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A movie and book review blog

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Dec 31, 2003

Something's Gotta Give 

Jack and Diane, no, not the Mellencamp song, this is Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton in Nancy Meyer's new movie Something's Gotta Give. Nancy Meyer's What Women Want was a better crowd puller than this, her latest offering. Although it is a romantic comedy, it is not everyman's cup of tea, thats what I felt while watching the movie.

We did laugh real hard in some parts and there ofcourse was the cool hunk Keanu Reeves and the beautiful Amanda Peet. I like Diane Keaton, so whatever comments I have about her acting will be positive unless she had deliberately trashed the film, which is not the case here. Jack Nicholson, what can one say?!!?? I don't usually like the characters he portrays, but he as always, has proved once again he's a master actor. Frances Macdormand plays a small side role as Keaton's sister, wonder why an actress as talented as she should do such no-role roles?

Overall not a bad movie, though there seems to be more people in my opposite camp than I have on my side. Well....thats my side of the story, you have the right to have yours.

Dec 30, 2003

Zero Kelvin 

The first Stellan Skaarsgard movie I saw was Insomnia, the original 1997 Norwegian film at a film festival in Trivandrum a few years back. Needless to say the the Norwegian Insomnia was better than the Hollywood version, which was not that all that bad either considering it came from Hollywood. Zero Kelvin is two years older than Insomnia and tells the story of three Norwegian trappers stationed in the East of Greenland.

Gard Eisvold is a youngman in twenties Norway, a budding poet, who accepts a trapping job in the desolate and icy coast of Eastern Greenland. Skaarsgard plays the role of an experienced but foul mouthed trapper, with whom Eisvold ends up staying. The film capture the loneliness and the hardships men encounter in that icy wasteland, which reflect on their behaviour and lives. Skaarsgard is unrecognizable, he is the arrogant, unhygenic lumbering form of a man, for whom contact with other human beings is as difficult as it is for a Big Foot or Yeti. The film could be considered as an excellent study of human nature in the very hostile of climates.

Dec 29, 2003

Govinda 

How come that the only Hindi movies I enjoy nowadays are Govinda's? Saw Govinda-Rani Mukherjee starrer Chalo Ishq Ladaye, a mindless comedy, no harm in that if you don't expect much. Afterall what do you expect from a Govinda movie other than being a total timepass.

I read some bad reviews about this film, what I don't understand is what were these reviewers looking for? Were they expecting a Shyam Benegal or Satyajit Ray movie? Come on, people, if you are looking for stellar performances and serious cinema, you are watching the wrong movie. The very name Govinda ensures that you can turn off your brain cells for the next two and half hours, sit back, relax and have some silly laughs while you are at it. This movie guarentees that and some of the dialogues (especially Gulshan Grover's in the first half) are really funny. Then there is the indomitable Grand Mama of Indian cinema, Zohra Sehgal as Govinda's daadi (grand mom), who's funny and convincing as the tight fisted autocratic daadi.

There was a time when I considered Govinda movies as total trash. Had Nostradamus told me that I'd be enjoying them sometime in the future (not that Nostradamus would waste himself on predictions like these...just to explain the gravity of the situation), I'd have asked him to pursue some other trade. Greeks were better oracles anyway, not Italians. Coming back to Chalo Ishq Ladaye, the other actors are ok, Rani is not bad, neither is Gulshan Grover and Kader Khan, Johnny Lever's role and his dialogues don't go well with the rest of the film, might have added him for that 'extra dash of comedy', only to spoil the broth. Not much of a story, nothing at all if you have already seen Hitchcock's 'Strangers On A Train', which I saw a couple of months back. All in all, a pure Govinda film, don't try to think and review the film, watch it and let go.

Dec 24, 2003

Late Marriage 

Israelis are certainly noisier than Americans but they are a lot less noisier than Punjabis or Greeks, thats what this Israeli movie, Late Marriage taught me. On the DVD cover I read the film being compared to My Big Fat Greek Wedding and Monsoon Wedding. Although all three deal with the same subject of marriage and the family's need for the boy or the girl to find someone who'll fit in well with them, the Israeli movie lacks the tempo and exuberance of the Greek wedding or the Indian wedding.

Its about a 31 year old bachelor, named Zaza, who is pursuing his doctorate in humanities at Tel Aviv University and his family's plans on getting him settled with a nice girl of their choice. Meanwhile Zaza seems to have other ideas and is pursuing an affair with a divorcee who is elder to him by three years and also has a kid. Now you get the picture....the movie is about the whole extended family of Zaza plotting to trap him in an arranged marriage and what happens in the end is suspense, you better go watch the movie. It is different from the usual Hollywood mish-mash, but then that is expected of anything thats filmed outside Hollywood, right? Other than that, I don't think its much of a ground breaker or anything, its different, thats that.

The IMax Effect of North American Landscape 


There is a picture of rural America (by America I mean the North American continent, I am yet to travel to the Southern part of this continent) in my mind....the horizon kissing expanse of yellow fields with a red barn thrown in, a couple of horses grazing on the green patch by the road, an old Chevy pickup, rattling down the dust road leading away from the house hidden behind the towering oaks, it's been a long time since I saw that scene in real life. While we were in San Ramon, we used to drive the back roads into real California country, that is the piece of Californian land which had not yet fallen into the hands of greedy real estate companies looking for another piece of 'prime land' for development.

For a first time visitor, the beauty of American landscape is like seeing a movie at an IMAX movie theater after having watched 35mm movies all your life. Especially for a person like me, coming from Indian subcontinent where the scale of the landscape is mostly intimate, like the narrow twisting green lagoon corridors of Kerala or the mughal gardens of Kashmir and Himachal which miniaturize paradise in a few precious terraced acres, of course I am enthralled by those landscapes too. They epitomize another kind of beauty, of home. I am surprised 'cause Europe is s'posed to be beautiful, not America. America is the place where the modern has gone berserk, atleast that was what I thought.

American geography was a revelation of sorts in a big way, literally, the scale here is monumental. Right now, sitting with my laptop at my dining table, I can see the snow covered road leading away from our balcony, cutting across an urban corridor lined on each side with drooping conifers as if its aiming straight at the mountains pasted like a tableau near the horizon and here I am, sitting in the middle of downtown Anchorage.

We used to go for long bike rides through the farm country which lay behind the urban facade of San Francisco's East Bay, which is punctuated by rolling hills and valleys, with farms on the hills dotted with hundreds of black n white cows and an occasional park or preserve. It was the vastness of the land that enchanted me, the idea that owning a hundred acre farm does not exactly make you the biggest farmer around, chances are that you'd be the smallest one. Like the 'grande' helpings you get at restaurants across the country, everything about this nation adheres to the slogan 'think big' and I have a suspicion that it was Nature who started it that way. With its wide-screen version of the world, the physical scenery of United States is something the glossy coffee table books cannot give full justice to.

In Alaska, the American landscape is presented in the grandest of all grand scales. Forget about you the fact you are in United States, it is 'specially easier if you can comfortably turn a blind eye to the the well maintained highway which led you till this last frontier. My friends who pride themselves to be real Alaskans warn me not to consider any place accessible by road as a part of real Alaska. The great wilderness of Alaska they say, lies beyond the reach of the ordinary motorist like you and me. For me who has just started learning the Alaskan primer, even the places I can access on four wheels leave me speechless, mountains that start straight off from sea, the white vastness of the endless tundra in the winter, pristine forests bursting off in all colors imaginable during the spring, golden hues of the fall, every season it is like being in a new place, and I'd have hardly ventured out of my own backyard.

Dec 23, 2003

A White Christmas 


It has been ages since I posted anything other than a book or a film review. But with more than 36 inches (3 feet) of snow in the last 3-4 days and still showing no signs of stopping I guess its time I wrote something about the Alaskan snow. This year we are sure gonna have a white Christmas. The picture here (if you can see anything in it) is taken from my balcony looking out to the driveway approaching the apartment, which used to be forty feet wide ;-), now with all the snow pushed on to the sides and invisible cars which are buried under snow (which the owners have not cared to check upon since the last three days), the road is hardly 20 ft wide.The snow pile seen on the bottom right corner of the photo, is the snow that has piled up on our balcony railing in the last 3 days. Only last week did I clean the whole balcony off snow, not because my cleaning instincts were awakened, but I had this sudden creative urge to build a snowman. It isn't worth mentioning that half an hour of my snowman building efforts ended when all I could come up was a mound of knee high snow, which did not remotely resemble any snowman I had ever seen. That being said, it doesn't mean that such small setbacks make me not like the snow, I love snow. Coming from a place which sits almost right smack on the equator, snow used to be a distant dream while growing up. It took twenty one years of my life to see and feel the wonder of snow for the first time, in a small town in the Himalayan foothills. Alaska is a long way off from Himalayas, but the white wonderland of enchantment is the same wherever you go.

