March 31, 2006

Remember, remember, the fifth of November


Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. There is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof. -v

My cousin, shoeb and I raced to the theater on his friend's bike. The show would start at 2:45. At 2:38 pm we were filling up the bike's tank. And at exactly 2:40 pm we were skidding, literally. The bike skid for approximately 10 seconds. Now that's a really long time in skidding-time. But none of us got hurt, inclusive of the bike. We even got complimented for the control over the bike. We arrived bang on 2:45. I ran over to the ticket counter, got two tickets (nice seats). And we ran to the IMAX screen. The show had not yet started.

The movie begins with the capture and hanging of Guy Fawkes, with the Guy Fawkes Rhyme going in the background. Then we see Vendetta wearing his mask and Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) doing her makeup. And then I switched off my cell and watched a Classic.


The mov
ie is great. I don't see why Joblo.com gave it an 8/10. I'd give it 9. The screenplay is tight. All V dialogues and quotes are memorable. The scene where V introduces himself to Evey is excellent. Great intro. It feels weird at first watching V. Words coming out of a mask. And all his movements that compliments those words. Really weird.


The movie was inspiring not strong though, but just. And every word spoken by V makes the movie worth seeing for the second and even third time. The movie wasn't boring for a second. The only part which took the 1 out of 10 is the capture of Evey. You gotta see the movie to understand what I am saying. The cinematography is awesome. The falling blocks sequence (which you can see in the super bowl clip) is excellent. And yes there is a whole lotta wachowski in the movie. Bullet-time. Some scenes look very matrix-ish. But McTeigue does stand out on his own as a director.

The soundtrack is damn good. Specially the songs playing on V's jukebox, including Julie London's cry me a river. The count of monte cristo footage was excellent. And the Shadow Gallery was great too.

Overall a Classic if not Cult. Hugo Weaving as V was perfect, there isn't a better actor for this role. Natalie Portman outdoes herself. Specially in the jail part. Stephen Rea is good too. This is a must-see for anyone who loves a good movie. Not exactly an action movie, more of a political thriller. And yes it is truly Orwell-ish.

And you should see this movie.

No. Never download it. That's piracy. lol. No, seriously go and see Vendetta in a theater. You can wait for the DVD but I'd still see it in a theater. See it with a clear head and you'll have a much different movie experience than the rest of the audience. It will be like nothing you have ever seen. And remember A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having. Well, that line was actually irrelevant but you can't help but quote V.


P.S.: The RED Vs are courtesy of Joblo.com

March 30, 2006

Freedom! Forever!


V for Vendetta is now playing on the IMAX screen at Prasad's. I have already booked my tickets for the 2:45 show and am damn sure we are gonna rock, my cousin and I. Will give a huge review when I return.

In other news, Joblo.com has just reviewed the Good Night, and Good Luck DVD. Very enlightening review. Makes me wanna buy the DVD right now. But who knows maybe there's a SE or Collector's Edition in the making. So will wait and see.

Until then Good night, and Good luck.


P.S: Check out these artwork from Vendetta.


Animal Farm

And I discovered George Orwell. I read 1984. I read it like, 1984 times. And I looked up Amazon for his complete bibliography and I decided to buy anything "Orwell" the next time I go to a bookstore.

And whoosh!

The George Orwell books I used to see in every bookstore and every roadside stall vanished. It's like when I want a book all people want that book. It always happens. Always with my current favorite. So as I boarded my train to Chennai, and Lo Behold. Higginbotham's! Official bookseller on the Indian railway stations. I left my compartment and went over to the mobile stall. And right there among magazines, Indian comics, Telugu novels, cheap erotic thrillers, newspapers and other English novels.

Animal Farm.

The book is pure Orwell-ish satire. The whole animalism metaphor is so perfectly done that you can't help but see the whole communist idealism behind it. I read the short yet powerful fairy story all the way to Chennai. After reading 1984 again and again I've already got a nice idea of how Orwell's satires work. Animal Farm showed a lot of similarity with 1984. From its base of Socialism/Communism to its characters.

Animal Farm seemed to me like a prequel to 1984. Its basic ideology was similar to 1984 that is Socialism/Communism. The characters of the Manor Farm have much akin to those of 1984. To begin the pigs, I felt, changed to the PARTY in 1984. The pig, Snowball, turned into Goldstein the traitor. The pig, Napoleon turned into Big Brother.

The best part of the book was the last. At half-past the book I knew what the end would be. But still the part where all the farm animals see the pigs walking on two legs was really apprehensive. And the end was even better.

