Celebrity Apprentice

I tuned in out of sheer curiosity….I barely recognized most of the people on it. I am totally mystified as to why Omarosa is back - is she really that deluded that she thinks any good can come out of her appearances on this show or TV or anywhere else for that matter. Nothing new came out of the show really - Omarosa is still bitchy - playmates are not allowed to be modest and Gene Simmons has brains….Yawn!

Movie Review: Pulse (2006) (Spoilers)

I was really bored yesterday, so we decided to get a movie on-demand - the concept of this indie film called “Pulse” seemed interesting, so we watched. Consider this a PSA - don not watch this movie unless you want something really funny instead of the horror movie the movie tries to be.

Briefly, the story is that some “hacker” kids working on a “telecom” project accidentally discover new frequencies that allow ghosts to escape and come back into our world. The ghosts then suck the spirit out of you and you get addicted to the internet….OK, I made up the last few words, but the subtext underlying the movie is that everyone is so addicted to technology, they are not relating to other humans…illustrated to an irnocally hilarious effect, when the heroine is being chased by demons coming out of her cell phone - the genius that she is, she keeps checking the cell phone for signal (lost signal means lost demons) instead of simply throwing it out of the car.

There are some hilarious incidents like a dead boyfriend sending IMs to the heroine…she suspects someone broke into his computer…huh? I had no idea I could use my IM account only on my computer…I was naive enough to think anybody could log in from anywhere with the right username/password.

Seriously, the movie is a “tech” movie made for people of two generations ago - it has a computer into which the hero downloads a virus…the computer then starts spewing…”system overload”…”system crashing”. Yep - apparently we just get the blue screen of death while movie computers actually warn people that they are in the process of crashing. Eminently forgettable, I say!

In the mail: Code Craft - The Practice of Writing Excellent Code

The book looks excellent - I have already gone through the chapters for error handling and testing. They seem very informative.

The only slight drawback I see here is that the book has been written keeping in mind developers from all languages - C, C++, Java, C# - what have you, so essentially you are reading a few things going, “how often does that happen to me?” or finding a few things completely irrelevant to what you work with - case in point, the advice to make sure your function parameters always match the signature - Java, the language I work with doesn’t allow you to do that - it won’t compile.

Such nit-picking aside, it is turning out to be a great read. More as I complete it.

Art over emotion?

Here is an article I found via Instapundit….
A Chilling Photograph’s Hidden History - WSJ.com

“Our play was fabulous,” exults Mr. DeSantis, now retired. “It was a once in a lifetime…. Like it was a movie set. One guy kneeling, aiming. One guy falling. A mass execution.”

Thos words somehow disturbed me. For a moment, there is more of a naked triumph of a score in the words - there is no horror at the situation - no condemnation of an atrocity - no judgment - no feeling….

Is it really that important to have done something unique when you are so focused on it that you have forgotten your human empathy?

Justice and the Criminal Lawyer

Dilip brought it to my attention as a comment to a post below, that the Jessica Lal case accused is now being represented by Ram Jethmalani - one of the most famous criminal defenders in India - Jethmalani wants Jessica case transferred to another court - News.Indlaw.com. I think my first reaction honestly, would have been an eye-roll saying, “here he goes again!”, referring to Jethmalani. He is of course, quite famous for taking up high profile cases - defending those who were undefendable if you take the media’s word for it.

I actually think it is awesome that there is someone who wants to make sure there is not a trial by media, but an actual serving of justice where even a criminal gets his day in court represented by a competent lawyer. There is always the problem that only the rich can pay for representation like this, which also leads to the notion that Mr. Jetmalani takes bug bucks to set criminals free. Considering the sensationalistic nature and coverage of the current media, I appreciate lawyers like Mr.Jethmalani who will make sure there is no pile-on and a decent trial that wouldn’t convict someone of things they haven’t committed just because the media might have found a convenient scapegoat to make their story.