I had people tell me how they hated the long and snowy Alaskan nights of December and January. Maybe because they have been here all their lives and I guess that kind of familiarity might breed contempt. For a newcomer like me, five months of winter is like living in a totally new place. Gone are the days of hiking, camping, fishing and other summer fun things, and in comes the days of skiing. With three world class ski resorts right here in town, what else could you ask for but ski all your free time away. Tomorrow you might not find the time or might not be in the right place, who knows. Coming to think of it, we are usually the only skiers on the slopes these days, seems like alpine skiing has given way to snow boarding in a big way, everywhere you see youngsters tagging along snowboards in psychedelic colors.

But then winter is not all fun either. You need to change your summer tires to winter tires, the ones with studs (tires fitted with spikes/studs for use in winter). Its comparitively better if you have a four wheel drive vehicle instead of a two wheel drive, that explains the overpopulation of trucks and SUVs on Alaskan roads and also how a puny person like me ended up driving a truck. On an ordinary day with moderate snow shower, there are atleast three to four dozen distress calls from drivers sliding off the roads, getting trapped in snow or getting into minor accidents, all because of snow. Well...we try to drive safe, but then you can never say. We are glad our homes are heated, so its always the warm tropics inside, even if its sub zero temperatures outside (currently it is -15 deg celsius outside), but don't be too cosy either, thats what a recent accident taught us. Earlier this month five members of a family died in their home, right here in town, by carbon monoxide poisoning, all because of a defective / blocked vent. After that incident Costco ran out of CO monitoring systems, as people started buying them like crazy. Now it seems like snow blowers are also out of stock, as people have given up snow showelling since its getting them nowhere with this huge pile up of snow around and have turned to snow blowers.

For those who are scared of cold and snow, let me tell you something. Alaskan winter is not the worst winter I have ever experienced in my life, that coveted title goes to a winter, a couple of years back in New Delhi. Zero degree celsius, brick and cement houses (can't imagine the state of people who live in slums in this kind of climate), no central heating (I didn't even have one of those handy portable heaters), all I had was a woollen blanket in a house that was chilled to the core of its foundation. Here, in climate controlled environs, unless you are a real outdoor enthusiast, all that you can feel and see of the changing seasons is thru' your window - either your living room window or your car's. All the rest could be summed up as minor inconveniences - like tredging 20 feet thru' snow to reach the department store entrance from your car or getting some kind of pollen allergy when flowers start bloomin' in spring, the rest is all the same, unless you go out and live every season differently.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven 



A beautiful story. I read it in one go, could be an excellent book to take on those intercontinental flights or one of those long non-stop journeys. This book is written by Mitch Albom, who is better known for his earlier novel, Tuesdays with Morrey, which has been made into a film. I haven't read Tuesdays with Morrey, but Five People... is definitely a keeper.

It explores a new concept of heaven (or afterlife?), according to which, the protagonist of the novel, Eddie - ordinary of all ordinary mortals, meets five people in the so-called Heaven. More than a place this Heaven is a state of being, state of consciousness and everyone will meet their five chosen people in heaven. The five people Eddie meets in heaven are varied as a group can be, some are total strangers, some are acquaintances and one is his wife.

If there is a book that can make you cry, not in desperate sorrow, but in quiet contemplation, this is it. For all those, like me, who have not yet been 'saved' enough to forget that we are just a mass of organic compounds, bound to decay, insignificant as the withering plant in your balcony which you have forgotten to water, Five People You Meet in Heaven is salvation, atleast during the hours you are reading it.

Dec 21, 2003

Bicyle Thief, The 

Vittorio De Sica's acclaimed masterpeice , The Bicycle Thief brought back memories of old Satyajit Ray films, black and white films of another era which were touted a class apart. Ofcourse, they were, they reminded us of a not so colorful world we inhabit daily, but nonetheless poignant and sanguine. Bicycle thief is set in post war Italy where people are struggling to make ends meet, not at all confirming to the glorious picture of Europe that people from developing countries might have of it.

The hero of the film lands a job, after a long wait, whose requirement is that he should have bicyle, which he procures after repaying the loan he has taken on the bicycle. As luck would have it on the first day of the job itself the bicycle gets stolen and the movie follows his search for the bicycle and its thief on the very next day thru' the streets of the city, with his young son.

The young boy who follows his father in his search has been portrayed as a silent observer and witness of all the events, at once the viewer is the man and the boy. Lamberto Maggiorani, who plays the main character of the man who loses his bicycle is brilliant inspite of being a non actor. The child actor Enzo Staiola was casted right from the streets to play the character of the little boy, it is as if he is the character. The movie won the best foreign film Oscar in 1949. By some coincidence or similarity this film reminds me a lot of Bimal Roy's Do Bhiga Zameen.

Dec 18, 2003

Salaam Bombay 


Fifteen years, thats a long time to abstain from watching a great movie from your own country, made by one of the greatest directors, that too a woman, why did I do this unpardonable crime? I saw a bit of it once, at one of my friend's houses in Ahmedabad, five years back, didn't give it more than a fleeting glance since we had a seminar presentation the next day. Yesterday I got the opportunity again, what more could I say, salaam Bombay! salaam Mira Nair! for giving us this gem of a movie, salaam to all the people who worked behind and in this film, one of the best movies, in any language I have ever watched.

Salaam Bombay is one of the few movies, that unleashed a mass movement in India, a movement for the betterment of lives of street children, in Bomaby. You can catch that at Salaamstreetkids.org The other similar movie I can remember is Roland Joffe's City of Joy, which led to the creation of City of Joy trust by Dominique Lapierre for the underpriveleged in Calcutta. For a little more than two hours, you are made to realize how lucky you are, lounging in the sofa infront of the TV or munching pop corn at the movie hall, you will be glad you are not one of those street kids whose life epitomises the meaning of struggle every next second, yet they are happy, they are innocent and they are real. The director Mira Nair, selected real street kids for the roles, in addition to a few character actors like Raghuvir Yadav, Nana Patekar and Anita Kanwar. When one of the street kids in an interview done fifteen years later says that 99% of the movie is true to life in the streets of Mumbai, you will know this is as real as it gets. Salaam Bombay is one of the movies that will awaken that altruistic streak in everyone of us, the moment we are done with the movie, we are bundles of enthusiasm, we burst with goodness, we are faced with the blessed idea that we have to contribute something to the betterment of humanity. Well, if you feel that way, don't let that feeling die a natural death after a couple of hours, act on it, it is actually true when they say, 'you can make a difference'.

The DVD I saw included interviews with the main actors and technicians who worked in the film in 1988, a segment in the lines of "Where are they now?'. Shafiq Sayid, the protangonist has gone from a street kid to a national award winning child star to a nobody and to being an assisstant cameraman settled and leading a peaceful life with a wife and two kids in Bangalore. Another street kid (Kira in the movie) was adopted by Salaam Bombay's camera woman Sandy Sissel and is now Bernard Sissel, living in LA - talk about chances in a billion. Mira Nair, ofcourse as everyone know went on to become one of the acclaimed directors in world cinema. I have watched all the movies made by her, except the documentaries, but this one, her first one, I'd say, is by far the best.

Dec 17, 2003

Qayamat 

Watched a mainstream Hindi movie after a considerable interval which made me realize I had been nurturing an impossible notion that commercial Hindi films were indeed getting better. I could not have been more wrong, considering the fact that Qayamat had a good run in most Indian cities.

The movie blatantly steals from a bunch of Hollywood movies, falls shamelessly short of each one of them . I had completely forgotten how Hindi movies jump into the song-dance routine at the batting of an eyelid, this movie has given me a whack on the head and jolted me into the harsher (or should I say sweeter syrupier mushier) realities of Bollywood entertainment. Lately I had seen a couple of low budget Bollywood flicks, yes.. they made a string of those sometime back with aspiring teen actors and to say the truth they were much better than this star studded action flick. Arbaaz Khan and Sanjay Kapoor are pathetic as villians, who told them to be villians all you needed was a wide mouthed villianous laugh?!?? The saving grace of the movie is Ajay Devgan who inspite of having found himself in the middle of a bad script and shoddy direction has proved that he is one of the best actors Bollywood has churned out in the recent past.

Dec 16, 2003

Down With Love 

A romantic comedy set in the sixties, starring Rene Zellweger and Ewan Mcgregor. I like both of them, there is no serious stuff in here, no lessons learnt, although the movie does repeat once in a while that its underlying theme is the battle of the sexes, its a fun battle and McGregor has cool sixtyishname - Catcher Block !!!

Dec 14, 2003

Amelie 

I saw Amelie sometime back, liked it, then forgot all about it. Its like a funny feel good Disney animation with a Made in France tag and real life characters. The style of narration is quite refreshing, so is the camera and lighting. The actress who played Amelie, Audrey Taotou lives being Amelie, you know the kind, even if you see her 50 years later on a street, you'll recognize her and you'll call her by name(Amelie, ofcourse), as if she has always been your next door neighbor. The film is red and green, very holidayish colors, and yeah, thinking about it - its a good movie to watch during the holidays.

Dec 10, 2003

Barbershop 

A pure entertainer, for a change its from the African Amercian perspective. Ice Cube is the owner of the barbershop which is in the south side of Chicago and it could be called the neighborhood community center. The whole movie takes place in a day, from dawn to dusk, which starts off like any other day for the local barbershop. Fortunes fluctuate, minds change, decisions are remade and finally everything turns out just perfect. Good timepass.

