"The gambler is like the fisherman, both have beginner's luck."
Wow, when you put it like that...
...
....
.....
..it still makes no sense. Bah!
February 28, 2008
February 26, 2008
Ideas Wanted
Describe a meaningful cross-cultural experience you have had that highlights your awareness, understanding, and appreciation of interaction with people from diverse backgrounds in a business setting or of a product or brand that you have encountered outside your home culture. Discuss how you maneuvered or adjusted in this cross-cultural environment.
*blink*
Any suggestions?
Apparently, Dubai can be creative too.
Oops! Huh? Did I back into that bike?' Ad folks put crumbled up bikes and shopping carts
By Diego Vasquez
Feb 22, 2008
MediaLife Magazine
Think about it. What's your worst parking nightmare?
That's easy: Looking back to see you've crashed into something while backing up.
By Diego Vasquez
Feb 22, 2008
MediaLife Magazine
Think about it. What's your worst parking nightmare?
That's easy: Looking back to see you've crashed into something while backing up.
That was the thinking of some ad people at TBWA/Raad in
“When it started off, we were like, 'why don’t we look at what happens without a rearview camera?’” recalls Sakib Afridi, associate creative director at TBWA/Raad.
So the team set about placing bent and broken bikes and shopping carts behind parked cars around the city. Then they put up signs that read: “Rearview camera. Standard in the Nissan Pathfinder.”
Drivers, returning to their cars, would first think they'd smashed into them when easing into the parking spot. Then they'd go for a closer look and see the signs.
Initially, the team considered using garden gnomes, but since those aren’t very common in
“It started in the direction for a print campaign, but we thought it would be stronger as an ambient medium, and then there was kind of a light bulb moment,” Afridi says.
The campaign ran for about a two-week period at the end of 2007 at numerous locations around
“People would look at the bikes and be like, ‘What’s going on?’” says Afridi. “But then you’d always see a smile on their face when they read the sign and got it.”
February 25, 2008
February 20, 2008
A Disaster of Mughal Proportions
Jodhaa-Akbar. 
Three and half hours of my life I'll never get back.
Where do I begin? This movie was disappointing from its opening scene to the eventually desperately-awaited final credits. I had little expectations of this film to begin with, but even those were blown to pieces.
In summary, Jodhaa-Akbar was tediously slow, poorly written and directed, and badly performed.
Not to mention, the music was totally horrendous - what the hell was that Khawaja song supposed to be? If was the most un-Sufi song I've ever heard and the lyrics were terrible. Does no one know that Sufis spend less time glorifying the pirs and focus more on glorifying Allah (swt) by expressing their deep love and devotion to Him? This song was a complete joke. "Khawaja mere Khawaja, dil mein samaja"? I almost yelled out "Issay forward karo!".
Seriously, we spent half the movie laughing at the supposedly deep and serious scenes because it was all so campy. The Khawaja song in point - I've never seen such fake entranced whirling dervishes in my life. Sadly, except for Jashn-e-Bahara, the songs were painful to endure.
Anyway, back to the film. Frankly, Ashutosh Gowariker hasn't been able to deliver anything the size of Lagaan despite multiple attempts and I think he should just stop trying. He was clearly trying to make a Mughal-e-Azam style epic, but seems to have forgotten that the original took 10 years to make, was poetry personified, and had some of the finest actors of our time in it - not popcorn heroes and heroines who think they're deep and can speak Urdu because they can pronounce the Qaaf and pretend-sword-fight badly.
The film wandered aimlessly for two hours, unable to decide if it was a war movie/historical epic, or romantic love story. Gowariker eventually decided to cram 7 different and extremely slow-moving plot lines into two hours, throw in an intermission at a completely uninteresting point, and then resolve them in a rapid and confusing manner during the last 1.5 hours. The film feels like it was written by multiple people who couldn't decide the focus for the narrative. It could easily have been streamlined and made at least an hour shorter.
The battle scenes were exhausting and unnecessary. One got the sense that Gowariker wanted everything to look dramatic, imposing, heart-stopping. But you just couldn't feel the love. Maybe its all been done before, or maybe it just wasn't done well enough. The plot and characters were just not captivating enough for you to care about the outcome of the bloodshed. Because essentially everyone already knows what's going to happen (of course Akbar survives all these hamlay in his youth; we know he doesn't die until he's in his 60s), Gowariker needed to put all the more effort into crucial scenes to make us care about the character, to make us desperately want him to defeat enemies - but he failed to create any sense of empathy or any emotional connection.
