that chooth nandan

are these the people we elect? patil, deshmukh, naqvi n yes, that chooth nandan...slowly but surely we are succumbing to exactly what the terrorists wanted...insecurities of every kind...divisions, war cries, blame games and fear. my good ol friend from another lifetime urges us to look within and address the pain.
today also marked a significant step forward in my own 9/11...even the sky smiled! jupiter, venus n the new crescent moon in perfect conjunction.

wanted

there's another rally on the 4th, at azad maidan, i think...and i've been wanting to get some banners, posters, t-shirts going...actually paint them myself...but been struggling to put out some messages in 2to4 lines. positive messages about love, trust...reminding ourselves about the futility of violence...may be some kabir dohas...but something that goes beyond "enough is enough"...pls to reply with some lines...thanks!

enough is enough

after having spent 3 full days feeling totally impotent, numbed by "breaking news" tv...a few friends n family decided to go to a candle-lit march at marine drive tonight...
but before that, m and s n i went from the taj, to leo's, to nariman house n finally to oberoi's...placing flowers n lighting candles. walking down colaba causeway, it felt like the city had been taken over once again by its citizens...out in huge numbers, curious, shocked, enraged n anguished...i overhear a father firmly telling a journo that he was here with his 6yr old daughter to demonstrate that she should not be scared n that "they" should know that we will not allow them to cow us down. later, at marine drive opp the oberoi, a class 12 boy engages me with the most astute observations he'd arrived at...he angrily denounced the politicians who've "been selling us" n wondered if a year of military rule would help fix things.
as we walk down towards churchgate, a sea of candles greet us...helplessness gives way to empowerment...strength in numbers, belief in self...the posters, banners, slogans all expressing the deep-felt anger towards the politicians.
my mind races on...how do we sustain this energy? it has happened before and it will happen again...alain resnais implored us back in 1959 not to forget...but we are human n we forget easily...what can we do to remember?

do we have to...?

do we absolutely have to know everything NOW?...in whatever unintelligible incoherent idiotic way it is being presented. do we have to thrust cameras n microphones into bleeding faces or tired exhausted souls? can't we stand back for just one time and acknowledge just once that the other is human with feelings and has a right to privacy? what is it about having a camera, being "press" that gives me the supercilious belief that i can commit this violation for the greater common good? and do we have to scream...and scream louder than the others like in a fish market auction...look i've got a better bigger catch...exclusive!

is this what we are to leave as textbooks for the next generation? to excel burkha dutt's faux pas'? as someone who's been teaching wannabe mediapersons, i share the blame...and take it as a new challenge...there's so many lessons to be learnt from the last 3days in bombay...can i be part of the healing? and how?

do you believe in india?

do you believe in the idea of india? of the unity in diversity, of religious tolerance, of freedom, democracy, plurality, of whatever else it is that you hold dear about india...stand up n be counted...enough is enough! such a complete failure by the state to protect it's people...utter disarray n chaos i have never seen. the guardians should be hanging their heads in shame...no, not the nsg, armed forces, etc but our super-pampered thick skinned shameless politicians. off with that wimp home minister, off with the cm... if there has been an intelligence failure, it is only because we've alienated the community so much that we've killed the very sources who'd tip us off otherwise...did we have to lose our 3 top guys in less than 30mins?

after spending most of last night trying to make sense of the unfolding mayhem n pacifying anxious relatives across the globe,..by the morning anger had seeped in...i felt so angry that it took them over 9hrs to send the nsg in n that too after day break and even as i write, almost 20hrs later they are no where near securing the 3 locations under attack.
i took the train down to vt this morning to donate blood at st george hospital...in a desperate attempt to "do something positive". the trains were up n running...empty. the otherwise bustling churchgate station deserted...i walk gaping around the silence as if in some funk...reality hits home at the hospital gates. army, police, ambulance sirens, blackboard list of the dead, worried-sick relatives...more dead bodies being brought in...stoically i join the long line to donate...there must've been another 60 of us. dentistry students volunteering thru the night...my pouch filled, i walk back down thru the hospital thru the ground floor open morgue...more cops, more tourists, more worried relatives...still more bodies coming in.

