Weekend ahoy!

A couple of good things about Friday are : You know the work week is coming to an end...the endless meetings, the excel sheets, the deadlines..everything is going to take a break for a couple of days...the other thing is that you can look forward to two days that are your disposal to do almost anything you want to..of course, there is the odd chore or two -- laundry, cleaning etc...but I would say you get a pretty good deal. A quick movie review -- Sideways -- nominated for 5 Oscars including best picture and best Director. I thought it also deeserved a nomination for Best Lead Actor...but then of course, what do I know about acting! The movie itself is a pretty fun portrait of two men with contrasting characters - one eager to look at the positive side of life in an almost reckless manner and the other drawn into the depths of negativity and depression. There is, of course, a lot more to the movie than just that...its just that I didnt catch the whole gist of it at one go...I'll probably watch it one more time just to figure out the nuances. Not to mistake, one of the reasons I did actually go on to watch this movie was the fact that it had been nominated. But I did enjoy it neverthless and I would recommend it to anyone willing to experiment. Now one of the things that came up in many of the reviews that I read of this movie was that it was a typical "Indie" film...so I went out on the web to check out what exactly Indie meant...turns out it is short for "independent". Basically that means any movie that was prepared by an individual who did his own finances without the help of major studios. There is a whole business around making Indie movies (check out : http://www.indiefilms.com/ for example). The reason being that a lot of indie films recently have been either winning Oscars or smashing the box offices lately (The Blair Witch project is a fine example...the movie was made with a budget of $35000 and made around $200 million at the box office!!!) So, if you are a fim-maker, go for it! That's all I have for today...I know that this has been a pathetic display of writing...the only thing that keeps me going is the belief that it cannot get any worse... Happy Weekend!