Cricket

I think cricket sucks. Disproportionate hype. Absurdity in the duration. All the fuss which goes into "weather reports", "ground inspection" and all..... yuck!
It just ranks above motorsport [sport????], golf and WWF.

P.S: I have the right to change my mind

Meesic

I've begun to realize that work tends to get along better with music. Partly because it shuts out all the unwanted noise from equally unproductive co-workers and cell phone ringtones and suchlike and also because of some inexplicable factors which have something to do with concentration and all. Usually, not always, the productivity is directly proportional to the tempo of the music that is being listened to.

P.S: When i get stuck, more often than not Pink Floyd's "Comfortbaly Numb" comes to the rescue.

Watching The Watcher - 3

Today's Hindu has a timely Leader Page article on professional journalism and how it is used by the powers to act as a veil between truth and propaganda, which, the reader ultimately gets. This is not yet another 'conspiracy theory' or 'commie crap' but painstakingly analyzed and monitored work, which is essentially impartial. You can find this and lot more in greater depth and detail in Manufacturing Consent, by Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky, a bestseller also made into a movie.
Excerpts from the Hindu article

That Cromwell and Edwards are scrupulously careful, maintaining unfailingly politeness and accurate in their exchanges with famous editors and journalists — many of whom respond with vituperation or silence — gives their analysis greater weight. The authors' examples of journalistic submission to power would be farcical but for the mass slaughter that has gone almost unreported. The obvious example is Iraq, over which the repeated and accurate assertions by figures such as the U.N. weapons inspectors Scott Ritter and Hans Blix that Iraq had been fundamentally disarmed by 1998 were almost never reported

The prospect of mass starvation caused by allied bombing — and the consequent 3000 deaths a month in Afghanistan — received next to no attention in the mainstream British press, in sharp contrast to the intensive, varied, and detailed coverage of the floods of refugees in Kosovo in 1999; but on that occasion, NATO governments wanted coverage to help them justify bombing which — even on the U.S. State Department's evidence — caused the refugee crisis by provoking a savage and indiscriminate backlash by the Serbian government against all Kosovans. Sections of the mainstream press even argued for pre-emptive bombing, and in response Cromwell and Edwards cite Noam Chomsky as saying this would be like advocating that the British government bomb cities such as Boston, where Northern Ireland paramilitary groups were suspected of raising funds.

McCarthy, the whole media world is your friend :)

Aandavar is back, and how!

Forza Italia

Italy 2 - Ghana 0


To me, Italy vs Ghana has been the best match so far, providing some high quality action in both halves.
Marcello Lippi stuck to his 4-3-1-2 formation and true to his claims, the team produced an attacking display (unlike the more defense oriented and 'solid' style of previous Italian teams). However, in doing that, many a time they left holes in the defense and Ghana looked threatening at times but they sqandered many chances because of their inability to shoot from mid/long range. It was a tough match as expected in this group of death. For me, the man of the match was clearly Fabio Cannavaro, who had an outstanding match with some brilliant covering and coming up with just-in-time defending at crucial times

Hope the Azzuri hold fort and beat the Czech, because Nedved has already sent Italy out in the European championships(?) previously. That match is going to be one hell of a match.

P.S:
- A peculiar aspect of this World Cup has been the big guns losing fizz in the second half - not quite the case last night, however. England, Portugal, Argentina, Holland.... Unlike in the past, there are no longer any "easy" teams.
- What's with the shaved head of Italians - Totti, Del Piero, Cannavaro..?

Weltschale 2006 - Deutschland

The world comes to a halt for one month. All other sports, move over, for here comes the most beautiful game in the planet. Not that football has receded in importance all this while. World Cup means business, serious business. My brother stopped his business for one month during the last World Cup. There is no reason why this year should be any different. He says the fever started in S.Africa quite a while back. As for me, i don't have to stop working as i'm pretty jobless@work or workless@job in any case. Over the last 4 World Cups, i've had a generous share of heart breaking disappointments. I don't know if i've progressed from the stage of 'ripping-pillows-apart' because Argentina or Italy lost, and if so, to what extent*. At least, i hope justice prevails this time, unlike in 2002 when God was a South Korean, and the referee was His messiah.

I've always been a die hard fan of the Azzuri, the Italian team from 1990 [that's when i started watching serious football]. After all, they are not a free-flowing style team. They are traditionally known as the team with a rock solid defence. They are a team/country where the names of Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini [my evergreen favorite] are equally, if not more popular than say Roberto Baggio or Alessandro Del Piero. There is something to my unflinching support to team in blue which eludes rational justification. Ironically they always seem to get into the toughest of groups and end up playing top teams right in the second round. This year it is as bad as it can get. At best, they will face France in the quarters, or at worst, will face Brazil in the second round!
Del Piero has always underperformed in World Cups. Hope he breaks the jinx this time around.

As [bad]luck would have it, my next favorite team Argentina don't have it easy either. To start with, they are paired with Holland, a team i would love to see doing well. In the second round, either of them will meet Portugal, another team i like! Pappom...

Most hotels have made arrangements to have giant screens and the works for one month. Matchpoint or Fort St.George @ Taj Coramandel would be good choices, next of course to home sweet home.

Likely winner? Unfortunately, Brazil look unstoppable at the moment. What a lineup, what technique, what skill! At least i hope Ronaldo outplays Ronaldinho, if at all he gets fit and manages to stay away from injuries. [Blisters ellam remba over]

Official World Cup Site

As Kounder says in "Suryan", Start Meesic!!

* - 1990 final, Argentina vs West Germany. Of course God Maradona was there but was invisible. We recorded the match and derived a sado-masochistic pain/pleasure in watching that Andreas Brehme penalty over and over again
- 1994 Maradona makes a far from gracious exit and in the final Italy vs Brazil, the heart breaking miss by Baggio

In Search Of The Teahouse Of The August Moon

I was searching for some info on "The Teahouse Of The August Moon", a 1956 Marlon Brando film when i landed here. I remember reading that article when it was published at the time of Brando's death. The comments of somebody called Ravi - in response to the usual anti-Kamal ignoramuses - interested me, because many of the points he made were ones i would have made. Especially, this

Let me recall about De Niro. OK, here it goes - Mean streets, Taxi Driver, Raging bull, Godfather II, Goodfellas, Cape fear, Casino, Jackie Brown, Ronin, Heat, Untouchables so on...he's a great actor, but in most of his good movies, he has acted as a thug/somebody with an element of thuggishness. Even in this movie 'Sleepers', he plays a rough priest! His experiments with comedy - Analyse this, Analyse that, Meet the parents - are just mediocre stuff.

Let me recall a few of Al Pacino movies I've seen - Dog day afternoon, Godfather I,II,III, Devil's Advocate, Carlito's way, Scarface, Donnie Brasco, Serpico, Insomnia - in all these movies he's either a mobster or a cop. In the recent 'The recruit', for a change, he's both a cop and a thug. Except for the highly overrated 'Scent of a woman' and the recent 'Simone', does any other movie come to your mind?

These are the two best Hollywood actors of my generation, there's no second opinion about this - but they are also infected by the 'genre' bug so special to Hollywood. Meet the truth. In considering the variety of roles, they don't stand a chance before Sivaji Ganesan. Of course you have the right to laugh

idha thaan naanum sonnen.....

The Birth of Music

isaikku indRu pirandha nAL. isaignAniyin pirandha nALukku vAzhtha vayadhillai vanagugirOm!

By the way, today also happens to be the birthday of Sani,.. chi Mani Ratnam
Happy birthday to Mani Sir