gone fishin'...

well i'm off to Lake Huron for a 'research cruise' for my job at USGS...should be a nice change from my lab job of counting/measuring/digitally analyzing fish eggs. yeah, this is why i can keep up with emails almost to the minute on some days. anyway, we're supposed to get a lot of fishes, some of which i have not previously seen in the wild, which should be cool. it will be my first field mission on one of the Great Lakes, as all my previous research at Michigan has been in river systems (primarily) and wetland systems.

as usual, i have plenty of stuff to talk about, but virtually no time to do so. this past week has involved a couple bollywood parties at The Tank, the previous week's 'carnivore cook-out' (courtesy of the omaha steaks i got as a groomsman gift for Cryder's wedding), and a couple movie reviews and social outings. yeah, may as well leave it to future bullets and pictures, because the month of august is already filling up. oh, and it's set...the family is taking a weekend vacation (that means all of us together) to chicago in mid-august. yeah, that will be nuts. and our new york conference in september is shaping up to be a potentially epic adventure (damon/james/myself already signed up for the 5k...so i better get a little bit of running in at some point).

alright, that's all for now; i promise the next entry will be more substantial (therefore more of the usual asinine commentary, pics, randomness). peace out kids <:><

music:

"Take a Picture" - Filter

"Chanda Chamke" - Fanaa soundtrack

random pic:


bollywood party at The Tank (second that week) we watched 'dil chahta hai'...which was definitely different from 'dhoom' (the previous party's film selection). commentry to follow in an upcoming quotes entry. rakhi and priya were back in town for a few days to move out of their apartment, and we crammed as much craziness as possible into a relatively brief time. good times.

Flashback...

well i just wrapped on getting all the photos/slides organized for our (me and double D) presentation tomorrow on our recent trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. while working on formatting and editing the pics, i decided to supplement them with some from a trip i took 2 years ago with liza to the windy city (also visiting Shedd). i had to bust out the old desktop, re-network the computers, and some more entertaining crap, but voila, additional pics of fishes that have since grown, died, or been shipped out. should make things interesting. along with this i found a ton of older pics since downgrading the old desktop to more or less a storage dump for old files. i'll have to go through more of this stuff when i get time, rest assured there are some entertaining pics of some familiar cast & characters from 'the fish guy'.

here's an interesting shot from the field museum of natural history in chi-town (2004) :

they had an entire room set aside for a photographic exhibit of various moths. well, I thought it was pretty cool. so which one is my favorite...?

ok well the bollywood movie get-together at The Tank was a success, and there are some entertaining comments from that, as well as what should continue into tomorrow's casey's outing (arguably the best hamburgers in town) and whatever else follows our presentation/meeting. for now, good night & good luck kids <:><

music:

"Polyamorous" - Breaking Benjamin

"Breakfast at Tiffany's" - Deep Blue Something

Bollywood Night returns to The Tank...

first off, i just want to say that i'm disappointed with India in the miss universe pageant tonight. come on!!! i won't get too far into details (that and i wasn't paying that much attention to it), but rest assured sarah and i had a decent discussion about this over the phone during the event, and double, james and i also discussed this, amongst other countries...including how dumb miss USA was when she would answer questions. ah well, at least lara dutta won for the subcontinent not so long ago.

anyway, from the title of this entry you may be saying "well fish guy, according to your posts for the past couple months, hasn't EVERY night been bollywood night at The Tank????" you would be justified in asking this question, but i'm not necessarily referring to just MY bollywood movie viewing. this is somewhat a case of the master & the learner have the roles somewhat reversed...a la vader vs obi-wan in star wars (love to use that reference for some reason). anyway, my archnemesis Rakhi has returned to A2(maybe that should be former archnemesis, i like to think we all get along decently now), and a bollywood movie get together has once again been organized. as evidenced by the phone convo today there will probably be an extended conversation discussing recently viewed hindi movies since i was but a learner when 'she left me at the indian store' in early may (rakhi said that in and of itself sounds like a cheesy bollywood movie title), but have now seen quite a few movies and own quite a few as well.

either way, i am looking forward to it. as i have said before, it started last fall over a debate whether bride & prejudice was really a true indian movie (apparently it's not, and i guess i have come to agree with that) and the subsequent introduction to 'hum tum', followed by 'kal ho naa ho' and 'main hoon na' (the latter of which is probably my overall favorite hindi movie to this point). it was all downhill from there, and as i moved into discussion of these movies with other friends things snowballed and resulted in the monster here today.

