Spring fever

What I like about Spring:

Driving up a just rained road on a hill, surrounded by lush green, roads carpeted with mowed grass.

Driving up through this dense cluster of green, green trees, a moment's vacation during a busy work day.

A carpet of red and green beside the interstate - wild flowers at their best.

The warmth, oh yes, balmy, not too hot and not too cold. I can spend the whole day out there.

Being able to jog outside, listening to birds, and if I am lucky, meet a bunny or two sneaking into someone's garden.

Sighting a crane in the creek. (haven't seen this one yet this year)


What I don't like:

Tornado weather

sneezes, itches and headaches.

Car covered in yellow (thick pollen)

Not exactly Dickensish, as in best of times and worst of times, but close.

Jane Austen

I love Jane Austen novels. I love their spinoffs as much. I have been reading a series by Carrie Bebris, who writes mysteries solved by Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and Mrs. Elizabeth Darcy. There have been 3 so far in this series. All the three were good mysteries. This last one, North By Northanger is based on Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey. We see a return of quite a few Austen characters. It has a good flow and is a quick read. If the locale was shifted to modern times, I am sure it would be as good.

Her first 2 were Pride and Prescience and Suspense and Sensibility. I am not sure how many would be in this series as there were only 6 novels written (published) by Jane Austen.

If you like Jane Austen, you might also enjoy the Jane Austen mystery series by Stephanie Barron. What is interesting in her books is that she introduces an historical figure in each of those books. I have seen Kipling, Churchill, Jack London and others featured as characters in her books. And they are good mysteries.

Then there is the Darcy's daughters book series by Elizabeth Aston. I have read 2 of those, and I think the third is out now.


Some interesting links:
Jane Austen: A Love Story


A review of Barron's first mystery

A list of other spinoffs

An austen blog


Who knows, in another 50 years or so, we will have Potter spinoffs!

Amirtham

When I saw a trailer of this movie on Sun TV, I was intrigued by what I saw and was curious enough to rent it over the weekend. There was the Brahmin background and good music.

The direction was shoddy at best. It could have been done better, much better. Navya Nair can act, and can also dance, I discovered. I loved the songs and the rich classical aura in the movie. If the thought is what counts, then yeah, they got that one right.

So, this was Bhavatharini's music, I hear? Loved a lot of it. Especially that small piece on kurai ondrum illai followed by the little alapanai. nice.

A good social message but the chaos was overwhelming. The hero was pathetic. I think I would have been better off watching just the songs (actually just the one where Navya dances) and buying the audio cd. Not that any of this was a surprise when I rented it!

Comeuppance?

Mugglenet.com has this little news blurb today:

Warner Bros. charges Bajaj with copyright violation

Warner Brothers has charged Bajaj Auto Ltd., a motor company located in India, with copyright violations. Jadoo, an Indian television show, has been running ads with a character that bears striking resemblance to our favorite boy wizard. A spokesman for Bajaj had the following to say:

The West feels that anyone in a red bikini is Baywatch and any flying boy is Harry Potter. Our concept of Jadoo is unique and we don't believe it's copied from Harry Potter....We feel the claim is exaggerated.

More here

I have seen this ad on SunTV, and it is very very , I mean very similar. But then these people (WB) need to look at all the movies that are released in the country. It is a way of life, copyright as in right to copy.

...that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet

speed bump

Anybody follow this regularly?



This might come true soon ;-)

A chimp named cheeta

On my morning drive, heard about the chimp that acted in the 30's Tarzan movies celebrating its 74th birthday with a sugar free cake (diabetic). Apparently, he is the oldest known chimp. What caught my attention was its name. Why would they name him so? More here

Need of the hour

Came across this website - http://www.lokparitran.org/

This is definitely something to be encouraged and supported. I don't know how far they have gotten in TN, but every positive step counts. Let's do out bit and get the word out.

An article in the Hindu

frustration of the day

You wait to take a left turn, bearing the barely-healed scar(e)s of a '(left) turn accident', waiting to get in between the bevy of cars on a surprisingly-busy-usually-quiet street and you get honked from behind. That definitely warranted a digit signal that I was not rude enough to demonstrate.