Movie Stills and Reviews

Ike released last Friday and still has people awed by its performance. Rated R, this movie is a sure-shot hit. Dramatic, brilliant, and a tearjerker. Guaranteed to run for at least another 6 weeks if not more!!

Here are some movie stills captured by an amateur photographer on a mobile phone.

This is what the university of Houston (and the roads of Houston) looks like these days.

This is what remains of a once beautifully landscaped restaurant.

Traffic lights are not working. Not only that, some of them are on the roads.

Some houses are damaged beyond recognition.

Broken fences.

For more information about the movie, you can visit http://www.chron.com/ or http://www.galveston.com/. Here is a brief snapshot of what life was before the movie and how it is today.

As of today, 1.93 million residents in Houston still do not have power and water. Grocery stores (if open) have signs up that say "You can shop but there is no light. Only buy canned foods." Essentially, all the shelves are empty. Gas stations have long lines often forcing customers to wait for hours.

Some people at work complained about their windows breaking and causing puddles in their homes. Some talked about the roof blowing away. Some complained of car damages. The people who are not complaining are those stunned beyond words. Their relatives are missing, their homes are swept away, some even saw their family members being engulfed by the waves and swept away into the sea.

The world is becoming a dangerous place to live in. Hurt, tears, grief everywhere..either due to a bomb blast, hurricane, or floods. These movies continue being made whether we like them or not. Sometimes they are super hits. Sometimes flops. I prefer the latter.

Let's pray for those affected by all these movies today and everyday. Thank you.

A Dramatic Movie

On early Saturday morning, she arrived. Hurricane Ike came with a majestic power that left many powerless, helpless, and some without even a real life anymore. At precisely 2 am, we decided to go to bed because a friend thought "the storm was not fun" and no point staying awake for. He wanted drama. He wanted howling winds. He wanted rainfall. He wanted excitement. Nothing happened. Not until 4 am, at least.

And then he got a blockbuster hit. We lost electricity. The winds howled like I had never heard them howl before. It was like one of those horror movies that you want to watch but do so with your eyes shut through most of it, except here, there was no obvious blood or gore (unless trees swaying from one side to the other count as gore). At least when a horror movie ends, you can turn a comedy movie on and try and forget about it. This was different. I woke up to worse horror. Trees had died, blocking roads, traffic signals had either changed direction or fallen on the street, roofs and fences were shattered, and I felt that I was walking through the sets of a disaster movie. It felt like a scene from a CNN news broadcast that I am used to watching on tv. This time it was real. And the same excitement-seeking friend said, "yaar itna nuksaan nahi hua." I guess he wanted a blockbuster hit that lasts for 365 days. Little does he realize that it may very well be one for those who are homeless today thanks to Ike.

Amidst all this, I get a message from someone asking me to come online for free counseling. Yet another someone asks me why I am not publishing his comments. And then there was a someone who called me to ask me "How is Dayton?". There was a friend grumbling that he ran out of cigarettes and that the stores were closed. Another someone was worried that his taxes would go up while the government tries to restore the 4th largest city in the United States. And then someone else who thought it was funny to say "Why are you not online? Did Ike damage your internet?" Everyone was starring in their own dramatic movies assuming that it would entertain their audience.

Today as I write thist post, I am seated at a friend's place who is among the 1% of Houston's population who has power and water. I am amongst the 99% who does not have power and has no chance of having it restored for another 4 weeks at least. We are surviving on frozen foods and hoping that we don't run out of it. And yet, life has to resume on Tuesday. I don't know when this dramatic/horror movie will end for me. I move to my own apartment tomorrow night. I wonder how it will be go to work without showering and wearing unironed clothes and eating candlelight dinners by myself. But that's not all.

Someone else at this moment is probably thinking how it will be for them to live in their own home once again. They are starring in a horror movie that someone else is watching seated in their very own home theater.