Musings From New York

The people I feel sorry for:

- Jamie Foxx for losing Best Supporting Actor (Collateral)
- Johnny Depp for losing Best Actor (Finding Neverland)
- Don Cheadle for losing Best Actor (Hotel Rwanda)
- Martin Scorcese for losing out Best Director (The Aviator ... plus, Goodfellas, Raging Bull, Gangs of New York, etc.)
- Brad Bird for losing Best Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (The Incredibles)

On another note ... where on earth can I find the Best Animated Shorts? Do I have to live in LA to be near a cinema that shows these?

Lessons learnt watching the 77th Annual Academy Awards:

- Chris Rock was gagged. Else, Chris Rock is nowhere near as funny as Billy Crystal. I forget details of Whoopi Goldberg's MC-ing, but I don't think it was this disappointing (i.e.: it was up to expectations). But who can forget Billy's Crystal's excellent comic montage to open last year's Oscars? Update: OK ... Chris Rock just hasn't been funny tonight. I feel sorry for the guy. He had to tame his image down to be acceptable to all those white folks, but lost everything that made him funny in the first place.

- The Academy folks is truly on an another plane (no pun intended). How else can The Aviator get so many awards? e.g.: I thought Collateral had better editting than The Aviator.

- Scarlett Johanssen is gorgeous and is likely to pass out in that corset she's wearing.

- Animated characters do not always work with real life (I'm referring to Edna Bird & Pierce Brosnan)

- Al Pacino was stoned out of his mind. Or maybe that's his real self. Who knows anymore?

- Salma Hayek is waaaaay-hey-hay hotter than Penelope Cruz!!

- Santana totally, totally rocks playing the blues. It was like the guitar was wired directly to my soul!

- Beyonce cannot have enough sequins on her dress. She also looks amazing in black.

- Hillary Swank is this year's Halle Berry. God, when will she stop talking?

- The Academy does not like Martin Scorcese.

- I have to see Million Dollar Baby.

As Mr. Indian in "Goodness Gracious Me" says in one skit, many words in the English Language are Indian.

I wonder why "maadi" (for non-Kannadigas, it means "do") never got listed. But as we Bangaloreans say, "Chill maadi"

The Western world is rarely treated to martial arts gems these days. Jet Li is getting old, Jackie Chan is old ... and movies like Hero & Crouching Tiger are being tarred by the same brush (C'mon, Hero is not a martial arts flick. Enter The Dragon is a martial arts flick).

So watching this movie was such a welcome relief from artsy and chop-socky movies that I've watched over the last couple of years. It doesn't have much of a plot - village kid is sent to the big city to recover a stolen religious artifact, and gets involved with a local fight club. Watching the movie, audience reactions can be categorized as follows:

• Huh?
• What just happened?
• Cool!!
• Holy (expletive deleted)!!
• How did he do that?
• Awwwwwwww! (usually when some obviously painful stunt is performed)
• He did whaaaa?

Why these reactions? After all, you find several outrageous stunts in Jackie Chan movies! The reason is that there are no stunt doubles, no CG, and no wires. So while there might be some artistic creativity (e.g.: dusting clothes so when people fall down, a huge billow of dust blows out, making audiences think it was a hard blow), you know its Tony Jaa (the lead) that just jumped through a 2ft coil of barbed wire!

The stunts are outrageous, and obviously downright dangerous. The fight club scenes would put any episode of Ultimate Fighting to shame, and its all a glorious voyeuristic pleasure to see people get twelve kinds of !@#$ kicked out of them.

If you like action movies, you will like Ong-Bak, and it's a movie you should not miss.

... that I was wrong!

(Spoiler Alert)

So the closet gay in Springfield wasn't Barney. It was Patty. Looks like Fox & Groening had fun with playing with our minds and the TV schedules.

You know, the entry yesterday about blues being the "core" of my musical tastes got me thinking about how my tastes have shifted and evolved over the years. I think the bulk of the "evolution" was in my 4 years in BITS ('94-'98) for those wondering. In fact, you could look at the whole thing by semesters!

School - Def Leppard, Bryan Adams
Pre-University - Guns 'N' Roses, Metallica-light (i.e.: The Black Album)
BITS Semester 1: Iron Maiden, Metallica
BITS Semester 2: Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen
BITS Semester 3: Joe Satriani, Steve Vai
BITS Semester 4: Dream Theater, Deep Purple
BITS Semester 5: Rush, Led Zeppelin
BITS Semester 6: General Blues/Hard Rock ... AC/DC, Whitesnake, Van Halen, etc.
BITS Semester 7: The Beatles, Black Sabbath

After that, I don't think my core tastes have changed that much ... I'm listening to a lot more electronica & R&B nowadays. Hence my previous lament that I haven't heard anything new or exciting in quite a while. The nearest thing I got excited about was The Darkness ... and that was over a year ago!