Nov 29, 2003

Naomi Klein's No Logo 

I started reading Naomi Klein's No Logo yesterday, can't believe she's just 5 years older than myself and has already published such a ground breaking book. Cool!

From what I have read in the first few pages of the book, it seems like nobody is selling products these days, they are selling brands. For ex, I quote from the book "..Tommy Hilfiger, meanwhile is less in the business of manufacturing clothes than he is in the business of signing his name. The company is run entirely through licensing agreements, with Hilfiger commissioninng all its products from a group of other companies: Jockey International makes Hilfiger underwear, Pepe Jeans London makes Hilfiger jeans, Oxford Industries make Tommy shirts, the Stride Rite Corporation makes its footwear. What does Tommy Hilfiger manufacture? Nothing at all." This is new information for me. I am all geared up to read the rest.

Nov 27, 2003

The Exorcist 

Can horror movies be termed watchable? Atleast in my moviemeter, the Evil Dead Series, Nightmare on Elm Street series etc never caused any ripples. Well, the Exorcist is quite a different story, considering it was made thirty years ago and it still doesn't seem dated.

A generation and a half of movie goers have watched the Exorcist before me, so any high handed comments from me, I think, is totally unnecessary. I loved the movie, how a usually unconvincing story is made convincing, without taking any sides. All the special effects in the movie are purely mechanical, no digital makeovers were possible at the time. A technically perfect movie with a strong storyline about a much contraversial subject and a real horror movie for a change, thats what the Exorcist is for me.

Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch 

Science fiction is a territory I tread with caution, because many of the stories dissect and mutilate the same areas as time travel, aliens and the like. After a long time I decided to give science fiction another try and read Philip K Dick's 'Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch'. He is the same author whose story, Minority Report was made into a movie lately, starring Tom Cruise.

Three Stigmata deals with a time when every piece of rock which can support life in the Sol system(solar system) has been colonized by man and the people who live in these places are branded as colonists. Like during the times of Vietnam war, 'drafting' is dreaded word, that means you were drafted to live in one of these space colonies, far from terra (earth) for the rest of your lives. It is an alien narcotic(a lichen that grows in some other galaxy) called Can-D which the colonists use, to have hallucinations of earth, with out these hallucinations, lives of the colonists border almost on insanity. The story turns when Palmer Eldritch, a rich businessman who had traveled to some far-off galaxy and presumed dead for years, returns with a more potent stuff than Can-D, names it Chew-Z and starts marketing it across the colonies and the earth. The story goes on from there..

This novel was written in the early sixties, although not very exact or advanced as depicted in the story, I could draw a lot of parallels between the life in the story and our lives now. We have not colonized solar system yet, but factors like the control of big corporations and media over our daily lives, the virtual reality games like Sims, SimCity etc have all been anticipated by the novel in some way or the other. You'll like Philip.K.Dick's style if you liked the story of Minority Report. Has to give the man his due, all of this, including Minority Report was written forty years ago.

Nov 26, 2003

Shallow Hal 

If media can corrupt you, then media can redeem you too. In an age when the staple of infontainment are the images of thinner-than-air femme fatales and informercials air 24/7 the ads of miracle drugs that can make you lose 30 lbs in 30 mins, anyone with some(or any) grey matter still left, should by now, be aware of the warning signs of a massive media brainwash of the masses. Shallow Hal, coming from the Farelly brothers (There's Something about Mary and Dumb & Dumber) is a two hour effort to convince you that beauty doesn't always come in wafer thin packages.

Jack Black is good, so is Gweneth Paltrow and I for one is a comedy lover unless it is too 'slap-sticky'. Jack Black's character, after a chance encounter with a new age guru falls in love with Gweneth Paltrow's character, who is actually 300+lbs and not exactly Black's type. Its the guru who does a small trick with Black's vision that he starts seeing the inner beauty of all women, not their physical assets. So the 300+lb girl appears as Paltrow to Black and he's head over heels in love. This is like a modern fairytale, becuase there are some parts of the movie which needs more convincing, especially towards the end, but then think of it as a fairytale and everything's fine. By the way, the movie has a good soundtrack.

Nov 21, 2003

Unforgiven 

The first real good western I have ever watched, thats what Unforgiven is to me. I have decided to watch every movie Clint Eastwood has directed or will ever direct. May his tribe prosper. Its unforgiveable that I had not watched Unforgiven till now, so if you are movie buff and if you are yet to watch it, the only way can redeem yourself is to seize the earliest opportunity to go watch Unforgiven. Let the movie speak for itself, I am not sayin' anything.

Nov 18, 2003

A Dangerous Place: California's Unsettling Fate 

Thats the title of the book by Marc Reisner, I read recently. A doomsday look at the booming California, supported by facts and coming from a convincing scientist, A Dangerous Place is an informative read. To think about that one and half years ago, I lived right smack on top of the San Andreas Fault, one of the most geologically active faults in US and didn't even care a hoot about it. I knew then that this famed fault was somewhere nearby, but not right under my feet, now 6000 miles north and one book later, I know better.

I took this book because I wanted to know better about California, home for a year, this extensively irrigated, highly populated desert of a 'nation-state' and what its odds were in the long run. Well, after reading this book I would say I'd warn even my grandchildren to stay clear off CA, that is, if its still there with its fake lush charm. But then,some of the greatest cities of the world still exist in the worst of topographies, take Tokyo for example. Tokyo has been built and rebuilt again and again on the same terrain, one of the most earthquake prone in the world, for centuries now. So why shouldn't it be true for San Francisco or LA? If you keep aside the inherent plate tectonic defect of the region, there is still another problem - water. Well, water is problem in almost all the big cities of the world, you don't expect a sinking aquifer or a fast depleting lake to support exploding populations forever, right?

Whatever it is, I think California is like a prototype, a working, living machine, a real time experiment to test how far men can go, how far we can stretch and expand resources and how much can nature tolerate or when will we have to switch to alternatives (no, no no ......not soda instead water kinda alternative) just in time to save ourselves. Reisner has a scenario in the end when a big earthquake strikes SFO, and the last chapters are the simulation and effects of this event, its interesting to read, if you know or live around the place, just to see which houses will stand and which bridges will fall !

American Movie 

Another one from my documentary seeing spree. American Movie documents an aspiring film-maker, Mark Borchardt, somewhere in the depths of Wisconsin, trying to make a direct-to-market movie with his meager resources and infrastructure. At one point you may think that Mark's obsession with movie making is foolish, even pathetic, but as you watch the documentary you see the person, his relationships, his dreams and above all his life and in the end when he accomplishes the task, you know you'll have to applaud the guy, for all that he has been through.

Mark is an average or even below average(in terms of financial status) American guy with a penchant for film making. He adores horror movies like Texas Chainsaw Massacre(the original one), Night of the Living Dead etc and has been making short movies since he was fourteen. We follow the making of his new movie Coven, a 35 minute black and white horror flick, through a time frame of 2+ years. Other main characters in the movie are Mark's ex-stoner pal Mike, who found his calling in life, which is to buy lotteries and who is a born again teetotaller after years of drug use and alchoholism and Mark's ailing uncle, who after Mark's relentless persuasion finally agrees to finance the film out of his retirement fund and Mark's parents, who although reluctant at first, support Mark in his pursuit of the 'American Dream'. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, 'American Movie', is something you can only find in 'America', in the rest of the world we'd be done in by survival pressures before anyone of us had made it even halfway thru'.

Nov 16, 2003

4 Little Girls 



Spike Lee's documentary on civil rights movement of the sixties, starting from a vortex - which is the death of 4 little girls in the Alabama church bombing of 1963 and spreading outward. Its a memory trip, the entire civil right movement and the turbulent sixties of the American South seen through the eyes of the people who were caught right in the middle,in the eye of the storm. We live the era, through the interviews with parents and friends of the girls killed at the 16th St. Baptist Church bombing, we hear the lawmakers and the administrators, we hear how the police and KKK were inseparable in those days (acc. to the movie, one in every three policemen was a clan member!) and ofcourse about the will and determination of blacks in Alabama and the South, when an entire nation had turned a blind eye on their freedom and their needs. Thats history for you, if want to the see the real thing outside of the History Channel.

Nov 15, 2003

  • 11/15/2003 09:11:00 PM
A beautiful movie, I can describe this movie with a plethora of pompous adjectives, but that still won't do it enough justice. One of the best movies I have ever seen, this Japanese movie from Takeshi Kitano, flows like a poem, one that does not need a dictionary or an understanding of rhyme structure to enjoy it.

I watched it about six months ago and saw it again the second the time yesterday, when we bought the DVD. The movie is a search and a journey, undertaken by a six year old boy and a man who accompanies him, which is Mr.Takeshi himself. This film is supposed to be an exploration of a different genre by Takeshi, since most of his other films are associated with yakusas, violence, blood and the like. There is innocence and there is comedy - one that is neither slapstick nor what could be called the thinking man's humor, but something altogether different, something quirky. Kitano has kept up his deadpan acting style, but that only adds to the charm of the movie, the little boy is perfect for the part, so are all the other strange characters they meet on their journey, music by Joes Hisashi is another ace up the sleeve of this movie.

