smashed teeth

last night i dreamt i brushed my teeth. on the second pass, my 2 front teeth fell out. i pondered life with no two front teeth, and decided it was bearable. i proceeded to brush. as i brushed all the teeth in the right side of my mouth spilled onto the sink counter. i looked down and saw them sprawled out like a pomegranate. blood rolled out of my mouth in waves. i tried asking my wife to call her nephew, as he's a dentist, but words failed me. just air and gum residue flowed forward. i got nervous, and began thinking. i tried in desperation to think of a solution - perhaps they would quickly grow back like a smashed nail - perhaps cosmetic dentistry could help. soon i realized the gravity of the situation.

flight plan

movie review: just saw flight plan last night. jodie foster was great and a perfect match for the role. she plays this grieving-wife-who-may-be-losing-her-mind part real well. the picture was a pretty harrison-ford-john-grisham-like thriller. lots of tightly fitting plot construction mixed w/ some nice story telling technique. if you haven't seen the movie, i'd stop here. oh, i'd give it 3 stars out of 4 - mostly just because to get more than that from me a picture needs to have significant artistic merit beyond just being well told and executed.

and for those who've seen it, or don't fret whether a review 'ruins' the film, i really bought into the idea that her daughter indeed had died w/ her father and took foster for a coo coo bird. so much so, that i was almost annoyed, like the rest of the crew w/ her obsession. it is curious that we have air marshalls in the air these days, and trust them to not be crazed loons and loose cannons. i hope they do some serious psychological screenings of these guys.

other tid bits, if the arab guys on the plane weren't the ones looking at her the night before she left, who was? are we just supposed to assume they were other 'evil' arab dudes? also, if one were to hatch such an extreme plot for $, it seems they would see the many risks of this plan as extreme. why not just kidnap a rich person's kid and skip the complications w/ the airplane. anyway, i have more on that line of thinking, but i have things to do. on the whole, great escape movie.

ek hasina thi

movie review: saw ek hasina thi last night. definitely not your typical bollywood song and dance film. read a great review of it here. i was all set to write about the film, then i read this - it captures 95% of what i was going to say. i also agree w/ the 3 star rating, as well as the assessment of the strong first half vs. more formulaic, though still engaging, second half.

what else, we just got back from watching the sunset over puget sound at the park. our neighborhood converges at this one lovely point anytime the sunset looks promising. this evening was no exception. also learned a new trick w/ my son - normally, we play helicopter, and i swirl him around and round by holding onto his hands while he stares at the ground. today, we flipped him on his back, and i held his ankles while he could gaze up at the sky. minor change, certainly a bit less safe, but he was dizzy and giddy and clearly preferred our new found form.

tablet pc art

art: was over at my masi's the other day. spent time playing w/ my cousin's tablet PC. they're kind of fun to sketch w/. certainly doesn't have the nice texture of real pens or brushes or paper, but has some cool features. i've included a couple of the quick 5 minute sketches i put together. the tablet pen was reasonable to work with. pretty responsive. the paint brushes aren't very practical for sketch work. you need to really take your time - fast, quick strokes overwhelm the paint algorithms. of course the color and texture are no where near the quality of real media, but atleast you don't have to wash your hands afterward.

the constant gardener

movie review: saw the constant gardener last night. what a terrific movie. i give it 4 stars out of 4. plot was energetic and exciting. the cinematography was original and well done. there were lots of scenes where the camera was intentionally bouncing around, or struggling to focus - all adds well to the tension. they also did some great things with the color. the opening murder scene in the desert has some interesting color effects. the setting was in kenya. lots shot in the slums. this film left me really struggling to piece together all the details. i even woke up in the middle of the night because i forgot one. also got me thinking - biopharm companies must really be moving their human testing to poor locales. there was a great quote in the movie, something like ' you can test lotions made of battery acid here if you pay the right folks off' - that's so sadly true in the third world. i'm ignorant of any american laws that prevent this from happening, but my sense is abuse exists in some form. i suppose weird drug testing happens even here. i had a friend who funded his entire graduate school by volunteering. he was particularly proud of a trial where his body was used for stress testing the impacts of mixing a cardiac arrest prevention drug with ibuprofen. they wanted to see how high the doses could go before significant side effects manifested themselves. he was excited because it paid 4 times more than the regular trial. he ended up going into a mild coma for a few minutes and walked out w/ 4K$. i shudder to think what the extreme poor would do for 4K$ in india, or africa.

bewafaa

movie review: last night we rented bewafaa. was pretty good. i'd give it 2 3/4 stars out of 4. the story line was good, not too cliched. the music was below average for a bollywood flick. too much of that mid tempo brooding singing that was common back in the 70s. not enough catchy big fashion flash. a lot of this was due to the plot, though. tough to be happy and dancy when melancholy is required. also, found the half western/half eastern thing poorly executed. the main girl's mom's white, dad's punjabi, and that somehow had something to do w/ who the girl was. the only way it tied in was this singer guy from montreal specialized in 'fusion' music. only problem was 'singer guy' wasn't western at all, nor was his music. started thinking about this whole 'marry your sister's husband in the event of her death' thing. if it wasn't for my instinctive western discomfort w/ the idea, it actually makes a lot of sense - keeps the family together, kids get to be truly loved, and as the film explores well, the problem's in the touchy husband / wife dynamic.