i step out into the glare n heat...into a city barren at noon. walk across to vt station...become one of the "terror tourists" - everyone pointing for the newly arrived, " there, see that bullet mark on the wall...and over there on the column, n there up shattering that glass, n there the broken indicator."...struggling hard to keep the numbing feeling growing...i began to speak to some railway protection force jawans...pathetic n heart-rending...this guy had lost 3 of his colleagues in last night's gun-shower. all he had was a fibreglass lathi. even if they carry a gun/rifle, he informs me, they are not allowed to carry ammo. if they do carry ammo, they are instructed - one bullet, one man dead wanted! better not to carry a gun, sir, he trails off...

i hurry out n hail a cab to the taj...my heart's been bleeding seeing those images of the top floor of the old taj burn. i mean, it's not about being the most expensive suites in the country, it's our heritage, history being burned. those suites played host to the biggest and the best...heads of state, jazz greats, hollywood stars, fashion czars, sportspersons...you name em all. by the time i go there, most of the top floor was ash...smoke still billowing out...my heart just crumbled. more anger...more desperation...did someone ask, what next - "secular terrorism"? am seriously considering it...

clearing cobwebs

the cobwebs grew thick n fast over the last year...obscuring any trace of progress i had made on my dad's film. on sunday, while dusting some debris off my head (not my brain, pls note;) i realised that it was exactly a year ago i had begun writing a proposal for docedge. the coincidence was eerie but significant...significant enough to want to get back to it...i hadn't shot a frame nor written a single word...some said it would happen when it happens...whatever that means...but all i know it's back on my radar, a faint blip albeit...but hopefully the venus jupiter conjunction will ignite it back to life :)
working title: in the name of the father (o how original!). gtkd - getting to know dad (cuteseely yuckk!) so help me god

dostaana & dasvidanya - such extremes!

just had to watch these two films and am glad i did...dostaana was a friend's first film as production designer and dasvidanya another friend's first film...dostaana starts off with these languorous body-caressing shots of john abraham, usually reserved for the female of the species...down to his skimpiest lil undie pulled down...nervous giggles around the almost housefull sets the tone of what was to follow...what starts off as a comedy drags miserably in the second half...wafer thin script that goes nowhere. i slept off somewhere in the second half n was rudely awakened by the very loud "gay gay" song...i mean, trust kjo to push the envelope but hopefully he'll inspire more meaningful scripts where homosexuality is as natural n common place...o that priyanka is so hot ;)
dasvidanya was such a contrast! none of the kjo ott-ness, no media blitzkrieg, no big star line-up...just a hugely big heart. and vinay pathak!...carries the film single-handedly with such ease n confidence...how do actors become producers? to showcase themselves? a simple enough script reminds one of the bucket list ...but not cancer for god's sake! i liked the slow deliberate-ness of the film...but save vinay's role the others were terrible caricatures - the deaf tv serial stuck mum, the fat slobbering over food boss. rajat as best friend seems wasted...but all-in-all a nice feel good film modestly told. Go watch!

time to pull out the telescope!

The two brightest planets, Venus and Jupiter, are set to unite and light up the November sky.
The two planets will continue to get closer and closer to each other the more the month of November goes on.
As the month goes on though, it is believed that they are only going to be around 2 degrees apart.
This means that they will be coming together to create quite a light show up in space.
Venus will be setting at anywhere from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. throughout November, while Jupiter will be setting around 10 p.m. at the start of the month, and end at around 9 p.m. by the month’s end.

wonder if they'll be close enough to fill the frame together...o what joy that would be!

