Protected: Chopsticks at Nanami
January 27th, 2009
Enter your password to view comments
Archive
Archive for January, 2009
Netflix Movies
January 27th, 2009
Ever since we started subscribing to Netflix in October of last year, our movie consumption has increased tremendously. Here is a list of movies we watched over the last 3 months which is 3 times longer than the list of movies we watched in the previous 12 months:
- The Love Guru: It is just horrible, even to Mike Myers fans like us. He had some good moments and stunning jokes in the movie but, overall the whole movie didn’t gel together.
- Casino Royale: A well-made action movie. It was very enjoyable. The first action sequence was just too much. I wanted them to stop the chase as I couldn’t handle the action anymore. Still, to me Craig is not a good Bond. My favorites are Sean Connery and Pierce Brosnan. All others are just temporary replacements.
- Batman Begins: I can’t decide if this movie is louder, flashy, jarring and more annoying than “The Dark Knight“. Action and stunts were good in both the movies but, they really should have chosen another actor for Batman’s role. I find it absolutely amazing how someone (you know who you are) could watch both these Batman movies 3 or 4 times each.
- Sex and the City: The Movie: I’ll admit without shame that I used to regularly watch the original show on HBO when it aired back in 1990’s and early 2000’s. It was very good — on the edge– with subject matter that you couldn’t get to watch on any other show on any other channel. During the last couple of seasons when those ladies started to get married, the show started to get boring. The last season was a disaster. Sadly, this movie was a continuation of that disaster. More than once during th movie, I wanted to slap Sarah Jessica Parker till she fainted.
- Aaja Nachle: I really wanted to like this movie, as it was a big comeback for Madhuri Dixit. I would have ignored the bad plot and storyline that made no sense but, Madhuri Dixit looked very weird in the movie. She wasn’t the original Madhuri that I remembered from her pre-marital days. She looked like a strange cross between Jennifer Lopez and Madonna in a bad way. (I can think of some good ways of combining those two women!)
- An Inconvenient Truth: It is an absolutely must-see documentary for everyone on this planet. The whole topic of global warming is very convincingly presented.
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith: Very boring movie with no point. I fell asleep several times while watching it only to be woken up by loud sounds of gunfire.
- Chak de India: Haven’t finished watching yet. Couldn’t take more than one hour of it at a time. The background music was very annoying.
Our current usage of Netflix is more than 2 movies a month. Lets see for how long this continues. The last time we used Netflix a few years ago, last rented movie was returned, unwatched after keeping it in the house for 7 months.
Netflix also provides this view-on-demand service over the internet. It is very convenient. I have been catching up on missed episodes (actually whole seasons) of CSI.
Possibly Related Posts:
Lace and fur
January 25th, 2009
While traditional gifts for 13th wedding anniversary are lace, fur and textiles, what I received and gave is very very different. Right now, V is enjoying some pampering at a spa and I am busy playing with my new toy.
Possibly Related Posts:
Protected: Frozen lake
January 22nd, 2009
Enter your password to view comments
Inauguration of Obama
January 21st, 2009
I could catch bits and pieces of the Obama inauguration on the web at work while it was happening because the internet kept choking up. In the evening, we watched the complete inauguration ceremony on C-SPAN. Few observations:
- The coverage was excellent. It was an awesome sight, especially the shots from a camera mounted on the top of the Capitol building showing the crowds on the National mall out all the way to Washington Monument and beyond.
- Chief justice Roberts was more nervous than Obama during the presidential oath ceremony and botched it up badly.
- Obama’s speech was very good, as expected and he delivered it forcefully and with conviction. Here is a transcript from NYTimes. It is good to have a president who says complex sentences without bungling the words and/or making monkey faces. I liked some of his points:
- A nice jab at Bush’s policies of wiretaps and torture by saying, “As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.”
- “We will restore science to its rightful place…”. Nice to hear this after years of overt governmental support for stupidity such as creationism (intelligent design) and not accepting human hand in global warming. Hopefully, stem cell research will get back on track with more government funding for new cell-lines.
- “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.” It was good to see the acknowledgment of existence of the last two groups (the ones that I belong to).
- A couple of sound-bytes that will be memorable: “…we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” and “…a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world…”
- John Williams’ piece “Air and simple gifts” was excellent but, that poet from Yale, Elizabeth Alexander was not a great choice. Whatever she was reciting didn’t qualify as a poem to me.
- It was disappointing to see anti-gay evangelist, Rick Warren as a part of the ceremony. The only thing that left a bad taste from the whole proceeding.
Possibly Related Posts:
POTUS BHO
January 20th, 2009
- On the election day, 4th November 2008, Ashwini’s Kindergarten class conducted presidential election as well. Ashwini voted for Obama but, McCain received more votes in her classroom and was declared the winner. She was a little sad that her candidate didn’t win.
- On January 8th, 2009, we were watching the College Football Championship game between Florida and Oklahoma. Ashwini and I were supporting Florida and Adit was supporting Oklahoma along with his mother. Both the kids were asleep by the time game got over and Ashwini asked about it the following morning. She was very happy when I told her that our team Florida won. Watching our victory celebration made Adit very very sad. He responded while crying, “but… but… I wanted Barack Obama to win.” He mixed up Obama and Okalahoma but, his support for both was very clear.
With the backing from both our kids, there was no doubt that Obama was going to win the election. Today, Mr. Barack Hussain Obama took the oath of office to serve the country as the President of the United States of America. At school, teachers were planning to show the kids at least a part of the ceremony. If they don’t get to watch it there, we’ll make sure to include some highlights in the evening TV watching schedule.
Congratulations, Mr. Obama! The easy part is done; now, get to work.
Possibly Related Posts:
- Wedding plans
- Protected: Happy 5th Birthday, Adit
- 2010 highlights
- Protected: The Nutcracker 2010
- I want to hold your hand
Friend of the devil
January 14th, 2009
Lately, I have been listening to Grateful Dead songs again after a long time. Kids seem to like a few of those tunes as well. They pick up words of any songs they hear even Marathi and Hindi ones that they don’t understand. It was funny listening to Adit sing “Friend of the Devil” while playing with some blocks:
the second one is prison, baby, sheriff’s on my tail.
if he catches up with me, I’ll spend my life in jail.
Possibly Related Posts:
your path
January 13th, 2009
There is a road, no simple highway Between the dawn and the dark of night And if you go no one may follow That path is for your steps alone
From Ripple by Grateful dead.
Possibly Related Posts:
- I want to hold your hand
- Bike ride and music
- Phir Mile Sur — fail
- Appollo 11 video footage
- Springsteen in Hartford
Q and A
January 13th, 2009
Thanks to Santa (Deven), I received “Q and A” by Vikas Swarup, the novel on which the movie Slumdog Millionaire is based on. Just listening to it, I could imagine how great the story is for turning into a movie. Hopefully, it will come to DVD or HBO soon, so we could watch it.
Unlike most other audiobooks which are read by just one person, this one is a radio drama with many voices, background music etc. Everyone probably knows the story so, I won’t write about it except to say that it is very fast paced and engaging. From some reviews at Amazon.com for the book Q & A: A Novel
Possibly Related Posts:
- Book reading in USA
- 3 idiots – part 2
- 3 idiots
- Buying audiobooks
- Protected: Happy 6th birthday, Ashwini!!!
Recent Comments