Seattle Times...

It snowed again in Seattle area on Wednesday. Even though it looks nice outside, its biting cold (18 deg F as I write this). And driving is messy.

Particularly if you are driving ahead of a 4WD SUV whose drivers generally seem to be in agreement that their vehicles never skid. One such almost bumped me from behind on the freeway, then switched lanes to get ahead of me, switched back to my lane and whizzed past in a show of typical SUVish arrogance.

Or maybe, he was really in a hurry for something important. (That makes me feel better)

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Saw a few movies.

Omkara (Othello) - really liked it but thought some characters were given more attention than others. Result being, some important characters didn't have as much impact as they should have had.

Saif Ali Khan's portrayal of Langda Tyagi was fabulous. Both actor and director get a pat for that. Devgan was okay - but he had very few moments in the movie though he was the lead character (blame the director).

Dolly, Kareena Kapoor, was unidimensional. It would have been nice if she could have been more colour (as in character). But then, I don't know Shakespeare's Desdemona that well. Maybe it is a "true" adaptation.

I liked Maqbool better. I knew the story of Macbeth in more detail than Othello, so was able to appreciate it better. But even so, I think character development was more concrete in Maqbool.

All said and done, I am really fascinated by Vishal Bharadwaj's attempt to recreate Shakespeare through such wonderful adaptations. If I were him, I would be doing this too. Shakespeare aside, all of his products so far have been of great quality (music of Maachis, for example). He seems very unassuming in his interviews, though, unlike some other self-anointed "genius"es in Indian film industry.

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We bought the following DVDs!

Godfather DVD Collection (About 20 hrs of mafia talk)
Dead Man Walking
Scent of a Woman (One of my all time favourites)
12 Angry Men
Philadelphia
Father of the Bride (Lakshmi's favourite)
Emperor's Club (Lakshmi's choice again)

Long time mission accomplished. Still few more to go, actually.

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In other news, when Microsoft was busy making the Zune (the brown coloured one, in specific), Apple created the iPhone. Do I need to say more?

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PS: As I write, I am noticing that I am backspacing and rewriting words with English spellings rather than their American equivalents. Like I wrote color and then changed it to colour. Ditto with favo(u)rites. What does that make me?