Rocky Balboa

Call it cheesy, silly, yearning-for-the-good-old-days-ish, but I found this quite motivating. And God knows I need all the motivation I can get right now.

Calling developers

Anyone here interested in creating a site that is a combination of orkut and monster.com and has a lot of other cool features too? Kindly drop comment. Brokers excuse.

Find of the day

About the Do Not Call Registry websites for Indian banks. Hope it works, though.

Evil thought - what if it was a clever way to harvest phone numbers?!

Omkara

Absolutelifabulous! I was totally blown away by the film, left the theater wanting to watch it again. And again, perhaps.

Almost everything about the movie is perfect - the direction, acting, music, cinematography, screenplay, dialogues and Bipasha Basu. The only let down, sorry to say, is Ajay Devgan. He puts in his usual restrained and understated performance, which makes you want to give him a kick and ask him to make a frigging statement at least once, for crying out loud! Although Kaliyattam and Omkara are both brilliant movies that stand alone in their own right, one can't help but feel Suresh Gopi's performance was way better than Devgan's. It won him a national award, too.

Enough has been said and written about Saif Ali Khan as Langda Iago Tyagi. Yes, it's true, boys and girls. He is fantastic in the movie, and not just because he (and Konkona) get the best lines.

Last, there is a very obvious John Ford / Sergio Leone influence right through the movie. The whole look and feel is that of a western, from the opening frame to the final cut, when the bodies keep piling up.

Yup, loved it.

Movie Meme

Because I am bored depressed.

The rules: No rules. Rankings/lists liable to change without notice or fanfare, though. A tip of the hat (We dont need no stinking hats) to for the idea.

My Top Five Most Watched Movies of all time

1. Sholay
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
3. Pulp Fiction
4. Manichitrathazhu
5. Shrek

Top Five Feel Good / Cheer Me Up / Anti Depressant Movies I can think of

1. Rocky
2. The Shawshank Redemption
3. Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar
4. Andaz Apna Apna
5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Top Five feel like shit / life sucks / ultra-depressing movies I can think of

1. Kireedam
2. Bandit Queen
3. Thaniyavarthanam
4. Moondram Pirai
5. Elipathayam (why are most movies on this list Malayalam?)

Top Five Funny Movies of all time

1. Some Like It Hot
2. Andaz Apna Apna
3. Angoor
4. Poochakkoru Mookkuthy
5. Ramji Rao Speaking

Top Five Romantic Movies of all time

1. When Harry Met Sally
2. Before Sunset
3. Alai Payuthe
4. Abhiman
5. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

Top Five Action Movies of all time

1. Enter the Dragon
2. Terminator 2: Judgement Day
3. Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha
4. Die Hard
5. Speed

Top Five Thrillers of all time

1. Psycho
2. The Shining
3. Silence of the Lambs
4. Aliens
5. Vertigo

Ever dance with the devil in the pale moonlight?

Might be a bit too early to say for sure, but reports say that Heath Ledger is the new Joker. Let the Brokeback Batman jokes commence.

Mumbai Help

Looks like a pretty comprehensive site.

Krrish

Ok, the visual effects weren't too bad. If you avoided looking for the original movies they were internalized from, that is. And Hrithik isn't half bad, either.

That said...


Rekha plays a granny who nourishes kid Krishna by feeding him BOURNVITA every day. She dutifuly cleans his clothes with TIDE, thus making sure he can wear dresses from SIYARAM. She is flabbergasted to know the boy is a genius. She learns this by eavesdropping on an IQ test conducted by five learned people at Krishna's school.

Learned Person: "What is Amount?"
Krishna, the boy genius: "Principal plus Interest is Amount"

Devastated by this astonishing display of brilliance, one strand of hair on Rekha's head turns gray.

Cut to scene of a horse called Toofan, running like the wind. Cut to the shoes on Krishna's feet. Cut to rippling muscles, to long wavy hair, to Hrithik horsing around. Ta-da! The boy genius has turned into a combination of Johnny Weismuller and Chow Yun Fat.

