| Editorial - 30 August 2005 |
Yesterday when I got back home I heard a cat meow without stopping. Upon looking
around for a minute or two I discovered it came from outside and that I could hear it through the open
bedroomwindow. When I looked outside and to the left, I noticed some movement in the branches of a very
high tree in a neighbours' garden. Being on the second floor myself (that's the 3rd floor for americans),
the cat was still a bit higher. It's a big tree with branches and leaves only starting halfway through
the first floor. Basically the cat was sitting around 7 meters high. Poor thing was walking around on the
branches, always staying at the same level, never going higher or lower. And every minute there was at
least one meow.) |
| Editorial - 29 August 2005 |
A few days ago there was a nice rainbow right behind our appartment. I gave the
camera a go and tried to photograph it (first time I tried that) and results were mixed, some okay, some
a lot less. Picture below is part of one of the better overall shots I took. I don't like how the colors
turned out, but the sky was strange at that time anyhow : right after a few rainfalls, still some clouds,
moist atmosphere and a warm sun that started to break through. I guess it's alright. Song of the week : ----- Oldie of the week : ----- Last seen movie : "The Pacifier" : Vin Diesel as a tough marine/seal/commando (or something like it) who gets a surprising assignment : to watch the kids of a professor who was recently assassinated. basically it's a bit like "Kindergarten Cop", but with a few twists and more of a Disney-feel (being the producers, that's not so strange). And what have we learned ? That Vin Diesel can be intentionally funny, that some supporting actors are even funnier, that Lauren Graham's part was way too small and that none of the kids were irritating. Aside from the Graham thing, it makes this movie a good one to watch and maybe even buy (if you haven't seen it already). "To Gillian On Her 37th Birthday" : comments are being written. "Preston Kylt" : Dark and broody modern film noir attempt starring Luke Wilson (the dark-haired one of the Wilson brothers) and Dennis Farina. Luke plays Preston Kylt, a guy whose wife tells him she's having an affair and he runs out for the rest of the day and night. Only to return to her dead body. At first he's not a suspect as the neighbours have seen an orange car, but when he decides to take matters in his own hands and goes after the supposed killer (the lover), he starts to turn suspicion towards himself. I like film noirs. They're cynical, usually old classic movies, filled with people who you can not trust - male or female. So I'm probably biased when I say I enjoyed the movie. It's no masterpiece (not even in the genre), but I hadn't seen one in a long time, so it was a welcome stray from the usual line of films I see. "Pirates Of Silicon Valley" : Docudrama about the rise of both Microsoft and Apple until just before the dotcom boom - the early years. Noah Wyle (the young doctor from ER) plays Steve Jobs and doesn't leave out his cultlike way of thinking. A times irritating, at times brilliant Jobs comes over as a visionary with too much stubborness to survive. Bill Gates on the other hand is the nerdish schmuck who can't get a girl, but has a nack for seeing how you can make your company and products wanted by other companies. Both moguls are seen from the point of view of their best friends and partners in the companies, Steve Wozniak and Paul Allen respectively. And from time to time you get the brash and very loudmouthed Steve Ballmer as well - delivering some very funny lines. And that's what this movie basically is : a portrait of these 5 men who changed the way the world looks at computers. Most of it focusses on their ideas and not so much on their companies, but you get a good overview nonetheless. It's actually too bad it stops around 1997. I'd like to see the rest as well. Maybe someday a part 2 ? Guess the writers of the book on which the movie is based will have to start doing their thing then. "Never So Few" : Saw this one on TCM yesterday. I was just planning on reading for another half hour and then go to bed when I saw the opening scroll mention Frank Sinatra, Gina Lollobrigida, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson. That spiked my curiosity enough and I sat down again. It's a World War II movie about a captain (Sinatra) and a platoon of allies, including the Kachin inhabitants of Burma where the action takes place. Luring Japanse troops in ambushes they go from day to day. It's nice to watch the scenery and all these actors from a different time and age perform, but the directing is too sloppy, making the whole story a bit of a mess. Several things take place, but they all seems to be unrelated, just short pieces set one after another, forming a movie of nearly 2 hours. There are some deaths, a few troopchanges, a love-interest, an attack by the chinese ... a lot is happening, but I can't sum it all up. Fans of the genre or actors can watch it, I wouldn't recommended to others. Doing this week : Don't really care. Guess I'll be watching the start of the 4th series of "24" tonight and the start of the "Joey" sitcom on wednesday. But that's about it for my plans. |
| Editorial - 24 August 2005 |
| Last friday I went to the second day of the Pukkelpop festival, mainly because The Pixies and The Posies
were playing. Two bands who recently stood up from their graves to show the new bands what it was like
