Its 11:30 pm on the 31st of December 2004 – my last blog post for this year. I have mixed emotions about 2004 – a fair share of good and not-so-good things happened (as they do to everybody in their lives)

On the up n positive side +
+i made some awesome friends who have altered me as a person and the way i see things.
+i completed my thesis paper that seemed like the most impossible thing ever initially.
+i got my masters (well… not in my hand yet – but as soon as they FedEx it to me)
+i drank myself silly on a special evening with a very special someone ( a thought that i will cherish forever
+Got meself a good job in a marcom company closely associated with the airline industry (not saying anymore)

On the down n negative side -
-A sad breakup of a very talented and skilled group of individuals who i enjoyed working with – better known as the ‘hmm crew’
-A painful realization about people and the future and a weee bit of alteration to both of the above.

Say… the +’s kinda outweigh the -’s… don’t it?? not too bad a year now after all. Hopefully 2005 will be better.

Goodbye 2004!

Happy New Year all!
All the best for 2005

- Its 5:06 pm on the 28th 0f December
- Its 18 degrees centigrade outside and raining heavily
- I am suffering with a condition of very low tolerance for people who think they are the centre of the universe
- Death tolls continue rising dramatically in South East Asia because of the dreadful Tsunami ( May their soul reast in peace – i am worried about Rukaiya – hope she is allright)
- Rhea is getting engaged today to a guy who she ‘thinks’ that she loves (hope he turns out to be gay – she deserves much better: somebody like me ;P )
- Some people are sleeping peacefully at home without letting their concience bother them
- Tia thinks that her tummy is a fish bowl ( thats what Aikido does to people )
- I am remembering a truly inspirational moment i had yesterday when i saw my tiny heart beating on an ultrasound screen (made me realize how fragile the human body is – such a tiny thing yet such hard a job it has
- Jasmine and Bugs are recalling funny moments from the movie ‘The Incredibles’
- Mom is at home staring out the window and wondering how ‘last year – this time…. we were….’
- Spooky my dog is wondering when ‘dinner’ will be served
- Anjali is sitting all alone at the Hmm office roughing out an escape plan
- Eric and Zeina are trying to sell our ‘campaign idea’ to Air Arabia so we dont have to work through New Years night
- Mohammed is talking on the phone …. in arabic
- I can see a cargo airplane taking off from the runway – the ground beneath me tremors slightly
- I think about her again once more and how things could have been instead
- I wonder where i am going in life
- A man in a black jacket is pacing back and forth in the rain (probably wondering about his weekend)
- I look back and read what i have written and realize that ‘the moment in time has passed long ago’
- I say to myself – Life Goes On !

Merry Christmas to all you lovely ppl out there !

Just happened to tune into Channel 2 and catch a glimpse of Oprah’s – My Favorite Things in which she gives away truck loads of goodies to every one in the audience ( who all happen to be teachers) . Agreed that the noble profession of teaching is notoriously wellknown for overworking and underpaying – - – but hey!!! these ladies in the show were losing it …. i am talking ‘buckets full of happy tears’, ‘hyperventilation’ and ‘red noses’ over the thrill of being a proud owner of new bed sheets, watches, laptops, crayola’s, washing machines ???? dude…. i dont know…. these americans… .. are … slightly over the top.

Maybe i’d react the same way if i got these things too… but right now… its a little insane i think.

Took this panorama of the Sharjah Skyline from the Mamzar area over the weekend. Thought i’d post it cuz i couldnt think of anything else better to do with it.

Talking about photographs…. here is a sudden burst of inspiration that came my way over msn from a very talented msn pal of mine – pixelz.. Check out these fabulous collection of photographs she has secretly stocked under her belt — they are absolutely astounding!

http://www.phototalk.net/photos/showgallery.php/cat/500/ppuser/1822

Work has been a little slow – been working on some flyers and brochures lately that ive been trying real hard to come up with a concept for… arrrgh – its a love and hate kind of relationship i have with this conceptual stage of the creative arts…… all a part of the game i guess.

