Mind blowing.

We were running late for the movie since the bus was stuck in traffic, when we bought the tickets, we were already 10 minutes late. But when we went into the cinema hall, they said that they were having some ‘technical problems’ and would be ready in a few minutes. And while we were waiting, they gave us free drinks, which was quite nice of them. And soon, just before the movie started, there was a Star Wars titles style text going across the screen. At first, we didnt know what it was for but after looking at the couple a few rows in front of us, we realized that the girl was proposing to the guy. The guy was obviously surprised but also definitely impressed by the Star Wars style text and agreed. And it turned out that the so-called ‘technical problems’ was the problem of getting the proposal movie to the run.

The movie then started, or rather, the concert started. The 3D effects were great, I could feel the excitement in the air. The movie was composed using footage taken at the Vertigo concert in Sao Paulo. All of the footage was taken using the largest collection of 3-D camera technology ever assembled for a single project. The movie is 85 minutes long but more than 100 hours of raw footage was edited through to get the perfect final movie. But personally, I didnt feel like anything was edited out, the whole 85 minutes felt like a complete concert experience. The camera angles used were perfect and the composing of every single frame was done in such a way to ensure that you felt like you were there. At times, when Bono stared directly at me and offered his hand, I felt that I could reach out to him and grab his outstretched hand. The 3D titles and text flying through the screen during the last couple of songs were pretty spectacular.

The sound was great, with a near-perfect surround sound system. I could see that a lot of effort had been put into the editing to ensure that the location of the sound and the location on the screen were co-ordinated. The audio was very realistic and several times during the movie, I forgot that I was in a theatre and felt that I was in a U2 concert. And at one specific shot when the entire audience was shown jumping in rhythm with the music, I felt the impulse to start jumping too. I caught myself singing the lyrics out loud quite a few times during the movie but didnt bother to stop and kept singing. My favorite songs were ‘Where the streets have no name’ and ‘With or without’, I did like the other songs too, but I have to say that I’m more of a fan of some of the older songs by U2.

I would say that it was as good as a concert, the positive part being that I got a better look at the band than I would’ve at a real concert and I didnt feel tired at the end of it, and the negative part being the fact that I wasnt at a real concert and didnt have the physical experience of a concert. I would not mind watching more concerts or movies shot in a similar way. It is as close as you can get to U2 without going a real concert, and is definitely worth the watch, for both die hard U2 fans like me, and even the casual listener to U2 songs. And even if you dont like U2, you could watch the movie for the 3D experience and might start liking them after this. It gets 8.75/10.

And on a side note, we got one free ticket each for any movie we wanted to watch in the future and also got the keep the 3D glasses.

Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam, you guys are legends. U2 forever!

You can read more reviews and information about the movie here, here and here.

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This week has been quite productive. My Economic Analysis test went on great and it was one of the several positive points of the week. I took photos of a few matches for the University newsletter for next week’s issue, and in last week’s issue, they had the photo I took of ‘The Twang’ and also gave me full credit for it. I did a presentation about France in my Politics class and I thought that it was pretty good, seeing that nobody else has bothered to make a Powerpoint except for me.

I finished reading ‘Bravo Two Zero‘ by Andy McNab, its a book about a SAS mission into Iraq to disable some Scud launchers, and how they caught before they could do anything, and the torture and pain they went through before finally getting back, minus 3 dead comrades. It’s a fast paced book, and hard to believe that its a true story. Reading it is quite an experience, and gives you the feeling of what it is like to be in a battlefield. It makes you realize what soldiers go through for our safety. A definite must read by fans of action books.

____________________.______________________

I watched ‘Scarface’ last night. I’d say the movie was good but I personally didnt like Tony Montana too much, he is bad-ass, agreed, but probably a bit too bad-ass for my liking. It probably was also a letdown because I expected better of Montana, to be a better human being than he actually is. I took down the poster of Scarface in my room, I dont think Montana deserved the spot. The wall looks a bit empty now, but I have another poster in mind.

I’ve added the LibraryThing widget on the left side, it displays random books covers from the library of books that I’ve read. And thats it for now, I hope that the coming week will be good too.

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A lot of exciting things have been happening around the world recently and I thought I’d share them with you.

Fidel Castro announces retirement after staying in power for 49 years

Musharraf’s rivals win Pakistan election

Its official, Toshiba announces the death of HD-DVD - Blu-Ray wins, and I am quite glad the format war finally got over.

Harvard Site Hacked and Then Leaked on BitTorrent - The Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences website has been hacked and now the content including server backups, full directory strucure, site databases and password files are now leaked on BitTorrent.

Mysteries Of Computer From 65BC Are Solved - A 2,000-year-old mechanical computer salvaged from a Roman shipwreck has astounded scientists who have finally unravelled the secrets of how the sophisticated device works.

