Film making - the real story

Just finished watching "Talk to her" by Almodovar. It is a (Spanish) movie about two men who are taking care of their women who are in a coma, and the friendship that develops between them. It is also about communication and loneliness. The movie flows on two levels, one, their friendship and then their relationships with the women as the undercurrent.

What strikes on another level (just like the movie) is the vast difference in the ways Europeans make their movies than say, Americans. The European films (if you like/tend to watch foreign language films, you know what I mean) are about daily life. Subtle incidents woven into a story which is simple and leaves something warm inside of you. One needs to see, notice and watch life to do something like that with conviction, which of course the Americans lack. Their priorities in life seem vastly different. They have a solution for everything in the world, including the tension in the middle east, but not for their day to day problems. Reason why their movies, for example Kauffman's, are very complex. The simpleness of a "Life is beautiful" or "Jamon Jamon" or "Amelie" is hard to find in the ones that come off that shore.

When you have time to kill

Go see collegehumor.com, very nostalgic -- the posters, signboards, doordesigns (loved the door above), all those DIY stuff that we found time to experiment on. Some posts made me feel old (Oh, this is what we used to call the 'generation gap' back then). The site is sort of workplace safe, but you know the kind of things that kids do in college, dont ya?

How advertising spoiled me

All of us like great ads. That's why we buy things, right? At least 90% of the first time buyers in America buy food based on its packaging. Of course, taste determines if one would buy again. But that's for another post.

Anyways, if you are crazy about creative stuff, be advised: Go to this site when you have lots of time on your hands.

http://creativecriminal.blogspot.com/

Interestingness

A collection of the most interesting photos uploaded to Flickr in the past one week. Quite, ehmm, interesting. There used to be a 24hours link (in place of 7days), and it showed the top 50. Now you get a random pick of 9. So remember to reload.

http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/

Overheard

During a serious technical discussion about security in Bluetooth:

"Encryption is a lifestyle choice. There are nudists and there are people who wear clothes. Personally I prefer to wear clothes even in warm weather"

Google Earth Update

Google has updated 'its' Earth with detailed shots of Pune. Now one can clearly see even my terrrace! No, I am not going to tell you exactly where.

Predictions

TOI reported on the front page couple of days ago some predictions by astrologers about whether Sachin Tendulkar would score his 35th century on the last day of the Chennai test.

It read something like - "If it doesnt rain, then at 1:27PM Sachin would score his hundred and he will score heavily between 9:30 and 11:27AM."

It is another fact that Sachin scored a laborious 22 off 126 balls before getting out. And yet another that he didnt score a single run in the mentioned time frame. But cant these people who are so detailed in their predictions also predict if it would rain? Or was that their alibi?

Forget

"There are three things I always forget. Names, faces -- the third I can't remember." -- Italo Svevo.

Well, I forgot to write on my blog. I think that is the simple truth. Not that many people out there are waiting for me to write. I am no writer or pretender. Lots of stuff was happening and couldnt get to the start page of blogger. The stuff is still happening, but as they say, I decided not to sweat the small stuff (coz it is all small stuff)