Some interesting things

1. 12 degrees cold = white knuckles when riding

2. 11 pm to 1 pm is a good time for TV(Atleast yesterday): Powerpuff girls, Dexter, Courage the cowardly dog, VH1 Classic hour etc

3. Vodafone and Reliance compete for Hutch.

4. I lust for a UMPC (maybe, look at the battery life: See the Russian link )

5. I lust for a dual core. (Core 2 Duo and Core Duo are almost same now? Office PC is Pentium D)

6. I badly want to write a story. One is brewing and dangerously taking up mindshare.

7. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (I am not a big fan, but some of my close friends are crazy about these books. And ya, its the 7th book, and 7th in this list, etc.. )

8. I over-laugh at jokes now. Is that bad?

Revived!

I haven’t been getting time enough to read other’s blog. So where would I get time to write.

Anyway:

1. Sandman series by Neil Gaiman is very good. I mean, very good story-telling through comics.

2. Transmetropolitan written by Warren Ellis is great comics, describing and criticizing the futuristic world which it is set in. The best part is, you can see the glimpses of now in this world. It strongly reminds one of The invisibles, which it is not. Which is a totally different beast.

3. Wow, I have been reading comics more than books nowadays.

4. The elitist bastard and long time friend is getting married!

5. I am drowned in the C of code.

6. I gloriously wrote zero words for this Nanowrimo. That’s right, absolute loser me.

International Film Week

Me, SB and a mutual friend of ours were keenly following the International Film Week that is going on in Bangalore.

Even though we missed the first three movies, we will make it 4 out of 7 when we watch The Beat That My Heart Skipped today evening. The three movies that we watched were all good.

The Emperor's Journey was the first movie/documentary we saw. It follows the annual march of the Emperor Penguin to the place where they breed and bring up their young. Shooting anything in those hellish conditions in Antartica must be regarded with respect. For this, they must have spent months in those conditions. The narration was in French (subtitled) and was surprisingly from the point of view of the penguins. Which is justified when you see, really how much effort and sacrifice goes into raising those cute little penguins. All those mothers from Hindi movies who keep repeating how they suffered for 9 months might want to watch this.. Ofcourse no disrespect meant to human mothers and fathers, but this film will surely bring tears to their eyes. For us boys, we can open our mouths wide and wonder at how complex nature can be. And those li'l ones are so cute. If I had fridge, and a freezer wide enough to have an ocean, I will maybe keep one as a pet!

The next movie was King's Game (Danish). This was a political thriller which exposes how complex and cheap the power-game can get. But in stark contrast to Hollywood or Hindi movies, there are no guns, explosives, drugs, sex or financial scams worth the GDP of a small country. The acting was amazing, nothing felt out of place. But you know, if you keep reading our newspapers, I don't think you will regard anything in the movie as thrilling But it is depressing to know that bad people are there everywhere.

Barbarian Invasions (Canada – French) was the story of a dying old father. His family and friends come together at the time of his death (brought together by his son) and we get to know interesting facets of their lives. The movie was funny as hell at times. Nothing too sentimental, sad, funny and satisfied at times, this movie also stands out for some good acting and extremely good dialogues (even though subtitled).

Although I am yet to see the last one, (I will update that later) all these movies were like good appetizers; clearing the track for some more movie goodness from abroad. They will surely help beginners like me to keep the interest and widen one's range in movies. All the hellian traffic and skipping dinner is justified after those two hours well spent. Hats off to the organizers.

Details: Today is the last show (I guess), at Pallavi theatre: 6.30 and 8.30 PM. The theater is near Kanteerava stadium.

Slaughterhouse Five

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

One of the strongest anti-war novel I have read. Catch-22 comes in first whenever I hear about anti-war novels. It must be the epitome of how to pull off a plot of stark contrast and irony. Mix and match dreadful conditions with silliness and humour, mock bravery with cold fear, death and insanity with life on the edge. And in the end, the protagonist escapes somehow.. (Or I hope he does so safely).

