Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Othello/Omkara

I just saw Vishal Bhardwaj's remake of Othello as Omkara, after being nagged by mum and sis for weeks to watch. My short review, Saif Ali Khan is much better in the role of Iago/Langra than I thought he would be, but my favorite Iago performance remains Kenneth Brannaugh. Ajay Devgan disappoints me every time. How is this any different from any of his other role, i.e. the broody, quiet, authoritative man in command? Personally, I always thought the biggest reason for Othello's downfall was his own insecurity, despite winning the fair (literally) Desdemona's love and hand. Devgan portrays none of the quiet insecurity Othello (as a black man in charge of white men at a time when racial prejudice was rampant) feels when commanding the handsome and youthful Cassio and the experienced (and white) Iago. To see how it should be done right, check out the 1995 version with Laurence Fishbourne (yes, Morpheus). Other than that, it's a good version.

My only complaints, however, relate to the heavy UP dialect used in the movie. Mum and sis saw the film in the US with subtitles, I saw it locally minus subtitles, and had to keep asking them "what did he just say?". Either ship a permanently subtitles version or the dialect should have been left out of it. I hear it's making waves in India because of the very explicit language as well. Didn't bother me, personally. I wouldn't expect the local equivalent of villager gangsters in the UP to mind their P's and Q's when they talk.

Anyhow, my verdict: watch but with subtitles so you can understand what's going on. And leave the kiddies at home.

Misha at Tuesday, August 29, 2006

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Sunday, August 20, 2006

Die Slow

Die Slow
Die Slow,
originally uploaded by Mishaone.

Misha at Sunday, August 20, 2006

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Sunday, August 13, 2006

rain, rain, go away

Rain is not just a weather phenomenon in Karachi. It's a cause of much rejoicing for some (I am reminded of the famous last words of one very stupid frequenter of the DC++ channel "I would rather have rain than electricity!", followed by a 36 hour blackout almost citywide due to the rain) and a cause of ire for others. In Karachi, it is the former for a large number of people who enjoy taking their shirts of and dancing in the flowing heavens. The rest of us sit at home and rant about the lack of a proper drainage system and how long it'll take for the electricity to go this time. I am of the former group.

The last time it rained, the newly constructed underpass was almost completely inundated and thanks to KESC's constant power failures, my hard drive zonked out, taking all my music and photos to digital heaven. God knows what the rain will bring about this time, but I'm prepared. I have a UPS handy and several books to read lined up, as well as a good store of goodies to eat of the two minute cooking variety.

When rain happens to decide to flow down on a normal day, it's bad enough, but add the fact that it's the 13th of august and the loudly maniacal celebrations for the nation's independence day are almost underway. It takes one of more patience than I to wander out this night, so I think I'll just stay in and let our poor, recreation starved yet amazingly reckless awaam have their fun.

Happy independence day, my soaked fellow Pakistanis!

Misha at Sunday, August 13, 2006

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Thursday, August 10, 2006

omg

I have screwed up so bad at work it's not even funny. Where is my mind? Has anyone seen it, because it sure as hell isn't here. I crashed the car yesterday into a motorbike, which was honestly his own fault because he was going pretty fast in the wrong lane on the wrong side of said lane (middle of the road) and I was going the right way on the right side of the road and at a medium speed since my CPU was in the car with me. The guy gets a few scrapes from falling on the road and his bike is absolutely perfect while mine is so very busted and still standing on the side of the road with one of the front wheels pointing north and one west. God, why does this shit happen to me? On top of this, I screw up so badly that I'm send home from work, albiet very nicely, to go "see to my own stuff". God, this is embarassing, where did my concentration go, when did I become incompetent?

*groan* Anyone know where I can find chulloobhar paani and drown in it?

Misha at Thursday, August 10, 2006

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Monday, August 07, 2006

what's going on

First off, big news is that my mum's checkup went great and she and my sister are going to be back late august after about nine months away in the US for treatment, yay! =)

To balance it out, bad news is that dad is now hospital bound for some tests and treatment. Bah, when will the curse of the 1.5 parents end? To explain, it seems I always end up with 1.5 parents instead of two whole ones since my aunt counts as 0.5 while the principle parties are either unable, reluctant to participate or simply incapable of doing so.

Moving down the chain of the important, my final semester has now officially begun and I have additionally been offered the job of a Teaching Assistant for my Coordinator, who is a brilliant guy. Lord it over other students and be in control of their grades and participate in the torture raining down upon them from the coordinator? I'd do it for free, but I get paid, so even better. I am officially working two jobs now and studying as well. This should be an interesting semester.

Moving further down the list of interesting things happening currently, the world is drowning with these monsoons, as am I, since the contractor who did the enhancement project to our lounge did a crappy job and now half my living room leaks everytime it rains. One memorable evening when all of Karachi did not have any electricity the entire day and night, I spent the night out in the lounge in a mattress (it's the only place with any wind) listening to the radio in my cell phone and sleeping with drops of water splashing on my face. The overall experience is much like camping indoors with no fire to keep us warm or dry, aka "not very fun, thank you very much". =/

This and playing WoW (yes, still, and many hours a day, unfortunately) and customizing friends' blogs keeps me busy these days, but I'm sure that's going to change very soon, since I start classes and TA-ing from tomorrow. Au revoir!

Misha at Monday, August 07, 2006

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Friday, August 04, 2006

WoW

Worldcall has, in addition to its many wonderous Value Added Services, added a WoW (World of Warcraft) server to the list. Now let us be clear, I am an old school gamer, mostly because of my sad, low-end PC, but there is no shame in that. That's why I assumed WoW was not for me. All through my vacations I would hear everyone raving about WoW, as gamers with a lot of free time tend to do and eventually, far too late, I decided to give it a try. That, to the right, is myself stuck in one of the game's glitches where I am apparently airborne and treading air.

I am now ready to venture forth an opinion: I love WoW!

I love the fact that I am an undead, green chick with a large sword and I love the fact that you can take on wierd animals to gain levels and I love the quests and I especially love the teaming up aspect. Additionally, I also love the fact that I can travel to select locations in the huge map via bat (see left), a notion that is much more entertaining in practice than it sounds. Playing with real players always make for an entertaining experience. Currently, I am partnered with a young man whose handle is Dragon, another undead creature like myself, but a sorceror, as opposed to myself, the fearless warrior woman. We creep together till five in the morning, we run around together, we bitch about other, higher ranked players with access to various large animals to ride upon while we have to make do with travelling slowly by foot together and best of all, we work together to kill some awesome beasts. Unfortunately, we often die together too and have to travel to our corpses to be revived. Welcome to a twenty first century relationship! :P

To the left you can see myself and Dragon awaiting a zeppelin that would take us to a city across the seas. By the way, for anyone interested, all you need to join in is a decent speed connection and a moderately fast PC since the server is open to non-Worldcall users as well. And people wonder why I stick with Worldcall all this time despite erratic speeds and frequent disconnections.

Misha at Friday, August 04, 2006

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show of hands

post of the week, about love by someone in love: hands

almost makes me a believer. almost.

Misha at Friday, August 04, 2006

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