in the early nineties. Always been a big fan of both bands. So with your ticket you also get a free roundtrip by train - which would be easier if there'd be any trains back home after the festival-day ended. But no, last train left at half past ten in the evening. Extra trains were only set for the night of the last day. So I went by train and got back with Worf and Kira - two good friends. As they arrived a lot later than me I hooked up with my trusty companion at multiple Pukkelpop editions : my nephew. When I walked in Good Charlotte was playing so I decided to check it out while snooping in the t-shirts section (bought me another Pixies shirt). After 15 minutes I had it with the typical "how you doing belgium ? make some noise" in between the songs - I mean, two times okay, but 17 times in between 3 songs ? - so I left for the Skatestage where Funeral Dress was making some dumb noises. Never been a fan and never will be. But I knew I'd find my nephew there ... Afterwards we took a walk and checked out some stuff that sounded promising but not a single one of them was a pleasant surprise - which was the main problem with this edition : only the names lived up to the hype. We watched Jimmy Chamberlin Complex (arty jazzy ballroom instrumentals), Ellen Allien ( monotoneous beats with no 80's feel at all) and The Toy Dolls (incredibly boring run of the mill old school badly tuned and sounding punkrock from the eighties - these guys should definitely learn to ar-ti-cu-late a bit more as I didn't understand a single song). After The Pixies we stopped to listen to the set of Apocalyptica, but drums and 4 cellos don't make enough noise to keep people awake that late. I have their first album and like the concept a lot, but it just didn't reach the people, everyone left. These guys should've been playing around 6 in the evening. They would've been more succesful. Some stuff was slightly more memorable, for various reasons. VHS or Beta for instance had a singer who sounded just like Robert Smith from The Cure. Phrasing, tonality ... you name it. The Dwarves weren't bad but by now I can't recall a single song - which obviously isn't that good. Not that memorable. At least they're not etched in my brain as "bad". Millionaire however was a lot better, but as they were playing in one of the smaller venues it was impossible to follow from inside, so we had to stand in the back which reflected in the sound. Some stuff was overtly messy and hard to understand. But I'm blaming the soundsystem not reaching far enough as the crowd was very enthousiastic and Millionaire have a reputation of being very energetic. They should've gotten a bigger stage ! Having seen The Posies 4 times before (Pukkelpop front row, Tongeren small venue, Marktrock farewell concert and as acoustic singer-songwriters in a small club during their break-up), I was expecting very much from their comeback. Unfortunately they're not used to playing big stages on big festivals. The Posies are a club-band, smaller stages at max. Having been transported from a small stage to the mainstage a day before the gig gave some of them (meaning drinkaholic Ken Stringfellow) serious nerves. Drink too much whisky (Jameson, so that's understandable) on stage, behave like a lunatic and show your buttcrack by wearing your pants too low. In some way it was funny, but afterwards I miss some of the more chilling moments they can convey with their music. Anyway, they're coming back in november or something like that and I'll be there. As Worf said it, The Pixies are worth the 50 euro for the ticket alone. Getting to close the mainstage (after ugly man Marilyn Manson who didn't sound as bad as expected - even with a greatest hits show) and having an hour and a half for it, everyone knew we'd get a lot of songs. Their songs being inbetween 3 and 4 minutes and never jabbering away inbetween them, you could expect a Ramones like feel. One, two, three, four ! And in a way they did. Kicking off with "Where's My Mind ?" they dove into a long and balanced set with the biggest focus on the first there albums, but with more eye for the last two than they did last year. We even got a double treat of "Wave Of Mutilation", first in the calmer UK Surf version, immediately followed by the original louder one. Still no sign of new songs - not even Bam Thwok. Knowing all their albums and songs by heart it really doesn't matter which ones they play and which not. I'm nodding along anyway. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm looking for this set online ... Song of the week : "You're Beautiful" James Blunt Oldie of the week : "Wave Of Mutilation (UK Surf)" The Pixies Last seen movie : Guess what ? No movies this (half) week. Doing this week : Making lots of plans at home and lots of whitelabels at work. |
| Editorial - 18 August 2005 |
| Been quiet here for a few days, but I'm gonna try to make it up by posting
a lot of belated movie-reviews (sift through January 2004 until now for new arrivals) and move some
posts from the homepage to the editorials section. Enjoy the reviews, get
some ideas and watch a few of them. There are some gems in between the fluff and clutter. Song of the week : ----- Oldie of the week : ----- Last seen movie : "Deep Star Six" : Pretty daft horrorthriller miles below sealevel about a military expedition drilling in the wrong place releasing a seacreature that obviously wants to kill and eat each member of the team. Some nice scenes (considering the eighties effects), some good ideas and some gory scenes ... but in the end too much of a B-movie to be of any value besides to the fans of the genre. "A Month By The Lake" : Vanessa Redgrave is an older english photographer in the years before the second world war vacationing near the Como lake in Italy. There she meets a surly old colonel (James Fox) who's more interested in the younger nanny (Uma Thurman) of an italian couple. Slightly romantic, slightly comedic and partially bitter story told at a slow pace, with some detail for the fascist uprising in pre-world-war-II Italy. Doing this week : Tommorow I'll be taking a day off to go to the Pukkelpop festival and watch a few old favorits that are making a comeback : The Posies and The Pixies for instance. Those two alone are worth the ticket for tomorrow. |
| Editorial - 11 August 2005 |
| It's been a busy two weeks. First there was the frantic trying to get the
new sites and languages at work finished, then a little over a week of relaxing at home and at our
seaside, to finish it all of with two more days of getting our mainoffice in the UK to check the
cacheservers and get all missing items back online. Those cacheservers have a nasty tendency to dump
brand new files from their memory when older ones still exist (and unfortunately our system works
with id's for pages instead of filenames, enhancing the risk) and while I was off on holiday more
and more of the new files disappeared from the site. Mainly just informational pages, but still ...
