaborated George Clooney in his production ventures.

This movie is all about Murrow taking on Mccarthy,more like Man vs Mammoth. Murrow's investigative reporting exposes Senator Joe Mccarthy's undemocratic and often victimising tactics on the supposed "communist sympathisers " that directly lead to Senate hearings which caused McCarthy's censure.

This movie, entirely B&W, may not appeal to all english audiences but is a pleasant change from all the other Oscar nominations.

Indian broadcast media can learn a thing or two about responsible jounalism from this movie.

The nail in the coffin..for the worst weekend ever..

The weekend began with a horrible choice of movie for Friday night horror ..and then I had a gastronomist's nightmare in Saturday night feast from the east. Then came the last straw..watching the oscar winner "Capote"..on sunday to sum up my perfect weekend gone wrong.

When your beloved cousin and movie buff from far and away extols the performance of Philip Seymour Hoffman (the same guy whose performance in The Talented Mr Ripley(1999) raised eyebrows all around!) in her top ranked blog you simply dont want to be left behind. So here I was, in front of my TV eagerly awaiting "Sandra Bullock" on screen playing the famous Nelle Harper Lee, as the blog read.

You can forgive Capote's nasal alabama accent & forget Sandra Bullock ( for the role was played by Catherine Keener, Oscar nominated for the same ) , but simply can't follow why something like this was made into a movie when the subject matter of the movie - his book "In cold blood" was neither the first nor the best non-fiction that he ever wrote. It was only befitting that PS Hoffman played the gay, reclusive & eccentric Capote with that beautiful lisping voice of his! Not surprising he got nominated and rewarded with the Oscar, going by the kind odd & offbeat themes that draw attention these days!

My cousin is only thanking God that she is far & away......from me.

Help me! , Chan Hew !!

'Look Before you Leap'
..One should think carefully about the possible results or consequences before doing something.

Why not rephrase this famous idiom to guide the unguided epicureans and gastronomists like me, somewhat like this:

" Taste before you Waste", or maybe,
" Sip before you gulp"

A total vegetarian, who freaks out on pasta & cheese and hates anything with coconut, chilli, groundnut or garlic, should find absolutely no place in "THAI BAN"(even if half the place is empty on a weekend!)

Lessons learned:

1.Thai food is not for everyone.
2.Cocunut milk , garlic & crushed groundnut form the paste or gravy for almost all the thai recipes.
3. For something that looks like a liquefied version of our own desi "aviyal" you dont have to call it "Kaeng phak", pay through the nose and still end up hungry (and finally attain satiety within the 4 walls of your home, from the delicious food made by your own Thai (mother)!)
4.Thai food is not for everyone.

One bite and forever bitter!


P.S:
"Chan Hew" in Thai means " Im Hungry"

The History of Silence

This is what you will precisely learn after going through the pain of watching this latest offering from David Cronenberg, also known as the King of Venereal Horror. The History of Violence might not necessarily rank even a 5 on Mr Cronenberg's horror scale of 1 -10. Nevertheless, it manages to retire you into a state of eerie silence, as you wonder why you chose to spend your Saturday night amidst shotguns,smut and screams on the first place when anything else on earth would have proved better.

Well.. I had my own reasons! Its been long since the one and only Aragorn of the LOTR trilogy- Viggo Mortensen had played lead in any movie and I did not want to miss that. Secondly, a fellow aragorn-buff who also happened to be a good friend of mine until I watched this movie, suggested this as a psycho thriller. I was swayed by the above mentioned facts and in the process I totally forgot to read between the lines... "MPAA: Rated R for strong brutal violence, graphic sexuality, nudity, language and some drug use". For someone who cant tolerate a drop of fake blood on screen, this movie was like Munich & Basic instinct rolled into one. Definitely not my cup of tea. And as far as Viggo is concerned, he has made his statement clear.." He look!, I can fight the sword and pull the trigger with same ease" .

I'm not leading you thru the plot or the cast. Silence is golden.

Hey Aragorn..thanks!! but no thanks!!!

"The buck stops here"

Salman Khan saw that signboard and made a pittstop for the black buck during his hunting expedition in the pink city way back in 1998. Rajastan has always been a hunting ground for the tourists, not to mention celebrities from the world of cinema and sports. Tiger pataudi & his hunt club were also accused of killing a black buck in a "Wild Life Santuctuary last year, what with the carcass recovered from his Gypsy.

Sallu has always maintained his Bad Boy image outside the Film industry....Poaching, Hit & Run, Stalking ex-beaus, inebriated phone calls..

What suprised everyone was that the Court handed down one of the stiffest verdicts - RI for 5 years for poaching of protected species of animals, while still not convicted for the midnight manslaughter on wheels that he committed 4 years back. So while his loyalists and moviemakers (who have signed him and currently burning their fingers from both the ends) question the harshness of court's verdict, the common man knows his nemesis was long overdue!