anyway, i gotta get to bed. should be a lot of fun as we're planning on getting a movie that i haven't seen before, but quite possibly that no one else in the group will have seen before either. all i have to do is make it through work, and hope my car doesn't catch on fire...but that last part is another story...as is the fact that i actually 'cooked' indian food for the first time in my life tonight. which is why i'm STUFFED right now (yes, surprisingly it was edible). that's all for now kids, good night & good luck <:><

music:

"Sending Postcards from a Plane Crash" - Fall Out Boy

"Ladki Kyon" - Hum Tum soundtrack

hibernation sickness...

so do you remember in return of the jedi when han solo was unfrozen from the carbonite and he was disoriented and blind for a brief period of time? well you should.

this morning i woke up and just could NOT get out of bed. yes, i know we all have similar problems in the morning (at least i hope you do...morning people are NOT my friends), but today was different for some reason. i suspected i may be getting sick, but this was seemingly unlikely since fatigue was my only problem at this point. fatigue from what? who knows, but my guess was the whirlwind 4-day tour de force in chicago that i had not yet fully recovered from. time travel may also be involved since i made it back from crestwood, IL to A2 in 3:15...regardless of what double D may tell you.
anyway, my policy over the past year has been to not risk it with even potentially getting sick, and it's paid off quite a bit (i wasn't sick for the entire school year and then some), so i called in to work and went back to bed....until 2:30pm.

shot of the chicago skyline/lake michigan from shedd aquarium. i've grown quite fond of this city-

yeah, i don't know what my problem was, but by the time i woke up the new issue was hunger. my last meal consisted of some grilled italian sausage & (believe it or not) vegetables at double's place (thanks to double & gwen for the great meal!). this event was a little over 19 hours earlier. as one of the hungriest people on the planet and cursed with the metabolism of a hummingbird (that means it's fast, for those of you who aren't ornithologists), you'd think i'd be dead putting myself in this situation. i don't know why, but it happens quite frequently, and i have a diverse list of people who get on my case about it. i look forward to the day when i can eat my favorite foods from time to time, but just eat some sort of food pills when i'm in trouble. james has even offered me glucose tablets before...i told him to keep them since he definitely needs them more than i do.

group shot at the club 'leg room' on rush street in chicago. great place, and it was open until 5am!!! talk about venues on my kind of sleep schedule...that being said, we left around 3am since we were all set by then-

it was julia's friend neha (who i had met earlier this school year) who suggested going to leg room...definitely a good choice...note the FISH TANK in the background :)

anyway, food was now the priority. i'd also like to thank my boss for being understanding about the whole thing, especially since this whole project won't move forward without me working on it...then again, i'm the only one working on the project.
i got ready and headed out to pancheros, but as i approached the university, i realized this was a BIG mistake...for one of the most popular (to outsiders) and abhorred (to natives & students) events in ann arbor had just begun that day...THE ART FAIR. streets are blocked off everywhere, clueless pedstrians wander all the streets, overpriced garbage is on display at every corner (seriously, i can create better stuff than a lot of these people...then again, i was really good at art. thanks to the rents for cutting that off and sticking me in computer classes in jr. high...but that's another story). it was too late to turn back, and i was already being pulled in by the flow of traffic (and hunger-pangs) like the falcon in the tractor beam.

shot of 'the bean' sculpture in grant park...this thing was amazing; reminded me of a rounded version of the spaceship in 'flight of the navigator'. i am also a fan of the prudential building (on the left).

not only that parking is ridiculously expensive and nearly impossible to find! i drove down the street next to my usual parking structure and what do i see? a sign in front of the gates saying "parking $10"!!! not the usual $.80 per hour i'm used to forking over. not only that, all the meters were capped off with those annoying orange 'no parking, tow away zone' hoods which they seemingly place arbitrarily throughout the city to generate further parking/parking ticket revenue.

upon returning to the hotel from the night on rush street, gwen decided she wanted to play the piano in the main lobby. i tried to play my infamous rendition of 'the marine's hymn' but was somewhat incapable of hitting all the notes. dangit.

