Alliance or Strategy?

I never get royal weddings, the ones between empires and kingdoms.
It's always for the greater good that some poor unfortunate prince or princess gets married off to some unknown partner in an even more obscure corner of the world to strengthen ties between countries.
Bridges do that as well.
So how fair is it to let them go through with the wedding?
And, No, I'm not watching re-runs of Mulan 2.
It's just that it is such a fragile bond that hopes to bring greater prosperity to the two nations.
What if the marriage was to fail and end in divorce; what kind of repercussions would it trigger? A war, perhaps?

This is an odd, ancient topic to post about. But it did spark my curiosity while reading the announcement of our country's Shaikh Nasser's wedding to the daughter of the President of Dubai in UAE.

The old and powerful empires of the Orient and even many kingdoms and reigns around the globe, especially the British, have followed this tradition for centuries to the dismay of the unhappy silver-spoon-bestowed, royally bred child.

Ethics and scepticism aside, I do congratulate His Highness Shaikh Nasser on his 'joyous alliance and union' and wish him a bright future.
And heck, whoever he marries is très lucky- their kid is going to look amazingly gorgeous with a dad like that!

Sweet 16

It's OFFICIAL!
I'm SIXTEEN!
That means I'm legally allowed to drive in the USA!
Well, I'm not in the USA...
But who cares?

I've woken up to a breakfast of blueberry waffles and a brand new Chanel watch!
I've just tickled my second favourite dog in the world.
I'm going to watch a rented 17 Again DVD.
I had a chocolate pizza for lunch with marshmallow, strawberry and pistachio toppings.
I'm going right out now to play tug-of-war with my favourite dog in the world, Sirius.
And I get a Baskin Robbins' ice cream cake, to top it up!

So it's a sweet sixteen in more ways than one!

So with a new year comes new promises and I promise that year 16 will be Epic or I hope I will make it so.
I'm going to write better than before, with commitment spilling out of my ears.
I'm going to work harder at my grades and work towards a propitious future and an amazing University application.
I'm going to give Sirius more time, care and love because he deserves every bit of it.
I'm going to write better columns, devastatingly interesting, hard-hitting and absorbing.
I'm going to take bigger, brighter, intense pictures. My Photography is going to be polished.
I'm just going to seize life by the collar and enjoy the zest of being alive and a teenager. I'll give it all I got, getting better at my passions and hobbies.

There are so many promises to keep, deadlines to meet and goals to score.
It's a new year, a new beginning, a new age!
I'm Sixteen going on Glory.

Popcorn Potential

The summer, with all its glorious listless days of pure unadulterated leisure time, is just the perfect time to lay back, armed with remote and flip on a rented DVD for your viewing pleasure.

So this summer, I managed to get through a couple of flicks, some grainy antiques that seem to have drifted in from the 1970s and some techno-crazed, action-packed thrillers, plastered with animatronics and computer generated graphics movies of 2009.

So here's a random selection of a few movies that I rate and slate and some of which, I contemplate and wonder why I ever sat down in the first place.

Drumline

A fish-out-of-water comedy, a rather old one which I have managed to see a part of long back. This time round I sat through the entire movie. And how did it go? Awesome.
For those unfamiliar with the term 'drumline' it refers to the drummers in a marching band, and in this movie belong to a college marching band.
It's the classic rivalry between colleges and the fight for pride, victory, triumph and greatness.
So here's where it all starts. Our hero is accepted in college because of his prowess of smacking the drum. He's brilliant, one of the best and he's out to prove it.
But it's a band, a band where everyone is equal and the voice is one.
So it's the story of the drummer who could, fighting his way to glory, learning along the way the rise and fall of greatness, friendship, love and leadership and most of all, being a part of a team, a greater voice.
The choreography in the movie is amazing, with mind-blowing synchronization, precision and formations. The music was terrific and the final 'band-off' was unbelievable- a must see.

Popcorn Potential: 4 popcorns



The Proposal

Ahh. Romantic Comedy. Rom-Com. The tricky thing with these so called 'rom-com's is the fact that is one goes off the balance the other ends in tragedy.
A moment's deviation. A quote comes to mind. "It's a romantic comedy. That's ironic." How true.
So back to the review.
Sandra Bullock gets back to the big screen acting in one of many 'rom-com's she's done till date. Miss Congeniality being a star in her crown. She managed to pull that one off. But did she manage it with The Proposal?
No.
The story is however interesting but it falls apart past 30 minutes. It's a fantastic plot having a boss you hate, ready to be deported due to a visa difficulty, pulling on every last string and then ingeniously decides to declare spontaneously that she'll be marrying you. So that's that, no questions, Shut up, marry me, to hell with you, I keep my job, I get my visa, then we get divorced.
So it looks promising in the beginning with that ironic, devious twist. But don't be deceived.
In order for her nefarious scheme to work, she has to jet to Alaska to meet her potential husband's(Reynolds) family.
The whole thing is a hoax. The family is overjoyed on hearing of the union, oblivious to the real plan.
They hate each other. They're going to marry. Each other.
You'd think of great scenes at this point, funny, laugh-out-loud moments of kicking and screaming. But they never come. It gets as funny as Sandra Bullock falling off a boat into the water without knowing how to swim. Not promising.
The plot is tearing at the seams and is transparent and cliche. It's obvious to the viewer what's going to happen and how it's all going to end.
This comedy is a farce with poor acting from Bullock and sloppy lines.
The only thing crunchy in this movie was my popcorn.
So before you even get the movie, The Proposal, you're given the chance of openly declaring your vow. Please say, "I Don't".

