date: 11-06-2009 21:13 subject: I am in love... security: Public tags:# "canonet ql17 giii" canonet proud love p

...all over again. Straight out of the new old camera ppl...

date: 03-05-2009 22:48 subject: Proud Owner Warning security: Public tags:# canonet ql17 giii proud

Owner of a Canonet QL17 GIII, which also goes by the sobriquet "Poor man's Leica". Not that I really know a thing about Leicas and Canonets. But what the heck, I am liking it, especially the 1.7 lens!

date: 22-04-2009 23:20 subject: Long Shadows security: Public

Long Shadows, originally uploaded by maxaud.

The wife in a pensive mood. On a beach somewhere in Cornwall.

date: 03-04-2009 00:07 subject: Psychedelic security: Public

Psychedelic, originally uploaded by maxaud.

Gokarna is a psychedelic experience. I hardly held the camera for 3 days. Was way too busy with all the lazing around to be done and over with.

date: 25-03-2009 21:17 subject: Gokarna..here I come... security: Public tags:# gokarna pics pondicherry

Tomorrow to Gokarna. Its been long due...

date: 12-01-2009 23:56 subject: Hasta Siempre Commandante security: Public tags:# che, movies

Just saw Che: Part One. I mean I did manage to, in between trying to figure out how Benicio Del Toro could look so like the man. Sorry. so like The Man.

The movie is not about the glorification of The Man. Please, he doesnt need it anyway. It comes across as a simple and well narrated tale, nothing dramatic. More like a documentary. I watched in awe as Che was revived for nearly 2 hours. Should you watch it? I really dont care. Now have to get around to watching Part Two.

Its about time I finally start Reminiscences of the Cuban Revolutionary War. And I hope this gets me going. I have read (and seen)The Motorcycle Diaries, Back on the Road, Bolivian Diary and done a little hero worship thing here. There's still The Che Guevara Reader and The African Dream after that. I think this is as close as I will ever come to religious devotion to a human being again. I may not be able to agree completely to His or the Communist ideals now, but how I would love to have conviction like that. Whatever be the ideal, but with such unwavering conviction. And with ideals like that, how can you help not deifying the man? sorry. The Man.


Shit. I still cant believe the resemblance.

Note to self :- About a language you wanted to learn, Spanish sounds beautiful.

date: 21-12-2008 01:42 subject: Waltz with Bashir security: Public tags:# movies, review, waltz with bashir

Now here is a movie that will make one think. It should make one think. Of the incredible waste that wars are. And how petty things leading to it are in hindsight and from afar. We humans are such a petty, vain and touchy lot. And cruel.

I was hooked in the first 5 minutes. I love animation and this particular genre (for want of a better word) all the more. There were a couple of stories in the Animatrix which looked very similar that I liked too. Waltz with Bashir is almost a documentary. Most parts of the movie involves conversations that the protagonist (the director himself), has with real people, in trying to reconstruct his experiences during a military excursion in his youth. Experiences that he seems to have completely forgotten. All he is left with is a disturbing and recurring dream sequence which never really occurred. He slowly pieces together the events over the course of these conversations with friends and fellow soldiers who were with him in the army at the same time. Towards the end of the movie, the animation switches to real footage of events that led him to a trauma induced shut-out of those very same memories.

The movie gave me an opportunity to read up on a few things which I have been meaning to look up for a long time, but never got around to. There is still a lot to learn. As the movie ends, you are so shocked and moved by the sheer lack of reason and the levels of inhumanity displayed by us (which is an oxymoron I suppose) during a war. The switch to real footage only underlines what the director has already conveyed with a powerful narrative. A very unique and compelling film.

date: 16-12-2008 11:38 subject: Tideland security: Public tags:# movies, review, tideland

What the heck, might as well pick this. This is exactly what I thought when I took Tideland from the library. The problem was of plenty. I chose this one avoiding all the others I really wanted to pick. Seemed easier this way.

The movie started with an introduction by the director, Terry Gilliam, who speaks about the innocence and invulnerability of childhood, its unbounded imagination and how children always "bounce back". He goes on to state that there might be a few who dislike the movie and hopefully a few who love it. But if it makes one think, he is a happy man. I dont think he will ever fail in what he set out to achieve.

The movie makes one think alright. On what kind of a childhood Mr. Gilliam had. And how something this twisted could ever be made into a movie about childhood. On how a story so macabre and grotesque can be superimposed on a canvas about childhood. I have seen my share of surreal and disgusting movies. And I have liked a few, Trainspotting comes to mind immediately. But the sole objective of this movie seems to be to lead the girl child, the protagonist, from one warped situation to another; wheres the fucking story?. Retarded half-men, crazy one-eyed bitch whose likes to embalm bodies (animal and human), junkie parents who sit, die and decompose - its like he pulled stuff out of the House of Horrors at random and then threw a child in as an after thought. Making dark movies for the sake of making one, if that is all one is capable of, should be booed at. Let not such crap be paraded as art.

To be fair, the photography was spectacular. The use of natural landscapes to give a surreal feel was something I liked. Spooky camera angles and silence, as always, works. There are real human emotions and fragile relationships portrayed. Let me just leave it at that.

In the introduction, Gilliam asks the viewer to become a child again and see the movie without any prejudices. And importantly, not forget to laugh. For the life of me I couldn't find a moment worth a smile, forget laugh. You are a seriously eccentric man Mr. Gilliam. To put it mildly.

date: 20-11-2008 17:22 subject: Perspective security: Public tags:# perspective

Gives perspective this. And perspectives nice.

date: 05-11-2008 16:25 subject: Change security: Public

Heres to change.



original image from here