Found it!

Put A Penny In The Slot

For ages i've been trying to find this song. All i knew was that it plays in the bg in Jerry Maguire when he slips her strap off on the doorstep. Useless people (read Salvatore) that I requested should source the music for me got me Secret Garden and Aimee Mann instead. They're good songs but i wanted this.

It's the gentlest, softest piece of music ever. It's called Singalong Junk by Paul McCartney.

With Hand on Heart

Last night I read Sophie Kinsella’s “Can you keep a secret?” It’s basically about a girl who thinks she’s going to die in a plane crash and ends up spilling her guts to the guy on the next seat. It’s chicklit so obviously he’s the hero. She doesn’t have any secrets that will change the face of national security or even break up a marriage… they’re mostly inconsequential like she lies about her weight or she broke her bosses coffee mug or she doesn’t like jazz. But really it’s the small things that define us. The book was okay but it made me think of my secrets. Now I’m not dying today as far as I know so I’m just going to push the edge a bit not jump off it.
I…
1. …wear Sky’s clothes, come home, iron them and put them back in the cupboard so that she doesn’t have the right to borrow mine.
2. …swapped one of Titania’s favourite books for a book I really wanted and she still goes crazy trying to remember who she lent it too.
3. … have a favourite Mills and Boon author.
4. …have a fabulous memory and sometimes let people think that I remember because I care.
5. …didn’t give my seat to an old woman on the bus and tried to justify it.
6. …fell asleep through Citizen Kane.
7. …once spotted an old crush and sneaked away from a hotel because I was looking like shit.
8. …pretend to be asleep when I don’t want to be disturbed in the middle of a book.
9. …can’t stop myself from keeping track of the tiniest amount of debt owed by me or to me.
10. …am a total pushover. I don’t know how to say no.
11. …love dancing to Ricky Martin’s La Bomba.
12. …’ve never smoked up, lied to my parents or been attracted to anyone.
13. …would like to be attracted to someone and have my feet knocked off the ground.
14. …cried with joy watching a tennis match.
15. ...felt guilty when Cykie died and I got over it so fast.
16. …am not comfortable with special children.
17. …lie all the time about being at work to get out of partying.
Maybe I’ll get more personal next time.

Know Thy Goddesses

t for trivia
I’m lying on my bed and pretending to be a cold bunch of grapes. But Sky stops me from fermenting. She plonks herself down and goes on and on about something.
“so then.. I don’t know what he means…”
…”had a fantastic meeting today…”
“… that’s a masterpiece scene Sky, sir said…”
“… have to go to a Saraswati temple tomorrow…”
There’s a pause so I come out of my fog.
“What?”
“Do you know any Saraswati temple?”
I am bewildered, “No.” I say as if it’s strange to ask. And it really is. Sky asking anyone else directions to temples is a little absurd. She’s probably visited every God in the vicinity.
“Fine. Then a temple that has a Saraswati idol?”
Now I’m roused, “no.” Emphatic. Then to stress, “I don’t even know what a Saraswati idol looks like.”
It’s her turn to look astounded. “you don’t!”
She looks so shocked like Mr. and Mrs. H have failed in some way that I hasten to add, “I mean if I look at one I’ll know it’s Her but just from memory… she holds a book right?” I’m quickly putting things together in my head – Saraswati, we pray to her on dussehra when Mrs. H makes us put out all our books and music and paints and creative things for blessings in the puja. So I figure book is a good guess.
“No! she hold a veena.”
“Well... doesn’t one of her hands hold a book?” I plead.
“No.” Sky says drily.
“Oh. Ok. She should hold a book then. She’s our Goddess of intellect and creativity right?”
“the Veena is a sign of creative gifts. You really can’t tell your Goddesses apart.”
“I really can’t tell our Goddesses apart. I mean the Gods are easy. Shiv’s got a third eye. Ram looks goody goody, Ganesha has a well... trunk and Krishna’s Krishna. The ladies all look alike.”
Sky still looks like a dear stuck in headlights.
“Sarawati wears a white sari with a red border and holds a Veena with usually a peacock near her. Laxmi stands on a lotus with two of her hands holding a lotus each and a third one pointing palm down showering coins. Durga is usually on a tiger.”
“I like tigers,” I say to shut her up, “I don’t know if a subjugated tiger is good representation of the dwindling tiger wildlife.”
Sky leaves my room and I return to being fruity.