We've taken on additional office space here ... a little 12ft x 12ft (I guess!) alcove just around the corner from the main office. It's going to be a project management room, leaving the main office for the sales staff.

Guess who needs to setup the IT services? :-p

Well, it's fun - I've never worked on a Sun Solaris machine before (that's a new file server)

Damn, Jamie Foxx eerily looks like Ray Charles! I watched "Ray" over the weekend. Admitedly, I have never listened to Ray Charles, and knew about him passingly ... And so, I approached Ray with an open mind.

Now part of my liking of the movie is the fact that I love the blues. It's something I keep deep down inside ... underneath Eminem, The Chemical Brothers, Metallica, and Rammstein ... underneath Joe Satriani, Led Zep, The Beatles and Sabbath ... it's like this core that all my musical tastes are built on. Admitedly, the first time I listened to "pure" blues was in my 3rd year of undergrad, when I heard some Muddy Waters tracks ... and I was referred to that after tripping on Zep.

Anyway, back to the movie. I loved the music! I enjoyed Jamie Foxx's acting (definitely Oscar material) ... but thought the script was a little light. It skimped over details of Ray's early life, jumping from one incident to another ... quantum leaps, rather than continuums! I would have liked to have seen more about how Ray's drug problems affected his music (did it enhance his productivity? There was just one scene where they show him breaking down), and how he brought up his son.

Don't get me wrong, this movie is a must-see, but it left me wanting more!

Now I gotta find a good "Best Of ..." collection!

I chatted with Malz last night. She said she's started a blog of her own. She hasn't posted much, but I'm hoping that driving up the traffic to her site will be incentive to write more!

Go Malz!

WoW ... World of Warcraft. The best MMORPG I've played. Granted, I've played only Asheron's Call 2 and beta-tested EQ2. Still ... it's the best!

A lot has been commented on the graphics seeming "lo-tech". For example, EQ2 made a big deal about how their game was developed with future tech in mind. This is a noble concept, but it also means that most people with average systems are not going to be able to enjoy the game. I suffered massive lags and load times, even when I reduced the graphics options. WoW has amazing landscapes that really seem lush and vibrant. Kudos to their art teams! Each race has their own unique look - humans for example live in a very medieval forested landscape. Dwarves live in a frozen tundra. Taureans (high minotaurean creatures) live in open praries (their artworks resemble Native American). The Foresaken live in a gothic nightmare. It's beautiful!

The gameplay is very simple. Most common actions have dedicated hotkeys. The most frustrating thing I've encountered about gameplay so far has been my multiple deaths. Death in WoW is handled beautifully. There is no penalty for death, except for time. When you die, your spirit appears at a graveyard in the nearest village, and you begin a long trek back to your body. When you come close to your body, you can "re-enter it" and take control. There's no loss of XP. equipment, or money.

Money is a bit of a doozy though. It's not very easy to come by. I've slaved and slaved with my mage - put in perhaps 7 hours in all - and racked up about 30sp. Now that can buy you a lot of low-end gear, some pieces of mid-level gear, but a tabbard (that's a piece of clothing you wear to identify your guild) costs 1gp (thats 100sp). To form your own guild and design your own tabbard, you need 10gp (1000sp). So I guess this means you really have a sense of accomplishment when you get a new weapon or spell, etc. ... but the flip-side is that you can get frustrated with the process of accumulating so much wealth. A new feature in WoW is the ability to get mounts at level 40 ... training to ride costs 10gp and a mount itself costs 40gp. Thats a LOT of money! But it looks oh, so cool!

I've got 3 characters right now. My primary character is a (currently) 11th-level human mage, my second is a 7th-level dwarven fighter, and my third is a 7th-level taurean druid. The only reason I have so many is that I wanted to get a look at the other characters and artwork. The taurean look is gorgeous!

Anyway, to heck with Halo 2. WoW rocks!

Well, half my weekend was spent in a Nyquil haze - looks like I picked up something in my trip to Gaithersburg last Thursday. But the other half was spent playing World of Warcraft. Yes, I found a copy here in Manhattan - at Gamestop on 44th & 6th. Co-incidentally, the dude from CompUSA (who told me to put my copy up on eBay) was the one who suggested the store. More on the game later.