mcrc lighting workshop

i couldn't believe my ears/eyes when some weeks back, i get this email from jamia mcrc asking me if i'd be free n willing to do a week-long lighting workshop...i mean, it was what, 15yrs since i graduated from there. never felt particularly good about the place, held some grudges...but was secretly thrilled that they wanted to do something like this. we never had anything like this when i was studying there. whatever we learnt n did was often despite the faculty there...but yes, the resources we had n the access to equipment was unrivalled....
i didn't take much time to think n almost immediately said yes. no shoots happening. i had done a lighting workshop at sristi earlier this year. ended up being most intense but very satisfying. but 50 students!!! daunting, to say the least...we were a mere 27 in comparasion. they'd fly me down, put me up in the guest house n even pay me...nice, i thought!
i had been there just once since passing out...but now, as i walked in, an overwhelming sense of decay greeted me...i dunno what it was at first...it seemed stuck in time n we had moved on...gotten worse as we got better. it bothered me but only increased my resolve to enjoy myself n get the students to have a fun time learning. very dull they seemed blinkered by their tv news presenter aspirations. what could i do to change that, i pondered...
in these many years of teaching, i've often been asked, "so how's this batch?"...i never know what to say which would be a suitable response to some expectation...i'd like to think of each group of students quite like the other. soft moist clay on a potter's wheel...tho i never thought of myself as ajay kumbhar!...we just dived in together into the deep end, splashed around, swallowed some water occasionally but came out on top, mostly.
enjoyed it immensely...tho the numbers did make it exhausting this time. i tried my best to dissuade them from coming to class. all will be marked present, everything is optional...but nothing worked...day after day, session after session, they'd be there like good dry sponges...soaking it all in. even at 6am on a cold misty winter morning! to look at available light...and till 830 at night to watch the evening film.
i'd meet friends over dinner, classmates too who're teaching...and we'd crib endlessly about the abysmal quality of students these days...yes, we too were one n twenty once upon a time, but then, our seniors said the same disparaging things about us too, remember? it seems to be a universal phenomenon...to the problem seems to lie with us, not them. the onus is on us. yes, they don't read the newspapers, nor watch movies, are lazy lumps of undeserving @#$&...we rant on...this is exactly what drives me...to figure how to make a connection...figure what their pre-occupations are...
they spent an entire day realising the one situation they had scripted in order to evoke a particular "mood or feeling"...what a day it was!...i hardly spoke...they experimented, slogged, skipped lunch n by the evening shared their work nervously but excitedly like it was their first film! later they told me they'd never experienced anything like this here...i've been smiling very widely since ;)

bombay to goa my first drive

six months ago i learned how to drive rather reluctantly...hated the idea of driving in bombay's manic traffic...but that drive to taleigaon on the bom-pune expressway changed all that. goa began to appear in the horizon of my fledgling car ambitions. sent my baby for a complete overhaul n had her ready just the day before we were to leave. meanwhile, i had already figured that a full tank of lpg n a full tank of petrol would take me over 750kms! goa was well within!
we - my sister mira n her friends in their car - set off early on 31st morning. we'd decided to do it nice n easy considering this was my first time. no way was i going to do it in one go. so we planned an overnight stop at tarkarli about 540km away!
i'd always dreamed of this - to be able to stop enroute n take in those gorgeous sights which one is unable to do while in a bus or train. my fiat sienna was as happy as me to be get out of the city, open up the throttle n zip down the straights at 110kmph! but it was those vedi vaakdi valuns that pounded the heart while mira grabbed the door handle firmly trying to calm her nerves.
such fun it was, tho not so much fun when one maniacal bus driver wanted to overtake a trailer down a hairpin bend as i was revving up-ghat. many gaalis later, we continued...phew! lunch at sangameshwar, powernap n off were went. now, tarkarli was futher than i had imagined...light was fading fast n i was growing increasinly uneasy. mercifully, the turn off to tarkarli came soon afterdark...those blinding headlights totally suck!
crawled into bed exhausted n woke up eaarly to this fab mtdc resort on the beach at tarkarli...cool, clean n desolate. such bliss!... walking down the beach, in the distance there seemed to be much excitement. the seagulls were going crazy, women n children were seen filling their plastic bags while the men hauled in a mountain of tarlas...i mean, two trucks weren't enough to take this mornings bounty away!
back on the road, we decided to ditch nh17 n go down the sagari mahamarg up to vengurla n then on to the mangeshi calgutkar mandir at assnora in north goa - amol's family ka presiding deity. so many lifetimes ago, the temple chief priest had a dream that the christians were going to be coming so take her inland to save her. that explained why calangute-kars came to assnora...
the short drive to verna was uneventful...but i felt weird to be driving in goa...complete disbelief!...no scramble to hire a kinetic, no manoj to call for a pick-up, no thumbing a lift...it felt rather nice, in fact ;)

...and very happy dipawali to you!

hope this diwali lights up and brings you lots of cheer

...and she's buying a stairway to heaven!

for those of you who missed that spectacular sunset last evening :)

go read!

my article about the whole analog-digital fracas in our image making world!
http://fracthis.blogspot.com/

ajay vernekar

so! en fin...verna becomes second home in goa...an old portuguese house built at turn of the century...n view from my window :) come let's go!

