Upcoming Noteworthy Movies

Yo!

Alright, just thought I'd let the world over know about some upcoming films of interest to me. Check 'em out:

1. Guru: http://www.guru-thefilm.com/
This movie stars me and the apple of my eye, Ash. Actually, with some of the quotes used from "Guru Bhai," I'm partially convinced that this is a comedy. :) The songs seem nice and, again, we have Ash in this movie, so it really can't go wrong. Anyway, I ask you, my hot, single female reader to accept my offer to go out on a date with me to watch this. I'll pay for the tickets. You're on your own for popcorn though...

2. The Kingdom: http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/thekingdom.html
I like Jamie Foxx. His movie Ray was great and I'm down with the brotha's music. I am, however, a little hesitant about this upcoming movie of his. It's set mainly in Saudi Arabia, which means that I'm automatically concerned that this is going be another a movie that simply reinforces the negative, stupid, and untrue stereotypes of Middle Easterners being terrorists. In the trailer on the link provided, for example, they have the following phrase "...they attacked us..." play over while showing mumins go down in sujood (bowing before Allah). It's subtle, but nonetheless interesting to take into consideration on how media/Hollywood continues to reinforce this negative imagery about our peoples. I'll have to rent this movie when it comes to DVD to make a final determination, but I'm sure I'm not far off.

3. Alpha Dog: http://www.alphadogmovie.com/
In true teenage adolescence spirit, I am curious about this movie. I'm sure like many, though, what draws my attention to this movie is curiosity. Curiosity to see if my protégé in the musical arts, Justin Timberlake, can come through on the silver screen. If he can, there'll be nothing that can stop him. My only fear is if the student becomes the teacher.

4. The Painted Veil. http://pdl.warnerbros.com/wip/us/med/paintedveil/painted_veil_tlr1_500.wmv
"Sometimes the greatest journey is the distance between two people." How hot is that line?! Not a fan of the adulterous theme in the beginning, but that of redemption and discovering yourself. I'm such a sucker for romance. It's not like I can watch this type of movie with my brothers or friends. Like P. Diddy said, I need a girl (part I and part II). Not seeing these total date movies are slowly killing my sensitive, lovey-dovey spirit...

6. The Number 23: http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/thenumber23/hd/
Okay, not something I'm particularly interested in watching because it might get way too freakish, but an interesting movie taken on by the otherwise comical Jim Carrey.

7. I Think I Love My Wife: http://us.video.aol.com/video.index.adp?mode=1&pmmsid=1797553
Chris Rock! Hot black women! Done and done!

8. Children of Men: http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/childrenofmen/hd/
It's already out. Could be either really interesting or really dumb. I'm a Clive Owen fans since the great bmwfilms.com series, so we'll see if it's any good.

*****

The following movies re-live some of my childhood dreams and heroes. To most of you unintellectual and unsophisticated types, these will mean nothing to you:

1. The Simpsons: http://www.thesimpsons.com/
It's Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Maggie!

3. TMNT: http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/tmnt/trailer/trailer_500.mov
Come on, didn't you grow up watching them?! And Patrick Stewart is one of the voices, too!

4. Fantastic 4: The Rise of the Silver Surfer: http://www.apple.com/trailers/fox/fantasticfourriseofthesilversurfer/large.html
What?! You didn't grow up watching these guys either?! You non-conformist!

5. Shrek the Third: http://www.shrekthethird.com/public/video_files/shrek3_trailer_1_large.mov
I can't tire of these, alright?

6. Transformers: http://www.transformersmovie.com/
Autobots, Transform!

Cheers

My NEW Dream Car

Hey

Okay, in addition to that Audi R8 I recently posted, let's add this to the wish list, PLEASE:



Dil, Dil Pakistan!

Fiesta Bowl 2007: Unreal!!!

Hi

I can't believe I missed THE bowl game of all bowls. This finish was un-fricken-real!!! Unbelievable!!





And then one of the Boise State players proposes to his girl, who happens to be a cheerleader.

Could you have written a better ending?!!

Mad props to Boise State!

2006 Highlights

Hello

Happy New Year, ye faithful readers!

