KK2

It seems they are making a new karate kid movie, with the kid being played by Will Smith's son. Nothing good can come of that. Last night before going to my karate class, i decided to have a quick watch of the original karate kid 2. This is when mister miagi goes to japan to face his old enemy and of course little karate kid joins him to offer support. Now I generally really like these kind of movies, love me some Rocky action, mighty ducks, you know sport related movies. These days throw in a bit of marshal arts and Bob's your uncle. But seriously, this movie is bad. Setting bad, acting VERY bad, story pretty bad, Japanese people speaking english BAD. The blossoming love between the kid (whose name i obviously don't recall) and the japanese babe.. bad. Everything bad. so so bad.
and yet I am wondering what happens in Karate kid 3. :-P

ps. one of the biggest problems people tell me about japan is that the society is very male dominated and women are to a large extent in the background. Now i don't know how true this is in reality, but it was surely true in KK2 and you know if it is in the movies, it MUST be true right? :-P

The Future is here

This article about iPhone's very slow (almost negative!) adoption in Japan is really fascinating. Basically it says that the iPhone is eons behind all the other phones in Japan, it is clunky and has too few applications. This being the phone that is revered in (world-minus-Japan). Seems in Japan people replace their home PCs with phone/mobile devices and most phones feature really good cameras and get this, TV tuners. How cool is that!! Basically the fact that iPhone relies on a home computer to sync media and get updates completely misses the point.
The future is here, only in Japan :-) I wish I could click my heels three times and show up there...now! Really good article.

thursday morning

I read the following line on a friend's mail signature: (Hafez is perhaps one of the couple of most famous Persian poets.)
Even after all this time The sun never says to the earth, "You owe Me." Look what happens with A love like that, It lights the Whole Sky. - Hafez

Meanwhile, I just heard on the news that a man who had donated his kidney to his wife, and who then wanted his kidney back once he found out she was cheating on him, is told his claim is being rejected. The whole thing is weird and sad.

Adjustable Eyeglasses at $1

Designer Focuses on Marketing Adjustable Eyeglasses at $1 a Pair: Scientific American
I always love all these inventions which make things available for the masses. OLPC for another.

Chemical Party!

From Gillen's blog. Which element do you want to be?
I am thinking of one of the alkali metals, as " They are soft shiny metals that usually combine with group VIIA nonmetals in chemical compounds in a 1:1 ratio."
i like the 1:1 ratio thing and who doesn't want to be soft and shiny :-P

If you hardly remember your chemistry, here is a quick list of properties. I am also hoping my chemical brothers and sisters will throw at us some of their knowledge! :-D

Job application =?= romance

This is my new theory. Applying for a job is like being in a romantic relationship. There are highs, there are lows: does he like me, does he not like me, are we a good fit, will he support me, i should play hard to get, not too eager... and it all ends either in breaking up or a marriage proposal.. i mean a job offer.
and so continues my saga of job hunting with no resolution in sight.

free water

i just heard that US airways is going to reverse their charges of non-alcoholic drinks. Seems they had too much negative publicity and they were not saving enough money to make the whole thing worthwhile. Also no other airline joined US airways in this charge. So now they have reversed it.
Now when are they going to remove the bag charge fee? it is so consistent in charging for checked in luggage and not carry ons. Because now most people try not to have checked in luggage and they bring these huge carry on pieces, which don't fit in the compartments above the seats and so they are "checked in" at the gate. So... what is the point? oh more importantly, the charge was brought on by high fuel prices which have since gone down down, way down. So why are we still paying for it?
Oh and my absolute biggest pet peeve about airlines? not being allowed to take liquids thru security. I heard somewhere they will relax this rule this year but nothing for sure. Anyone know anything about this?
wow this post has turned into a rant against airlines. Of course some airlines like Jet blue and Virgin are quite customer friendly :-)

the verdict

So has anyone been watching the Dollhouse? they had the second episode just yesterday and I must say that I like it so far. It has big potentials. Not the best actors, sometimes it becomes a little bit fake, but it's pretty good. The story is interesting and currently, I am hooked. That's a pretty good start right? :-)

I would love to hear from others who have been watching.

brilliant!

wonderful song, video... everything!

le Café - Oldelaf (english subtitles)
by Boebis

Sheherazade \approx Shahrzad

Last weekend (v)Alentino and I went to watch the symphony play Sheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. The music is based on the one thousand and one night fable where a jaded king believes all women are dishonorable and dishonest. So every night he would get a new wife and in the morning, he would kill her. Until that is, he married Shahrzad (the correct Persian pronounciation -- and she was a persian queen). On the first night, to farewell her sister, she told her a story. The king overheard her and was in awe and wanted to hear another story. However Shahrzad said the king would have to wait for the next night. For 1001 nights Shahrzad told stories, at the end of which time it seems that the king had 3 songs with her and had been taught about morality and kindness. (everything up to here is plausible except for that 3 sons part. Is that even theoretically possible in 1001 nights?)

