Went to the movies today - got the last seat in an otherwise sold out house (Sneak Preview). Upstairs on the balcony, too. Next to me, there was a single empty seat (which was to be filled, as I knew). So I waited... if this was a novel, something exciting would happen. The air was brimming with unfulfilled promises, so to speak. Then a guy came and sat there, and I saw the movie and went home. Novels, it seems, don't take place very often.
Film was rather unexciting, too. Hollywood Homicide with Harrison Ford in his usual "I am not Indiana Jones anymore but still kinda cute and my hair sticks off in funny angles" mode and Josh "sexy toy boy my ass" Hartnett. And with plot holes as large as the Grand Canyon. Whatever, it was kind of enjoyable - dumb cop movie, what will you expect. (Much more than you could say of LXG, at least. Shortly I was really worried that was what we were going to see). Even one line I laughed at: *Josh Hartnett is doing some kind of Yoga shtick (don't ask)* Rotten to the Core Cop: "What's he doing?" Female Cop who's doing Rotten to the Core Cop's bidding: "He's Omming."
Omming. Hehe.
What else? The Friedenheimer Brücke is kind of toast. Special pictures by Eyewitness-Marco. Smells like smoke outside, even though it's a couple of blocks away. Fire engines were just leaving when I came home. So I guess not a good night for the owner of a certain warehouse, the cops and the fire department.
Saturday, August 23, 2003
Friday, August 22, 2003
I'm in a good mood today. Strange, but true. Maybe it's because I made progress on my paper. No, that's not it. Just so.
I'm adding another To-Do Thing to my list: I want to change this blog's design. I mean its puristic, cubistic and straightforward appeal has its advantages, but I might just wade through the huge mess that its HTML has become in the meantime and spruce it up a little. Pictures and such. MIDI music. Yay. Preferably something by Jon Bon Jovi. Maybe a Comet Cursor or two. Poems, too. Clouds and Poems.
(*pat pat* here's the smelling salts *pat pat*) only a joke. only a joke.
Not the sprucing up part, that I really want to do.
Ordered huge piles of books at amazon. It's the devil, I tells ya! 666! The Marc(o) of the Beast :))))<--just kidding, my dear, of course you're not HellSpawn, even if you work for the Evil MasterTM. I just couldn't pass up a pun. Sorry. Please disregard.
Did I tell you about the nightmare I had where my professor went on holiday and couldn't sign the permission slip for my paper? Well, today I called the office and guess what? My professor has gone on holiday. Sigh. Tell me again why I am in a good mood, please. What are reasons to be in a good mood? If you know some, please feel free to put them in the comments. I'll venture some:
That's all I can think of that applies to right here and now, but as I said, feel free to add, because I actually forgot reason #6: People writing comments...
I'm adding another To-Do Thing to my list: I want to change this blog's design. I mean its puristic, cubistic and straightforward appeal has its advantages, but I might just wade through the huge mess that its HTML has become in the meantime and spruce it up a little. Pictures and such. MIDI music. Yay. Preferably something by Jon Bon Jovi. Maybe a Comet Cursor or two. Poems, too. Clouds and Poems.
(*pat pat* here's the smelling salts *pat pat*) only a joke. only a joke.
Not the sprucing up part, that I really want to do.
Ordered huge piles of books at amazon. It's the devil, I tells ya! 666! The Marc(o) of the Beast :))))
Did I tell you about the nightmare I had where my professor went on holiday and couldn't sign the permission slip for my paper? Well, today I called the office and guess what? My professor has gone on holiday. Sigh. Tell me again why I am in a good mood, please. What are reasons to be in a good mood? If you know some, please feel free to put them in the comments. I'll venture some:
- My cuddly-wuddly kitty cats (sorry. snuggy-wuggums that they are. I call them Puffels by the way.) Before you get too sugary sweet, here's reason #2:
- The way how my halogen lamp attracts icky insects (moths and such) and instantly incinerates them. Poof! Great fun for the whole family.
- People linking to my blog. Makes me happy and feel loved (blows kisses xxx).
- Being known at the butcher's shop around the corner. Didn't have enough money with me today and they said: "Just pay another time."
- Actually having stomach muscles. I think I can almost see them. Yay. Well, almost :)
That's all I can think of that applies to right here and now, but as I said, feel free to add, because I actually forgot reason #6: People writing comments...
Thursday, August 21, 2003
The Gender Genie says I am female based on my previous post. Drat! I've been exposed. Here's how it works...
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
It's amazing how bathing cheers you up. In a relaxing sort of way. I mean, if I am really distressed, I'd rather take a shower - it feels like cleaning your head when you're running water over it. But for relaxing you can't beat a bath. Especially if you have the "Yellow Spirit Lifter" by Body Shop. Got it for my birthday, which also was a Happy Occasion, so that works out fine.