I can't believe that 2006 is already behind us! It's insane how time flies by so quickly. Some highlights of the year included (not in any particular order):

1. Traveling to Madrid, London, San Fran, LA, Vegas, and Paris. All for work, but I also had a lot of time to spend exploring or with family. My favorite city to visit had to be Paris. The history and romance of the city is pretty enticing. Madrid was great because in order to be a girl living there, you have to be hot, which bodes very well with me. Vegas was both entertaining and excessive. LA was beautiful (Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu, Santa Monica). SF was gay; just kidding, SF was also beautiful and the Ritz-Carlton there was kingly. London was pretty cool, too, and I can never tire of the coolness of the British accent.

2. Nadia's wedding. Easily the best and most well done wedding I've ever been to! Fireworks, fish broils, tents that are more elegant than fancy homes in Oakbrook, midnight basketball, dancing, food, etc. These words don't do the experience justice.

3. Umar's graduation. Finally, all my hard work paid off in May when he graduated from med school, mashaAllah. His source of inspiration, I was paramount for him achieving this monumental and awesome goal in his life. Now he's in Milwaukee. Is that supposed to be his reward?! Ouch.

4. Umar's graduation gift from his brothers & mom. A phenom MacBook Pro; the best Mac laptop you can buy (literally). I try my best to steal it on weekends when he comes back home. Haven't been successful as yet.

5. The Night of Plainfield. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2329345767604374161. Enough said.

6. Work. I guess I should mention the "thing" that takes up most of my life. Through stressful and highly stressful times, it continues being a great learning experience.

7. The blog. The money, respect, women, and power. Okay, perhaps one day. My brothers would contend that the blog has gone through a metamorphosis of PG rated entries to R rated entries. There was also Jessica. Sigh. Those were good times, but then she broke me heart and never commented again. :( We, of course, cannot forget "Empress J" (Jonelle) and Zareen. Jonelle continues to patiently await an ode for her. And Imran patiently awaits Zareen to hook him up with a larkee (just kidding -- she's sensitive about that).

8. Da Bears. NFC Central Champs again. Best record. Best defense. Urlacher. Devin Hester. Lance Briggs. Mike Brown (injured). Tommie Harris (injured). Berrian. Grossman (I still support him). Thomas Jones. Cedric Benson. Moose. Bradley (eventually). Griese (when needed). Ogunleye. The Manning's. Tillman. Vasher (though not quite the year he had last year). Kreutz. Tank. Hillenmeyer. Oh, forget this, just go to www.chicagobears.com and check the roster! Everyone on there, baby! Miami, inshaAllah!

That's it for now.

Miniature Earth

Hi

A quick break in the STL stories to give you an interesting and thought provoking website that gives you Planet Earth reduced to 100 people and the corresponding demographics that would be associated with it (thanks to Farooq for the link).

Makes you think where you're at in life versus millions of others. I'm thankful for all that I have, mashaAllah.

http://www.miniature-earth.com

Salaam

STL: Day 3, Part 4

How hot is that pic?!

Hello

I nearly forgot to mention something from Friday night (that would be Day 2, Part III). Taha had challenged me to a one-on-one game using his net at home. Being a guest, I was happy to oblige. As always, I beat him pretty easily. It's not even worth getting into the details of my 11-3 bloody massacre. In fact, I had this one S I C K dunk on him where I came down with so much force that I inadvertently broke his rim and in all likelihood his ego. Mind you, it wasn't on purpose, but here's proof of my skills:


I know, I know. I'm phenomenal. I feel bad about the rim, but that's a price you gotta pay when you "challenge" me in some hoops, Taha.

(I love having a blog where I can twist stories to my advantage without having Taha interfere...)

Onwards...

And so on Saturday morning I woke up around 10:30am thinking to myself, Crap! I've already wasted so much of the day! These guys are going to kill me! Little did I realize that 10:30am was considered the same thing as waking up at fajr time in the Lou (on a Saturday). You see, I grew up under my mom and she thinks that if you wake up at 10am or later (azubillah), your entire day has been shot. I guess some house rules don't apply in others...

