tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25010855354542287202024-02-19T03:54:49.181+00:00AndocentrismLondon and the world from an andocentristic perspective.Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-89681587891716941672011-06-23T11:58:00.002+01:002011-06-23T12:08:26.288+01:00Enjoying the ride: Up and downs of the Hurricane festival 2011Being on vacation from London for a while, my mostly lonesome journeys on the Hurricane Festival 2011 took me on a rollercoaster ride between "Schwing den Hammer" and "Novocaine for the soul". Impressions of the weekend following.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>On the way to the festival, we were once again greeted by the impressive northern German landscape. The traffic control we got into was warmly welcomed distraction from the fields and grassing cows. I almost was a bit envious of our driver Le Büth, who was entertained with challenges like having to estimate half a minute's time or following a police officer's finger with his eyes. After an almost traffic jam free journey and having arrived on the holy acre of the festival campsite, I found shelter and my first beer under a damaged pavillion, while the others waited for their wristbands. In spite of the storm which blew around us we still managed to build up our tents and the pavillions somehow, after which we took the evening to celebrate Jörn's birthday by barbequeing and getting excited about all the great bands we were going to watch in the following days.<br />
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Not for nought, as it turned out.YOAV already was a good opener, although the single guy with his guitar seemed a bit lost on the big stage his astonishing looper compositions made up for this soundwise.<br />
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After Portugal the Man, who failed to stick in my head, I stayed at the blue stage to watch Kaizers Orchestra, who I had never seen live before, but who turned out as one of the absolute highlights of the festival. Already the intro played solo by a mysterious organist behind a gas mask was promising (although the mask seemed a bit unessential, when the most beautiful man behind it, Helge "Omen" Risa, showed his face and started to fix his hair after every line he sung or played later). After a lot of (mostly rock-polkaesque) songs sung in Norvegian, awesome guitar solos, and the unavoidable band introduction (each members lastname seems to be "Kaizer" by the way) the show found its appropriate climax in the stomping performance of "Schwing den Hammer", athmospherically supported by a lot of empty barrel beating. All in all definitely a show to remember, and for which the band was celebrated accordingly.<br />
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Afterwards, while the others returned to the tent, the evening got calmer for me. Kashmir and Elbow I enjoyed partly laying on the tribune and partly from the "behin the sound tower"-area, but still especially Elbow's ear-haunting Grounds for Divorce sticked. The evening was crowned however by the performances of Portishead and Arcade fire, and while the former sent me spiralling down a black hole emotionally with their atmospheric soundbeds and sad-lullaby lyrics, the latter put me up singing and dancing again with their powerful songs from the "Suburbs" album. A perfect end of the evening for me so I missed the Chemical Brothers on purpose to return to the tent for a chat and a good night drink with Bördy.<br />
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After having drawn strenght from instant cappucino with lacing of Whiskey the next morning, my first act on Saturday was Monster Magnet, which although Dave Wyndorf seemed to have had a few more lacings than all of us together put up a good opening show for the day, of course with Space Lord at the end. Still a bit tired from the day before and on my own, I watched half of Gogol Bordello from behind the sound tower, before I noticed I wasn't in the right mood and went to the white stage to dance that mood away to more raving tunes :) It was only after left-wing rave band Egotronic had left the stage that I returned from that flush. When Frittenbude started playing their teenage-romance love songs it was enough for me, and as the Kaiser Chiefs were going to perform past midnight, I decided to party on at the Open-Air stage next to the party tent next to the campsite exit, and call it a day afterwards, visiting the neighbors and letting the school children among them have part of my wisdom in exchange for beer. The right decision, as I have been told afterwards by my friends who watched the band.<br />
