Travel means beauty

 Whether you like it or not the two most common motivations that can overcome the shortage of money problem in any endeavour are religion and war. While I don't subscribe to either, I do accept and admire the beauty of something they may have created. This building in the picture is the Church of John the Theologian in Ohrid North Macedonia. It takes about ten minutes of easy hiking over small lanes (no rocks) to get to this and the view is amazing. I think you will agree with me on that much. 

How was my trip to North Macedonia? It was pretty epic, thank you! 

If you want a more detailed answer, then please listen to my podcast Campfire Corner

Friends with Benefits - Must Watch

Now that I have been to see it twice I think I should review it as well. Don't worry I won't review it twice.

I have seen it twice so you can guess that I love the movie. Here I am just going to list out the things I loved.

First and foremost Mila Kunis. She is a petite girl, but man, what a body! She's absolutely gorgeous! Even in simple sleeveless shirts and tank tops she looks very hot! Acting wise....huh, acting? What acting? Just kidding. I did notice the acting and she has done very well.

The second thing is casting. All the characters in the movie are well-established actors, I am not talking star cast, I am talking character actors who know their craft. Justin Timberlake has done well in his role as the male lead. All the characters have been cast well and they have all done justice to their roles. Jenna Elfman plays the role of the hero's sister quite well. She is an experienced actress and it shows in her performance.

The third thing is also casting. The casting director is obviously a man after my own heart. Wherever he has to have a female extra, he thinks - let's bring in a real hottie! Well done, Lisa Miller Katz. Oh wait! It's a woman, who did that casting?!! Honestly, I checked the IMDB page for the crew after I wrote the beginning of this para. And now I see that there are a lot of women on the crew.

Including Tia Nolan who has done the editing. And she has definitely done a great job. It's not often that I am impressed by someone else's editing these days without try to find faults, but Tia has made her mark there.

Another one of my favourite characters is Woody Harrelson. I saw him first, like most people, in the American sitcom "Cheers". He has done well in his films as well since then. But in this one he really shines. He plays the gay sports editor who works with Justin and he is hilarious!

The story in itself is simple but not weak. If you had to plan a movie on the theme of two friends who try to add casual sex to their friendship I am sure you'd be able to plot it along similar lines. But still the direction and editing are fast-paced and the story doesn't lag.

Dialogues are extremely smart. They are witty and quick and quick-witted as well. (You see what I did there ;) ) I loved the dialogues right from the first scene.

Justin's father has been shown to have Alzheimer's and I am glad they have treated the disease with dignity and restraint. They have managed to introduce humour into the situation without disrespecting either the father character or people with Alzheimer's. In fact, there's a scene where Dylan (Justin) supports his father in public and the scene is both humours and touching, esp. to me.

Soundtracks are very well-chosen, even the phone ringtones.

The "small cute thing" and the "big romantic gesture" type things have been done well with good direction. They are corny as any Hollywood romcom would be but not cringeworthy.

There's some male nudity in the film. This was my biggest complain about The Inbetweeners even though I liked the movie on the whole. In FWB, it has been more than compensated by the female nudity (Mila Kunis, man!) so I am looking the other way on the male nudity (notice the pun!).

The bad things about the movie? That'll be hard, but I'll try. Everybody in the movie makes a big deal about the difference between L.A. and New York. Almost like LA people are hillbillies. They are both modern, American cities of considerable size. I don't think there's that much difference in the cultures. But I have only been to NYC not LA so I won't sue anybody based on that.

In the beginning of the movie, Mila is trying to sell Justin on NY and he gets taken in very easily. It's like he was just waiting to be sold.

Mila and Justin become good friends a little too quickly. I found it hard to buy. Though I might be just jealous that the bastard got to bang Mila. ;)

In conclusion, it's a good entertainer and well worth going to see. Another beauty of the film is that you can go to see it either with your special someone or your mates. You'd enjoy it either way. Piece of advice, the first time you see Mila's legs on screen, don't say "God, I want her!" out loud if you are seeing it with your girlfriend!