Moving on: Taha was nice to me in the morning, but you could clearly tell he was annoyed when I went to go wake him up. Same thing with Hassan, too. (Neither of them responded to my 10am text of "do me," which is why I walked into T's bedroom because normally I get some sort of response to a msg like that. Hassan, on the other hand, wouldn't reply to a txt msg if it was his mother!) So T-Man got his mom to make us some phenom breakfast and we then waited to hear from Prince Hassan.

While waiting for Hassan (a process that can take a few days), Taha and I wandered about in the backyard around the fallen trees. Relegated to this form of social activity in the Lou, I resorted to the following as a means of entertaining myself:



Here I'm obviously point to the sky. Perhaps for Superman to save me. Perhaps at the fact that I was still amazed at all the stars you can see in STL from the night before. Or perhaps preparing to do a little nach-ing (that's dancing, people; Punjabi style).

And finally while on the tree, I got in touch with my inner beast in this pic. This is how I get the females, young playaz. It also undoubtedly explains why I'm still single (clue in sad violin music):



Regardless, you cannot deny the pure hotness that are these pictures. Just don't stare too long, k?

When Hassan finally graced his presence, we drove downtown to hit up the arch. I have to say that the arch is kinda cool. It's a nice piece of architectural work in an otherwise lackluster skyline. The views from the top of the arch are also nice, too. While on the way up these stairs to the arch, Hassan and I decided to run. Considering that Hassan hoops at least once a week, I thought I'd easily get beaten. Plus, he had homefield advantage, if you think about it. But, as this video proves, I won. And not by a stomach as jerk-off Taha likes to contend...!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2036212692720159649



Throughout the day, the "Does Chicago have this...," "Does Chicago have that..." banter never ended. But my boys were oh-so-cute in their love of their hood that I tried my best not to retaliate. Kids, man. No matter how fast they grow or where they end up, home will always be home sweet home.

Part 5 coming soon. Trust me, you'll want to see the upcoming video clips...

Cheers, mate

STL: Day 2, Part III

Cheerio!

Our travels to the Show Me State consisted of comparisons between Chicago and Saint Louis; such comparisons typically make me laugh but out of respect for my STL boys, I will often superficially engage myself in these arguments. As I was the one entering their territory this time, I decided to remain largely quiet out of fear of not being able to eat their mother's home cooking.

We also tried to solve riddles that Hassan posed on the way there while jammin to various hits from DMB to Dre, U2 to 2Pac, and Bryan Adams to Will Smith. The best part, though, was when Hassan wowed us with his ability to sing along to Gettin' Jiggy Wit' It and not miss a single word. I had heard the rumors as I'm sure you have. Now, to put those rumors at bay, I'm proud to give you another Imran Shakur Google Video moment: Hassan Gettin Jiggy With It:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3605219335537585349



And I'm also pleased to give you a more sentimental Prince Hassan as he serenades my camera and the hearts of many women:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6439303715577023548



Wearing his hot Gucci shades, driving his nice car, there's no doubt in my book that this is a man who is truly confident and secure with himself (mashaAllah). By the way, is anyone else here concerned that he's driving during his encore-worthy performances? I guess when you're lost in the moment like Taha and I were, it didn't matter...

Anyway, when we finally reached the suburbs of The Lou, Hassan dropped Taha and I to T's house. I got the tour of the Ghani household and reconnected with the Ghani's after a long time; especially Mr. Ghani himself who nearly pushed Taha out of the way to greet me (I love that man). So we ate AMAZING food, I had some techy moments with Hamza, and then we concluded the night by watching Rocky Balboa with Hassan and his parents. The movie started off slow, but was actually not too bad considering that this is the sixth Rocky movie. There was a lot more dialogue than action with a few really good scenes like when Rocky and his son had a heart-to-heart outside of Rocko's restaurant. The training scene was great and inspirational. I was this close (see my fingers?) from wanting to go work out...

By the time I crashed (note: I was abruptly woken up at 3am when Taha and Hamza raided my room and Taha jumped on me, then held me, then...), I already felt like I was at home and waited for what was to come on Day 3, Part IV...

Stay tuned...

Truly Madly Deeply Dooooo!!!

STL: Day 2, Part II

Hi

Since we decided that we didn't want to put up with the fog, we all agreed that in order to achieve time maximization in STL, we would have to leave really early on Friday morning in hopes of getting to STL in time for Jummah. Accordingly, the plan was to leave straight after fajr. Taha was going to ensure that was done by setting his phone alarm for 6-something...