The Lives of Others

Quickie: Watch it even if you don’t usually watch foreign films.
Yada Yada:
Before the fall of the Berlin Wall citizens in East Germany were strictly monitored by the Stasi- secret police. Very few people are above this kind of interference in the private lives and playwright Georg Dreyman is one of them. But when a corrupt politician falls for Georg’s actress girlfriend he is put under surveillance too. His house is bugged. An upright and stringent Captain of the Stasi is in charge of the operation. As the captain eavesdrops on Georg and Christa he becomes increasingly involved in their lives and begins to question his own leading to life altering events for all three of them.
I love the way the 3 characters have been formed. Each one of them makes a marked transition in the duration of the film. Their decisions may not surprise or shock but you feel each one.
Okay... I’m itching to say things that’ll be spoilers. Just watch for a compact drama.
Length: about 2 hrs 20 mins

Michael Clayton

Quickie: Not worth the 200 bucks in a theatre. Get a DVD.
Yada Yada:
MC is an okay film. It’s certainly not deserving of the hype considering that neither the subject nor the treatment is new. The end resolution is surprisingly flat and the turnaround of the kind you see in really simplistic films.
You have a ‘fixer’ who works in a firm of lawyers without actually going to court himself. He’s called either the ‘miracle man’ or the ‘janitor’ but when a senior counsel flips he starts off a chain of events that make Michael question what he’s cleaning up and whether this is what he gave up the courtroom for.
Some angles were rather forced to me – the whole Arthur and Realm + Conquest highlighted notes. That didn’t point Michael is any direction other than get him the bill for the photocopies.
What worked for me were the character and his journey – his debt that needs to be paid off, his relationship with his brother and son, and a certain despair that cloaks him even as he does what he does best.
The person I went with thought that George Clooney was as always – himself. But I disagree. When I watch a Clooney film I know that it’ll turn out alright for him since he’s got such a cocky arrogance. He’s never any other way. You expect him to sail through. This is the first time I felt that things aren’t going to go his way.
Watch it when the movie scene is dull. Right now there’s too much happening in theaters for Michael Clayton to be top of your list.
Length: 2 hours

Ready Or Not... Here She Comes!

I went for Penelope’s baby shower. Her due date is 18th march 2008.
Her baby’s Godmother Taz threw a shower. There was wine and gifts and biryani but no games! I went expecting a bonafide baby shower with nappy changing games and guess-what-the-suspicious-goo-in-the-bag-is kind of party. I was disappointed. Penny said that since I want to do indulge in such entertainment I can turn up at her place for the real thing. I decline since I’m not stupid really. The high entertainment of the shower was when one of Penny’s friends threw a fit on discovering that she wasn’t the baby’s godmother. Hahha. I enjoyed that show. She was so perturbed she even banged into a glass door.
But that aside we did sing songs for the baby. Unfortunately everything has a pervert’s version now.
Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water
God knows what they did up there
But they came down with a daughter.
But I guess our kids will need to know what to watch out for. So no going with Jack up the hill all alone with your hands tied up with a bucket.
I have a whole list of things I’m going to put my baby through in the belly.

1. Read Atlas Shrugged again
2. Read Wuthering Heights again
3. Sing silly songs with words of my own making “the tigers had a brandy fix when the animals went in six by six.” I love tigers.
4. Kiss my husband an awful lot
5. Shout “10000 blistering barnacles” and wave a pretend sword whenever someone annoys me. Note the gradual change in the violence of my abuses.
6. Paint, play with paint. Enjoy colour and then enjoy darkness.
7. Have everyone say something to the kid. Anything at all. Paris will refuse I know but she must. Alanis will talk the baby’s little bum off. Eve can be big sister and studiously give the latest book dope. Salvatore can groan and grumble. Piper will ask me to shut my ears and Sky will be unabashedly corny. Mars can scoff but the baby must hear them talking.
8. Take a holiday to a cool place where there are many pretty paths to wander by. Take those walks. Sit on a bench. Look at new things.
9. Do something that gets the adrenaline rushing – like bungee jump (not allowed me thinks) or go to a Tennis match. Experience something overwhelming.

Okay I cut short my list here to announce that Penny had a baby girl 18 days before her time. She is tagged Baby no. 6 by the hospital and Nandini by her dad. She’s a cute little thing but looks suspiciously like baby no.4 and 5 to me. It really must be easy to swap babies in hospitals. Maybe I’ll inherit some money yet.