Musings of an Idiot

Cook!!!!!

Just got off from shopping and then cooking for tomorrow's supper. Tiring, after a long day at school.

'Memories' has been selected to screen at 2nd Annual DNA Film Festival in Toronto, which gives the movie it's canadian premiere Thrilled beyond words because out of the remaining 2 festivals that I had to hear back from, it has gotten into one. In related movie news - Andrew Schischka pointed out that 'Memories' is listed on dvdunlimited.co.nz {a local NZ rental service similar to Netflix}. Cool... i hope someone requests the movie on netflix -so that they keep it on their collection as well.

As I promised - some more random images that I took - these are right in front of our front door.


Good night and goodbye for now.
Amit

posted by Amit @ 11:06 PM 0 Comments

Confirmed

The program is confirmed - Lance and me are flying out to India on December 17th with a 1 day stop over at Hong Kong with the return scheduled for January 6th,2006 {after leaving India on January 4th}. So that definitely is an exciting development.

How do you find the question to an answer that you have seen? Strange question eh...I am struggling to find the question.

Before going to buy the tickets - Lance and me took some snaps of Auckland because it was a beautiful evening. The photos which Lance took were amazing, unfortunately don't have them to share them. Maybe once Lance's website is up and running - he will share them there. For now make do with what I captured.




Before I say good night - I would like to share another 'Serenity' page - this one has a doco on how the movie got made titled 'Resurrecting Firefly'. Hope you enjoy it.

Amit

posted by Amit @ 11:00 PM 0 Comments

Smaller update

Might be going through Hong kong instead of Singapore on the trip to India. It never fails to surprise me how you are never able to get the tickets you want, when the time comes. There is an outside possibility that we might still be able to get through on Singapore airlines but chances are slim because it is peak season. Still excited at the possibility of a 1 day stop-over at Hong Kong.

Invited our netball team to an early dinner on Saturday and I will be treating them to some indian cooking :D. That should be interesting.


Got out the remastered special edition of 'Ghost in the Shell' {the new website rocks} and looking forward to watching it again...It is one of my favorite movies and was a huge influence on how I visualised 'Memories'. The soundtrack is haunting and enchanting at the same time.

Started reading 'Saga of the Swamp Thing' written by Alan Moore and it is again a fantastic read.

Bye for now,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 6:37 PM 0 Comments

Small Updates

Several small updates at the same time amounting to a bigger one this time around.

David M. dropped off fresh lot of comic feed and I am drooling. I couldn’t bring them home yesterday because you can’t take a 4 KG load on your back when you are still getting used to the biking process. I have booked my bike in for a service early next week, since I had assembled it and would definitely like a professional to service it up and fine tune it.

We won our netball match by default because the other team did not show up but we lost the game {the score was 35-25 } we played with the same team to whom we lost last week, who jumped in to give us a game. So at this stage we are at the bottom half of the table in our grade. I am considering taking a 4-5 week break from the game because I think I need to get away from it for a while.

Still trying to finalize and sort out trip to India. I would be able to confirm something within a week. On another random note - Benji brought to my notice that 'Memories of Tomorrow' is now available through Amazon.com. The page itself doesn't have any images, details or anything at all but it is good to know that people from across the world can buy the movie. You can check out the link HERE and pass the information to anyone whom you see fit.

I found out that there was a 3 part mini-series of 'Serenity' comics to bridge the gap between the TV series 'Firefly' and the movie 'Serenity' - so I promptly scoured the net for it and ordered it online. The toughest choice was choosing the covers because they have 3 different covers for each part and they happen to be the main characters... i ordered 'Inara' for Part-1; 'Kaylee' for Part-2 and 'River' for Part-3 - and it was no easy choice at all....

In another update - the book which I co-translated while in India is doing well and the publisher {Katha Publications} seem to be pleased with it and I am happy because more proceeds can go towards community support and education by Katha - who also run those efforts to give something back to the society.

Bye for now
Amit

posted by Amit @ 7:33 PM 0 Comments

Movies and Restlessness

The thing which is most frustrating for me is when I am waiting for things to happen or for anything to happen. I think by nature I am really restless when nothing is happening and I am feeling so today. As a film maker - one of the most painful period is when you are waiting in between projects - thats when you think about everything under the sun and also question your own existence and place under it.

I picked up the copy of 'Kumara Swami' from Tessa, for which I did voice over work, today morning. It was her idea of making a puppet out of Kumara{sweet potato} and use it to make one of her assignments interesting. I don't think I can post the video because it has copyrighted music in the background but I must say the concept is really funny. I will try and post a really small clipping from it once I am able to rip a portion of it off.

