A dream come true

2nd March '08. East Rutherford, NJ - I had been to watch my Spurs play in NJ. It was a wonderful experience in a very well organized arena. I had been waiting for ever to watch an NBA game live and this year was the time.

And, the Spurs won. Yee haw!!!

We need a break!

I got my driver's license back home more out of a necessity. But ever since, driving has been a passion. And driving here in the US has been an experience in itself - one to ruminate life-long. I prefer driving with one hand while the other one will be on the gears (its auto-tx but still... I love stick shift) or the ipod or putting "ThaaLam".

In the past week, I've been forced to drive two handed - its because of the horrible weather. Gloves are of no help. You need to have your hands near the a/c vent! I hate it!

Now, its snowing again. Come on, daylight savings are a week away. Take a time out. We need a break!

Bones is back in the Alamo city!

Brent "bones" Barry has decided to join his old team - the team that traded him along with Francisco Elson to Seattle for the big man Kurt Thomas - the Spurs! Or is this a surprise?

The NBA this year has been at its frentic best with blockbuster trades looming under rumors, strokes of sheer brilliance, players veto-ing trades with their "Larry Bird" rights, trades spoiled by "leaky mouths" of players speaking to the media and of course the deadline thrillers.

There was a long running rumor about Jason Kidd being traded to Dallas for Harris, Stackhouse and others in a multi player deal. However, they lost a chance to take advantage of a loophole in NBA's rules - the 30 day period, when Mr. Stackhouse turned "Mr.Otta vaai" and said "I'll be back in Dallas in 30 days". All this after one Mr. Devean George refused to be a part of that trade using his Larry Bird rights. The world wondered if this trade will ever go through! It did, but after so much speculation and headaches and with a fresh set of players.

The Spurs simply used an advantage the media provides them every year - yeah, they do not cover them till the playoffs. They announced that they had traded Barry and Elson for Thomas. And boy, there was not even a semblance of a rumor! Barry had a calf injury that would cost him 30 more days, so Seattle waived him and now Barry is joining the Spurs on March 21st after five teams other than the Spurs went on a begging spree to sign him up.

And this is indeed a master stroke. Nobody knows Barry's health condition better than the Spurs and they used his "recuperation period" to pull off a trade involving him and now they get him back!

Dallas and others, that is how you do a trade!

Spurs fans, double delight ain't it? Barry is back shortly after the Spurs dispatched the Mavs in a high-octane thriller.

Go Spurs!

Words matter

The Indian Premier League (IPL) - hastily started in an attempt to ward off Indian Cricket League (ICL)'s threat had its franchises recruit players on Tuesday in an "auction".

Auction is not the best option to pick players for any tournament. The players may not be rookies and so you cannot really rank them and recruit, but atleast the monetary issues have to be handled with utmost sincerity and sensitivity.

The sheer money involved here has raised everybody's eyebrows and sparked off needless debates and controversies. Don't be surprised if somebody calls for a probe into this! It's India. And of course you have a plethora of cliches like "cricket under the hammer", "players become greedy" blah blah blah...

Alternatively, use of the word "draft" in place of auction and sensible handling of the monetary matters with the media would have paid of better. Having made an attempt to challenge ICL, taking a cue from their books ain't that bad!

BCCI brains are still raw.

The all-star weekend

The all-star weekend at New Orleans was easily NBA entertainment at its best.

Daniel Gibson hitting 11 shots from downtown in the rookie challenge, two 7-footers from San Antonio winning the shooting contest, Jason Kapono setting a 3-point shootout record, the best slam dunk contest ever and a thriller of an all-star game - the weekend had everything a fan asked for.

The dunk contest was the sickest and arguably the most creative ever. Gerald Green kicked of the creative extravaganza blowing off a candle on a cup cake placed atop the rim while dunking in. And Dwight "Superman" Howard put on an exhibition of amazing creativity and incredible power becoming one of the rarest big men victors in the contest.

Starting off with a vicious 360 windmill from behind the backboard, Dwight followed it up with the "Superman" dunk and followed it up with a left hand to backboard to right hand slam in the finals capping off the night with another sick dunk - picking up a ball from a small net affixed on the backboard and slamming in a windmill. Watch Dwight's sticker dunk last year - sad he did not make it to the finals!

There was also a flip side of creativity when Rudy Gay asked the public via youtube for dunks he can perform on stage.

The dunk contest has been revived and no one will fear that it will lose its sheen - atleast for the next few years. And the bar has been set so high that emulating it is going to need something out of box!

People and Poodle

Munaf Patel - Either get a haircut or bowl fast.