The acting was also sub-par. Hrithik has talent but he just cannot connect to any director other than his dad. He's worked with Subhash Ghai, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar and Suraj Barjatya and he still doesn't hit the level of performance delivered in KNPH, Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. It's disappointing, but a truly good actor makes any film and any director work for him, and I just don't think he's that good of an actor anymore. I appreciated his effort with Urdu pronunciation (very clear Qaafs) but he just didn't bring any definition to the character. As it we are working with pre-conceived notions of Akbar as Prithviraj Kapoor here. Those are big shoes to fill. But Hrithik neither does it the PRK way, nor does he create a unique Akbar of his own that's worth remembering. He just didn't internalize the character and the resulting performance was quite unremarkable.
Aishwarya made little impression, as usual. Her style is really getting old. She looked pretty but the costumes, while stunning, failed to captivate ones heart.
Usually in films like this, the supporting cast at least makes up for lack of anything else. But even here J&A disappoints. Suhasini Mulay (Aamir's mother in Lagaan) was totally wasted, she had two lines to speak. As was Khulbushan Kharbanda. A lot of no names made up the supporting young Mughals in Akbar's family and court, but there was no one to write home about. Only two actors delivered remotely interesting performances: Ila Arun as Maham Anga, and Rajesh Vivek as Chugtai Khan. But their roles were superfluous and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, so you never really felt their impact in the overall narrative.
Overall, it was disappointing. Lagaan had set high expectations - you were hooked to the story, caught up in the lives of all the idiosyncratic characters of a small village, engrossed in an entire cricket match, and actually so involved that you didn't want it to end after 4 hours. Jodhaa-Akbar was, unfortunately, exactly the opposite ; I wanted to leave about 15 minutes into it and despite giving it a chance and suffering through the entire saga, I was bored and frustrated. A sad show for Gowariker.
Three and half hours of my life I'll never get back.Where do I begin? This movie was disappointing from its opening scene to the eventually desperately-awaited final credits. I had little expectations of this film to begin with, but even those were blown to pieces.
In summary, Jodhaa-Akbar was tediously slow, poorly written and directed, and badly performed.
Not to mention, the music was totally horrendous - what the hell was that Khawaja song supposed to be? If was the most un-Sufi song I've ever heard and the lyrics were terrible. Does no one know that Sufis spend less time glorifying the pirs and focus more on glorifying Allah (swt) by expressing their deep love and devotion to Him? This song was a complete joke. "Khawaja mere Khawaja, dil mein samaja"? I almost yelled out "Issay forward karo!".
Seriously, we spent half the movie laughing at the supposedly deep and serious scenes because it was all so campy. The Khawaja song in point - I've never seen such fake entranced whirling dervishes in my life. Sadly, except for Jashn-e-Bahara, the songs were painful to endure.
Anyway, back to the film. Frankly, Ashutosh Gowariker hasn't been able to deliver anything the size of Lagaan despite multiple attempts and I think he should just stop trying. He was clearly trying to make a Mughal-e-Azam style epic, but seems to have forgotten that the original took 10 years to make, was poetry personified, and had some of the finest actors of our time in it - not popcorn heroes and heroines who think they're deep and can speak Urdu because they can pronounce the Qaaf and pretend-sword-fight badly.
The film wandered aimlessly for two hours, unable to decide if it was a war movie/historical epic, or romantic love story. Gowariker eventually decided to cram 7 different and extremely slow-moving plot lines into two hours, throw in an intermission at a completely uninteresting point, and then resolve them in a rapid and confusing manner during the last 1.5 hours. The film feels like it was written by multiple people who couldn't decide the focus for the narrative. It could easily have been streamlined and made at least an hour shorter.
The battle scenes were exhausting and unnecessary. One got the sense that Gowariker wanted everything to look dramatic, imposing, heart-stopping. But you just couldn't feel the love. Maybe its all been done before, or maybe it just wasn't done well enough. The plot and characters were just not captivating enough for you to care about the outcome of the bloodshed. Because essentially everyone already knows what's going to happen (of course Akbar survives all these hamlay in his youth; we know he doesn't die until he's in his 60s), Gowariker needed to put all the more effort into crucial scenes to make us care about the character, to make us desperately want him to defeat enemies - but he failed to create any sense of empathy or any emotional connection.
The acting was also sub-par. Hrithik has talent but he just cannot connect to any director other than his dad. He's worked with Subhash Ghai, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar and Suraj Barjatya and he still doesn't hit the level of performance delivered in KNPH, Koi Mil Gaya and Krrish. It's disappointing, but a truly good actor makes any film and any director work for him, and I just don't think he's that good of an actor anymore. I appreciated his effort with Urdu pronunciation (very clear Qaafs) but he just didn't bring any definition to the character. As it we are working with pre-conceived notions of Akbar as Prithviraj Kapoor here. Those are big shoes to fill. But Hrithik neither does it the PRK way, nor does he create a unique Akbar of his own that's worth remembering. He just didn't internalize the character and the resulting performance was quite unremarkable.
Aishwarya made little impression, as usual. Her style is really getting old. She looked pretty but the costumes, while stunning, failed to captivate ones heart.