It has been a lazy sunday - watched 'SAW' and it was a good watch. Some bits and pieces were over-acted {by the two main characters chained up in the room - especially by Leigh Whannell, who also wrote the film} but on the whole it definitely keeps you on the edge. It was made for US$ 1.2 million and shot over a 18 day schedule and it went on to earn about US$ 102 million worldwide. Maybe thats the reason they hastily put together a sequel 'SAW II' which will be releasing soon - hope that it is half as good as the original {even though it has 4 times the budget of the original}. The reason I am discussing the figures is because of an interesting discussion I had with one of the people who saw 'Memories' and was comparing it to 'Saw' - arguing how you can make fantastic story without a budget and how 'Memories' would have benefited from a better script and better acting {which I thought was a ridiculous comment}...I had to point out that our budget was NZ$ 15,000 , which happened to be about NZ$ 1,65o,000 less than the budget of 'Saw'. The thing is that NZ audiences tend to be really critical and probably not accepting of independent movies because they compare them with hollywood blockbusters. So it is hard to try and make an independent film aiming for a commercial market, without getting panned left and right {those have been quite a few of those from industry people, though never from critics - some of the NZ critics/reviewers chose to ignore the movie completely because it was from an unknown person and wasn't an art house offering and/or wasn't government funded}.

I think people here expect independent digital films to play more to the art house or that they look like an independent digital film {badly lit, bad/average audio}. I think 'Memories' did suffer quite a bit because of daring to cross that line of not looking like an independent digital feature. It has been a double edged sword - people really like the cinematography and what we achieved technically but then they forget that we did this without any budget and start comparing it to budgeted movies. A good thing in a way as it is a compliment to our technical efforts and I do want to make our movies look good - you don't expect to pay 14 bucks odd to see a crap looking film {exceptions like 'Blair Witch Project' are far and few inbetween} but a bad thing for the overall prospects of the film. It then shapes up to be a marketing and publicity game, which then either needs money or connections. I think I will definitely try and get a publicist from next movie on. I definitely need to save time in that department, something which took a good part of my time and energies with 'Memories' and also causing heart ache and pain when the rejections or refusals by lots of portions of press to give us any publicity came in.

Film making is definitely an interesting challenge and I love it - the craft, the people, the medium. I have just started off on this pathway and have heaps to learn, experiement and prove. If there are any people reading this who intend to go down this path - all I can say is that it is creatively satisfying and gives a feeling of being complete but it is not without heart aches and disappointments.

Speaking of film making, I came across a really interesting and extensive interview with Joss Whedon, the writer/director of 'Serenity'. You can read it HERE - an engrossing read and must say you could get tired reading the whole thing in one go.

I am going to bed for now.
Amit

posted by Amit @ 10:45 PM 0 Comments

Significant???

I might be taking a short trip to India along with Lance over the christmas break, to meet family and friends. This did come out of the blue and I must say I am excited and nervous at the same time at the thought of seeing family and old friends after 3 years. I think I have changed a lot in these three years and i really want to see what has happened to the old world that I had left behind. The program is not yet concrete but will let you know as soon as it is confirmed.

Watched 'Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit' and it was fantastic. It is really good and is really heart warming. I was laughing through out the movie. The humor is definitely british and it is just lovely. And the mind boggling thing is that it is stop-animation and I can't imagine how much time it took to make this movie a possibility. The mind truly boggles. It is a 'must-watch' movie and you got to watch it when t comes out {one of the few times I am jumping with joy that they released a movie in NZ/Australia before it's release anywhere in the world}

If you check out the Unkreative Artists home page or the movie main page - you will find that I have put up both the US as well as NZ poster thumbnails with a link to buy the movie online {if you are in US}. The date for NZ DVD sales is still unconfirmed, so can't do anything about it at this point.

As a sign off note - what I would really like to share is a wonderful article which definitely brought a smile to my face.

Ciao,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 10:10 PM 0 Comments

Finally!!!

I finally biked to work. The weather forecast did not look good, so instead of waiting for the weather to clear up, I woke up early and started off before it would start raining again. I was lucky that it did not rain even though it was overcast. The ride back home was the same as well and i just hit some lucky patches when it didn't rain. The way to school is easy because there are not too many uphills but the ride back home is hard as there are a few really steep hills and it took all my effort to make sure that i kept biking instead of getting down and walking the bike up the hill. The initial period, till my legs and body gets used to the physical exertion, is usually the hardest. But it is a great feeling to have finally started doing what I had planned so many times but never did because of various factors.

