Normally I'd have my first vacation this year starting tomorrow, but somehow I didn't quite make it. Since last weekend my head, nose and muscles are acting up and the doc says I have to stay home and rest. Hell, went the last two days anyway, just didn't make it today. Damn ... one day ... oh well, whatever, nevermind.
Song of the week : "The Scientist" Coldplay
Oldie of the week : "Pictures Of You" The Cure
Last seen movie : "Police Story" : Jackie Chan's breaktrough movie as actor, writer and director. After some successes in typical Hong Kong kung-fu, ninja, karate-movies in the seventies Chan wrote, directed and starred in this huge renewal of the genre. Transporting the fighting to the present (the eighties at that time) Hong Kong filmmakers (re)discovered the cops and robbers theme. Guns, carchases and excellent fighting skills. Think of shattered windows, trashed houses and villages and broken bones.
Chan does - as usual - all stunts himself and this brings some sort of authenticity to the movie. Alas it also gives it all a dated feel - not helped by the big stereo-systems and audio-cassettes. Nowdays there would be small cd's ... anyway, staying to the point I'd say this isn't a movie for everyone. You have to be interested in at least one of these items : Hong Kong, Jackie Chan or actionmovies. Then you might enjoy it. At this time there are three sequels but I don't think I'll be checking them out that quickly.
Doing this week : Tomorrow I should have internetaccess at home again. Had to wait a long while due to a variety of reasons ... bummer.

Editorial - 25 October 2002

Pardon me for updating on friday this week. Should've done it earlier but I had no good inspiration before. Probably partly due to the really great movie I've seen and the continuing work on getting Resin to work well on an IIS webserver. I'd recommend IIS to anyone, but Resin ? People, if you can, stay away. And stay away from JSP too.
Song of the week : the pianoconcerto near the ending of "The Pianist" was quite nice
Oldie of the week : "Love Buzz" Nirvana
Last seen movie : "The Pianist" : I guess this movie will be required viewing in the coming 5 years for most of the high schools. Almost as good as "Schindler's List", sometimes as gutwrenching, most of the time awful and sad. There are a few scenes where you want to smile and they tend to relieve a bit of the pressure of the story. Most of the time whoever you get to see WWII from a small man's perspective. No hero, no brave man, an ordinary middle class Jew. Difficulty after difficulty is thrown upon him and the only thing that pushes him forward is his enduring fright and struggle to survive.
Most of the time the Germans are depicted as brutal pigs ruling over the "Untermenschen" as they probably called the prisoners. Sadly this was probably true and not a one-sided view of the situation. Characterwise this is one of Roman Polanski's finer efforts. Some are cliched, but in a story like this, that's the way to go. Drive the point down in a single efficient blow. No need to elaborate. The viewers' mind will do that afterwards. This movie will get you thinking a bit again. At least that's what I hope it will do to a couple of people in the theater who were surprised (and disgusted) during some harsher scenes. Guess they forgot most of their history-lessons in school ?
Doing this week : Since this week's almost over, no use in thinking ahead anymore, is there ?

Editorial - 16 October 2002

Got a new webserver at work last thursday. Guess what broke down on friday ? Hadn't even finished installing windows yet. Yesterday someone came to replace the motherboard. This kind of thing is happening way to much with the new Dell lines (1650 and 2650). Get yer act together again guys ...
Song of the week : "You Know You're Right" Nirvana - two weeks in a row - why the hell not ?
Oldie of the week : "Havalina" The Pixies
Last seen movie : "Iris" : dame Dench plays dame Murdoch and delivers and outstanding performance. Being surrounded by Jim Broadbent, Hugh Bonneville and even Kate Winslet helps off course.
Based upon the real story of writer Iris Murdoch's decline due to Alzheimer's this film doesn't bring you the whole story of her life, instead it focuses on the slipping away - no matter how brilliant with words a mind can be. The uneasiness of those that are going to be left behind and the distress knowing there's nothing you can do ... Flashing back between her youth and the last years, the story manages to draw parallels between the formation of that mighty mind and the growing connection between the two lovers and the decline of that same mind and how the love shared between these two people didn't succumb.
I have to say that the usage of flashbacks has got to be one of the best I have ever seen. The use of the same situations, objects and words in past and present connects the dots in this story very well. Sometimes it has the tendency to be a little too much, but maybe that's just my masculin side objecting to the high chick-flick-factor. And that, my friends, is not what this movie is. So I'm ignoring this warning from my Y-chromosome ...
Doing this week : I've just finished rebuilding an inside closet with my grandfather. Guess I can try to fill it with as much beverages, tools, toiletpaper, sleeping bags - and all that other stuff which is usually just lying around - as I can.