Now out on a bail, he is supposed to have told the press that the prision conditions were awful and was no way like in the movies, this, after spending only 3 nights with royal treatment.Apparently, none of his family or friends ever told this enfantre terrible that real life killing leads you behind real life bars! Get out of the Dream World, boy!! and guide the next in line....

Lyrics that blow me away

I can't deny that I love every bit of Kurt Cobain's song writing. But , I also have a few of my personal favorites from
certain other rock / alternative bands.  Its generally the lyrics with melancholic imprints and that absorb me. Probably
the result of grunge excess, I try to extract grunge from other genres!

1.  " Nothing Else Matters" by Metallica
2.  " King of Pain" by Sting/Police
3.  " Like a stone"by Audio Slave
4.  " Reason" by Hoobastank
5.  "In the End" by Linkin' Park
6.  "Down Incognito" by Winger
7.  " Enjoy the silence" by Depeche Mode
8.  " The day I tried to live" by Soundgarden
9.  "Only happy when it rains" by Garbage

This one in particular , is a great one from Dave Pirner:

Soul Asylum's "Misery" :

They say misery loves company
We could start a company and make misery

"Frustrated, incorporated"
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you’d pay to see

Put me out of my misery
I’d do it for you, would you do it for me
We will always be busy making misery

We could build a factory and make misery
We’ll create the cure; we made the disease

"Frustrated, incorporated"
"Frustrated, incorporated"
Well I know just what you need
I might just have the thing
I know what you’d pay to feel

Put me out of my misery
All you suicide kings and you drama queens
Forever after happily, making misery

Did you satisfy your greed,
Get what you need
Was it only envy, so empty

Frustrated, incorporated
Frustrated, incorporated

put me out of my misery
I’d do it for you, would you do it for me
forever after happily (forever left in half-belief)
making misery

Moonlighting or what?

Heard an awful lot about moonlighting..but was totally taken aback by this one. Some days back, I read in a local tabloid that a female student of hotel management, from a middle class family was part-timing as a shoe shine girl at Bandra Railway Station. What more, she had no expertise of shining shoes and did nor possess a valid licence to operate off the station platform.

She did this not for a few bucks more or for personifying women's lib but for the sheer thrill of it.And I thought "Out-of -the-box Thinking" was the domian of the esoteric intelligentsia.

Its a different matter that she was forced out of this job by cops as she was "drawing much too attention" and "causing public nuisance".

Return of the Jackal...

Reservation- Noun
"The act of reserving (a place or passage) or engaging the services of (a person or group)".The written record or promise of an arrangement by which accommodations are secured in advance.

Synonymous with:
Insecurities
Doubts
Incertitudes
Dubiousness
Questions
Qualifications
Flip Sides
Arrière pensée

All these thoughts are provoked by the recent statemets of the HRD Minister which portend the return of mediocrity in our Education Institutions, some of which have risen in status into top 10 of the world.
I join many a Indian youth who have come together to raise their voice against the Mandal Redux. Sample this.

What a day

Sunday is supposed to be the rest day for the denizens of the working world. I have a 5-day week so the weekend mood sets in pretty early..Friday afternoon to be precise.The weekend hangover lasts till Monday afternoon or 5 doses of tea from the office-pantry, whichever happens earlier.

While saturdays are demarcated as "home-work" day, Sunday is the true off-day! "Sun" day which is equivalent to "Ravi" war in hindustani probably meant respite from the sun or a day on which you could take a sun-bath and get youself a tan. Either ways one is not supposed to exert energy or extract labour for the human body needs a break from routine.However, all this never applied to the traditional housewife,mind you.(Forming 50% of our population, she works all day, on all days and yet is not considered a part of our GDP simply because its non -remunerative or unquantifyable? How ironic ,for selfless service!)


The point I wanted to make was that I violated this cardinal rule today-a sunday and faced the music. Instead of lazing around in my Ezeechair,I went around the house gathering things to discard, much to the annoyance of "the others" in the house. This is because there is a huge generation gap between us in arriving at what items to weed out. I belong to a generation which believes that nothing is older than yesterday' newspaper while the others believe in "old is gold". We arrived at a certain amount of consensus waste and made the day for our raddiwala. I added more room to my balcony by discarding all the cardboard boxes of 29 ich TV, AC et al the others were diligently trying to preserve.

Overjoyed, I went on a cleaning spree and my hyperactive self soon reached the pinnacle when I accidentally broke my ten year old vacuum cleaner into million pieces ( a.l.a Gimli,the son of Gloin's ax at the fellowship meeting). The others might attribute this to work evasion technique for the weeks to come, but I take it as another junk out of the house! Of course, I had to face the animated animadversion for an hour but did I ever care?



P.s: This post has nothing to do with the others.