The US distributor finally put up the front cover for 'Memories' on the imdb page. This is the cover of the US DVD and I must say that it is stylish but somehow it does not capture the essence of the movie as much as the NZ DVD cover does. I think because the US distributor is marketing it more as a thriller than a drama - they felt the need for having 2 guns on the front cover, and rightly so, no point in releasing a DVD title if it does not sell. After all everything comes down to business in the end.

Just finished watching 'Monster' and it is a tough watch - not in terms of movie pacing or anything but the subject matter itself - it is gripping. The acting from both Charlize Theron (rightly deserved the Oscar for her performance) as well as Christina Ricci lifts the movie to a whole new level and there are some stunning visual moments in there.

Till later,
Ciao,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 9:47 PM 0 Comments

Rejections

posted by Amit @ 6:34 PM 0 Comments

Feelings

If there was any way I could define how I am feeling right now...this picture would come pretty close to defining it. Make what you can of it....


I got a surprise visit from Angelique, Liz and Daniel today. If you are wondering who is who - Angelique and Liz went to the film school with me and Daniel is Liz's son. Daniel is a gorgeous boy - everyone stops to say hello to him and he is a friendly chap too.. Caught up with both Ang and Liz over lunch and it was cool meeting old friends after a long time.

I did the phone interview with the website I mentioned in my previous post and i always feel uncomfortable doing a phone interview because you can not see how the other person is reacting to what you are saying. Plus the Voice Over Internet phonecall doesn't help at times because the voice data gets jumbled up at times or there is a lag. I hope that they edit it before they put it up because I do have the tendency to have too many 'aaahhs' and 'ummms' when I speak.

Later today evening, I cooked more kebabs - it is getting obssesive really. :-) The kebabs tasted a lot better than the first attempt and not putting onions in definitely worked out for the good. The shape is still wobbly but hey I am just beginning.


I just got the DVD of 'Red Cockroaches' and am planning to watch it tomorrow. Nothing much besides that - hope to ride my bike to work tomorrow as it is supposed to be a better day (atleast thats what the weather forecast say)......

Ciao
Amit

posted by Amit @ 10:39 PM 0 Comments

Netball, Biking & Rain

‘Memories’ has just been officially selected to screen at Zion Independent Film Festival in Utah and is in the feature competition category. I am thrilled to pieces about it as that’s its fifth film festival selection. I will also be doing a phone interview with a website called In the Q – which they will podcast across to their subscribers. That should be an interesting one.

The past 2 days have been windy, stormy and rainy days, with gale force winds slamming the city and the temperature dropping steeply. I started off Sunday by going to the Hedgehog – the bike shop where I got my accessories from and the main guy at the shop heard my problem with the combination lock and promptly fixed the problem by getting to my scrambled lock code and resetting it. It really was amazing as it took him less than 2 minutes to break the code. The scary thing was that there was a 8 year old kid in the shop, who was shopping around for a bike and he volunteered to help break the code – his precise words were “I know how to do it. Can I do it?” Obviously the shop owner did not think that suitable and did it himself.

We had a change in fortunes in our netball league matches and managed to win our first match in the second round. It was a thrilling and exciting match, which we won by 23-20. You can imagine how close it was when you read that we were 20-20 with less than 1 and half minutes of game remaining.

It was sunny for a while, so I thought it would be a great idea to try out the bike and ride to the bike shop again to get the front mud guard fixed. I still can’t get my head around the 21 gears and their usage – maybe I will get a hang of them with use. The friendly sales guy at the bikeshop tried fixing the front mud guard but it was not to be as there seemed to be some problem in the sizes of the frame and the nuts but he ended up having a quick look over my assembly and corrected the brakes, the handle bar and front wheel.

I took a long route back home and the weather changed suddenly and it was incredibly tough riding the bike – I had to stop completely for almost 10 minutes as the winds just reached a forceful level. I also managed to loose my rear mud guard somewhere, so I guess I will be riding the bike without the mud guards. Benji rightly said in one of his emails, you start looking at hills in a completely different light –depending which side of the hill you are on and I have to say I wholly endorse that statement, especially after riding through wind and rain.

I missed the advance sneak peek of ‘Serenity’ – I logged onto Village cinemas website to see when the movie was getting released and I found a session time for today. Tried booking a couple of tickets but it was sold out. Damn!!!! Now have to wait till mid-November to watch the movie.

