Geek of All Trades

Reorganizing the film list

From occasional comments I receive from virtual friends over at BollyWHAT?, and also from my visitor logs here at Geek of All Trades, I am starting to notice that the GOAT Indian film lists are getting some attention.

I want them to be as interesting and helpful as they can be to people who are curious about Bollywood and other Indian cinema.  For that reason, I am thinking of reorganizing them.  (I also hope to revisit some of the entries I wrote early in my exploration of Indian films, because as I've learned more, my views of some of those films has evolved.) 

I would appreciate suggestions from whatever readers I have out there who have opinions, including those of you who have just stumbled upon the lists by accident.  What would be most useful and interesting organization for the lists?  Here are some possibilities:

• I could reorganize the lists to arrange the films alphabetically (by transliterated titles).  Then I would divide the list into segments of 10-15 films, similar to the segments that exist now, but arranged by letter - A-E, F-J, etc.  If I did this I would have to include some kind of notification on the main page whenever something got added.  An advantage of this scheme be that films would get added more quickly - instead of waiting until I've seen another 10 films to upadate, the lists could be updated within a few days of when I watched a film.  And if you have a particular film in mind and want to know whether I've seen it and what I thought of it, you could find it quickly and easily. 
• Another possibility would be to keep the lists as they are now, but create an index post that would list the films alphabetically, with links to the segment of the list they appear in.  This would have the advantage of preserving the rough order in which I watched the films, which is of some interest to me but may be somewhat less interesting to you.  It would also faciliate quick location of particular films.  Finally, it has the undeniable advantage of being the least work for me, and so it is the speediest solution to re-organizing the lists.  It would, however, continue to be several months between updates, which is not that much fun. 
• A third possibility might be to assign each film its own post.  This would be a lot of work for me, not least because if I did it I would feel compelled to add more information to each post instead of just the short blurb I have now for each film.  This option would also include an index with links to each individual film's post. 
• A variation of that third option: my Typepad account allows me more than one blog, so I might be tempted to create a separate blog just for the movie posts.  An advantage of this would be that I could creat categories that would help sort the films for the interested user - masala, oldies, art films, Shabana, top recommendations, etc.

I think the last option is the most delicious, but I am terrified of how much work it would be, and fear that practically speaking it might never get done.  Still, I could get it started, and keep the original GOAT lists as they are until the migration is complete.

So, please weigh in, GOAT readers and Hindi film-heads.  Tell me what you'd like to see in the film lists - add suggestions of your own to my ideas.  Please check out Parts I, II, III, and IV if you aren't already familiar with the lists.

In the meantime, I am working on Part V of the GOAT Indian film list - I've seen nine or ten films since Part IV went up, and I'm happy to say it's been a particularly excellent batch of movies.  After I get Part V up, I'll announce what's going to happen with the lists.  I look forward to your feedback!

Yankees milestones, update

Back before the baseball season began, I put together a little catalog of Yankees milestones to watch out for this season.  Now that the season is about to end, I thought it would be interesting to go back and see what happened with each of them.

Mariano Rivera, 400 saves. Mariano made this milestone right on schedule, in mid-July, against the defending champion White Sox.  Mariano is without a doubt one of the greatest closers, if not the very best closer, who ever played the game.  It has been a blessing and a delight to watch him through his career, and he's been my favorite Yankee since he was blowing away hitters as John Wetteland's set-up man in 1996.

Randy Johnson, 4500 strikeouts; Mike Mussina, 2500 strikeouts.  Despite having a sub-par year - by his standards - Randy Johnson picked up his 4500th strikeout in mid-August against the Angels.  He and Roger Clemens will jockey for second place on the all-time list, behind the untouchable Nolan Ryan, until one of them actually retires for good.   Mussina picked up his 2500th as well, against Florida at the end of June, and as I thought he might, he's broken into the top 25 all time.

Jason Giambi, 1000 walks; 1000 runs scored.   Giambi ran hot and cold this season, but one thing about Giambi is that even when his bat is off he still always takes his walks.  He did pick up his 1000th walk (though I can't find the date right now).  He got his 1000th run too - against the Red Sox, during "The Weekend" - the series in August when the Yankees put the Red Sox away for by taking five games in four days at Fenway Park. 

Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, 2000 hits.  Jeter reached his milestone in May, early in what turned out to be one of the finest seasons of his career, and one in which he has a good chance to take home the AL MVP award.  Alex Rodriguez has been much maligned this season - and though his aggregate numbers are good I suppose he has arguably struggled in some big spots - but he got his 2000th hit too, in July against Toronto, and that hit also happened to be is 450th home run.  That made him the youngest player ever to reach 450 homers.  The miracle it would have taken for Johnny Damon to reach 2000 hits did not occur - though he had an excellent year as well, he'll have to wait until 2007 to hit that milestone.

Johnny Damon, 300 stolen bases.  Johnny picked up his 300th steal handily, but I can't find a news piece on it so I'm not sure precisely when it happened.

Gary Sheffield, 1500 runs scored, 2500 hits, 1500 RBIs.  These are the only milestones I identified in my pre-season post that the Yankees didn't achieve.  Sheffield went down with an injury in June and only just returned to the lineup this week.  He won't make 1500 runs or 2500 hits this season.  When he got hurt, though, he stood at 1495 RBIs - and with seven games to play, he might yet make it to the 1500 mark.

All in all, not a bad year for these guys.  The true test, though, begins in another week.   

Typepad mapping

That's me, in the tiny red circle toward the bottom right.

That mysterious picture is a graph showing the interconnections of a subset of blogs on my bloghost, Typepad.  It was created by the keeper of a blog called Data Mining, which looks very compelling even beyond the Typepad graph.  I can't say I fully understand what a "graph of the largest connected component of only Typepad blogs" actually is, but if you visit Data Mining's post featuring this graph, you can click on any dot - including the dot I circled above - and find your way to some unexpected corner of the Typepad blogiverse.  I discovered Data Mining's excellent Typepad graph in the GOAT logs - evidently someone clicked on my little dot and found his or her way here.  I hope that person wasn't too disappointed. 

An interesting feature of the graph is that blogs with similar subject matter tend to lump together.  I think this is because the lines on the graph represent interlinks between blogs, and blogs tend to link to other blogs having similar subject matter.  I actually found my blog nestled in a section of the graph that contains mostly law blogs - I think that is due to a couple of trackback links I have to Patently-O that seem to direct one or two readers a day to my little old GOAT.   

ek patr

एक पत्र जो मैंने अपनी सहेली यास्मीन को लिखा (कई बारें पहले मैंने यास्मीन के बारे में लिखा):

प्यारी यास्मीन,

तुमने मुझसे पूछा कि मैं हिंदी में लिखूँ, तो लिखती हूँ | मुझे आशा है कि तुम समझोगी! मगर तुम्हारे लिये समझना ज़्यादा मुश्किल है, तो मैं अँग्रेज़ी में लिखूँगी - लेकिन मुझे विश्वास है कि जो मैं कहने की कोशिश करती हूँ, तुम वह मालूम करोगी | मैं शब्दकोश के बिना सारा यह पत्र लिखना चाहती हूँ - मेरे पास एक अच्छा शब्दकोश, लेकिन तलाश करके जाना मैं तो ज़्यादा कामचोर हूँ | इसलिये मैं आसान ही शब्दों का इस्तेमाल करूँगी |

नरसों तुमसे बात करना बहुत बहुत शान्दार था! मैं तो अभी मुसकुरा रही हूँ - ज़रा तुमसे बात करने के बारे मैं सोचती हूँ तो मैं मुसकुराती हूँ | अच्छा लगता है कि तुम Yale में इतनी ख़ुश हो, और तुम्हारी पढ़ाई इतनी अच्छी भी है |