Nov 14, 2003

Ballad Of A Soldier 

Grigori Chukrai's Russian movie, Ballad of a Soldier is a timeless masterpiece. Here I was in 2003, watching a movie made in 1959 in post war USSR, checking again and again on the DVD cover whether this movie was actually made in 1959 or shot in black and white in 1999 or 1989 or so? There is a certain finesse, a certain element in the movie that I cannot discern which makes it timeless, you cannot see the the dramatic acting often seen in forties and fifties movies, you cannot see the abrupt jerky shots and actions characteristic of pre-war movies and there are not many style statements which stamp the movie as belonging to one era or another.

Its WW2 and Alyosha Skcortsov is a nineteen year old Russian soldier who is granted a visit to his mother after he singlehandedly fends off two enemy tanks. We follow Alyosha and his life during those few days of his journey to his home, through a war torn country, through loves lost and found, through demolition and strife, through hope and despair in the lives of people he pass through and finally he reaches home with just enough time to hug his mother and get back to the battle field. Ballad of a Soldier doesnot entrust its fame on the young shoulders of a brave teenage soldier but rather creates a poignant visual poem with him as the symbol of life, innocence, youth, love and hope, in a time which desperately needed all of these.

Nov 9, 2003

Hannah and her sisters 

Another Woody Allen flick, centered around the lives of Hannah, played by Mia Farrow and her two sisters. A typical Woody Allen story, characters and humor, a definite entry in the list of thinking man's list of comedy movies.

Blood Work 

A Clint Eastwood movie again, where Eastwood himself is the hero as the retired FBI man, with a newly transplanted heart. The movie begins with Eastwood being approached by the sister of the his heart donor, who is a murder victim. Although he has said goodbye the crime solving business, tugging at the 'heart strings' of his borrowed heart, is the question, "who killed the real owner of my new heart?" So our man plunges into unravelling what seems to be a murder during a convenience store heist. The story is good, the pace is fast, there are not many unwanted scenes in the movie, its pretty much tightly packed as the boat which serves as Eastwood's home in the story. A good murder mystery and I have finally decided I should watch Unforgiven after years of exercising restraint, thats says something about this movie, I guess.

Nov 8, 2003

Adaptation 

Nicholas Cage in a double role, Meryl Streep and Chis Cooper - that makes four actors who have acted extremely well in this movie. It gets off on a slow start brooding on the life of Hollywood screen writer called Charlie Kaufman and his newest project, a movie about orchids, which has experienced a writer's block at the very start itself. The other Nicholas Cage is Kaufman's twin Donald, a happy go lucky guy, who is an aspiring screen writer, who surpasses and surprises his brother when his so-deemed no good script is swooped up for millions in Hollywood. Meryl Streep plays the reporter who goes down to Florida to do an article on orchids and ends being having an affair with the eccentric orchid man, played by Chris Cooper, although its not as straightforward as I said it. Where does the characters of Streep and Cage connect? Well it is Streep's story that Cage is trying to adapt into film. The pace quickens up towards the end, although some of the actions of its main characters towards the end are questionable.Nicholas Cage is beyond recognition as Charlie Kaufman and the juxtaposition of the serious loser character of Charlie against the exuberant Donald, both played by Cage, shows his infinite range. I am not that much inspired by the movie, but Cage's acting is something to write home about.

Nov 7, 2003

25th Hour 

Directed by Spike Lee, this film starring Edward Norton is about the last day of freedom in the life of a NewYork drug dealer (Norton) before he goes to prison for seven years. I felt it was more like a narrative than a story with some destination. Norton has acted well in a low key role. It is not a typical Hollywood movie where you would expect car chases, clandestine deals and wailing cop sirens packed into a drug dealer's last day as a free man. This is pretty much like life viewed in retrospect through the actions of one day. So don't expect any nail biting or edge-of-the-seat thrills here, its a movie for grownups, though Iam not sure I am that grownup yet or not. It does sometimes go away on its own free will sometimes, like the time Norton curses everyone from Newyork cabbies, harlem boys, whites, Osama and almost everyone out there or at the time of Norton's ride to the prison with his father - these scenes are like complete poems in themselves.

Oct 28, 2003

Catch Me If You Can 

Like Men of Honor, this again is a biographical movie of a man who achieved the unachievable of a rather dubious nature. Frank Abignale, the ingenious imposter, crook, defrauder a la master of all trades is the ME in Catch Me if you Can. Don't think any of us can catch up with him, especially if you are already past your teens. He impersonated "successfully" an airline pilot, a doctor, a lawyer(passed the bar exam too) and cashed millions of dollars worth of fraud checks before he was finally caught and he was just 19 at the time! Leonardo DiCaprio plays Frank Abignale and Tom Hanks plays Carl Hanretty, the FBI agent hot on Frank's trail. Its a good movie to watch, to see how Frank make fake checks, degree certificates and the like, at a time when nobody had heard of photostat or photoshop. Catch it if you can.

Oct 27, 2003

Men of Honor 

Men of Honor is a feel good movie, one where the tough and steadfast but downtrodden hero triumphs atlast. Its a movie for the dark horses in us, who desperately need a win, who need a symbol for our hope and that is what Carl Brashear(played by Cuba Gooding Jr.), the navy diver who aspires to be the master chief achieves in the movie. Inspired by a real life story, Men of Honor traces the journey of Carl Brashear, the first African-American deep sea diver in US Navy from his Kentucky hometown, thru' the navy training schools and barracks and his experiences as the first African American in a not very welcoming world of US Navy deep sea divers. His never quit attitude and perseverence in the face of adversity leads upto his final triumph of will when the Navy allows him to continue as a deep sea diver inspite of an amputated leg and from there he goes on to become the Master Diver. Robert De Niro plays Master Chief Billy Sunday, who is out to get Brashear kicked out of the diving school and the Navy, who later on turns into a dependable ally of Brashear. The best part of the movie is not the acting, though Cuba Gooding's & De Niro's performances are outstanding, but the fact that one man, who is real as you and me, went thru' all this and emerged victorious. So why go to Krypton, we have our own, right here on earth!

Oct 26, 2003

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil 

This is a Clint Eastwood movie, one I saw as a part of my initiation towards knowing Clint Eastwood, the director, after being bowled head over heels by his latest film, Mystic River. Midnight in the Garden... is set in Savannah, Georgia, suffused with the old world charm and mystery of the South, feels like it is a different continent out there. Starring Kevin Spacey and John Cusack this is a murder mystery, seems like Eastwood is quite a reader, this one too like his other directorial ventures is an adaptation of a novel. Cusack is John Kelso, the big town reporter who comes down to Savannah to write an article about a society party held each year on Christmas by Jim Williams( Kevin Spacey), a prominent Savannah businessman. The photography is soothing, there are some interesting characters like Lady Chablis - the transvestite, Minerva - the voodoo woman etc, though the murder is not much of mystery. Kevin Spacey plays a charcter very different from his usual roles. A lazy afternoon movie, in Southern accent that is.

Oct 23, 2003

  • 10/23/2003 09:32:00 AM
Brian Aldiss was one of the very few science fiction authors I had reading access to when I was a kid. He being British, his books were abound in the local British library in the city I lived. Artificial Intelligence in Steven Spielberg's take on an Aldiss short story by the name 'SuperToys Last All Summer Long'.

A.I is a cool story, I don't know how it did at the box office. There are always a number of failings to be pointed out when it is an SF movie. Science fiction traverses a realm where we haven't been yet, everyone's concept of the future differs, even though you and me are not Asimov or Bradbury or Clarke, everyone has an opinion of her/his own when it comes to the future. The success of an SF writer depends on how much his version of the future matches or atleast captures the interest of the majority of the population.

Artificial Intelligence as the title implies centers around robots, intelligent in the ways they are intended to be, by their makers ie human beings. The robots are called mecha (from mechanical?) and we, humans are called orga(organic) and now that everyone can think, scientists cross over to the forbidden territory of love. They make a mecha child who can love, and that is Haley Joel Osment. He has given a wonderful performance, as the eleven year old mecha boy, whose quest is to find the blue princess and make her grant his one wish, so that his (human) mother will love him. It is a fairytale, one set in the future, that makes it possible to have its own sets of trappings and rules, essentially different from the fairytales we have been hearing till now. Its has a good storyline, some lousy acting if you don't count Osment and Jude Law, who makes an appearance as Gigolo Joe, the lover Mecha, a fabulous futuristic landscape of Manhattan half flooded with sea (and you thought global warming was a joke, eh?) and a talking teddy bear, which is an aging super toy. If you like fairytales with a flair and a 'future', you might like this one. Oh, you like science fiction like in Star Wars?!??!! Then I am not quite sure.

Oct 20, 2003

Mystic River 

Its a wow! all the way. Where has the director in Clint Eastwood been hiding all this time? Or was it me who missed out on him? Whatever it is his latest directorial offering, Mystic River, has definitely made the cut and I can confidently say that it will be one of the top five movies of 2003. While reading Mystic River, I knew it was the right Hollywood material, the question was who'd grab it first? It was one movie I had been waiting to see since I heard that it was being made into one, if only they'd release it.

