Musings From New York

BBC NEWS | Business | Air India enters no-frills market

I've travelled but once on Air India. Even at "full service", the flight felt like a no-frills trip. I wonder what corners they'll cut to get to "no frills". Food I guess would be the first to go (yaay?)

No TV!

No XBox!

No movies!

So 70% is done, and I've got a week to do the remaining 30%.

Java and I were discussing our frequency of moves. I reckon I've moved 4 times since 2000. 4 times! Its insane. Especially if you consider that I moved twice in 3 months. I hate moving.

Anyway.

New apartment still needs to be setup, and I've yet to get phone & cable setup. Mom & Dad are living there right now for now. Hopefully I'll be done moving & setting up by the middle of the week.

Most unfortunately, my TV's now in the new apartment. NO TV! For a week!.

I hate moving.

Am moving tomorrow - a little further uptown. Packing is a pain. I think I've got about 70% packed. I've lost all enthu to do any more. I guess the remaining 30% will have to be shifted over the next week. Lucky I extended the lease on my current apartment by a week!

It aired on Sunday (er ...23rd May). Full of the satire that makes this show one of my favorites. Classic lines include:

(Teen comitting suicide): Why did they cancel 'Futurama?'
(Homer, on the subject of the layman starting their own news-sheet): Instead of one big-shot controlling all the media, now there's a thousand freaks Xeroxing their worthless opinions.

The New York Times (free subscription, required) has a good article about the episode. It talks about why the show still remains funny/endearing after 15 seasons. Which is mind-boggling. 15 years, these guys have cranked out like 350-ish episodes. Maybe more, who knows?

There are a lot of programs in the marketplace that allow PC users to catalog, tag, and organize their MP3 (or other media) collections. Programs such as Musicmatch, iTunes, Real, and Windows Media Player.

My common gripe across all programs in their lack of multi-genre tagging. Let me take a moment to explain what I mean. Take the heavy metal band, Metallica. They have a couple of instrumental songs ... like Orion (from Master of Puppets). My genre tags include Heavy Metal (which currently lists Orion) and Instrumental Rock. What do I tag Orion as? Instrumental Rock, since James Hetfeild doesn't sing? Or Heavy Metal, since Metallica firmly belongs in that genre? The same goes with artists like Joe Satriani (who sings on a few tracks, notably in his Flying In A Blue Dream album) - do I tag Ride as an Instrumental Rock song or a Hard Rock song?

What I would like to do is to tag them as belonging to both genres. I don't think this is possible under any current (mainstream?) software. I hope someone implements this soon.

JHU being Johns Hopkin University.

Went down there on Wednesday night, returned on Friday evening. Bill Cosby (see bad photo below) was a funny speaker. He talked about the need for perseverance and self-confidence. You know, the usual commencement speech stuff. He used his own past as example, talking about how he struggled to be a successful comedian.

He left abruptly though. He said he was shooting a movie in LA. IMDb tells me he's the producer/writer of Fat Albert (2004). Dunno why the crowd cheered at that. Must be some reference to the Cosby Show.

Actually, IMDb also reports that he caused a some controversy last week. He "embarrassed the National Association For Advancement Of Colored People (NAACP) at a gala on Monday (17th) - by attacking lower class African-Americans.". The full article may be found in IMDb's news page archives for 21st May 2004.

More photos from the trip may be found at my photos.yahoo.com account. Details on request.

Bill Cosby was the guest speaker at John Hopkins' Commencement 2004. 

On Campus at JHU 

OK, so Samuel L Jackson had a lot of good lines in Pulp Fiction, but not that many in Star Wars. What would happen if Tarantino fiddled with Lucas' scripts? A friend recently forwarded a mail that listed the 10 things we'd like to hear SLJ say in Star Wars.

***Disclaimer: I have no idea how where this list originated. Hats off to the guy who thought this up.***

Here goes:

Top 10 Things We Want To Hear Samuel L. Jackson Say In The Star Wars Prequel

10.You don't need to see my goddamn identification, 'cause these ain't the motherfuckin' droids you're looking for.

9. Womp rat may taste like pumpkin pie, but I'll never know, 'cause I'd never touch the filthy motherfucker.

8. This is your father's lightsaber. When you absolutely, positively, have to kill every motherfuckin' stormtrooper in the room... accept no substitutes.

7. If Obi-wan ain't home then I don't know what the fuck we're gonna do. I ain't got no other connections on Tatooine.

6. Feel the Force, Motherfucker.

5. "What" ain't no planet I've ever heard of! Do they speak Bocce on "What"?

4. You sendin' the Fett? Shit, Hutt, that's all you had to say!

3. Yeah, Chewie's got a hair problem. What the brother gonna do? He's a Wookie.

2. Does Jabba the Hutt look like a bitch? Then why are you tryin' to fuck him like one?

And the number one:

1. Hand me my lightsaber... it's the one that says, "Bad Mother Fucker."

OK, so you're probably asking yourselves - why not 10 on 10? A minor quibble that the quality of animation wasn't as um, path-breaking as eg: Disney 2D to Toy Story, or Toy Story to Monsters, Inc. or Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Also, the script or plot isn't as um, ground-breaking as the first installment. Seeing the "dark side" of fairy tale characters was refreshingly original, and I wish we'd been treated to some more new ground. Instead, Shrek takes the safe route, choosing to build on established crowd-pleasers.