Could have generated more foam, though. I like foam, though I also like to read in the tub and foam kind of gets in your way. I usually drop my book in the water, too. I'm sorry to report that I haven't been reading any new book, but am back in my Terry Pratchett mood. Guards phase, if you want to know (I am reading them in cycles).
I've been thinking that I want to preface my paper with a ficticious quote for shits 'n giggles - it has tortured me enough, now I'd like to torture it back. If you know anything that could be useful, please drop me a line. It has to be (roughly) about customer complaints and innovation. Best would be if it was from somebody whose name is rather inconspicuous and even better if it was taken from a book that could pass as a reference book. Much to consider, I know, which is why I am asking if such a quote happened to cross your patch. Me, I am thinking along the lines of Havelock Vetinari (who sounds impressive but is not too well known and is a fountain of wisdom if you ask me). Might have said something about innovation in the context of the da Quirm business, but I don't particularly like the Leonard da Quirm bits and usually skip over them rather quickly.
Then again, I never liked the Watch much and am now an avid fan of Commander Vimes. I am so looking forward to this, cheap bitch that I am I didn't get the hardcover. On the other hand, I do like my paperbacks all nice and neat in a row - I hate the ones that stick out because they are the ugly-as-hell American editions. If you really like me and want to get me a present (and who doesn't), and don't want to wait until October 1st, you could always get me The Wee Free Men.
And if you're feeling frisky for yourself, you might get Amazing Maurice which is touted as a children's novel but nevermind. Also supposedly a children's novel: Coraline. I couldn't sleep for two days after I read it. Then again, Neil Gaiman says kids are amused and excited by it, it's just adults who are creeped out. Haven't tested it on any kids, so I can't really tell.
Could have generated more foam, though. I like foam, though I also like to read in the tub and foam kind of gets in your way. I usually drop my book in the water, too. I'm sorry to report that I haven't been reading any new book, but am back in my Terry Pratchett mood. Guards phase, if you want to know (I am reading them in cycles).
I've been thinking that I want to preface my paper with a ficticious quote for shits 'n giggles - it has tortured me enough, now I'd like to torture it back. If you know anything that could be useful, please drop me a line. It has to be (roughly) about customer complaints and innovation. Best would be if it was from somebody whose name is rather inconspicuous and even better if it was taken from a book that could pass as a reference book. Much to consider, I know, which is why I am asking if such a quote happened to cross your patch. Me, I am thinking along the lines of Havelock Vetinari (who sounds impressive but is not too well known and is a fountain of wisdom if you ask me). Might have said something about innovation in the context of the da Quirm business, but I don't particularly like the Leonard da Quirm bits and usually skip over them rather quickly.
Then again, I never liked the Watch much and am now an avid fan of Commander Vimes. I am so looking forward to this, cheap bitch that I am I didn't get the hardcover. On the other hand, I do like my paperbacks all nice and neat in a row - I hate the ones that stick out because they are the ugly-as-hell American editions. If you really like me and want to get me a present (and who doesn't), and don't want to wait until October 1st, you could always get me The Wee Free Men.
And if you're feeling frisky for yourself, you might get Amazing Maurice which is touted as a children's novel but nevermind. Also supposedly a children's novel: Coraline. I couldn't sleep for two days after I read it. Then again, Neil Gaiman says kids are amused and excited by it, it's just adults who are creeped out. Haven't tested it on any kids, so I can't really tell.
Tuesday, August 19, 2003
Work called today and asked if I could come and help out tomorrow. Now the plan is to work on my paper tomorrow and if possible, even finish the "stupid, stupid numbers" part of it. So I declined. And now I feel sort of bad, because I know that it would have been important, while I probably won't work on my paper as much as I had planned to.
Then again, they said: "You only have to work from 9 to 12", and I absolutely KNOW that there's no chance I would have walked out of there before 4 p.m. Last time I was supposed to work till 1 I left the office at 5. Plus, once I have left the building it's nearly impossible motivating myself to continue on the stupid thing. See here. I am sitting at the computer. Am I crunching senseless numbers? No. I am blogging. Because I left the apartment today. I just should not go out tomorrow. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Stay indoors. Work, work, work. Ahaha. Where's my dried frog pills?
If I didn't have Daniel and his stress-relieving techniques I'd go bonkers anyway. I highly recommend looking at the pictures - I think he's doing the Crane on one of them, and on one he's just supporting himself on one hand. (We actually tried that once in class, bwahaha - no chance). My roommate said: "Is he always doing the exercises topless?", but that is beside the point. It's the RELAXATION. The BREATHING.