Slaughterhouse Five sets things straight. Sometimes in war, there is not even hope left. There is nothing but misery and death and pain. Desperation and severe mental trauma drives our protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, into dreaming up time-travel and alien worlds to which he often escapes.

The book is primarily about the Bombing of Dresden, which killed more people than the Hiroshima bomb, and destroyed almost all of the German City. The author himself was present as a prisoner of war in the city at the time of the bombing. (He appears in the novel as himself at times). The story is about how Billy Pilgrim, in the most terriblest of these consequences comes unstuck in time. That is being able to travel back and forth in time, essentially moving around in his own life time. He mentions that he is in a constant state of stage fright as he is not sure which part of his life he will have to play out next .

Later he meets beings from Alien planet called Trafalmadore, who are beings of four dimensions. That is, they can look at their timelines and move along it, as we can look at a long mountain range. They find it interesting that, in all the inhabited planets, only on Earth, there is talk about free-will . We are all ants stuck on amber according to them, unable to change the past-present-future. Since they can move along their time line, the concept of death is not something final to them, and they are immortal. Interestingly, at the planet, he has to spend time 'mating' in their 'zoo' along with an erotic movie star from Earth.

Upon return to Earth, he spreads this philosophy among people giving them peace, and becomes famous. The book also gives us glimpses to parts of Billy's life from where his fantasy life elements might have come from.

The story threads between the war-time, his life on trafalmadore, and his later life. Since this plot involves time-travel, the author could beautifully skip across Billy's life at wish, providing us much relief because the true continuous account of the war is unbearable. The book does not glorify war at any point of time (which is mentioned as a primary objective in the first chapter). Beautiful book, totally worth the time spent.

Stalker

I have been trying to fight off this enormous lack of interest that has crept into my system. My general policy about writing is 'if it is not fun enough to rant about any subject, I will not'. (The vice versa rule might be added by a less lazy person)

There were a lot many very interesting moments that happened in my life in the last 4 months. Plain lazyness has kept me from writing about them. And even on the last post, all I could manage was post something I wrote back in November. So this is to be considered to be a step for my war against lazyness.

As always, Collective chaos came up with a classy menu for their film festival in February. Named "Tarkovsky Retrospective", it tried to showcase the great Russian director's work. Due to timing issues I could not watch the great Solaris or Nostalghia, but I managed to watch 'Mirror' and 'Stalker'.

Mirror, is a strange movie, and is not easily understood. You have to watch it to know what I mean. It is no fun writing about it . There were a lot of small scenes which touched my heart, though.
Imagine a man standing in a paddy(?) field. Quite far away. A gentle breeze descends on the field beyond the man and a ripple slowly drifts towards us. As it reaches the man, he raises his hands to feel it. When the wave finally reaches us (camera), we almost feel the shiver of cold, or atleast wish to feel it.

The movie was generally biographical, and it describes the author's interactions with his mother. For some reason, Author's mother (from yester years) and his young wife are played by the same actor. (It is stated that the author is reminded of his mother whenever he sees his wife.) At another point, the author starts describing his story to his son, and from that point onwards the young version of author is also played by the same actor who plays his son. This makes everything difficult for us. Since the director believes that art should never be forced to follow any rules… I will stop commenting about this one But I did not have a bad time watching it. (just look out for scenes like the one I described above) I am also reminded of one of my friend's views that what's more important in art, is the how the audience is made to feel, and feeling's do not necessarily need logic. So strictly speaking a continuous story is not very important.(If you can keep your audience satisfied and make them feel exactly how you want them to feel). I think those were sb's thoughts, or atleast that is how I understood it from that discussion. (Anyway, Follow up link: Tarkovsky on Mirror)

This brings me to the exact reason I am writing. Stalker, the second film I saw on that day was simply spectacular. (A perfect science fiction movie, imo, although I am yet to see Solaris)
An (alien?) meteorite has destroyed a small Russian town in the near future. The area has come to be known as the zone. People travelling through this zone have mysteriously disappeared. Physics is said to be distorted in there. The Soviet Army has closed down the zone from people and, for years, the only people who now enter the zone are the illegal stalkers who somehow manage to outrun the army in and out of the zone. After they have closed down the place, there is a strong rumor spread among the population that there exists in the heart of this zone a room where you can go and it will grant your heart's ultimate desire.