We lost our netball game tonight. Another thrilling game but we were slightly outplayed. The score stood at 38-25 but it does not tell how much of a fight the game was. Lance lent me one of his digital cameras and now I can get back to snapping away pics randomly as well as with a purpose. So you should be seeing more of them in the coming days and months.

The weather doesn’t look too great till Friday – which means I can’t bike to work till I get myself some wet weather gear. It is still raining outside and it is like winters again - freezing. I am off to bed for now.

Amit

posted by Amit @ 10:45 PM 1 Comments

Elections

It is 2.30 AM in the morning and I just got away from the television set watching the election results. The results are out - there is no party which has a clear way to form a government. Hell...it almost looks like a repeat of the american election from 2000- with the two leading parties neck to neck - Labour sitting at 50 seats while National sitting at 49 seats, and another 10% of the votes categorized as special votes {votes by kiwis abroad + people who voted early, etc..} yet to be counted. It is a tough tough call..there will be negotiations and hopefully we will still remain sane. I haven't voted even though I am now a permanent resident because of some stupid rule which says that you got to be a resident for atleast an year before you are eligible for voting... I seriously hope that National Party doesn't come to power {even though the current trends show that they won't -politics is might unpredictable}. A right wing party coming to power is never a good thing - case in the point BJP in India came to power in the previous elections based on their right wing agenda, and they created havoc - even though they were leading a coalition. The thing with right wing parties is that they exploit the public's primal fears and gain mileage on their insecurities - they do well to mix things up by promising populist policies. And it never ever bodes well for the society. The most distinct thing I can see from this election is that NZ has become severely polarized and divided in it's vision of the country. I am not saying that the Labour government is entirely good because they have become arrogant and started squeezing everyone for money but in the bigger scheme of things - i think they are the lesser of the two evils. If Labour is able to form a government this time, it will be with a lot of negotiations and that too with parties which might not have anything in common with them, hopefully that will take the arrogance out of them and make them more responsive to the people. It is amazing that I have written this much about politics, especially when I dislike it so much. I guess the stakes are high now, NZ is a good and peaceful country {I would go as far as to say that it is a paradise -maybe not to kiwis, who sometimes forget how lucky they are} and there is nothing worse than the country going to dogs because of right wing politics coming into play.

Saturday has been a really interesting day. I got the bike delivered to me in a box at 11.00 and the better part of the day has been spent assembling the bike. I had lots of help from Greg, my flatmate -otherwise I would have been stuck for ages. I am an Indian and I am not used to doing building things up myself while NZ has a 'Do-It-Yourself' culture, so my lack of hands-on experience at assembling bikes or minimal knowledge of mechanical parts and logic, did not help the matter at all. The bike is nearly assembled - the only thing I need to fix now is the front mud-guard and it is all ready to go. It was weird trying to cycle in the limited space in the house and riding a 21 gear bike for the first time was a little un-nerving {my last bike was a single gear, no-frills mountain bike with no-suspension gear}. I think I will practice riding it a little today, so I get used to it. I did take a break and get myself a helmet as well as a lock but need to go to the bike shop again later today morning, to have the lock replaced -since I seemed to have screwed the lock combination up.

I did cook the seekh kebabs....hmmmmm...it was an interesting experience. I wouldn't say that the kebabs were perfect but they were definitely yummy. Greg, my flatmate- liked them a lot, which is always a compliment coming from him. I think I put in a little too much onion- and I did not roll them thin enough -they look all wobbly shaped {I forgot to buy skewer sticks}. I guess it all comes with practice - hopefully will improve as time passes.


Greg had been watching a 4 hour special on National Geographic on 9/11 Attacks and the investigations. It was an interesting listen, since I could not watch most of it as I was cooking as well as assembling the bike. It was only one side of the coin and at times it felt like propoganda, which then reminded me that I had finally rented 'Farhenheit 9/11' from the video store. I asked Greg, if he was keen to watch it and he said yes and we sat down and watched it after a couple of hours break.

It was alright - I think it ran out of gas at the 85-86 minute mark and after that it was just waiting to see how the doco would wrap up. I think it is the other side of the story but it is still not a balanced doco. It is way too preachy and I really did not like the storyteller taking a higher moral ground instead of simply telling the story and let the audience decide for themselves. I think in comparision I like 'Control Room' way better than F-9/11 -if only more people could see that movie.

An interesting film to view in such an environment would be 'Lord of War' - the latest film by Andrew Niccol. You can read an interview with the director about the film as well as the topic of making a movie about arms dealing. Be sure to check out the movie trailer because it is a good trailer and gives you a feel for the movie.