Then again, they said: "You only have to work from 9 to 12", and I absolutely KNOW that there's no chance I would have walked out of there before 4 p.m. Last time I was supposed to work till 1 I left the office at 5. Plus, once I have left the building it's nearly impossible motivating myself to continue on the stupid thing. See here. I am sitting at the computer. Am I crunching senseless numbers? No. I am blogging. Because I left the apartment today. I just should not go out tomorrow. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Stay indoors. Work, work, work. Ahaha. Where's my dried frog pills?
If I didn't have Daniel and his stress-relieving techniques I'd go bonkers anyway. I highly recommend looking at the pictures - I think he's doing the Crane on one of them, and on one he's just supporting himself on one hand. (We actually tried that once in class, bwahaha - no chance). My roommate said: "Is he always doing the exercises topless?", but that is beside the point. It's the RELAXATION. The BREATHING.
Monday, August 18, 2003
Sunday, August 17, 2003
Saw League of Extraordinary Gentlemen yesterday. My, my. It really sucked. I mean, I had heard before it was supposed to be a bomb but I had heard nothing concrete why. OK. Let me detail my thoughts:
First, a disclaimer: It's not that I don't like mindless action movies and movies made out of comics. No sirree. I enjoy those like the next comic book geek, thankyouverymuch. So don't take my comments in the vein of: Oh, she only watches independent French films. No, I don't.
What is it about? Basically it's about a team of Victorian era superheroes in London made up out of various literary figures, e.g. Alan Quatermain, Captain Nemo etc. They battle some sort of supervillain. So far, so good. It's derived from a graphic novel series by Alan Moore (who also did From Hell, the Jack the Ripper thing which was also made into a movie starring Johnny Depp, by the way).
And let me start here: What I absolutely hate is a film that butchers its source material. And the sad thing is: Even though I've never actually read the source material, I could tell it was being butchered. That should show you how bad it was. Let me try describing the feeling ... it's when you watch something and you have the fleeting impression of how the original comic would look like, but it's badly done and just plain ridiculous in the movie? That's how this film was. Let me quote Cyclops from X-Men here: "What did you expect, yellow spandex?" Meaning what looks good in a comic might not necessarily look good in a movie.
On the other hand, they added lots of superfluous things. For example, there's all these British figures and suddenly you have Tom Sawyer turn up, sticking out like a sore thumb and you think: Huh??? When I researched the film afterwards, it became clear why: He wasn't there in the source material. Then why inflict him on us? As I said, if even I can tell what was put in the movie afterwards, it's baaaaad.
Now on to the movie itself. I have to admit I stopped watching it after the first half hour or so or I would have died of boredom. That, and the "tone" of the movie is dark, somber and lackluster (=Victorian era!!!). I compare this to Reign of Fire where the lack of colour also got on your nerves.
Then there's the action scenes. They were cut by somebody with ADD obviously. Somebody with ADD and a squint, because there's just scenes flickering past your eye with no possibility to see what exactly is happening or who's shooting who. Lots of 'splosions and machine gun fire, people running about and meleeing, and each action scene takes forever. Plus, they're really unbelievable. I mean, Sean Connery's probably rather nimble for his age, having been trained as James Bond and all, but can he outrun five men with machine guns? This movie claims he can. Ahem.
Maybe the dialogue makes it worth watching, you say? Think again. Absolutely cringe-inducing. Again, bear in mind I have not read the original. But it seems to me that it contains a lot of witty word-play, in-jokes about the literary origin of its characters...because here you get the witty one-liners smacked into your face wham-bam oh so NOT subtle. "Call me Ishmael" might be funny if delivered in an offhand manner, but not if you almost hear the rimshot in the back of your mind. I've still got goosebumps (and not in a good way) about the scene where one of the bad guys stands there with his machine gun (with which he hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn so far) and calls to Captain Nemo to "draw his pistol" (Why? you say, I have no idea, I reply). Captain Nemo then declares that he, alas and alack (Victorian era dialogue!!!) does not own such a contraption but prefers to fight with his sword and then proceeds to kill the guy with the machine gun. With his sword. Mhm.
OK, you say. But I've heard the CGI is amazing. To which I reply alas and alack (help, I've been infected by the Victorian virus) no it isn't. While I can kind of live with the set design (as I said it at least manages to remind you of the comic now and then), there is CGI that is awful, awful, awful. Not the "obvious" CGI (for example Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde are done OK), but the "background" CGI. Meaning that when they go to collect Sean Connery at his house in Africa, the house screams: Look at me, I'm not real!!!! about as loud as a couple of teenagers when Justin Timberlake hops out of his limo and dances around in front of them. Naked. (Male AND female, just different sorts of screams, by the way :).
The direction? Sean Connery gets to chew the scenery like he alwaysh doesh. Camera angles are rather inexplicably bad or predictable (people are talking in front of said CGI house for what seems ages while the house, not them, is in the middle of the picture - guess what? House explodes. Gasp, shock, horror. Unnecessary dialogue is drawn out until you're ready to shoot the screenwriter. Character exposition? Maybe I missed it. What's the bad guy's plan? To sink Venice. Uh...yeah...what's his next plan? Freeze Alaska? Make a desert out of Death Valley? Infest Florida with alligators?