Movie Review: Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

Husband and I got really bored last night, so we thought we would cap the weekend out with a nice comedy. We ended up ordering the above movie On-Demand. I didn’t really have too many expectations from the movie except for a slight curiosity about how Albert Brooks did India…It was not very disappointing, if a little tiresome about the cliches and stereotypes. I think the premise was to play-off of stereotypes in the manner of I-will-laugh-at-my-stereotype-and-make-fun-of-yours… It is not offensive or anything, just a little used-up.

I had to explain Albert Brooks to my husband as Marlin in “Finding Nemo”, so it was pretty funny when Brooks has to constantly refer to the cartoon and his fish character when he is introducing himself around in India (Score one for Neel for making us watch Nemo). There is a lot of self-deprecatory humor as Brooks completely fails to see his audience and they fail to see him. Though funny for a little bit, things can get sketchy after a while since a lot of references Brooks tries to explain as not Indian have been around in India via Star and other English channels since more than a decade ago when I lived there. The audience surely knows enough about the stuff.

I was quite disappointed that there was no true interaction between Brooks and any Indians or Indian comedians except for the overly-fawning Maya. It might have been fun to see Brooks and a few Indian comedians riff on each other. I guess Brooks was more invested in the dumb-American-creates-problems-while-trying-to-orchestrate-peace schtick to actually involve his character more with the locals. India and for a little bit, Pakistan are only backdrops for Brooks’ one-man-show about Americans and so could have been interchanged with Afghanistan and Kazhakstan for all that they mattered.

Overall, there were definitely a few chuckle-worthy moments as were groan-inducers. A time-pass movie aimed primarily towards American elites who want to laugh at the dumb Americans, IMO.

Dog bites man!

So, have you heard of the 35,000 people marching against Iran’s maniac of a President yet? Yourish.com � 35,000 at a pro-Israel rally is not news…..Thought so! Read more at the link above to see why people don’t trust the MSM to provide them any kind of objective information anymore. I am personally not surprised at all that the media chose not to highlight a bunch of Jews protesting a Jew-hater…yawn!

Man bites dog - Rights group says abuses common in Pakistani Kashmir -

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A U.S.-based human rights group on Thursday accused Pakistani security forces of using torture and other rights abuses in Pakistan’s part of Kashmir.

“Most incidents of politically motivated torture recorded by Human Rights Watch involved the ISI, or the police acting on the military’s behalf,” Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report, referring to the military’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
[snip]
In the 71-page report on Pakistani Kashmir, HRW noted that there had been a reduction in infiltration of Islamist militants into Indian Kashmir, but it was still taking place.

“Most of those interviewed were of the view that though the level of infiltration had decreased substantially since 2004, there have been no indications that the Pakistani military or militant groups had decided to abandon infiltration as policy.”

The report said the Pakistani military still maintained a close relationship with the militant groups in Kashmir.

Voting to Kill - Review (Partial)

“Voting to Kill” by Jim Geraghty is a book that seeks to explain the transformation of the Democratic Party from the party of FDR, Truman and Kennedy to that of the perpetually anti-war party.

This book has been so engrossing so far (I am half-way through), I gotta say there have been very few non-fiction books that kept me turning the pages so fast. So far, Jim has covered Americans’ reaction to 9/11, Democrats and their actions on national security issues since 1968, Democrat and Republican reactions to 9/11, war in Afghanistan, elections in 2002, 2004 and the buildup to the war in Iraq. A pretty big list you say? It is and it is very well laid out with tons of cites that make me wish the book were in HTML format and I could simply click on the citations as links and read them.

I was really surprised as to how little I knew of American politics before the Clinton era. I am even more surprised as to how vividly I remember how disgusted I had felt at events like Cynthia McKinney’s shameless pandering to the Saudi Prince whose money Giuliani rightly rejected. There are numerous such instances mentioned in the book and each of them reminded me of my ill feelings towards the people who acted so obtusely those days. It almost makes me believe in Jim’s theory….that Democrats are digging their own graves as long as national security trumps all other issues for the general voting population.

New in reading list

I received “Voting to Kill” by Jim Geraghty in the mail yesterday for review. It started off pretty interesting so far…I am still reading the chapter on 9/11 and the effects on the general population. Will keep you posted in this entry as I read more of it.

