Oscar Weekend... with sunny warm weather & Raspberry

This was a nice weekend. Weekend of sunshine, nice warm weather, lots of relaxing & sleeping, almost no work done... and Razzies & Oscars. Well, the weather kinda cheated. It said it'll ran, but it didn't. It was all nice, sunny & warm & beautiful. I am not complaining, just saying that proper noice would be nice. Friday night was cold which I spent watching Bang Bang Club preview. Saturday was spent at gym & home (I am working out a LOT). I did have a Shake Shack Burger from uptown. Al I can eat there is the veggie burger (rest all is BEEF) & there black & white Shake which is NICE.

Sunday was spent resting mostly. There was supposed to be an Oscar viewing party in Lincoln Center whichI found was canceled after getting there all dressed up. So I had to settle for watching the Academy awards aka Oscars at home. I was quite please by the awards this time. Not as much by hosts. James Franco & Anne Hathaway were the youngest people to host Oscar, also the first (straight) couple. James looked high (wassup with dressing as DRAG??) and Anne was chirpy/bubbly but not fun/funny. She did have some nice dresses on, some. I find most of these Oscar dresses/gowns ugly. It's all about "who" are you wearing than what are you wearing. Mila Kunis sis have a nice dress on though.... Awards were kinda well deserved unlike some nominations (Kids are alright, really? Annette Benning was really that good??). Christian Bale really deserved his award (inspite of the fact I haven't seen The Fighter, but liked him in all his other work including Machinist). BTW, he does great British accent, very convincing. Natalie Portman did deserve the best actress Oscar for her performance in Black Swan, she's done a really good job being able to portray the full range of emotions, from sad, to happy, to sweet, to hot, to dangerous etc. I was really impressed. Inception got technical awards & Alice in wonderland for dress & cinematography. Others were good too. Really liked Kirk DOuglas on stage, he was fun & funny. All & all, a nice show!!

I didn't see the Raspberry Awards (Razzies) but heard that Manoj Night Shyamlan The Last Airbender lead the race with Sex & the City (which def deserved all the Razzies). M.Night is just suffering from over expectation. He's a nice smart guy & make good movies. I recently watched The Lady in the Water & found it quite interesting. I even liked The DEVIL. Every movie cannot be The Sixth Sense. C'mon guys, give him some space. Anyways, it's cool to see how they award for excellence & non-excellence too. LOL. That was the whole weekend and Monday today was "as usual". So until next time, Take Care & Be Happy... keep visiting/reading/commenting... Thanks & Jai Ho!!!!

Happy-Happy B'day Dearest SIS!!!

This is to express my heartiest congratulations, deepest love & all my blessings & best wishes to my sweetest dearest sister a HAPPY-HAPPY B'DAY!!!

If you grew up with a sibling you would know what I mean. Having a sibling growing up, either younger or older has a huge impact on your upringing, & who you become. They are colse to you in many way for such a long time in your foundation years. And alll those sweet & sour memories. Like I fough a lot with my siter.. we even do now sometimes but it's not that bad. And hangout & talk & everything else. How I used to calm her down & run behind her anywhere she was taken ehen she was a baby. Or when I used to carry her around on my shoulders as a small kid. Or singing duets in balcony before hig school. Or every other big & small moment we spent  together... An she's grown up now. It's so amazing to see such things. Life is amaazing. Again with lots of love & best wishes, HAPPY-HAPPY B'DAY!!!!!

Bang Bang Club

I know, sounds dirty... but it is not. It's a upcoming movie based on real Bang Bang Club. It will be releasing in April 2011 & I have already seen it, actually saw it today. That's the fun of being in NYC. I saw it at NYU Cantor Film Center as a special preview. So.... I loved the movie (almost). It's a very well done & nice movie, I realy liked it.

The Bang-Bang Club is a Canadian-South African film written and directed by Steven Silver and stars Taylor Kitsch as Kevin Carter, Ryan Phillippe as Greg Marinovich, Frank Rautenbach as Ken Oosterbroek and Neels Van Jaarsveld as João Silva. They portray the lives of four photojornalists active within the townships of South Africa during the Apartheid period, particularly between 1990 and 1994, from when Nelson Mandela was released from jail to the 1994 elections. Malin Åkerman plays the role Robin Comley who does everything she can to publish the horrific pictures as portrayed by them. The Bang-Bang Club is a film adaptation of the auto-biographical book The Bang-Bang Club: Snapshots from a Hidden War co-written by Greg Marinovich and João Silva who were part of the group of four photographers known as Bang-Bang Club, the other two members being Kevin Carter and Ken Oosterbroek.

