Five things Friday – The only mostly about movies

Writing a blog post after three months seems particularly odd. I feel rustic, but glad to get back into the flow. Life during the last three months had been a roller coaster ride with lots of travel and lots of hours spend at work; without leaving me a moment to stop by and take breath. June 2013 will go down in my life as the month when I traveled from USA – India – Europe – India – United States all within a period of 30 days. Phew, after a while, my body stopped trying to make sense of which timezone I am in and just go with the flow. A job in consulting means every new project is a different client, different set of people whom you work with and a new place. Invariably, you are supposed to make new friends; build good relationships; make impressions and prove yourself again and again. Challenging, yes. Boring, never. Now we have got the life updates out of the way, let’s go to five things friday.

1. Today morning, I came to know that Ben Affleck is replacing Christain Bale as batman in the new Superman-Batman feature by Warner Bros. It broke my heart. How can someone replace Christain Bale as the Batman? He as batman is one of the best cameos of a superhero I have witnessed on screen. This is coming from a girl who doesn’t like superhero movies to a large extend. But, I adore Christain Bale. However I believe the series of batman movies with Bale in the lead role became a huge success because of the excellent direction by Christopher Nolan. That is one filmmaker who is so brillant that everything he touches just turns gold. Since the latest Superman-Batman feature by WB will be directed by Zack Synder, I believe it gives me some respite that it won’t be a batman movie with Christopher Nolan as the director and someone other than Bale playing the lead cameo.

2. Speaking of movies, I watched Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen in the Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee last weekend. The mention of the theatre is important here because it is the most beautiful movie theatre I had ever been to. My love for independent movie threatres is not unprecedented. I love the old world charm and sheer exuberance. Oriental Theatre in Milwaukee was opened in 1927 as a movie palace. It is said to be the only theatre that incorporate East Asian art work. It features 2 minaret towers, 3 stained glass chandeliers, several hand drawn murals, 6 larger-than-life Buddhas, dozens of original draperies, 8 porcelain lions, and hundreds of elephants. It was so visually stunning that I doubt at times, I was ogling at the gold budhas inside the screening room instead of looking at the screen !

Speaking of the movie itself, Blue Jasmine is thoroughly entertaining. Oh, how much I love Woody Allen movies and his hedonistic lady characters. Cate Blanchett plays the part of self-absorbent, extravagant and self-destructive lady to a tee. The entire movie is speckled with witty dialogues and uniquely developed characters. Sheer magic on the screen that only Woody Allen is capable of producing.

3. I finished the first season of Girls in a marathon-series-watching-session. I now understand what the hype is about. Lena Dunham and the gang of girls have created a series that is raw and true to life. 20-something girls who are confused, not knowing the shape their life is taking; finding their way out of the mess – sometimes that they created and sometimes that they find themselves to be in. Many a time, you watch it and wonder whether you too had been so lost in your early twenties? Maybe we all were. Maybe we all figured it out ourselves. Maybe we are all still figuring it out.

4. The summer is slipping away. The blistering heat season is over. The sky darkens faster in the evening and there is a slight chill in the air in the night. I am giddly waiting for the fall to arrive. It is my absolute favourite season in United States. The leaves change the colour, it is not too hot, neither too cool. You drink up pumpkin spice lattes and eat yummy pumpkin pies. It is the season to layer up and soak in all the beauty around you.

5. For as long as I can remember, I had been a coffee drinker. Lately, I had been swapping my cup of java for umpteen number of teas. Trying out new types of tea is my new leisure activity. So far, I have gone from earl grey to green tea to roobios tea to chamomile tea to chinese herbal tea to fruit flavored teas. I love the refreshing taste of light teas and had been enjoying a cup of tea after every meal of mine. I wanted something lighter during the night time and had been searching for a good night time tea. I chanced upon Allegro Peaceful Slumber tea in WholeFoods this week and had since been enjoying a cup of this before going to bed. Smooth chamomile with vanilla flavour accentuated by the scent of lavendar. If this doesn’t call out peace to you, then what will !

I have also been eyeing fanciful teapots and tea sets for sometime now. I imagine myself conducting tea ceremonies in the near future, along with neatly cut out cucumber sandwiches and scones with jam. Haha, wishful thinking. Anyway, would you have some suggestions for me with respect to tea varieties that I can try? Please let me know. The teas currently in my to-try list are white, oolong and dandelion teas.

What have you been upto?