Archive for November, 2006
Tue 28th November, 2006 03:27 » Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Been reading Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami this week. Finished it last night right before I went to bed. I’ve had this lying around in my book shelf for quite a while now, but haven’t gotten around to reading it before now. I’m glad I ended up picking it up, because it was fucking awesome.
The story? I’m not sure I’d be able to explain it, thank god for Amazon: The last surviving victim of an experiment that implanted the subjects’ heads with electrodes that decipher coded messages is the unnamed narrator of this excellent book by Murakami, one of Japan’s best-selling novelists and winner of the prestigious Tanizaki prize. Half the chapters are set in Tokyo, where the narrator negotiates underground worlds populated by INKlings, dodges opponents of both sides of a raging high-tech infowar, and engages in an affair with a beautiful librarian with a gargantuan appetite. In alternating chapters he tries to reunite with his mind and his shadow, from which he has been severed by the grim, dark “replacement” consciousness implanted in him by a dotty neurophysiologist. Both worlds share the unearthly theme of unicorn skulls that moan and glow.
It took me a few chapters before I got into it, but once you get used to the two partially entwining stories there’s no stopping as they unravel each other. If the other works by Murakami is anything like this, I can see myself reading a lot more by him.
Sat 25th November, 2006 17:43 » Akagi
Dear Akagi,
It was fun while it lasted, and I’ll miss you, even if you disappointed me with your last episode. We had a lot of fun together. May you descend into darkness peacefully, you truly were a legend.
Yasegaman bakaride
mou hantoshi sugitaga
naniga kawattaka
darewo aishitaka
atama no naka de ima
yume ga kuzuredashita
nantokanare
Tue 21st November, 2006 17:45 » Powerbook
No, not that kind. Woke up tonight to a power outtage, and I realised how fucked I am without power in my life. I got really restless trying to find something to do. I ended up reading a book, which sort of sparked my interest again in reading. It’s been way too long since the last time I read something now, so I guess something good came out of it.
The power outtage probably only lasted a few minutes or even seconds, but it was in the middle of the night and after a few unsuccessful attempts at the circuit breaker box, tripping the breakers over and over, I figured I should keep the noise down since my parents were sleeping and go at it in the morning instead. ~7 painful hours without power!
It was pretty nice to light some candles and cuddle up beneath a blanket and read a book though. I ended up reading The Giver by Lois Lowry. It was OK I guess, but the ending was pretty horrible, a real let-down. Noticed that a new book in the Artemis Fowl series came out two months ago, so I ordered it together with the second and third book in the Bartimaeus Trilogy, wohoo.
Sun 19th November, 2006 11:30 » Latest music
What’s been listened to lately:
- Jay-Z - Kingdom Come
This new album is pretty sweet, at least a few of the songs. What’s mostly been playing though, is the Kingdom Come song itself, damn it is awesome. - Bruce Springsteen - Lost Masters
A 21 (!) disc set with various (you guessed it) lost master tracks, i.e. outtakes and different versions of his songs. It’s really mesmerizing to listen to him when he’s a bit “off”, making mistakes and talking during the songs, training riffs and stuff like that. - Jon Moskowitz presents: DJ Cappel & Smitty - Notorious B.I.G. vs. Frank Sinatra: “Blue Eyes Meets Bed Stuy”
A mash-up/mixtape of Notorious B.I.G. and Frank Sinatra songs, fucking incredible. I’ve been listening to this one A LOT. - Justin Timberlake - My Love (Paul Oakenfold Radio Edit)
Haha, hell yes. Thanks to Fihlvein for this, it has been on repeat for days on end now. Totally awesome remix of a normally somewhat crappy song.
Sun 19th November, 2006 04:27 » Series update
What I’m currently watching, or have watched these last months.