In other news - congrats to Jon Stewart & The Daily Show team for winning the Grammy for Best Comedy Album (their Audiobook version of "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Presents...America: A Citizen's Guide To Democracy Inaction").

It's interesting that I've kinda lost all interest in the Grammy's ... and to an extent in contemporary music. The most contemporary I've ever gotten is purchasing Dream Theater, Rush (who lost in the Grammies ... AGAIN!), or Metallica. I don't know why, but I find modern music is pretty bland and unappealing ... on one hand, the pimping from R&B artists ... and on the other, nu-metal & post-punk from artists who want to turn the volume knob upto 11.

Where are the musical geniuses that also make popular music? Why is it that the only place I'll find them on the music dial is on the Classic Rock or Oldies channels??

I've been to six stores in Manhattan today! Six! And not one of them carried a copy of World of Warcraft! One dude told me that if I found a copy, to put it up on eBay!

This totally sucks!

I just got this ...

Kartik Anand saw this story on BBC News Online and thought you should see it.

Message: Can you imagine John Stewart talking about this one..especially regarding the last line of the article..

** Army pilot rap over pizza flight **
A lieutenant is disciplined after using an Army helicopter to deliver a pizza to his girlfriend.

Ash was on David Letterman last night. I thought I'd watch it ... damn, it's a late show, isn't it?

Anyway ... back to Ash. By all the Gods, she's short! Or maybe Letterman's tall. There was like this 2 feet height difference between them. I initially thought Ash was being a bit silly ... or high, for that matter. She was laughing hard for no reason when asked questions ... and was kinda bubbleheaded!

But you know, as much as I thought she was dumb, Letterman rose to the challenge and beat her hands down. You know that urban legend that we Indians go through questions & comments from clueless Americans? Stuff like:

• Your English is really good! (this really gets my goat, especially after reading stories like this)
• Did you ride an elephant to school? ("No, I couldn't afford my own elephant, Dad used to drop me off with the company elephant")
• Do you have Internet? ("Yes, its traditional to use it when we fish")

Well, Letterman was about just as dumb, and let Ash get a few digs. Consider the following exchange (I don't remember the exact words, but this is the gist of it):

L: Why do young men & women live with their parents (ie: when they grow up)?
A: Well, that's our culture. It's better than calling our parents to make an appointment to come home for dinner (Audience howls with laughter & applauds)

Honestly, why couldn't she appear on The Daily Show? Jon would've asked her much, much better questions! Even Leno or Conan!

I've uploaded some of the photos (approximately a third of all the photos taken) from my San Diego weekend.

Man, there were times I thought Divya was going to give me a right thump round the ear ... initially for my decision to support the Patriots ... and later for gloating over the win :-)

It was close at times, wot??

Akshay's Log, Date: February 6th 2005, approximately 3pm.

The away team has just returned from an expedition to Torrey Pines. We went there to investigate reports to disturbingly scenic beauty. I am happy to say that all the reports are true, if not understated. The following is photographic evidence of the same.






We returned home almost immediately after, as we had to rendezvous with others to view the Superbowl XXIX.

I've just returned from a night about town. Although San Diego's downtown is spread across a 4 block radius, it's got a lot of restaurants and bars crammed into a small space!

While we waited for Visa to show up (he drove in from Irvine), Divya baked a double layered cake (to which I applied generous quantities of Hershey's Chocolate Syrup, and edible lettering to commemorate Roy's birthday & GMAT score). After Roy showed up, we did the usual birthday song, bumps, and cake stuffing.


The night started at a Chinese fusion restaurant called Blue Ginger - be warned, even though they said they were open till 2am, they only meant the bar. The restaurant closed at 10:30. And we landed up at 10! So dinner was a bit rushed, but let me recommend the Red Dragon #3 cocktail (I didn't have it, but both Prashanth & Divya highly recommend it).


After a couple of hours of amusement from a very happy Divya, we moved down the street to a Latino bar called Sevilla. Expensive drinks, which never had much effect!

Anyway, we're back at the apartment, still awake, and probably going to start playing cards or something.

I'll be off to Old Town tomorrow morning before the game.

Man, this place is beautiful! By the time we all got ready, it was 11:30, and we started out by driving to the Cabrillo Monument.


The weather was a little gloomy, but we managed to get some incredible views of the San Diego bay & skyline.


