Archive for the ‘Miscellaneous’ Category
The Supreme Court is to be commended for canceling the PSM sale
In a landmark judgment announced on June 23, a nine-member full bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, cancelled the sell-off deal of Pakistan Steel Mils and declared the government’s Letter of Acceptance dated March 31, 20906 and the Share Purchase Agreement dated March 31, 2006 as “void and of no legal effect.” Read the rest of this entry »
The story behind Rio Bravo: the greatest Western film ever made
In my book – and it’s a pretty long book, I can tell you – director Howard Hawks’ 1959 movie Rio Bravo is the greatest Western ever made. I’ve seen The Magnificent Seven (another contender for the top spot) eleven times, but I’ve seen Rio Bravo fifty-seven times so far and could happily watch it another fifty-seven times. It’s that good. In fact, it comes as close to perfection as it is possible for a film to be.
I know the whole movie by heart – every line of dialogue, every scene, every camera angle. So whenever I watch it again, I know exactly what’s coming. Yet I still find myself marveling at the effects Hawks has been able to create. Each frame is like a painting, which one could freeze and study for hours for the way in which the lighting has been used to set the mood of the scene and the way in which the colours have been handled to create an atmosphere that makes the film a timeless masterpiece. Read the rest of this entry »
Doyenne of Karachi’s diplomatic corps says farewell
KARACHI: Mohammed Abdulla Amir Alfalasi, doyenne of the city’s diplomatic corps, is going home on Sunday after serving as the UAE’s consul general here for more than five years. In January 2006, he was elevated to the rank of minister plenipotentiary.
One of the most popular figures on the city’s diplomatic circuit, Alfalasi, 48, who has a degree in political science and economics from the United Kingdom, joined the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as an attache in 1977. He was appointed consul general here in October 2000. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Crash won and Brokeback Mountain lost
If Brokeback Mountain – which seems to have invented a new film genre: the gay-coyboy movie - had won the Best Picture Oscar at the 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles on March 5, the late great Hollywood screen cowboy legends John Wayne, Gary Cooper and others of their ilk would doubtless be turning over in their graves today. I mean, can you imagine the rough tough two-fisted Duke Wayne and the slow-talking but straight shooting Coop riding the range all day, sorting out the bad guys in a hail of gun fire, rescuing the ranch owner’s sassy daughter from the proverbial fate worse than death, and then coming home to the bunk house in the evening, stashing their gear, and holding hands and kissing? The mind boggles at the thought.