Anyway - I think I have written enough for now..will update you later on what happens in today's netball game. And as a sign off note - I hope that you spare a moment to read this article.

Ciao,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 1:36 AM 0 Comments

Bloody Thursday

What a day it was yesterday - just when I made up my mind to buy myself a mountain bike, my car died on me - cost me 300 bucks to get it fixed and just reaffirmed my thought process on getting myself a bike straight away. So today morning I ordered myself a mountain bike - I will hopefully will get the bike over the weekend, just in time to start the next week with the new lifestyle.

Watched 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events' - what a drag.. a big budgeted meaningless movie..some of it is beautifully shot and fantastic artwork but the story had no heart in it. It was a big budgeted hollywood gimmick.

On wednesday I met up with one of our family friends, who now stays in Australia, for dinner and it was a great experience -reconnecting to the cultural background and the past. The overall conversation touched quite a few chords with me and made me renalayze my thought processes and place in life. I tried to see if I could get some airfare bargains to do a quick and small trip to India this year but it was not to be - there is only a couple of hundred bucks difference between peak season rates and off season rates, which means I can't afford that trip at this point in my life. Bummer..will have to save up for next year.

TAKE -the nz directors guild magazine, will be carrying the interview i did for both 'Memories' as well as for the music video in the coming month, so that should be good as it will coincide with the NZ DVD release.

Nothing much else to write about at this stage - rebuilding the laptop, so my internet access is pretty spordaic. Things planned for the weekend are: cook seekh kebabs, meet a music composer and play netball on sunday {and have a second game on monday}.

Anyway that will be it for this update. Hope everyone has a good weekend and enjoy the pics of our office now, after the redecoration.

Amit

To view better quality images you can check out the gallery HERE.

posted by Amit @ 11:17 AM 0 Comments

Firefly and Serenity

I finished watching the remaining episodes of ‘Firefly’ and it was sad when I finished watching the 14^th episode because I did not want to come out of the universe. And there were lots of story strands remaining unanswered. It is cool that ‘Serenity’ is coming out soon and the advance reviews which have come out say that it is going to be a nice movie – a pleasant surprise for general public, who have no idea of the ‘Firefly’ universe.



Darryn and me had been avoiding painting our shared office for almost an year and half – partly because we could not extract time for doing it and partly because it was too big of an ask. Since the school holidays started – we decided that we needed to do something about the room and after much deliberation and random sources of inspiration {like Jamie telling us that maybe we should use newspapers as our wallpapers} –we did something totally un-predictable and random. We stapled newspaper all across the room in different directions and symmetry and on top of that we started putting posters, movie clips, production stills and stuff – to create a color pattern and I must say that both Darryn and me are really pleased with the outcome of the exercise {especially since we managed it admist the countless number of meetings we have had over the past couple of days}. Anyone who comes into the office, at some point or the other gets lost in the myriad movie images staring from across the 4 walls. To top things off - we dismantled our huge desk, which took up 1/4th of our office area and Darryn got a smaller desk from his home and now the office looks really chic. I will take some snaps and post them up the next time I get the chance.

I feel drained, vacant and lost, at this point in time or maybe I am having one of 'those' days. Feel the desperate need to shout at top of my lungs till I can't scream anymore but it is not a practical thing to do. Something seems to be bothering me sub-consciously and my conscious mind can not do anything more than feel trapped in the unknown. I started chalking things out in my head for the next movie but obviously the best laid plans can come undone and am waiting for the first draft of the script -after which I can probably take more concrete steps. All I can do in the meantime is fantasize, dream and plan on what I would like to achieve with the movie.

Signing off for now.
Amit

{P.S - Forgot to mention couple of things
> We got trashed in our netball game, lost 30-12...probably one of the worst results we have had in a long time. Good thing though was that couple more team members discovered some of their talents at shooting and it is cool that we are still growing as a team
> Got my hands on the reciepe on how to make seekh kebabs and am going to do it over the coming weekend.}

posted by Amit @ 10:48 PM 0 Comments

Rules of Engagement

A recommended documentary to watch is 'Waco: The Rules of Engagement' and deals with the events which unfolded between Feb 28th, 1993 and April 19th, 1993 in Waco, Texas. It is a controversial doco because it dares to defy people's perception of what happened and highlights the cover-ups and brutality of the then US government. It is powerful, moving and heart breaking. You don't really want to see 70 men, women and children being senslessly burnt to death by the government {ATF and then the FBI} . Some might aruge that the doco does not highlight all the issues - well the way things stand - there is atleast something to counter government propoganda and brain wash. What the doco did do was highlight the lies and the cover-ups which FBI was putting on the table and got the US congress to re-open investigations in 1999 but I don't think there was any outcome to be mentioned. There is no freedom and we all are being truly ruled by idiots - maybe not as much in NZ {at this stage}. How can one concieve such a notion of ending human life without regard to basic principles of humanity? Another good website to know more about the Waco massacre is here.

