Of Airports and Air Travel

Kansas City International Airport (MCI) is an interesting study of how to build an airport given virtually unlimited space (let's face it, another acre of corn isn't going to make *that* much of difference to the world). I actually like the design that every 5 gates have their own twin set of X-Ray machines. This really keeps the lines short, and fast moving. Too many times have I faced near panic in La Guardia by being stuck in the 5th row of a conga line of disgruntled travelers trying to make it past 2 scanners to a flight leaving in 20 minutes.

The downside to all that space is that there really aren't too many restaurants or stores in the terminals, either before or after security, thus forcing the traveler to finish eating and drinking before passing through ... and remember, one can't carry liquids through now, so one hopes like heck there's a small booth selling water after one has refastened one's shoes, one's belt, and put one's laptop in one's laptop case, put on one's jacket, and generally wonder why the world is such a screwed up place.

On the subject of air travel, I must say that Midwest is a very comfortable airline. Leather upholstered, double-wide seats with plenty of leg room. That come with a premium price. a LGA-MCI return purchased two weeks in advance costs about $350. On the plus side, that comes with fresh baked cookies on flights after 10am, so it's all good.

Songs That Rocked (My World) Pt. II.V

When I returned home after my first semester, I decided to buy whatever Maiden tapes I could find at my local HMV store (the one at the top of Brigade Road ... I wonder whether it's still around). I was the proud owner of copies of Fear of the Dark and Piece of Mind. I will admit, part of my pride stemmed from my teen rebellion mentality in having pictures of Eddie :-) Moreover, my tape deck automatically flipped sides, and so I essentially had continuous/ unlimited music.

It was sometime in my second semester that I was reading The Lord of The Rings to Piece of Mind ... and by some deliciously freakish coincidence the end of side A - Die With Your Boots On - played as I read "Ride of the Rohirrim". As I got caught up in the book, the tape deck flipped, and music and word infused into a heady mixture ... of The Trooper scoring "The Battle of Pelennor Fields".

Thirteen years on (ye Gods, has it been that long?), whenever I listen to The Trooper, I always remember that fleeting, perfect moment. And believe me, I've tried several times to recapture that experience, but history remains in the past.

Songs That Rocked (My World) Pt. II

The year was 1994. The place was Pilani, India. Cue to a musically disattisfied young man. A somewhat handsome young man whom everybody mistook for Akshay Khanna, but whose last name was Anand.

(That's me.)

Yes, although my love affair with Guns 'N' Roses was ongoing, I was on the lookout for fresher sonic pastures. The prowess of GNR seemed somewhat faded in The Spaghetti Incident? - lets face it, it was essentially a covers album. Try as one might to portray a different story, a cover album is a sure sign of flagging creativity unless one has had at least 6 or 7 albums under one's belt. Moreover, Axl's vocals were beginning to grate on my nerves, and the music didn't have the same punch as it did when I first discovered it.

I was then lent a mix tape that would forever alter the course of evolution ... of my musical tastes. A TDK 90 minute tape with a (just about legible) handwritten scrawl covering it. I went back to my room, slotted the tape in, hit play ... and was treated to Nicko's intro drum roll to ... Where Eagles Dare.

Where Eagles Dare was - and still is - one of the top Maiden songs in my book. The subject matter - an adaptation of the Alistair McClean book (or the movie, I suppose) - was perfectly captured in the music. The drums rolled in mimicry of airplane engines and machine gun fire; the guitars swooped and howled like the bitter winds on the Bavarian Alps; the galloping bass giving the story its intense urgency of purpose. And the story itself sung by the most awsome set of pipes on a Metal vocalist, bar none.

The song was my introduction to the world of melodic heavy metal. I associated most heavy metal - and still do - with the throaty screaming shred fests of most bands ... Pantera, Sepultura, Judas Priest (post-Painkiller), and so on. Iron Maiden was the first band that actually made the music sound good.

My iPod tells me summer's coming ...

I was fooling around with my Mac's iCal program, and I was trying to add US holidays. Apple's website has a great library, including a great a calendar subscription about movie releases. Unfortunately, it only goes out 30 days (or maybe its 2 months, I won't be sure till next week ... Kartik, any ideas?)

Anyway, I thought I'd list some of the movie releases I hope to be seeing over this summer. I say "hopefully" because, quite frankly, the Lady has some serious hangups about my choice of movies.

• Spiderman 3, May 4th: Ah, the Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman. Catches thieves just like flies, apparently.
• Shrek the Third, May 18th: The second movie was a bit of a disappointment compared to the sheer exhilarating originality of the first. The trailer to the last installment doesn't offer me much hope, but the glass is always half-full, I always say!
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, May 25th: Following the disappointment that was Dead Man's Chest, I'm hoping that this movie will offer fans "more Gore, and less Verbinski" (to quote the Ninja)
• Ocean's Thirteen, June 8th: Does anyone detect a trend of excellent first movies, mediocre second movies, with the third & final installment this summer?
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, June 15th: To be fair, I thought the first FF movie was pretty crap. But what the heck, this is the only movie to open this weekend that I considered putting on this list.
• Evan Almighty, June 22nd: Two words. Steve Carrell rules. OK, that's three words.
• Ratatouille, June 29th: Can Pixar boounce back from the ignomy of losing an Academy Award? Their movies are innovative in plot and setting, to say the least.
• Live Free and Die Hard, June 29th: Refer above, regarding strong first movies in a franchise. The thing that really irks me about the Die Hard series is that the producers seem to have forgotten what makes a good Die Hard film. One man + A closed environment = Die Hard. Not running around New York City, or Chicago. That's any run of the mill action flick.
• Transformers, July 6th: I played a lot with these toys as a kid, though I can never remember which action figures I had, or what they turned into. Hopefully, this movie will not be part of the "Wreck your childhood dreams" camp (ref: any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, July 13th: Admittedly, I thought Book 5 was pretty darned crap. Yeah, he's going through puberty. Yeah, he has emotional turbulence wrought by hormonal imbalances & stuff. Someone smack this kid along the ears and tell him to stop sniveling, please?! The last few movies have been pretty good though. Hopefully, the writers for this movie installment can edit out the emotional crap we had to endure over 500 pages.
• The Simpsons Movie, July 27th: I love anything Matt Groening has done. Long live Futurama! Oh wait ... this is The Simpsons. Ah well, still good stuff. The writing of the show kinda flopped around a bit over the last few years, but this last season has been very strong in political and social satire. Hopefully, the movie producers kept the same writers around.
• The Bourne Ultimatum, August 3rd: Hmm ... yet another trilogy with a weak middle part. But Matt Damon really owns this character, and I do look forward to this movie.
• Rush Hour 3, August 10th: Verbal constipation meets verbal diarrhea for the third time. But I'm a fan of Jackie Chan and his crazy ass stunts.
• Mr. Bean's Holiday, August 31st: A big hit across the pond, this movie spawned an essay examinging why Bean was the cultural ambassador to the rest of the world.

Toto, I've got a feeling ...

My next project's in Kansas. Yep. Tornado City. I want some red shoes so that before I fly back every week I can tap them three times and say "There's no place like home".

On the other hand, I wonder if I get the chance to drive around searching for Smallville.