Where Have All the Writers Gone?

Lately TV has sorely disappointed me. Specially returning seasons.

I am an unabashed Dexter fan, and I was one of those who believed that the show could do no wrong. Whether it was the randomness of their humor, the amazing characters - each episode was a winner. And they brought it to that amazing crescendo in late 2009, when the Trinity killer wrapped things up in a messy fashion with Rita in the bathtub. I remember falling out of my couch, open-mouthed and with eyes glazed. If there ever was a moment where I have been rendered speechless - that was it. And that was supreme television. I truly didn't know how they could top that ... but I had faith. This was the Dexter team!

And then, came along Dexter Season 5. It was an uncomfortable beginning, since I guess no-one was really sure how much of the Dexter-ish freakish humor you could push alongside a tragic storyline. It plodded along. We kept the faith. Then Lumen popped up. I grant it to the guys - she was hot ... but still, nothing. I think it was only by episode 6 that I realized that we were half-way through the season, and nothing spectacular had happened. There were flashes of genius in episode 7, and we gleefully rubbed our hands in delight. But we were back to nothing in episode 8, then 9, 10 ... and then it hit. This was just a bad season. There couldn't be any excuses.

It was weak writing, weaker characters, and the 'spark' that had made the series what it was before was slowly, but surely ... kinda ebbing. Fans (including me) weakly threw their strength behind the show and the characters, but I think we all knew it. I didn't need to watch Dexter the next day after its airing. I could wait a day ... maybe even more.

I'm trying my best to pep myself for the next season, but somehow I just feel that once you're off the plot, you're off. TV shows CAN'T afford to have bad seasons. Because you've already destroyed a bit of those characters. There's something we now know about them which we are either repulsed, or worse - bored by, and they're going to have to make an extra long leap to get back into us.

However, Dexter is nothing compared to another show which has lately brought me to the verge of tears - of boredom. And astoundingly, its a show which never started out as being supremely intelligent television. 'True Blood', was an entertaining, fun show with enough skin, good looking people and supernatural crap thrown in to ensure eyeballs, even if they were rolling some of the time. It was impossible to ignore True Blood. And with the likelihood of a sexual encounter / head being chopped off / vampire battle / droppage of clothes happening almost every 30 seconds, it seemed like a show that knew what exactly it wanted to be - a rollercoaster ride of pure unadulterated entertainment. Season 1, 2 and 3 all seemed to be in the same vein, and so it seemed like a reliable bet that Season 4 would get in the witches, but keep the fun.

Nope. Instead they decided to populate the cast by adding a few gazillion sideshow Bobs, take attention away from the really interesting characters while stuffing them into groan-inducing subplots, make the lead character almost unbearable to watch (I would kill Sookie just for the pleasure of hearing that Southern whine slowly grow faint) and deviate from the books in ways that they never needed to.

All we can ask is - why? Why did you ruin a show that knew exactly what it was? Have all the writers been lost to dangerous dosages of V? WHERE have all the writers gone?

I'm anxiously keeping my fingers crossed for a few shows that I know are making their comeback soon, and whose earlier seasons have been nothing short of delightful. Starting with the slick and smart 'The Good Wife' with characters who are nothing short of amazing (I love you Eli Gold - I will work for free), and intelligent twists that have nothing remotely 'good wife-ly' about them. Now with Will and Alicia 'free' to take their relationship further, I am a little nervous as to how their writers will keep that wonderful tension in the show. I just hope they do.

There's 'Dexter' of course, and next year we have the return of that glorious 'Game of Thrones'. Lets hope all the writers come back to where they should be. For the viewer's sake.

Nigerian Scammed, now Nicosian scammed!

We've all heard of the infamous Nigerian scam. But I was recently the almost-victim of a rental scam, set in picturesque Nicosia (Cyprus) of all places. Definitely a leg up from Nigeria I guess. (This whole post / email scam has really infected Nigeria with a kind of suspicious quality - I almost can imagine a whole country of people trying to convince you that you've won the lottery)

So, we are looking out for a new house (don't ask me why - only ask if you're really interested in listening to domestic woes for about 2 hours), and my chief hunting grounds is www.gesucht.de, a very neat site for available housing all over Germany. I've actually seen some possible houses through this site, so its not like the site itself is scammy in any way.

I found 2 ads for 2 different houses, in the same neighborhood, a lane away from each other, which seemed fairly nice, furnished and at kinda appropriate prices. I send appropriately worded posts (translated on Google Translate) to the posters, and yesterday, I get replies. Read below:

Hello,
First of all I'm sorry for the late reply but I had a lot to work and this is the time I could give you a message. From the site add, you could see, that the apartment located in:Mörgensstraße 4 ,52064 Aachen Innenstadt . It has 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1 kitchen and 1 living room .
I am looking for someone to live in it, as soon as possible, because my company has won the auction for a project, in construction, for a building that will rise up in Nicosia / Cyprus. I am a civil engineer, so my accommodation period in Nicosia,Cyprus will be about 4 years. The renting period is from 2 months upto 4 years. As a result of this I want to rent, for this period, at this price and also to find the perfect person for my apartment. I`m the owner of the apt and it's like in the pics.
The apartment is furnished, but I have the option of sending all my furniture into storage if you want to bring your own (no extra costs). The rent for 1 month is 400 Euro, but you must to deposit 800euro/2months (for the whole apartment) including all utilities (water, electricity, Internet, cable, parking, air conditioning, fireplace, dishwasher, garbage disposal, microwave, refrigerator). You can move in the apt in the same day when you receive the keys. The only problem is that I`m the only person who has the keys but I hope that we will find a solution.
Thank you for your interest and I will look forward to hearing from you soon.
Good luck,
Garey Ylowrn
P.S. Please tell me if this is what are you looking for and reply my only if you are truly interested in the aptartment.

Now, having spent time in Germany - there's nothing extraordinarily sinister about this reply. I've got fairly similar worded replies from other homeowners, especially those who have to urgently move, and are pretty desperate about giving up their place. The only thing that struck me was when I received an IDENTICAL reply to my other house query, right down to the language, with the only change being the name! Thats when I suspected a scam, and all it took was a simple search on Google to come up with this http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=7099&p=56506. Its seems this rental scam is pretty big all over Europe, Australia and other parts of the world.

Lesson for the scamsters? Change your program to email a renter only once for multiple post queries. Lesson for me? Don't get your hopes up :-(

Why I think Google+ is one step ahead of FB

I am not a techie.

I consider myself closer to being a fanboy (or girl in my case) but I repeat, I am not a techie.

But I do love gadgets, new playthings on the internet, new sites, new programs that can do ridiculous things I don't need and widgets that do things that I do.

But I knew Google+ was going to be a whole new ... umm, ballgame.

Google+ has a lot of things to play with ... hangouts, the brilliant automatic linking with Picasa (which had me diving to 'private' all my albums which suddenly were just out there for the world to see - phew). I do however stand by my first status update (is that what they're called on Google+?) in which I offered my opinion that although it was very 'cool' in its look and feel - I did think that the guys at the Big G would have succeeded in making it more user-friendly. Hell, they taught my parents to use email :-)

But coming back to my slightly tall blog title claim - although I'm not sure if Google+ is THE networking tool to do it, I do believe that the future holds ONE networking tool - which is going to run our social lives - online and offline.

To enumerate, I can't see a future with multiple sliding on my tablet / phone between my Facebook, Gmail, Office mail, Google+, GoogleTalk, Skype, Twitter, mobile calling, SMS ... whatever. One of these big guys is either going to, or has already gone for the jugular - ONE ring to rule them all, ONE program to hold it all.

You pick up your phone / tablet / PC / Mac - and you're signed in. You see a list of names, each in their own ... umm, 'circles'? You can either call / SMS / video call / IM / email / Twit them, with stuff like 'tagging', 'attaching' obviously inbuilt. I think the program is what might differ - but every program will HAVE to offer all these communication options and solutions. So it would Facebook v/s Google v/s whoever ... but they would all essentially be clones of each other in terms of what they could accomplish communication-wise for the ordinary user. So person A wouldn't necessary dial a phone number to reach person B, but would dial / SMS / email / tag / videocall an email ID. That would be the one all-pervasive way of reaching you. You are your email ID, or phone number - depending on what you choose to be your online & offline identity.

So according to me, the biggest issue in the future is going to continue to be that of privacy, but essentially dealing with new ways of 'virtually' separating work and personal lives. That would require much more stronger demarcation between friends, family, acquaintances, work colleagues, and a forced attempt by the program itself, to get you to make those tough decisions and draw the lines ... or circles, as they may be :-)

I think we're already ridiculously close to what I mentioned above - especially with FB including Skype in their to-do list, and Google+ with their 'Hangout'. But lets face it - the most difficult thing to 'export' out of your life is your email address, and Google owns you through their Gmail ID. I for one, can't see myself electing to sidle over to FB or any other social network - one's email address is the biggest physical, emotional and virtual investment. It looks like they're all trying to reach that golden ideal of being 'everything' you can do online - and for me, I would any day put my money on the G boyz to bring home that bacon.

Understanding Eurovision ...

I should have blogged weeks back. But lets just face it, nothing of serious note had occurred (despite consecutive catastrophes at work - which lets just face it - is nothing that morbidly fascinating for the ordinary reader, the few odd sex scandals and Mr Laden going heavenwards. Damn, there actually was quite a bit.)

But today I blog about being part of a rich European traditions that has brought entertainment and warmed the cockles of many a heart for several decades.

The absolutely fabulously monstrously and delectably trashy Eurovision Song Contest. Haven't heard of it? Read here to get a quickie intro from a nicely spelt out Slate article. Established in 1956, each country essentially contributes a song (which is again chosen based on popular voting) which they pit against all the others in a holy yowling contest. By looking at some of the entries, the one thing which is outstandingly clear is that poppy gobbledygook wins out against any kind of actual musical straining, and the weirder the outfits, the makeup and the general 'offering' you present - the higher the chances of you actually winning.