The doco has left me shaken a lot and wants me to scream with the frustration about the illusion of freedom we are living in. Another news item which I saw today read something like "The head of the UK's security services has warned that civil liberties across the world may have to be sacrificed to prevent future terrorist attacks...." what the f***???

The other doco I watched straight after was 'To Be And To Have' - a simple doco about a one man school in rural france. It was gentle and cute but the pacing was incredibly slow and could easily have done with a tighter edit and would have shaved off 20 minutes off the current running length {yeah it is that slow}... the interesting news I came across {besides the knowledge that this was the biggest grossing documentary in france} though is that Georges Lopez sued the production company and lost the law suit.

Excerpt from an article in The Observer from October 2004 - "Speaking for the first time since losing his claim for €250,000 compensation last week, Lopez said he was not motivated by a desire for money, but was simply determined to win recognition of his rights. He said he and his young pupils had been exploited by the film's producers and had been left permanently traumatised.

The families of nine of the pupils feel so strongly about their mistreatment that they have launched legal proceedings against the film's producers. Lopez learnt last week that he had lost his own claim, but plans to appeal.

'We were misled. The production company told me and the children's families that they were making a small documentary about the phenomenon of the one-teacher village school and that the film would be used primarily for educational purposes. 'They said it would have a restricted screening and never discussed marketing the film to make it such a commercial venture.' He said the film's huge national and international distribution had had a very negative effect on the pupils. 'We had no idea that it would be in cinemas all over the country, released on DVD or distributed abroad. One child, who had been very stable and happy until the film's release, was so distressed by his unexpected fame, that he started wetting the bed, and became afraid of the dark.

'Other children have been teased at their new secondary schools because of their involvement. All have been subjected to a great deal of stress as a direct consequence of the film,' he said. Lopez is relaxed about his fall from grace in the minds of the public. 'The media like to burn tomorrow what they adore today. Worse still, it's not socially acceptable for school teachers to seek money. I'm meant to live a quiet life in the countryside, eking out a reclusive retirement on my meagre pension. It's a cliche, but that's how people think,' he said. 'I think a lot of people haven't understood what's motivated my legal case. I'm not doing this for the money, I'm simply trying to make the film company recognise my rights.' "

Strange little world just got a whole lot stranger.

Saturday had been a relaxing day - spent the better part of the day cooking 'chicken korma' in mughlai style and it took about 2 hours in total but the result is yummy and satisfying - it definitely aroused the interests of my flatmates by its aroma. I had it today and it was delicious - i probably put in a little too much water, so gravy was thin but otherwise it was niceeeeeeeeee....

Yesterday evening I went over to Alex Samuel's house for dinner. Alex is one of my classmates from South Seas and a good friend. He used to run his own production house in Bombay before he came over to NZ. He cooked some kebabs and they are awesome..I helped him sort out some of his editing and DVD authoring workflow in exchange for the recipe to those kebabs..will be getting that soon and can't wait to make those kebabs... There aren't any good places which sell kebabs in auckland and i think it is an excellent opportunity to overcome that drawback. :D

Greencine.com had liked 'Memories' and I was keen for the movie to go onto that website but since the internet rights are now with York Entertainment things weren't making much sense. Things have finally started moving after York Entertainment finally got in touch with Greencine and I am keeping fingers crossed that something will shape up on that front sooner than later. While still talking of the movie, 'Memories' would have screened at Bluegrass Independent Film Festival and I wonder how it fared at all. Will try and find out somehow.

On a sign off note - I just finished watching the first 3 episodes of 'Firefly' and fell in love with it. It is an amazing sci-fi series. The background is that the TV networks prematurely killed off the TV series even before it completed its first season but soon the growing popularity made them reconsider that fact and they allowed for a movie to be developed from the same series and that movie is being released this year {in NZ...don't know when}..the movie is called 'Serenity' and even though I have heard that there is a leap of some storylines between the movie and the TV series - i still can't wait to finish off the TV series soon { Got another 4 episodes on me and need to rent out the other DVD as soon as I finish with the current ones}.