Not been feeling too well lately – probably something to do with this new diet that i am on – although i must say that it has been quite rewarding. Anyway its the season to eat, drink and be merry, so diet and workout can be on hold for the next two weeks.

Got a visit from them the Chinese DVD Santa and i indulged in the purchase of some mainstream hollywood flicks – The Day after Tommorow, Dawn of the Dead ( which din’t end up working ), Collateral, Princess Diaries 2 and 21 Grams — Ho Hum stuff really.. although 21 grams with its fragmented nonlinear narrative structure was a good deviation from some of the crap that i’ve been watching recently.

21 Grams comes from the same impressive team of Guillermo Arriaga and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu who had previously made ‘Amores Perros’ – remember being baffled by the nonlinearity of the film when Kim showed it to us at media theory class a few years back.After watching the film (21 grams – watch trailer), i felt inspired to revisit an article called ‘filling in the gaps’ i remembered reading in the Res Magazine a few months back in Melbourne. It makes very interesting references to nonlinear storytelling – click here to read article (important bits are highlighted)

Visit the official movie website www.21-grams.com

As you stroll down the street whistling and thinking to yourself ‘how good life is and how well everything seems to be in place’ – KABANG TWANG ! a piano falls on your head and everything goes bollocks again. Reminds me of one of them arcade games where you have to bonk the beavers on the head when they come out of their little burrows – know what i mean ?

This weekend was definitely one of the shittiest and dissapointing weekend of all times for me. If they ever gave out awards for shitty depressed weekends – it should probably be named after me… it was that bad!

*sigh*
I think i read too much into too little and dreamt up a silly little world that gave me a purpose. A motive to fight through a shit load of crap that life generally has to offer…..*sigh* look at me sounding all philosophical and everything. Arrgh! i just wish i could just make her realize how stubborn and stupid she is being for a ’smart person’…. i dont know – maybe i’m being stupid for expecting too much from her.

Anyway – i guess thats all behind me now whether i like it or not.

I was able to catch two screenings out of the many at the Dubai International Film Festival . One being the very well directed and witty ‘Raghu Romeo’ by Rajat Kapoor. I thought the film was a very humorous account of how the lines between reality and fantasy can get blurred in todays media controlled society. This blurring of lines was very well interwoven with the individual search for love and identity. Whilst Raghu falls in love with Neetaji (on screen character of Maria Gorreti) who does not exist in reality, Sweetie is looking for Raghu’s love and attention. The character played by Saurabh Shukla yearns for Sweetie’s love and struggles to maintain his identity as a professional killer who is assigned the job of killing Neetaji. All in all – it ends up being quite a cacophony of individual interactions with a touch of intentionally placed song and dance sequences to poke fun and highlight the pop-cultness of the film.

My favorite bit in the film definitely has to be the heart rendering cry that Raghu ( played by Vijay Raaz) lets out at the end. A brilliant actor but not much of a talker – is what i gathered as he stood in front of us along with Rajat Kapoor at the end of the film. I thought there were some really stupid questions that the crowd asked that night – but it takes all sorts i guess.

The second film that i ended up watching the very same evening was a SriLankan film called ‘Against the Tide’ directed by Sudath Devapriya. A rather lengthy but poigniant film – i thought. I noticed a touch of Satyajit Ray’s – Pather Panchali in there. It was probably the fact that both films were based on a rural background and centred themselves around the theme of ‘hope’ for a father figure to return. Another parallel between the two films was that the choice and pacing of the individual shots further heightened the wait and anxiousness of the viewer much like that of the characters themselves.