Usually in films like this, the supporting cast at least makes up for lack of anything else. But even here J&A disappoints. Suhasini Mulay (Aamir's mother in Lagaan) was totally wasted, she had two lines to speak. As was Khulbushan Kharbanda. A lot of no names made up the supporting young Mughals in Akbar's family and court, but there was no one to write home about. Only two actors delivered remotely interesting performances: Ila Arun as Maham Anga, and Rajesh Vivek as Chugtai Khan. But their roles were superfluous and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, so you never really felt their impact in the overall narrative.
Overall, it was disappointing. Lagaan had set high expectations - you were hooked to the story, caught up in the lives of all the idiosyncratic characters of a small village, engrossed in an entire cricket match, and actually so involved that you didn't want it to end after 4 hours. Jodhaa-Akbar was, unfortunately, exactly the opposite ; I wanted to leave about 15 minutes into it and despite giving it a chance and suffering through the entire saga, I was bored and frustrated. A sad show for Gowariker.
February 18, 2008
Happy President's Day!
I have the day off today, so I'm going to take a few minutes to write something down so that I don't forget that I actually have a blog!
So.. Happy Washington's Birthday! Actually I always thought this holiday was in memory of Lincoln's birthday - February 12th. (Why do I know this? C'mon.. anyone who's seen Bill & Ted Excellent Adventure as many times as I have knows this bit of trivia.) But apparently, its for the guy on the quarter, not the penny. Oh well, happy birthday George. [blows a party horn]
Apparently this is the biggest car shopping weekend of the year, since dealers slash prices on the previous year's models to create room for current year models. Have to admit I'm a little sick of seeing car ads on TV, in my Yahoo inbox, in the papers... but I suppose it was perfect timing for the new Knight Rider movie that was aired last night on NBC.
Aah, the much-anticipated Knight Rider movie. I was never a huge KR fan, but I loved the music and do remember enjoying the few episodes I've seen, so I was actually pretty excited. Unfortunately, the new movie - which is also a backdoor pilot - was not very enjoyable. Yes, the new KITT was HOT (although its features seem somewhat limited at this point, strange since the model is an upgrade from Two Thousand to Three Thousand) and the camera was totally making love to the car the whole time (I suppose Ford could use the publicity)... but the acting, story and direction were totally sub-par. The leading couple (the new Mike Knight and Bonnie) are apparently soap stars, which explains the hamming and complete lack of emotive skills. The villains weren't particularly villainous, and Sidney Poitier's daughter played an FBI agent so badly, you wonder if genetic theory is true. She was also, apparently, gay - as seen in a somewhat steamy scene in the beginning of the movie - but that has no relevance to the plot whatsoever and one feels quite pissed at NBC for ruining a family movie by resorting to cheap tricks to maintain a good lead-in for ratings. Anyway, lets see if it comes back for a full series... if anything, the music in the credits will be worth listening to!
Also, last week I finally took my GRE exam on Valentine's Day.. and surprised myself with a not-so bad score of 1300! Now I actually have to do the grad school application which is due at the end of the month. Ugh. I hate application essays. I've been putting them off for weeks and actually I meant to use today to finish them, but it's 4:30pm and I've done nothing. Why? Because.. umm.. I was watching Jab We Met.. umm.. again.
*sigh*
Ok, seriously, this Shahid Kapur thing is getting out of control. Its debilitating my life. If he's not showing up in my dreams, my iPod somewhat manages to make sure his songs come on over and over. If I'm not reading up on gossip about him, I'm watching old episodes of Koffee with Karan (both of which make me want to throttle Kareena). When doing none of these things, I watch Jab We Met and Vivah and rewind/forward to see my favorite scenes over and over.
What do I do? Maybe I should just go to Bombay, stalk him and get it out of my system? I don't know.. I don't think I've been this interested in a Bollywood actor since.. since.. hmm.. I don't think this compares with anyone from before**. So, yeah, basically - I need help.
Help!
*sigh*
So, on that desperate note, I'm off to be somewhat productive. [hums Mauja hi Mauja]
Later all.
**Edit: Upon further consideration, I have concluded that this Shahid mania is perhaps on par with, if not a little bit higher, than my teen obsessions with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kamaal Khan... but clearly its been a while since I've been behaved in such a juvenile fashion :P
So.. Happy Washington's Birthday! Actually I always thought this holiday was in memory of Lincoln's birthday - February 12th. (Why do I know this? C'mon.. anyone who's seen Bill & Ted Excellent Adventure as many times as I have knows this bit of trivia.) But apparently, its for the guy on the quarter, not the penny. Oh well, happy birthday George. [blows a party horn]
Apparently this is the biggest car shopping weekend of the year, since dealers slash prices on the previous year's models to create room for current year models. Have to admit I'm a little sick of seeing car ads on TV, in my Yahoo inbox, in the papers... but I suppose it was perfect timing for the new Knight Rider movie that was aired last night on NBC.