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While the others headed off again early on Sunday to watch the first bands around noon, I took my time to relax in my camping chair as the first band I was going to listen to originally were the Hives on the green stage at around seven. So while the others went out in the pouring rain I kept watch under the pavillion like a captain on a sinking ship, and even managed to hold it for three more hours, before it breath out its live in a salto mortale over one of our tents and came to its final resting position bug-wise. Fortunately I found shelter with the neighbors and shared a bit of accident-damaged chili with them in their tent before I went to watch the Hives, only to notice I wasn't interested in watching them anymore when I heard there were a lot of people cueing for the Eels at the red stage tent already.<br />
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As the Eels were an absolute must for me, I bade my friends farewell again and headed off to the tent, to be rewarded with admission after a quarter hour and a great performance by the Kills who reminded me a bit of the White Stripes in exchanged roles, VV alias Alison Mosshart being the frontwoman of the combo and guitarist Jamie Hince mainly sticking to his instrument. Although their music failed the comparison to Jack and Meg, it was still rocking and shortened the time until the Eels took stage, together with a chat I had with some students sitting on the ground. <br />
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When they finally did take stage, it was even more amazing as expected. From the opener on, the whole tent was on fire, celebrating all the hits of the combo shook from their sleeves, who seemed all to be dressed up as copys of front man Everett, with beards and shades. The whole show was mainly dance and sing-along-oriented, which seemed to be the right strategy for the occasion as the audience proved to be extremely versatile on the text side. I can't even emphasize a special moment, it was a nearly perfect show all the way.<br />
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The Klaxons, which I stayed for in the tent mainly to avoid the rain and stand my ground against the young pogo-beginners in the tent around me, and the Foo Fighters on the main stage were as solid as expected and closed the Festival in a good way.<br />
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As we had already carried our stuff to the van, all there was left to do for me was to wait, first for the others, then for the car line to clear on the park site and then for our dedicated drivers to drive me back to Cologne, where I arrived on time for breakfast, tired and dirty but happy after a great, for me new-style festival experience.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-71055388874898717712011-03-10T10:30:00.022+00:002011-03-10T17:20:25.157+00:00Hats, romance and a weak ending: The Adjustment BureauThe question of the power of free will and personal freedom vs. fate / prediction is the main topic of "The Adjustment bureau", a science fiction love thriller, new to the cinemas this week. To celebrate my last working week (another time), my dear yet-collegue Aurelie joined me to go watch it at "my" local cinema. Promised a lot by the trailer, we unfortunately were a bit disappointed by a movie which I could bet failed to come close to its litearal original by <a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick">Phillip K. Dick</a>.<br />
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The movie's one big main topic is the conflict between free will and fate. All of the films sub-conflicts evolve around, the most emphasized of them being "young vs. old". The main character, David Norris (Matt Damon), is a young politician on the rise, who is especially popular with young voters who adore him for his unconventionalism and identify with his wild past. One day however, he meets the dancer Elise Sellas (Emily Blunt) and falls in love with her, an event which will have severe consequences for both their lifes, because we soon learn that the two of them weren't supposed to meet more than once.<br />
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In an coincidental encounter with the agents of the mysterious Adjustment Bureau (the name is never actually mentioned in the movie though), David must learn, that his life is not the consequence of the choices he made, but has been controlled by the elderly society of "men in hats" (it's their recognition feature and source of power). Enforcing a master plan, layed out by a behind-the-curtain divine power called the "chairman" and passed down through the different stages of hirarchy, they watch over the fate of the world and intervene if necessary. The problem now is, that David and Elise together tend to deviate from their prescribed path. When David, lovestruck and independent as he is, fails to accept his prescribed fate however, his free will provokes conflict with the Adjustment Bureau and a existencial run for his love Elise's and his (self-determined) life begins.<br />