I quite enjoyed decoding the subtle and not so subtle metaphors in the film – the butterfly and the jar of ‘colored fishes’. The use of the jar of fishes seemed to be quite subtle and only fell into place at the end as a symbol of hope. Very beautifully structured – the film would periodically return to shots of the boy staring at the fishes as he waited for his fathers return. Eventually, after he comes to hear of his fathers ill fated death, he lets the fishes go as he lets go of any hope whatsoever of his return. A lengthy but a worth watch.

Thats it from me now… i wish i could the same about many other things in my life at this point. *sigh*

Finally! Been meaning to blog for the past two weeks, but just haven’t been able to push it up on the priority list. Anyway, no time like now – i guess…

I finished my first one month of work at the new place — and i must say that i am growing fond of the place (i still have to discipline myself to get to work on time – thats been a tough one). The workload comes in unexpected chunks and then dissipates indefinitely – kinda like the rain in this part of the world really…

Am back into the circuit training routine at my gym and this time Faisal made sure to introduce me to Mr.Atkins.

‘Hello Mr.Atkins – how are you ?’ said i

‘hmmmppphh – you wanna lose those extra bits around the waist is it?’ says he whilst peering over me intimidatingly.

‘WHAT? no carbs and no sweets for the next 13 weeks !!!!’ i shrieked..

Guess what? … i bit !
lets see how it goes – can’t be all that bad, and if it is – Mr.Atkins may have just reserved a tiny cozy spot for himself next to the likes of Mr.Murphy on my hitlist.

Been reading the articles in the ‘Bidoun Magazine’ lately (which i highly recommend for any artist who is interested in producing meaningful crosscultural art pieces). The magazine is a visual delight and it offers sheer thrill to see such exciting layout design being produced in the middle east.

Historically, The Iranians have been notoriously famous for their modern designs and calligraphy. Amongst the interesting reads in this issue are the articles that focus on Arabic Calligraphy and the Definition of Islamic Art. In the former, an intersting point is made in the study of Reza Abedinis work is:

‘The text becomes the image, a visual element to be seen and understood intuitively, rather than read and understood intellectually. These are distinctively cluttered compositions, in which the Farsi-style lettering does not necessarily act as a neutral support to the image, but blends with the images to create a tightly woven fabric that occupies the space of the poster like a self confident monument’ (Bidoun, Issue2, page32 by Huda AbiFares)

Here are some of Abedinis work – http://www.rezaabedini.com/works/poster.html
truly a visual treat.

The other article about islamic art and its definition is way too exciting to brief up in this post and because its a topic that is very close to my heart – i’ll talk about it sometime else.

The cover of Bidoun featured a beautiful hand rendered photograph that got me up and going. For a while i’ve been wanting to digitally color a black and white image of mum and dad that has been sitting on the dresser.

Thats an image of mum and dad taken precisely two years before i was born.
Ofcourse, the image was not in colour and placing it in the polaroid later was just me being cheeky and having a little fun with contradiction – the personal touch you seeee……*wink* you like?.

With a basic knowledge of Photoshop, this effect is relatively easy to achieve – you just have to trust your eye with levels, brightness, contrast, blurs and hues. The tools that you end up using the most throughout the entire process are ‘dodge, burn and blur’. I personally found that blurring out the grains on the image helps a lot to get a smooth finish ( i like to think of it as the effect that the water in reality would have on the pigment of the photograph, making it smear, smudge and blot a little in every direction giving it a soft airbrushed look). Since it was originally a tedious manual process, a very important practice needs to be the respect of subtle imperfections that any handmade process is bound to succumb to. While coloring the photograph, make sure to bleed out a little here and there… with reason and limits ofcourse ;P

I would love to hear if anyone has more tips and tricks up their sleeves for such similar treatments. Makes me wonder though how films like Mughal e Azam may have been digitally colored…
Was every frame treated the way i treated this image? that would be insane.
It took me 8 hours to do one image..eeeks…….

Mughal-e-Azam to return to big screen after 44 years
http://www.indiaexpress.com/news/entertainment/20041031-0.html