three monkeys vs a wednesday

i've been to turkey but didn't have a clue about turkish cinema n hadn't heard of nuri bilge ceylan...but "three monkeys" last night got me to sit right up in my seat riveted to the very end...a dark, very dark tale of denial and silence...brooding n deathly slow but brilliant!...a family plunged into a spiral in order to save a local politician's honour and his re-election following a car accident. the camera hardly moves n the long takes force you into the slowly unfolding narrative...no shifting focus to relieve you of an unsettling image, no cutting away or unnecessary pans. you confront the moment squarely in the face digesting every morsel of information it holds...and what performances! soo understated yet so powerful in a gut-wrenching story. hatice aslan - what a face! hauntingly beautiful...now, i learn that ceylan was a photographer before he began making films...raw gritty de-saturated, almost 'digital' imagery...there are two absolutely dramatic images when the past slips into the present!... haven't seen nothing quite like this before! so a must-watch!

"a wednesday" on the other hand, was among the worst films i've ever seen with THE worst cinematography possible...was there even a cinematographer? o it was fuad khan? no wonder! atrocious shot-taking and worse, so much of the film out of focus! the story even more disturbing - simple common man takes law into his own hands and ends up a hero complete with bhaashan that has the nation cheering and police in awe! pathetic n scary! o of course, there's this pretty bimbette utv news reporter in dilemma ...faux shallow torn betw news duty and service to the nation...in i have no idea what people were raving about :( i mean, yes, there was naseer doing what he does best so easily and anupam kher trying hard to keep up with naseer's demands as the jimmy jib swung to n fro and up n down like someone had just discovered it's function! terrible terrible terrible...

mama, they dropped the bomb...so many!

...to all the bigots out there...kabir's got something for you...
"Where do you search me?
I am with you
Not in pilgrimage, nor in icons
Neither in solitudes
Not in temples, nor in mosques
Neither in Kaba nor in Kailash
I am with you o man
I am with you
Not in prayers, nor in meditation
Neither in fasting
Not in yogic postures
Neither in renunciation
Neither in the vital force nor in the body
Not even in the ethereal space
Neither in the womb of Nature
Not in the breath of the breath
Seek earnestly and discover
In but a moment of search
Says Kabir, Listen with care
Where your faith is, I am there."

sunday morning tull

There's no double-lock defense; there's no chain on my door.
And I'm available for consultation,
But remember your way in is also my way out, and love's four-letter word is
no compensation.

...from "0 to the power of ten equals nothing at all"...how? just how does he do it?...the most unusual compositions and instrumentation with such brilliant lyrics...

tahaan vs padre neustro

it's like lycra - either you have it or you don't!...and we, indians definitely don't.

tahaan- thin plodding plot beautifully shot with fantastic performances by the boy, anupam kher and sarika. bose, on the other hand, should be banned. however hard he may think he tries, he cannot act and will remain as stuck up as frozen carrot. but above all, i was most disappointed with sivan's handling of the plot. didn't expect him to succumb to using the boy for some specious hair-brained terror act. showcasing kashmir in it's rugged beauty coupled with taufiq's music distanced me even further n left me cold (of course, 13 people in a freezing multiplex didn't help either;) i guess i keep going back to sivan only because of his brilliant "halo"...but then, that's what first films are all about - the passion, the exacting detail and control...no "cutting away" to beauty shots coz your plot lacks depth.

padre neustro had my heartbeat racing from the opening minute!...a lil like the way cidade de deus opens but there ended the comfort. such control, crisp succinct riveting dialogue, intimate in-your-face camera filmed at the just the threshold of exposure, your pupils dilated opening up every pore of experience and a sound track that melded atmospheric sounds brilliantly with music to heighten that unsettling edgy feeling...and this continued till the very end, by which time you let out this huge phew and go, 'fuckkk!' ...chris zaalaa - all of 35, had us wrapped firmly around his lil finger with this story of migration n identity. not for a second does he show you new york as the big apple...the big american dream. you are in that frame...face to face with each character, twisting at every turn, reeling n being repulsed by the city's underbelly...and what performances!...paola mendonza in particular.

kya hoga apun logo ka? mera toh, kuch nahi...with my penchant for the beautiful, glossing over all that is uncomfortable. my challenge to myself as i get back to my film...