The little lighthouse on top is quite quaint, too (though I was struck by a mild bout of vertigo!)




After that, we drove back into the city, to Pacific Beach where we had lunch, and paddled in the Pacific Ocean (now I've done both coasts! Yaay!). The Pacific Beach area is quite a neat locale - it's not very highly developed (coming from New York, "developed" equates to concrete jungles, and skyscrapers!), and there are a lot of little shops, boutiques and restauants on the main roads ... a nice place for a few hours' diversion!


In other news, Ashok Roy took his GMAT today and made fantastic score of 720 (on 800). We're now back in the apartment, resting up and baking a cake for him. As luck would have it, Monday's his birthday ... so it's a double celebration! I believe we're going to a restaurant - Blue Ginger - tonight, and then to a nightclub. Tomorrow's the Superbowl, so nobody's going nowhere! :-)

Despite Divya's protestations that there isn't much to do in San Diego, I think this city's full of stuff to do.

How much of it I can do this weekend is another question. It's past 9:30 and the snores from the master bedroom still shake the rafters.

I swear, in comparison, New York is an ugly scab upon the face of the earth! Funnily enough, the apartment complex Metal & Divya live in is almost identical to another I saw in Sunnyvale. It's great to see them again - I've really missed hanging out with them in New York.

It's certainly odd not to be wearing a heavy jacket though! The weather forecast for the weekend - highs in the mid-60's. So ... pleasant, I think, would be the description. A bit nippy for my tastes perhaps, but I'm a guy who's set his apartment's radiator to the "Roast" setting.

Flying into San Diego, one could see these mountain ranges (they were too large to be hills, but they didn't have a layer of icing on the top ... mountainettes?). And coming into land, I saw these delightfully quaint old churches and buildings ... they looked Moorish too. Next to them were terraced slopes, with several layers of houses built into the side of the hill. For some reason, they reminded me of pictures I've seen of Buenos Aires, or Rio. I suppose that just showcases the Spanish influence in this city.

Exitting the airport, one walks out into a palm-tree lines sidewalk, facing a sunset-bloodied sky. I really wish I'd had the presence of mind to take a photo of that ... but in hindsight, the sight of a dark-skinned chap taking photos of seemingly nothing outside an aiport might have raised some eyebrows.

I believe we'll be visiting old San Diego today, and perhaps a beach or two. Will post photos as soon as I can.

Apparently, Music died on this day 46 years ago. Funny how people can make sweeping statements when highly emotional, eh?

I think I've heard "American Pie" a few times too many. I think the only time I can stand listening to that song is when I've had a few, usually at a Karaoke bar. All together now ....

Baaaaaaaaaaayyy-baaaaaaayy miss American Pie!!

Yes, Star Trek: Enterprise has got the axe! I always thought of it as a weak show, and watched it more out of a sense of loyalty to Star Trek, than any real interest. There were some (relatively) good episodes, but they were few and far between.

In my opinion, there were a number of factors that pulled the show down, such as:

• Action-oriented than "puzzle-solving" - One of the things I loved about the TNG & Voyager (I was never much of a DS9 fan) was their finding of "strange new worlds, new life & new civilizations". Enterprise spent an entire season fighting the Xindi and their latest season opener had them flung into the past fighting alien Nazis. Sounds like a First-Person-Shooter videogame than a Star Trek episode!
• The Temporal Cold War - C'mon, don't tell me that the Star Trek writing team couldn't come up with a better idea than shadowy figures from the future attempting to change the timeline in their favor. Stick to the proven formula, people!
• Very, very American cast - The cast/crew of TNG, DS9 & Voyager had veried human races, as well as various species (Klingon, Firengi, Betazoid, etc.). This gave a good mix to the show. Enterprise had an All-American human crew (with the exception of Malcom Reed, who was British), with a Vulcan, and a Denobulan. Wasn't Earth supposed to be united after First Contact? Where are the Africans, the South Americans? Heck, we Indians are pretty good engineers, and we lose out to Americans? I know the show's about an alternate reality people, but have a little variation to appeal to different demographics!

It's a pity that the show was cancelled. It was nearly 20 years between the cancellation of TOS, and TNG ... and, it'll be the first time since TNG's debut in 1987 that there hasn't been a current Star Trek show. Oh, the franchise will live on through comics, toys, and fiction ... maybe even a videogame. But there won't be any more TNG movies ... unless they figure out a way to ressurect Data! I don't think DS9 or Voyager will be movie-fied.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait another 20 years for the next show!