Enough said. Save yourself the money and don't see it, it's not even mindless fun. (Don't do what I did and see Bruce Almighty instead, but that's a different story and shall be told another time.)
First, a disclaimer: It's not that I don't like mindless action movies and movies made out of comics. No sirree. I enjoy those like the next comic book geek, thankyouverymuch. So don't take my comments in the vein of: Oh, she only watches independent French films. No, I don't.
What is it about? Basically it's about a team of Victorian era superheroes in London made up out of various literary figures, e.g. Alan Quatermain, Captain Nemo etc. They battle some sort of supervillain. So far, so good. It's derived from a graphic novel series by Alan Moore (who also did From Hell, the Jack the Ripper thing which was also made into a movie starring Johnny Depp, by the way).
And let me start here: What I absolutely hate is a film that butchers its source material. And the sad thing is: Even though I've never actually read the source material, I could tell it was being butchered. That should show you how bad it was. Let me try describing the feeling ... it's when you watch something and you have the fleeting impression of how the original comic would look like, but it's badly done and just plain ridiculous in the movie? That's how this film was. Let me quote Cyclops from X-Men here: "What did you expect, yellow spandex?" Meaning what looks good in a comic might not necessarily look good in a movie.
On the other hand, they added lots of superfluous things. For example, there's all these British figures and suddenly you have Tom Sawyer turn up, sticking out like a sore thumb and you think: Huh??? When I researched the film afterwards, it became clear why: He wasn't there in the source material. Then why inflict him on us? As I said, if even I can tell what was put in the movie afterwards, it's baaaaad.
Now on to the movie itself. I have to admit I stopped watching it after the first half hour or so or I would have died of boredom. That, and the "tone" of the movie is dark, somber and lackluster (=Victorian era!!!). I compare this to Reign of Fire where the lack of colour also got on your nerves.
Then there's the action scenes. They were cut by somebody with ADD obviously. Somebody with ADD and a squint, because there's just scenes flickering past your eye with no possibility to see what exactly is happening or who's shooting who. Lots of 'splosions and machine gun fire, people running about and meleeing, and each action scene takes forever. Plus, they're really unbelievable. I mean, Sean Connery's probably rather nimble for his age, having been trained as James Bond and all, but can he outrun five men with machine guns? This movie claims he can. Ahem.
Maybe the dialogue makes it worth watching, you say? Think again. Absolutely cringe-inducing. Again, bear in mind I have not read the original. But it seems to me that it contains a lot of witty word-play, in-jokes about the literary origin of its characters...because here you get the witty one-liners smacked into your face wham-bam oh so NOT subtle. "Call me Ishmael" might be funny if delivered in an offhand manner, but not if you almost hear the rimshot in the back of your mind. I've still got goosebumps (and not in a good way) about the scene where one of the bad guys stands there with his machine gun (with which he hasn't been able to hit the broad side of a barn so far) and calls to Captain Nemo to "draw his pistol" (Why? you say, I have no idea, I reply). Captain Nemo then declares that he, alas and alack (Victorian era dialogue!!!) does not own such a contraption but prefers to fight with his sword and then proceeds to kill the guy with the machine gun. With his sword. Mhm.
OK, you say. But I've heard the CGI is amazing. To which I reply alas and alack (help, I've been infected by the Victorian virus) no it isn't. While I can kind of live with the set design (as I said it at least manages to remind you of the comic now and then), there is CGI that is awful, awful, awful. Not the "obvious" CGI (for example Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde are done OK), but the "background" CGI. Meaning that when they go to collect Sean Connery at his house in Africa, the house screams: Look at me, I'm not real!!!! about as loud as a couple of teenagers when Justin Timberlake hops out of his limo and dances around in front of them. Naked. (Male AND female, just different sorts of screams, by the way :).
The direction? Sean Connery gets to chew the scenery like he alwaysh doesh. Camera angles are rather inexplicably bad or predictable (people are talking in front of said CGI house for what seems ages while the house, not them, is in the middle of the picture - guess what? House explodes. Gasp, shock, horror. Unnecessary dialogue is drawn out until you're ready to shoot the screenwriter. Character exposition? Maybe I missed it. What's the bad guy's plan? To sink Venice. Uh...yeah...what's his next plan? Freeze Alaska? Make a desert out of Death Valley? Infest Florida with alligators?
Enough said. Save yourself the money and don't see it, it's not even mindless fun. (Don't do what I did and see Bruce Almighty instead, but that's a different story and shall be told another time.)
I don't know why, but I enjoyed this little flash film about origin, life and times of a typeface (Cooper Black, to be exact, it's even interviewed :).
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