Sunday, July 22, 2007

blame it on the rain!

I thought I'd dwell on and find a reason for my recent lack of interest in blogging... well reasons i did find. I think it all started with the shifting plan, settled in my new apartment with cable TV and over 200 channels, if not for the hours of movies, x-files, alias, sabrina that are already lying recorded on my dvr, then Anderson Cooper seems to have me hooked onto CNN... and then there have been all those amazing F1 races, including today's, if only Kimi had managed to win as it had seemed, this weekend would have been great.

Houston public library, lets put that one on my list too... always have a armful of books whenever i get in and out of that place! Certification coming up in two days, work and calls, and then more calls - that about makes my list.

Its been a while since I made it for the Sunday morning service at St. John's Vianney, evening service is wonderful too. Fr. Jose from Kerala, has joined the parish as an assistant pastor, truly a small world and he seemed pleased to have met a few Indians, M'lore/Karnataka is after all a neighbor to his home state!

and how can i forget the rain, its been raining cats and dogs, off and on and the rain in Houston, is as unpredictable as the politics in India, its raining in Mangalore too, so much so that some areas were flooded, now that's a first since i always believed the drainage system in M'lore was excellent, the adverse effects of growth and development...so like Milli Vanili said, whatever you do don't put the blame on you, blame it on the rain!

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Pottermania

From a post a week to a post a month!

The spate of movie releases is ongoing, after the trilogies here comes the pentalogy! (Well there seems to be no word like that!). Will try and do a LIFO for the significant thoughts I would probably have mused about on this blog under different circumstances (whatever that may mean) and yet I promise only to try.

Back to the Order of the Phoenix, watched the movie @IMAX; however our tickets were for the 'regular' screens, nevertheless the movie compensated for the lack of 'experience'.

A condensation of almost 900 pages to a little more than 2 hours and I must say that this rendition seems worthy of a good review. It is an eternal debate if having read the book would have made for a better watching experience… My friends who haven’t read the book awaited in anticipation, to know more about the return of Voldermort and all the hurdles and abracadabra Harry Potter would reveal on screen.

On the same lines, I believe the Da Vinci Code movie, would have been confusing to follow if I had not read the book whereas I was able to follow the Bourne series and LOTR which did a marvelous job of story telling without having read the books.

From little and cute to almost mature adults, the characters have come a long way. Harry Potter and his friends have come of age, his battle with his fears is more prominent, he thinks deeply and his fear that he could be turning into something evil is heartfelt. Dolores Umbridge’s character was perfectly portrayed, all pink, all rules on wooden boards…!, Ralph Fieness as Lord Voldemort was awesome as always, hard to believe that this is the same guy who swept Jennifer Lopez off her feet in ‘Maid in Manhattan’, while he seems like the perfect 'Red Dragon’!!!

The special effects seemed slightly mediocre for a movie with this amount of buzz, however the movie didn’t stop, there were no long pauses on nothingness…

A worthy watch, can't wait to drink in the last installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

More on the spate of movies…