Now, one will talk about Ishant's hair style too. No offense meant to him but on the first look I thought his hairstyle resembled a Poodle. The comparison stops there - he has been a hound down under.

Talking about the usage of Poodle to refer people, nothing can beat the reference to Tony Blair as George Bush's Poodle.

180 + 180 = 360

Today was the first time I got to drive during a snow storm and oh boy, what an experience it was!

In the early stages it was just like "white dust" blowing heavily across and it was not tough to negotiate it. I continued my drive on I-84 and it was still okay and pretty much easily manageable until I got off the highway. By then, the roads were just nasty and full of tire marks and dirty snow. The marks took whatever grip that remained on the road and all that was there was hydroplaning. Or should I call it iceplaning/snowplaning etc?!?

Anticipating the need to brake often, courtesy a plethora of traffic lights I took a detour through a country road and that was it! A suave 180 degree spin at the entrance. That country road was hiddeous! Luckily the other road with all those signals was just a stone's throw away. So, left turn, detour again and boy, another 180 degree spin - this time even worse and wobbly. All these when driving at 5-10 mph.

Some presence of mind and absence of any cars around saved the day and I reached home safe. Malai had a 360 + 360 experience driving in sleet. Jeezaloo!

And, where is the guy who honked hard twice at me from an SUV? Why don't you drive a compact size car and honk from inside? Driving in snow ain't fun dude!

Anything is possible

Now, this has to be the best ad for a sports franchise. A rich Tamil + Telugu flavour, accent, local Chennai mix, a few finer points of the game and terrific creativity - its right out of the top drawer.



A few things worth noting

--> Toss... "Baetting"
--> The runner starting to wear sun glasses when the bowler is about to deliver
--> "Staap", "Releeese" and the runner's reaction at that time
--> Volume increase and its background score
--> Jujupee

Now go back and view it all over again :-)

And I must say, the ads of the other teams are about a light year away from that of the Superstars, who by the way are living up to their name so far to be the only unbeaten team in the league right now.

Atlast...

Google has launched "Group Chat" or conference chat as we know it. Waiting for more...

How to save $13

Book tickets for Azhagiya Tamizhmagan. I sure did. But the theater did not receive the prints on time. (Sir, theater-kku potti varala sir). Now... you know what to do when you live abroad. Bang! Save money!

Next is Vel and Polladhavan.

Black Friday...

err... Bongu (போங்கு) Friday!

Biting the dust(?)

He can be called the Asoka de Silva among Tamil cinema directors. He terrifies people making guest appearances in his movies. He is widely acclaimed as the "king of screwing up" heroes' images with movies christened after places in TN. His spell did not even spare the one and only Gabtun!

Here comes the king of crap Perarasu with his next venture, teaming up with Arjun. Huh!

Saawariya - சாவரியா?

Saawariya - is a recently released Hindi movie. If you are from Tamil Nadu, you would read it as சாவரியா.

Now here comes the beauty of Indian diversity. Saawariya in Hindi means "beloved" (source: google search results). And look what Tamil has in store for you. The word, in Tamil is always used as a question. Example : pOi saavariya? (meaning, why don't just go and die). Just like "gaandu" which means "irritate" in local slang. And we all know what it means in Hindi.

I heard Chak de India made brisk business down south and so if Saawariya runs to packed houses in Sathyam theater, imagine how black tickets will be sold - "சாவரியா, சாவரியா 40 rooba"...

என்னக் கொடுமை இது?

Thinking further in Tamil, what could be a sequel to Saawariya? How about "Seththu Poittiya"? ;-)

Festival Season and Ads

I caught up with this year's Deepavali special programms on Sun TV after missing out last year's. And whenever its a festival in TN and there are special programs, Leo coffee starring Arvindswamy leads the way. And of course there is, "VeLLikkizhamai... mangalam ponga" Meera seeyakkai thooL. இந்த pattern-அ மாத்தவே மாட்டாங்களா?

And I must say there are a plethora of pathetic ads out there - lead by 3 Roses and Reliance. On second thought, let the old Leo coffee and Meera herbal ads remain.

Now, this is ROTFL stuff - right at the top along with Fevicol, Tata Indica etc. simply brilliant!

=))

Kalaasals

I stumbled upon this piece which gives suggestions to deal with the innumerable "do you want a credit card" telephone calls. I tried one that's not in the list about an year back and got immediate rewards.

Rep : Sir, I am calling from citi bank. Would you like a credit card sir?
Me : I am from ICICI do you want one?

The rep instantly hung up the phone. More ideas/suggestions that would work or that have worked please...