Musings of an Idiot

CSS with Glass Candy

I am still half deaf and my ears are still ringing after the awesome outing yesterday night and it was so much fun. I went to the gig with Sara (Lance's girlfriend) and Angela (my TVNZ colleague) and we first met up for dinner at Sri Pinang - the awesome malaysian eating joint on K'Road. The food was great as always but it did take a little while longer to come out this time around. I think the reason for the delay was the 2 tables right beside ours which had american tourists and an american film crew respectively, who ordered huge amounts of food. The wait was agonizing but it was worth the wait as the food was so yummy when it finally arrived. After the scrumptious meal, we walked to King's Arms where the gig was being held. I was worried that we would miss start of the gig as we got there around 8.45PM but as it turned out we were early and the cover band wasn't due to play till 9.15PM.

I had never heard of the cover band before. They were called Glass Candy and their music was great - it was a mixture of a lot of beats, synths, vocals and more. It definitely gets your body moving. It was a double bonus to be told by the singer that it was their first gig overseas and that they had gotten their passports only 4 days prior to this gig. The place that we were standing was right next to a massive speaker and you could feel the beats move your body without any voluntary effort from your end. It was great though as it was right up near the stage and you could see what was happening on the stage. To read what they are all about you can check out this article.




By the time Glass Candy ended their play it was sweltering hot inside the pub and we had to walk out into the garden for a bit to get some fresh air. It took about half an hour for the technical crew to setup the equipment for the main gig but I was back in again within 5 minutes as the pub was filling up fast for the main gig. And when CSS came out the pub was packed to the brim. The band was missing one of their players but he joined the stage towards the end. The band blew the roof off the pub- not literally, but in the way they belted out their numbers. It had the whole dance floor shaking and moving. Angela decided to go to the back of the pub where there weren't as many people while Sara was in the front for the first couple of songs and then moved to the back of the dance floor while I stuck it out in the front.






By the end of the night, everyone was wanting more from the band and I reckon that it is always a good sign when the audience had a good time and still want more. The gig was worth it - 2 international bands playing in a nice cozy club in Auckland - what more can you ask for. And it was probably the most physical exercise I had ever done in a couple of months time. So I guess I don't mind the ringing in my ears for the next couple of days.



Thats me for now.
Amit

Labels: Music, New Zealand

posted by Amit @ 1:27 PM 0 Comments

Marvels

I cooked myself some Lahori Fish and it was really really yummy. The fish I used was Orange Roughy - which is delicious in itself and it was the perfect choice for the dish. It has been ages since I have tasted proper fish kebabs and the instant batter that I used to cook the fish was so good that my mouth is still watering thinking about the dish. Next on my 'to try' list is Tikiya Kebab. I have the batter mix packet - just have to try it out sometime this week. Yummmmmm......

I finished reading 'Marvels' and 'Kingdom Come' illustrated by Alex Ross and they were both alright. The artwork in both the books is stunning but the story on the other hand has similar themes in both the comics - even though they belong to different comic book universes. Both of them were critically acclaimed graphic novels when they were released but I don't think they hold up today as the stories didn't really tell anything unique.

I also finished watching season-9 of Seinfeld as I had never ever seen it and I still think it is one of the best TV shows ever. It is still as irrelevant and as funny as it was when it first screened. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David are comic geniuses unlike any others.

Signing off for now,
Amit

Labels: Books, Food, TV Series

posted by Amit @ 8:17 PM 0 Comments

Black Hole

Black Hole is a surprisingly depressing book all through the story with the only glimmer of hope appearing towards the end of the book. I picked up the book based on the fact that David Fincher is making it into a movie and it definitely piqued my interest. The book has stunning art work and it is all beautifully rendered in black and white. It is high school life in the 70's that heightens the sense of dread and alienation and inevitability. It is a good read but depressing nonetheless. I am currently reading 'Out Stealing Horses' and it is a lovely book. It has sucked me right into the story from page one. Let's see how it shapes out.

