Category: Entertainment

House Of Cards

10 Feb
Raju Alluri 1 Comment Entertainment, Interesting, Misc

I am not a big fan of watching TV series, except for random watching of shows like AFV or special interest shows like National Geographic. However, when Netflix announced House Of Cards (here), I got a little more curious than usual. Part of the reason is the presence of Kevin Spacey, the actor who left a very strong impression on me when I watched the The Usual Suspects (1995). After watching the first 3.5 minutes of the first episode and liking the next 1 minute of the titles, I am completely sold.

The storyline is very focused; never intends to be a “feel good” one, but tries to give a vivid description of the dark side of politics and its ecosystem (like political journalism). The characters go darker as their inner selves and motives are exposed, yet maintain the political correctness in formal situations. Its an amazing script, from that point of view.

The cast played their roles to the perfection. Kevin Spacey needs no special mention. Whenever he looks into the camera and annotates on the situation and his ruthless next move, he is at his best. Robin Wright is very impressive, especially in situations where the character demands stubbornness. Corey Stoll is surprisingly effective, Michael Kelly plays shroud with ease and Kate Mara plays her complex character with ease. I love the background score and the title sequence – never fast forwarded the title sequence while watching these thirteen episodes.

Friday night happened to be the perfect time to complete the series. Looking back, I couldn’t believe that I completed the entire series in less than one week, given my really hectic work schedules. Credit goes to the gripping series and captivating cast. Waiting for the second series – they left that bait for me!

Three Phones

05 Jan
Raju Alluri 1 Comment Entertainment, Personal & Family

I have been using three phones in the recent past and all three have their own distinct purpose. The purpose of these devices is varying a lot and I am on the verge of kicking out one. The choice seems to be very trivial in terms of which one of these is being kicked out.

  • Blackberry: This has been my legacy work phone. Still has traces of usage for checking emails, sending SMS and regular phone calls.
  • iPhone: This is becoming my primary work phone, that is linked to email, one time password and authentication systems and a bit of communication like FaceTime. Depending on the carrier of the hour, this is also used for maps and other related applications.
  • Android: This is my primary and preferred personal phone. I feel like I have more control on the network (connectivity and bandwidth), data and identity aspects of my internet usage while using my Android phone. The applications I use mostly are simple and effective. The current device I use may be a little under powered for the kind of apps I have loaded, but I feel confident about the ease of moving to another device. Most of my personal authentication systems are linked at this time to this phone.

Given the usage patterns, the role of my Blackberry is slowly confining to being a device that makes phone calls. Once that is done, I may do away with that phone forever.

 

శుభలేఖ నుండి సుబలేక వరకూ…

20 Dec
Raju Alluri 1 Comment Audio, Entertainment, Movies

నేను చిరంజీవి నటనాభిమానిని. తన సినిమాలలో కొన్ని పాటలు తెలుగు సినీప్రపంచపు ఆణిముత్యాలని నా అభిప్రాయం. నాకు నచ్చిన కొన్ని: చిలుకా క్షేమమా (రౌడీ అల్లుడు), అందాలలో (జగదేకవీరుడు అతిలోకసుందరి), శుభలేఖ వ్రాసుకొన్నా (కొండవీటి దొంగ), అరె ఏమైందీ (ఆరాధన), నమ్మకు నమ్మకు (రుద్రవీణ), చిరంజీవి-విశ్వనాధ్ సినిమాలలోని చాలా పాటలు (శుభలేఖ, స్వయంకృషి, ఆపద్బాంధవుడు), ఇంకా చాలా.
ఈ వారం కొత్త శుభలేఖ (గాయకుని ప్రకారం సుబలేక) పాట వినే భాగ్యం (?) కలిగింది. ఒకే పదాన్ని ఒకే పాటలో నాలుగురకాలుగా పలకొచ్చని (ఖూనీ చేయవచ్చని) నిరూపించినవారికి కృతజ్ఞతలు. కొత్త తరం శ్రోతలను అలరించే ప్రయత్నంలో పాటలో పదాలను కొంచెం స్పీడుగా లాగించారు. అంతకుమించి ఈ పాటలో అదనపు ఆకర్షణలు ఏమీ లేవు. పాట మధ్యలో వచ్చిన మేక్ సమ్ నోయిస్ (Make some noise) అన్న అరుపు ఎందుకో చాలా సందర్భోచితంగా అనిపించింది. ఈ కొత్త పాట కేవలం సంగీతం లేని శబ్దాలు మాత్రమే. (No music, only noise!)

Foggy Shopping Day

30 Nov
Raju Alluri 0 Comment Entertainment

Black Friday means shopping. Its not about catching deals alone, its about getting into holiday mood. Nights getting colder and acting as a curtain raiser to Christmas season. Watching people in lines. Watching people check and double-check their lists. Watching people rush from one place to another.

This year’s Black Friday started in a very foggy backdrop for me. I was shopping between 7.30pm of the previous night to 4.30am on Friday. Nice crowds, painfully long queues and limited visibility while driving from one mall to the other. Here are a few pics of the roads and parking lots.

 

FoggyBlackFriday

 

షాడో, మధుబాబు, స్వాతి, నవ్య

21 Nov
Raju Alluri 0 Comment Entertainment

“హెచ్చరిక! ముల్తాన్ పౌరులకు పోలీసువారి హెచ్చరిక!…” చెవులు చిల్లులు పడే శబ్దంతో ఎనౌన్స్ చేస్తూ దూసుకువచ్చింది à°’à°• పోలీస్ వాన్. ఓవర్సీస్ కాల్స్‌ని ఎలౌవ్ చేసే ఫోన్‌బూత్‌లో నుంచి బయటకు రాబోతున్న షాడో ఠక్కున ఆగిపోయాడు.

