Who's your Daddy? - Superman Returns Review

I went and watched Superman Returns last night in IMAX and that's exactly where you should be watching this summer blockbuster.

The Plot:
Quite simple. Superman had 'disappeared' for 5 years as he tried to find any remaining surviors from Krypton. When he realised he was the 'lonely' one, he decides to come back. While he walks into his old job at the Daily Planet, everything else around him has changed. Lois Lane has moved on and is in a 'long engagement' with the Assistant Director, Richard White, who is the nephew of Perry White. She also has a son, Jason. Lex Luthor who was captured earlier by Superman, gets a get-out-jail card as our Man of Steel couldn't make it to the witness stand! Hmmm. So anyways, with renewed viguor Lex enters Superman's Fortress of Solitude and steals the crystals which has scientific data from across the galaxy. His aim? To generate real estate - as in, make himself a new continent as land is expensive. Quite an insight. Oh and if you do generate this land, new mass has to replace new mass. Physics. And no points for guessing that North America will go under water! So the battle begins and good prevails over evil - not a spoiler is it? The biggest spoiler, and I'm sorry that I can't keep it under wraps, is that Jason is Superman's son. Basically when Lois Lane wrote 'Spending the night with Superman', she did just that literally.

What's in it for you? What's new?
As far as the story is concerned, it's quite lame. But Singer does few things right. Superman is supposed to fly and he gives him enough opportunities to ring up the miles. He keeps it simple. The Clark Kent-Lois Lane-Superman triangle is played out well. Routh doesn't come close to the goofiness of Reeve but there is on-screen chemistry. But they both look quite young. Spacey as Luthor fits into Gene Hackman's shoes perfectly. IMAX gives you 10-15 minutes of 3D film runtime which is quite good. Special effects are quite good. So if you grew up with Superman and walked into this expecting some of the same fare, you won't be disappointed.

Singer has a huge problem. When the last Superman came onto the screens, hardly character flew. Now you find almost every character flying around. So Superman's got competition. But there's a nice style which has been blended into this film. The platform's the old Superman movies and mannerisms but with a fair share of good special-effects. It's as if Singer's testing his audience. Want some more of the same? Or something new next time? And there is defintely a next time - Superman and son. Watch out for that one.

Feeling Friday

Its 3:40pm and i'm feeling the friday. Week's been long. So now that its very close to being over, I was wondering what I'd do this weekend. I think I'll chill in town for a change. Nature's not gonna run away and since i'm here till around sep/oct, I'd have enough time to do the travelling. Few things on my mind are Vegas, Phoenix (Grand Canyon) and NYC. Chicago would be done on the way back.

Its a small small world. A friend of mine who I haven't seen or talked to for almost 3 years bumped into me on yahoo. He hardly comes online and I'm seldom on yahoo myself. So it was quite a pleasant coincidence. The last time we spoke was when I was in Singapore. He's in Phoenix and that easily becomes an excuse to go visit.

Sunil and Shwetha are thinking of coming to this side of the country so we could do Vegas. And a friend out here has promised me to teach me the secret 0f getting the lowest priced tiks. So lets see.

And yes, before I forget I made some chicken last night. Made a few colleagues eat it too as I don't eat non-veg on Thursdays. At 12am, I decided to get a bite too. Yummy. Proud of myself! :)

The recipe if anyone cares is as follows:

Ingredients:
Chicken - 3 lbs (around 6 drumsticks and 4 thighs)
Curd/Plain Yogurt (depends on amount of chicken - 1 container is enough ~ around 1 lb)
Onions - 4 large ones
Garlic Paste ~ 1-2 tb (depends on taste)
Ginger Paste ~ 1-2 tb (depends on taste)
Tomato Puree/Sauce (if you can't get hold of Puree) - 2-3 tb
Salt - 2-3 tb
Sugar - 1/2 tb
Green Chillies - 8 (finely cut)

Marinate your chicken in the curd/yogurt for a few hours preferably. Atleast for a couple of hours if your chicken is not de-frosted properly.
Add oil and stir your onions on high flame till they get a reddish tinge. Add ginger and garlic and stir some more on medium flame. When they have mixed properly add tomato puree/sauce and stir on low flame. This should take you around 10 min.
Then add your marinated chicken and set to high flame. Add half of your chillies, and salt and sugar to taste. Bring to boil, then cover and let it simmer. Stir frequently. Give it 15-20 min. Taste the curry/gravy and add the rest of the chillies. Salt to be added again if needed. Put it on low flame for another 10-15 min till you get a thick gravy and the chicken is properly done. If you reached till here you should have some really yummy chicken! :)

This is a pretty easy recipe that anyone can experiment with. No fancy stuff. But you would be surprised at your cooking. So go ahead and try! :) Since I'm not a regular cook, this same recipe tastes a bit different sometimes, but no less yummy. I remember I tried it first in Switzerland when we had to feed some friends at Univ. of St.Gallen. It was quite funny- Resh and I cooked, Somak cried as he cut the onions etc. Marco kept asking when it would be done! When we took it for the party, it got over before we could even get a taste of the gravy. :)

Anyways, thats about it from my side. Pics and stuff about weekend to follow.

