Truth or Happiness

Have you seen what they're selling at amazon.com? This. Which is not such a bad thing. (However, you may want to look at the "Frequently Bought Together" section on the page). What's odd is how people are using it. Read those odd reviews of the product here. I honestly don't know if I should laugh it off, or be surprised, amazed or nauseated. As if that's not enough, there are a whole bunch of weird stuff for sale from deer rears, to Borat costumes, to chicken poop lip-balms, to Hilary nutcrackers. And others I don't even want to mention. Can this world get any weirder? Did such things happen in the old times 50-80 years ago? Or are we just more aware of these things because of the internet?

On a serious note, have you seen these war-zone photos by Joao Silva? Dr. Lightman was right. "Truth or happiness, never both".

Maestro

There are movies I like for their intriguing stories, there are movies I like for the actors in them, there are movies I like for their sheer entertainment factor, there are movies I like for their profoundness and the inspiration they provide. And then, there are a special category of movies I like only for their background score. And one such movie is The Holiday.

I'm a tad bit too late in watching the movie (it was released in 2006), but there's nothing that kept me riveted to the movie than the amazing background score -- perfectly in tune with the mood of the movie -- easy, breezy, feel-good, on-top-of-the-world, want-to-fall-in-love type of music. Simply amazing. (Sigh. If I were a little better with words, I could've made it sound so so much better).

I have the greatest admiration for people who have the gift of music, be it composing, playing an instrument or singing. I consider them the luckiest people in the world. To create such soul-touching music, or to transport people into another world by their voice, I believe, he/she must be just as great at heart, don't you think? I wish I were good at at least one of these things.

It isn't the first time I liked the background score of a movie. I've liked the background scores of Pirates Of The Caribbean, Madagascar, and more recently Despicable Me, but none of them as much as The Holiday. The music in The Holiday was so good it compelled me to know who composed such mesmerizing music. Found out it was Hans Zimmer, who not only composed music for The Holiday, but also for Pirates Of The Caribbean, Madagascar and Despicable Me! Unbelievable or what.

Hans Zimmer. You rock!

Of course, everybody knows he composed that universally popular Mission Impossible tune, but did you know he also composed music for The Lion King, Shark Tale, Batman Begins, The Da Vinci Code, The Simpsons Movie, The Dark Knight, Kung Fu Panda, Angels and Demons and Inception? I didn't. This man is a genius (I mean, really. He is ranked #72 on the list of the "Top 100 Living Geniuses" published by The Daily Telegraph)

Speaking of music composers, I also like John Powell (the movie Happy Feet introduced me to him) and "The" John Williams (ever since Harry Potter happened), but Hans Zimmer is hands-down my favourite. Better than A.R.Rahman? Hell yeah. (A.R.Rahman is still my Indian favourite though. Don't know if we'll have another Rahman in the country. Ever.)

P.S. Did you know Hans Zimmer is composing music for Ra.One?

P.P.S. "Maestro" is the name of that amazing soundtrack from The Holiday, that is the cause for this post.

So You Think You Can Draw?

Yes, said my DVD writer. My laptop has the LightScribe thingy. I've been waiting to try it ever since I got this new HP laptop two months ago. Today, I went to the mall, bought two LightScribe DVDs (cost me Rs.60 each), came home, burnt a DVD, turned it around and commanded my DVD writer to draw. It drew. This --

There, that's me on the right. A bunch of my friends and I had gone to an amusement park in Mangalore. We were immensely amused.

It took the writer exactly 26 minutes to print the picture, during which I watched an episode and a half of Friends. I wasn't sure how the print would look on a DVD, considering it was black and white, but gosh the DVD looks great. Takes labelling to a whole new level. I no longer have to label my DVDs like this --

As cool as the LightScribe DVD looks, it still is quite expensive. So I think I'll be using these only on occasions. Now that I've decided to use these for special occasions, I know just what to do with the second DVD. Where are thee, oh third week of November?