- House
I think I already mentioned this, but it’s worth mentioning again anyway. This show is the fucking best. I downloaded the first two seasons and watched them both during one single weekend, and now currently keeping up with the third season. Hugh Laurie is the shit. - Weeds
Thanks to jsim for recommending this gem, another show where I downloaded two seasons and watched them all in a few days. Now I’m just waiting for a third season to start, whenever that might be. - Battlestar Galactica
As I said before some weeks ago, I started watching this, and it took me well over a season before I really got into it. The mini-series was so-so, the first season was an improvement, but it wasn’t until halfway in the second season that I really started enjoying this. Unfortunately I kind of lost the mood again in the end of the season and in season 3 which is currently airing, when the story took a turn for the worse in my opinion. Hopefully it will pick up again, at least I’m still downloading the episodes, but I think I’ll wait a while before I bother watching it again. - Desperate Housewives
I was reluctant to this at first, and I guess it took me a good year after it started airing before I finally ventured into the world of these housewives. And I’m so glad I finally did. This is one of those shows that never disappoints a single episode, and every season keeps getting better than the last. Season 3 is currently airing and I check it out every single week. - Veronica Mars
Fuck I love this show, like Desperate Housewives, it also just gets better and better every season. Though I wouldn’t classify it as the best show on earth, it’s still one of my alltime favorites, I really enjoy myself when I’m watching this. - Lost
Like everybody else, I got totally into this the first season. The second season sort of made me lose interest a bit, but I still kept watching out of curiosity and to try and get some sort of closure to the story. Of course that didn’t happen. The third season has so far pissed me off thoroughly, and as of the fourth or fifth episode I just stopped watching it, and I doubt I’ll bother picking this up again. Lost, you lost me I’m afraid. - Prison Break
I loved this from the start, and I’m still watching the second season. I liked the first season better though. - Mythbusters
This is one of those rare shows where I fell in love within the first five minutes of the first episode, and I’ve been watching it ever since. I hope it’ll keep airing for a long time.
And last, the current animes I’m watching:
Fri 10th November, 2006 05:30 » Fury (1936)
As for the movie I saw while discovering this FAQ mystery:
Fury (1936)First of all, Spencer Tracy is a fucking badass. So naturally this movie is awesome. Now that we got that out of the way; the movie is about a guy who is mistaken for one of the criminals in a kidnapping case as he is driving through a small town. He’s put in jail while the sheriff tries to find evidence against him, but the deputy shoots his mouth off in town and soon the whole town is riled up about the alleged kidnapper. Word quickly goes around as each person adds their own rumours about him, and eventually everybody has convicted him of the crime, rally together and march off to the jail as a lynch mob.
Did I mention Spencer Tracy is a badass? If he’s in a movie, you should watch it. I gave it an 7 out of 10, but it was very close to an 8.
Fri 10th November, 2006 05:17 » IMDB FAQ curiosity
I noticed a peculiar thing on IMDB while voting for a movie I just watched: in the “Fun Stuff” section in the left sidebar there has been an addition beneath trivia, goofs, soundtrack listing, crazy credits, alternate versions and movie connections called FAQ. I’m not sure how long this has been there, but seeing as I use IMDB pretty much every day and usually check the trivia section (which is right above the FAQ link) after watching a movie and hadn’t noticed it before now, I’d say it’s a fairly recent addition.
You can reach the FAQ for any movie just like you would with the other sections, by adding a /faq suffix to the URI. For instance, here’s the link for The Godfather: http://imdb.com/title/tt0068646/faq. I haven’t actually seen a movie that has a question in the FAQ yet, so I’m not sure about what sort of stuff will be added there. I presume it will be questions that tends to get asked over and over in the forum for each individual movie perhaps, but who knows.
Thu 9th November, 2006 06:59 » Latest movie fodder
Been a while since I’ve talked about any movies, so I figured it was time to give some opinions about the latest viewings, at least the good ones. On another note, I now currently have 1919 movies (and series) rated at IMDB, so my goal is to reach 2000 by the end of the year. 81 movies 52 days. Should be doable I believe.
An Inconvenient Truth (2006)“A documentary on Al Gore’s campaign to make the issue of global warming a recognized problem worldwide”. I think that sums it up pretty nice really. I must admit I am not much of an environmentalist, and it’s probably a bad attitude to have, but I just don’t care too much of what happens to the world after I’m dead. Even so, this movie did wake me up a bit, once you see this you will surely get a wake up call about just how bad the state of our planet is concering global warming.
Charts have never been this exciting. I gave it an 8 out of 10 (fairly good by my standards).
The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat & Beers (2005)Calling this movie good might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it was sort of entertaining at least. It’s a documentary about this group of guys that has their own festival/competition weekend every year, where they drink beer and compete in different beer related events after dividing themselves into teams of two. So basically it’s extreme drinking games.