డెభ్భయ్యవ దశకం నుండి తొంబయ్యవ దశకం లోపు తెలుగు డిటెక్టివ్ నవల్సు పిచ్చిగా చదివిన నాలాంటివాళ్ళకు ఈ వాక్యాలు సుపరిచితం. మధుబాబు నవలలు చదివే స్టూడెంట్లు నూటికి ఎనభైమంది ఉండేవారు. టీవీలు, కంప్యూటర్లు, ఫోన్లు మన టైముని మింగేసిన తరువాత నవలలకు, అందులోనూ డిటెక్టివ్ నవలలకు డిమాండు పూర్తిగా తగ్గిపోయింది. అమెరికా నివాస సమయంలో తెలుగు పుస్తకాలకు బాగా దూరమైపొయిన నాకు ఇండియా తిరిగి వెళ్ళిన తరువాత కొంచెం ఊపిరాడడం మొదలెట్టింది. అడపాదడపా విడుదలవుతున్న మంచి నవలలు, కథాసంపుటాలతో పాటు సీరియల్సు చదవటం మళ్ళీ మొదలయి కొనసాగుతూనే ఉంది. గత పది పన్నెండేళ్ళుగా స్వాతి వారపత్రికలో ఏదొ ఒక మధుబాబు సీరియల్ వస్తూ ఉండేది. ఈ రోజుల్లో మధుబాబు కేవలం డిటెక్టివ్ నవలలే కాకుండా జానపదాలు, సాంఘికాలు కూడా వ్రాయడం వల్ల కొంచెం వెరయిటీగా ఉంటోంది.

గత కొద్ది వారాలుగా మధుబాబు స్వాతి వారపత్రికకు మానేసి హంటర్ షాడో పేరుతో కొత్త సీరియల్ నవ్య వారపత్రికకు వ్రాయడం మొదలెట్టాడు.  అప్పట్నుండీ ప్రతీవారం స్వాతి మానేసి నవ్య చదవడం మొదలెట్టాను. కథ సంగతి ఎలాఉన్నా కథనంలో మధుబాబు రచనలు మరీ మరీ చదవాలనిపిస్తాయి. మరి కొన్నాళ్ళపాటు తన సీరియల్సు కంటిన్యూ అవుతాయని ఆశిస్తున్నాను.

1111 it is

27 Oct
Raju Alluri 0 Comment Blogging, Entertainment, Other Opensource

My WordPress dashboard tells me that I have 1111 posts so far on my personal blog site. Blogging is a habit I picked up while working at Sun Microsystems. I used to blog on their employee blog roll on various technical and personal topics. Sometime in 2006, the need for blogging on personal topics increased and I felt that it is more ethical for me to start writing on my personal blog site. Tried various softwares and launched my blog site using WordPress and sticked to that since then.

In the last 6 years, the technology has evolved a lot but the simplicity and flexibility of WordPress remained intact. Tried various themes, plugins and widgets on my site and their usefulness increased over time. Interconnecting various social and viral tools like Facebook, Twitter, Google and Picasaweb helped transcend content from one tool to the other. In the midst of all these, my personal blog site evolved as my primary writing platform and rest of the tools became a way to spread the content that is on this site.

At this juncture, I must thank all the regular visitors of my site and readers who encourage me very often with their positive mails and comments. The last few years saw a dip on the number of posts I write, but recently I resolved to get back on track. You can see the trend changing in the last few months.

 

Reflection Photo

24 Oct
Raju Alluri 0 Comment Entertainment, Photography

I shot this picture in April 2012. It was a sunny day in Bay Area and when I got under one of the overpass bridges on Los Gatos creek, I spotted this nice place. The water is almost still and the bright light gave good amount of visibility of the bridge’s bottom layer and pillars. It took a bit of walking back and forth to get the reflection aligned vertically with the pillars.

 

From Photography-RajuAlluri-2012

 

New book – The Casual Vacancy

10 Oct
Raju Alluri 0 Comment Entertainment

Purchased this new book by J. K. Rowling – The Casual Vacancy and it got delivered home today. It so happened that I am half-a-globe away from home and won’t be able to read it for a few days. Thinking of that, I have a huge backlog of books my bookshelf and it may take a while for me to get to this book.

I love Rowling’s previous books primarily because of the way the characters are etched over the seven book series. Even when a book or two is really boring at times, it is compensated by the relevance of its content in the overall scheme of the plot. In terms of writing style though, I didn’t really like her style except for a few chapters here and there. She is not an Agatha Christie or Jeffrey Archer to me, not yet at least.

Given that, the book is going to be in the dust for a while until I take care of my other backlogs. I bought the book, but am not yet excited to read it.

Mission for the day – Sunrise @ Mission Peaks

07 Oct
Raju Alluri 3 Comments Entertainment, Interesting

Started the day with this goal – Hit the trail early and watch the Sunrise from the peak of Mission hills. In a nutshell, the goal is accomplished.

Cold breeze started hitting the face at the start of the trail this morning. Its impact stayed almost halfway thru the trail. By the time decent amount of indirect sunlight fell on me, I am at the last leg.

Colors changed very rapidly on the sky during that trek today. On the way up and while heading back, shot some pictures to capture these. Here is the album.

 

Hiking-2012-02

By the way, these dusty shoes (and legs) are good signs of me having a great time!

 

From Hiking-2012-02