Everyone did great in this movie, Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Lawrence Fishburne and Laura Linney, but the its the first two, Penn and Robbins who have really done some stellar performing. Do I smell an Oscar here? The story is about three childhood buddies, their pasts connected by an abduction and their futures connected by a murder. As Eastwood's Dirty Harry says, "go ahead, make my day" what more can I say, make his day, its worth it!

Heist 


I love those movies which involve plots and plans, especially the ones which has a plan as cute as a Chinese baby(what does that really mean? I don't know). Thats what the main character in Heist, played by the formidable Gene Hackeman calls his own brain child. The movie involves two robberies, carried out after elaborate planning and backup. The first one is to show the viewers how 'talented', coordianted and well prepared, the team of robbers led by the mastermind Gene Hackman are, they are no petty thieves, they only deal in diamonds worth millions of dollars of gold biscuits. I am not going to tell the story here as it'd kill the pleasure of watching it.

There are some real wise guy dialogues in the movie like "Well, don't you want to hear my last words?" "I just did" or "It's a good day for the race" "What race" "The human race.." etc etc. There are a lot more which I don't remember now. I think only film I have seen directed by David Mamet is Glengarry Glenross of which I don't have any recollections. Heist is written and directed by David Mamet, even though this movie hits the wall of credibility once in a while, its a watchable fare and has prompted me to out for more from the same director.

Oct 19, 2003

You Can Count On Me 

The bar tender from Los Angeles did it great. Mark Ruffalo, the leading man of the movie You Can Count On Me, spent the last nine years of his life as a bartender in LA before he hit gold in Hollywood. In the movie he's a vagabond brother, with no particular aim in life, to Laura Linney's character who is his sister working in a bank in a backwater town. Ruffalo with his easy going style and happy go lucky ways gives an excellent performance. The movie is also the debut vehicle for Rory Culkin as Linney's son. There isn't much of a story to the film and the director Kenneth Lonergan developed the whole movie out of a one act play, nevertheless its a poignant look at some ordinary lives in some ordinary small town somewhere in America and the interesting way it is delivered makes sure that its never uninteresting.

Oct 16, 2003

Do you believe? 

I wonder whether there are people who really really really believe in God. The ones who never questioned God's existence(or non-existence), ones who never debated that issue ever, not even in the remotest corner of their being on their most doubtful day. If such people exist, they must be the luckiest ones alive.

Oct 12, 2003

The Ring 

Finally saw the horror movie, which was tauted a class apart from other Hollywood horror flicks, The Ring. The remake of a hit Japanese movie of the same name, it is without any doubt a product of Hollywood Horror Hawkers Inc., the signature of which stares out at you from the start to the finish. I'd really like to see the Japanese version to see how they dealt with it. Since everyone knows the story I am not going to waste my time exercising my poor story telling skills.

Its kinda urban-legendsy which starts out with two teenage girls talking "well, did you hear about that video, after watching which, the viewers will die in 7 days..blah blah". The horror films which starts with teenagers make me wary, I mean, give them a break, they are the most easy scapegoats for the horror mongers, 9 out of 10 horror flicks involve a group of teenagers stranded in some desolate spot. Anyway this one didn't stretch the teenager material too far and quickly pushes Naomi Watts into the storyline, as our damsel in distress, but a courageous one at that. Ms Watts seems to have become the staple of supernatural and surrealistic films after Mulholland Drive. The Ring could be said as a well directed horror movie, with a glaring "made in Hollywood" sticker attached, which is worth a watch on times like Halloween when world is in dire need to conjure an atmosphere of ghosts(dressed in Walmart Halloween specials) and the horror weekend in your favorite TV channel is horrible beyond tolerance.

Oct 11, 2003

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Intellectual |||||||||||||||| 64%
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Oct 9, 2003

Hearts in Atlantis 

Hearts in Atlantis has some mysteries in it and some shades of supernatural. Anthony Hopkins plays the mysterious stranger who walks into the life of Bobby Garfield, an eleven year old boy and the two form a strong bond as the film progresses. Its something like Green Mile (yeah coming from Stephen King) but its not quite Green Mile. It doesn't have quite a strong story line as Green Mile, but what redeems it is its child characters and its setting - the never never land of childhood. If you like stories set in childhood (were you a fan of Wonder Years? then this one is for you), where the narrator has a manly voice although his screen self is a child, then you will like this one. But then I watch the Stephen King stuff for what they are....starts off with mysteries..sets out to explore what they are.....gets nowhere...except confuse the viewers.....we are left more dazed and confused, than when we started, the mysteries of life, universe and space time - maybe a Stephen King reincarnated will have better answers. Wait for that day!

Oct 8, 2003

The Life of David Gale 

When this movie first came I thought it should be a good movie given a contreversial theme and good actors. But then after that I read some reviews asking why Kevin Spacey was wasting himself in movies like these. So when I got this movie from the library a few days back I didn't have any high expectations for it. Maybe that was why I liked the film.

Kevin Spacey has done a good job, being the wrongly convicted Professor, who is also an activist campaigning against capital punishment, who ends up on the death row himself. Shot in Texas, which has more active death rows than anywhere else in US, this Alan Parker movie makes a strong state against capital punishment, although whether any of it will reach the ears of the law makers is doubtful. Kate Winslet plays the role of investigative journalist, whom Spacey has entrusted the duty of proving his innocence, if not to the whole world atleast to his own son when he grows up. Watching the movie one is stricken by the fact that how easily things can go wrong in life, one minute you are leading a cosy suburban existence and in the next you are on the death row, knowing for certain the hour of your death, but no one answers the question, "Why?"

Oct 7, 2003

The Enlish Man Who Went Up The Hill But Came Down a Mountain 


Where in the world could being "English" be the ultimate insult? Where else, in Wales, ofcourse! "The English Man...." is the name of the movie, this could very well be the English movie with the longest title, for all that I know. The story takes place in Wales, the accent itself is so funny, its about half the humor in the film. Hugh Grant is one of the two surveyors sent by His Magesty the King of England, towards the end of WW1, to Wales to measure and map the area. They come across a hill in a Welsh village, which the villagers think could very well be the first mountain in Wales. The rest of the movie is about villagers efforts to make the hill a mountain and how they overcome this 'mountain-high' task. A nice and light movie.

Oct 6, 2003

The Shower 

The Shower, the Chinese(Mandarin) movie is about the story of a father and his sons. Set in a Beijing bathhouse (such places still exist!!!) its the story of the owner of the bath house, the aging father and his sons, the elder son who is holding a respectable job somewhere up north and who rushes home thinking that his father has passed away and the younder son who is retarded and is his father's assistant and companion.

Its a subtle story, lightly told, with its own undercurrent of humor, never becomes suffocatingly sentimental and has almost an all male cast. Its interesting to see the culture, watch the bath house tales unfold - like two men and their fighting crickets, a singer with stage fright who won't shut his mouth once he's in the shower, the adorable younger son who is the soul of the place and is a naughty but likeable and helpful kid. Watch it if you have a taste for foreign movies and could let go Hollywood for a while.

Oct 2, 2003

The Nanny Diaries 

A funny, insider's peek at "Nannying" for high profile Manhattan moms. A first person account, most of it fact than fiction, The Nanny Diaries is an engrossing read, especially for those of us who have no clue as to what happens after the high flying Manhattan socialites get an unexpected visit from the stork-with-the-bundle-of-joy. Co-written by Nicola Kraus and Emma McLaughlin, the book narrates authors' experiences in the wicked and often vicious world where the Nanny's only ally is the child who she is taking care of.

Those of you have done your share of baby sitting will be able to associate with the Nanny easily, but that doesn't make the book a less compelling a read for those who haven't, like me. Its enjoyable and though at times I'd have wanted the Nanny to be more vocal about her needs, afterall this is a free country where slave labor is not tolerated, right? And the children, who are being taken care of, who are being bred right with the right amount French classes, ice skating and all the other related skills are shorn away from childhood before they begin it. Don't let me get started on Nanny's employer Mrs.X and I'll lose all my restraint, lesser said the better. Take a look at this book yourself, you won't regret it.

Sep 29, 2003

Woody Allen's Anything Else 


After a long time saw a movie at the theatre, it was Woody Allen's "Anything Else", on this Saturday. Typical Woody Allen fare and for those who like his movies (you don't really have to like the person to like his movies, right?!??), this one is also abrim with dry wit and sarcastic self mocking humor and it has fresh faces - Jason Biggs and Christina Ricci in addition to the master, Mr. Allen himself.

In the movie, Jason Biggs is a comedy writer, so is Allen, but the major difference between the two in addition to Woody Allen's off the cuff funny philospohical nuances is that Biggs is a person who can't say No to most people, including his agent and his new-age girl friend played by Ricci. Allen's character takes upon himself to re-invent Biggs, and thus the movie goes. Set in Newyork (where else?) the movie winds its way thru' Central Park, Manhattan and the lives of its protagonists. Its not a movie where you'd fall off your chair laughing your heads off, but its the one with a lot of 'thinker's jokes'. Well in short if you like Woody Allen movies, you'll definitely like this one.