as i drove down the street past the students holding up $5 parking signs (they do make quite the killing off the art fair folks by letting them park on their lawns), i prepared myself mentally for the highly likely scenario which would have me walking a couple miles onto campus in the 96 degree weather (i can't tolerate sunlight for long...see vampire references throughout this blog, as well as 'stenothermic at 70-75F') just to get my burrito and get out. i was in too deep and far too hungry to turn back.
luckily, as i drove maybe 200ft past the parking structure, i saw something that one almost never sees in the middle of the day on south forest near central campus...especially during art fair...an OPEN SPOT not near any meter. i quickly moved to park in the spot without even thinking, of course once i was settled in, i got out and stared at the sign by the curb for a good 5 minutes. it's tricky in A2...they have random signs and random rules that always result in me getting a ticket. previous experiences have had me parked too close to the flush of a driveway, no parking on tuesdays, no refilling the meter, no black honda civics, no people from ohio, no people that can actually drive, and of course 'flying cars only'. regardless, it looked like i would be ok. i took a moment to look around and watch as other cars went by, desparately seeking parking as i had just been...it was a sense of accomplishment, and probably the most productive thing i had done or would do the entire day.

with the parking issues over with, i headed into pancheros. but my experience with the evil art fair was not over yet. i was in line behind the worst thing that could possibly happen at pancheros (no, not big ten burrito fans or penguins)...confused, indecisive out-of-town customers! i was starving, already sort of shaking and beginning to overheat, i was also seeing images of golden gars and priyanka chopra everywhere, and i had to wait behind these idiots as they just sat there saying 'uhmmmmm' for about 5 minutes. the menu is right in front of you people!!! check it out and decide BEFORE you hop in my line (yes, i said my line). this also had nothing to do (at least initially) with the fact some of the workers are somewhat hard to understand and speak kind of fast. one of the ladies ended up ordering something and then having them open it up to add more...i hope she was happy with her subsequent burrito breach (more on pancheros dining terminology at another time). needless to say, these idiots were served and i somehow managed to get my food before passing out in my favorite booth.

as we were driving down cicero ave towards devon st. in chicago, double practically spun the car around so we could drive back and get a pic of me in front of this storefront. nice.

well, that's all for this episode; i'm sure there is plenty more i could waste your time with, but i have stuff to do. tomorrow will be our mini-bbq featuring omaha steaks i got as a groomsman present from cryder's wedding (i've heard their steaks are some of the best), and following that an outing to dominick's and who knows what else. yes, the thursday night events are still going strong even without the school schedule and all that jazz. later kids <:><

music:

"Deja Vu" - Beyonce featuring Jay-Z

"Chand Sifarish" - Fanaa soundtrack


random pic:

we were really close to wrigley field at one point during our trip (a big game was just getting out, so it was chaos). it's pretty common knowledge that i'm not a baseball fan by any means, but i must say it was a nostalgic site since the cubs were the first team i remember being aware of when i was really little. probably because all our good cartoons/shows in north dakota came from a chicago station. weird.

the wind is actually appreciated...

given it's about 100 degrees out here in Chi-town, the breeze and anywhere with AC is highly appreciated. just a quick note to say chicago, recently under major consideration for post-doctoral activity, has scored some major points. the adventure continues through tomorrow when we hit up the Shedd Aquarium. rest assured there will be some entertaining picture updates in the near future. it's definitely the place for people who stay up REALLY late. and for julia...i met up with neha tonight and we were able to exchange some entertaining stories...i'll leave it at that for now. good night & good luck kids <:><

music:

as sarah would call it: "the sounds of bollywood" - from our adventure on 'devon street' (the indian district in chicago).

random pic:

the nexus of the universe? perhaps...more to come later-

separations, reunions, and relocations...

ok well i have to get to bed. the plan is to get up at 8am (yikes!) and get a bunch of my packing done (that i didn't do this evening) so i can leave for chicago by noon. oh yeah, and probably run a bunch of errands and hit up pancheros.

