Mark Knopfler\EmmyLou Harris

This was one of the most disappointing concerts I've seen. Everything seemed wrong. The pairing of the two otherwise brilliant artists, the music, the volume, the rhythm, the song selection. It was just poor. They've done great disservice to themselves. I remember the Mark Knopfler concert around the same time last year and it was brilliant. This in comparison was just hard to sit through. Moreover, there was no opening act and they sang for barely an hour and a half and took breaks in between and then had to be coaxed by the crowd to sing some more. The crowd other than that had no energy other.

I've grown up on the songs of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler and this was truly a letdown. I felt cheated in so many different ways.

I was reminded of Kuleen Bharadwaj though. A friend I lost contact with years ago but who did sort of introduce me to the music of Dire Straits. I sang praises of it and I never listened to them or him until much later.

X-Men: The Last Stand

Another movie we've been wanting to see for a while now and finally went to it today. Very entertaining and worth the wait. Many people including me thought that Ratner would kill the film but he didn't. If anything, by not worrying too much about the emotional content of the film, and focusing mostly on very stylized and innovative action, he makes the film even more entertaining than the first two or at least the 2nd one.

The storyline of the "cure" makes for a different and hence exciting playing field. This film also shows humans finally playing good catch up.

The film is lots of fun!

Good Night, and Good Luck

Finally, after waiting for months, I got around to seeing Good Night, and Good Luck. I was immediately impressed by the deep focus Black and White cinematography the Jazz and the generally smoky ambiance of the film.

This is a snapshot (and it truly is that) of the reporter Edward R. Murrow's episodic scuffle with Senator Joe McCarthy. Murrow 'took-on' McCarthy unprovoked and was actually very successful in fending the Senator off.

The film is brief and a treat to watch. However, sometimes its the brevity rather than content that acts in its favor. The film is also overrated in the sense its shortcomings are many and since it is easy to lose them in the brevity, it still works well. Downey Jrs. character is a filler and so are some others. We get to see nothing of Murrow as a person at all. So it is clearly not a biopic and hence the name -- that hails Murrow's most famous lines -- is a bit of an overstatement.

IMDB Link for Good Night, and Good Luck