A Tarzan-meets-Jane interlude later, our hero rushes off to Singapore to sing a few songs and model for the Singapore Tourism industry and STAR TV. A few kids are caught in a circus fire, our intrepid hero rushes to the rescue wearing a cast-off trenchcoat from Neo and a half bitten mask from Catwoman. Ta-da! He is now Krrish, the darrling of the masses.

Unbeknownst to Krrish, enter a scheming villain called Dr Arya (Naseeruddin Shah), who is out to create a super-computer that combines the powers of astronomy, astrology and Google Earth to predict the future. You predict the future by placing your hand on a glass table and moving a few fancy graphical images around. You know it's your future because you can see yourself in a big screen in front of you. You can also see your wife, your mother, your newly born son and if needed, you can see your killer as well. Naseer fails to realize that the future is irreversible and tries to kill Krrish, thus indicating that despite being a super genius, he's never watched a single Hindi movie in his life.

Grranny meets her son, her son meets his son, his son marries the love of his life and Preity Zinta has the last laugh.

Highly rrecommended, especially if you wanted to catch the Arrgentina - Mexico match and was wondering how to stay up late.

AFI's 100 Most Inspirational Movies of All Time

1-IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
2-TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
3-SCHINDLER'S LIST
4-ROCKY
5-MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON
6-E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL
7-THE GRAPES OF WRATH
8-BREAKING AWAY
9-MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET
10-SAVING PRIVATE RYAN
11-THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES
12-APOLLO 13
13-HOOSIERS
14-THE BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI
15-THE MIRACLE WORKER
16-NORMA RAE
17-ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST
18-THE DIARY OF ANNE FRANK
19-THE RIGHT STUFF
20-PHILADELPHIA
21-IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT
22-THE PRIDE OF THE YANKEES
23-THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
24-NATIONAL VELVET
25-SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS
26-THE WIZARD OF OZ
27-HIGH NOON
28-FIELD OF DREAMS
29-GANDHI
30-LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
31-GLORY
32-CASABLANCA
33-CITY LIGHTS
34-ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN
35-GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER
36-ON THE WATERFRONT
37-FORREST GUMP
38-PINOCCHIO
39-STAR WARS
40-MRS. MINIVER
41-THE SOUND OF MUSIC
42-12 ANGRY MEN
43-GONE WITH THE WIND
44-SPARTACUS
45-ON GOLDEN POND
46-LILIES OF THE FIELD
47-2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY
48-THE AFRICAN QUEEN
49-MEET JOHN DOE
50-SEABISCUIT
51-THE COLOR PURPLE
52-DEAD POET'S SOCIETY
53-SHANE
54-RUDY
55-THE DEFIANT ONES
56-BEN-HUR
57-SERGEANT YORK
58-CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
59-DANCES WITH WOLVES
60-THE KILLING FIELDS
61-SOUNDER
62-BRAVEHEART
63-RAIN MAN
64-THE BLACK STALLION
65-A RAISIN IN THE SUN
66 -SILKWOOD
67-THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL
68-AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN
69-THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS
70-COAL MINER'S DAUGHTER
71-COOL HAND LUKE
72-DARK VICTORY
73-ERIN BROCKOVICH
74-GUNGA DIN
75-THE VERDICT
76-BIRDMAN OF ALCATRAZ
77-DRIVING MISS DAISY
78-THELMA & LOUISE
79-THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
80-BABE
81-BOYS TOWN
82-FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
83-MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
84-SERPICO
85-WHAT'S LOVE GOT TO DO WITH IT
86-STAND AND DELIVER
87-WORKING GIRL
88-YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
89-HAROLD AND MAUDE
90-HOTEL RWANDA
91-THE PAPER CHASE
92-FAME
93-A BEAUTIFUL MIND
94-CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS
95-PLACES IN THE HEART
96-SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER
97-MADAME CURIE
98-THE KARATE KID
99-RAY
100-CHARIOTS OF FIRE

Nice list, but I would have rated Shawshank much higher. Lots of stuff to watch..

Yayati

That dude had it good.

The voyage home

Over the atlantic again. Can't wait to get to Bangalore. Have a 2 day stopover at Chennai though - work! Damn.

Narcissist Nair

This was taken at the fort at St Augustine, Florida. Apparently the oldest city town in the US.



At Daytona Beach, Florida



At the pier at Flagler County, Florida.