Popcorn Potential: 1 popcorn (Reynolds makes up for the movie a bit in the looks dept.) Stay at home. Read a book.



The Hangover

One of 2009's box office hits, enjoying the top spot for about 2 weeks.
Many critics believed that the key to the success of this movie was the fact that it introduces 3 relatively new actors to the stage. I agree. It makes the movie believable and fresh and adds to the clueless factor that keeps this movie hysterical.
Yes, it is hysterical. It's an odd fusion of humour. With bizarre explosions and weird bursts of events.
The story focuses on 4 guys, one of them the groom-soon-to-be and they're heading to Vegas for the inevitable bachelor's party.
They get wasted over the night and get up in the morning, blurry and bewildered.
What the hell happened to them last night? That's the big question. That's what they can't remember.
Furthermore, the groom is missing- PANIC!
So it's a race against time to find him, by tracing back over the night's disjointed events and talking to people they seemingly knew when they were drunk.
It takes them on a wild ride, roping in a Chinese guy who they owe 80 grand, Mike Tyson's tiger, a Las Vegas divorce, a baby and a cop car.
Take a ride with the hilarious trio as they scour Las Vegas for their buddy before his wedding and soak in the soft side of the story as they help put each other's lives in place.

Popcorn Potential: 4.5 popcorns


That's it for now. Watch out for more movie reviews. Lights, Camera, ORLANDO BLOOM!(sorry! Couldn't help myself)

New York, New York

The Big Apple glistens with a shine of its own.
What makes it tick?
Here's a list of "Why I ♥ NY":

1. The taxis. The brilliant eye-catching yellow with black checks taxi with the illuminated glowing sign, complete with an advertisement plastered on its side.
2. The Bling-bling baby. Fashionistas catwalk the pavements.
3. Starbucks. The good ol' cuppa that winds up New York every morning.
4. Bikes out and about.
5. Central Park
6. The green that dots the sidewalks and freshens the lanes. Foliage! Trees, trees and look, another tree!
7. The "I ♥ NY" T-Shirts. Classic. You've gotta love 'em.
8. Times Square and the countless luminous neon lights and billboards!
9. Broadway!!!
10. The view of the New York skyline from Liberty Island
11. The block appartments and condos and the brownstone and bricks they're made of, giving them a distinguished antique, classic look.
12. Fire Escapes!
13. The Skyline of Skyscrapers against the sunset and just after the sun has set, when the sky is painted a glorious fusion of purple, blue and black.
14. Its stores and haute couture!
15. The graffiti- in the tunnels, on the walls, on dumpsters, on pavements!!! I adore them.
16. The New York Yankee hats
17. The pedestrian crossings and the little white man running on the warning signal.
18. The city is just bursting with colour!
19. NYU!
20. The nice people and street/subway artists!

Why the World Wide Web should actually be worldwide...

Have you ever had that adrenaline rush, that incredible 'ting' of a light bulb when a beyond brillant, awesome idea kicks you in the face and leaves you too stunned for speech?
Well, something like that.
Or just have an idea that you really want to blog down.
And you're just thrilled to finally do away with the that infuriating wooden chunk of a writers' block clogging your creative juices?
Then how annoying is it to find that the only time you feel imaginative and in a mood for a quiet isolation time, sitting at a French cafe, sipping iced mocha and scribbling away on a parchment, that you can't find a computer to sit at and type in a post for your blog?
You got it. Argh.
On holiday, there's the discovery of brand new sights and sounds, aroma and ambience, landscapes and legends. A whole world lies before you ready for digging into and exploring.
It's like being in a parallel universe, a dimension you've heard of in the glossy pages of a magazine you once read on the bus before tossing it on the adjacent vacant seat.
So here I sit, so many ideas on pogo sticks in my head when the internet connection can snap off any moment.
So while it lasts and while I get to stay in a place with 'Web' access for more than a day, I'll blog out my ideas and then maybe, just maybe I can fall asleep at night without wildly waking up at midnight from a dream about catfish and frozen hair.
Yeah... I'll tell you about it if the Internet lasts.
Peace out.