अपने बारे में क्या बताऊँ? आज Rosh Hashana है - येहूदी का नया साल - तो शाम और सुबह हम (डेविड और मैं और लौरन भी) services गये हैं | हम हमेशा हारवार्ड के services जाते हैं, लेकिन ये तो पसंद नहीं | वजह है कि - कैसे कहूँ? - rabbi बेवक़ूफ़ है | शयाद कहूँ कि उसको अपना अवाज़ सुनना बहुत बहुत पसंद है | या गाना या बताना, वह चलता है, चलता है, चलता है, जब तक लगता है कि तुमको उसकी गली पकड़ना चाहिए, या एक लाठी से उसको मारना | तो Yom Kippur के लिये हम तो कुछ और services तलाश करेंगे | लेकिन हमको तो हर एक साल यह इरादा है |

अब डेविड के माँ-बाप यहाँ (Boston में) हैं - और तुमको मालुम है कि मुझे डेविड की माता कितनी पसंद हैं | इसलिये मैं उनको अच्छी बनने की कोशिश करती हूँ... और मैं अच्छी बनने में बिलकुल थक गयी हूँ | नहीं, असल में इतना बुरा नहीं है | वे ख़राब नहीं हैं - ज़रा वे तो मुझसे तंग करती हैं |

अच्छा, अब तो बस इतना है | मुझे आशा है कि यह पत्र तुमको बिलकुल पसंद है - और तुम्हारी समझ के अंदर भी है | अच्छी रखो! और, वापस लिखो | मुझे तुमसे प्यार है, तुम्हारी याद आती है.

तुम्हारी (जैसे हमेशा),
कार्ला

5767

We had a good Rosh Hashana, on balance.  Friday night, after services, we went for dinner to the home of Abby (of While She Naps) and The Real Charlie.  Charlie posted the wonderful menu they made for us.  He says they've made the brisket together about a dozen times - we've probably enjoyed it with them most of those dozen times, and we never get tired of it - it is the best brisket ever.  My mother has some theories about what the secret ingredient might be, but I will not offer them here, in case they are correct.  The beautiful homemade challah was also a delightful treat. 

On Saturday, we attended our morning services and then returned home with my dear friend L. to prepare lunch.  I hadn't seen L. in too many months - our lives have seemed too turbulent for more than just email exchange now and then - so it was excellent to see her.  Then we spent some time with David's family.

The religious component of the holiday, though, was not as fulfilling as the friends and family.  We attended the same service I've attended nearly every year since before I knew David - the Worship & Study service at Harvard Hillel.  We used to find it a moving and satisfying service, but it has long since lost its lustre.  The people we admired - the two excellent cantors and the previous group of lay leaders - have moved on, as people will with time, and we don't relate as well to the new guard.  Actually, I'm being a little kind and euphemistic.  To tell the truth, we think the rabbi is an idiot. We left this year's services so frustrated and grouchy - in every way the opposite of the way we want to feel after Rosh Hashana services - that we are thinking of going somewhere else for Yom Kippur - we don't want to wait until next year. 

In the bag

Congratulations to both my hometown teams! 

The New York Mets clinched the NL East two nights ago, for their first division title in 18 years and their first trip to the playoffs since 2000.  The New York Yankees clinched the AL East last night, their 9th straight division title.  Congratulations and good luck to both of them! 

I have never been a Mets fan; when I was a kid I hated them because that's what I was supposed to do.  But now, having been an ex-patriate New Yorker for such a long time, I have come to understand that that the Mets represent my city just as much as the Yankees do, and so I do not root against them.  And this year they have the added pull for me of being led by manager Willie Randolph.  Willie Randolph had a great career with the Yankees as a player and, later, as a coach in Joe Torre's staff on some of the great Yankees teams of the last decade.  Willie wanted to be a manager, and interviewed and was passed over many times before the Mets gave him a chance.  I bet they aren't sorry they did.

I'm rather hoping for another Subway Series this year - how can I not be? - and of course I'll root for the Yankees to win.  But I can't say I'll be completely heartbroken if Willie Randolph's Mets win it all this year. 

Here's to a great October for both teams. 

Ducky is the new black

The title of this post was uttered by a friend of The Real Charlie's at a baby shower in response to an abundance of ducky-themed clothing.  But the trendy appeal of the ducky has now transcended the realm of baby clothes and found its way into contemporary art.  I'm not kidding. 

