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070223 23:17 Movies

Back from Berlin and the Berlinale, the annual Berlin Film Festival, where you get to see films from around the world that you might never see anywhere else. In my busy schedule (i was there on business for only 2 days) i only managed to catch 3 films but one of them kept causing little adrenalin shots into my stomach every time i thought of it (that's a good thing ;) for days and days after.

Dnevnoy Dozor (Day Watch) is a russian fantasy / scifi / horror / gothic flic, the sequel to Night Watch, and it made the american Jennifer Lopez vehicle Bordertown that i saw right afterwards seem so dull and predictable.

I made the mistake to go see Bordertown an hour after Day Watch. After that thrilling ride it was an incredible anti-climax. Although politically themed Bordertown was just your average run-off-the-mill american production with disappointingly flat acting and totally predictable story. And if you're even vaguely aware of what has been going on in Juarez, you come out of this movie with no additional information whatsoever. Although i give them credit for bravely touching on the fact that the american free trade agreement is the root cause of the problems.

Day Watch, on the other hand, left me in awe. I clearly remember having had those same feelings when i saw Night Watch for the first time. I went into Night Watch not knowing anything about it. All i knew was "russian scifi", which was all i needed to know. The first half hour had me confused and intrigued, trying to figure out this strange world (the real Moscow and the world Sergey Lukyanenko created), trying to understand what the frell was going on. I love that in a movie, when it confuses and surprises you. I thought the effects and the editing were excellent, the acting different, the world gritty and more real than any non-genre flic America can produce. The story was great and the ending wasn't "happy" and far more believable.

Of course, the book purists have - as always - a few bones to pick. But film is a different medium, you have to tell stories differently. I'm going to read the books now. Lukyanenko's world fascinates me enough now to want more and I think there are different stories to be had there.

070208 Internet / Civil liberties

Update on another item: The Free Nation Foundation is taking the buy-Sealand-idea a step further. They want to buy an island to start a new nation. Sonsorol is on the horizon!

070208 00:51 TV

You get worried when you follow serial tv religiously. and i mean 'serial' as in 'you can't miss a single episode because it's a continuing story and you wouldn't know anymore what the frell is going on'. it's not stand-alone episodes. farscape really opened the door for it. it got cancelled partly because it wasn't easily digestable. but suddenly this kind of storytelling is in. the studios figured out that people want it. (to be honest it's a bit like soaps. so - i'm into scifi soaps.)

You get worried that the makers won't be able to keep up the pace, to keep the suspense without sliding into the ridiculous. You get worried that it will lose it. like lost lost it. they dragged it out too long. they kept us dangling until we lost interest. can't stand any more jack stories. or kate, the cute chick with the tragic background. my only hope is in desmond and that locke is gonna pull himself together again. i guess i'll see tomorrow night.

but lost is no loss because in the meantime something much much better came along: heroes. i talked about it before and i don't want to talk about it too much. i don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen it. it's so good i started worrying. i don't want that story to lose it. but after watching episode 14 i know that we're safe for now.

and now i have to watch it again because i missed this (from TV IV Wiki):

Allusions and References

• Star Trek: The license plates on Mr. Nakamura's (George Takei) car read "NCC-1701". This is the identification number of the Enterprise on Star Trek, where George Takei played Lieutenant Sulu.

that's why i love heroes. it loves geeks.

070207 00:08 Winter

A picture i've been meaning to post. We had 3 days of snow this winter. Maybe there's more coming but it's unlikely. Apart from the fact that the lack of snow depresses me, i worry that the earth didn't get the rest it deserved. Also, my icelandic horse is disappointed. While it lasted, though, we had some fun. Every day i walked for an hour through knee-deep snow across fields and through woods to the neighbouring village to play with my horse in the snow.

more snow pix here and here.

070205 15:29 History

The story goes that after losing a war and losing their leader a legion of roman soldiers wandered eastwards from what is now Iran, probably surviving as mercenaries, known for their "fish-scale formation" (probably what we know as "the tortoise"). It's possible they got captured / settled and got assimilated in China, where scientists are now testing the DNA of the inhabitants of a village with an unusual number of local people with Western characteristics - green eyes, big noses, and even blond hair.

Gu Jianming, who lives near Liqian, said he was surprised to be told he might be descended from a European imperial army. But the birth of his daughter was also a surprise. Gu Meina, now six, was born with a shock of blonde hair.

"We shaved it off a month after she was born, but it just grew back the same colour," he said. "At school they call her 'yellow hair'. Before we were told about the Romans, we had no idea about this. We are poor and have no family temple, so we don't know about our ancestors."

Great material for a historic novel.

070205 14:35 Feminism

The Blank Noise Project, introduced today on BBC's Culture Shock: women in India gather in one spot in the cities, stand there and stare at men, giving them some of their own medicine, hopefully making them aware of how uncomfortable it can feel to be constantly stared at.

looking, glancing, staring, leching, glaring, gazing can be forms of violation. We repeat, it is not in looking (verb), but in how one looks ( adjective). An individual could feel violated just by the way or manner in which she is even glanced at...

Eve Teasing, as the name suggests,is considered a joke, a prank. Eve Teasing is street sexual harassment. Blank Noise seeks to recognize eve teasing as street sexual harassment and establish it as an issue. Eve teasing may be normal, but is it acceptable?

070203 23:10 Games

Hilarious list of bug fixes for Sims 2 Pets:

• Sims will no longer have Grand Vampire's hairstyle after being bitten by the Grand Vampire.
• Influencing Sims to fight another Sim will no longer cause non-werewolf Sims to turn into a werewolf.
• Sims can now return home after visiting the Secret Society lot.
• Pet houses no longer move off tile after a Pet Wohoo.
• Cats no longer can become stuck in the litter box.
• Two or more teens will no longer refuse to go to school if there is no nanny or adult on the lot.
• Hair no longer separates from Sims' head when werewolf teens turn into adults.

Life is so weird.

070201 00:23 Language

If you're a hobby linguist, you should learn about snowclones:

• Wikipedia entry
• Language Log (they invented the term in 2004)

This has nothing to do with it, except that it reminded me to blog this.

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