Ciao later,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 5:14 PM 2 Comments

Dreams and Illusions

I dreamt a strange dream - I had an accident within the dream and when I had the accident and felt the blood flow through my fingers as i put my hand to stop it, I had a deja vu that I had dreamt of this accident before and had seen it happen as it was currently happening. Sounds confusing??? To simplify it -it was a dream within a dream. It definitely is a weird feeling. You can sense that when you have been past the whole day and still remember the dream so clearly. The rest of the dream is vague in my memory, things i can remember is houses on mountains, climbing up and down the narrow paths between the houses, travelling somewhere knowing fully well that it will be a hard ask getting there on time. Fragments of an illusion??? Or meaningful dreams? Sometimes I get this feeling that we have already seen part of our future in our dreams and the nights when I lay awake thinking are the times when I have had vivid dreams which I can't seem to remember but can sense that those dreams have somehow foreshadowed some future event in my life which would cause a similar feeling or reaction in my present state. By similar token I have dreams which are pleasent and wonderful and are reflected in my conscious state of mind during the day. The human brain is indeed a wonderful source of amazement and I wonder if we will ever fathom our own mysteries.

Watched 'House of Sand and Fog' - it was a wonderful movie. Engrossing, fluid, magically shot but not a light movie by any means. Don't expect to wake away from it feeling all cheerful. The colours and compositions in the movie were amazing. Some really powerful acting by all the cast in the movie. Recommended watch when you are in one of those contemplative moods.

Another movie which has been creating a positive buzz recently is 'A History of Violence' - David Cronenberg's latest movie. You can select which trailer to watch HERE. The trailer is nothing flash but apparently the movie is rock solid.

Term-3 at school comes to an end tomorrow but post goes on right through the holidays. Half of the Short Cuts have been edited and some of them look stunning. Rest of them are going to be edited through the holidays and post will be ready for a busy Term-4 in 2 weeks time.

I am signing off for now - in the hope that my throat will heal itself over this weekend.
Amit

{P.S - The american distributor implemented the suggestions that I made because the reasoning that I gave made sense to them. wohoo... the DVD cover looks and feels a lot better now}

posted by Amit @ 10:37 PM 0 Comments

Listless

Nothing much happening. Body still coping and recovering from the sore throat - which still feels really sore.

Lost our netball game 30-22 and it wasn't a great feeling losing that game. We got trashed in the last 2 quarters. I got to look at the full DVD cover design from the US distributor. The front cover is good but i had my reservations with the back cover and sent back suggestions - hopefully they will take them to improve the back cover.

Finished reading a 10-part mini series from Marvel comics called 'Foolkiller' and it is a fascinating read and is a fantastic series. I looked up the net to find the background on the series and it turns out that Kurt Gerhardt -the man who assumes the identity of Foolkiller, is the third foolkiller after Ross Everbest and Greg Salinger. Surprisingly, it is hard to find a copy to buy online - try it. Also finished another mini-series 'Challengers of the Unknown must Die!' and it was again a good reimagining of the superhero genre and takes it a step further. Again - a highly enjoyable experience and definitely recommended reading.

I started browsing the online edition of 'Times of India' - one of the leading newspapers in India and found it depressing. Amongst the headlines I read under Delhi {the city I lived in most of my life} were - 'Betting racket busted in Delhi, 4 held' ; ' Neighbours stone dairy owner to death' ; 'Woman stabbed to death in Delhi'; 'Power theft worth Rs 2.5 crore' ; 'Malviya Nagar gets onto street' {for lack of water supply and the authorities not listening to them} ; 'Hope dries up for Dwarka residents' {another water related problem}; 'Power trip: Hopper collapses at IP station' {after the power station was supposed to be modernized from 2004 and no action has yet been taken}; 'Cops let off thieves we caught: VK residents' ; 'Cheats obtain Rs 2-cr loan fraudulently, held' ...... and those were just some of the news items I read. All I can read is inaptitude, fear, failure and complacency - and people wonder why I am cynical about India's future.... If this is happening in a major city then think of the plight of what a common indian living in one of the smaller cities, towns, villages would be like. I keep saying it again and again that for India to succeed as a country, as a society - the mindset of the people needs to be changed. The underlying need is for change - in attitutude, in behaviour, in thinking - I don't mean to say that one should westernize or adopt a different culture but even just to function as a normal human being calls for some ground rules that shouldn't be violated. There is too much corruption, blame-shifting and bull shit going around, which effectively drowns out any good work being done by any small groups of individuals. There needs to be accountability in the society- an accountability which doesn't exist at this stage.

