Sunday, August 31, 2014

Words and Pictures - a slow yet good movie

"You ice cold bitch"he said
"You drunken art wrecking bastard" she answered
They glared into each others eyes for what seemed like an eternity but it was just a few seconds.And then they laughed and kissed and became one once more.
Thus ended one of the nicer movies I have seen in the past few weeks. 
Sadly with an uninspiring title like "words and pictures" it will be passed over by most. The only reason I reached for it was because I like Juliette Binoche and there was nothing else to buy that day at the video store.
Its a slow movie -but then I like slow movies - about an alcoholic English teacher and an arthritic art teacher who end up in a little village college. And their battle to see if words or pictures are better. Hence the title.
I must declare it is not the most intriguing plot I have ever come across. But some of the scenes are beautifully shot; it has one or two absolutely lovely songs and you also happen to learn some interesting trivia regarding the English language. Like that good bye is actually a shorten form for God Bless you and that so long comes from salaam. Oh and it has some interesting paintings too. And it inspired me tap out this post in less than 20 minutes flat immediately after watching the movie and on my phone at that. Which is something I rarely do. Not bad for a movie which seems so uninspiring wouldn't you say? Below is one of the songs which really caught my attention

21 Actual anologies used by high school students...

This is too good not to share... this is the link if the pic is not big enough to read. http://www.tickld.com/x/21-actual-analogies-used-by-high-school-students-in-english-essays-8-is-gold

This song made me laugh first and then it made me cry…

I originally saw this as a shared video on facebook where it was billed as the Sinhalese version of “Hotel California”. First I thought it was quite funny. But then I started listening to the lyrics and realized there was nothing funny about the subject matter of this song. In fact it brought tears to my eyes. It was a painful cry of an old man forgotten in an old people’s home to his son saying how much he was looking forward to his visit. This is actually a mash up of two popular songs. One is “Sanda nawath Kamak ne” by Asanka Priyamantha. The second being Hotel California which we all know. I wonder if it was intentional or not but by bringing in the chorus of Hotel California the song has become far more powerful deep and ironic to me. Hats off to “ Sachintha Pulasthi” the artiste who put together this song. I wish I had thought of this.

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Red wine and "Adultery" - the new novel by Paulo Coelho



To be honest when I had the wine I did not have the book and when I had the book I did not have the wine. But I sure wish I had this book Adultery by Paulo Coelho when I was lounging on that balcony in the little farm house in Carinthia which I wrote about sometime back whilst sipping on some cheap wine.
Adultery is the newest book by Paulo Coelho. It was not highly anticipated as the Manuscript of Accra which was hyped up quite a bit before it was launched. I do not know if it was due to the hype or not but the Manuscript of Accra did not meet up to expectations. In fact to me it was virtually another version of the “The Prophet” by Khalil Gibran
This time they were more cautious. So it was an absolute surprise to me when I found out a new book was out and I immediately clicked buy.
Before I could read the reviews.
Which was a good thing. Because for some strange reason the reviews were scathing and I am sure I would not have made this purchase if I had read them before.
Personally I thought it was a great book. It had all the trademarks of a good Pualo Coelho novel which we are all familiar with and love. It was deep and insightful. It was philosophical yet simply written. Maybe it was not as spiritual but some of his other works – to be honest it was but the spirituality was not in your face - but still it was a damn good read.
“I have always loved him and always will – but our life together is verging on monotony. Love can withstand this, but for lust; its fatal” This quote summarizes the storyline in just a few words. To have everything (materially speaking)) and yet feel as if you have nothing is the underlying theme of this book which is something I can relate to very well.
I can wholeheartedly recommend this book even though it seems a majority of reviewers don’t agree with me.
Well they say don’t judge a book by its cover guess in this instance I say don’t judge a book by its reviews.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

The tiny tip which can change your life.

I don’t know about you but my shoe laces come undone several times a day. This has become such an irritant that I always try to buy shoes which can be zipped up instead of being laced. Not only is it dangerous as you can trip and injure yourself but it is also frustrating. Especially when you are on a treadmill or doing some kind of sport in which you have to wear gloves. I did not realize it till I saw this video - believe it or not I found this on TED - but it seems that all these years I have been tying my shoe laces wrong. That is the reason they keep getting undone. Just by changing the direction of how I tie my shoe lace I have got rid of this problem forever. Just watch and learn. It can make a huge difference to your life.