George Orwell has described Animal Farm as a Fairy Story. And certainly it is like a fairy story, but the mixed metaphor is hard to leave out of your mind. The representation of the revolution of the workers against their master is not a part of fiction. It is but true that the origins of a similar revolution always were and will always be the same as in this satirical writing. Yea sure this is a fairy story. But this little fairy tale has turned on to truth once before and will do so indefinitely.

March 29, 2006

Not-So-Live and Exclusive From SXSE


Un viaggiatore prudente non disprezza mai il suo paese
(
A wise traveler never despises his own country)

One thing I always do when I travel out of my city is comparing the destination city to my own. And this comparison leads to one conclusion. My city is the best. I haven't travelled like Marco Polo or some. In all of 23 years I've been to just 4 cities. Bangalore, Mysore, Delhi, and Chennai. I've also been out of India but that was when I was too young to even spell out the place I've been to. So that doesn't count. And out of all the 4 great cities I've been to only Bangalore came close to Hyderabad. But that's a different story, so enough of that. Now to Chennai.


Chennai is one of the biggest Metropolitan cities in India. It is also the capital city of the state of Tamilnadu, which is just below my home-state, Andhra Pradesh. Throughout the train-travel I did what I do best, clicking pictures and reading. The pictures came out nice. And the reading came out nicer. The book - Animal Farm by George Orwell (Read my views here).


I arrived on the Chennai Central Station on 24th March at 7:30 AM. Arriving, I got myself to some work that I had in Chennai. Chennai happens to be the city of my ancestors, that is my Great-Grandfather and many before him. So I was bound to camp at one of my relative's. Anyway, after-work I slept off half the day. Had lunch. Had dinner. Slept.

Next day. Hit the beach. 6:00 AM. Don't know swimming. So just stood in the waves. :D


Took some great pics at the Beach. And that's it.


Yea. That's what all enjoyed about Chennai. Other than enjoying the beaches of Chennai I spent my whole week visiting relations in and around Chennai. What a waste of time. I got to eat a lot. Actually much more than home. The people there literally fill you up till your necks with food. And then they fill some more.


I ate a lot of sea food. I never ate that in Hyderabad. I gobbled up prawns and fishes. I wiped out boxes of famous Chennai sweets, Dum ka Rote (or something like that).

I never got to see all those gadget-shops people talked about here. I also roamed around the city and also went to the Chennai Citi Centre (its still under construction) and the Spencer's Plaza. Some malls. I went to Landmark to find a nice book (was looking for v for vendetta graphic novel), but I found none. I checked out the DVDs but none of the collections impressed me.

Overall, Chennai was a great place but should visit in winter-end. And avoid relatives who plan to feed till you burst.

That's All Folks! Gotta lose some weight.


P.S.: Will be posting links to Flickr! sets soon.

March 21, 2006

SXSE: South by Southeast

No. It's not about SXSW. I ain't that lucky to go SXSW. It's about going South by SouthEast. Chennai.

Tomorrow I'll be leaving for Chennai. Will be there for a week or so. Most probably I will be back by 29th, hopefully. Apart from the Beach (read: crowded place surrounded by water on one side) I'll be hitting the China Market over there, maybe will buy me some CF cards, a good 1GB card will work gr8 with my Canon Powershot A80. 1GB = 700 pics approx. (1024 x 768 that is).



While I'm gone, do check out: My Amazon Wishlist, My Other Blog, My Flickr (Chennai pics will be there). Also check out V For Vendetta in the nearest IMAX/Cinema. We are not lucky over here. It's not yet released in India.

Do come back to this page again, will be posting photos and videos from Chennai, ASAP. By ASAP I mean as soon as I can get a PC hooked up to the net. Till then its Adios.

P.S. And PLEASE do not forget to COMMENT.

Kal El Returns ... 06.30.06



Even though you've been raised as a human being you're not one of them.
-
They can be a great people Kal-El if they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. For this reason, above all, their capacity for good, I have sent them you... my only son.
-
Just listening to these words on the backdrop of the first ever trailer for Superman Returns makes me think of how iconic Superman really is. The understructure for my iconic image of Superman is definitely the excellent final conversation of Bill (A.K.A. Snake Charmer) and Beatrix Kiddo (A.K.A The Bride, A.K.A. Black Mamba). Yea, the one about Superheroes and Superman metaphor. For those of you who weren't nice enough to check it out or probably too stupid to ignore the excellent convo in the movie Kill Bill Vol.2, here's some basic recollection.

The conversation is about superheroes and their Alter Egos. About how Superman is unlike any other Superhero. How?

This is how.

Superman is Superman. He isn't a by-product of some scientific research like Spiderman or some rich guy hitting it for revenge like Batman. He is Kal El, Son of Jor El, from the Planet Krypton. He is Superman. Unlike Peter Parker/Bruce Wayne etc., his alter ego isn't some super-powerful hero. His alter ego is a bumbling reporter, Clark Kent, who's weak and afraid like any human. And that's why Superman seems so iconic to me.

