I feel so disconnected from the world. I spent this whole week in San Francisco attending an industry conference. It’s been a really good one, with some excellent networking opportunities, great conversations and interesting debates. Oh, and the conference has been good too.

But like all conferences, my time has been totally occupied with all things conference related. From the time I woke up till the time I went to bed, I have been in meetings, sessions or networking get-togethers. Consequently there has been no TV, no news and little sleep. It is a really weird feeling to not know what’s going on in the world. What did George W do this week to screw up our futures? Have the Yankees broken out of their inexplicable second slump of the season? I completely missed the drama of Paris Hilton getting released from jail, Thank God (about missing the drama, that is). What else is going on? Can’t wait to find out.

[tags]New York Yankees[/tags]

Saturday was a gorgeous summer day. So Tanu and I headed upstate to the Storm King Art Center in Mountainville, NY. An outdoor museum set on 500 acres of landscaped lawns, hills, fields, and woodlands, the grounds are accented by carefully sited modern abstract sculpture. Many were actually built for the specific spot you can find them in.

What is even more amazing is that the whole areas used to be a stone quarry, a ruined ecological disaster. But the whole area has been carefully built rebuilt and landscaped to be in harmony with the undulating mountains that form the “gallery walls”, as our guide (a lovely lady with great enthusiasm for her job) put it.

The sculptures range from the massive to the tiny, and use interesting materials like pink marble, timber, steel, iron and brass. Some of the great masters of abstract sculpture are represented, like David Smith, Mark di Suvero and  Isamu Noguchi, among others. In the picture you can see me standing under Suspended by Menashe Kadishman. If you go right now you can also enjoy a special exhibit of Louise Bourgeois sculpture, with a fascinating documentary about her playing inside the museum house.

The Storm King Art Center truly celebrates the relationship between sculpture and nature. It is a wonderful experience, and a great day trip idea if you are in the New York/New Jersey area.

As if that wasn’t enough, we ended the night by driving a few miles down from the center into the woods to enjoy an All-American experience we had never had – an authentic drive-in movie theater. We went to the Warwick Drive-In theater in Warwick, NY and saw Knocked Up. The movie was really funny and sweet, not words you would associate with a movie that has the amount of swearing and doping that this one has.

But the real experience was sitting in our car under the stars, enjoying some popcorn and ice cream as we listened to the movie on our car radio (on an FM channel). It is a completely different experience from the Bryant Park movies, and totally unlike the faux drive-in experience we had a few days ago. The only problem was that because the movies can only start after it has turned dark, and we were there for the second showing of movies, we got home around 3am. But it was a great way to end a really fun day.

Tuesday night as we headed home from work, we saw signs for the [tag]Tribeca Drive In[/tag], a free outdoor movie showing that is part of the [tag]Tribeca Film Festival[/tag]. They had set up a large screen overlooking the [tag]Rockefeller Center[/tag] Rink, and the seats were set up along the plaza. There were cars in the middle (Dodge Chargers), but nobody could sit in them. The movie was “[tag]Watching the Detectives[/tag]“, starring [tag]Cillian Murphy[/tag] and [tag]Lucy Liu[/tag]. We had actually wanted to catch this at the Film Festival, but missed it. This time, we plunked ourselves down to catch the show.

As show time approached, we managed to move down to get really good seats towards the front. In the picture you can see the host of the evening, SNL’s [tag]Rachel Dratch[/tag]. She made a few funny jokes about the irony of bringing indie to Rockefeller Center and midtown Manhattan.

The movie was pretty funny. But we didn’t get to hear the ending, because 10 minutes from the end of the movie the sky opened up and it started to pour. A few smart souls had brought umbrellas, so they stayed in their seats. But we ran for cover, getting into the elevator bays for Rockefeller Center. From there we could see the movie, but couldn’t hear it. Thankfully, we had already gotten past the part of the climax where they explain the movie, so we didn’t miss much (just the obvious made-for-audience wrap-up).

Fun night, though.

Saw this article about how the Obama campaign is on the defensive about a memo they tried to get out there criticizing Hillary Clinton’s ties to India. Obama has been calling it a “dumb mistake”, and that his campaign procedures would be changing to prevent any such thing from happening.

The highly antagonistic memo had the headline “Hillary Clinton (D-Punjab)” (how offensive is that) and criticizes “Bill and Hillary Clintons’ investments in India; her fundraising among Indian-Americans; and the former president’s $300,000 in speech fees from Cisco, a company that has moved U.S. jobs to India.”

