tirsdag, mai 29, 2007

Online Exhibition

A friend of mine suggested this link to me. It is a pretty nice online exhibition.

www.ashesandsnow.org

I suggest you get some time to spare for your own, turn up the volume and enjoy.

onsdag, mai 23, 2007

Spiderman 3 (film)

Some places this production is referred to the most expensive movie ever other places I have seen it referred as one of the most expensive movies ever. I guess there must be some inconsistency in what the actual production cost is. What we can agree in is that this film is a pretty expensive monster.

Now, does it show?

Not really. While the movie is complete with more beautiful skyscraper action and nice special effects of the villains, there is really not much we haven't seen before. In many ways I prefer it this way as more sfx would just have become overwhelming. But I do think that somewhere on the road way to much cash has been put into this movie.

It is just not worth that much.

Trying to forget about this issue we go back to what we are really interested in:

Is it any good?

While I used to read a lot of superhero cartoons when I was younger, I have never really been a fan of the superhero movies. Very few movie makers are able to capture the original feel of the series as well as giving them fresh blood when transferring them to the big screen.

For people who hasn't read the series this is not such a big problem because they don't know what to expect and therefore often like what they see. I myself are more negative to it, but sometimes they hit the right spot and you have a good superhero movie.

I though Spiderman 1 was a failure - except of course the skyscraper action ;)

In Spiderman 2 they managed to capture what Spiderman is all about. It is actually a parody. Yes a comedy. Not everybody knows this because it is a bit hidden. But Peter Parker is a super hero that mocks a bit with the other. While Superman pretends to be human and Batman is a playboy, Peter Parker is (despite his superpowers) extremely human and fragile. The fact that he is Spiderman is more a nuisance than a wow factor in his life. I think this is what people like about Spiderman and why he becomes some popular. This formula seems also to be working better on the big screen than in the cartoons - which means Spidey was before his time and have just been waiting for his moment to show!

Spiderman 3 follows up from Spiderman 2 and plays on the right issues in the Spiderman universe. This time the storyline is in fact quite complicated. There are several villains and some are even friends? And of course there are problems, with Mary Jane, with his aunt, with money, with work and within himself. The struggle with himself is magnified with the dark suit, which I think was a perfect choice to port from the cartoon as it is the best Spidey story!

To sum it up I think Spiderman 3 is just as good as the second movie, perhaps better because its just more complex without getting the dull moments.

And now, do I need to make a Spiderman evening with all three movies? Aaargh... That will be a lot of web mess....

300 (film)

I haven't read the cartoon so I can not say whether it captures this well or not. What I can say is that I do not like the design look. Come on; Snow that looks falser than a 30 dime comedy? The overall design look reminds me of an intro to some PC game or something (limited budget).

Yes I do understand that this design choice is meant to be cartoon like and not realistic. So Ill try to pretend I buy this.

And that works. The movie is basically full of action and not that much story. The narrator voice is excellent and I just feel that they tell what would normally be displayed in "narrator boxes" in a cartoon. The dialogue of the movie is also excellent because most of the time its just hardcore talk and only to small extend is it used to tell the story.

This is very refreshing as the majority of the movies today does the mistake that they have to tell everything in dialogue instead of actually using dialogue to challenge the viewers. It also works because the movie doesn’t really have much story to tell but is actually trying to please us with a few hours of hack and slash.

It totally works. All the way and despite not liking the design I love the movie. Such tough guys just killing whatever comes their way, I like. But it doesn’t necessary mean that you will.

It was an honor to watch this film.

Spanish Reunion

One of these a few from last years Spanish course got together to eat some Tapas(!) as well as get a status update in how our Spanish is evolving. For myself I have to admit that my Spanish is unfortunately on total hold.

While I really wish to progress I know I have to wait till a little later.... But one day...