Spoiler Warning! You have been warned, and this is a suspense movie.
The concepts of the zone and stalkers are taken from a Russian scifi novel called "The Roadside Picnic". The novel presents a curious theory that zones are picnic-spots where aliens land and leave a lot of strange artifacts not knowing their effects on surrounding population. Quite funny initially, but consider the plight of wild animals who have to deal with a flash light we left.

The story follows a stalker who has to take a scientist and a writer into the zone in search of the room. The stalker shows irrational fear about the zone, never trying to go by a straight forward path. It is like always choosing the long and safer path over the short one. The writer comes across as a drunk and pessimistic man, always doubting himself and the world. He is probably in search of inspiration for a story and the scientist says that he wants to know the actual truth about the room.

In the beginning we would see that the stalker himself in dire consequences, his child unable to walk, and probably suffering the consequences of his exposure to the zone. But somehow, he is not able to find peace away from the zone. The trio dodge bullets from the army and enter the zone through a trolley car, which takes us from a filthy brown Russian town into the lush green expanse and quiet of the zone. (The camera work all through the film is more than excellent.)

From there the long winding journey starts towards the room. Interesting fact about the journey: The stalker throws metal nuts tied with white ribbons in the general direction of travel and then follows only their trail. During this tiring journey we discover the three personalities in detail. On the actual reason each of them is seeking the room. The stalker explains more about the ways of the stalker. His love, fear and respect for the zone is revealed. The ultimate rule is that the stalker must not enter the room himself. He is only to be a Guide, and he recites an story about how his mentor broke this rule and later had to commit suicide. The landscape also changes as the complex journey begins. The lush green landscapes in the beginning start to contrast with the greyish abandoned structures inside the heart of the zone.

The background music plays its part to perfection, and the suspense builds up to an excellent emotional climax. Unlike other sci-fi movies concentrating more on the science part, this movie uses sci-fi as a plot element to bring about curious character traits of people around us. We ultimately see how wretched and how good we can be. This was one of the most stunning endings I've ever seen. Most reviews have categorized this movie as a journey from loss to discover faith. I felt it more as a discovery of qualities that make us human.

Remarkably, the movie uses almost nothing to generate so much suspense using clever plot elements and music. If you are in the right mood – that is donot feel like munching popcorn and relaxing, and are not averse to science fiction elements (which are very few) and most importantly can be patient – you should easily enjoy this one, and feel as impressed by it as me.

Original CC link for Stalker . Another (DVD) review of Stalker, which probably does better job.

Weird Land

You remember the NaNoWriMo challenge? I had proudly declared that I would try to write a novel in a month (Nov 05).
It should be surprising that I had actually started writing one. November proved to be an extremely busy month, but I could write one chapter.
If you want to have a look, go ahead… (Warning: I may not continue with the story)

Title: Weird Land

Chapter 1. City Gates

The guard house was dark. The little man stood beside the lonely candle. Strange noises outside complimented the uneasy silence in the room. An antique electric bulb hung at one end, gathering cobwebs.

A big nose loomed out of the darkness. “Enough.”, said the voice.

“I will put it in plain words: Lay down 100 coins to pass! Or you can spend the night in the forest.”

Several other noses of remarkable sizes and shapes loomed out of the darkness. The Big Nose Clan could be identified just anywhere on the planet, one just needs a casual glance at their face. The Creator must have been thinking really big when he carved out their noses.

It was probably the small size of the man standing infront of them that had added a complacent grin to some of their faces.
“Really? … Just to enter the city?”, the traveller sighed. “You know what, I have had just enough trouble on my way here. I am not going to bribe you to enter this wretched city of yours.”
His name was Silverleaf. He wore a big backpack, though he himself was small.

Many expectant eyes buried behind those huge noses wore a disappointed look.
“Ok, I can give you some discount, since you are a newcomer. How about 75?”.
“Nope.”
“Well, can’t really go below 50..”
“No chance.” The big noses sighed, most of them. It felt like someone turned the fan on for a second.
“So you going to die out there in the forest or what?” Last ditch effort.
“No.. I do not think you can stop me from entering. That is illegal.” The traveller started rummaging through his backpack.