Finance markets all over the world seem to be in a tumble and more so in New Zealand where the NZ Dollar is fluctuating at a all time high against the US Dollar. It is a mixed blessing as it is keeping the petrol prices in check for now but at the same time hurting the exporters. What this has also meant is that anyone who owns a house through mortgage [which would be about 90% of the NZ house owners] is starting to feel the hurt because of the high interest rates offered by Banks because of Reserve Bank regulations and also rising prices of essential commodities. Now it takes about 75% of the take home pay to keep servicing the mortgage prices, which is not ideal at all plus defaulting on the mortgage would mean a mortgagee sale of the house - which is terrible. The housing market has slowed down and hopefully the house prices will go down over the next 5 years to bring some sanity to the current housing market in NZ. On the other hand it is probably a good point to invest in the stock markets - the share prices are falling and it is a risk worth taking - if you pick the right portfolio then you will reap a good profit in 5 years time. Higher risk = Higher profits or Higher losses - all a matter of timing, judgement and luck. Just realized that it was a pretty random rant from me about finance.

Time to sign off,
Amit

Labels: Books, Random

posted by Amit @ 10:54 AM 0 Comments

Drillbit

Even the dogs use the zebra crossing in Auckland. It is true. I was driving back home after catching a night screening of 'Drillbit Taylor' and I was stunned into disbelief when I saw a dog crossing an empty stretch of road using the pedestrian crossing. I mean the dog could have crossed the street anywhere it wanted - especially since it is not bound by human laws and add to it the fact that there was no traffic whatsoever, but it chose to do the right thing and use the crossing. I am not an animalist or anything but if that dog could speak, I would have put the question forward: WHY? I really want to know.

The movie itself was a fun movie - it is a typical high school bully movie but there are a lot of elements that work for it, especially the acting from all the players involved. Despite the predictable plot elements it is still fun to watch.

And a combination of today's randomness and movie stuff is that I won a double pass and a t-shirt and a water bottle for 'Run Fatboy Run' :-) I love winning freebies.

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Movies, Random

posted by Amit @ 11:25 PM 0 Comments

Music

I am super excited as I managed to get my paws on the tickets to the CSS gig happening at King's Arms next week. When I gave the ticketing company a ring this morning I found that the Wednesday tickets had sold out and Tuesday ones were selling out fast, so I am pretty happy that I managed to get the tuesday ones as that's the one I had originally planned to attend.


In other exciting news, I will be making a music video for an indie experimental band called Sora Shima. They are based in Hamilton and are doing some lovely stuff. I loved one of their tracks so much that I got talking to Jason, one of the band members and I put the idea forward about having a crack at making a music video. They agreed to let me have a go at making a video for 'Hovercraft' - a 1.15 minute track. It will be a couple of months before the music video is ready as I am trying to put some really visual impact into the 1.15 minutes. I think it will be a good one if the idea get translated successfully from page to screen. I can't wait to get cracking on this one.

That's me for now.
Amit

Labels: Music

posted by Amit @ 7:25 PM 0 Comments

Behind the Mask

Movies filmed as mocumentary don't work for most attempts because of the nature of what they are but it somehow works brilliantly for 'Behind the Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon' and the movie works well as a good slasher film as well. The lead actor is a compelling watch and really sells the idea that he is going to become the next horror legend. It is definitely a good watch if you are into horror flicks and have been disillusioned by the predictability of most horror flicks. This flick is innovative and will definitely keep you entertained.

Whats happening in terms of projects at my end? Well 'Ghost Scream' is still in script development and the next draft looks like it will take some time to take shape. I am still waiting to see the first draft of 'Trollied' - which will come in sometime within the next 2 months. And in the meantime I have started work on 'Rejected' - a script I am developing with Serena, one of my acting classmates. And I am also developing a short film script with another acting classmate but that's not something that I will be directing or taking part in production - mainly because it is a short film. I might be helping out with post production on a short film but can only confirm it when I know for sure. So a quiet but busy time - if that makes any sense.

Here is the first scene from REJECTED - please don't read if you are easily offended by foul language.




Till later,
Amit

Labels: Movies, Rejected, Script

posted by Amit @ 7:29 PM 0 Comments

Pitstop Dunedin

The strangest of things that took place on the morning of departure from Alexandra was that we traveled by the same bus driven by the same driver who drove us from Queenstown to Alexandra. So not much chance of any good photos but managed to sneak another couple of decent ones through the journey. It was an overcast day and it did rain for a bit as well but still the fact remains that Central Otago has stunning landscapes.