The tapas was nice and we had some good fun.

tirsdag, mai 15, 2007

Congratulations to Yoyoyo Acapulco

As a part of The Norwegian Wood festival a few lesser known bands get the chance to send in their demos and the best of these will get a live gig on the Underwood stage during the festival. This has become one of the platform for bands rise up from the unknown into devoted greatness.

To make this a cash cow the jury did choose the 20 best bands where 8 would go further to the festival. To become among the 8 the bands fans had to cash out votes by sending SMSes. Basically the bands with the most and eager fans - that spends the most cash on SMS - wins. All in all quite a cynical way to exploit the fans that just wants to see the band do well.

I want to congratulate my friends Yoyoyo Acapulco and all the fans with the gig on Saturday 16. June this year. And hopefully they will deliver an awesome show! Loads of soap bubbles for everybody.

Acopalypto (movie)

This movie received mixed reviews, many complained that Mel Gibson had used to much violence.

I think this is an awesome movie and that the level of violence is quite low. The level of realism is quite high. One should not misunderstand high level realism with unnecessary violence.

I have absolutely now idea what the Mayan used to wear but I have to say all the effects, makeup and clothes are extremely well done. It seems to be totally authentic. In this case "seems to be" is sufficient for me.

The movie does not follow a traditionally story line and neither is it an epic movie. It is more in the special theme genre, and I think the theme this time is the not too unknown: Survival. This keeps the movie on a constant edge. Still Mel Gibson has not gone in the trap of making it a fast pulsating movie but instead he gives the movie air during each thrilling moment - which in turn increases the thrill and the watchers joy.

To say something bad about this movie: It seems that it they are using some kind of high end movie equipment which sometimes when there is to much going on - gives to much realism which in turns seem unnatural. (I saw this in last years Miami Vice as well) - I think maybe this is somewhat correlated to Walt Disneys problem with animations where too realistic movements lead the animations becoming funny. It is not too often this happens tough and most people will probably not even notice it.

All in all: a really enjoyable movie.

Johanne Hildebrant - two first books about Valhalla

One of these days, walking down the alley I decided to look at a book sale and out I came with the first book of Swedish Johanne Hildebrandt first book in her trilogy about Valhalla. A few minutes later (maybe closer to 30 minutes?) I was sitting down at a cafe and reading.

And to my surprise I just couldn't stop. I was hooked before I knew it and days became night and day again and before I knew it - it was all over.

This kind of writing style is not necessary good writing. It’s just about keeping the tension so high at each moment of the book so you just can't put it down. A style perfected by Alister McClean.

Johanne tells the story about the forbidden an intense love between Froeya and Thor. As they are not allowed by their tribes nor the Gods to love each other it is both a sad but still intriguing and beautiful story.

While Johanne portraits these mythic Gods as humans or very human like she is maybe a bit short into giving them typical archetypical faces of envy and power.

What I am trying to say is while she is making really good story and I enjoy it like several others, she fails to go deeper. I am not sure but this could also be the strength as going deeper can easily fail.

Then later in the same alley I went into a different book store and got hold of the second book at a bargain price. Wow that was pure luck!

And I was back at it again. The second book brings the Legend of Valhalla further and this time we follow Idun, the fruit of the secret passion of the first book.

It is obvious the Johanne has become a better writer since last time as in this book the writing is tighter and more thrilling than ever. This could also be because the story line is in all not that complex.

I am looking forward for the third book that concludes this trilogy.

fredag, mai 11, 2007

Kill Buljo - (Movie)

This is a Norwegian parody on Quentin Tarantinos "Kill Bill". Tarantino is himself very happy of being parodied. Of course one can expect anything when it is a Norwegian movie.

Ok now to the serious stuff. Although there are some technical shortcomings here, specially with the camera angels and some bad acting the complete experience is overall very well done. But the best part is that it is genuine funny.

I am unsure if it would be funny for anyone but Norwegians, but I think so as it is parodying famous material.
I recommend it for all that is up for a good laugh.

