06.01.09
Movie openings
This is something I wanted to write about for a long time now.
When it comes to movies, in general, you can tell if the movie is going to be good in the first 15-20 minutes or so. Very unlikely that if the movie is boring in the first bit that its going to be interesting in the later half. Now that doesn’t necessarily mean that movies that start out great will be a masterpiece.
One example of a movie peaking at the opening sequence and then gradually slipping is the ‘Crossing Guard’ (starring Jack Nicholson). The movie starts with Nicholson walking through the streets of NYC and the Springsteen song – ‘Missing’ in the background. Perfection. The camera angles, the atmosphere, the music, the voice. Unfortunately, the movie peaked in that song and then started dragging a bit. Here’s a link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUOB_kopu_o
On the other hand, there are movies that have a wonderful opening sequence and then they just keep going up. The movie ‘Midnight Cowboy’ starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Starts out with the song ‘Everybody’s Talkin’ by Harry Nilsson and what follows in the movie is what can only be described as a ‘masterpiece’. Here’s a link to the opening sequence: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBemzu1Fchk
Enjoy!
05.02.09
Why is writing so difficult?
Its not that I don’t think about writing on my blog on a regular basis. I do. Unfortunately, the thought of writing doesn’t really comes to fruition. I figured it is time to think about this in a systematic and scientific manner.
Perhaps it is due to the fact that I don’t have time to do it. Well, not really. I do find time to keep up with my reading habit. So the time excuse is not really valid. Perhaps I am plain lazy. Not really. I know I am not. Perhaps I don’t have the right things to write about. Well, I read enough books, watch enough movies and think enough thoughts, each of which would easily provide sufficient material for me to right.
What then? I think it is not having, on my part, a clear theme of sorts to my blog. So here’s what I have decided, I will write about the books and movies that pass through my hands. Perhaps I will try to write a couple of posts once in a while, on my thoughts about science.
Lets see how this experiment works out. The next post will be about a couple of movies I watched – Anatomy of a Murder and The Philadelphia Story.
01.30.09
Ghajini is a great movie – yeah right …
I keep hearing that the hindi Bollywood movie, Ghajini is a great movie. People who have watched it and also reviews in various Indian newspapers speak highly of the movie. I think we can safely conclude that it is a superhit ’cause people really did like the movie.
I am not going to try and argue that the movie sucked or people who liked the movie are not the smartest of moviegoers. That would be a waste of time and space. I completely acknowledge that people really liked the movie for their own reasons. What I want to do here is to state my reasons why I think this movie was a terrible waste of time.
Yeah yeah they say Aamir Khan (AK) did a great job. Well for one, I think he did not. For very valid reasons AK has established himself as an excellent actor. That however, does not mean that he will be great in all his movies. In this movie, he tried too hard …. he was too clinical …. every movie role these days is an exercise for him, a project and he has to finish it perfectly. A wonderful actor like him is wasting his natural screen presence. He should live that character instead of trying to play it. If he keeps at it like this, he is going to end up in the same level as some other actors such as A. Rai (who, by the way, is clueless in all movies). Its like watching movies of De Niro where he started doing comedy – he was just trying too hard.
And whats up with those songs. One is quietly tolerating all the asinine scenes with Asin and Jiah with the expectation that their scenes are part of the large picture. But no, there have to be songs! They destroy the continunity of the story and add to the confusion.
I do not mind poor acting at all. Not everyone is going to be a very good actor which is completely acceptable. In life, not everyone can be a super-success story but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the world’s contribution is negligible. However, one should try one’s best at all times.
What made the movie terrible was that Asin Thottumkal, Jiah Khan (the two female characters) and Riyaz Khan (the actor who plays the role of an inspector) don’t even bother to try to act. They just don’t. They seem pretty satisfied to be just being about mediocre about everything. The typical ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude. (A separate post disccussing that attitude – one of my pet peeves).
In summary, lackadaisical acting by three main characters, unnecessary songs, and a mediocre attempt by AK makes it a terrible movie (for me, that is).
06.03.08
Books – big and small
I just finished reading Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men. A great read. He definitely has a very unique style. For example, he doesn’t like the use of punctuations. Fast read too.
In the end, I figured I should go to the nearest bookstore and pick up a couple of his books. Also, it had been a while since I did some aimless browsing. Picked up a couple of his books. Looked around. I wanted to pick up another Philip K. Dick and a Kurt Vonnegut book. Thats when I ran into a strange problem. I couldn’t remember which of their books I owned! I own probably half a dozen of their books. Unfortunately, I am one of those people who will sit and read books in a store. So when I picked up a book that I thought I didn’t have and flipped through it, I got the feeling that I had read it before. In the end, didn’t buy any of their books. Bummer ’cause I really was in the mood to read PKD.