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<a aiotitle="click to expand" href="javascript:togglecomments('SPOILER_NAME')">Click here to show / hide spoilers</a><br />
<div class="commenthidden" id="SPOILER_NAME"><span style="color: red;">--- The following passage contains spoilers, so please only continue if you watched the film, didn't want to watch it anyway or are one of the rare people immune to spoilering. You have been warned ;) ---</span><br />
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This is exactly where the momentum of the movie shifts. While drawing much tension and interest out of its sci-fi-scenario and the great cast at the beginning, in its second half it's the typical Hollywood chase-story all over again. With the help of one of the younger agents of the Bureau, David learns to adapt their powers, crashes the wedding of Elise and intrudes into the agency, all the time followed by the hooded agents. While suceeding in invoking a fascinating sense of meaning in the beginning, from this point onwards, the action fails to be more than end in itself and when the resolution is presented eventually, the whole appeal of the movie is ruined instantly in the two minutes the main question, if there is a free will beside the master plan, is actually answered (guess what...)!!!<br />
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The movie still has his strenghts, starring a young ambitious politician as the protagonist is a genius move, which shows creative courage in the current distrustful political society. The at times self-surpassing dialogue and solid acting of the well-chosen cast lets you sympathise quickly with the characters and get involved in the drama. Especially, a great eye for detail has been employed in developing the main idea into a coherent alternative universe. There was obviously some effort invested in designing the sci-fi-aspects of the story, without by being too effectful and taking too much space from storytelling. The devices and powers the men in hats use to influence people have been affectionally realised.<br />
Also, the the scenario is consistent and keeps the main conflict out of black / white schemes, for example the "greater good" of intervention being explained by a consistent interpretation of human history (according to this, the Bureau brought the roman empire to its heights, came back after the "Dark Ages" for rainaiscance and enlightenment, then in the 19th century vanished again, only to fail to prevent the Holocaust, after which they returned). Also, the generally religious-critic subtext favors ethics without favoring the superstructure of a certain belief ( examples for this is the shown marriage in lawcourt, no light being shed on the <i>gestalt </i>/ whereabouts / existance of the "chairman", the description of periods in which religious institutions possessed great power as times of divine absence...).<br />
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All in all, although I haven't read the book by Philipp K. Dick yet, nearly all the strenghts of the movie lie in the appealing basic imagination, but it struggles to translate the action consequently into the medium of film. This unfortunately makes the feature suspicious of being just another book adaption which fails to close in on the original. For me, except from the last quarter hour (hint: leave the cinema after the statue-of-liberty-scene!), it does not hurt to watch, but is definitely no must-see.<br />
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Links:<br />
- <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1385826/">The Adjustment Bureau - IMDB</a><br />
- <a href="http://www.theadjustmentbureau.com/">The Adjustment Bureau - official webpage</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-6805058638108653032011-03-06T20:00:00.080+00:002011-03-10T15:16:56.278+00:00Hedges, temples and azaleas: A Sunday walk in Chiswick parkBeing <a href="http://andocentrism.blogspot.com/2011/01/cold-day-in-sun-visiting-greenwich.html">not a fan of lonely boring sundays</a>, I set out once again to get to know my new home a bit better yesterday. My target this time was Chiswick in the west of London, which has been described to me as a quite nice area with one of the rare parks which are more than a bit of green with a pair of trees. And as the weather was nice, the area seemed perfect to be around.<br />
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My Sunday park addiction should not be disappointed. The heart of the park, the renaissance Chiswick House, is surrounded by a huge English garden which features pittoresque bridges, monuments and statues. Also there is a big greenhouse with a hugely advertised flower exhibition and of course the manor itself, which you could explore from within. However, I saved the money, enjoyed the sunshine and took pleasure in the many things to see while strolling around on the paths.<br />
