No Angels. Only Demons.

A valuable lesson was reaffirmed when I came out of the theater after tolerating Angels and Demons for more than 90 minutes (And the movie was still going on). The lesson was 'Garbage In, Garbage Out'. A trashy book can only give birth to a trashy movie if not worse. The demons of this movie are going to haunt me. For a long time to come.

Ron Howard's Angels and Demons had the honor of becoming the third movie I left half way in the theater. The same thing had happened with the book. There are few books I have left unfinished. This was one of them. The movie is a complete waste of time, money and energy. Just within half an hour, it will leave you exhausted with its unbearably haphazard screenplay and a camera work that trivializes the art of movie making. The actors will leave you breathless, not with their stunning acting, but with expressionless faces and senseless dialogue deliveries. There are so many problems with this movie that this can be taught in a course like 'How not to make a movie'.

The entire movie is about some insane man who poses as a follower of some imaginary bizarre ancient cult 'Illuminati', taking the Vatican hostage with a stolen 'Anti-matter' from CERN. I know it sounds ridiculously funny. God knows what I was thinking when I decided to go for it!

In this agonizingly long movie, Robert Langdon, the Harvard professor runs around the Vatican churches, following some directional clues given by the statues of saints. A big problem with the movie is lighting. It seems that the entire movie was shot in twilight without the camera lights. How can a director be so ignorant about visual look of a movie escapes my reasoning. I am not claiming that I am very attentive in listening to dialogues. But I have a reasonable ability of understanding dialogues of a movie without much effort. However, dialogues in this movie are hardly more than whispers. And the background score (which by the way is completely out of place), adds to the inaudibility of those whispers.

The size of this post would have been five fold if I had stayed till the end of the movie. Fortunately for you and me, I did not. So you won't have to bear with me and my stinging attacks on the movie anymore and I preserved my own sanity as well.

One Year

It has been one hack of a ride! Sometimes smooth like a sail. Sometimes rough like a storm. I complete one year at job in Bloomberg LP today!

Optimism, Delusion or Propaganda

First they projected Congress as the winner in all of their opinion and exit polls to create a positive aura around Congress party and their leaders. And now once that task is done (helping them win election), media is now all praise for the newly elected government even before they start doing anything.

Sure the results were an eye opener. Initially, I thought, maybe I was wrong. It is possible that the media rightfully projected the winner with support of a good fundamental analysis. But now after all these days, when I constantly see articles showering optimism, praise and appreciation on the new government, day after day, I sit back and think - something is fishy here.

Every single day, IBNLive.com is full of news regarding how the government is dedicated to make India a better place. Be it their 100 day education scheme or their plans for divesting the ailing Government business entities.

Today's headlines on IBNLive
- Promises to keep: UPA govt has its task
- How the govt plans education for all
- How the govt plans to shelter homeless
- How the govt plans to fight terrorism
- How the govt plans to feed the poor
- Why India Voted for Congress (Rajdeep Sardesai)
- Voting For the Nation (Sagrika Ghose)

Today's headlines on NDTV
- Divestment back
- IPO market to get a divestment boost?
- Divestment, sops likely for steel sector
- Blog: BJP: Against the tide

To be very honest, after the initial shock of the defeat for BJP, I recovered relatively quickly as compared to last general elections. Because I believed in what the news sites were saying. I thought maybe this is the change people voted for. Maybe this government is what people wanted at the center. And I still don't deny the fact that I have highest respect for Dr Singh.

But then every day media got louder and louder. Praising the government even before the parliament session was in place. Publishing opinions, blogs which were full of 'mud-throwing' on BJP and attributing fragrant flowery bouquets to Congress. All of a sudden people like S. M. Krishna, Sharad Pawar, Pranab Mukharjee, A K Antony were turned into heroes. Like the 'Ultimate Saviors' of the nation. Who in next five years will change the face of the nation.

Once again, people will call me a religious fanatic! They will call me 'A moron, stuck in the past'. But those people who oppose my posts are so narrow minded that they have forgotten the concept of freedom of expression. People here proudly call themselves 'Democrats' or 'Republicans'. They don't have to pretend that they are neutral. Then why should I be shy of openly supporting a party like BJP?

I realize that my ramblings here in this blog are useless and pretty much irrelevant at this time. But the media sure as hell sounds not only fishy but repatitive and boring now. I hope they stop running marketing campaign for Congress and go back to business of journalism.

Eric Cartman - Interview

Respect Mah Authorita !

David Gilmour - Royal Albert Hall

I watched the telecast of this concert in a movie theater in Phoenix, AZ. I hope I can attend one of Gilmour's concerts in person someday. However, we will miss Rick Wright forever. May his soul rest in peace.

Wot's uh the deal



Comfortably Numb



Coming Back to Life



The Blue