looks ugly and sucks. Anyway, hardest parts are done and the week walking on the beach, sleeping late, relaxing in the afternoon and eating a lot fresh fish got me refreshed enough to deal with it. I would've cracked if it had been during a normal workperiod (let's say after a six months stretch without a day off). The sea rocks ! First half we were there together with my sister, her husband and daughter Lorn. I find it very amusing and entertaining that she's always hassling me to play with her : throw a ball, chase her round a table, play hide and seek, go look at the cat together ... Took some great shots of her, the sea and a lot of other stuff. I'll add some later. Song of the week : ----- Oldie of the week : ----- Last seen movie : "War Of The Worlds" : comments are being written. "The Fantastic 4" : comments are being written. "Peter Pan II" : Follow up on the original Disney. That usually means a straight to video release made by some new interns who are trying to get hired for real by Disney. A lot of them are below the Disney standard, some are ok. This one is in the second category as it has some nice drawings like in the old days, a storyline that fits in the whole Peter Pan universe and clocking out around 70 minutes it's not too long. If you can find it cheaply it'll be a welcome addition for any kid who likes the original Peter Pan movie. "Hearts In Atlantis" : Adaptation of a short novel by Stephen King about a young boy who befriends an elderly gentleman (Anthony Hopkins) who rents the upper floor of his mother's house. You get some typical sweet storylines about young children during the summer until it gets twisted around with the confession that the old man is being chased by "the low men". Frightful in the book, here they turn out to be nothing more than federal agents. A missed opportunity. For fans of either King, Hopkins or sixties movies only. "Robin Hood : Men In Thights" : Funny Mel Brooks take on the story of Robin Hood with some singing and dancing and a lot of silly lines. Not his best work, but a good movie nonetheless. "The Hurricane" : comments are being written. "Reservoir Dogs" : comments are being written. "Earth Versus The Flying Saucers" : Good old fashioned fifties alien-invasion movie with death-rays, huge fires, the destroying of monuments and cardboard acting. With effects by master Ray Harryhausen a must see if you're interested in special effects, the fifties era scare for the russians and modern sociology. Sociology ? Yup, these movies deliver a lot of information about the way Americans looked at their country, world and society at that time. "40 Days & 40 Nights" : I had already seen this movie a few years ago but having liked it a lot back then, I taped it when it was shown on television recently. During the trip to the sea we rewatched it on a dreary afternoon. You can read the original review here. The sexy jokes are still not overly offensive and brought with taste. The internet-company now seems a little silly and a lot more like a normal design-agency, but back then it might have been correct - especially in the States. I don't know, I'm just guessing. "Roxanne" : Saw this movie three times in the last 10 to 15 years. Every now and then it's nice to watch a warm, almost handcrafted romantic comedy with Steve Martin. He can be mildly funny and sad, slightly sarcastic and honest at the same time. Here he's playing a firechief with an exceptionally big nose falling in love with a beautiful woman while he's helping a collegue win her heart. She's only interested in the warm words, not the perfect body of the collegue. Indeed, you guessed it : it's an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac. Worth seeing. "3000 Miles To Graceland" : Kurt Russell and Kevin Costner play the two main bankrobbers who get into a lot of trouble when things don't go completely as planned. Sudden deaths, betrayal and high tension make the aftermath of the robbery go pretty sour and Russell escapes with the money, being chased by a pissed off and manic Costner. Strange note that gets more and more meaning during the movie : all bankrobbers are dressed as Elvis-impersonators. At times it's a very tough, violent and bloody movie and it never mellows down to something sweet. At most it settles down in normal mode. Made it's an attempt at a Tarantino-esque story, but in my opinion it's different enough to stand on it's own two feet. Having failed in the theatres, I'd like to recommend it to anyone interested in either actor or in gangstermovies. Doing this week : Gone without posting recently seen movies I'm now looking at a backlog of over two weeks - adding to the existing backlog. But for once I anticipated and wrote some reviews on paper (or at least some shorthand versions) which will be put online during the weekend. Together with some older reviews I wrote in the same notebook I had with me on holiday. |
| Editorial - 2 August 2005 |
| For your information : I'm off to our beautiful blue, gray and green North Sea. Updates will be non-existant for a few days, so will be my replies to any kind of mail. Those who really know me can contact me by phone. Enjoy the rest of the week ! |
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