Peculiar laughter filled the room. It always happened when the Nose clan laughed. The echoing effect added enough ambience to the room that, it felt like a traffic jam.

“Holy Noseterdamnus! You are a funny man. Brother Nosecone will have the pleasure of throwing your remains out.”. The leader of the clan, still chuckling, turned to Br. Nosecone. With his excellent conical nose glowing with sadistic expectation, Br. Nosecone removed his sword from its sheath and charged towards the man, ofcourse with the unnecessaryly loud traditional Warcry of the Nose.

Maybe the brother got slightly surprised by the fact that the little man did not turn back and flee. Maybe he slipped. Or maybe he simply did not see the cricket bat coming straight at his brains. The loud cry stopped abruptly and a huge ‘thud’ followed. Silverleaf stood unscathed beside the unconscious body of Br. Nosecone, holding a standard 1.4 Kilo willow in his hand.

Surprised at this, a few from the group drew their swords and charged at him. Unlike other war clans, the Nose clan did not rush at the enemy all at once. There was simply not enough breathing space.

The small man jumped and parried and dodged, using his bat at will. A few seconds later, several Noses lay peacefully on the ground unconscious.

Nosekar the Wild was filled with thought more than surprise. It was exactly because he could think at times like these, he was the leader of the clan. Upon his sign, a bigger cautious group of Noses surrounded the traveller with their blades bared. This time they will not be reckless. They need to end this nice and clean.

“You fight well. We just wanted to throw you out. Now you will die ugly.”, uttered Nosekar with a vicious smile, standing outside the ring and observing. He lit a small pipe.

A smile bloomed on the traveller’s face. It grew bigger, outrageously bigger. The Noses gasped in wonder as his face grew distorted. His face grew hairy. and darker. His body shrunk in size and tightened. The eyes grew blood shot. A long tail emerged behind him dancing like a snake through the air. He stood with his arms stretched. Half man half monkey stood before them. A Weremonkey. It let out a horrible growl which could have meant “See my teeth well enough?”. A weremonkey is already dangerous, but one which knows martial arts is a different issue.

“Guns!” cried out Nosekar, and those left standing scampered to bring out the nose-guns¹ out of their holsters. The weremonkey flew through their ranks freely using his fists, teeth, tail and the bat. It was a pity so few in the world could watch him fight. It was a pity those who could watch it were going down without enjoying it. With a swift jump, the weremonkey clung to the rafters above as loud cocking noises of the guns filled the room.

“Fire!” cried out Nosekar. Their faces strained. They took a deep breath. A moment of nerve-wracking silence later, they let out a flurry of ultraviolent Sneezes. It felt like thunder rolling. A barrage of ultra fast bullets hit the ceiling.

The nose-gun needs to you to sneeze. It is extremely difficult to look up and take aim while you sneeze. This was exactly why the weremonkey was dancing around among the roof-rafters dodging their bullets left and right. He appeared to grow smaller in size, more of a monkey than a man. With one swift swing, the bat broke through the roof tiles and the monkey flew out of the guard house towards the City gate. The monkey was swiftly climbing through the iron gate when the roof fell over the Noses.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Nose-gun is a special contraption, which looks like a gas mask attached to a gun. Thick burst of air flows through the nose-gun pipes into the handheld bullet-chamber attached to the barrel. As you can see, you will need an extremely powerful nose and lungs for this to work. Ordinary guns could not match their power when the Noses wore them.

A bike for new year

Bought a Bajaj Discover for new year. Happy New Year to you all.

Rama, Seven Samurai and Nanowrimo

Rendezvous with Rama (First in the series)
Arthur C Clarke has indeed gone above in my popularity charts for science fiction authors. There is simply more to read, and he writes the proverbial science fiction when it comes to space. Also, I have felt them as extremely light to read. Take for instance, the first book in the Rama series.

