Play it by the letters old boy...

Fresh out of the first day first show of "Kingdom of Heaven", I can say I am impressed. By many things. For starters I find it nice they ran the movie with three people in the theatre out of which one guy came late, and the other I am sure was an employee posted to make sure I didn't do any of those things single men normally do when in dark rooms alone with movies. (Married men don't use dark rooms, they have "something important" that come up in the office just after everyone else has left. This is particularly prevalent among those who have laptops not subject to weekly IT team checkups. Sometimes this causes headaches when they go back home. Forcing their wives to subscribe to Cosmo. Which the men then smuggle to the office. It is a vicious circle.)

But onto more serious things, KOH is a good movie. Orlando Bloom actually pulled off the lead role well I thought. I don't know if it was the rugged costume and makeup or the strong double espresso I had before the movie, but he looked very unlike his roles in LOTR or Troy, both of which were very gay. Ridley Scott seems to have made a product which is classier than Gladiator, but I would be surprised if any Oscars happened this time. Just does not have that feel about it. But I enjoyed it thoroughly, even moreso because of the historical background to the story and a lack of the pretentiousness that made a hash of Alexander. Some excellent graphical work, and good performances by a majority of the cast. While the story and the sript seems very touchy in this day and age, the movie seems to pull it off well with minimal cliche or jingoism. The very fact that it was screened without controversy in the Middle East I think is proof enough. A good couple of hours of filmmaking. I think Ridley Scott has done ok. Or it could be the espresso.

I bought a cassette of clasical music today. Now before any of you start waving admonishing fingers at any perceived pseud behaviour, let me tell you that I enjoy a little bit of the symphony and all without really understanding much of it, or purporting to do so. Today I pocketed a nice little collection of bits from symphonies. I think it makes excellent accompaniment to a blogging session or some light reading. One of the things I want to be able to is identify atleast the famous bits of music when I listen to them. Beethoven, Mozart etc. And then maybe even learn to appreciate all of them a little bit. Right now its all a little bit frustrating really. I see that aftershave ad and I swear I've heard that bit of music somewhere. Which reminds of me a conversation I once had with a friend of mine:

Me: Dey!!! Whats that piece in the Old Spice ad?
Friend: The one with the surfboarder?
Me: yeah yeah
Friend: Tada tada tatata tada... (etc.)

He had a good memory for music. Pity we were chatting online then. Anyways the tape plays behind me as I write this and it is a soothing feeling let me tell you. Speaking of symphonies I can never forget a friend of mine who was burning a CD in a packed netcafe. He caused a minor uproar when he called out to an aquaintance a few computers away that he had just "completed Beethoven's Unfinished".

Back home my sister, yes the Gameboy whiz, rushes through lunch to watch Kkusum on cable. Kkusum I believe is a highly rated soap. I used to watch episodes of the Bold and the Beautiful when I was small. Everyone who had a crush on Caroline when they were in school say AYE!!! Ah those were the days. Before all the infighting and plot twists went awry. I finally gave up when some guy divorced and remarried so many times he became his own aunt at one point. Nowadays I only watch it when the episode guide says things like "intimate", "romance", "steamy" etc. Then you get to see small patches of lingerie before the camera moves behind a bookshelf.

Coming to think of it, its not so tough to make one of those soaps. I mean a sample episode would be so:

Scene 1: Phone rings, male character picks up, "Hello", "yes" Look of shock... "My God..."
Ad break
Scene 2: "Batao...kya hua Blossom Babykutty ko?"... (Rest of family gathers around phone...) Male character hangs up...
Ad break
Scene 3: "Blossom ko hospitalise kiya hua hai..." Mother character: "Nahi...!!!" Faints...
Ad break
Scene 4: They all go to hospital, rush to ICU, doctor walks up to male character... look of shock.. pause... end of episode...

The next week you can reveal that Blossom had an appendix problem that actually turned out to be an illegitimate child that looks a lot like the male character except that the child does not wear glasses or smoke. That should take it till 2008.

Though for all the turmoil and suspense in our desi soaps, nothing can match the phirangs in terms of character names. ALL the guys, every single one of them, have ultra cool names. Most of them are named after geographical formations, tools and other industrial supplies. Which muscle ripping young man would not want a stud name like Spanner, Drill or Crag?

Anyways the rest of today will be spent in trying to hammer out a short story thats been playing around in my head for sometime. An interesting little thing that should take a couple of days to rough draft atleast. On the professional side I will be booking into a hotel in Mumbai for around ten days from the 15th of May before I get my own acco. Need to find a place somewhere around BKC where the office is. Anyone with any leads to drop in an email.

Now off I go to complete a book about marvels of modern engineering. Has all the major feats of indutry and fabrication like the Brooklyn bridge and all. It doesn't have Micheal Jackson though.

Ciao people and take care.