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When the sun slowly began to set, I made my way home, for which, thanks to a healthy combination of TFL / own stupidness I needed 2 hours for (only one train per hour / missed my stop listening to music). But after another nice tour through a London suburb, nothing could make that day bad!<br />
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Links:<br />
<a href="http://www.chgt.org.uk/">Official Chiswick House and gardens web site</a><br />
<a href="http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiswick_House">Chiswick House (Wiki article)</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-51318189065696151062011-03-03T18:30:00.003+00:002011-03-07T17:33:22.756+00:00Japancore with Bells and Whistles - Brian Viglione, Elyas Khan, and Sxip Shirey at The Underworld, CamdenThanks to my lovely sister I got the pleasure to see an exceptional concert at Camden yesterday. As I'm not so good in writing about music (and still drunk from the aftershow-party), I'll rely on pictures and short comments.<br />
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I liked the venue from first sight: Located in a cellar under the corresponding "The Underworld" pub, it had all you wish for in a venue: seperate stage area with a gallery, huge "downstairs" dancefloor, a bar area with an appropriately sticky floor, and a (very) small selection of tab beer (but then again they served bavarian "Löwenbräu" ;)).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Pettybone</span><br />
<a href="http://www.myspace.com/thesoundoftherevolt">Pettybone</a> played as the opener. Three quite young women in the classic GBD-combo, playing hard riffs, while the singer alternated between talking and barking. Best band member clearly was the drummer (and not because she took off her shirt, with what she was terribly right, because why should only male drummers be able to do that?). She was awesomly quick and very tight. Maybe the shirt bit was also tactics to keep people from taking pictures though. Worked for me.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bitter Ruin</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xAvVHhv-V1isqwmtOedYD6oQ5-vNn5QW4OO56vLFpDyoKsiR0FcvaSVQqGjzj75Kx5d6ij3OKyEqaSOJV5pxP6l6VBPXZyN7FiwFzSk08vK-6am-brWZ5a61qNoIkHiKt11he0PTG4nV/s1600/01+Bitter+Ruin+-+High+Noon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3xAvVHhv-V1isqwmtOedYD6oQ5-vNn5QW4OO56vLFpDyoKsiR0FcvaSVQqGjzj75Kx5d6ij3OKyEqaSOJV5pxP6l6VBPXZyN7FiwFzSk08vK-6am-brWZ5a61qNoIkHiKt11he0PTG4nV/s400/01+Bitter+Ruin+-+High+Noon.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.bitterruin.com/">Bitter Ruin</a>: Classic singer / songwriter duet, with strong voices and very dark texts. All the gothic girls around loved it, and I have to admit I did as well. Style of their music made it clear why they toured with the Dresden Dolls and due to folk influences (Flamenco Guitar sometimes) they even reminded me of Serj Tankian once in a while!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">Bo Ningen</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaA9mhnNCuhqXQUrW8lFqCwUVkzecA8z9alWUhwmAUFG2j59gNVmPtkVOsm1TeRQOLm1QptNhCUZ79IINaJoGsDuuTw6Tm8Q51dGVgHqAL-EZlMh51qXXwuoBGdzkcU-Mc9Aprt7XYzQc/s1600/02+Bo+Ningen+-+Flying+Hair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRaA9mhnNCuhqXQUrW8lFqCwUVkzecA8z9alWUhwmAUFG2j59gNVmPtkVOsm1TeRQOLm1QptNhCUZ79IINaJoGsDuuTw6Tm8Q51dGVgHqAL-EZlMh51qXXwuoBGdzkcU-Mc9Aprt7XYzQc/s400/02+Bo+Ningen+-+Flying+Hair.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.myspace.com/boningen">Bo Ningen</a>, not from Tokyo, but from London city still spoke a lot Japanese. Not only their edo-period-samurai hairdo was notable: They used it to shake quite some time, while they rocked asses off with their metal-something - core? Anyway, it was loud, it was fast, it was melodic and Japanese.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinN81kTjjFwgXG4sz7_nBfQ6ayXXGYC87oV4tscd1Gf3gn_OKilU0ZUUs0fbEA1pOy3jL5f281X0poqEQWNznf0vUM-A6Gq8j7432xE5aaTMIV0mmBMRtkXUFXzcAuqgQYcdK617_L_x5-/s1600/02+Bo+Ningen+Gitarist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinN81kTjjFwgXG4sz7_nBfQ6ayXXGYC87oV4tscd1Gf3gn_OKilU0ZUUs0fbEA1pOy3jL5f281X0poqEQWNznf0vUM-A6Gq8j7432xE5aaTMIV0mmBMRtkXUFXzcAuqgQYcdK617_L_x5-/s400/02+Bo+Ningen+Gitarist.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The guitarist, playing one of his solos he brought in his time capsule from the 70ies , together with his clothes.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvmnqRVoR697Ht2WgzOoX-k8uzOT_qfB_EBOFBv59aj_b8EyLLa9FZyRmngVEXbYMXvps8GysDq_ccpEznIDTt1jcjGJrAxl7eyq4t0uWPb8LjBo6mWPI3KR6dE6Pxbd8lhO-PDqQwNXx/s1600/02+Bo+Ningen+-+Schlussakkord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkvmnqRVoR697Ht2WgzOoX-k8uzOT_qfB_EBOFBv59aj_b8EyLLa9FZyRmngVEXbYMXvps8GysDq_ccpEznIDTt1jcjGJrAxl7eyq4t0uWPb8LjBo6mWPI3KR6dE6Pxbd8lhO-PDqQwNXx/s400/02+Bo+Ningen+-+Schlussakkord.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Not just one of the various ending chords of the show, but the mother of all of them, this one lasted about a felt 10 minutes. After which there was only eternal silence remaining. Note the hairdo.</td></tr>