Crash (2005) - Movie Review

Wow! I really don’t know how to describe this movie. I could say it is a study of race relations, racial tensions and emotions in America, but that would make the movie sounds too artsy and stodgy - something which this movie is completely not. (Now, “Birth” is another issue and might be the topic of another review). Crash in a nutshell is the story of a complete day in the lives of a lot of people living in LA, how their lives intersect through the day and in my husband’s words, “set off a chain reaction” that ultimately ends in the death of a black man.

The movie has pretty much every racial stereotype you can think of - Hispanic housekeeper, thuggish black people, racist white people, Chinese people who say “blake” for “brake” and illegal immigrants. There are Persian shopkeepers who think all Hispanics are out to cheat them - there are black guys who think the Whitey’s keeping them down - there are white people who think all black people are out to rob them. What keeps the movie from becoming a parody or a preachy lecture is the heart that the movie manages to find in it’s characters - the characters are all shades of gray - none really evil (well, maybe a couple who frame an innicent white cop so they can get the black vote).

I thought the most complex interesting characters were those of the black director(Terrence Howard) who thinks he has to shut up and let people walk over him so he can get on with his life - he doesn’t want to cause any ripples. He is too afraid to even speak up when Matt Dillon’s racist white cop (another very interesting character) pretends to search her while actually feeling up her skirt. He would rather stand there and let him and his wife be publicly humiliated than do something - all this pent-up frustration causes him to erupt at quite an unlikely time that puts his life in real jeopardy.

Matt Dillon’s portrayal of a racist cop seemed run-of-the-mill initially till you realize there are layers of empathy, frustration and hurt below his hard surface once you get to know him. It was commendable of the movie makers to not take any sides in the argument, but simply present the various sides of the race story. What got me were the scenes of confrontation between Thandie Newton who plays the wife humiliated by Matt Dillon and her husband. The wife is screaming at her husband in frustration - angry that he, her protector simply stood by and watched while she was being molested on a road by another man. She is humiliated not only for herself, but also for him that he couldn’t muster up the dignity to fight back. He, on the other hand is passive-aggressive and punishes the only person whom he can safely stand up to - his wife - by refusing to talk to her, and playing the martyr while at the same time choosing to ignore the fact that it was she who was molested and she, who is in greater pain than he could possibly be in.

Ryan Phillippe has an interesting little arc playing the honset sidekick to Matt Dillon who requests a reassignment since he cannot stand his partner’s racism, but in the end realizes there in inherent racism within himself too - whether he acknowledges it or not.

All in all, a very interesting movie - well-made with gripping characters that stay with you long after the movie has ended. A well-told tale that probably comes as close to balanced as it can when it comes to the state of race relations in America.

For some weird reason, a lot of this movie reminded me of Magnolia - I think it was two things - firstly, the way all characters in the movie have some connection to each other and secondly, remember the ending of Magnolia when frogs rain down? The snowfall-in-LA ending of this movie seemed very similar.

update: “Crash” scores upset victory at SAG awards - awesome!

Apprentice Finale

Trump is an asshole! He sucks to have out Randall on a spot like that since his lovable little Becky didn’t win the Apprenticeship. Man, I completely fail to see one merit in that woman except her irrational love for Toral. Since Trump couldn’t hire her without pissing off an entire contingent of TV audience who can clearly see Randall is heand and shoulders above Rebecca, he had to hire Randall and try to force him into hiring Rebecca too. What a horrible move! I am glad Randall stood up for himself and asked Trump to shove his Rebecca love where the sun don’t shine!

Update: Here is how I see it. Trump has been so in love with Rebecca that through the episode he was extremely careful to praise Randall and Rebecca - maybe, Rebecca more than Randall to the point that he was overtly pushing for Randall to submit and agree to have a co-winner. If I were Randall, the very fact that some one is trying force me to make a decision a certain way would be enough to piss me off to the point I will do the exact opposite, consequences be damned!

