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Showing posts from December, 2015

A Walk in the Woods - Film Review

3 out of 5 stars. 1 star for the jokes, 1 for the cinematography and 1 for Robert Redford having the courage to produce and act at his age (80). Story is based loosely on a book by one of my favorite story teller 'Bill Bryson'.  It is about the walk he undertook (at a much younger age than 80) after returning to America from Britain.  Just that the plan was to walk the Appalachian Trail or the AT. Spanning some 10 states along the eastern seaboard and covering 2,000 miles it is seen as a challenge by many a wanna be fitness freak or some sort of ultimate objective like scaling Everest or Mt. Fuji. At any rate Redford plays Bryson and along with Nick Nolte (also approaching 80) as a supporting cast attempts to show us the sights and sounds of the trail while filming largely in the state of Georgia which is the bottom part of the trail. A few comical episodes and light-hearted 'what are we here to discover' type existential banter keep the screenplay engaging e

Gaps in the 'Big Short'

This is not about a sartorial experiment but rather my book review after reading a work of non-fiction titled the 'The Big Short' by Michael Lewis. It is a story of the big financial crisis of 2008 spawned in the USA that endangered the fate of the US banking apparatus and by consequence of the world economy.  It delves into the opacity surrounding the financial instruments cooked up by collusion of power hungry and greedy marketers that operated and still operate on Wall Street and the immoral shenanigans that led to destroying the system built on the power of TRUST. While the Big Short could in the eyes of Mr. Lewis be merely a tale of a few autistic savants and shrewd investigators that accidentally foresaw the big tsunami of sub-prime mortgage loan defaults before the large Wall Street firms did there is also an underlying crusade to expose the wrong doings of chosen few. This is where the story falls Short or has Gaps. While explaining the entire buy and sell side

Few good laughs

As the year draws to a close and the planet reverts to a position it took up 365 days ago, we cherish what has been and look forward to what might come during the next trip round the star. A big trip south from our base coordinates we ventured as far as Peru and the pilgrimage into the Andes to see what must have been - life at 9,000 feet around 500 years ago.  Our daughter, the motivating force behind it with a research paper she wrote on the Incas, the adventure was refreshing and revealing but physically tiring. Then the summer saw us visiting our place of birth (technically the stomping grounds of our youth which we wanted to show our daughter) that took us from the west coast of India all the way east into the mining and manufacturing base that the Tata family established over 100 years ago. Later that trip I ventured alone seeking a path to discover what was.  Another ancient civilization and what made them tick - the Chollas - warriors and rulers of the south of India.  I

'At Home' by Bill Bryson

Bill Bryson is an American living in Britain that has written a few works of non fiction.  Most have a history lesson feel to them but are extremely readable.  One of the more recent ones circa 2012 that came out dealt with the story of our homes.  As in how did the home with its many rooms that we live in came to be. It is an anthropological journey from the hunter gatherer man to his present day status as a civilized, biped occupying large swaths of livable land mass to feed, clothe and shelter his brood. It is a fascinating read that takes you through various digressions including various inventions that made fortunes for a few and many a remarkable brainiac that was forgotten by history.  In it he also remarks that history is often like that.  Truer words were never said. He delves in to the story of illumination (the literal kind) from wax and tallow to discovery and use of kerosene to why certain kitchen implements are the way they are.  We tend to not pay too much attenti