And so, naturally, at 8:10am I woke up. I looked down to where Taha was (he slept on the floor in my room) and he gave me the West Side sign. Frick! We already lost two hours. Taha and I discussed that if we left right then and there, we would be able to make Jummah in time in Saint Louis. So I went down to Umar's bedroom where Prince Hassan slept and told him the time and that we had to go. Hassan's responses sounded more like grunts instead of the reassuring "Yeah, Pac Daddy, let's go..." He then shifted his body to the left, his back turned to me as if he was saying in subtle defiance, Great, Pac Daddy! Now get the hell outta here so I can get some sleep! I came back to my room and told Taha that I told Hassan to get ready but that it didn't look like he will anytime soon. Taha suggested that we wake up at 8:45 and I was cool with getting more sleep myself...

And so, naturally, at 11:30am I wake up in utter disbelief that it's that late. Taha, who has the ability to wake up and run a marathon right away without stretching because he's so alert when he wakes up, suggested that we leave after Jummah. So I went down to Hassan. We looked at each other and started laughing. "What happened?!" Hassan inquired. I gave him the rundown on the new agenda and so we all finally woke up and took our showers. Yes, separately, too.

Anyway, my mom did it REAL big, mashaAllah, by packing some PHENOM snacks for our road trip. We each had a parata roll with omlette inside in addition to some Doritos bags. Taha and Hassan caved in and had their rolls for breakfast just before Jummah. We then talked about how amazing our mothers are and how depressing our future wives will be when it comes to kitchen duties. Yes, DUTIES, women; as in a WIFE'S responsibility to cook great food for her man. Hassan said that he would have to send his girl to my mom for at least a 6-month internship to learn how to cook and then another 6-month internship to Taha's mom. The three of us then cried a silent cry upon discussing the fact that Taha's girl and most likely Hassan's and mine in the future will not be able to cook as well. It was utterly depressing and tragic. We men give so much and ask for so little in return; just some good home cooked food. I'll have to think about marrying a girl in Pak, now, basically so I can save the lives of three people: Taha, Hassan, and me. My mail-ordered wife from Pak will cook for the three of us as it appears as though women in Oakbrook or other random places like Plano, Texas cannot cook worth anything. Or we'll have to find some cousins of AJ's wife because ol girl can cook.

But I digress...

After getting ready, saying my salaams, praying Jummah, we left for our voyage to the Show Me State...

Cheers.

STL: Day 1, Part 1

AA

Well it's 11am here in the Lou and as I write this blog entry here in the beautiful Ghani home, you can just imagine that everyone here is still sleeping. But that's fine because I get to enjoy Taha's basement which houses a 60-something inch TV. The TV makes writing this entry rather difficult as I find myself gazing at it with loving affection much like a mother would gaze in the eyes of her newborn.

So, you should know that this STL trip has been nearly a fricken decade in the making. I've known my boy Taha for that long and during the course of that time we've often fantasized of this moment actually materializing. It's almost surreal. I'm just trying to take it all in. Seeing both Taha and the Prince (and more importantly, their families) in their element is phenom.

But the STL trip actually started in the Pac household on Thursday night...

We intended to take off Thursday night after T was done with his birthday dinner with his in-laws. But because of the immensely thick fog in Chicago and Saint Louis, we decided that we would take off Friday morning right after fajr. So that night we did what most bachelors would do on a Thursday night. We watched Dil Chata Hai; a Bollywold movie. The movie mirrored our lives as it dealt with three desi guys who discovered themselves and the meaning of love. And as we learned from the movie, love just happens. You can't control it, it just fricken happens. Much like the expression sh!t happens, well so does love according to Bollywood. So, if we draw some parallels here, we will inevitably conclude the following: Sh!t happens. Love happens. Therefore love = sh!t and sh!t = love. What a great message, huh? Okay, so maybe that's not the message the movie tried to convey, but my insight is nonetheless spot on, right?