Driving through the small towns was weird because they were pretty small but each of them seemed to have atleast 3-4 churches. We stopped over in one of those towns for some breakfast and we talked to a Canadian couple who were travelling through New Zealand. Lance was supposed to pick a table to sit and as I finished placing my order I looked over and saw him sitting with the Canadian couple. I would have rather preferred if he had sat down with the cute girl who was sitting all on her own but it was not to be. He later explained to me that the couple had asked him to join them and that's the reason why he was sitting with them. Anyway it was interesting chatting to the couple as they were creatives as well with the husband coming to New Zealand and reconnecting with his ancestry who had originated from here 3 generations ago. It is a small world and it never ceases to amaze me how connected we all are - even when it is not really that obvious.

The rest of the bus journey was uneventful and the only minor event was being returned my sunglasses by a hot french chick. That was the day when I kept leaving my sunglasses behind everywhere - 4 times it happened and 4 times they came back to me - it just proved that we were meant to be together - my sunglasses and me. :-)



In Dunedin we stayed at Central Backpackers and it was a great place. The atmos was great and the rooms were clean and tidy and it had a homely feel to it even though it was a backpackers hostel. I would highly recommend it if you are traveling to Dunedin.

We sorted our shuttle service to the airport for the next day morning and then explored the city on foot. I loved the buildings in Dunedin - they have a very classical feel to them and you have some really cool back alleys that open into amazing looking buildings. An example of the buildings in Dunedin is the church below


After roaming about the city for a while Lance and me decided to have a couple of drinks at Craft Bar and luckily there was a live band playing in the pub and it was a great experience. I had the loudest hiccup in a while and it over rode every other sound in the pub for a moment. The bar tender was amused and offered me a shot of raspberry syrup. I was apprehensive about that cure and I just wanted some water but she asked me to trust her and strangely enough the hiccups disappeared as soon as I had that shot of Raspberry syrup. Oh and the lightly battered oysters that had come in that morning from Bluff were amazing - it was the first time I had oysters and that was one of the finest seafoods I have eaten.



After a few drinks we went back to the backpackers. I stayed back as the wind had picked up and it was freezing cold outside but Lance went for a walk to explore the city some more. After sometime in the room I decided to watch whatever was on T.V in the lounge. There was a whole bunch of people watching 'Grey's Anatomy' and I joined them. By the time Lance came back - the couple of guys who were in the room got bored and left, so it was really amusing seeing his expression when he came into the room to find that I was the only guy sitting amongst 10 girls watching T.V.

Lance bumped into a childhood schoolmate on the morning of the flight. She was having an exhibition of her photography in Dunedin. Again as I said - it is a small world really. The ride to Dunedin airport was long and it felt like the shuttle was driving us to a different town to catch the flight. I presumed that the flight was a direct flight between Dunedin and Auckland as the tickets didn't mention any stop over. But as luck would have it there was a stop over in Wellington - which annoyed Lance as he was supposed to go down to Wellington later that evening for his current camera job. If I had known earlier that it was a connecting flight then he could have just gotten off at Wellington but it was too late for that, so he grudgingly got onto the flight knowing that he would land in Wellington then fly to Auckland and then fly back to Wellington later that evening . Besides the constant jabs at me for the oversight by Lance the flight was pretty uneventful. Oh no - I almost forgot to mention the quiz about New Zealand that was playing on the flight - being competitive as we are, Lance and me started competing on that and funnily enough I won the contest even though I barely know anything about N.Z history. It annoyed Lance to no end but it was so satisfying for me. :-)


Lance's folks were kind enough to drop us off at the airport when we left Auckland and they came and picked us up when we returned back home. The first thing that hit me about Auckland was that it was pretty humid compared to the weather that I had seen in South Island. The good thing though that it was a nice sunny day, so returning home wasn't as painful. Tina - Lance's mom, cooked us an amazing lunch of fried fish that they had caught themselves a couple of days back. It was so yummy that my mouth is watering just thinking about it.



After the quick meal - it was back home for a quick shower. The shower was so refreshing after having skipped taking a shower for 2 days in a row. :-) After that it was off to my acting lessons, which ended the wonderful 5 days of time away from Auckland.