This is the part that really gets me:

Last Thursday, Obama’s campaign sent the memo to reporters, demanding that it not be attributed to their campaign. The Clinton campaign obtained the document and sent it to journalists. Since then, it has created a furor in the Indian-American community and raised questions about Obama’s claims that he is above attack politics.

So I guess any hope that a politician with little experience and a fresh approach would be above this kind of smear campaign is just hype. And what’s with the picking on India? I understand that politicians have to figure out a way to protect the jobs of their constituents, but you can’t fight globalization as a capitalist economy, and you definitely shouldn’t pick on a country that is getting those jobs by providing better value for money.

Wonder what Jon Stewart will make of all this.

This is the first in a series of posts I will be writing covering our recent trip to Peru. And I will start it off covering the absolute highlight of our trip – the stunning and spectacular Machu Picchu.

Day 1

We spread our trip to the “Lost City of the Incas” over two days. The first day we arrived on the Vistadome train at around 11am. From the train station, we were immediately herded onto the buses that drive up the mountain to the site entrance. There we met our private guide Selvio, who proceeded to take us on a 3 hour tour of the main citadel. We walked through the ruins, learning about the significance of each building, its function and unique characteristics. We learnt the history of the site, some of it inferred, some of it legend. We learnt of how Hiram Bingham is revered for having rediscovered the site (by accident), and also hated for “borrowing” a number of artifacts for dating purposes, and never returning them (they are stored at the Peabody museum at Yale). We tried to absorb some of the energy of the site at the Sacred Rock and at the Hitching Post of the Sun. We learnt about the Incas incredible mastery of engineering which allowed them to create temples from massive rocks, aqueducts bringing fresh water in from the mountains and terraces to farm and prevent landslides.

Most of all, we found the awe we felt when we first saw the site increase throughout the tour, as we experienced the citadel in all its glory. Machu Picchu has been called the world’s greatest example of landscape art, reflecting the Incas reverence of nature and astronomy. Its setting among two Andean peaks is certainly spectacular, unrivalled by anything I have seen so far.

After the tour, Selvio led us to the Sanctuary Lodge for a satisfying buffet lunch. 3pm is when people start leaving to catch their trains back, so it was a good time to head back in for some quality time. 2000 people visit the site everyday, and while it is large enough to absorb that number without making things too crowded, the site is best enjoyed early or late when it can feel like you are the only one there. We spent the rest of the day wandering around Machu Picchu, checking it out from different angles, and making our way to some of the higher elevations on the terraces. We did the hour long hike to the Inca Bridge, which turned out to be a little disappointing. The trail is narrow, with a sheer drop on one side, and wnds too far away from the bridge to make it worth the time. When we got back we found a good spot to settle down and enjoy the view as the sun set. We then took the last bus down to the town of Aguas Calientes. My recommendation for Aguas Calientes is to find a good hotel, because there is nothing in the town worth stepping out of the hotel for. It’s best to relax and get a good nights sleep for the next day.

Day 2

That’s because the next day, we got up at 4:30am to try and catch the first bus up at 5:30. The gates to Machu Picchu opened at 6, giving us an hour to hike up the last part of the Inca Trail to the Sun Gate to catch the sunrise, which was scheduled for 6:55. This is where going to Peru at this time of the year turned out to be a little bit of problem. Being the dry season, there was not much moisture in the air, so the morning mist was fairly light. As a result, we only got a small taste of the sight of the rising sun melting away the mist over Machu Picchu, as Huayna Picchu and the terraces are lit up step by step. It wasn’t quite the spectacular experience we were hoping for. After the long (at this point we had been doing a lot of hiking for 4 days straight) trek back, we relaxed for a little while before I mustered up the courage to do the hike up Huayna Picchu.

The hike up Huayna Picchu ranks up there with snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef as one of the most amazing physical activities I have ever done. The climb can be done in 30 minutes, but it is almost straight up. In some portions, the trail (if you can call it that) is so bad that you literally have to pull yourself up by the cables installed into the side of the mountain. Portions of it are downright scary, enough to make you feel like giving up. But then you see sprightly 70 year olds coming back down, and feel shamed into continuing.

And when you reach the top, it feels totally worth it. Looking around, you see yourself surrounded by a ring of Andean peaks. Looking down, you see how the Incas planned the site to take the shape of an inverted condor, their sacred bird. You feel on top of the world, and not just because there is a definite feeling of accomplishment at having done the climb. Until you realize you have to make your way back down that same path.