The Best Films That Never Won a Best Picture Oscar - I’m happy to say that I’ve seen 2 movies from the list.

Dubai Architecture - Dubai is said to currently have 15-25% of all the world’s cranes. There are more construction workers in Dubai than there are actual citizens.

15 Things Men Say But Don’t Really Mean

Unreleased JFK Assassination Documents Found

20 Things I Wish I Had Known When Starting Out in Life

Kosovo Declares Independence

Seven of the Deadliest Delicacies

5 Common Body Myths Debunked

$14.3M License Plate: Worlds most expensive license plate

The War on Video Games explained [Comic]

27 Worst Pick-up Lines Ever And The Reaction They Get

And thats it for now!

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These are my 6 7 favorite dialogues from English movies in no specific order. I may have missed out some better ones but these are the ones that come to my mind right now. Some of the quotes have been linked to videos depicting the quotes in the respective movies.

Jon Heder - Napoleon Dynamite
“You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills… Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.”

Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Emmett Brown - Back to the Future
“If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour… you’re gonna see some serious shit.”

Gerard Butler as King Leonidas - 300
“Madness…? THIS… IS… SPARTA!”

Kevin Kline as William Hundert - The Emperor’s Club
“Great ambition and conquest without contribution is without significance. What will your contribution be? How will history remember you?”

Arnold Schwarzenegger - The Terminator
“I’ll be back”

Tim Robbins as Andy Dufresne - The Shawshank Redemption
“Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”

Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty - Catch me if you can
“Carl Hanratty: Well, would you like to hear me tell a joke?
Earl Amdursky: Yeah. Yeah, we’d love to hear a joke from you.
Carl Hanratty: Knock knock.
Earl Amdursky: Who’s there?
Carl Hanratty: Go fuck yourselves.”

Adam Sandler as Michael Newman - Click
“Donna Newman: Will you still love me in the morning?
Michael Newman: Forever and ever, babe”

Added by readers -

Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow - Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
“Will Turner: We’re going to steal a ship? That ship?
Jack Sparrow: Commandeer. We’re going to commandeer that ship. Nautical term.”
(Thanks to Ravish Shah for the above dialogue)

If you feel that I may have missed out on some good ones, please feel free to post them in the comments.

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Note:- This post was guest blogged by Sambhav Kundalia. He studied with me at The Hyderabad Public School for a considerable amount of time during which we had a lot of fun times and quite a bit of fights too. After reading this post, if you, by some rare coincidence, wish to read more of Sambhav’s literary work, I suggest you visit his blog here. And after reading his blog, if you still wish to hook up with him for a date, send me an email, and I will probably forward it to him.

I’m the kind of friend that no one likes to talk about. So, when Kishor said that I could guest blog on his website I realized that this is probably the only time I can leave an indelible stain on something as significant as his website and perhaps scar his friends and acquaintances permanently. Kishor shall probably regret this for the rest of his life; this is going to be worse than getting a misspelled permanent tattoo.

Now that I’ve lowered expectations down to a reasonable level I think it is time for you to know me for the insidious individual that I am, which you shall as you continue reading, which I am sure most of you shall not as by now you have probably gone to the purveyor of porn you were looking for before you accidentally landed on this page. Don’t try and deny it, for better or for verse it’s your choice and I respect that. (If you still haven’t left, that putrid pun has probably given enough reason for you to leave now.)

I like to write about things that affect socially awkward teenage boys like me, for example I have written several times on the shortage of scantily clad girls with low self esteem and our dependence on foreign sources, on why flatulence is fancy and farting isn’t and of course the 2008 presidential election. I also occasionally write about nothing, just spewing random, inane fecal matter like I am right now. I like to think of the internet as a stagnant pool where floundering fish like me can make our ode to the ordinary and snatch attention away from the exceptional and the deserving by ensuring that whenever someone Google’s in “buffalo, bison mating habits” our blogs show up on the first page.

Don’t worry I shan’t talk about the mating habits of the bison and buffalo however interesting and fascinating they maybe. Today I shall talk about a day that all involuntarily celibate teenage boys like me dread, no not Chaka Khans’ birthday you idiots, I am talking about Valentine’s Day, a day of joy and celebration of love for some and a day of loathing and reverse peristalsis for others. I absolutely detest this day, for one despite what you might consider to be an obvious fact I have no girlfriend, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever had one for longer than a fortnight or two. The girls I choose to involve myself with either are on different continents; different earth-quake zones or sing along to the Spice Girls.

Don’t get me wrong; these girls were close to my heart and even closer to my wallet.

Anyway let’s move on, what’s done is done and I’m pretty sure if I stay a little bit longer in the organ-trade game I shall recover all my financial losses. Vital organs! Who needs ‘em eh?? (If you do, e-mail me!)