The film portrays the struggle of photo jouranlists caught up in a war & how they try to get pictures in that environment. How are they trying to survie in middle of a battle. How they empathize (or do not) with there subjects, which could be burning human beings or dead/killed youngsters, or starving/dying kids. I liked Taylor Kitsch's performance th ebst. Surprisingly he was not the main protoganist of the movie. It was Ryan's charcter & he did alright. But there was not much range in his character. All the other characters seemd to ahve more content, range & bettre performances too. The batle scenes were extremely well shot (including a very nice & potential coke commercial: Greg runs in between firing bullets in the battle, to get 2 bottles of coke-coca cola). Theres also a nice seen with an african girl playing with a bird (or a vulture waiting for his meal). Women characters are really week btw, just like to support their men (as they are supposed to, right? lol). The movie also had a good mix of humor inspite of the serious subject. Some very well done pics as well (I hear some of them were real & some done for the movie). And it's based on real events which makes it really interesting.

So, go watch th emovie whenever it releases. And keep coming back & readung my blog too. Thanks & take care!!... here are the two real pics which won putizer award:

Long weekends are AWESOME

Or is it just me?? I had a great long weekend. Ability to sleep-in late on a monday morning is like a super power, right? But that's not the only reason this weekend was awesome (I anyways didn't sleep a LOT this weekend)... I just had a great time (& it hand nothing to do with President's day actually)!!

Well, I was able to accomplish some shopping for home (like racks, stacks, etc) from Bed Bath & Beyond (I have never been to the Beyond section yet, but would love to sometime.. do they have beyond 20% discount in Beyond section??). They have this nice handle packing of stuff in NYC which makes it so easy to carry (I still ended up taking a CAB ride home, which I hate. However cabs in NYC are not bad in terms of money & efficiency). Cleaned up my place & did some arranging etc, looks GOOOOD. I got this crazy awesome Atomic watch from TIMEX (I am a TIMEX guy now, I have all 3 wrist, table & wall clocks now) which syncs time directly from Atomic Time server in Colorado. Automatically date, time, day, location etc is synced along with daylight savings. I love technology. Sill need to put it on wall & do more arranging of stuff at my place. It's been more than 6 months & now I am actively doing this, am i late.... Better late than never!!

So this is one of my crazy long blogs. Should I break them or write more but smaller? You know what? I am putting the movie blog separate right now and link to that one here. So now it's kinda shorter... SO thanks for visiting/reading... keep coming back & continue reading/commenting.. until next time... Good Bye & Good Luck... JAI HO!!!

Machinist, Secretariat & COCO.... Netflix-BluRay

This is just an extension to this blog of mine, just didnt want it to go so long...

I was home Friday night & watched The Machinist. Good movie, totally 7/10 (maybe 8). Christian Bale is s great actor & he looks ridiculously thin/anorexic in the movie. But thats not only why movie was good, its confusingly nice story line & performances as well. A movie which makes you not guess end till end is good movie at the end for me (too many ends, I see). I also watched Secretariat over the weekend and it was nice too, again 7/10 (or maybe 8). Those who don't know, it was one of the greatest horse in horse racing world (not the greatest though) & won triple crown in 1973. The movie is his story (Now horses  are getting movie made on them, What the Funk!!) & her owners. I was told horse racing looked fake in it, but I guess that's acceptable for the movie. If those horses could race they won't be acting in movies (or would they?). I watched Coco before Chanel as well, its alright 6/10 (maybe seven). Couldnt understand much of it... Ohh actually it was in french which I dont speak yet. Audrey was good as usual, I liked her in Amelia. The movie is about Coco Chanel, he founder of Chanel designer brand & very well done. I just didnt enjoy it that much so... Thanks to Netflix I am enjoying lots of movies & many of them on Awesome BLU Ray, Netflix & Blu Ray are AWESOME!!

Good Morning to a beautiful day of sunshine & happiness where you/we will say good things, do good things & have good things!!!!!!

