The Dining Zone

The Dining Zone, originally uploaded by v_oberoi.

The Other Side

The Other Side, originally uploaded by v_oberoi.

The Main Lounge

The Main Lounge, originally uploaded by v_oberoi.

There's the main lounge.

Wrath wrought?

I was never too much of a fan of Club Avalon - but check this out!

Open Forum:NYC

Was invited to a really nice Amex Business event at the Nokia Theater on Times Square yesterday - one of the many networking/marketing forums that New York has, but one of the few that actually leave an impact without hardselling anything.

The event basically featured the Liz Lange, the lady who made maternity clothing hot and happening, sizzle-chef Mario Batali (of Babbo and Lupa fame - which are by far some of New York's most snazzy joints) and the founders of the Blue Man Group. Seamlessly organized and taped for television, the event was really cool, right down to the Millionaire/KBC-style voting pads for audience opinions on marketing trends.

All three of the panelists were self-made successes who did not have a business plan other than the will to succeed. Being in the company of some of New York's most established success stories and to hear not just how they did it, but why - was truly an inspiration. Not to mention, some good networking with the who's-who of the advertising world - they had name tags divided by fields, but didn't have a category called Finance. The F&M divide deepens. I sincerely miss the advertising days! :-)

Muhahahahahahaha!

In other laughability - a snippet from the San Jose Mercury News review of Casino Royale which had me in tears - "Pierce Brosnan's Bond substituted geek gadgetry for glamour, groaner puns for wit and a look of emotional constipation for character".

All of a sudden

Pennsylvania seems to be a lil more happening :-) with the rise of the new Mohegan Sun!

I'm gone, but not forgotten! Will be back on a wing and a prayer real soon!

Ha-ha! Talk about an expensive word-feud!

Chugging Along

"The Incas had a high knowledge of astronomy, medicine, math, among others
But the Spanish invaders had gunpowder
How would America be today if things had been different?"
- The Motorcycle Diaries, 2004.

Touching. I had a totally different projected view of the life of Che Guevara, until I caught this baby. Its more of a docu-drama, but I've always loved journey flicks.

Suddenly discovered a latent passion for foreign film, and have violently re-aligned the Netflix Queue.

A true dark horse

Picked up the CD of the Bas Ek Pal soundtrack, and it really grew on me over the past week. Although it takes a while to settle in, but then you realize that its an a really brilliant score!

If you can ignore Atif's off-keying in Tere Bin, the melody is amazing! The song that really stands out is Dheemey Dheemey. The guitar work by Dominique Cerejo in almost all of the songs is awesome. Check it out on Raaga, and if you love it, buy it.

The Gods must be Matchmaking

Surprised to see this in Yahoo! Personals

White supremacy finally bows down to idol-worship eh? hyuk hyuk!

And of course, Nikhil Advani's new movie, Salaam-E-Ishq (from Sharaabi)

Costa Rica Coffee Rules

As I take my daily caffeine dose, I have a few pondering thoughts :

(1) I hate it when someone uses the term "expired" for humans. They aren't MILK CARTONS, people.

(2) Barring remakes, and movies with the same title as older movies, so many Hindi movies in the recent past have been titled using lines from old movie songs, and in many case, not just the title, but a catchy hook line within the song. Think about it, here are a few I could remember (with some help from HindiLyrix and Wiki to locate the movie names)

Aashiq Banaaya Aapne (from Karz)
Pyaar mein kabhi kabhi (from Chalte Chalte)
Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya (from Shakti)
Pyaar kiya to darna kya (Mughal-E-Azam)
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (from Uthe Sab Ke Kadam - Baaton Baaton Mein)
Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna (from Chalte Chalte)
Ek Haseena Thi (kind of, from Karz)
Har Dil Jo Pyaar Karega (from Sangam)
Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke (from Nau Do Gyarah)
Hum to mohabbat karega (from Dilli ka Thug)
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (from Chor Machaye Shor)
Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani (from Shri 420)

The Net Can Do Anything

This is becoming more and more true everyday. Ever have that song in your head, where you had the tune or the beat, and could tap it out, but couldn't get the words. Now there's a website that lets you tap the beat that you have in your head, on your spacebar, and then generates songs that it identifies to follow that pattern.

This is absolutely ridiculous!!!

Few more images from the event

"Believe me, my dear fellow, that so long as people refuse to give up everything for the sake of which they attack and devour each other on earth, that so long as they refuse to think of putting their spiritual fortune in order, there will be no fair distribution of earthly fortunes, either" - Nikolai Gogol



Although the security confiscated all digi-cams and camera phones, I managed to sneak mine in to catch an extremely hazy pic of Kal Penn and Mira Nair talking towards the front of the screen, prior to the movie. Am I star-crazed paparazzi enough for you?

But what left one mesmerized was the film itself. The Namesake was a touching and brilliant amalgamation of a few generations of talents - Mira Nair, Jhumpa Lahiri, Tabu and Irfan Khan supported by the understructure of the flute/guitar/drum'n'bass background compositions of Nitin Sawhney. And of course, the elusive Siberian who began this whole thing - Nikolai Gogol.

Namesake captures the Indian immigrant experience, almost effortlessly. This movie amalgamates all the individual thoughts and emotions thrown across in singularity by several comedians and journalists over the last 10-15 years, as this diaspora has expanded out of anonymity. But in true Mirabai-style balance, the movie uplifts as much as it depresses - perhaps depresses is a strong word in this case, I would say, makes one clearly realize what's missing. Unlike other movies that scream out their messaging, Namesake plays on simplicity.

A MUST watch!

Hard Day's Night

Beatles' fans unite! 'Cuz my new pad's on Abbey Road. Well, close enough. Its Abbi Road. Same difference.

New Postal Address: 801 Abbi Road, Carteret, NJ 07008

Pictures coming this weekend, as most of my new stuff is up.

Stop Press: Heading to the Namesake premiere, this evening. Keynote addresses by Kal Penn, Salman Rushdie (who seems to have all the time in the world these days) and the legendary, Mira Nair. Will keep you all posted!

The Inferno Within

Under the bowl which we call the sky,
We live, We breathe, We sin, We die,
Of our formidable existence, we believe and we commend,
That life is the beginning, and death is the end.
The iconoclasts, and hermits, suffer the same fate,
A new storm brews, while the last does abate,
The world does revolve, and the sky continues to roll,
Time doesn't halt, but inevitably takes its toll
On our senses, our psyche, the past does haunt,
We neither get what we need, nor receive what we want,
The fire out there may burn out someday,
In eternal abeyance to take our past away,
For its burning and searing and singeing my soul,
Not a moment or a span, but it all as a whole,
Its a phase, they say, it'll subside with time,
But with it, it will take everything that was ever mine
A deluge of emotions, a flood of experiences
Memories vacillating to Satan's conveniences,
You may extinguish an arsonist's sin
But no one can put out the inferno within.
We'll die when the end approaches, they say,
But they lie to you, my friend, for we die everyday.

Its over!

Can I get my life back now please?

Some Camera Phone Images

In short - it rocked! Catch the dope on AVS next weekend!