Now that I got that clarification out of the way, let me tell you that Shrek 2 is the funniest animated movie I've seen in a long, long time. At least, since Monsters, Inc - I didn't find Finding Nemo *that* funny. Definitely nowhere near Shrek 2.

The story is simple - newlyweds, Shrek and Fiona visit Fiona's parents (played by John Cleese and Julie Andrews), who are not thrilled that their daughter chose true love's first kiss (re: Shrek 1) to be an ogre's. Throw in complications of a scheming fairy godmother, and you've got a decent plot to fill 90 minutes.

The attention to detail is staggering. One look at the city kingdom of Far Far Away will tell you what I mean. The streets are lined with stores like Farbucks (there's a good gag concerning Farbucks), and Gap Queen. Before Shrek 2, the only other animated production that took such pains was Matt Groening's Futurama (Cartoon Network, M-Thu 11pm). Movie parodies abound, naturally. Lord of the Rings, a very very funny take on Mission: Impossible, and a sly dig at Disney's Beauty and the Beast. When you see the movie, you'll see how apt that is.

Special mention must go to Antonio Banderas and his self-parody of his Zorro character, as a swashbuckling Puss-in-Boots. A definite plus for the movie. Donkey on the other hand, comes off more annoying that funny. I mean, his character is supposed to be annoying, but he was a funny/annoying in the first movie. Sure, there are some funny moments in the movie, but I wish I could've seen more Puss-in-Boots than Donkey. A trivial point to some, but worth mentioning nonetheless.

If you like comedies/parodies, you have got to see Shrek 2 this summer. Heck, I'll probably watch it again!

The Rock (formerly The Scorpion King) tries to create some buddy-chemistry with Seann William Scott. And fails. This movie was so boring, and so predictable, I was able to efficiently multitask with it running in the background.

The premise - The Rock's a retrieval expert. He's sent in for "one last mission" into the Amazon jungle, to retrieve an errant trasure hunter. While there, he gets mixed up in a local rebellion against tyrannical mine owner (played by Christopher Walken), and (eventually) takes a stand.

Of the 3 lead roles, I found Christopher Walken to be the best, but marginally so. I wish I could find something interesting to say about this movie, but try as I might, I can't.

So the first two, highly marketed summer blockbusters have turned out to be flops. I believe studio execs feel that the movies will turn profitable once it's released in international markets - especially UK & Japan - and once the merchandising & DVD sales pick up. The next few movies to keep an eye out for are:

Shrek 2 (releasing May 21st)
Harry Potter & The Prisoner of Azkaban (releasing June 4th)
Spiderman 2 (releasing July 2nd)

I can only hope that they turn out to be better than Van Helsing or Troy!

I’ll admit, I was waiting for Troy with some degree of anticipation. Given the success of the Lord of the Rings franchise, I had hoped that Peter Jackson’s genius in using CG and live action to create epic battles might somehow be duplicated by others. Sadly, this was not to be the case.

First of all, everyone knows what the story is. If they don’t then in my opinion, they ought to go back to whatever rock they’d crawled out from under. For those who want more details of what happened in the Trojan War, I highly recommend Wikipedia.com. Now it’s important to note that Troy is “inspired by” and “loosely based on” Homer’s The Iliad. Audiences expecting to see members of the Greek pantheon are in for a disappointment. Troy gets rid of all that – unwisely, I feel. Instead, it reduces the movie to a foundation of base emotions – lust, love, honor, greed, ambition, etc. This movie is all about the men (and women) who went through the war. As an aside – the war itself lasted 10 years, but has been reduced to a few weeks here.

The biggest surprise in the movie was Eric Bana’s portrayal of Hector (the brother of Paris). A bloody good piece of acting as the warrior who knows he is about to die yet goes to face it with honor & dignity. The biggest disappointment is – no surprises here – Brad Pitt’s muscle-for-brains Achilles.

The epic battle sequences are rather ho-hum, understandably. Had this movie come out before The Lord of the Rings, it would’ve been hailed as path-breaking. Instead, it comes off as a pale imitation of Helm’s Deep. The one-on-one battles – Hector vs. Ajax, and the better one of Hector vs.
Achilles – are well choreographed, and go a long way in redeeming some of the other faults of the movie.

I wouldn’t call this movie a must-see; some may choose to wait for the DVD. I’d wager that fans of Lord of The Rings might find this movie somewhat enjoyable, but doubt it’d hold much appeal for others.