So this year since the only thing Cupid’s arrow did was poke me in the eye and make it gangrenous. I have, after several hours of deep deliberation and study, come up with a fun-filled Valentine’s Day for one. Here’s the itinerary-

1. Wake up, weep a little.

2. Watch the television show based on that boy without a bellybutton for the next couple of hours.

3. Call up friends who are busy with their respective boy/girl-fiends and talk about the terrific television show on the boy with no belly button.

4. Attempt and affect removal of belly button.

5. Write about the day on an unsuspecting friend’s web-site, after a brief visit to the hospital and a quick sobriety test.

Before I get back to wallowing in my cesspool of self inflicted misery and melancholy there are a few questions I’d like to ask, now that I’ve been given the opportunity to do so; and these aren’t trivial issues, but of deep socio-cultural and geo-political implications-

1. Why did Nelly Furtado dye her hair blond?
2. What’s your phone number? Yes you, the pretty girl who just minimized this page! Please!
   

Till next time this is goodbye; before I forget- if you can’t remember the last time you were dancing to the Venga Boy’s it probably is a good thing.

Unoptimistix.

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Went gliding yesterday, it was a beautiful day for gliding and the airfield was buzzing with activity. I got an opportunity to go in a motor glider, and I flew upto the university, and got some nice aerial views of the University Buildings. We flew for about 45 minutes but it felt like just a few minutes, time flies when your flying. Flying a motor glider is easier than flying a traditional glider. The motor glider literally flies itself, and doesn’t require constant attention.

I went to London today, and went to Madame Tussuad’s Wax Museum, which is simply amazing. I had only expected wax statutes, but there were more stuff there. The statues were very realistic, a few people we saw include Gandhi, Shah Rukh Khan, Robin Williams, Hitler, Vladimir Putin, and so on. This list is very very small compared to the total number of people we saw. There was a ride called ‘The Spirit of London’ which took you in mini London cabs and showed you about the history of London using visual elements of moving statues and well made sets. It was fun, informative and exciting. The final part of the museum was planetarium which showed you about ’stars’ in the context of movie stars, famous people, etc. It was a good one and a half hours.

We then went to Harrods which was quite enormous, along with the prices. Most of the stuff were boring to me but we did catch the occasional glimpse of exciting like a 70″ TV, original vintage posters of movies, great sound systems, and some fancy looking clothes. We didn’t go anywhere else, but felt that these two locations were good enough for a day.

I’ve been playing a lot of ‘Transport Tycoon Deluxe’ lately. Its a classic economic simulation game made in 1995. It may sound old but I still feel its better than newer simulation games. I can still remember the days when I used to spend half my waking hours playing this game late into the night, while my dad sat next to me giving advice on which move to make next. If you wish to play this game, you can download it from here and in order to make to run on Win XP/Vista, you will need to download a patch from here.

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Yesterday night, I had the opportunity to photograph an Indie band, ‘The Twang’ along with their supporting bands, ‘Jersey Buds’ and ‘The Hours’ for the University Newsletter. The first band playing was ‘Jersey Buds’, who I thought were really good. The next band up was ‘The Hours’ who had varied types of music. The final and most anticipated band, ‘The Twang’, were probably quite, but they weren’t my type of music. Photography, however, was another thing.

The lighting for the first two bands was more or less the same, and played havoc with White Balance. I shoot in RAW so that I would have lots of room for further editing. I was not allowed into the photographer’s pit for the first two bands, since I didnt have a pass. To compensate, I stood right at the front, so that I could have a choice of angles. My viewpoint was limited since I couldnt move about too much and had to stick to one place. When ‘The Twang’ came onto the stage, the lighting was spectacular, and I’d also lost my position in the front. Although I was only one row behind the front, it made a lot of difference. And just when I thought that it would be great if I could get into the photographer’s pit, which was empty, my friend showed up with a Press Pass she’d got for me. I was delighted and had the entire photographer’s pit all to myself. There were endless opportunities there, and I clicked like there was no tomorrow. It was great to be right infront of the band, and away from the crushing crowd. I had to leave after some time and I was happy with the time I’d got in there. I took some pictures of the crowd and as if on cue, I ran out of space on my CF Card. It was the first time I was photographing a concert, putting all my theory I’d learned into practical, and it was a great fun. I cant wait to do this again.

My heart thumping in rhythm with the music, while I clicked photographs and listened to the music, was one helluva experience. While I watched the drummer of ‘Jersey Buds’, it reminded me of my days of drumming in school, and at that moment, I wanted to go and start playing again. The sound was flawless, I cant imagine how many hours they must have spent doing the sound check. And for better sound, I’d noticed that they had microphones on every speaker so that they could monitor sound output and change it during the concert. My ears were still ringing after the concert, but I had an amazing time the ringing in my ears was just a small price to pay for it.

Click here to view the photographs which I took at the event.

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