Editorial - 9 October 2002

Since I've always done my best to shop around for interesting singles, alternate versions, live-recordings and bootlegs from Nirvana when they were still touring and recording I kinda had their entire set of songs already on tape and/or cd. No surprises with obscure songs found on soundtracks and sorts ... so you can imagine my delight when I heard "You Know You're Right" for the very first time ... and now it already has entered De Afrekening (see below) ... times are good ...
Song of the week : "You Know You're Right" Nirvana
Oldie of the week : "Everything And Nothing" Nirvana
Last seen movie : "Blue Streak" : Standard sometimes funny Martin Lawrence film. Quite good in the beginning but tiresome after a while - including a little over the top ending with less credibility than Arnold Schwarzenegger in "Junior". He's not as hilarious as Eddie Murphy, not as smooth as Will Smith, not as tough as Wesley Snipes. And yet his best role was in "Bad Boys" ... where he has to be all these things at once.
"The Road To Perdition" : absolutely gorgeous. Probably in my top three movies of this year. Sam "American Beauty" Mendes does a second fine job in a totally different sort of movie : a thirties gangstermovie. Tom Hanks and Paul Newman are glorious to watch and produced shivers in the back of my neck during their mutual scenes. Tom Hanks seems to be maturing with age and if this means he grows to be the next Paul Newman - who has always been one of my favorite actors ever since I saw him as a kid in The Towering Inferno - we're all up for some very fine years and movies. If only more actors where as good as these two ...
"Bad Boys" : Will Smith as a cop. Martin Lawrence as a cop. Miami. Big action producer. Bad actor playing bad man in movie. Now this just ha dto be a very bad movie ... and yet it isn't. As a matter of fact, I've seen this film 4 times since it's release in 1995 (?) and although it loses some of it's novelty, it still has some funny scenes and witty one-liners, some nice explosions and gripping action. When there's nothing else on the tube, worth watching. Heard they're planning a sequel to be filmed early 2003. Will it suck as almost all sequels ? Come and see ...
Doing this week : I am absolutely positively very sure that the saved stream from Studio Brussel's De Afrekening will be playing constantly at work. Until I get a decent copy of Nirvana's new song off course ... maybe an apology in advance for all my co-workers ?

Editorial - 3 October 2002

Dave Grohl is going strong these days. After taking the drum seat on the new Queens Of The Stone Age album (and delivering awesome performances including last week's song of the week "No One Knows"), the new Foo Fighters album is upon us. The new single "All My Life" immediately struggled it's way through most of my gray matter and tangled it's little, yet sharp hooks around my medulla oblongata - for maximum grip off course - and took this weeks song of the week spot. Guess it's time to search for that new Nirvana song already floating around on the net for next week's top spot ?
Song of the week : "All My Life" Foo Fighters
Oldie of the week : "Reach Out I'll Be There" The Four Tops
Last seen movie : "The Bourne Identity" : Who would've thought Matt Damon could be a convincing action hero/spy guy ? After doing a convincing bad guy in "The Talented Mr. Ripley" most of us probably knew he wasn't just an allround good guy (remember Will Hunting ?), but Matt as muscle-bound, karate and boxing champ, blasting bullets everywhere ? Very refreshing.
Based upon the same book by Robert Ludlum, this is absolutely a better movie than the television series starring Richard Chamberlain. Firmly planted in the new digital age, the story's updated and more evenly balanced between good and bad, male and female. Not always equally off course, "some males still have to rescue the females" but it's Hollywood after all, what'd you expect ?
Doing this week : Repairs for the car, some bills ... time to balace the chequebook.

darkman says sleep tight

Next month
Editorials