This is what came to my mind today morning, a beautiful sunny morning today... the sun was shining, the breeze was blowing & the world look beautiful with sunshine. How much difference the sun & weather make, right? And I was feeling very happy & content while entering at work. BTW, so happy that I decided to be late to work by half an hour... why?? decided to take a morning shower!! ( I do shower everyday almost, no actually I do shower everyday after my evening gym class. sometimes i skip second shower in morning if I am getting late). I was excited about a wonderful day and got to work all happy & excited. Was talking to people about the nice weather & pretty day and it was all very nice. Went out to lunch in sunny (but windy & cold) weather. Had a decent soup & sandwich combo from Le Financier... Came back to work that the wonderful day hasn't really added a lot to my productive-ness for the day... and the day is getting over. SO, got lil upset & started doing the work (the daily job work, everyone knows how much exciting & fun it is!!). And as the sun was setting outside so was my happiness & joyfulness!! SOOOOO much for a beautiful day... LOL!!

The weather's been nice but I hear it'll be cold again over the weekend. Chuck was not that right it seems. I've been doing pretty well. Was in DC over the weekend & had a nice time there. Back to the city NOW. Watched the movies Guzaarish (5/10: an okay movie about euthanasia request by a ailing magician played by Hrithik & taken care by pretty nurse played by Aishwarya. Kinda week in presentation for regular audience. Seems SLB is making movies for Oscars only since he got dumped for Devdas) , Manhattan (6/10: A decent Woody Allen movie dealing with lots of emotions & relationship stuff. Again kinda complicated fro regular audience but well done movie) & Waltz with Bashir (7/10: Very interesting & nice movie about 1982 Lebanon war and Sabra & Shatila massacre, well done graphics & nice presentation, quite FUN). So that's it for now friends... keep visiting/reading/commenting..... l8rzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HAPPY V'DAY!!

My dad called me today to wish me Happy Valentines Day..... Happy Valentines day to al of you as well... I have always asked, is it something to really celebrate about? A celebration of love... doesn't sounds bad at all.... a marketing gimmick so companies can sell tons of gift items & make money on anything & everything they can. However, if you have true love in your life.. everyday is a VALENTINE DAY.... Here are some weird/interesting/fun facts about V'Day:

• The average American will spend $119.67 on Valentine’s Day this year, up from $100.89 last year. (economy is growing as you can see, we are OUT of recession!!)
• Men spend almost twice as much on Valentine’s Day as women do. This year, the average man will spend $156, while the average woman will only spend $85. (I bet... doesn't it sucks to be a MAN, LOL)
• More than one-third of men would prefer not receiving a gift. Less than 20 percent of women feel the same way. (Well, I know they are not talking about ME here...)
• Around this season, a dozen long-stemmed roses can cost an average of $75, or about 30% more than the normal price of $58. (That's why I don't buy roses, they look more beautiful on trees/plants, or wherever they grow... like in botanical gardens etc)
• More than nine million pet owners are expected to buy gifts for their pets this Valentine's Day. (damn.. doesnt it sucks to be human sometimes?? who's running the world???)
• 15 percent of U.S. women send themselves flowers on Valentine's Day. (Awwwwwwww... aren't there some desperate ladies out there... Awwwwwww)
• Teachers receive the most valentines, followed by kids, mothers, wives and sweethearts. (Well, not my teacher... rest, ummmm... I would say yes!!)
• Over 50 percent of all Valentine's Day cards are purchased in the six days prior to the holiday. (I didnt purchase any cards... may be I should sell some!!)
• The oldest surviving valentine dates from 1415. It is a poem written by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife. At the time, the duke was being held in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (What better can you write while being held in captivity... crazy mind does crazy things.... you b%$#@&d)
• One billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making it the second largest card-sending holiday of the year behind Christmas. Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines. (Good job ladies.. about time you start making that money yourself & then spend it... no???)
• Hallmark produced its first valentine in 1913. (& have been ripping us off since then)
• Today, Hallmark employs an 80-person research staff to analyze the sales pattern of previous valentines. That analysis, combined with more than 100,000 annual customer interviews, focus groups and in-store observations, will help create roughly 2,000 cards in Hallmark's core Valentine's Day line. (I hope they know there are kids startving in third world nations across the planet, global warming, recession & many other issues in this beautiful planet of ours)
• In Japan, women are expected to give chocolate and other gifts to men on Valentine's Day. This tradition was started as a marketing campaign by Japanese chocolate companies. Men are not off the hook, unfortunately. They are expected to return the favor on March 14th, commonly known as White Day. ( Jap-Boys.. it seems you only have 27 days to celebrate!!)
• BBC reports that Shiv Sena, a nationalist political party in India, has spoken out against Valentine's day, calling it "nothing but a Western onslaught on India's culture to attract youth for commercial purposes." (Well.. what else a bunch of girlfriend-less dudes do... poor boys!!!)
• The Ivory Coast is the world's largest producer of cocoa, the main ingredient in chocolate. In 2001, the U.S. State Department reported child slavery on many cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast. A 2002 report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in hazardous conditions. (Don't they say love is hard, it costs a lot, it's painful, it hurts..... now you know why!!!!)
• "I love you" in German is "Ich liebe dich." & in Hindi is "Main tumse pyaar karta hun"!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just want to FUNK with you.... what the FUNK???