More browsing. A few more books. This time the classics. Alexandre Dumas’ Three Musketeers. A book, I have to confess, I still haven’t read yet. Made a note of it and told myself that I will check out which translation is the best.
Made me think about huge books. Once you have read them, it is very difficult to read them again. There are times when I wanted to read Dumas’ Count of Monte Cristo again. Too big. Thankfully, I underlined and bookmarked a lot of the passages that I liked.
These days when I am reading a book that I own, I carry a pencil with me.
I do wonder how the future will be like for readers like me. I don’t think I would ever be satisfied with a simple reader. I would want something that I can underline and write on. I wonder.
05.05.08
Three stigmata and other books
Palmer Eldritch: “God promises Eternal life. I can do better; I can deliver it”
Supposedly, I told SK that I would summarize my thoughts on the Philip K. Dick book: Three stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. So here it is.
The word stigmata means mark associated with a particular incident generally disgraceful. In this book, I thought the old definition would fit well. Stigmata are the marks on Christ’s body after the Crucifixion. For people more familiar with Hindi movies – the tattoo that Vijay (Amitabh Bachchan) has on his left forearm in the movie Deewar would be considered a stigmata. Though in his case, it was the disgraceful incident of his father that he had to bear.
The book deals with what we call as reality and also God. Now now … lets not get carried away with the usual organized religion definitions of God. Think of the definitions from the Gita, Upanishads, Buddhism, Taoism. Very nicely summarized as: The Tao that can be thought of or spoken about is not the real Tao.
Palmer Eldritch is a guy who travels to Pluto and comes back with a new drug called Chew-Z. This drug is meant to replace the existing drug called Can-D. The latter is mainly used by the people who are sent to Mars and they use this drug to temporarily escape from dull life. Competition. The person who runs Can-D wants to have Chew-Z banned. While Can-D is a temporary ‘fix’, Chew-Z is better in that, it lets people live a life that they would like to have in their dream world. The details in the book – pre-cogs and such – are classic PKD, so won’t bore anyone with those.
Now, here’s where the story gets beautiful. Palmer Eldritch inserts himself into these dreams. He is characterized by the so-called three stigmata: a robotic right hand, artificial eyes and steel teeth. Eldritch is now capable of living in other people. It seems that once people come out of their drug-induced dreams a part of Eldritch is now in them. No escape.
The reason why Eldrich would be God or obtained some kind of God-like properties from Pluto is hinted in a few sentences. I have listed a couple:
1. “He had great power. He could overcome death”.
2. (Spoken about Eldritch) “He really exists, really is there. Although not like we’ve thought and not like we’ve experienced him up to now.
He can’t help us very much. Some maybe. But he stands with empty, open hands; he understands, he wants to help. He tries, but …. it’s just not that simple. Don’t ask me why. Maybe even he doesn’t know. Maybe it puzzles him too. Even after all the time he’s had to mull over it”.
Clearly, PKD is thinking/questioning two things: reality and god.
Here’s what I think. I like the definition of reality as described in the Upanishads or the Matrix. Maya – the source of all illusion. Yawn. God is an abstract idea that humans have created. Now here’s a strange conundrum I just realized. In the Gita, Mr. Krishna Yadav tells Mr. Arjun Pandu says that we should treat and think about everything the same. The stone and the block of gold. Wouldn’t that mean that the word God and the corresponding concept is just another step in attaining Moksha? Therefore should be rejected at the appropriate time in the appropriate life?
Okay, I just stepped into something that I haven’t really thought about. Better to stay away. Thats the thing about PKD books. Makes you think about reality and all that.
Mind wandering into thinking about these things. Will stop writing about PKD now. Not much of a summary but it is what it is.
Before I sign off, I am currently reading the short stories of Saadat Hassan Manto. Urdu writer from Independence/Partition days. Recommended by my sister. Loving what I have read so far.
04.12.08
The mood today
Late night work last night. Woke up late this morning. 6.30, I think. Oh well.
Made calls in the morning. Felt like a fool an hour later. Felt like a kid who is given a wonderful kayak and who instead of paddling out into the ocean and enjoying the sunset, bitches about how the colors of the sunset are not the right hue. Oh well.
This story of my lack of understanding could have been a short story with morals in the Amar Chitra Katha. I wished life was like the ‘Connect-the-dots’ pictures. Unfortunately, unlike those pictures, life’s pictures do not have numbers to make the task easier. Oh well.