So thats the last of the blog entry in relation to the South Island trip {I will probably do a new entry with a few pics from Rachel's wedding once Lance comes back}. I will definitely take a longer trip there sometime in the future - maybe backpack my way through - who knows?

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Adventure, Dunedin, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

posted by Amit @ 8:05 PM 0 Comments

Farewell Queenstown, Hello Alexandra

The early morning starts are always a killer and I definitely was sad leaving Queenstown. Lance and me walked to the bus stop and somewhere inbetween I lost the bus tickets. They were sitting in my back pocket, so they must have fallen off when I shifted the weight of the bags around, so I ran back about 50 meters from the bus stop and sure enough they were lying on the footpath.


The bus journey was good and bad at the same time. Good because the central otago scenery was stunning and the landscapes are a marvel; bad because I couldn't take very many photographs as the bus was swaying from side to side through the entire journey. I did manage to get a couple of them.



The trip was pretty uneventful and as we got down from the bus we realized that we did not know where the backpackers was in relation to where we were. Lance asked a couple of guys but they didn't seem to know the location either and just then a lady yelled from about 10 feet away, telling us where it was. We were pretty amazed - first because the backpackers was just around the corner and second because the lady who gave us the directions had pretty amazing hearing capabilities.

Since we had about 4 hours before the wedding, Lance thought that it was a good idea to check out the church and then also check out the place where the reception was taking place as he was going to film it. On the way to the church Lance pointed to a guy sitting in a local cafe and said 'That's Frank Bunce', since I didn't know who that was I asked him 'Who is Frank Bunce?'and because the air was so quiet and the group at the cafe was sitting next to the footpath - my words would obviously have traveled through to them. Lance was shaking his head in disbelief at me that I would say such a thing like that. After we got a little distance away from the cafe he told me that Frank Bunce was a famous All Black - back in the day. I am ignorant about NZ Rugby and rugby legends, so I told Lance that it didn't really mean anything to me.

The church was easy to find and after a quick look we decided to walk to the reception area based on a street map on the public board. After walking for about 30 minutes odd it felt like we were going nowhere and the heat in Alexandra was searing. Lance was teasing me about wearing an icebreaker in such hot weather - the double catch was that if I removed my ice breaker and tied it around my shoulders he would start calling me 'preppy boy' - a term he gave to me in Queenstown when he saw me tie my ice breaker around my shoulder. So the long and short of it was that the heat was really getting to me. Then Lance had the brilliant idea to ask a couple of locals about how far the place really was and the guys told us that it was a good 6 KM walk. On hearing that we promptly started walking back to the backpackers. But as we were walking back Lance realized that the guy sitting at the cafe was not Frank but it was another All Black legend called Chuck. On hearing this I cracked up laughing as the joke was on him - that he didn't recognize the person properly and based on my initial question 'Who is Frank Bunce?', Chuck would probably be thinking a couple of choice things about Lance's recognition skills.

Alexandra is a small town and even though it is very quite I can't imagine ever being able to live there for a long time - more so because it reminded me of Rohtak - the small town where I studied my business degrees. I mean it is way more beautiful than Rohtak but the vibe was kind of similar. We didn't really explore the town that much more as it was really hot and considering that it had already been a long day and we still had the wedding and the reception to attend - taking a small nap before the wedding proved to be an excellent idea.

We got to the wedding early and the church itself was a beauty - it had a nice cozy feel to it. The wedding was nice as well and Rachel looked stunning in her bridal gown. I don't have any photographs of the actual ceremony itself but I will post some pics up once Lance comes back to Auckland from his current camera job.




After the wedding the big challenge was to get a ride to the reception and by turn of events we got a ride with Peter - the preacher who conducted the marriage ceremony and Marilyn - his wife. Peter is a really funny guy and add Scottish accent to it and it is fascinating listening to him. Anyway the reception was great and the guest had to find their way to the center of the maze and once you got there you had refreshments and stuff. Lance got some amazing stuff of people trying to get to the location. After enjoying the lovely weather, the actual reception ceremony began and I am still surprised at how short the wedding ceremonies over here usually are and how the receptions are longer affairs unlike India where both the ceremonies are pretty long drawn affairs - more so in South Indian than in North India.