He isn't just about Justice and the American Way. He is more. His weakness and his fear tells more about us humans and his real-self tells us even more of how much we humans can rise up to.

So rise up. Fly to the nearest Cinema near you and get those tickets before they are taken. Kal El Returns. 06.30.06

March 15, 2006

Of Theme-ing and Scheme-ing

Busy theming out Wordpress. The idea, is to get this blog from Blogger to Wordpress and from blogspot servers to my own server. For all Blogger-fans. This flip has nothing to do with Blogger. Blogger is a damn great service and my other blog will stay on Blogger ever. The flip comes in with the need for a content management system for the whole website. Although I can do manage content on blogger but I have come to understand Wordpress a lot. And Wordpress seems a lot more better choice for a CMS. The reasons are apparent enough.
  1. Great Interface.
  2. Theme-ing, Piece of Cake.
  3. New webpage creation, damn easy. (Click-Write-Publish)
  4. Editing is fantastic, with timestamp editing I can write today for day before yesterday.
  5. And a lot more reasons that I've not yet come to pass...
As i write this entry I have completed the theme and am tweaking the code for IE/Windows. I am trying to use every design technique I know/like on this theme.

I got a wooden background for this one. Writing up the theme was so nice, I have decided to skim up a few more themes for the Wordpress Codex. Back to design, I got the same old (read: trusty) centered, two-column, fixed-width layout. Dark Brown + White. With Automatic Lab's Image Rotator spewing out random header images you will get ... random header images. Also trying for the first time, sIFR (Scalable Inman Flash Replacement), Mike Davidson's open source Text-Flash Replacement technique based on Shaun Inman's IFR. Until now, it's all in good times. Although the sIFR is giving some trouble, I'll make do without it for few days.

The code, hopefully, will be valid and accessible and will try not to eat up bandwidth. And I lack a .com and am living on excellent free hosting services provided by AddYour. Cos being here in India, domains and web hosting are quite an investment for a budding freelancer like me. With domains starting at 495 of our Indian currency and hosting hitting hard at 1500 rupees, dollars seems so low for the first time. Dollars happen to work great with domains because I can get 2 years of domain registered for the amount of one. With iPower giving out domains at $2.95 an annum, i.e. approx. 130 Indian Rupees, I can get meself a domain too.

But the problem is my Credit Card which doesn't work internationally. But through the power of the web I got myself a Paypal account. So all you good people shell out something for this guy, and who knows you might get a website redesign all free of cost. Or, maybe, at a low cost. So click the little donation button down under as fast as you can spell I.



March 05, 2006

DVD Coolness

Ladies and Gentlemen, presenting MY DVD COLLECTION (in no order, as such).

  • The Godfather Part I
  • The Shawshank Redemption
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [Extended Edition]
  • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [Extended Edition]
  • The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
  • Casablanca
  • The Pink Panther
  • Scarface
  • Raging Bull
  • Amadeus
  • The Shining
  • Taxi Driver
  • Seven
  • Troy
  • Big Fish
  • Hero
  • Reservoir Dogs
  • Kill Bill Vol.1
  • Donnie Darko
  • Fight Club
  • Memento
  • The Machinist
  • American History X
  • Oldboy
  • Pi
  • Y Tu Mamá También
  • Diarios de motocicleta
  • Trainspotting
  • Layer Cake
  • The Girl Next Door [Unrated]
  • Ocean's Eleven
  • Ocean's Twelve
  • What the *Bleep* Do We Know

March 03, 2006

Choke Yourself!


I love Chuck Palahniuk's work, although I've only read Fight Club and a few other online write ups. He, i believe, is the Quentin Tarantino of writing. So, anyway, the news/rumor that is making rounds these days is that Chuck Palahniuk's CHOKE is being made into a movie. The scoop came up at AICN, the scooper seems to have heard about the movie from Chuck himself while interviewing him. But i guess we have to wait for something from the film makers themselves. The team behind the hellblazer movie, Constantine are supposed to be hooked with Susan Sarandon as the mother of Victor Mancini, the lead character. As for Victor Mancini himself, Oscar-Nominee, Heath Ledger and Ryan Gosling are hoping to star.

Choke is the story of med-school dropout Victor Mancini, an anti-hero of our deranged times. He is a con artist who works in a colonial-era theme park by the day, visits his addled mother, and frequents "sexual addiction recovery" workshops to pick up dates. His scam, is to choke on his food in upscale restaurants and then allowing himself to be "saved" by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, go on to send checks to support him.