What picasa sees

What picasa sees
Originally uploaded by soylentgreen23.

I can't believe I've picked up some sensor dirt again already. Well, actually, I can very well believe it, considering that I changed lenses out in the middle of nowhere (Nowa Huta) on the side of a most polluted road by the most polluting steelworks. Still, the photos were good so it was worth it.

I can't believe I spent so long happily breathing in this muck. I'm surprised I can breathe at all now. I should have worn one of those Chinese face masks. Thank you picasa, thank you so very much for showing me what was in that cloud of smoke that poured so incessantly from the steel mill smoke stack.

I saw Casino Royale the other day, and now I want to see it again. It was as excellent a film as I could possibly have hoped, and far more excellent than anything since Goldeneye. Parts of it were just brutal, and that's what I think Bond needed to become - brutal. Just like in the book Fleming wrote half a century or so ago.

On Udaipur vs Octopussy

udai047
Originally uploaded by soylentgreen23.

I got a real thrill a couple of nights ago, when ITV showed "Octopussy" as part of its backwards-oriented James Bond series (backwards because they started with "Die Another Day" and will no doubt conclude with "Dr No" - backwards also because they interrupted the broadcast, as always, for an hour-long news break. What, is it still 1990?).

The thrill I got was because Bond was sent to Delhi, India, which quickly revealed itself to be Udaipur. Perhaps Delhi was too dingy to have been of any interest for our good spy? Anyway, no sooner had M told Bond to pack his bags for Delhi than we were shown a helicopter languidly floating past the Taj Mahal, Agra, and leading our hero eventually to Udaipur, home of the floating palace over Lake Pichola, and of course everyone's favourite, The Monsoon Palace, pictured here.

Perhaps it was a result of Bond's actions in the palace, when he was taken prisoner there, but the buildings I saw whilst in India, though certainly charming, were nothing like as beautifully presented as they were in the film.

It was almost as if they had used the palace only for its melancholic name.