The food was great, the festivities were roaring and we finished the night by catching a lift back with Peter and Marilyn back to the backpackers at almost 1.30 or 2.00 in the morning. In a way it is good that I decided to attend the wedding otherwise I would not only have missed a good occasion but would probably procrastinated for another couple of years before visiting South Island.

That's the lot for now - stay tuned for Dunedin.
Amit

Labels: Adventure, Alexandra, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel, Wedding

posted by Amit @ 6:16 AM 0 Comments

Queenstown Day - 2

I woke up on friday morning having had a nightmare about getting diabetes. This was after Tania, Andrew and Lance hassled me on thursday evening about having a sweet tooth - they discussed cases where a person went blind because of diabetes. The whole thing no doubt had a massive impact on my small mind - enough to have nightmares about it. Lance's mission was to shoot a time lapse of sunrise over the mountains and with that in mind we went to the spot from where you got a great view of the horizon. This was 7.00 in the morning and needless to say it was pretty cold. The point we picked was not sheltered by anything from any side, so we were basically freezing our balls.




The sun almost came up and I got a couple of beautiful shots but within 10 minutes the clouds came over and enveloped the horizon and the sun was hidden from view for the rest of the time that we were there.





So after almost 2 hours in the freezing wind we called it a day for shooting time lapses and went and got some hot coffee. It was so nice getting something warm going into the body but I didn't really feel alive till the point I took a nice hot shower.

After the body came back to life we went about sorting out our bus tickets for the trip to Alexandra and then onwards to Dunedin. I also decided to exorcise my 'sugar demons' and went to 'Remarkables Sweet Shop' - it is definitely a kids dream come true. Racks and racks of different kind of sweets and lollies and what not - how cool is that. Spent a good half an hour browsing through the various kinds of sweets before I bought a bag of them.



There is this pizza place called 'SLICE' in central city and you've got to try out their pizza if you are there - it was really really delicious. After the late lunch, both of us roamed about the city doing window shopping and also did some actual shopping for gifts. The thing I loved most about Queenstown was the girls - there are so many of them and all of them are beautiful, coming from different parts of the world. The eyes never got tired looking at the beauty all around. It almost makes me want to settle down in Queenstown but the only problem is that there is not much film or TV work there to make a living. Yeah 'Wolverine' is shooting there at the moment but an occasional movie once every few years can't justify the move.




















Stay tuned for more.

Labels: Adventure, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

posted by Amit @ 6:59 PM 0 Comments

Queenstown Day - 1

I have just come back from a short trip to the South Island and I just realized that all the experiences are too long to write in one big blog entry. So I have decided to divide it into each day spent, so I can also put up as many pics as possible for each of the days.

The whole point of the trip was to attend Rachel's wedding in Alexandra on saturday but as it happens the flights are costlier over the weekend and so Lance and me decided to fly out earlier to Queenstown - spend a couple of days there before going to Alexandra. We took the earliest flight out of Auckland on Thursday morning and it is always hard waking up in the early hours of the morning to catch a flight - the body doesn't like it that much.

Well the good thing was that the flight was great - perfect weather conditions and a real smooth flight. The only thing that was annoying was a girl sitting a row behind us who had the most annoying shrieky voice that one can ever hear. She just didn't stop talking through the journey and it took a lot of effort to block her voice out. Lance started solving a newspaper puzzle after the stopover at Christchurch and full credit to him that he managed to finish it before the flight landed in Queenstown.



Much has been made about the 'landing' in Queenstown - it is supposed to be really scary and turbulent as the airport is nestled in the hills and one tends to catch a lot of wind coming from the mountains but luckily for me - the landing was perfect and there was no turbulence whatsoever. Tania - Lance's sister picked us up from the airport and both her and Andrew (her husband) were kind enough to put us up at their place.

Since it was a beautiful day we didn't waste any time and hit the road straight away. Queenstown is stunning and everywhere you turn all you can see is natural beauty. It is called the adventure capital of the world for a good reason and there are so many things to do here - especially if you have some money to spend. And even if you don't have any money there are still heaps of things to do.