Just kidding. So, anyway, what we did actually conclude was that Taha = Akash; the young, full-of-life, cool, jokester whose longest relationship lasts two weeks. Hassan = Sameer; the young, I-got-your-back-even-if-the-camera-fades-my-character-out, hopeless romantic with the best body and dance moves. As for me I was Sid; the young philosopher, painter, and master of words when it came to pimptastic lines like, "I haven't painted my best one as yet" when talking to a woman about which painting was my favorite and looking at her with a deliberately intense, passionate look. Well, based on that I'm sure you can make your own conclusions as to whether or not that's accurate, but you get the idea: I'm pimptastic.

The highlight of the night, however, came with The Aerial Launch Attack of Imran: In the middle of the movie, we took a small break while Hassan talked to one of his many lovers. To kill time, Taha proposed to me that we play this launching game while waiting for Hassan. The game is simple; Taha lies on the floor and bends his knees as if he's going to give someone a joola ride or do the bicycle exercise. Enter me who uses the base of Taha's feet as the launch seat. Taha then cocks his feet back to see just how far he can fling me. I doubted him and it evidently stupid for me to do so. On the first go, Taha makes me fly a good five feet, but like a graceful cat, I landed on my feet. The second go-around went a little differently, though...

Taha was convinced that he could do a better job. I didn't get enough air time, apparently, on the first launch. So on the second one, Taha bends his knees closer to his chest than ever before. He also held onto my feet. At the time before the launch, I thought to myself, Why is he grabbing my feet? How am I going to balance myself? What if I fall flat of my face? Okay, shut up and go with it, Imran... Then the launch sequence began. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...TAKE OFF!

As I was in the air, I noticed that my head was but a few inches from touching the ceiling fan. Wow, I thought, I'm pretty high. Then I thought, Hmm, if I'm this high, my feet are probably not touching the ground. That's going to be a problem because how am I going to balance my...

THUD!!!

For you history buffs, you've naturally heard of the Shot That Was Heard Around the World, right? Well, this sound was similar in that it was the Butt Hitting My Living Room Floor at 2am That Was Heard in All of Plainfield. At the sound of the thud, I feared that my massive body's impact upon the floor was going to send shockwaves throughout the land and most importantly to my mother's and Nani's bedrooms, whereupon my imminent death would soon follow upon their awakening. But, after that fear dissipated then the throbbing booty ache permeated my mind and body and I could swear I lost consciousness for 5 seconds.

It turns out that not having my feet at my disposal was in fact critical to the launch. According to Hassan, I was completely horizontal in the air. And I apparently was looking over at him with a childish, badmash smile while in the air. That smile vanished at the time of impact and I guess my eyes rolled up in pain. Despite this trauma, we started cracking up and went into pure hysteria as to what happened. If you're not following me or picturing what happened, then I've failed in describing what happened, because that launch had to be the funniest thing that happened to me in a long time.

Well, perhaps not as funny as when, about an hour later, I was in my boxers only and tackled to the ground by Taha while Hassan took pictures with his camera phone. That was equally as traumatic to me as the fall was.

That pretty much concluded the night. The next day, began the official trek to the Lou...

Alright, that's it for now. I can't sit in one position too long because my butt still hurts. Part 2 coming soon.

Cheers.

Knicks - Nuggets Brawl

The infamous New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets Brawl. Carmelo Anthony straight up punches Mardy Collins in the face. Craziness and stupidity at the same time.

Carmelo, who just recently made a fricken awesome commercial under Jordan's label, deserves his 15 day suspension. And the other players deserve their suspension, too. Carmelo deserves the most because of 1) his punch and 2) he's supposed to be a role model and leader; heck, he should get more than 15 days.

Fortunately for the Denver team, they literally have The Answer to solve the problem of Melo sitting out: The 76ers-Nuggets trade involving Allen Iverson was HUGE! This team, so long as Anthony and Iverson get along, will be sick. Philly does well, too, because they get TWO number one picks and a couple good players like Andre Miller. It'll be fun to see watch the Nuggets...

But perhaps what's even more fun to watch is my Chicago Bulls! Watching them recently beat Kobe and the LA Lakers was phenom, man. Man, it's great being a Chicago sports fan, mashaAllah. Bears, Bulls, Fire, and next season the rise of the Cubbies. Done and done.

Good times!