I went to Van Helsing (VH) with little expectation, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. This was not to be the case. The movie, while featuring some above average fight sequences – which seemed to be crafted specifically for the post-movie video game industry – suffers from excessiveness. Too much CG, too much action (read, not enough character development), and way, way too many major monsters (aka boss characters). Normally, you wouldn’t care about hordes of mindless (and often faceless) zombies doing interior decorating in shades of gore, but VH doesn’t go that route. Instead, it chooses to load the movie with plenty of super-baddies, with the result that not one is developed properly (does the Wolfman regret his
nocturnal activities? Does Dracula have any secret regrets about his lifestyle?) The only character chosen to exhibit any sort of character development is Frankenstein’s monster – and that’s too little, too
late.

All in all, VH is a gothic representation of 2002’s “XXX”, except that Vin Diesel brought to the latter an Arnie-like implacable force of destruction. Hugh Jackman can’t compete with that. He needs space to fill out the character – look at the amazing work he’s done in the X-Men series of movies.

If I were you, I’d wait for the DVD on this one.

As an aside, I find it troubling that Hollywood’s creativity – in designing action/ adventure stars – to be atrophying. There seem to have been two major templates created in the last 5 years from which most of today’s characters are derived. The first, The Matrix, brought the long leather/vinyl overcoat that’s popular with *everyone* now. The second is Hugh Jackman’s own X-Men, which has given rise to the blades-popping-out-of-nowhere style of character. Please, please, will no one rid me of these meddlesome influences?

Had a few minutes to spare, and I thought I'd plug my favorite (current) TV Show - Stargate SG-1.

Yup, it's sci-fi, and it runs on the Sci Fi Channel, every night, 6pm, and Mondays and Fridays are "marathons" - 4 episodes on both nights. It plays on one of the network channels on Sunday nights ... I think its UPN (?).

You know how many people claim alien visitor theories and conspiracies? Stuff about alien crop circles being navigation aids (which was then turned into the slightly cheesy, and thrilling "Signs"). Stuff about the Pyramids being built by aliens. Stuff about Atlanteans being aliens. Well anyway, SG1 took that and said, well, what if it were true? A movie was made in 1994, starring Kurt Russell (http://imdb.com/title/tt0111282/) ... and a TV Show ultimately spun off of that.

The background of the story is:

- The Stargate "network" consists of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Stargates - alien devices that open wormholes to each other. Think of the Star Trek Transporter spanning galaxies - kinda like that. A person "dials" a Stargate address to open the gate on the other side, steps through his gate, and a few seconds later is strolling on another planet.
- The Stargate was built by an alien species that seems to be extinct. It was "re-discovered" by the Goa'uld, who used it to invade planets. The Goa'uld are parasitic beings that inhabit host bodies, completely controlling the host. The host is granted regenerative powers and great speed and strength. The Goa'uld and host live for several hundred years, but are mortal nonetheless.
- The Goa'uld came to Earth, thousands of years ago, initally to Egypt (ultimately included China, and Scandinavia). There, they took on the personas of Egyptian gods - Ra, Isis, Anubis, etc., taking humans as hosts, and others as slaves. The slaves were transported through the Stargate to other planets. Ultimately, the slaves on Earth rebelled, and the Goa'uld fled. The Egyptians buried the Stargate (and its excavation marks the opening of the movie), making it impossible for the Goa'uld to access the gate ... hence, Earth's inhabitants were left in peace to slaughter each other for shiny stones or racial/religious purity.
- The Stargate program, initally run by the US Air Force (hey, its an American show. Who am I to argue?!), visit planets in order to acquire technology and/or allies. Their use of the Stargate alerted the Goa'uld, who've tried on many occaisions to invade Earth.

Why do I like it so much? Cos it's funny - Richard Dean Anderson (he also played McGyver in the 80's) heads the SG-1 team, and brings a lot of comic relief to what would otherwise be a lot of Trek-ish mumbo-jumbo (I always cringe when I listen to lines in TNG like "Maybe if I inverted the warp engine field coils, I might cause a garvimetric surge in the EPS conduit!"). its also intelligently written, never loses focus, constant action & adventure, etc. etc. etc.

For more info, I'd recommend gateworld.com as an encyclopedia for those who get confused while watching the show. :-) I've been to that website a lot!

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (http://imdb.com/title/tt0378194/)

Easily the best movie I've seen since Lord of The Rings: Return of the King. The only other memorable movie I've seen this year is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (http://imdb.com/title/tt0338013/).

Far more .... er, dignified - and that's an odd term when it comes to Tarantino - than Vol. 1. Kind of a flip-over from Vol. 1 ... this movie has more substance than style, IMO. Bill's monologue on comic book heroes and their alter-egos is brilliant ... very Pulp-Fiction-esque. One chapter (I think it was called The Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei) is shot very well - the bleached and grainy look is reminiscient of the kung-fu movies of yore ... the ones that Star Plus used to air in its early days.

Nothing interesting in the new releases this weekend. I'm going out of town, and might not get a chance to see anything ... but I'm debating on watching The Punisher. It seems a little too wishy-washy (!) to me ... not comic-booky as Spiderman or The Hulk, but more of a general action movie. Will probably just wait for the DVD.

If you find the timestamps close to each other, it's not cos I'm jobless ... well, maybe that too. I'm just cutting & pasting from another site.