Aah, the much-anticipated Knight Rider movie. I was never a huge KR fan, but I loved the music and do remember enjoying the few episodes I've seen, so I was actually pretty excited. Unfortunately, the new movie - which is also a backdoor pilot - was not very enjoyable. Yes, the new KITT was HOT (although its features seem somewhat limited at this point, strange since the model is an upgrade from Two Thousand to Three Thousand) and the camera was totally making love to the car the whole time (I suppose Ford could use the publicity)... but the acting, story and direction were totally sub-par. The leading couple (the new Mike Knight and Bonnie) are apparently soap stars, which explains the hamming and complete lack of emotive skills. The villains weren't particularly villainous, and Sidney Poitier's daughter played an FBI agent so badly, you wonder if genetic theory is true. She was also, apparently, gay - as seen in a somewhat steamy scene in the beginning of the movie - but that has no relevance to the plot whatsoever and one feels quite pissed at NBC for ruining a family movie by resorting to cheap tricks to maintain a good lead-in for ratings. Anyway, lets see if it comes back for a full series... if anything, the music in the credits will be worth listening to!
Also, last week I finally took my GRE exam on Valentine's Day.. and surprised myself with a not-so bad score of 1300! Now I actually have to do the grad school application which is due at the end of the month. Ugh. I hate application essays. I've been putting them off for weeks and actually I meant to use today to finish them, but it's 4:30pm and I've done nothing. Why? Because.. umm.. I was watching Jab We Met.. umm.. again.
*sigh*
Ok, seriously, this Shahid Kapur thing is getting out of control. Its debilitating my life. If he's not showing up in my dreams, my iPod somewhat manages to make sure his songs come on over and over. If I'm not reading up on gossip about him, I'm watching old episodes of Koffee with Karan (both of which make me want to throttle Kareena). When doing none of these things, I watch Jab We Met and Vivah and rewind/forward to see my favorite scenes over and over.
What do I do? Maybe I should just go to Bombay, stalk him and get it out of my system? I don't know.. I don't think I've been this interested in a Bollywood actor since.. since.. hmm.. I don't think this compares with anyone from before**. So, yeah, basically - I need help.
Help!
*sigh*
So, on that desperate note, I'm off to be somewhat productive. [hums Mauja hi Mauja]
Later all.
**Edit: Upon further consideration, I have concluded that this Shahid mania is perhaps on par with, if not a little bit higher, than my teen obsessions with Leonardo DiCaprio and Kamaal Khan... but clearly its been a while since I've been behaved in such a juvenile fashion :P
February 5, 2008
Fists o' the Funnies
Who made Mike Huckabee? The three kings of late night comedy fight it out in possibly the most hilarious video I've seen in a loooong time!Gesundheit.
Achoo! to you:A poster that sneezesThen it talks to you as it spritzes you with water
By Diego Vasquez
Jan 30, 2008
Media Life Magazine
We’ve seen outdoor ads that move, we’ve seen ones that talk, and we’ve even seen ads that send messages to your cell phone as you walk by. Here's a first, an outdoor ad that sneezes on you.
It's a bus shelter ad for the Science World museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, and it looks simple enough. It's a poster featuring a white background and a large yellow circle, with Science World’s familiar blue logo and the words: “Press here and we’ll explain.”
Things get a lot more interesting when the button is pressed.One first hears the familiar “achoo” sound of a sneeze, then comes a spritz of water to the face. Then a voice says: “Did you know that a sneeze can travel 12 feet and hover for three hours? It’s true. And gross. But hey, you’ve learned something! Science World – We can explain.”
The thinking behind the campaign was to present funny or outrageous facts and do so in a unique way, says Rob Sweetman, associate creative director and art director at Vancouver’s Rethink Communications, which executed the ad.
The aim: to get people going to the museum to learn more interesting things. The process that led to the ad began with the interesting facts behind sneezes. From there, the crew at Rethink then brainstormed to come up with a clever way to convey them.
Creating the sound of the sneeze was easy, as was delivering the voice. The spray of the sneeze? The idea for it came from the sprayer devices seen at fairs or carnivals, which emit mists of water on hot summer days to help cool the crowds. Sweetman says the water in the sprayer is replaced every several days.
The ad will go back up in the spring. It first went up in the fall but was taken down as the weather turned cold. Quips Sweetman: “We didn’t want anyone freezing their faces.”
GIANT DISAPPOINTMENT
A picture is worth a thousand words eh?
After 18 straight wins, the New England Patriots crapped out the Superbowl and lost 17-14 to, of all people, the New York Giants. This was perhaps the first football game I actually got into, and Brady lost his touch. Such a wash-out.
And now we're all gonna have to say this:
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