At one point Lance and me decided that maybe we should walk all the way to the top of Bob's peak but after a short distance we felt that it probably wasn't such a good idea and so we took the gondola to the top. On the way up we saw someone take a bungy jump and just judging by the height we were at - I would presume that it must be a terrifying jump.



The views from the top of the observation deck are stunning. You get a great view of Queenstown and it's surrounding areas. And on a stunning day like this the beauty is magnified.




After spending a good chunk of time taking in the views, the next stop was a few rounds of Luge . We had to take a lift to the starting point and as we put on our helmets I noticed a booth which said that you could buy photos of the Luge drive. I presumed that it was a pre-paid service and asked the attendants if I could pay for the photos now and it cracked them up and Lance joined in the fun and they were laughing there heads off at me because they thought I wanted to buy pics of someone else. Well the misunderstanding was cleared up once they stopped laughing and they explained that we pick our photographs after the ride and then pay for them. I wasn't embarrassed, I was pleasantly surprised that people can find so much amusement from presumptions about other people. :-)



Oh about the Luge - it is a gravity ride on a 3 wheel cart. The unique braking and steering system provides the rider full control and allows them to travel as fast or slow as they wish. It is so much fun - you get used to it on the first round and by the third round it is exhilarating when you can go through tough bends at a good speed. Lance was cheeky and he overtook me on the last go and beat me by whiskers - well actually a little bit more than that.


After the luge- we carried onto the top of Bob's peak and the views from there are even more stunning and it is also the point where the parasailers take off. It was a fascinating process to watch and the number of people who were doing it grew exponentially after we got there.












After spending half an hour at the top, we walked back and the rest of the day we explored the town. It is a small place but at the same time there are so many nooks and crannies that you do end up in some interesting shops. Also the biggest thing about Queenstown is that it has a massive tourist population and that gives the town a completely different vibe. There is manic energy and excitement in the air. After walking about for what seemed ages - we went back to Tania's place and I had a nap - which was so refreshing, considering that I had been up since 4.30AM in the morning.


The evening was again beautiful. I was taking photographs from the room I was in and I chanced upon a couple who were throwing stones into the lake and getting it to skip the maximum number of times that they could. They were having so much fun that I couldn't resist but take a few photographs and I got one that was eye catching because of various reasons. I rushed down the stairs and showed the pic to Tania, Andrew and Lance - all of them agreed that the pic was definitely something special. Lance suggested that I should talk to them and share the pic with them incase they wanted it. I thought that it was a weird suggestion as it meant walking up to complete strangers and telling them that I had taken a photograph of them without their knowledge but if they wanted it then they could have a copy of it. But I thought why not and so just walked up to them, introduced myself and showed them the pic. They loved the pic, so I gave them my card so that they could email me for the pic. It was pretty nerve wracking for sure but I felt good by the time I came back to the house.

Labels: Adventure, New Zealand, Queenstown, Travel

posted by Amit @ 12:49 PM 0 Comments

FIVE soundtrack

I am off to South Island for 5 days to attend a friend's marriage and will be back Monday - so I guess that will be a long update about the trip but till then will leave you with a link to buying soundtrack of FIVE on iTunes. Click on the button to be redirected to it:

Labels: Five, Music

posted by Amit @ 8:02 PM 0 Comments

Random come Random go

Till later,
Amit

Labels: Random

posted by Amit @ 10:51 PM 0 Comments

Astronaut Farmer

'The Astronaut Farmer' is a syrupy movie and it was an OK watch. Some of the cinematography is downright beautiful but the third act comes across as forced and hard to swallow even though on paper it probably looked right. It might have to do with the fact that the turning point was so weak and poorly executed that it made the entire 3rd act look so syrupy. Good family fare though.

I also finished reading 'The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wau' and it was crisp, funny and ultimately very sad and tragic. The book is a surprsingly quick read and it is a page turner for sure.

Here is the video link to my favorite scene from 'No Country for Old Men'. The only other piece of news is that 'Five' has been selected to screen at DeREEL Independent Film Festival to be held in April in Victoria, Australia.

Thats the lot.
Amit

Labels: Books, Five, Movies

posted by Amit @ 1:56 PM 0 Comments