Ram Gopal Verma's disaster movie

…also known as a remake of “Sholay”. Take a look at the cast he has selected for his remake of Sholay - rediff.com: Sholay, recast - and then tell me that the man hasn’t been listening to his own PR for a bit too long. Seriously, trying to remake a classic of the likes of “Sholay” itself is no mean task without the director trying to add “his own touch”, just for the sake of it. There is no reason to cast Amitabh as Gabbar Singh - none whatsoever expect Varma’s hubris and his belief that he can somehow make the classic in his own image. It is not going to work and guess what, he will sit there and blame us unenlightened folks for failing to see his greatness. Bah!

Friday fun talk

Anybody catch “The Apprentice” last night? I was cautiously optimistic about the ex-Bollywood-wannabe Toral Mehta, hoping she would go farther in the competetion than dreamy MCP Raj did in the season past. Alas, it was not to be. She turned out to be such a snobby bitch, I would have slapped her if I were one of her fellow apprentice women. Why, oh why can we not get a proper Indian person who can “represent”? Why do we get the Omarosa-wannabe instead of a sane, mature contestant?

The Shortest Horror Story Ever Written

The last person on Earth was alone in a room. There was a knock on the door…

-Fredrick Brown

(got this from the comments on Michele’s site)

Stupid love and Meghasandesham

Ever love someone so much that you want to strangle and kiss the person at the same time? So much that even though they are exasperating you to the point of putting criminal thoughts in your mind but your heart keeps chanting - “I love __”, “I love __”…? Ever love someone so much that you go to bed angry but wake up with sweet dreams and thoughts? ;-)

Random thoughts: Isn’t Devulapalli the best lyric writer/poet ever to grace the telugu world? I am listening right now to “Meghasandesham” (message sent through clouds”, a movie with music composed by Ramesh Naidu. A couple of the songs are Jayadeva’s ashtapadis - “Priye Charusheele”, “Radhika Krishna” - while others are penned by Devulapalli, Veturi and Palagummi. “Akulo Akunai” (like a leaf within leaves) is the Devulapalli song that won a Nandi award for best lyrics. The song just flows so well and the lyrics are such simple yet beautiful words that just listening to them melts your heart.

A lot of the songs are sung by Yesudas, another virtuoso singer without par - “Priye Charusheele” (O lover, O jewel”) , “Akasa Deshana” (In the city in the sky), “Radhika Krishna”, “Navarasa Sumamalika” (a garland of flowers of the nine emotions), “Sigalo avi virulo” (those flowers in your hair) - Balamurali sings another version of “Navarasa Sumamalika” and there is Susheela with her deep voice (Chitra’s voice somehow always put me off as did Janaki’s for lacking a certain depth and gravitas).

Almost all songs are classical in composition except for some like “Mundu telisena Prabhu” (a beautiful song about a courtesan who wishes her lover had let her known a little beforehand so that she could get everything ready and make sure she loves him enough to keep him with her forever) and “Akulo akunai” (a wife’s song of blending with her husband’s passion for music and experiencing a oneness with nature). There are some songs that just touch the depths of your heart not just with music but with the meaning of the words.

I have got to say - I hate the recent A.R.Rahman music in Telugu. I love the tunes and the rhythms - there is something about the lyrics that is so made up to fit the tune that is just disgusting. The song “Kabhi neem neem, kabhi shehad, shehad” (bitter sometimes, sweet sometimes) from the movie “Yuva” was “Sankurathri Kodi, Katthilanti Kodi” (A pongal rooster, real powerful one) in Telugu. Can you see the difference where the first lyrics express a wife’s description of the duality in her husband’s personality while the second set talk about her husband a little weird? If the lyrics are not good, I lose interest in the music regardless of how great the tune is - it happened with a lot of Rahman tunes - Jeans, Yuva, Sakhi, etc.

I think music moves you not just when the tune is melodious, but when the lyrics make you want to listen closely and follow the song instead of letting it just hum int he background. The best music is that, that resonatels with you and makes you want to listen to it with your heart if not dance to it with your feet. It is also music that you can sing along to - regardless of what mood you are in. It is music that shares your heart’s sadness as much as it lifts your spirit with the melody.