I rest my case.

or of course my favorite who is also mentioned in the Slate article - random Ukranian of indeterminate sexuality, whose silver cone and shades are the fashion dreams of Rajnikant.

So there I was, surrounded by a fairly mixed-ish bunch, all of whom had decided to watch the contest together (it seems to be a rather community exercise) although primarily composed of Germans, who were cheering on one of their own - little Lena, who shot to fame last year with her irritatingly catchy 'Satellite' (I swear - just as much as you want to kill her during the song, you will want to kill yourself for humming it right after ... that is if you're through trying to figure exactly WHAT accent that is)

I found myself the sole supporter of the Italian and Spanish factions, who I thought were fairly funky with a jazz number and a very poppy thing respectively, but of course, I was sneered down by the crowds who didn't think very high of my ratings.

The Italian dude - helped he was kinda cute too :-)

The Spanish contribution - thought it was fairly Livin La Vida Loca Loca ish, but however this WAS not very well received.

THIS was the winning entry from Azerbaijan, a really downright low tempo duet with a random guy and chick who looks like a cross between Beyonce and JLo.

So coming to the point of the post - that is the point of the Eurovision Song Contest. Its kinda like Indian Idol, but where you have to ONLY go through the top 25 songs, they're regionally picked, there's no reality crap, and you have to endure this only ONCE in a year. Sounds fair? I thought so too. And oh, the most important point - government sponsored, so no ads. Phew.

Cheers

Sushma

I am back and all that ...

I am back. Brain, I command you to open and spew all that vitriolic garbage that has been festering inside. Let it out, I say ... let it out!!!

(English translation: Am back in Germany, and plan to unleash my unsolicited views on the world at large - or whoever cares to read ... AGAIN)

So till very very soon.

Adios.

Sushma

On the way, in one day ... (well, almost!)

Not too much occasion to post, but used to always think that my long-ish commute to work (from Kemps Corner to Lokhandwalla) had enough sights that merited a post. So here goes - a picto-post based on my way to work.

My bus-stop view. Start with an eyesore - the Ambani house of hell ... steps to build one - take unevenly matched floors and pile them one on top of each other. Then melt all the spare change in the Ambani's pockets to make a paste which can be used to cement the floors together. And there you go.

Because everyone needs a wall of grass to block out an A-class view. Well done Mukesh, well done.

I never thought they existed. But even desi barbies need their ride - the pink Amby.

The line stretches on from the Mahalaxmi mandir - this was peak Pujo time, so its kinda understandable.

The gorgeous Haji Ali. I think it would easily rank as the most recognizable symbol of Bombay ... especially how it looks on dreary monsoon days.

The day turns grey, and just as you turn onto the Bandra-Worli sealink - you can look back onto this.

On some days, you can barely make out where the sea ends and the sky starts ...

I love this part of the sealink - the steel ropes just remind me so much of the also very nice Howrah bridge ...

"Ghadiyal babu!!!!" :-) Nobody quite does it like AB.

One more ...

Exactly why would a liquor store need a helpline? Umm excuse me ... we need 2 mls of vodka and a tequila drip??!

The Construction Awards - maybe we should send the CWG for any prospective awards ...

Great thought ... "I may be slow, but I am in front of you." Deep.

These two are most definitely not from Bombay :-) this was outside Nice airport ...

... and this was outside at my conference where the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers used their super powers to sponsor a fantastic lunch.

So that's that. Will try updating with more funny road pics as I see them.

Cheers, my friends.

Sushma

Nice Nice.

Its been a week I guess? Or a little lesser for me to put up my next post on nice Nice - but better late than never and more importantly, anyone with functioning eyes will notice a kind of 'similarity' in the pictures. It was a cloudy grey day and combined with the brilliant blues of the Mediterranean - it made a picture that you just couldn't stop taking.

Tell me you don't agree with me ... na? After a little walking around we decided to take the little dinky train that ran around the town (btw which we realized is a staple component of French tourism - tiny little trains that take you around the town at dangerous speeds of 2-3 kms/hr ensuring that you are always the object of much ire from regular Pierres on the road in their fancy gaddis).

Desi restaurant ... I know, I know ... what can I say? The decor just drew my attention ...

The central area of Nice ... loved the checkerboard pavement.

Love the Greco-French-whatever windows? Take a closer look - other than the window, its all paint!

From here, the train ascended to the top of the nearby hillock from where we could get a more panoramic view of the beachfront. Outstanding - I subject you to more pictures.

2 final videos ... one from Cannes again - this was something I found near the train station. For movie history buffs, its a kind of dedication to one of the first 'movies' ever - Train arriving at Station - by the Lumiere Brothers. I checked and confirmed that this wasn't THE station, but it was close enough - South of France and on the waterfront.

This was the view of the entire waterfront from the top of Nice. Simply astounding.

So thats it. I can make a thousand promises to continue my blogging adventures in Bombay, but as my experience has shown ... that seems like a tough-ish bet to follow up on. But anyway, till later whenever - aur revoir and mucho gracias.

Cheers

Sushma