Long time ago there was a series on NRK that tried to solve the biggest mysteries in the world. Bermuda triangle was one of them. This series tries to take this mystery and milk it into 3 full time DVDs or as earlier, as miniseries on TV.
They have succeeded very well. In fact they manage to drive the show all the time – by expanding the influence of the Bermuda Triangle minute by minute so the watched is constantly in for a thrill and does not get time to think if what is presented is believable or not.
To keep someone thrilled for 4 and a half hour is indeed a masterpiece on its own. Even if the final solution might not be very realistic at all – and the story might indeed be thin as water – but you wont really notice until its all over – and you wont really care as well.
This is one to watch.
tirsdag, september 12, 2006
The Inside Man (Movie)
I don’t think I am alone when I say I have some kind of crush of the heist movies from the seventies. New heist movies like this one tries to catch some of the old and bring It on with high quality sound and picture and modern style filming. Often I find the result to be disappointing – but in fact:
The Inside man is quite enjoyable.
In fact one of the better ones I have watched in quite a while – despite it being a movie with almost no action at all – in fact the movie stands still almost all the time. All credits to the actors and the director for doing such! The shortcomings of this movie is of course that a few small things would in fact made this movie Top Noch – one to talk about – but it fails on these small parts.
What is very cozy though is that there is no losers in this movie – all the involved parts win in one way or another – just like in the best seventy heist movies…..
The Inside man is quite enjoyable.
In fact one of the better ones I have watched in quite a while – despite it being a movie with almost no action at all – in fact the movie stands still almost all the time. All credits to the actors and the director for doing such! The shortcomings of this movie is of course that a few small things would in fact made this movie Top Noch – one to talk about – but it fails on these small parts.
What is very cozy though is that there is no losers in this movie – all the involved parts win in one way or another – just like in the best seventy heist movies…..
Granittrock 2006 (Festival)
Granittrock is a free festival and as we all know: Gratis is good. It is OBOS that is sponsoring this festival making it possible for lesser known band (again) to get a chance to show what they are made of.
Also Granittrock attracks some big main band like TNT and Dum Dum Boys (again). So of course it was time to get to see the closure of this years Dum Dum Boys tour. Again it is too bad they could not play a full concert because this show was maybe even better (or at least close to) the show they had last week in Hamar! “Takke Faen for det!”
This all means that I have gotten from zero(0) Dum Dum Boys concerts till 4 on one year. I think this qualifies for a Cuba Libre!
Also Granittrock attracks some big main band like TNT and Dum Dum Boys (again). So of course it was time to get to see the closure of this years Dum Dum Boys tour. Again it is too bad they could not play a full concert because this show was maybe even better (or at least close to) the show they had last week in Hamar! “Takke Faen for det!”
This all means that I have gotten from zero(0) Dum Dum Boys concerts till 4 on one year. I think this qualifies for a Cuba Libre!
Øya 2006 (festival)
I remember my first Kalvøya festival when I saw Neil Young live. Jon Erik had tried to make me understand his music before – but of course – young as I was it totally passed me. But then he went on stage and Kalvøya became one of my finest festival memories. Not to mention that Neil came back next summer and made an even better concert.
The Kalvøya festival is now dead – but Øya lives on in its image (!?!) This year Øya actually start to attract some big international attention, but is it with stars like Beck and Twilight Singers bigger than Kalvøya? It would be a subjective answer – but I think the old Kalvøya was bigger – but Øya is on the way and it will be interesting to see how it progresses next year.
It started up on Wednesday with Øya night with some of the smaller band playing in clubs all over town. This is a good opportunity for the lesser known band to get some attraction and if they are good enough start on the road to fame.
First we saw Vom. A band of girls that are extremely interested in food??!! While not very interesting it had some effect that they barbecued food in front of the stage for some of us to eat. Thank you. Afterwards it was a quite good band playing but we had to leave for another concert.
Second we saw Rex Rudi known from the side-cartoon in Nemi. While the lead singer looks rockabilly they claim to play rock. But honestly it doesn’t sound like any of the two – but some kind of undefinable mass of noise. I would advise them to keep to the cartoon – while it might not be top noch it still is better. Highlight of the concert was the solos of guitar, drums and harpsichord. To bad nobody does this anymore. Maybe in some years they will manage to substance-size the music.
Third we saw a two small concerts with bands I unfortunately don’t know the name of, but especially the second band was really good, sounded a little like Led Zeppelin(!!)
Later we went downstairs and saw another band were I don’t know the name. While the band had some slow rock tunes reminding me of Neil Young (!) the lead singer’s voice was awful and it destroyed the whole band. A mission to all bands with lead singers whose voice suck? Find a new lead singer or make the one you have to work on his voice!