...while gauri was being appeased...

mridula n new lil sis spent one ganu morning

full moon n solar eclipse

...been reading murakami's "wind-up bird chronicles"...
is it possible, in the final analysis, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts in order to know another person, but in the end, how close can we come to that person's essence? We convince ourselves that we know the other person well, but do we really know anything really important about anyone?"

woke up again well before dawn...with these n other such thoughts about the universe within... complete with black holes, milky ways and a sun that i go around...

mama noronha unwinding!

it must've been a tough trip for her...one sunday morning after mass, we just decided to juts chilllll!...florentine's @sailgao is such a safe bet...

bombay in goa

...imagine that!...all of goa looking like bombay...highrises, et al :(

post monsoon brilliance!

such colours!....

bom-goa

so much green..all along...such blisss!

everywhere is war...

...and what a noise they make about it!
here, mad bose with his ott installation!!

good evening!

when? just when will they ever blast off??!!

good morning!

view of the newly thriving "forest" and beyond!

old friends

mira and swati went to nursing school together some 25years ago!
Can you imagine us
Years from today,
Sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange
To be seventy.
Old friends,
Memory brushes the same years
Silently sharing the same fears...

brother n sistah reunion!

when they were kids my dad would take them double-seat on his bicycle...ride out to town (nagpur/goa) and show them the sights. two years ago, anil (madman) n my sister came up here to taleigaon for the first time n feel in love with it. robbing mangoes n beros n getting pasting!...the older you get the more you reminisce... rohit didn't come coz he would get bored with us "old people"!...jim didn't make it nor did s or lin...but our hosts more than made up for them! ;)

wheeeee!

driving with my sister is to drive back in time...promptly she hooked up her ipod to the music system n we begun with "honey, you are my shining star" and wound right back to our childhood...riding the bicycle with her walkman blaring in my ears...remember "flashdance"? the unfolding swollen deccan landscape segued perfectly to scenes from teacher's colony to telenkari ...o to be able to stop up before rajmachi point n soak in the mist...something you can't do when you're whizzing past in a bus or cab...o what joy! thanks baby!

wheeee

i did it...finally! drove to pune and back on the expressway for the first time since learning to drive 2months ago! and man, it was such fun!...since the time i've been back from camp i've been aching to drive out of town n with everyone making plans for the long weekend, i didn't want to feel left-out...so quickly checked with mira n she was game...i was nervous but sooo excited i almost didn't sleep. the idea was to drive out of town, find a nice picturesque spot by a river/lake n pitch my newly acquired tent!but there wasn't need for that coz mira's friends' parents insisted on us coming to their cozy bungalow nestled in taleigaon, near pune.aunty o she made the most divine meal for us - alu leaves with kaju, stuffed capsicum, steamed rice coconut jaggery in tumeric leaves, etc...she n uncle tend this lil garden full of plants, veggies n fruit...uncleall of 80...what stories he had! how mr cambatta of cambatta aviation and eros cinema fame would step into his buick convertable, light his cigarette at four bungalows n wooosh! he's step out in front of eros n stub off the cigarette - that's how fast he drove way back then in the 1940's when there was only that much traffic! even then, he'd tip the cops along the way 5rupees to let his car zip thru!! amazing! his memory is razor sharp n i must go back for more stories...about the war, about independence, about the patils in andheri west...but it was the first drive that thrilled...my speedometer, i realised didn't go beyond 70kmph so i had no idea of the speed i was doing...but we reached in 2n half hours!! of course, i stalled once in the fast lane which made mira v nervous, but other than that it was fairly smooth! man, the car wasn't the fuel guzzler it was like it is while inching along in bombay...i did 300km n still had a quarter tank of gas left!! and whoever said lpg compromises pick-up etc...it was a breeze! i hope more n more people move to the less polluting gas option...so goa here i come ;)

yaay! our first gold in years!

cheers to abhinav bhindra! quiet, unassuming and sans emotion...he stood on top of the podium making us o so proud!...secretly i am hoping we lose cricket ;)

the dragon is king!