The pier again. Don't miss the rainbow.

The clouds, the sea, the beach

Told you it was a wonderful evening. 

Flag at Flaglers

I'm so proud of myself. Really neat pic, eh? Eh? 

Pier, Flager County

It was a great evening, really. Cool wind, the sea and a rainbow at the back. 

With a few good buddies

Kramer won, I think. 

Cannonball Run

Next to a cannon on the fort at St Augustine. 

Fort at St Augustine

Very Dil Se. 

X-Men: The Last Stand

Thoughts:

Heh heh heh. Now to see Wolverine kick the shit out of those guys (Current Mood: excited)

Ooooh. So that's what she looks like without the blue paste (Current Mood: impressed)

What the hell! He dies? (Current Mood: confused)

Ha ha ha! The Golden Gate bridge! Ha ha ha! (Current Mood: enthralled)

Jean Grey. Oh my god, Jean Grey! (Current Mood: awed)

***

Was good fun, really. Story wise, the first two were better of course. And hey, please sit through the entire movie, right through the credits. The FULL credits.

In the water now

Feet wet, finally. 

Near the water

About to get my feet wet... 

Restaurant at the pier, Daytona Beach

Evening at Daytona. 

Outside the Museum

The museum had an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Interesting stuff. 

Daytona Beach

Chilling out at Daytona Beach. 

Updates from the past few days

Yesterday was Wednesday. Nothing special. Opened a restroom door to find big lady inside, sitting on the throne. Lady yelled, I whoopsed and went into the other restroom. Was peeing when the door opened. Skinny lady this time. Lady went whoops, I went eeks. Have been carefully avoiding all unisex loos since.

Isn't-saying-much statement of the century, after watching The Da Vinci Code on Tuesday: The book was better.

Wednesday again. This lady does a presentation on the Change Management System used by the customer I'm visiting. Towards the end, she has a slide on the benefits of using the system, along with a picture of a cash register. I smile and say,"Oh, good one. Change management system, huh?". Lady blinks twice, doesn't get it. Smart boss lady to my right starts laughing. Joke explained to presenter lady, she says she is going to use that line in all her future presentations. I ask for royalties.

I am not a nice person. Fact. And that is unrelated to the above anecdotes.

Daytona Beach, Florida

At Daytona Beach, close to Palm Coast, Florida. Felt a bit awkward walking around there in office wear.

Guess who came to dinner

The meat that you see is alligator! A specialty of Florida, apparently. And oh, the alligators eat people too, so everyone's happy.

Madhav McFly

1955, here i come. 

Jaws

Look what I caught! 

Shrek Posters

A poster on the walls of the Shrek theme show. 

Universal Studios, Orlando

About to enter Universal Studios, Orlando. It was very hot. 

Hard Rocker

Inside the Hard Rock Cafe, Orlando. 

Hard Rock Cafe

Outside the Hard Rock Cafe, Orlando. 

Feedback loop

Just curious: did any of you guys take up my movie suggestions? Did you like what I recommended?

Reed River Park

Nice, quiet place. In constrant to a lot of the city parks you see in the US, this one looks very natural. They have actually built the park around the stream and the rocks, not the reverse. The photo above is the view from the top of the bridge, the one below is a view of the bridge.


The person in the shadows there is Raji.

 

The man who shot the man who shot JFK

Since I've nothing better to do on a Sunday morning, I'm trying to learn a new programming language.

Sigh.

Yeah, talk about plumbing the depths.

And in Room 317...

Inside the room, monkeying around with the camera. This was today morning, just before I left for breakfast.

Postcards From Greenville, SC

They close up part of Main Street on Friday evenings and put up stalls selling beer and hot dogs. A jazz band plays nearby, in front of the Hyatt hotel. I didn't quite see what the fuss was all about, really. Moreover, the beer was Budweiser Light, one of the most pathetic beers in the world. I just moved on after taking a few snaps.



Thought this was a mosque, at first glance. Interesting design. There are lots of churches here, just 100 metres apart. They don't call this the Bible Belt for nothing. 



Another church, thought the design was different enough to post about.



I had a couple of tacos here for dinner, washed down with a Mexican beer called Modelo. Not too bad, really.