Letters from Iwo Jima (movie)

I choose not to see Flags of our Fathers first. This is because Letters from Iwo Jima is supposed to be the best one. I am a big time fan of Clintie and most of what he has done. However sometimes there is a "flop" like Mystic River (While a top notch movie, it fails to really get its story trough) so I am always a bit skeptic to see his films. Mainly because I don't like to be disappointed.

Letters from Iwo Jima is a true pleasure to watch. The anti-violence message Clintie has tried to tell us since "Unforgiven" has now been even more perfected than in Million Dollar babe. While there is no usual Clinite "hard-ass" here - the movie has all the small quirks that puts a smile on your face.

The camerawork, the cutting, the flow, the story - everything is almost perfect, and I smile all the way through the movie. Sometimes I even fall in total laughter because he (Clintie) puts his anti-violence messages in such a superior ways.

Now of course this movie is a American movie and no matter how much it tries to tell the story from Japanese point of view I think it will probably fail on a few places. It would be nice to know what the Japanese themselves think about this.

The one let down of the movie is that it doesn't have a normal story line. While the first part is the common "get to know the people" it continues straight into war mode and it never really builds in a classic fashion. I think this is because Letters from Iwo Jima is more of an Epic movie (altough in a very sorth amount of real time) and therefore the story is also more complex and more like the big time epic stories.

There are few directors left that knows how to make such a good movie like this and unlike most of the oldies Clint Eastwood never seems to fade but just gets better and better.

There are only reasons to see this movie and no reasons not too.

Bjork - Volta (music)

Back in the days of "Debut" I didn't quite get why MTV was broadcasting this crazy girls "Human weakness" all the time. It took me a long time before the song reached me and I understood. Understood how good it all was. (Quite similar to my experience with the games Tetris and Lemmings, maybe I am a bit slow sometimes) I think it is because Bjork is "so much more" and she constantly requires a lot from the listener.

Since then I have been hooked. The quality of the different albums have changed a lot and we pretty much never know what she will be up to. Every time Bjork explorer something new and expresses this part of her to us. Her albums is a journey into a travel that goes from Iceland to any influence she meets on the way. In the line Volta brings back a bit of the formula that was lost last time - and in its own Volta is defiantly worth some listening.

Volta is not though in the top of the pops. In fact it is hard for her to reach the kind of height she had at the start of her carrier. But we do hope she will.

Dinsosaur Jr - Beyond (Music)

It is a rule that says that when a band reunites and make a new album it will never be any good. And it will take 3 albums before they reach somewhat the old heights before they broke up again. Dinosaur Jr puts this rule to blame. While the band members doesn't really stand each other, and try to be far away from each other on the scene - we do have a quality album in our hands.

In fact is is just like Dinosaur Jr is supposed to be. Awfully great and all the tunes are just as good as the old albums. In many ways Beyond sounds like time stood still and that they where songs made back in the days.

It’s hard for me to explain - but its just like old days when I was a little boy and I put on Dinosaur Jr and relaxed off after school. Basically it’s just perfect - I can't get enough of it - lets hope they keep going at least for two more albums :=)

Tronderfest

I don't know if there is any good word for this in English. But it is basically a party style where everybody pretends to be from the region of Troendelag. In many ways this is very much alike to a bad taste party.

The subtle differences is that all participants are trying to reach one kind of bad taste. And therefore it is some pretty funny stuff.

We had a great pre-party in the tendencies of being like fourteen year old (fjortis) again and drinking like we have no idea what we are doing.

Then we went out and the place the party was at was totally empty so we went to Nikkers instead an continued with some bad ass displaced Tronder-dancing.

Det blir itj fæst uten Skjinnvæst

Prayer for today

Today I purpose to live

My life will shine
As the morning sings
I walk in liberty
Bound in true dreams
Manifested promises
Chase my forward motion
A covered path before me
The fruits of my hoping
The fruits of my living

Today I purpose to love

My love will speak
With the sound of grace
Merciful within mercy
The works of my faith
Smiles of overflowing
Inspire my giving
Abundance of joy as rain
The fruits of my living