In fact it was such a downer that we went home
Thursday I didn’t go – but I saw some of it on Web-cast later. Motorpsycho (probably Norways best band, at least before Captain Gebhart left the wagon) delivered another great concert. The Cumshots famous from Quart opened up – but the music is not as good as the show I would say. Morrissey played but I don’t think it was more than par.
Friday came and again it was time to party! Black Debbath played a tribute to Ibsen – in their own pyro way – with the best being Motorhedda Gabler!
And I did get to see Twilight Singers – this was definitely the best part of the festival – too bad they didnt play longer than an hour and fifteen minutes (that’s a shame) – it was just about as good as seeing The Afghan Wigs a long time ago. I really would like to see a full length concert with them – anytime soon!
The Fall was strange – but totally ok, but not a band I will put any money in I think.
Then big star of the night was of course Dum Dum Boys! They delivered a great show – again only 1 hour and 15 minutes so to short to top the concert earlier this year in Rockefeller – but I feel that Dum Dum is getting in shape!!!
Saturday came. I didn’t manage to get there in time to Knutsen and Ludvigsen. Too bad. But I was in place a little later for KILL. A wild show but not much in it for me.
Hurra Torpedo is back in Norway after the imaginary USA tour. Seems like they have learned a few tricks on that tour, because they played Pixies ”Where is my mind” with the Devils voice(!!!) and for the rest – it was an awesome show. You just have to love a band that plays on kitchenware.
The Whitest boy alive proves that even if you are nerd you can make pretty good music. Not exepcional but quite enjoyable.
When Yoko Ono did her show, we had gotten admission to the VIP area. Not a really good VIP area though as most stars hid out in the backstage areas – probably to avoid Trond Giske. We did however see Kjartan and Co. And I had my new Dum Dum Boys T-shirt on (designed by myself) – we (and everybody else – all over the world) used the Onochord to flash the message out to the poeple: ”Lika du løøøøøv? Lika du sjokolade?” It is impressive to see such an old lady performing so lively on stage! It is still hope for The Rolling stones for another 5 albums – hah!
Finally Beck entered the scene with ”Looooooser” followed by ”Devils Haircut”. His new puppet show – showing everything happening on stage live on an alternate puppet show was pretty cool. But after a while all his tunes became of the lesser good ones and the puppet effect did also cool off – so I went home.
The Kalvøya festival is now dead – but Øya lives on in its image (!?!) This year Øya actually start to attract some big international attention, but is it with stars like Beck and Twilight Singers bigger than Kalvøya? It would be a subjective answer – but I think the old Kalvøya was bigger – but Øya is on the way and it will be interesting to see how it progresses next year.
It started up on Wednesday with Øya night with some of the smaller band playing in clubs all over town. This is a good opportunity for the lesser known band to get some attraction and if they are good enough start on the road to fame.
First we saw Vom. A band of girls that are extremely interested in food??!! While not very interesting it had some effect that they barbecued food in front of the stage for some of us to eat. Thank you. Afterwards it was a quite good band playing but we had to leave for another concert.
Second we saw Rex Rudi known from the side-cartoon in Nemi. While the lead singer looks rockabilly they claim to play rock. But honestly it doesn’t sound like any of the two – but some kind of undefinable mass of noise. I would advise them to keep to the cartoon – while it might not be top noch it still is better. Highlight of the concert was the solos of guitar, drums and harpsichord. To bad nobody does this anymore. Maybe in some years they will manage to substance-size the music.
Third we saw a two small concerts with bands I unfortunately don’t know the name of, but especially the second band was really good, sounded a little like Led Zeppelin(!!)
Later we went downstairs and saw another band were I don’t know the name. While the band had some slow rock tunes reminding me of Neil Young (!) the lead singer’s voice was awful and it destroyed the whole band. A mission to all bands with lead singers whose voice suck? Find a new lead singer or make the one you have to work on his voice!
In fact it was such a downer that we went home
Thursday I didn’t go – but I saw some of it on Web-cast later. Motorpsycho (probably Norways best band, at least before Captain Gebhart left the wagon) delivered another great concert. The Cumshots famous from Quart opened up – but the music is not as good as the show I would say. Morrissey played but I don’t think it was more than par.
Friday came and again it was time to party! Black Debbath played a tribute to Ibsen – in their own pyro way – with the best being Motorhedda Gabler!
And I did get to see Twilight Singers – this was definitely the best part of the festival – too bad they didnt play longer than an hour and fifteen minutes (that’s a shame) – it was just about as good as seeing The Afghan Wigs a long time ago. I really would like to see a full length concert with them – anytime soon!