My office building has an arrangement with the DeCordova Museum in which the museum supplies art from its collection to display in the lobby and in offices.  The art changes every six months or so.  The most recent set of paintings on display in the lobby is a series of still lifes featuring lemons and duckies in highly symmetrical arrangements, often on garish tablecloths. 

(I neglected to note the artist's name, but I will do so tomorrow and update the post to give her credit for her work.) 

The paintings are innocuous enough, but in quanitity there is something rather creepy about their highly ordered arrangements.  Stare at the painting above long enough, for example, and you start to percieve an evil clown face grinning at you from the floral background. 

Or maybe that's just me.

Still:  Duckies and lemons?

Gratuitous birthday girl

In honor of her 56th birthday, here are some gratuitous pictures of my absolute favorite Hindi film actress, the gorgeous and brilliant Shabana Azmi. 

Junoon, 1980.

Godmother, 1999.

Godmother, 1999.

Mrityudand, 1997.

Ankur, 1974.

Ankur, 1974.

Fire, 1996.

15 Park Avenue, 2006.

Arth, 1982.

First depositions

It's been a while since I posted, I know.  I've had lots of ideas but not a lot of follow-through lately.  I've also been pretty busy with work.  I recently took my first depositions. 

For any GOAT readers who may not be familiar with the technical underbelly of civil litigation, a deposition is an event at which a witness gives sworn testimony as to the witness's knowledge of facts relating to the dispute.  It is rather like courtroom testimony but in a less formal setting.  It typically occurs in a conference room.  Present will be the questioning attorney, the witness and her attorney, attorneys for any other parties in the case, and a court reporter who takes down the transcript stenographically.  Often there is a videographer as well (as in Bill Clinton's infamous deposition). 

The purposes of a deposition include collecting evidence that may be of relevance to the case as well as getting a sense of what the witnesses are likely to say at trial.  If the witness subsequently does testify in trial, her sworn deposition testimony may be useful if she changes her story between deposition and trial.  From a deposition you can also learn useful information apart from the core facts themselves, such as the existence or location of documents that you might not have known about, or who attended a key meeting, or that the vice president of the company told his secretary to shred all the key memos.   An interesting feature of depositions that they are not limited by the rules that restrict certain evidence from being admissible at trial.  So you can explore to your heart's content hearsay, speculation, and other areas that would be off limits at trial.  The only area you can't pierce in a deposition is privilege, like attorney-client or doctor-patient privilege. 

So in the two depositions I took, I was the questioning attorney, which meant that I had to figure out what kind of information I wanted to get from these witnesses, prepare the documents I planned to show them and a game plan for questioning them, and then, of course, execute.  That, for me, was the scariest part.  I feel that my best strength is writing; I feel most comfortable with time to consider my words carefully and edit them before exposing them to the world.  I dreaded being on the spot, having to think on my feet, ask good questions and good follow-up questions, be aggressive and pin the witness down if she was being evasive.  I felt very exposed.  And the first witness was the CFO of a publicly traded, several-hundred-million dollar company - just a smidge intimidating. 

I don't want to offer too many specifics about the depositions, in case opposing counsel has discovered my blog.  I did get through them, though I can think of a hundred things I did wrong, that I would do differently the next time around.  Reading the transcripts was both painful and fascinating.  I was amazed at how much my personality came through.  I am friendly, and slightly goofy, and I have a tendency to anthropomorphize.  So in one of the depositions, I referred to an exhibit that we kept coming back to as "our old friend Exhibit 66."  I referred to a graph that had some bad data points in it as "wonky."  When handing the witness an exhibit with extremely small print, I said, "This one's going to make us all squinty." 

I don't know if it comes across as too informal, as unprofessional; I hope not, because I don't think I could suppress it without a personality transplant.  Being myself that way helps me relax.  It's when I'm not relaxed that I stammer, trip over my words, and have trouble forming sentences.  So I think, until someone tells me otherwise, I'll go right ahead injecting my goofy self into deposition transcripts.  I just don't know how to do it any other way.