given all the people that have taken off over this past summer, i'll actually be reuniting with some that i have not seen in at least a year, some several more. one more of the Ohio Northern robert's hall crew is getting married, and i'm in the wedding. this is scary in a way, but i don't have time right now to get into the crazy old days of robert's hall, and the crew that lived there (but i will in the future, don't worry). anyway, my goal will be to get there on time (myself, the groom, and his fiance failed at this task last september when we were traveling down to alabama for another robert's crew wedding)...or at least early enough where i can get some food at the rehearsal dinner. rest assured i will try to report from chicago because...well, only i would attempt to blog update in the midst of a wedding excursion.

the second half of this trip involves a relocation for some of the ann arbor crew, namely double D and gwen, who will be meeting up with me for the second half of the weekend. get two fish fanatics together in chicago and you can bet we are heading to the shedd! i'm sure we'll exhaust plenty of memory cards taking photos for an upcoming presentation, and plan on making a few other trips as well...one of them being 'devon street' which is apparently the big indian market street in the windy city. should be quite interesting, and a change of venue will be nice as well.

on that note, i hope you all have a good rest of the work week...because mine is pretty much OVER! peace out kids <:><

music:

"See the World" - Gomez

"Staple it Together" - Jack Johnson

random pic:

now that is a lot of gars

well at least they had an elephant...

just a quick entry here (or at least that is what was intended)...

i stopped by the indian store (ann arbor has more than one, but this is the one i always go to), foods of india, on the way back from work today (another thrilling day at the office...i just have to coast through tomorrow and it will essentially be the weekend for me - chicago wedding, followed by a mini-vacation out in the windy city) when my sister called me. the purpose of the call? to remind me that MTV's show "My Super Sweet 16" was featuring to Indian sisters and their party tonight. would i normally watch this show? no (although i have regrettably seen it before...i think everyone just loves to hate these people). but given the circumstances, i chose to tape it while we all watched 'Rescue Me', and then james and i stayed up to watch the spectacle unfold a la typical MTV melodrama (couple that with indian melodrama and you will essentially be set for life with all the drama you will ever need, and then some).

let's just say that these girls are CRAZY. ok, perhaps this was obvious given a couple key factors (i.e. they are on MTV, they are teenagers, their parents are loaded, they are spoiled, and...of course, they are indian). i just never knew the certifiable insanity started so early in life. wait...i have two younger sisters. yes i did. but honestly, any interaction or conflicts that they had with each other was nothing compared to these kids on tv.

it was something like a car wreck, it's horrifying to see, but yet you can't look away. oh, and the vehicles involved are convertible mercedes, a bentley, and a private jet. i must say the decor for the party was quite impressive, and the best part? they actually had an elephant! now, given my zoological nerdiness, i had to point out that this looked more like an African elephant than an Indian elephant, but what can you do...it's the thought that counts. i'm now figuring that i want to have an elephant at my wedding. what's that you say? you thought i'd request a big tank full of gars instead? well maybe that too, but (and this is somewhat cliche i suppose) but elephants have always been a favorite of mine, and i have dozens of figurines that i brought back from India back in the day and/or received as gifts. i suppose there are SOME cool mammals. they also pulled off a well-choreographed dance number for the party.

anyway, did i mention that these kids were crazy??? they pull off the evil eye with comparable skill to members of my family (i think the david females are best at it...my mom's powers were definitely passed down to rachel and sarah to use when necessary). i did find it quite humorous that this show took place in a small town outside houston texas. small towns and indians...the story of my family's life. there were maybe a handful of indians at the party, the rest were...not.

alright that's all the patience i have to sit here and type this entry. i'm relatively tired and need to go to bed. yeah, sucks i know...the fish guy of only a couple weeks ago would be just beginning the night...such is life with 'work' i suppose. oh, did i mention that they just recently gave me my own phone and extension at the office? yeah, like i'm going to be getting THAT many calls. i've already given the number to some of you, maybe i'll post it someday and see how long it takes me to get into serious trouble. anyway, it's currently office space, only there is no 'real, actual work' going on. oh well, next week we'll kick things into gear.

next time i'll talk about how it was somewhat hilarious that damon left his sunroof open during the torrential downpour this afternoon, why sheila is not allowed to choose dining establishments (but perhaps make book recommendations...just picked up 'a fine balance' today), maybe get an update from our contacts in india (rashmi should be there in the next few hours, rakhi should be returning shortly, and sonya's sister tanya is there right now - see comment to previous entry...she offered to bring back some indian dvds...sweet!), what kind of drugs hilary had to sell to get her awesome NYC apartment, why the ann arbor fairy doors are stupid, and cucumbers.