The Fall was strange – but totally ok, but not a band I will put any money in I think.
Then big star of the night was of course Dum Dum Boys! They delivered a great show – again only 1 hour and 15 minutes so to short to top the concert earlier this year in Rockefeller – but I feel that Dum Dum is getting in shape!!!
Saturday came. I didn’t manage to get there in time to Knutsen and Ludvigsen. Too bad. But I was in place a little later for KILL. A wild show but not much in it for me.
Hurra Torpedo is back in Norway after the imaginary USA tour. Seems like they have learned a few tricks on that tour, because they played Pixies ”Where is my mind” with the Devils voice(!!!) and for the rest – it was an awesome show. You just have to love a band that plays on kitchenware.
The Whitest boy alive proves that even if you are nerd you can make pretty good music. Not exepcional but quite enjoyable.
When Yoko Ono did her show, we had gotten admission to the VIP area. Not a really good VIP area though as most stars hid out in the backstage areas – probably to avoid Trond Giske. We did however see Kjartan and Co. And I had my new Dum Dum Boys T-shirt on (designed by myself) – we (and everybody else – all over the world) used the Onochord to flash the message out to the poeple: ”Lika du løøøøøv? Lika du sjokolade?” It is impressive to see such an old lady performing so lively on stage! It is still hope for The Rolling stones for another 5 albums – hah!
Finally Beck entered the scene with ”Looooooser” followed by ”Devils Haircut”. His new puppet show – showing everything happening on stage live on an alternate puppet show was pretty cool. But after a while all his tunes became of the lesser good ones and the puppet effect did also cool off – so I went home.
mandag, september 11, 2006
First Flower Died
Well as the summer is over – the life of this first flower also ended due to my incomplete skills as a gardener. But I am learning and there are new summers to come…. ;)
onsdag, august 16, 2006
Fly me to Prague
So we went to Prague for vacation. 6 days only – reasons told in an earlier blog. I had somehow thought of Prague being just another big city but I was wrong in many ways.
In fact Prague is such a lovely city and one of the most romantic places in the world – not beating Florence and Venice of course – but probably Paris.
The architecture is somewhat a clash between stiles and ages but blends lovely into your eyes as pleasure everywhere. In many ways it is cozy like a children tale – to be foolish it gives me a little of that feeling like Aalesund gives me. One other distinguish moment of this city is: they take art very seriously. Everywhere you go – wherever you are – you will see art – new as well as old – all styles. Many cities could learn something here.
We went to see a black light theater – a specialty of Czech Republic. It is some kind of special effects play with lights, darkness, colors and dance mixed into miming theatres without words. Very impressive – and I would like to see it again one day. We saw a play with a mad inventor that had made a massive door portal to the dream world (or so I think it was) and where one of the audience (pretending to be anyway) was the one reaching this world.
We also went to see Kutna Hora. A silver mining town – once almost as powerful as Prague – but once the mines were exhausted – the town was as well. It has an interesting ossuary – skeletons from before the black plague had been dug up to make space for all the fallen by pestilence. These skeletons were first put in pyramids. Later in 1870 one dude got the idea of use some of the pyramids as art. So he made some decorations and sculptures of skulls and bones – even the main lamp is a massive artwork consisting of dead peoples remains.
Another interesting place to see was Konopiste Castle. The Castle own by Franz Ferdinand. The guy that “hunted” 300.000 animals in his life. He was also presumably the first in Europe to install central heating, electricity and a modern bath – just like you and I have today. Then of course he did marry a low status girl against the emperors will – after all he was heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne. So he wasn’t allowed to bring his wife on official business – at least not in the beginning. Later on they were assassinated in Sarajevo – which in turn triggered the first world war. Franz has left us something else that is nice: his own beer. The brewery is fully operational today and it is some excellent fresh beer that gives you and us instant happiness. Way to go Franzie
Every place you go – take the boat trip. We did go for the jazz-boat. And even if I am no jazz fan, and they even played traditional jazz – I was impressed. The band played really well – but the food couldn’t match up.
Other than that it was extremely hot. And wasps was everywhere – very irritating when at all our meals (of course outside). A few wasps had to pay with their life.
I am also really impressed by the metro system in Prague (as well as bus and tram). In Norway they brag about that you only have to wait 5 minutes to the next one (which only applies for rush hours). In Prague you only wait 2 and a half minute for the next one – sometimes 3 minutes. Also the system is very easy built up and easy to understand even for retards.
The food? I am not all too impressed by Czech food or drinks. They have some really strange tastes. I did like the idea of having the Goulash soup served inside a bread. And I did enjoy the special duck they have there. So go for the duck! Also the honey wine is also ok.
