Thursday, November 4, 2004 at 4:20PM I was in Washington DC last weekend - cheering Divya on at the marathon (6hrs 4 mins!), and was down with a bad cold all week. But I've risen from the ashes yet again. :-) I'll be posting a few pictures from the weekend soon, and Divya's promised a few paragraphs describing her experience too.
Wednesday, October 27, 2004 at 1:32PM I ran across a story today in WSJ (the stub linked to an article in Fortune). Apparently, Texan girl scouts are making audiotapes of themselves to teach Desi orphans "Texas English". One girl scout said, "We're helping them to learn how to pronounce English good."
If only we could teach the girl scouts how to use English grammar well!
The irony of it all. Sigh.
Monday, October 25, 2004 at 2:57PM I finally got to watch Infernal Affairs on Saturday night ... and, I'm impressed. I'm not much of the thriller-fan, but the movie really does engage. It's not bloody or violent (well, not much) and more of a cat-and-mouse thriller than a thriller/scare-fest.
Briefly - a cop goes undercover in a triad. At the same time, the triad places a mole inside the police force. Both moles were friends training in the same batch of police recruits, only the undercover cop gets "thrown out" to create a credible illusion. Flashforward 10 years, to the setting of the movie. Now according to the press reviews I read, the movie was about each man questioning his allegiances. I didn't really see that, except at the very end. To me, the movie was about the two moles being ordered to "find themselves". In other words - both the cops & the triad realize there's a mole, but don't know who it is, and ironically order the moles to get to the bottom of the situation.
The movie was very bare-bones: I thought it could've been fleshed out a little more - to describe the inner turmoils, or to show their budding friendship as recruits. It would've been nice to see how the characters changed & evolved and how their past pressured them in the present.
But the whole cat-and-mouse thing ... very impressive! Good editting, and good script pacing as well.
Word of mention should be made to the theater. I watched the movie in the Clearview hall on 12th & 2nd. It's a small theater, and gave the effect of a large living room. I really liked that. Unfortunately, the theater seemed to favor the artsy/non-mainstream movies only.
