Friday, October 26, 2007

Online TV shows


:( news: CBS finally woke up to the fact that ads in their innertube can be skipped by using a real player. Now they have changed it to a flash player and I had to bear the ads to watch survivor repeats !!

:| news: NBC have placed "The Office" episodes online. That's great but just like cbs' innertube, you have watch the ads EVERYTIME before / after you watch a segment. That is big pain if you want to rewind to the funny parts of the show !! Kudos to the abc team though for a much better interface. There, once you watch the ads, the segments get merged and hence, you will watch an ad only once to watch scenes from a segment any number of times!! (If you didn't get it, try it :P )
Back to Top


Reading List Updates


Finally managed to finish "The Chamber". It was just about okay. I couldn't really empathize with many of the characters and I guess it made the book seem really long. Either that, or the book really was long.

Funnily enough, the book I read right after that was "The Stranger" by Albert Camus. I really like it when I read with no expectations and the book turns out to be great. However, that happens rarely only since most books I read are recommendations from others or from yours truly :). This one was thanks to D who had this book but hadn't read it. (I would guess that the odds of him reading the book are 1:10 if not lower).

I also managed to finish the "Rising Sun" from my list. That was a pretty good thriller and surprisingly, I managed to finish it in less than a couple of days. (That is a very short time considering the fact that I am overloaded with work!!) Must try and catch the movie sometime. Anyways, might add Crichton's other works to my list soon.

Now I am reading an awesome book on Tamil Nadu Politics, "Cut-outs, Caste and Cine Stars". I am about 70 pages into the book and it is pretty damn good. And I picked this one from random list of LOC Call numbers. Guess I got lucky again!!
Back to Top



Thursday, October 04, 2007

Pushing Daisies


The one new show I have liked the most this season is "Pushing Daisies" (not that I have been seeing too many new ones).

"Daisies" is about a man who can bring the dead back to life with his touch. However, as expected, there is a catch - actually there are two catches. One, if he touches that person ever again, he/she will die forever. And two, if he brings someone alive, an innocent person will have to die instead.

The pilot episode had the unique mix of humor and innocence that is essential for a story using magical realism. The episode was very well shot and had a "if-Tim-Burton-was-happy" feel to it (or may be I still have a "Big Fish" hangover). The story was very "fairy tale"-ish with unexpected twists and interesting characters.

I hope the show lives up to its promise and that they don't stretch it unnecessarily.

Considering how, many of my favorite shows don't survive long, I probably just jinxed this one. But then even if I did, this show can always bring itself to life with its own magical touch !!
Back to Top