Playlist

1. Nelly Furtado feat. Timbaland - Promiscuous
2. Goo Goo Dolls - Stay with you
3. Kasabian - Club foot
4. The Fray - How to save a life/Over my head
5. Keane - Is it any wonder

Online streaming of FIFA World Cup

This is something most of us have been looking for (Hat Tip: Patrix). Especially the ones who are stuck at work with no TV or radio anywhere in sight.

You can go to TVUNetworks and download their player. It will stream ESPN/ESPN2/ABC etc.

Crossposted at BlogFC

Where football is soccer

Because of work I’m currently in the USA and have been forced to follow ‘Soccer World Cup’ (Football World Cup to the less ignorant) on the USA network of ESPN and ABC. For someone who is used to a Martin Tyler or an Andy Gray on Sky, the difference is huge and pathetic. While some of them are ex-players (USA), that isn’t an excuse of poor analysis and thoughts on the game. Lalas still tries hard but Wynalda sucks and so do the other ones. They really believe all of USA (most who are ignorant of football played with the feet for a change) have woken up and now is the time to teach them the nuances of the game during a live world cup match. Some don’t even understand the ‘offside’ rule. And yes, every night there is a build up or TV spots of the next USA game - as if they are Brazil and are surely winning the cup - who told you otherwise? And the icing on the cake was when one of the commentators cried out ‘Who would have thought Ghana could beat the Czechs? My money wasn’t on them!’ - well what can I say. Here’s info on Ghana’s qualifying road to the world cup. Why would someone treat them as pushovers? if someone does, maybe he doesn’t know how the game works! Essien was brilliant in the game, something I have never seen in all his games at Chelsea. Anyways, back to the commentary. All I can say is that its hightime the networks realised that people who tune in for the world cup (99.99%) know how the game is played and we do not need to know the rules of the game. Talk about the match which is on!!!

Lastly, the FIFA rankings are a complete joke! I’m sure you knew about that one!

Crossposted & Comments at BlogFC

The Heat is On!

The Heat is definitely ON with Miami getting the better of the Mavericks 101-100 in OT (Game 5). Nowitzki was in a foul mood after the game. Why shouldn't he be? They still have not recovered from 4th quarter of Game 3! Might be a case of too close but no cigar now!




Wade is the reason why the Heat's got back into this series.
Clip of game 5.

PhotoBlog

@ Garden of the Gods

Ever seen a double rainbow?

@ HRC Denver

@ The Balancing Rock

Storm ahead - on the way to Denver

Bill Gates retiring in 2008

CIO reports that Gates would be retiring in 2008. Interestingly, it states he would be giving up some of his responsibilities. So what's retiring again?

More on it in the Microsoft official announcement.

How to save a life - The Fray

This song's (How to save a life by The Fray)going around my head since last night. I couldn't find out a streaming one so I've embedded the video of Kate/Jack of Lost. If you haven't seen Season 2, there could be some spoilers. But hear the song though. Look the other way. :)

Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life

As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you'll begin to wonder why you came

An ear(phone) for music...

Those who travel across the world using public transport - buses, trains etc., usually carry their own music. And with the advent of the iPod, you will see the white wire almost everywhere. Now coming to the reason for this post, Pepsi has decided to target this market - the mobile one who listen to their music on the go and use public transport. With BBDO they have started Pepsi Ads in trains in Toronto and Vancouver, where you can plug in your earphone to the ad and listen to a 30 second promo of the tracks on offer. Its a quick sampling of stuff you might want to buy or download. More here. And here for PepsiAccess.

Every Pepsi comes with a PIN number, which can be redeemed for access to ultra-exclusive music, concerts, events, and much more at pepsiaccess.ca. This poster plays a 30 second track sample of “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. After an announcer says: “That was a taste of an exclusive track from Gnarls Barkley. Check out pepsiaccess.ca for more.”

Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado

Just a few pics before I post about the trip. Just got back, so don't have the energy. Sometime tomorrow. :)






And thats Native American if you had a doubt! ;)

Sunset in Pueblo, Colorado

Missed a match?

In this country where NBA and Stanley Cup Finals hold more interest than football (soccer if you insist), its difficult to get repeats unless you are on ESPN HD. So when I got back home after work, I did my searching and here's a spanish site which gets all the match highlights up pretty soon. Funny enough, the official site of FIFA World Cup has a highlights section which says 'Coming Soon'...hmmm. Guess they forgot that the World Cup already started!!!

Germany v Costa Rica

Playlist

1. Rihanna - Unfaithful
2. Orson - Bright idea
3. Keane - Is it any wonder?
4. Angels & Airwaves - The adventure final
5. T Pain - I'm in love with a stripper

The most discussed part of the anatomy...

...for all you perverts its not the **** or the ****. Its the metatarsal. The piece of the human body made famous by David Beckham and now tons of footballers, the most recent being Rooney. Check this site for Metatarsal Tshirts! I should have thought about that one!

Man Laws

Have any of you checked Man Laws out? If you haven't, I say go and have a look in.

A few Laws :

The bartender is always right!
A man-to-man phone conversation shall not last over 5 min. No exceptions!
If somebody accidently drinks your beer, it is their beer and they must get you a new one!
No man may ever abandon their favourite team regardless how bad they are!