Sat the day in front of TV watching Lord of the Rings. Such a moving story. Should read the book sometime. Oh well.
In the lab now, trying to work. Maybe I will head down to the Scripps Pier and watch the sunset. Say thanks for the wonderful people in my life. Since the mood is a bit low, I will also mope that SK is not in my arms when I watching the sun go over to the other side of the planet. (Take that Copernicus!) Oh well.
04.07.08
The day drags on ….
I wanted to do so many things today. Well …. mainly run programs to try and figure out why my protein structure will not refine. The day and the work is going too slow and I am getting pissed at myself.
I have stayed away from the blog for a long time too. Anyhow. I got a couple of requests: gaalis for surviving in Bombay. I will most certainly do so …… soon. Haha. Kulti for now.
02.14.08
Fascination with Bombay Central
Okay just to tick people off – Yes, I still think it is Bombay Central and not Mumbai Central. Haha.
Growing up in India invariably meant visiting relatives during the summer vacations. For me it was either heading to Delhi (North India), Kerala (South India) or sometimes Baroda (West). Now, since we live in the Central suburbs, I was (and still am) fascinated by the western suburbs. Going to Delhi or Baroda was always special. Cool relatives. Also, it meant taking a train from Bombay Central.
What a station! I felt, as a kid, that all trains in India left from and arrived there. It felt that big. It was like Bombay VT. The tracks ended there! The trains couldn’t go any further. The same thing for the long distance trains from Bombay Central.
When I started my Masters at TN Medical College (Nair Hospital), it meant getting off at Central. I was genuinely excited. When one is walking on the bridge, you could see the long-distance trains. The bridge itself is a great place for people watching.
Good times. Good times.
PS. Next post will be on the Da Vinci days in Corvallis.
01.17.08
Control – 2
“Why the need to control our own thoughts?”
It is inherent in our nature to let the mind to roam around wherever. A spiritual answer would be that we have to keep it in check and focus our efforts towards a purpose. This purpose could be the completion of the task at hand to the best of our abilities. I have always leaned toward a spiritual need for the purpose. I am sure people have different views about this. To each his own.
“How much do other people’s actions or words affect our own thoughts?”
(I have to state the obvious first – I am only speaking for myself). I am very much influenced by my friend’s and family’s words and actions. Very much. Trust comes easily. With trust comes the standards I set for myself and others. This trust is an absolute blessing most of the time. A comfort during tough times. However, it can also be the wall that one builds around oneself. A wall that one builds so well that it becomes nearly impossible to break. A curse.
The dual nature of trust (that one places on others) is evident. Once this awareness comes, it would be foolish to delve into it anymore. (The dual nature of everything around us. Now that I will leave for a later time). It is crucial, according to me, to ponder on how to break free from this duality. True freedom comes when one is first aware of the chains that bind and then breaks away from the chain. Digression: (Adapted from the boy with the spoon) – Wisdom, in this case, would be to realize that there are no chains).
This brings us back to the influence other people have on our thoughts. I have now realized that it is not the other person but it is only me who reacts. It is not without but within.
To expect trust and love from others is wrong. However, when it comes to you, one should be grateful. Easier said than done. This brings us back to the first question I posited. The need to discipline one’s mind to keep itself within. To look for beauty within. If someone comes along and shares something beautiful (love and trust), then to accept it. I think this would result in the mind becoming completely open and yet not wandering. It would be open for everything – trust, love, heartbreak, jealousy, laughter, sadness, laziness, vigor. Everything.
Control
Have been waking up later than usual. The eyes open at around 5.45 and am awake around 6.15. Late for me but its great too. Had a wonderfully relaxing weekend at the Makwana home in LA.
I have been working on multiple things lately – in the lab and in my personal front. Like most other people, I get the feeling that I don’t have complete control over my things. It is the tasks in the day that control me rather than the other way around. I don’t mean this in a superficial manner but rather on the level of the mind. Once the task begins, I am completely into it physically but mentally I am all over the place.
This doesn’t mean that I do not spend quality time on my experiments. I do. My mind goes into this hyper-activity zone. I can think of a hundred different things at the same time. However, when all this involves other people, it can get quite difficult.
These days I have been questioning my need to be in control and the way it has been affecting my thought process.
Some basic questions: Why the need to control our own thoughts? How much do other people’s actions affect our own thought process? How rational are we when we react to other people’s words and actions? How much do our past experiences influence the way we feel today?
I think I might have come up with answers – right or wrong, I don’t know.