Don’t take it too seriously, and you might enjoy yourself through this. I only gave it a 5 out of 10, but I still liked it.
Infamy (2005)Infamy is a documentary about graffiti, and specifically about the current scene in N.Y. (if I remember right). This is no Style Wars (go see it if you haven’t), but I felt it was kind of entertaining anyway. There’s a lot of live action following the different artists around as they bomb the city, which is somewhat amusing to watch.
Nothing spectacular at all, but I gave it a 6 out of 10 anyway for keeping me entertained one night. That’s all I ask of a movie really.
Thank You for Smoking (2005)I can’t even remember the last time I gave a movie a 9 at IMDB anymore, but this is one of them. Damn I fucking loved this, by far the best movie I’ve seen this year I think. The movie follows a PR guy working for a tobacco company around, as he tries to do as much damage control as he possibly can for them, by essentially fooling everybody. I love Aaron Eckhart, but I’ve never actually liked a movie he was in before, now I finally have one.
As I said, a 9 out of 10, and I was even close to giving it a 10.
If you’re in the mood for something very low key and chill to watch, but still want something to keep your attention, this is perfect. It’s about an autistic woman and a guy who meet after a car accident, and he ends up staying with her for a few days. I’m not sure how to explain it, but it’s great I can tell you that. I specially loved this one scene where Weaver (playing the autistic woman) is lying on the ground with Rickman standing over her being his British self:
Linda Freeman: Have you ever had an orgasm, Alex?
Alex Hughes: It has been known.
Linda Freeman: It sounds like an inferior version of what I feel when I have a mouthful of snow.
[Shoves some into her mouth]
A 7 out of 10.
Session 9 (2001)This has been on my hard drive forever, like a lot of movies. I’m glad I finally bothered watching it, I really got into it all the way from the start. We follow an asbestos cleaning crew on a contract they just barely got, for cleaning up an abandoned mental hospital which is to be turned into some sort of offices for the state. The movie starts of as more of a thriller, and the focus is mainly on the interactions between the people working in the crew instead of the actual hospital and its history. Unfortunately the movie took a bit of a crappy turn in the second half when it started to move into the horror territory, straying away from its thriller feel and totally botching it up with this bizarre non-sensical plot twist. It would have been so great if it would just have continued to focus on the crew itself and their problems with each other instead.
Oh well, a 6 out of 10. Close to a 7 if it hadn’t been for the plot twist.
Hadashi no Gen aka Barefoot Gen (1983)I don’t think I’ve actually watched any movies about Hiroshima before, even so, I would imagine this would be one of the best of them. The story follows Gen, a young boy living with his brother, sister and parents in Hiroshima during the war. The bomb is dropped and we see how it affects his life. It’s quite graphic and doesn’t try to hold your hand during anything. What a powerful story, and so sad.
A solid 8 out of 10, I recommend you take the time and watch this.
The Man Who Laughs (1928)Wow, they just don’t manage to make movies these days that have this sort of eerie and creepy feel about them. Gwynplaine, a son of a Lord who deceits the king, has a permanent smile carved on his face by a group of gypsies who perform experimental surgery on people. The gypsies, being hunted by the people, has to flee the country, but leaves Gwynplaine stranded to himself. He then discovers a dead mother with a crying baby in her arms, which he takes responsibility for. He and the baby are eventually taken in by a travelling showman, and he grows up to become a freak attraction as a clown.
This is a prime example of why I keep watching old movies. 7 out of 10. Would have given it more, but it’s a bit drawn out and the end gets sort of silly to be honest.
The Departed (2006)I just saw this one today, I had heard quite a bit about it for a while now and I was curious to see how it was. I definitely wasn’t disappointed, perhaps apart from the end which I thought sucked. The story is about two cops, each one working undercover, only for the different sides of the law. I have to say that the main reason I liked this movie was all Jack Nicholson’s doing, god he is so lovely in this (not that there’s a movie where he is not!).
I gave it a 7 out of 10. It would have been 8 if it weren’t for the crappy ending.
Wed 8th November, 2006 00:30 » tijsjoris \o/
A warm welcome back hug to tijsjoris \o/
Wed 8th November, 2006 00:17 » Scarification: 3½ months
It’s been about 3½ months since I did it now, here’s the current result. There’s still not much change, the scars have flattened and widened a bit, but it will take several months more before it will even begin to fade I think.