Have you heard this song?? I just want to Funk with you... what's this about?? This is some song from some movie/album called 'Gaane bhi do yaaron' from ' A Band of Boys'. I remember song writers & lyricists using weird/confusing wordings to make songs attractive or controversial. Remember 'jab tak rahega samose mein aloo'?? Or many-many others. But who are you fooling???? Gone are the days of beautiful lyrics and wonderful & meaningful songs. And we have to deal with this now....

What the FUNK????????

Happy Groundhog's Day 2011

Well, you don't knwo what is it? I heard it from the Bill Murray movie Groundhog's Day but found out that it's real. Read more here... It's been ice raining here but didnt snow as it was being warned for last 2 days or last one week actually... & well... Chuck Said that it'll be an early Spring here.. so lets see what happens!!

Alcatraz and Drive on CA-1 to 17 mile Drive & Big Sur!!

I came back from SFO today (yesterday actually). It was a nice trip... San Francisco is nice, but it was rainy all the time.... like last time when I was there in April, not much cold though. I was there for annual meeting of my company located in Silicon Valley (Santa Clara, San Francisco Bay Area). The meeting was nice & so was meeting all these people at work... pretty NICE!!! I like California, but somehow not as much to move there. East Coast is nicer, specially DC & NYC... feels like home in USA to me. Nice weather variation, to see all four seasons distinctly... hot summer, cold  snowy winter & nice falls & spring too. It's just awesome!!

You know I had flight issues in beginning of trip (read here), but the trip overall was really great. First stop was Stanford University & Palo Alto, nice as usual but nothing special (or maybe there was something special). Had dinner in Junoon, nice Indian restaurant & all the food was really awesome. Then next in San Francisco, we saw Alcatraz Island/Prison in SFO, really interesting. They have this nice audio tour which is really nice (nice is nice... really??).One of the speaker on tour was Darwin Coon whose Book "Alcatraz: The True End of the Line", I read recently. Not a great writer but really good writing & interesting story. They have created the audio tour really well, but its just for the prison and not the whole Island. Then went back to San Francisco city & had dinner at Japanese place called Katana-ya, pretty nice place & good raman noodles & sushi too.

Next day was trip on CA-1 to 17 mile drive & Big Sur... pretty nice. Last time I drove to Santa Cruz which was one of the very nice & beautiful drive I have seen. But this was different & beautiful. Sea shore on one side & mountains on other, kinda aweosme. But we got late reaching to Big Sur & it got kinda dark, maybe need to visit next time (drive from LA). 17 mile drive is beautiful but repetitive, may be nicer in good weather when you sit somewhere & enjoy longer in place of just driving through it & not doing much except running around taking pictures etc. Can't say much about Big-Sur, I gues its nice. We did have dinner at Big Sur Bakery & Restaurant, had Duck Pizza & some fish dish with veggies. Fish dish was nice but Pizza kinda sucked. Dessert was nice, (some kinda Brouche?) & had good pistachio ice-cream. They did have a creepy restroom there though.. really creepy & back in woods. LOL... & then drive back to SFO (real SFO, the Airport). So the trip overall was awesome!!!!!!

Ok... This is old news, so the Last time for this year: HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011!!!!