On the other side you have news items like 'Spiritual outsourcing' - an excerpt of which is as follows:
" Since the West probably calls the lord as often as it calls Citibank, it’s only natural that India, the haven of cheap outsourcing must have a role in connecting first world Christians to their paradise. By offering five American dollars per holy mass, Western churches have been offloading special prayer requirements to Indian churches, especially to the several in Kerala."
Go figure that one....looks like religion is no longer about faith but about saving time and lifestyle.

I think I have had a big rant - I will shut up now. I am just an observer - looking at life to see where it leads me now.

Amit

posted by Amit @ 8:30 PM 0 Comments

Redemption???

I finally got around to popping in the DVD of 'The Shawshank Redemption' and watching the movie - it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and now I can understand the disbelief of most people who stare at me when I tell them that I haven't seen that movie and going into a 10 minute drool over why I should watch the movie. Impeccable story telling and gently paced. Both Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins pull you into that world and never let go.

This weekend has been detox for me. Still have the sore throat - means can't think of eating anything - just liquid diet. It is improving though and hopefully the stretch of dodgy health problems which has been following me for the past couple of months will pass. It looks like the winters are coming to pass and autumn is coming in as it has been a couple of weeks of fantastic sunshine. Among other small things which have come to pass has been seeing the DVD front cover design by the american distributor - which is radically different from the NZ DVD design. Different markets, different strategies - I guess. Estimates say that the petrol prices might hit NZ$2/litre by Christmas and the thing is that once the prices go up they never come down (mental note - seriously explore the option of biking to work). All Blacks have won the tri-nation tournament by beating Australia in their last league match, so the nation is enjoying a good weekend instead of being in mourning.

End of short update.
Amit

P.S - Grant Morrison's run on 'Doom Patrol' rocks...I read the first TPB - 'Crawling from the Wreckage' and I was blown away by the storyline.

posted by Amit @ 3:26 PM 2 Comments

Awake

The past 2 days I have been unable to update the blog or eat dinner because I would simple crash into deep sleep as soon as I returned from school. Day before - I had a sore throat and had a mild fever and simply could not get myself to get out of bed and yesterday evening I guess it was pure exhaustion over another week of paperwork and planning. I had planned on seeing 'Crash' yesterday evening but couldn't get myself to get out of bed again.

I uploaded the photos from the Mt. Ruapehu trip and you can view them HERE.

The trailer for 'The World's Fastest Indian' has been released and I can't wait to see the movie. It looks like it is going to be a really unusual and touching movie. You can view the trailer by clicking on the photograph below.


The other movie I am looking forward to is 'Good Night, and Good Luck'. The details and trailer you can see by clicking on the poster.


I just got back from watching 'Crash' and it was a nice movie. Incredibly well acted and well written. A real look at life and does not flinch away from the issue of racial discrimination and stereotypes. It makes you look inside of yourself because no character is right or wrong - it is the situation that the society has put us in. The surprising thing was that the entire movie theatre was empty and there were only 3 other people besides me. It is a nice sunny day and NZ'ers love their outdoors - so it is not hard to put things together on why there is no audience. And the movie has only been in the theatres for a week now and the number of shows it is screening has gone down drastically. It makes me wonder if there is any use in making movies which touch reality because people are afraid to watch it. NZ as a country has always had a under-current of racism but people don't want to acknowledge it or turn a blind eye to it because it can't be happening in their country -it is too perfect for shit like that. And it certainly figures why 'Crash' isn't performing well in the theatres. Paul Haggis, the writer/director of the movie, has been roped in to script 'Casino Royale' - the next Bond movie and it should be interesting to see how that shapes up. The thing which crossed my mind while sitting in the theatre was - since the petrol prices are increasing so steeply with predictions of another 5c/litre increase next week, NZ'ers might not go outdoors that much and that could possibly mean an increase in audience attendance in the theatres, afterall people always need entertainment - but that's too wishful and too lateral thinking.

The graphic novels I just finished reading are 'Daredevil: Born Again' and 'Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown' - the Daredevil comic was rivetting and after reading it I wished that they had made a movie out of that book while the Havok/Wolverine comic had some fantastic artwork but somehow it never really took me in it's grip. Got another 3 mini series lying by the bed.

Anyway bye for now,
Amit

posted by Amit @ 8:46 AM 1 Comments