good night & good luck <:><

music:

"Do it for Me Now" - Angels & Airwaves

"Keep Fishin'" - Weezer (this song has special meaning for me on several -mostly nostalgic- levels, but i MUST mention one of them is that it's one of the greatest videos of all-time...it features THE MUPPETS!!! you can check out the video by going to the weezer section here. you must do it.)

random pics from the summer solstice party at The Tank:

learning to play the swedish game 'kuub'...it was actually a lot of fun...

although the last game went on until nightfall...needless to say, team bowfin was 2-1

and of course we set off some fireworks (even though this was late june). it looks like james is doing an impersonation of ghost rider.

a pictorial update...

ok, i was doing so well with all the updates, and then this whole 'job' thing started up, and i now realize what the rest of you go through on the weekdays. yeah, there's virtually no time, and at the end of the day you're kinda tired...and knowing you have to get up early (again) the next day does not make you want to stay up, go out, etc etc. well, i struggled with the getting up early for work thing, but i didn't let it keep me from staying up (1-2am is still early for me, but still probably 'staying up late' for most of you).

those factors coupled with the fact that we had events such as the 4th of july, an indian movie theater outing (part II), a couple going away outings, and the general mayhem at The Tank led to a drop in blog updates and my broad-spectrum laziness right now. hence, i am just going to update with a bunch of random pics and captions. i have plenty more to write about, but as usual i think i'll just fall behind with that stuff until i just forget about it. maybe i'll insert a random bullet in this entry just for the heck of it. hope the rest of you are enjoying what is now the second half of the summer...and (gasp!) second half of 2006!!!

of course we had to have fireworks on the 4th...we were all really beat by the time we got back to The Tank (what with the Koi Mil Gaya viewing the previous night, the early reveille to make it to Novi to see Krrish -second time for me-, and then the resulting quest for food) so we set off what we had off the deck, and then luckily our neighbors spent hundreds of dollars on real fireworks so we just watched them set off an impressive lightshow after that. good times. note: in spite of the tiki torches i was still being eaten by bugs. dangit.

although i think i'm perfectly capable of selecting my own hindi movies at this point (that's right folks, i think i am pulling ahead of my instructors in this area) i still take suggestions and donations. rashmi told me i would probably like 'kaal' which is about a group of people who go into a wildlife park where there are supposedly man-eating tigers. definitely different from the usual hindi movies i have been watching, but entertaining nevertheless. that and i happen to like laura dutta and esha...

two troublemakers at connor's. there's a story i'd like to eventually share about the indian food lunch outing today to gwen's parents place, but i'll do that at another time. let's just say that the food was VERY VERY good and i think i'm still full! i know we'll be heading back at some point in the future, especially since certain parties were in norcal this time around. haha missed out! oh, and i ALMOST got my drug kangaroo, but that too is a different story (and has somewhat evolved into a tale of a mythical beast).

double D, damon, and myself partake in an 'irish car-bomb' in tribute to double's fallen fish, 'tiggy II'. it was sad but a fitting way to say goodbye. RIP tiggy II, given the way norton and the original tiggy get along at The Tank, i'm sure tiggy II and ralphie will get along and keep each other company in that big fish tank in the sky. also note that damon can no longer take a 'normal' picture.

i'll write more about this later (an entry that has been a long time coming, but i've been too lazy/busy to write, but covers a lot of people, etc) but in the continuing exodus of people leaving the collegiate oasis of ann arbor, it was anandhi's time to go. we all got together at dominick's the night before her departure for one last official outing with my 'sister' and fellow 'we're paranoid when there's too many indians around' team member. case western is not that far away, so we'll definitely be expecting to see hal and AJ around A2 somewhat frequently, and you can bet we'll be making a trip or two to the infernal buckeye state to visit.

even through a fence jeevan can cause trouble. he was in the process of jumping up against the barrier when i took this pic. someday he will be ready to unleash upon my enemies. stay on my good side. shoot, he'll probably kill me first.

at rashmi's 'going away...to india' get-together at connor's, we were able to mix things up with the d-school crew (could they be the successors to the SPH crew? what about the med school people? or how about the panchero's staff? tune in this fall...). i hadn't been able to catch up with sonya and josh for quite some time, so it was nice to hang out. josh and i loosely discussed a general dislike of vegetables and assorted produce, and sonya confirmed my grandma's 'secret' plans to get me married when i make my trip to india.