Sep 14, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 9 - SF Bay Area, Fremont ,Gilroy and back to Anchorage 

Both yesterday and today were spent rushing about, catching up with old friends, eating heavy dinners, doing a year's worth of shopping at Gilroy factory outlet and Fremont and generally being in the 'farewell-time-soon' mood. Today evening(14th Sept) we took a flight out of SFO to Anchorage with a two hour stop over at Portland. We were home at midnight and that winds up this travelogue.


(Link to all posts of Road Trip)

Sep 12, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 9(California) - Sacramento, Again! 

We woke up at around noon, and headed straight to Sacramento to be at our friend's place in Folsom. The day passed with meeting and visiting a few friends at their homes and finally crashing at one of their houses.Not much sight seeing for the day.

Sep 11, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 8(California) - Napa Valley 

The day started off with us heading to Ghirardeli, America's oldest chocolate company and the creators of the legendary Ghirardelli chocolate. Across the Maritime Museum, where the Hyde Street ends, Ghirardelli is a must stop for those who are visiting San Francisco for the first time, we were going there to stock up our pantry with their famous chocolates and cocoa. Yes, today is the "stocking'-up day". Half an hour at Ghirardelli and we are off to the vineyards of Napa Valley.

I used to play a PC game, called Road Rash while I was in college, it had a couple of circuits(race tracks) which you could choose like Pacific Coast Highway, Napa Valley (these are the ones I remember) while playing a game. At that time all I knew was these were in USA but I had no clue as to whether they bore any resemblance to the real Pacific Coast US 101 or Napa Valley. Driving to Napa Valley was like playing Road Rash all over again, there were the vineyards fleeing past, two lane highway which meandered down to one lane at parts, if I remember right Napa Valley course was one of the easier courses, so the one I played more often than others, see that training has come handy.

This was not my first trip to Napa-Sonoma valley, I made one a year and half ago and fell in love with the place. Like the farms of Oregon, here again was people leading a different kinda life, so close to the city, yet so faraway. Most of the wineries in US are along the Napa-Sonoma valley, big names like Robert Mondavi, V Sattui etc dominate the region. We were heading for V Sattui winery to replenish our stock of wines. You can have free wine tasting at all the wineries, there is a wine train that'll take you across the area and some 'hardy' wine drinkers make it a day of living solely on wine hopping from winery to winery.

V.Sattui is real nice picnic spot as well as a great winery. I would recommend their Madeira and other dessert wines. You can grab a bottle of wine, find something at their fabulous deli (thats what we did) and have a lazy afternoon in the shade of Sattui's hundred year old oak trees in their two acre picnic yard. Back to San Francisco after a minor tire repair to take out a nail embedded in the tire and that wound up our day.


(Link to all posts of Road Trip)

Sep 10, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 7(California) - San Francisco 


Finally we reached back our old home - San Francisco, on the evening of September 10, Wednesday. The drive back from LA to SF was pretty uneventful except for the fact that it ate up most of Wednesday. We reached SF downtown by evening, after leaving LA at 12pm.

We used to live in the Bay Area before we moved to the Artic Circle. San Francisco is still the same sweet fog city, so different and pleasant from the rest of the desert style environs of California which surrounds it. It doesn't have the highly-irrigated-false-greenery -covering-over-the-real-desert look of Sacramento or Los Angeles, San Francisco Bay Area is a class apart, having a micro climate of its own. For the two days we were there we stayed at a friend's place in downtown SF.

I don't feel like writing much about San Francisco in a touristy way because it had been home for some time and we used to show our friends around the city whenever they visited us. This was the first time that the roles were reversed. Having endured the boredom of visiting and revisiting the famous tourist spots like Fisherman Wharf, Golden Gate Bridge, Alcatraz, the day ended with us deciding just to visit Ghirardeli the next day to get some of their famous chocolate and nowhere else in the city.


(Link to all posts of Road Trip)

The Road Trip - Part 7(California) - Los Angeles & Hollywood  


A lazy morning of lounging around found us all heading fordowntown LA, Sunset Boulevard and Hollywood. We drove thru' historic downtown LA, along Broadway, flanked by 1920-30ish buildings, mostly in brick. Then we took a u-turn back to the New Downtown, Fashion District and South Park which is a world away, architecturally, from the old downtown area. One thing that struck me, was LA seemed like a true Hispanic city, or was it roads we took, whatever it was there were more brown faces than faces of any other color.

Inspite of visitng LA 3 times or so in the past two years, I had never seen Hollywood or Sunset Boulevard before and had high expectations. As we got off the exit from 101 and hit Sunset Blvd, it seemed to me like any other road in urban America, maybe I didn't have enough associations I could remember except the name. We did get the Hollywood sign in the camera and palm trees on the Blvd, but other than that it was just another LA street.

Sunset Boulevard became Sunset Strip while going towards Beverly Hills and Bel Air. Click here if you want to know more about Sunset Boulevard and other Hollywood streets. About Hollywood and Bel Air, not up to my expectations (that meant they were too high or my imagination required a 'grounding' real soon), maybe the hour and the light played a part in my perceptions. Sun had almost gone down and it was kinda dark, and all I saw was ivy covered walls or watchman's tiny cubicles standing outside the gates,forlornly in the night and above all it was just a winding one lane highway (did you expect Hollywood starlets to build a mansion beside I-5, in all that noise, traffic, pollution and people?. My mistake!) The houses, or the part of them which were visible above the walls of the properties, looked comparitively big, very much like the Gulf boom bungalows back in my native place in another continent far away. But I guess its the real estate thats pricey in Bel Air and Hollywood, you can have the house and property of the same size somewhere in Montana and pay not even 0.001% of what you would have paid in Hollywood (you wish!).



Sep 8, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 6(California) - Sacramento and Los Angeles  



Reached Sacramento on Sunday night. After dinner at a friend's house in Sacramento, N had this fabulous idea, a very 'road-tripsy' one, that we should drive full eight hours to LA that night itself. The thought, that during this road trip, we hadnot driven a lot at a stretch, might have held N back from calling this a real road trip, but not me. The idea of driving high on caffeine, through comparatively less crowded highways at night was something that had evaded us till now. Then why wait, I agreed to N's suggestion.

Four hours later,after I had slept thru' the caffeine, most part of I-5 between Sacramento and LA and a better part of the night, I woke myself to what seemed to be a phantasma of a 'driven' man at the wheel, driving at 85 miles an hour, just short of downtown LA by little less than hundred miles. We reached LA around 4-4.30AM. After a year and a half of leading a detached- from- the- rest- of- the- world Arctic life, LA was an eye opener. Ok, Seattle traffic was bad, but at 0400am in LA everyone was at everyone else's necks racing on to reach their work places. At this hour in the morning, I usually had full 4 hours of sleep ahead and lot more sweet dreams in line. Luckily, two people in the car meant that we had a slight advantage over most of the other drivers, we could use the car pool lane, that was moving faster. Everybody was doing 75-80 mph over a 55 mph speed zone, car poolers were touching 85 mph, not bad for a Monday morning.

We reached our destination at Irvine at 0630am. The rest of the day passed in a sleepy haze punctuated by intermittent brunch and snacks offered by our gracious hosts. By evening we were up and ready to go, this time towards San Diego. The southern most (big)city on the West Coast on USA, San Diego is almost next door to Mexico. One of the funny warning signs on the higway towards San Diego is the highway warning signs which depicts a few fleeing human forms, just like somewhere else where it'd be a person riding horse which alerts you to look out for horse riders, this sign alerts you to look out for illegal immigrants fleeing across the border and stumbling(?) blind across highways. There is a check post near San Diego on I-5, where they are supposed to check vehicles for illegal immigrants, some of whom are smuggled across squeezed inside the dashboard of cars or sewn into the seats, I wonder how they ever find out which car to check for?

We did a lightning visit to one of our friends' house in San Diego and returned the same night to Irvine, LA. We decided to extend our stay in LA by one more day, which meant we had a full day tomorrow in LA. See you then.


(Link to all posts of Road Trip)

Sep 7, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 5(Oregon) - Crater Lake and Klamath Falls  


Left Medford at 1130am heading east on 62, towards Crater Lake National Park. The day was a little chilly and road ahead as we neared Crater Lake was draped in slight fog. This route was called Rogue - Umpqua Scenic byway between Rogue and Umpqua rivers. On the way there were trail heads leading to Rogue River lookout points, we ended up going a little way up the trail and clicking a few photographs from river's edge.

Crater Lake is the deep blue clear water lake formed by the collapse of Mount Mazama, so it looks as if some has dug out a bowl shaped lake at the summit of a mountain. If you plan to hike there are 90 miles of trails around the lake and several campgrounds and you can also have a boat ride in the lake. The lake's annual input comes mostly from precipitation and the lake is surrounded by 200 feet mountain cliffs on all sides. Those who want to take in the full beauty of Crater lake should attempt the Rim Drive, which is drive around the rim of the lake(of course!), with several viewpoints along the way. We did a 1/3rd rim drive and turned back, shot some usual tourist videos and headed back on 62 towards Klamath Falls and from there on to California.

Before you go, all you riding behemoth gas guzzlers, fill up your tanks before you cross into California, gas prices increase by a full fifty cents or more when you just 1 mile across Oregon border into California.