One other night we did go for a folklore evening. This was kind of boring I would say as we do have mostly the same at home here in Norway – and the show including the food became to “tight”. I would probably have enjoyed a much more “local” (meaning – non tourism) folklore evening.
In fact Prague is such a lovely city and one of the most romantic places in the world – not beating Florence and Venice of course – but probably Paris.
The architecture is somewhat a clash between stiles and ages but blends lovely into your eyes as pleasure everywhere. In many ways it is cozy like a children tale – to be foolish it gives me a little of that feeling like Aalesund gives me. One other distinguish moment of this city is: they take art very seriously. Everywhere you go – wherever you are – you will see art – new as well as old – all styles. Many cities could learn something here.
We went to see a black light theater – a specialty of Czech Republic. It is some kind of special effects play with lights, darkness, colors and dance mixed into miming theatres without words. Very impressive – and I would like to see it again one day. We saw a play with a mad inventor that had made a massive door portal to the dream world (or so I think it was) and where one of the audience (pretending to be anyway) was the one reaching this world.
We also went to see Kutna Hora. A silver mining town – once almost as powerful as Prague – but once the mines were exhausted – the town was as well. It has an interesting ossuary – skeletons from before the black plague had been dug up to make space for all the fallen by pestilence. These skeletons were first put in pyramids. Later in 1870 one dude got the idea of use some of the pyramids as art. So he made some decorations and sculptures of skulls and bones – even the main lamp is a massive artwork consisting of dead peoples remains.
Another interesting place to see was Konopiste Castle. The Castle own by Franz Ferdinand. The guy that “hunted” 300.000 animals in his life. He was also presumably the first in Europe to install central heating, electricity and a modern bath – just like you and I have today. Then of course he did marry a low status girl against the emperors will – after all he was heir to the Austrian-Hungarian throne. So he wasn’t allowed to bring his wife on official business – at least not in the beginning. Later on they were assassinated in Sarajevo – which in turn triggered the first world war. Franz has left us something else that is nice: his own beer. The brewery is fully operational today and it is some excellent fresh beer that gives you and us instant happiness. Way to go Franzie
Every place you go – take the boat trip. We did go for the jazz-boat. And even if I am no jazz fan, and they even played traditional jazz – I was impressed. The band played really well – but the food couldn’t match up.
Other than that it was extremely hot. And wasps was everywhere – very irritating when at all our meals (of course outside). A few wasps had to pay with their life.
I am also really impressed by the metro system in Prague (as well as bus and tram). In Norway they brag about that you only have to wait 5 minutes to the next one (which only applies for rush hours). In Prague you only wait 2 and a half minute for the next one – sometimes 3 minutes. Also the system is very easy built up and easy to understand even for retards.
The food? I am not all too impressed by Czech food or drinks. They have some really strange tastes. I did like the idea of having the Goulash soup served inside a bread. And I did enjoy the special duck they have there. So go for the duck! Also the honey wine is also ok.
One other night we did go for a folklore evening. This was kind of boring I would say as we do have mostly the same at home here in Norway – and the show including the food became to “tight”. I would probably have enjoyed a much more “local” (meaning – non tourism) folklore evening.
Video editing havoc
I’ve been editing videos for some time now. Just now I have been dealing with one from my vacation in Prague. I always seem to get the same shitty problems with video editing:
- Unstable software crashing at weird times
- Unsupported codecs
- Decoding is a nightmare
- Problems with audio synch
- Other instability problems
Now I have tried out most of the packages there is both on Windows as well as Mac OS X (I have to admit I have not tried any LinuX ones so if anyone know a LinuX video editing program that irons out these problems – let me know) and all of them more or less have these issues. It drives me crazy – how can companies charge 1000 buck for a program that doesn’t work properly?
If it was a car – you couldn’t.
I remember in the old C64 days that one could be working for ours and then you would lose all your work because saving it to floppy would fail – and yes we might have came a long way today – but still we have shitty problems.
I am not going to stop edit movies in the first – but I am really looking for something to stop all these problems
- Unstable software crashing at weird times
- Unsupported codecs
- Decoding is a nightmare
- Problems with audio synch
- Other instability problems
Now I have tried out most of the packages there is both on Windows as well as Mac OS X (I have to admit I have not tried any LinuX ones so if anyone know a LinuX video editing program that irons out these problems – let me know) and all of them more or less have these issues. It drives me crazy – how can companies charge 1000 buck for a program that doesn’t work properly?
If it was a car – you couldn’t.
I remember in the old C64 days that one could be working for ours and then you would lose all your work because saving it to floppy would fail – and yes we might have came a long way today – but still we have shitty problems.
I am not going to stop edit movies in the first – but I am really looking for something to stop all these problems
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