Enjoy!

Beauty is a sham!

“Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.”, we have all been hearing it since ages, haven’t we? I have too, but then I ask myself, “If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder then what the hell are all those beauty contests for?”

I used to watch as many of the beauty contests as I could. I still wouldn’t mind watching if I knew beforehand of the schedule. But I wouldn’t because I don’t read, watch or listen to the news.

There have been times when the judges have selected a beauty queen and I have said, “Well-deserved!” (Like Sushmita Sen winning Miss Universe), but there have always been times, when I have screamed, “Are you bloody kidding me!?” (No, I don’t say “bloody” that’s more of a British word and I have recently moved to Britain, but the word I was going to use is not so nice. Anyway…)

So you can say that since my idea of beauty differs from those judges, it really is in the eyes of the beholder. Are you sure?

There are common ideas of beauty, as a group of people or society at large would agree to what is beautiful and what not. That same group of people might agree on a 100 people and yet may have dissent about others.

Or, you could meet a girl you don’t find attractive at all but who is somebody’s girlfriend or somebody’s wife, the apple of their eye, the prized possession or whatever..(ack! The inscription on the knife in my back reads “Women’s Lib”). And you do see the kind of guys or girls who look to you like nobody can find them beautiful by any stretch of imagination and yet….for example I think Julia Roberts is ugly, but her fans would want to kill me a slow and painful death just for saying that. There is a quote that I read recently, it says “..in the right light, from the right point of view, in the right situation, everything is beautiful…”, something like that.

So what’s the deal here? Is it in the eyes of the beholder or is it something that can be defined?

I have been thinking about it lately, quite a lot, and I have come to the conclusion that leaving apart the extreme cases of individual preferences beauty is largely defined by society. Beauty is what a certain ratio of the population may possess. It has to be a group not so small that almost nobody has it, but it has to be something that not everybody has it. Let me take an example.

Big breasts are considered sexy and something to have, so much so that surgery and money come into play. But if all the women in the world had big breasts, it wouldn’t be sexy. If only a few hundred women in the world had big breasts, it wouldn’t be sexy. It’s something that’s possible to see in a man’s lifetime, but something that’s not common - that’s beauty!

I will take two examples to illustrate my point.

My friend N in Germany, has a preference of brunettes, dark-haired girls. I can’t understand why because I think blondes are so sexy! But, he argues, Germany is full of blondes, brunettes he doesn’t see so often. On the other hand, India is full of brunettes almost exclusively, and blondes….not really. Hence my fascination.

Second point is from a story I read in high school - Country of the Blind. Don’t ask me who wrote it, I am too old to remember that now. One peculiar thing that I never forget about that story is that the hero, who is the only person with eyes and a stranger in that land, falls in love with a pretty girl who is considered ugly in that society. The barometer of beauty in that land of the blind is skin. Yes, the smoother the skin of the girl, the more beautiful she is considered. I don’t remember the story in its entirety and I doubt that it has any statistics but I will give you even odds that smooth skin was something not every girl had in that country.

Beauty, as per my arguments, is nothing more than a statistically selected group of features, a standard defined by the society and thus, is completely worthless!

So, do you agree or do you want to cross swords with me on this one?

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

This link is for a poem by Maya Angelou,
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/i-know-why-the-caged-bird-sings/

The poem in itself is great, but what I found more astonishing was my
own thoughts generated from it. I automatically identified myself with
the free bird. And then I looked out the window and then I thought how
much I don't want to be sitting in this chair, at this desk, in this
office and suddenly realized that I am NOT the free bird.

Then I remembered Robert Kiyasaki's book "Rich Dad Poor Dad" where he
talks at length about financial freedom and that convinced me that I
want to be a free bird but I am not; not yet.

I would like my readers to take 2 minutes and read this poem, I can't
post it here, not having the copyrights. I'd really appreciate it if you
share your thoughts about it here.