double D took this pic while driving by damon, gwen and myself eating at the parthenon on main street. he had to take off early for a band performance. luckily the streets were pretty dead on the 4th or he may have taken out a few pedestrians while trying to snap a shot. oh, and for the record, i HATE eating outside. at least most of the time (there are certain occasions when i like it). either way, the bugs, the wind, the heat, UGH. luckily i was starving to the point where other external conditions (other than presence of food) did not matter.

rashmi & me at Connor's for her 'going away...to india' get-together. although she'll be in the homeland of bollywood, we both are figuring there is no way she'll catch up to my current hindi movie-viewing status. i've come a long way since november! ...and i have a lot of people to blame. too bad this job has started slowing me down a bit :P

speaking of my job...i snapped this pic of my desk (in the office i share with one other guy...luckily who i know from UM and is pretty cool). i know what you're thinking...'does he just drink from his nalgene and stare at that gar background all day???' ...well the truth is...shut up! no. this was friday before i was taking off, so i cleaned up all the many papers and journal articles that cluttered my desk. outside the massive pile of random papers and books in my room, i seriously cannot stand clutter. it makes me angry. i think i need some sort of medication for it. tomorrow i'll be moving on to do more lab work. i must say, they got me an office, computer, key-card, etc faster than anywhere else i have worked...perhaps the government (my job is at USGS) is somewhat competent at some level.

group shot of the non-d-school folks at connor's. i must have been sitting down or something, because i am not that short...i don't know about gwen though :P note: this was probably the last normal picture that damon will ever take.

double D took this random shot while were in line for some 'limca' (indian pop version of squirt)...definitely good stuff, and comes in a tremendously thick glass bottle. you could kill someone with this bottle. i should know... anyway, i need to get at least one of each of these movie posters. i don't know where i would keep them since i was told sometime back that movie posters on the wall are not cool anymore...or at least that i'm too old for them (hence my walls are generally bare, until i get the motivation to put up all the fish posters). on a similar note, the debate over whether fish shower curtains are appropriate or not wages on. i found out that damon and james recently got one for their bathroom. i used to have one back at the spicetree place, and am now considering getting one for mine...in spite of said debate with certain parties, this is The Tank, and we've already overdone it with the fishes, what's one more item??? i digress.

group shot from anandhi's going away outing to dominick's. surprisingly i had not been here in several weeks! of course we all had to reminisce back to this spring where some of us were here SEVERAL times a week...good times.

me with some of the d-school crew at connor's...(L-R) rashmi, me, stacy, AJ, ben. interesting facts: stacy is working on periodontis disease this summer but finds it somewhat boring, AJ generally can't take a picture without pointing into the frame, and ben was a former parasitology student of mine as well as a fellow pancheros fanatic.

when my mom was showing rachel and i around the garden a couple weeks back, rachel started freaking out and pointed to this giant moth on the fence...i was pretty excited as i had not seen one of these in years...a Luna moth, Actias luna, which happens to be my favorite moth. what's what you say? you don't have a favorite moth? how can you get a favorite moth? why do I have a favorite moth? rachel already had started making fun of me at this point. but just for reference (as if most of you need to be told), i was a nerd from the beginning. i had all the dinosaur, reptile, amphibian, and insect books at the school library pretty much memorized by the time i was in kindergarten/first grade. i think i knew binomial nomenclature before long division...or any division for that matter. all part of why i would not make the greatest doctor...i'd seriously get bored from dealing with the same species all the time!

as for the Luna moth, i took several pics (such as the one above) and then let the animal be. some of you may recognize the luna moth as the main icon for the drug 'lunesta'. sarah and i have talked about this on a couple occasions...we both think we may need it from time to time, because we incessantly go over 'to-do' lists in our heads before falling asleep...but doesn't everyone? i dunno. i need to get to sleep now anyway.

next time i'll talk about how double D will soon be president of the "thank you Jadoo" fan club, apparent similarities between all indian parents, the drug kangaroo, why rachel may be able to time travel, and (related to the time-travel story) why russell peters is hilarious.
good night kids <:><

music:

"Leave the Pieces" - The Wreckers (this is Michelle Branch's new project)

"Haila Haila" - Koi Mil Gaya soundtrack

advocate of the devil...

first off, devil's advocate...great movie, even though it had keanu reeves. either way, pacino does an amazing job as the devil. funny thing is, i had a big movie poster of this film back in undergrad, and when i graduated it was moved back to my room at my parents place and put up on the wall...and we lived in the parsonage. interesting. never got any comments about it from the rents either. i should pick up that flick on dvd at some point.
i've played devil's advocate quite a bit, and back in undergrad i played the devil in a few skits too. good times.

anyway, today i left for home in north lawrence for the weekend. it's been interesting as this will be the 4th time i have been back home in 8 weeks...yup, every other weekend. i haven't done this for at least a couple years i think...and i was only home 3x over the course of this past school year. ah well, i like the food and it's been somewhat therapeutic too.
so i obviously didn't leave on time for home, because this never happens. never. i basically ended up racing home in order to make the evening movie plans that sarah had come up with for us siblings. what movie were we going to see? 'the devil wears prada'. now, i didn't have much of an opinion about this movie, other than the fact that the trailer we saw before some movie a while back gave virtually no indication of what this movie was about, other than it starred meryl streep and anne hathaway. needless to say, i was somewhat intrigued, especially in this day and age when movie trailers give away far too much.
speaking of movie trailers, the SPIDER-MAN 3 trailer is out now!!! i feel somewhat ripped off in that we didn't get to see it before Superman Returns yesterday (also a fantastic movie), but that was probably due to the fact that we saw it on IMAX, and even the movie trailers were in 3-D and there were fewer of them. anyway, check out the spider-man trailer...i get hyped about the first time i see the spider-man trailers every 2 years or so. good stuff.
so anyway, i race home and make it to the house in time to walk in on my family eating indian food at the dinner table, and we basically have to take off right away. i look around the kitchen, and they're not just eating any old indian food, but idli and sambar!!! it was torturous to leave behind my favorite food (especially since i was starving, and it had been 7 hours since i had my pancheros), but we had a movie to (barely) make.
anyway, 106-minute-movie short, it was very entertaining, and the entire cast did an impressive job. turns out that many critics thought the movie moved even above the source material (the film was based on a novel). the director also did 'sex & the city' which explains the presence of all those fancy shoes...especially the manolo blahniks, haha. while we are on that blurb, charlotte was the best character (ok well kristin davis was at least my favorite character) and (in spite of having had this debate with multiple parties) burger was waaay cooler than big or any of the other guys. the post-it note issue wasn't everything!!!
so yeah, the movie was surprisingly good, and the majority of critics actually like it too (even that snooty new york times, which i normally -and passionately- disagree with most of the time). go to rottentomatoes.com for movie reviews, never rely on just one source. or just see whatever the heck you want regardless, which is what i'll usually do most of the time since i have virtually no movie-viewing discretion. the movie also stars the lead guy from entourage, the airport boss from 'the terminal' (stanley tucci), and tracie thoms (from Rent). i'd give it **** out of a possible 5 stars.
ok well i'm actually getting kind of tired, and should probably get to bed. we have church in the morning, so i'll be up "early" for the first time since...well, the last time i was home for sunday. this will all soon end when i start work this week, so rest assured i'm sleeping in on monday & tuesday!
next time i'll talk about 'passing the torch' of my connection at the indian store (much like rakhi did with me when she took me there)...well i guess i will still go there, so i didn't really 'pass the torch'...maybe there are now two torches? maybe i'm sharing the torch? i dunno. either way, i ended up with more indian movies as of this afternoon. oh, and i re-rented "Koi...Mil Gaya" to bring the rest of my crew up to speed so we can all go see "Krrish" (the sequel) at the indian movie theater sometime this week. oh, and one of my new quests is to see all the popular priyanka chopra movies. so far so good.
and if you must know, i definitely got my share of idli & sambar when i got home, and me and the sibs watched numerous episodes of MTV's "Next" before turning in. good night & good luck <:><

music:

"Main Titles" - Superman Returns soundtrack (main theme)

"Nakhre Bhi Utha" - Barsaat soundtrack

random pic:

connor-randomness...semi-candid shot from connor's last night. note double D acting a little crazy.