(Link to all posts of Road Trip)

The Road Trip - Part 4 - US 101 Oregon Coast
 



I wonder who made hotel checking-outs at 11am a standard, whoever it was, I guess it had to be a late riser. I mean if early birds had their way, as with the worm they'd rather make it 6am or something. Well 11am suited us fine, not too early, not too late (we could have easily slept for one more hour, that was not actually needed, if not the for the check out time being strictly at 11am) Started from Red Apple at eleven, took US 101 heading south along the Oregon coastline. Alright, we were finally on the famed 101, touted to be one of the most scenic highways in the US. We had driven on 101 along the California coast, including the 17 mile drive some time back, the Oregon coast was supposed to be as beautiful or better than the California one, let's see. The day was a bit cloudy, and there was a slight drizzle when we started from Tillamook. Somebody later told us that we should have gone to Tillamook Cheese Factory that was really famous, although at that time all we had in mind was to get out of Tillamook as quick as possible and do some real driving along the scenic 101.

The section US 101 scenic byway after Tillamook towards South is christened the Three Capes Route. We got off at Cape Kiwanda, a few miles down south, it had a nice beach, a huge rock in the middle of the ocean not far from the beach and a sand hill towards the northern edge filled with 'sand-surfers'. Even for an overcast day Kiwanda was kinda crowded, kite flyers, people riding horses along the beach, sand surfers, kids at play and lazy loungers - there was everyone there. You could drive down to the beach and park on the southern side or drive as far South along the beach as far as your vehicle can take it. It was a long time since we did any drive-in beaches and this seemed to be a good chance, we eased our car down the slope to the beach and veered right towards the sand hill. We might have gone a few meters when we saw a magnificient display of festival lights in our rear view mirror and it turned out that we have somehow become the 'object of affection' of the local sheriff. It was his truck bearing down at us with dazzling display of lights and warning sounds. Hey, what was this? What did we do? We didn't have to wait much longer to find out the answer, there he was, right beside the driver side window, asking N to roll down the window. "I tried to warn you twice, but seemed like you didn't want to hear, your driving license and registration, please," demanded the Sheriff. After taking a look at N's driving license, he joked, "hopefully you are not 'wanted' for anything in Alaska and do drive on the left side of the beach, not the right." and let us go. That was our initiation into "unwritten codes of conduct on US 101 beaches."

From Kiwanda we followed 101 south towards Lincoln City. It appeared that Lincoln City catered more to the tourists than Tillamook with its wider choice of hotels, restaurants and fancy shops along the seafront. One thing I noted about the Oregon coast was that it had more rocks in the sea than any other sea coast I have ever been to. Not just by the beach, you can see rocks, big ones at that jutting out from the ocean bed, quite faraway from land, but the beach itself is not rocky as one'd expect. Driving down to Newport we chanced upon one of Oregon's renowned lighthouses and a historical landmark, the lighthouse at Yaquina Head. The entrance fee is $5 per car and is valid for 3 days. Yaquina Head lighthouse, considered to be one of the most beautiful lighthouses in US was built in 1873. Tourists are allowed to climb upto the top of the lighthouse, one at a time. Yaquina Head Natural Area also encloses Cobble Beach, Quarry Cove Tidal Pools which are outstanding natural habitats for various marine and land organisms and a few trails which takes you up the hills overlooking the lighthouse.

After Newport road curves up along the edge of Siuslaw National Forest and beyond. On the way we took a short break to photograph another light house, Hecata Head. Passing the Central Oregon coast near Reedsport, we saw sand dunes on our right, so this was Dunes, Or. Its a wonder that these sand dunes exist in the middle of nowhere, without any connection to the preceeding or succeeding landscape. Along the road there was a thin curtain of coniferous trees and beyond that you could see the sand dunes, I mean how could you be in a temperate coniferous forest and in a desert at the same time. That was Dunes, Or - a natural paradox. Trees grow on its sides , water runs thru' it, locals make a living out of it renting ATVs to tackle the dunes to the more adventurous tourists. and people adventurous but short of time just pass through, staring hard at the passing scenery from the comfort of their air condioned vehicles and making a note of what to write in their journals, like I did.

We left 101 for Highway 38 which was named Umpqua Scenic Corridor, after the Umpqua river that drains along the Central Oregon basin. There were several spots at the start of this highway called Elk viewing spots, where you could watch herds of Elks roaming at a comfortable distance without any fear of humans. This part of the highway was really scenic and so was Highway 138 we merged onto on our way to I-5, which we hoped to catch at Sutherlin. The area was charecterized by rolling grass lands, interspersed with patches of woods, then fields stretching afar. There were farms all kinds, diary farms, wheat fields, horses, all in all a real rustic stretch of land where you could live forever immersed in sowing seeds, harvesting grain, rearing cows and horses and yet know nothing about the outside world, except for the occasional automobile that passes by raising dust on the highway at the far side of your property.

We got on to I-5 at Southerlin, heading South towards Medford, Or, our stop for the night. The stretch of I-5 from Roseburg to Medford climbs up along the mountains reaching Grants Pass at 2020 ft then weaves down towards Medford. We decided to stop at Medford as we had plans of visiting Crater Lake National Park the next day, which was 80 miles east of Medford. A piece of advice on the hotels in Medford, those along 62E towards Crater Lake are expensive since this is the expected tourist route and tourists seldom venture off their pre-chartered routes. But if you are looking for cheaper but decent accomodation try hotels and inn in or around downtown Medford along I-5. We stayed at Medford Inn at $50 a night on the 1st Ave, it was one of the best hotel rooms we had during this trip, whereas the cheapest accomodation along 62E started at $75. That winded up our last night in last night in Oregon

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Sep 5, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 3(Oregon) Portland and Tillamook
 



We were supposed to have an early start today. But after an hour at Kinkos getting the laptop hooked up, to download and print our car insurance papers, then some more maps, then a small shopping for road trip supplies at Kmart at Everett Mall we were finally off to Portland, 200 miles of south of Seattle, at 1pm. Well, for some people day begins at noon. Drive to Portland on I-5 was uneventful, we reached downtown Portland at 4 pm. Parked on the curbside of 'South Park Blocks', which is the area in downtown Portland canopied by hundred year old elm trees.

Portland seems to be a big city with small town charm and plenty of greenery, it'd fit snugly into the term 'beautiful city'. Most of the city blocks are half the size of ordinary city blocks, planning and the layout of streets & blocks are pedestrian friendly, so are the street cars. We didn't have much time to spend in Portland as we were planning to hit the Oregon coast, ie US Highway 101 tonight itself. The shortage of time made us forgo a visit to Tim McCall Waterfront Park, and we headed towards the west of the city, across the Willamatte river to Washington Park, home of Rose Test Gardens, Hoyt's Arboretum, Zoo and Japanese Garden.


It was a surprise to see quaint old fashioned residences inside Washington park, you wouldn't believe that people lived, raised families and went to work, living in such houses that looked liked gingerbread houses, Irish castles built in granite, fairytale homes in white and red, but they did, in Washington park. Inside the park most of the drive was along the curving road within Hoyt's Arboretum which housed trees from all over the world. One end of the arboretum is Portland zoo and the other end is the Rose Test Gardens and the Japanese Garden. As luck would have it, Japanese Garden closed a few minutes before we reached its entrance gate.The brighter side of it is that it offered a good climb up the hill and thus woke up our lazy bones.Hihi. Rose Test Gardens was just nextdoor, their layout and landscaping reminded me of the Mughal Gardens in Northern India, Pakistan and Afganistan, except that Roes Test Gardens were confined to roses whereas the Mughal gardens were not. Laid out in terraces, interspersed with fountains, alcoves and pavilions, I could have been in a Mughal garden somewhere in Kashmir or Himachal.

Drove back to downtown Portland, going around a bit and then headed west on Interstate 26 towards Oregon coast, towards our destination for the night, Tillamook. While driving towards Tillamook I realised that US 26 was pretty dark compared to the other bigger highways we had driven on and not being in an expert in tackling a lethal combination of extreme curves and pitch black darkness, I passed the wheel to N, who takes on the persona of a race car driver under such circumstances. Well, we didn't get any speeding tickets that night and reached safely at Tillamook at 11pm. We did a market survey of accommodations available (Best Western - 80$, Western Royal Inn - 64$, only smoking rooms available Red Apple Inn- not a hotel chain, but 60$ only) and decided to crash at Red Apple Inn. Though it was not a real looker, Red Apple had a TV that looked ancient, but worked perfectly well and a microwave that looked like a cabinet (worked perfectly well too), in addition to the usual room accessories. Not bad for sixty dollars. Our first night in Oregon.



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The Road Trip - Part 2(Washington) Boeing Factory & Seattle
 



That was a looong night...slept for around 12 hours, catching up with all the sleep lost. Reached Boeing factory at 1130am and got tickets for the 1pm tour, five bucks each. The guy at the Boeing counter directed us to a place he called the "Waterfront", and gave us a route map for the same, for us to spend the interim time. The so called Waterfront is at Mukilteo, there is a ferry terminal and a waterfront esplanade cum road with some restaurants and cafes. If you have time (we didn't) Mukilteo is an interesting beach front community to explore. After grabbing a quick bite we promptly reported back at the Boeing Tour Center at 1pm.