After the climb back down, I had to spend 30 minutes just recovering from the trip. We then (very gingerly for me) made our way back down to catch our afternoon train back to Cusco. The train ride takes us back through the Sacred Valley, past the snow-capped peaks and along the Urubamba River. It was a nice way to end what was probably the most unique and memorable places anywhere we will ever experience.

This [tag]New York Times[/tag] article talks about one of the most interesting developments in the all-too-early presidential campaigns. On July 23, [tag]CNN[/tag] and [tag]YouTube[/tag] are co-sponsoring a debate, in which the eight Democratic presidential candidates will gather on stage in Charleston, South Carolina to answer questions posed via video by ordinary people through YouTube. Wow! Imagine the possibilities. As the reporter of the story says:

The video format opens the door for originality and spontaneity — elements usually foreign to the controlled environment of presidential image-making. Because visual images can be more powerful than words, the videos have the potential to elicit emotional responses from the candidates and frame the election in new ways.

The moderator will be [tag]Anderson Cooper[/tag], who’s blend of authority and informality is the perfect mix for such a ground-breaking event. This has the potential to completely change how presidential politics works in this country, changing the nature of the staid [tag]presidential debate[/tag]s we have become so used to ignoring. Finally common folks like us can ask questions that we lament about never getting asked. The fact that it is still controlled by a media heavyweight will probably be a damper on the whole thing, but hopefully CNN will not censor the process. I for one will definitely be tuning in.

The more I listen to it, the more I feel that [tag]Hands Held High[/tag], the anti-war song on [tag]Linkin Park[/tag]’s latest album [tag]Minutes to Midnight[/tag], really reflects that anger and frustration a lot of us feel. Watching [tag]Jon Stewart[/tag]’s commentary on George W’s bumbling and bungling does make me laugh, but it frequently makes me cry too (not literally!). And over the past few weeks it seems that even Stewart has been reduced to screaming “Are you f@$#ing kidding me” for a lot of things. Sometimes there are no other words you can find, no jokes you can make, that adequately express the outrage screaming inside you.

I think MoveOn.org should use the song as the anthem of their movement. It’ll get people riled up pretty quickly.

On the surface it seems like positive progress towards stemming the crisis in [tag]Darfur[/tag]. I read in this story in the [tag]New York Times[/tag] that the Sudanese Government has agreed to a peacekeeping force of about 20,000 in the region. It would be a joint force of [tag]United Nations[/tag] and [tag]African Union[/tag] [tag]peacekeepers[/tag]. This could go a long way towards curbing the violence that has claimed over 200,000 lives and displaced 2.5 million. It makes me hopeful.

But the story also points out that the Sudanese government has made similar agreements in the past, only to abandon them later. And there is a major logistical challenge that the government has introduced by insisting that a majority of the force be composed of Africans, with non-Africans only used as a last resort.

But at this point, any progress is a good thing, an open door that can potentially save thousands of lives. Lets hope this one can succeed where other efforts have failed.

From the venting happening in the blogosphere you would think that the President of the United States were waging a war that has no apparent cause, and has no end in sight. Oh wait, that is actually happening, but the public is responding to what? Paris Hilton’s woes and the lack of a neatly gift-wrapped ending on the Sopranos. This is just absurd.

T and I are divided on our opinion of [tag]Ocean’s Thirteen[/tag]. I thought it was good fun, lively and entertaining. T says she was irritated by all the holes in the story, and didn’t think there was anything innovative or inspiring about the caper like there was in the first movie. We both agreed that it was better than the second movie, but all the snappy interplay between [tag]George Clooney[/tag] and [tag]Brad Pitt[/tag] was not enough to save this movie from still being a little disappointing. You would have thought they would have learnt their lesson from the second try.

Surprisingly for a movie that was over 2 hrs long, there wasn’t enough of anyone in this. It was hard to figure out where the time went. There was not nearly enough of George and Brad. [tag]Don Cheadle[/tag], who is a terrific actor, was wasted in this one. Towards the end they gave him a scene to ham it up, but until then it was almost as if he wasn’t there. [tag]Al Pacino[/tag] was not as loud and irritating as he seems to usually be in all his movies now. And that tower they put in the middle of the strip is a designer’s delight – it would draw everyone to it, and yet is impossible to build. I guess the real star of the show is (and was always supposed to be) Vegas, which glitters and entices. There is none of the ugliness of [tag]Vegas[/tag] in this movie, just the visual of the dreams that we all see as we fly into that town.