Thursday, August 21, 2014

The amazing inspiring story of Arnel Pineda.

It was a rainy Monday morning and I was feeling lazy. So lazy that I had canceled my morning workout and quite literally dragged my ass to work. I turned on my comp and did a quick scan of Face Book as my emails loaded and came across a post which was share by Robin Sharma.
It was a rags to riches story about Arnel Pineda who was a young man from Philippines. He was dirt poor, homeless and had to beg to survive. But one thing he had in his favor was the ability to sing. A YouTube video of him performing at a talent show caught the eye of one of the band members of Journey - if you don’t know who they are they were a mega band during my era and are still considered rock legends - who was looking for a singer to front the band. Their lead singer Steve Perry had left ten years ago and they have not been able to find a suitable replacement during the past decade. And today young Arnel Pineda is the new lead singer of Journey.
Wow what a story. And you might think that after reading such a motivational piece I would have been galvanized into action and would have been buzzing working my ass off like a fly on speed. Sadly No. I still felt lazy and all I wanted to do was go home have a drink have lunch and get under the blankets and enjoy the rainy weather the best way possible: snoring under the blankets.

Thursday, August 14, 2014

A little farm house in Carinthia

I plucked a peach from a tree in the garden and bit into its fresh juicy succulence. It was the first time I have eaten a peach which was not from a tin. As the flavours tantalised my tongue I looked around and absorbed my surroundings. I am in a quaint farmhouse in Worthersee; an alpine Lake in Carinthia Austria. 
The name of the farm
The wooden structure
It is as if I have been transported into the pages of a story book. The weather is nice and cool. There are fruits growing everywhere. Grapes, pears, apricots all you need to do is reach out and pluck them. Beautiful flowers are sprouting all over the place. 
The flowers that bloom are amazing
...even from the trees
The Gardens of the farm 
Everything is spotlessly clean including the roads. The farmhouse is a beautiful wooden structure and my hosts have given me a comfortable apartment to use for the next three nights. As all apartments in this part of Europe its tiny and compact but has everything one needs. And wow what a magnificent view of the lake from its balcony.
The view from my Balcony
My Tiny Balcony but it was cute
 I couldn't wait to open a bottle of wine sit on the balcony and sip it whilst admiring the view and ruminating on how wonderful the title of this post would be as a title of a book. And of course thanking the lord above for showing me a little bit of heaven on earth.

What an enjoyable glass of wine it was...

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

The Story of us – The only redeeming scene of Californication series 07

The longer a TV series runs the more diluted (and stale) it becomes. Truer words could not have been said of the series 07 of Californication which I finished watching recently. Somehow it has lost its edge. It was like seeing your beautiful sexy aunt who always appeared in your naughty dreams after many years. All faded and wrinkled up. A shadow of what she used to be. This time they even managed to do something which I thought would hear on the script of this program. Bring in a cheesy line “what happens at the dentists stays at the dentists”. I writhed in pain when I heard this line and wondered what happened to the ballsy lines such as “I wont go down in history but I will go down on your sister”? Fortunately this is the final season of which to me is a blessing in disguise.
Yet with all its flaws it was good to see good old Hank Moody once more. He still had charm though the plot did not. Generally I would have three or four “OMFG I wish I could write like this” scenes with every new series of Californication. But this time there was none worthy of mention except this.
This is how it goes though the last and the best line has been left out in the video which is real sad.
"I've been thinking about Us, the story of us. How the fuck do I sum it up? Has it been perfect? Hardly. Any story with me at the center of it will never be anything less than a big smiling mess. But here's what I know for sure—our time in the sun has been a thing of absolute fucking beauty. The nightmares, the hangovers, the fucking and the punching. The gorgeous shimmering insanity of the city of ours. Where for years I woke up, fucked up, said I was sorry, passed out and did it all over again. As a writer, I'm a sucker for happy endings. The guy gets the girl, she saves him from himself, fade to fucking black. As a guy who loves a girl, I realize there's no such thing. There's no sunset. There's just now, and there's just the two of us, which can be scary fucking ugly sometimes.
But if you close your eyes and listen for the whisper of your heart—if you simply keep trying and never ever give up, no matter how many times you get it wrong, until the beginning and the end blur into something called until we meet again -- and that's it. I didn't know how to finish it, because it's not over. It'll never be over, as longs as there's you, and there's me, and there's hope, and grace."