My submission for this week's illo friday.
Technorati Tags: illustrationfriday, halloween
arts
I wanted to paint something for inparty that was happening on 28th Sept, but it was too late. This was/is meant to be a study that will finally go into a canvas. Obviously, it is not meant to be symmetrical as it appears here.
It was the first time I was using acrylics - all thanks to Mito who had generously donated her acrylics, awesome paperworks (which you saw in Juggle), and other stuff that is inspiring me to paint more!
After a long time, I managed to get some art done. I did a collage for Illustration Friday
Probably going to be yet another huge void before I post again, but there were enough Indian milestones that got passed while I was in Chennai that merit mentions in this blog.
1. India “celebrates” 60 years of Independence. Though ask not what is there to celebrate. There is something to celebrate though. The availability of BSNL's cellone signal on the mobile phone when I was on top of the hills of the Someshwara Forest (and why was I there you ask? read on). I was on my way to the airport when the taxi driver quipped on the huge line of cars ahead of us that were being checked in the name of security, “Sudandhiram Ellamal Sudhandradinam Kondadrom (without independence we are celebrating our independence day)”.
2. Chennai celebrated 150 years of existence apparently. Newspapers, delighted by yet another opportunity of filling the gaps between advertisements, gladly reprinted copy written by good writers from a century ago. Also discovered that “Madras” was called “Chennai” in tamil print at least 40 years ago - which more than justifies the change.
3. I went on my first road trip and gladly I didn’t puke or fall sick. I actually enjoyed the 3 days. I have now seen more of Karnataka than I have seen of Tamil Nadu (my Native State). I went through reams of forests (Someshwara, Mookambika, Kudremukh and a bamboo forest famous for its elephants) , sea sides (Murdeshwara, Marvante), one backwater full of ergets, several weathers (foggy, sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy, cold, hot), one historic place (Belur), several religious places, lots of villages (with sheep, goats, cows, hens). Special mention must be made of Agumbe which is the most beautiful place I have seen so far!
4. The control of Chennai’s cleanliness has passed on from Onyx - resulting in Chennai going back to its nasty smelly and disgusting looking ways. For the last 6 years I was happy to note Chennai’s rising cleanliness. But apparently the people who live in Chennai never did.
5. Today is Onam. So happy Onam everyone!
So that’s that.
Technorati Tags: karnataka, india, westernghats, forests, kudremukh, roadtrip
An advantage of being in the U.S. is watching movies as soon as they are released - and not waiting for eternity (or downloading a bad quality print). So, as soon as I was free, I made my way to the nearest theatre to watch my most anticipated movie of the year Ratatouille (yep, I am copy-pasting from google's very helpful suggestion for my contorted spellings of the movie).
Of course, there is one thing that is better than the movie - and that is the short "Lifted" that plays before the movie starts. I kinda slept through the boink-boink sheep that played before Incredibles, but "Lifted" is a whole new world. Ever know what goes on in the minds of aliens as they try to "lift" sleeping humans into their UFOs in the dead of the night? If you dont, you have to watch Lifted for a very hilarious take on it.
On a sidenote, Brad Bird is my new hero. I have read on several animation blogs how he took charge only 18 months before and significantly re-wrote the script while personally going through every animation. I loved Incredibles and I am so in love with Ratatouille.
Back to the movie. Ratatouille obviously means a french vegetable dish, but to us french illitrates the most obvious conclusion is it has got something to do with a rat. Ratatouille (the french dish) plays a very critical role in the film, while also ending up as a name of a restaurant (in the film). We get to see Remy, the rat, develop an acute sense of culinary excellence while watching Gusteau, the celebrated french chef on TV (whose claim to fame is the book "Anyone can cook"). The most excellent scenes in the movie are when Remy tries to get his brother to understand how to sense taste and what good food means. If you have cooked for a while, you would understand exactly how that feels like.
Then there is Linguini, the pimply boy who is so painfully shy and so afraid of saying "no" and always screws things up. But, the character that takes the cake is Mr. Anton Ego - the harshest food critic of all France. Peter O'Toole excels in his voice over which is completely contrasting to what you know of him. Mr. Anton Ego looks talks and writes like a vulture but at the end - is a transformed man.
There are interesting scenes where Gusteau appears as a "figment of imagination" of Remy. And Remy asks him, "Didnt you know this?" and Gusteau (voiced by Brad Garrett of Robert Barone - Everybody Loves Raymond - fame) replies "I only know what you know, after all, I am only a figment of your imagination". It is a kid's movie and this kind of intelligence is never shown in any such movie. Perhaps, it is time for children's movies to grow up!
There are hilarious moments in the movie which are not just witty dialogues but amazing physical humour. What struck me was the amazing character design that was necessary to bring all this to life. Every pose of Remy or Linguini is potent with action that voice seems almost unnecessary. It almost transported me back to the era of silent tom and jerry.
The bottom line is: Watch the movie. It makes you a child again!
Technorati Tags: ratatouille, pixar, animation
Starhub has advertised for long about its broadband 100Mbps pipe ("Feel the rush of 100 Mbps"). And given that I work extensively online on servers that are quite remote, this was like a dream come true. I was one of the earliest subscribers to this scheme.
However, since then, I have got much to regret about the service. I have had my modems replaced twice and each time I had to give up working for 2 days - wait for the service man to come and replace the modem.
Today, however, it got worse. The modem just got replaced a few hours ago, and the new modem now stopped working. Thankfully, after much firm talk over the phone with an intelligent customer service guy on Friday (before the modem got replaced), I got them to provide me with the 100 Mbps internet service on my Digital Voice modem and this was still available - so I had it moved to my workspace and connected the router from there. So everything works - except for the loss of my landline.
Of course, you can imagine i was WILD. The customer service made it worse when I called after the newly replaced modem broke down. He refused to give me a time by when it will be fixed. He kept insisting the problem was with the signal cable point and not with the modem - but the digital voice cable modem works flawlessly when connected at the same point. I suspect, the problem is AGAIN with the modem - which would make it the FOURTH modem I have got replaced in the space of 2 months.
I think it is the worst service I have got in Singapore so far. And to think I am subscribed to the maxonline "Ultimate" which is the most expensive of the lot.
Times of my life has blogged about something I thought was lost after I grew up: Giant Robot.
Even though, this series was apparently most popular in the 70s, it was aired in my dear old DD (India's only television channel till early 90s) in the late 80s - early 90s.
I remember fragments of the series mostly because I remember being scared by the robot and how threatening it looked but also enthralled by fights with godzilla and other mean creatures in Japan.
I never really bothered to find out about it and let it be a show that I once enjoyed till I saw the post on Times of My Life. And I cant imagine, for the life of me, why I was afraid of the stupid looking robot (though there is some fun in watching the idiotic actions of the robot). Nevertheless, it still captures my attention - which is why I spent the last half an hour catching glimpses of it on youtube!
More about Giant Robot on wikipedia
Technorati Tags: giant robot, nostalgia, doordarshan
It may sound weird, but this sketch actually looks better in the original than through the camera. Guess it is my shaky hands to be blamed!
Meanwhile, congrats to my mums who has won the Best Letter of the Day award from Deccan Chronicle for her letter which was published in the City Chronicle this Sunday! Keep writing mums!
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