...if you caught even so much as a glimpse of the spectacular opening ceremony of the beijing olympics, you will agree that this century belongs to china...who tibet what tibet? while india pales into oblivion...higher faster stronger just got "bigger" added to the motto...the biggest, most expensive yet...

ranjan's forever young

...just watched ranjan palit's "forever young" - his latest film or should i say labour of love? i mean, we knew he'd been going each year to shillong for dylan's birthday celebrations and we knew ranjan's wonderful dylan act - guitar harmonica n song and we know how extraordinarily good a cinematographer he is...so when i heard it was ready, i couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy n see it...the usual suspects let me down, but thanks naresh...
...so much love!...in every frame, and tenderness...the man - lou majaw shone thru with all his imperfections and brilliance! what a character!...the narrative unfolding with just the right balance between the music and the spoken word. hardly felt the length, something ranjan seemed so concerned about when we spoke later. and some lovely transitions...of course, the end makes me want to send my daughter to that all-girls convent school in shillong where the head-mistress/principal invites the band to play for the students because exams are just over!! and what does the madman break out into? - everybody must get stoned!! :)
now to get a nice big screening going here in bombay...(and no, not a sweaty overcrowded sittingcrossleggedonthefloor screening ;)

when will we ever learn o when will we ever learn :(

another bleak black day for the child rights activists who doggedly pursued duncan grant n company to a lower court conviction, extradition n imprisonment...only to find the high court acquitting them. makes me angry makes me sad makes me despondent. how do we ever allow notorious previously-charged pedophiles to get away...even as their native country awaits their arrival to start child-abuse hearings against them.
what will we tell the kids who stuck to their statements?...how do we encourage so many more to speak up in future? by the time the appeal to the supreme court gets thru, those vile ol men will be laughing their asses off at us...twenty years later, we still hark back to freddy peats...sheila tai where are you??

navel gazing!

it's been some time now that i've been mulling a "belly-button" exhibit...a culmination of my unabashed obsession devotion passion for belly buttons. you can now be part of it...embellish it, keep it stark, it is yours...anonymously, if you so desire. email pics of your glorious centre to bellybutton69@gmail.com.
meanwhile, here's the first entry!

i have seen the light!

"No!" interrupted Owl,
who was wise. "I have good eye-sight, insight, and foresight. How could an
intelligent hare make such a silly mistake?" But all this time, Owl had been
sitting on the fence, scowling!..."
i'm kinda slow...very slow...sometimes when you divide 4 by 2 you don't necessarily get half...cheers to the next one fourth ;)

dark knight indeed!

what a performance!...may his soul rest in peace :)
ps: i don't think chris nolan is going to be making another film in a hurry

back to class!

so i finally heaved myself out of bed n out of the house yesterday...for my first class this year at scm. 3weeks late, i was anxious to catch up. 44 bright-eyed young uns lay in wait...mostly from bombay, mostly immediately after graduation...all having computer and digital camera which is a historic first...got me thinking about new ways of learning and sharing work. need to figure an efficient way they can submit text, images, video n audio clips, me to be able to review n comment on them n everyone able to see each other's work. a blog? any ideas?
while on the trip to harvard, heard stories of how mark zuckerberg hacked into the college computers n accessed students' data n started the local social network which went on to become the biggest rage - facebook! imagine, they expelled him :) ...walking around in harvard you cannot help but be overwhelmed...the place feels very special...

early morning blues!

each morning i wake up around 4am unable to fall back to sleep...one crazy koyal keep me company as night turns to light in the deepest hues of blue...i have returned but am still not all here. i wake up in time for line-up only to find a messy room around me. i'm back at camp - dialogue at the dl hut, swimming in the lake, volleyball, long chats on the bus, turkish coffee n the fireplace!...but the best part about camp, is that i have come back really fired up with some broader ideas for my space in goa.

meanwhile, who's taken the rain away? n now that singh is king, can we get on with some real, more pressing issues that bog our nation down?

dc

my first trip to the capital. we stayed at the liaison hotel 2blocks away from capitol hill!!...a far cry from the quiet woods of pleasant lake in otisfield, maine. but like most capital cities - gentrified and antiseptic. the same ol story plays out- blacks n hispanics as cleaners, drivers, waiters and america's growing poor out on the streets. my aunt cautions me n i'm happy to be back without losing anything this time round ;)
a brilliant full moon greeted us into dc that night
the jefferson memorial peeks over all the govt buildings n other landmarks...remember seeing something similar in buenos aires the seeds at the us state dept waiting to be interviewed by the media n meet with deputy secy negroponte
the national museum of modern art, where we breezed thru some matisse, picasso, giacometti, warhol, mondrain, miro, etc 'twas hot...very hot, close to 40! so was most happy to slip out into the night to meet george n sush one night in georgetown, then with a friend's friend in his beamer(beemer?) to dupont circle n on the last night with abi n hussain...after being moslty clean for over 3weeks, the beer sure tasted bloody good!