Atleast one of the cads...err...I mean, singers, is exposed.

Finally got to see the Ashlee Simpson SNL performance. How cool is that (not the fact that I got to see it, but that it actually managed to happen, that too on SNL)! Its a hoot to read the lame excuses Ashlee & co. have manage to come up with. There is the standard "my backup band screwed up, played the wrong song, hit the wrong button, wiped my mouth instead of my ass etc. etc." excuse (well, the band performance was the only thing "live" in Ashlee's act, so its obvious that they must have been the ones who screwed up). And then there's the wonderfully original one given by her father Joe - "My daughter has acid reflux disease which made her voice sore, that is why she was using a tape." I'm sure he stayed up all night trying to remeber what disease she has. I wonder how her acid reflux disease will be for tonight's performance at the Radio Music Awards. Just a little bit of knowledge, sir...for your daughter's voice to become sore, she must have one in the first place. Myabe you are too tone deaf to notice, but she just plain sucks as a singer. And I didn't know that they called the "I am in so much shit, I'm gonna use my hollow imagination and my nonexistent talent to try and get out of it" dance a "hoe-down".

I feel sorry for her fans who genuinely believed in her. But thats the nature of the music industry these days. The music is as good as dead, all thats left is the machines and the images. The sooner fans realise that, the safer they'll be from being let-down.

But anyone who thinks this will end Ashlee's career is wrong. She (I mean her music label) will find some way to spin this off and get back to what they're so good at - cheating the fans.

Bride and Prejudice...

...is one of the worst movies I have seen this year...no, its one of the worst movies ever. And coming as it is from the woman who gave us the highly enjoyable Bend it like Beckham, it is very very disappointing, even more so because BILB had a pittance for a budget compared to what went into this one. It just proves that the more money you have to make a movie, the more idiotic the ways you'll find to spend it. Quite a few critics have criticised Aishwarya Rai's acting and even though I haven't seen Ms. Rai do anything special with her histrionics so far, it really is not proper to take her apart for this disaster. The lousiness of the script is just too much for any actress to make anything of (ok yes, an exceptional actress may have been able to bring some substance and depth to the role, but really, does it make sense to compare Ms. Rai to exceptional actresses, knowing that present day Bollywood doesn't have any?). The movie doesn't invoke any emotion, other than boredom (does that qualify as an emotion?). It is a half-hearted, asinine take on a wonderful novel and manages to completely destroy its beauty. The humour is puerile (their idea of intelligent parody is the snake dance???) and the dialogues, amateurish. The storyline is weak and devoid of anything even remotely interesting. And someone please explain to me the obsession with the "mother worrying that daughters won't get married" storyline? People of the west, wake up! India has changed and is changing rapidly as we speak. We also have other things we worry about. And we also have things other than snake dances (did Ms. Chadha actually think that was funny?) that we enjoy. Its the same with Indian novels written in English. To be appreciated in the west (and hence in India, since most Indian critics, being seeped in pretentiousness, seem to think that only the English novels appreciated in the west are worth appreciating), you need to deal with atleast one (preferable more) of "caste", "poverty", "child marriage", etc. etc. While I agree that these are interesting and potent subjects, need everyone write only on these to gain appreciation? In the same way, need every filmmaker who wants to bring Bollywood to the west deal with the same recycled junk?

This movie is pure, unadulterated trash, and not the trash you can enjoy (which is what Mithun movies are), this is unbearably stinking trash. I am glad its not doing as well commerically as the producers had hoped, else the coming year would have seen a slew of such filth.

Ok, so its not...

So, Vaastu Shastra is not a copy of The Shining as I had wondered, and its not a copy of anything, supposedly...that makes it even more interesting.

Why?

Veerappan's daughter to be thrown out of school - The Times of India

Cool...literally...

Forget the fridge, wait for vaccine in sugarbox

So finally...

Veerappan is dead.

After more than three decades on the run, his end finally comes. Most definitely done in by one of the many politicians he's helped get super-rich, who became scared that Veerappan would surrender and squeal.

Is Vaastu Shastra...

...inspired by The Shining? That would be pretty interesting, although I would be very skeptical about its success...

Pretty impossible to believe...

Bill O' Reilly claiming that he is still a swing (undecided) voter...hah!

They finally got around to it...

The remake of "Assault on Precinct 13" is happening on January 21. And I hope they do a good job, cause its one of my favourite movies and I would hate to see them ruin a classic via a remake.

Something good on news TV...

In today's mumbled-jumbled world of politicised "news", Jon Stewart and The Daily Show do a fine job of getting the facts straight and not letting politicians get away with their BS...and what makes the show extra special is that they do it in a smart, entertaining way...

P.S.: Get his new book (link in the right frame)...its silly, and yet, brilliant...

Stanford prof. elucidating the philosophy I'm trying to follow...

Structured Procrastination

SpaceShipOne Captures The Prize

CNN.com - SpaceShipOne captures X Prize - Oct 4, 2004

And so it began...