In a not so distant future, when humans have started living in Moon, Mars, Mercury and some moons of Jupiter and Saturn, an unnatural asteroid arcs across the solar system. Having run out of Roman and Greek names, it is christened Rama, and suddenly becomes the hot topic of the worlds when it is discovered to be a spaceship built by an alien race. The book explores the mystery of this huge spaceship which in itself is small world. But the reader must be warned that, the book is no thriller. One must read it for the pure fun of the prospect of stepping into unknown and unpredictable territory. It is simply filled with the thrill of exploration, and that which is unique to space exploration. Imho, the book ends in a very satisfying fashion and is closed in itself. But it does leave a lot of questions unanswered. They are addressed later in the series.

Seven Samurai

Seven Samurai is referred to as the best movie by renowned director Akira Kurasova.

Rashomon was directed by the same director, which is the other movie that I have seen from this Great Master.

Seven Samurai is a classical mixture of the popular and art movie genres. Some poor miserable farmers employ seven jobless samurai to defend themselves from bandits. Extremely enjoyable and long. The interactions between the farmers and the Samurai, the effects of Samurai’s arrival at the village, the fight sequences and some very good acting, all these will capture the viewer’s heart. Most of the issues addressed are really thought provoking. Even then, I will only put it second to Rashomon in my list, which is simply the best I have seen. I so wish, I knew Japanese and was transported back to the ’50s just to watch these movies on the big screen

Finally, let me point you towards www.nanowrimo.org, where people are celebrating the Novel Writing Month. The point is to write 50k words within November end. (and if you can still think it holds good as a novel, you win). It is crazy adventure and I am in. (And it is still 3 days with zero word count ). Let us see what happens.

(Images from wikipedia. easily captured and blogged using flock.)

Ubuntu 5.10 and flock

Installed Ubuntu 5.10 Breezy Badger on the laptop.

Had to boot with acpi=off and irqpoll option, and everything works. Everything that matters atleast, like sound, usb mouse, and wireless(!). Except ofcourse my cd/dvd writer does not work properly ..yet. This version looks clean, and i had to install only once, unlike 5.04 which I had to install thrice.

And I am blogging this from the Flock beta browser. Maybe, when it matures from it’s current buggy age, I will switch to it.

Some very good movies

I have been watching a few good movies nowadays. Here is a list of the important ones, that you must not miss.

1. Princess Mononoke

A movie by the master of Animation, Hayao Miyazaki, it talks about the adventures of a tribal prince. He is infected by a poisonous stain when he saves his village from a boar spirit. The search leads him right into the middle of a grand conflict between Eboshi – the Lady of Iron Town and Princess Mononoke – the princess of the forest. The movie symbolizes the tussle between nature and the resource seeking destructive humans. Gods of Wolves and boars and apes and their tribes (who appear intelligent) lead the fight to the ever-greedy humans. The best thing in the movie is that all characters possess both good and bad sides, which will put the audience in a moral dilemma. If you liked this movie, you can watch Spirited Away by the same director too. (A friend told me that it felt like Alice in Wonderland in a different setup,… Maybe. Maybe some Wizard of Oz too. But it was thoroughly enjoyable and refreshingly different.)

2. Memento

Christopher Nolan (of Batman Begins fame) directs(& scripts) this beautiful movie where the protagonist suffers from short-term memory disorder. The hero cannot create new memories after he is injured when he tries to save his wife from getting raped and killed. He can keep a context only for a few minutes(after which he forgets everything after the incident, and starts with a fresh “Now where am I?”). He is out to avenge his wife’s murderer. This is a very intense movie. Please donot expect it to be a normal thriller.

3. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

This is one brilliant movie. You will see Jim Carrey in a really different role. He does serious roles as easily as he shines in comedy. Kate Winslet plays her part to perfection. The plot of the story is again based on memory. Both of them have managed to erase each other from after they have a bitter fight. I should not say any more, or it will spoil the fun. Charlie Kaufman won the Oscar for writing this story. And rightly so. Of the three, I liked this one the best.

Please approach this movies with patience, and without any expectation. (because that is how I did it). And ofcourse your mileage may vary.