Boeing Tour (<< a must do) is worth the five bucks they charge and much, much more. They have six tour timings during the day and most of them are packed, takes up all the seats of the bus they use to take people around the factory. It starts with a 12 minute video on Boeing's history and manufacturing process, this is also the time you can utilize to go to the restroom or keep your belongings in your car since you are not supposed to take personal items during the tour and nor are there any rest stops during the hour long tour of the factory.

First they take you to the main building, which by its volume, and footprint is largest building in the world. It is divided into separate areas, one after the other, for the manufacturing and assembly of Boeings 747, 767, 777 etc etc. You are shown the assembly process of a 747, which you can watch at a safe but viewable distance from the overhanging walkways. There is a huge barrage of information you could accumulate during the tour, the kind you could impress your friends with, during light-hearted dinner chit-chat like, "do you know Boeing Factory covers 98.3 acres under one roof?" or "do you know Boeing 777 is the first airplane designed full on computer?" Well, if you want to know more about Boeing or Boeing Factory Tours. Click here

After the Boeing rendezvous, we drove back to Seattle. My research on Seattle prior to this visit had enlightened me the fact that the new Seattle downtown is built atop an older downtown which was almost consumed by the Great Fire of 1889. I had found out that they offered tours of this underground area, which covered about 32 blocks, so we started looking around Pioneer Square (a must visit) and thereabouts to find an entrance to this underground market. There were some 'deceiving' doors leading to underground places just off the street, but most of them were locked or they housed some modern art gallery by the name the 'underground cellar' and the like.

Finally we chanced upon a wizened Chinese caretaker of a downtown garden, who seemed as old as the Great Fire itself and posed the question to him. After what seemed to be an hour of rambling on about 1st Avenue and some other street, we could finally decipher from his talk that Seattle underground was not accessible to all and sundry at anytime as we had thought, but you had to be part of tour that took people down during particular times of the day, and it started somewhere near the 1st Ave or the 1st street and he told us that maybe we were too late for a tour now since it seemed well past morning anyway. Well, Seattle underground will remain a mystery forever, we thanked the caretaker and left.

We walked around Pioneer Square a bit, it looked like the Saturday market in our city, except that here it was held in a place which was more akin to fairgrounds, and in Seattle was a city square, flanked by old brick buildings with ivy growing on them, cobbled stone grounds and an old world pavilion adding to its historical aura. Nice place to hang out if you had enough time. There were lots of artists and painters selling their wares, really good quality stuff for which you didn't have to dish out the art-gallery price.

Our next stop was Pike's Place Market (<< a must visit), the original farmers' market which has now turned into one of Seattle's top attractions. Yes, we did see the 'fish throwing guy', along with many other vendors of fresh produce and fish. Pike's place market also has an underground section which is fully operational. Pike's Place market gave an impression of a similar market in India, maybe a little more orderly and a little less crowded.

We hung out for a while at an Irish pub overlooking the market and the sea beyond, then headed towards the seaside park to 'catch the beat of the city'. A guy was playing saxophone sitting on a bench nearby, for his own pleasure, looking every bit like Stevie Wonder. Seemed like all the people in the park were either bums sharing joints and having drinks out of Pepsi bottles or tourists like us who were photographing everything in sight.

An hour at the park and we realized that our 3 hour parking permit was almost getting over and we headed back. We decided to drive towards Alki Point(<< a must visit, off the beaten path) which was one of those off the beaten path spots, frequented more by locals than the tourists. Alki Point promised a great view of Seattle skyline, but all we knew was that it was way out on the western tip of city, facing downtown. with no definite directions to lead us towards it. Anyway after an hour of exploring various roads we reached Alki Point just as the sun went down and what a gorgeous view it was! There was a pathway along the waterfront, a few benches here and there and it was pretty quiet except for the occasional jogger or somebody walking their dog. Right in front of us, across the water was the night skyline of Seattle in all its glory. Thus ended our day two.


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Sep 3, 2003


The Road Trip - Part 1(Washington) Seattle
(Not the movie !!!) 



Journey is a revelation in itself and when it comes to revelations, road trips are the best. What can beat an eight hour drive from midnight till morning, riding high on caffeine,watching light blobs speed past at eighty miles an hour, listening to snores from passenger side and mindless croons on the FM, your car on cruise and the only working part of your body being your hands on the steering wheel, that has to be the best pose for receiving a revelation.

And where else in the world is a better place to undertake a roadtrip than a nation whose religion is motoring and peopled by denizens whose lives are goverened by commute times, gas prices and automobiles - yes, the good old US of A. How long can you hold off the lure of millions of miles of asphalt, disposable cars and cheap gas prices and ofcourse not forgetting the endless hours of watching the Travel Channel on exploring and discovering the North American continent. Finally, we succumbed to the temptation this September and here we are at the threshold of a West Coast Discovery Road Trip, trying hard to keep our eyes open after a four hour red eye flight from Anchorage, Ak to Seattle-Tacoma, Wa.

It was 6AM PST, we were at Seattle-Tacoma (Seatac) Airport , haggling at a Hertz (rental car operators) counter. Like all the web savy people out there we had booked our rental car from one of those websites which competes to offer you the best deals in the universe. The deal was not bad, if not the best in the galaxy, but we thought it included a GPS in the car, which the Hertz employees assured us always came at an additional charge. But then what is a Global Positioning System compared to weeks of research, printed maps and info and extra good human navigational ability, eh? That meant a no for GPS and some extra dollars saved right at the start of our trip. Ain't we brilliant or what?!!?!!!

Two huge suitcases heaved into the trunk of a white Ford Taurus and we were ready to go. But where do we go? The hotel check-in time was around 3pm, that meant we had 7-8 hours before we could harbor any thoughts of a nice rest and a warm shower. While driving towards Seattle from Seatac we could see the famous Space Needle from a distance and we decided to make a beeline for it.

The Space Needle along with various other attractions are housed in a complex called the Seattle Center . Yeah, it is the center of Seattle as far as tourists are concerned, even on a working day like today we saw many ambling about with nothing better to do. We parked the car in one of the one hour curb side parking spots near the Seattle Center, decided to walk around a bit and find a place to grab some breakfast.

Seattle looked a bit like San Francisco, but it was different at the same time. Maybe it was because of the roads with steep gradients reminded me of SF, here most of them sloped down directly towards the waterfront. A couple of blocks down we found a place called Cafe Minnie's (now closed) (101 Denny Way), a 24 hour restaurant, which looked ok and showed the possibility of offering us a decent meal at an affordable price. The crowd inside looked ok too, there were a few cops and some office goers, which meant that it was a place favored by locals and then a few wide eyed tourists like us. We had pancakes, omlette with some italian sauce, cocoa and orange juice, with the tip it came around twenty dollars, not bad considering the close proximity of tourist spot.


Reparked the car at a three hour spot a few blocks away, that gave us enough time to roam around. The entry fee to (click on the link if you want to know more about Space Needle) Space Needle is $12.50 per person.They also offer you deal where you can buy tickets to 5-6 'touristy' things like Space Needle, a ferry ride in the Puget Sound, Seattle Aquarium, Pacific Science Center etc for a $80 or so, which would be cheaper than buying individual tickets if you intend to visit all these places.

What were you supposed to do on top on Space Needle ? Walk around the observation deck taking in a birds eye view of Seattle, there is an inhouse guide who'll narrate the history and point out various Seattle landmarks for you, if you have an extra heavy purse, splurge on a $5 latte at the rooftop cafe and when all is said and done, come down to earth on one of the elevators doing 500 feet drops in 43 seconds.

We took a 10 minute monorail ride (2 way for $3) to the International District and back. The monorail wiggles its way between the highrises and is a purely tourist thing. Next stop, Experience Music Project (EMP) (<< must visit)  founded by one of the founders of Microsoft, Paul Allen. Housed in a modernist building sculpture conceived by architect Frank Gehry, its a must visit for all the music afficianados. The collection of music memorobilia and the exibits are really impressive and you also get to go behind the scenes and make your own music, I liked the second part the best. The admission costs $20 per head and you can come back anytime during the day you purchased the ticket. Check out EMP here

A full day exploring Seattle Center culminated in a drive to Everett, about 30 miles north of Seattle, where we had booked our hotel. This again was a move towards staying cheap but decent. Stricly acting upon the conclusion that you tend to get better hotels at a cheaper rate when they are further away from downtown or tourist destinations and a preplanned visit to Boeing Factory at Everett being on our agenda, prompted our decision to stay at Extended StayAmerica at Everett, Wa.

Ofcourse we, like typical Indians had some home cooked food(this was the first time we were carrying food on a trip, otherwise we used to scoff at such people and their insistence on eating 'home cooked meals') with us, which required a micorwave, that meant we needed a suite not just a room. It was $54 for a suite, with microwave, dataport, fridge and a queen size bed. By the time we checked in, we were only too grateful to hit the sack at about 6 o'clock. That winded up our first day in Seattle and the first day of our road trip.

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