Rimski-Korsakov - Sheherazade - La mer

This is a very beautiful piece. The above video is the beginning of the piece where you can just picture the king having made his royal decree and then you hear the beautiful and sweet voice of Shahrzad bewitching his with stories. Really beautiful.

We also had a very special seats! we were sitting right at the front, on the 3 row in te orchestra section, on the right edge. We had very good views of the back of the double base players, the conductor and the first violin!! Fortunately, there were a lot of violin solos and the conductor was fun to watch!
A great night, ending with a quick stop in Carl Jr's for a bite to eat in all our finery :-P

Dollhouse countdown!

Something major is happening tomorrow. Hallelujah. Joss Whedan's Dollhouse will be debuting on the evil channel and oh baby doll, I am trembling with excitement.
I have waited for this moment a long time, counting the months and the weeks and the days.
First it was Buffy, then Firefly, then Doctor Horrible and now.... welcome to the Dollhouse.

Here is Joss' interview on NPR which was on today. Totally recommended.

Meanwhile I am wondering why the evil channel is putting the show on such a horrible time slot, 9pm on friday nights. This is HORRIBLE (no pun intended!). Esta bien... we will still watch it. But why did Joss go back to Fox??? Grr. Such a bad move.
As you can tell, I am very excited!

Impressive

A benefit of being in Calgary is that I get to watch cable. Last time I was here, it was just before the elections and i had the channel on CNN the whole time. This time around the channel is still on CNN and I am watching Obama promoting the stimulus package. The last couple of days he has started doing these townhall meetings and press conferences and I am so impressed. Seriously the number of things he has to have a handle on is very impressive. In his first press conference, he started by giving a short overview of the stimulus package, then he fielded questions on economy, foreign policy, sports (A-rod) and state of the union. It was amazing how he would shift gears and start talking about somehitng totally different and people would want detailed answers.

To birth or not to birth

A big story in the news these days in Calgary is about a 60 years old woman who just had twin boys. Seems she and her husband always wanted kids but they couldn't ever conceive. About 10 years ago they tried to get IVF treatment in Canada but she was considered too old. She tried IVF in India (where she is from). They spent all their savings but she couldn't conceive. Last year they again tried IVF in India and she conceived and she just had her two healthy little boys last week. Supposedly she and her husband are taking care of the kids with the women's two parents.
There is a whole lot of hoopla right now about the ethics of the whole thing. Was the woman right to have the kids? Is it fair to the kids?

For me, it's a really hard decision. In a way I understand that people have dreams and this couple has wanted a kid for so long. And they are able to provide both financial and emotional support. But I also wonder how it would be for the kids to grow up with such old parents. It is bad enough having one generation gap between yourself and your parents, here you have two generation gaps. Then again they say that a lot of kids are brought up by their grandparents and they turn out well.
I do wonder why the couple didn't adopt kids when they were younger, but then again a lot of people prefer to have their own kids.

So I don't know. I would love to hear what others thinks.

Dancing and Music

This weekend Albanini and I went to a great little bar called Cigar Bar and Lounge in SF. It's cozy and has a nice atmosphere. There was also a small salsa band who were fab and we danced the night away. A much nicer place than the salsa place close to our house which Albinoni and I go once in a while because we are too lazy to go far. So we have been to this place (the one close to us) several times and there are definitely regulars. There is this woman who is a fabulous dancer with long hair that generally flies about as she turns and little dresses which are rather low cut and I am always surprised they don't reveal more accidentally! But it is so funny when she dances there is usually a line of men standing to the side just watching her. Anyway we found out she is a bit of a slut. Then there is this smallish guy with slicked back hair who is so cool he wears sunglasses in the dance club. Gangsta material. The DJ there seriously sucks. Seriously. ok enough complaining about this club. One good thing about the club is the teaching hour they have before the band starts playing. The teachers are relatively good. Now i am finishing on a good note :-)

Last night we also went to a concert by the Kronos Quartet. I had only heard Kronos' soundtrack to Requiem of a Dream and I absolutely love their Lux Aeterna. So I had high hopes going to the concert. Alas the first half they played all these very modern atonal, discordent music which contained background synthethized sound and some whispers and voice additions by these guys. It was amazing to me how anyone could actually like this so called music. Given 2 violins, a viola and a cello, you can make the most beautiful, deep and harmonous sounds and when you hear deliberate jarring and scratchy sounds, you wonder. Of course, what do I know, for there were people who loved and clapped and expressed their amazement at the beauty of the "noise" after wards during the discussion with the band.
I really don't understand these modern arts, where you call noise music, and some splashes of color on a canvas, a masterpiece.