The last working day of the year

Time just flies by and we'll be old before we know it. Feels like yesterday when I twisted my ankle at the last new year's eve. 2006 could have been better, but then it could have been worse. Hopefully, I'll have an uneventful new year's eve this time around, and a great year head. Happy New Year, folks! Here's to great times ahead!

Gael Garcia Bernal

After seeing The Motorcycle Diaries, I've been reading up about this really amazing Mexican actor - his choice of films is just amazing (a word that pops up often when Bernal is mentioned) - Amores Perros, Y tu mamá también, El crimen del Padre Amaro, and more recently, The Science of Sleep and The King.

What is really commendable is that Bernal has established himself as an interesting actor without having done any Hollywood movies (Babel is the only big budget Hollywood movie he's done so far). I remember the first ever movie that I saw of Johnny Depp (Ed Wood) and itching to see more. Bernal is far more subtle an actor than Depp, and I think its going to be a pleasure watching him. Can't wait.

Oh No!

Bono is to be knighted. How dumb!

Filmy weekend

Watched a lot of movies over the weekend - Happy Feet, Star Wars Episode II, How the Grinch stole Christmas, etc. But the one thing that hit me was The Motorcycle Diaries.

Based on the road trip undertaken by Ernesto "Che" Guevara and his friend Alberto Granada across the South American continent, the movie is one of the best I've seen recently.

In 1952, Ernesto "Fuser" Guevara and his friend Alberto, start from Buenos Aires on a rusty old motorcycle (The Mighty One, which is anything but) to spend time working at a leper colony in the Peruvian Amazon, and reach Venezuela in time for Alberto's 30th birthday. They miss that deadline but the trip takes them across the Andes, Chile, the Atacama Desert and into the Amazon. Short of cash and often hungry, the friends devise ingenious methods to stay afloat, including getting a paper to publish an article on their ambitious trip.

It is not all fun and games, however, as Ernesto begins to emerge from the safe, warm cocoon that was his life in Buenos Aires. The human suffering he sees, across various parts of South America slowly seeps into him, sowing the seeds for the revolutionary that he would become later in life. By the time Ernesto and Alberto reach Venezuela, you can actually see how much the young man has changed.

Walter Salles, the director, has done a wonderful job in this film. This could have easily descended into a leftist, political movie, but Salles gives us a deeply personal account of what amounted to a life changing event in Che's life. The mining couple (Ernesto gives them the precious American dollars that his girlfriend gave him to buy her a bathing suit), the Native Indian woman who remembers a better life, the visit to Machu Picchu, the leper colony separated from the healthy by the mighty Amazon - one can understand that effect it must have had on a sensitive and intelligent 23 year old. (How I wish I had been that 23-year old!). Some might argue that Che has been idealized in this movie, but then Hollywood has idealized men far less worthy and Che's communist leanings don't change the fact that he was a great revolutionary.

This is my first Gael Garcia Bernal movie and the guy is just amazing! I finally understand why people rave about him so. Bernal is the actor who seems like a average looking guy in a few pictures and in some makes you wonder why he is so lusted after. But once he is on screen you understand why - he transforms into something else, he has amazing screen presence and is so endearing as the shy, sensitive young man who doesn't know the Mambo from the Tango. Must see more of this guy's movies!

Verdict: Apocalypse Now and American Beauty left indelible impressions on me. I was in my teens when I watched the first and 21 when I watched the second, more impressionable ages to be sure. But The Motorcycle Diaries made me sad - sad for having to grow up, for being caught up in everyday life, for not believing in pretty much anything. Che was a lucky guy. Loved the movie, a must see for anyone who has ever itched to get away from it all. A fitting description of my reaction to the movie would be Jack Kerouac's words from On the Road:

I shambled after as I've been doing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!"

Holiday grumble

Just started getting into the holiday groove when the stinker arrived. Ah, life! I need some cheer, seriously! Motorcycle Drive By playing on my earphones. God bless Third Eye Blind.

In other news, the last (hopefully) Harry Potter book will be named "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows"

I've probably posted this before, but...

We're perched headlong on the edge of boredom
We're reaching for death at the end of a candle
We're trying for something that's already found us

Wow, I'm sick of doubt
Live in the light of certain south
Cruel bindings
The servants have the power
Dog-men & their mean women
Pulling poor blankets over our sailors

I'm sick of dour faces
Staring at me from the T.V. Tower,
I want roses in my garden bower; dig?

Royal babies, rubies must now replace
Aborted Strangers in the mud
- Jim Morrison.

Dragon's virgin birth

Komodo dragons have exhibited parthenogenesis! For the uninitiated, that how the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park were able to reproduce, even though there were only females on the island. Its amazing how some reptilian species adapt to adverse environments. Yet another reason why we should respect them. Must plan that South East trip to see some dragons soon.

I am macaca

S.R. Sidarth - Salon Person of the Year

"The Virginia native and son of Indian immigrants changed history with a camcorder and introduced Sen. George Allen to the real America."

Youtube's been blocked. No more video posts, till I find a way around.

Aside

Hmmm

Wanted to post some Led Zeppelin, but the video quality is really poor. And the audio is even worse. Here's some Goo Goo Dolls instead - a big favourite when I was at college. Not to mention the crush I had on John Rzeznik, what a voice! This one is called Broadway.

Weekend Movies

Watched The Doors last night. The last time I watched it, I was in school or early college and was totally fascinated by The Doors (Morrison and the music). This time around, the music brought tears to my eyes, but I kept thinking how Morrison could write such beautiful words and still have been such a p#&@k. Well, I still love the guy, so I'll blame Val Kilmer for it :).

Finally managed to watch Casino Royale. The movie has several firsts for a Bond film:

• Bond can fight and looks like he can take out a dozen guys by himself.
• Bond is intense and brooding, and really,really HOT.
  
• No Q - but that doesn't mean that there are no gadgets, its just that they are more believable (remember Brosnan and the amazing weight lifting watch?).
• A well defined character for the female lead.
  
• The recipe for Bond's vodkatini and the reason why its shaken, not stirred.
• Multiple shots of Bond's buff body in powder blue swimming trunks - Bond is the babe in this one. Take a look:

Verdict: Not bad. I mean the movie ;)

I am Time Person of the Year, and so are You

Heart shaped box

One of my favourites. Cobain looks so insane in it. Not to mention the Christ imagery.

Smells like Teen Spirit

The song that turned Nirvana into something they probably didn't want to be.

Lithium

Some Nirvana this week. A song that's close to my heart.