</tbody></table><span style="font-size: large;">Gentlemen and Assassins</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr7TdkfpZRYS5O3nl0nf4mxWIz8389E2azTB3GCDNj8ubjLNUJXOCuqwJqPvt0vmUKPnovdoI2BccpzTZYCEegFUJACQNHY3EP_zi6vvlKHTHlgLjVLUDuK61fbE-l2TRevOq_PlqvRq75/s1600/03+Brian+Viglione+-+bells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr7TdkfpZRYS5O3nl0nf4mxWIz8389E2azTB3GCDNj8ubjLNUJXOCuqwJqPvt0vmUKPnovdoI2BccpzTZYCEegFUJACQNHY3EP_zi6vvlKHTHlgLjVLUDuK61fbE-l2TRevOq_PlqvRq75/s320/03+Brian+Viglione+-+bells.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://gentlemen-assassins.com/">The merit headliner (Gentlemen & Assassins)</a>: (r.t.l.): Elyas Khan on bass and synthies, Brian Viglione on the drums and Sxip Shirey with one of his crazy instruments. Although lacking a guitar most of the time, their compositions alternated between rock, blues and folk, with absorbing sound and an incredible stage presence.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoVspNajsuVJHruHY0DoyI1RUmfZGOwueIjFh_kXogCHYThMGpk0-6EWe4X5spmbnEeQoC1zUiJhND559OEjvV-6NiuyZ0dXGwR3zR2NgRhdnTXSyvV9qJJI8-EUgFyLzt43bS1p7b0kAu/s1600/03+Sxip+Shirey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoVspNajsuVJHruHY0DoyI1RUmfZGOwueIjFh_kXogCHYThMGpk0-6EWe4X5spmbnEeQoC1zUiJhND559OEjvV-6NiuyZ0dXGwR3zR2NgRhdnTXSyvV9qJJI8-EUgFyLzt43bS1p7b0kAu/s320/03+Sxip+Shirey.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Especially Sxip surrey made the sound of the band unique with his exotic instruments and improvisation. While only playing a dull paper-clip improved children's guitar the time this picture was taken, he later justified his crazy professor look more with playing the same instrument using a harmonica to pick chords, ringing bycicle bells attached to a stick, singing with scary voice effects and blowing strange whistling flutes. Him <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FsT_lnVppw">using a salad bowl and a marble to create a spheric rhythm</a> matching the other instruments eventually let my jaw drop amazonas-snake like.</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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Even if I missed my last tube and still feeling a bit tired today, I'm in love with London for another time and can't wait for all the concerts to come in summer.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-70621417949894279682011-02-23T16:53:00.012+00:002011-03-07T17:34:00.308+00:00Eagerness (A mostly fictional story)Monday, 21.02.2011, on the way to the cinema<br />
Went to the cinema today to get tickets for that fancy new action movie. Superguy is hunted by supervillans. Some people might say it's nothing special. Screw them! I waited long enough for this and now I just want to be entertained! *lol* Normally I couldn't afford it so late in the month, as I'm near my overdraft. But no problem! My mobile network provider has this special, so I can get two tickets for the price of one (I love my provider so much)! I'm not so sure how much I got left on my account but have the feeling it's enough. Just can'r resist buying tickets as soon as possible. Always makes me take the rest of the time with a smile.<br />
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Monday, 21.02.2011, cinema<br />
No big deal, the vending machine seemed to be on strike, as after keying in our PIN the machine declined printing our tickets. After trying twice each (we got time after work anyway), we went up to the cashier. Very nice guy there. We first thought the machine was broken but then the friendly guy told us that for the special to use, we'd have to get the tickets on Wednesday. He was so friendly. How dumb of us to want to book the tickets in advance, haha. John mentioned that hopefully we won't be charged for the tickets. I think he's a little paranoid ;)<br />
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Tuesday, 22.02.2011, cinema<br />
Already forgot about that little incident yesterday. I'm so looking forward to that movie. Did I take my pills?<br />
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Wednesday, 23.02.2011, morning, home<br />
The new day is finally there. Almost couldn't sleep. Only got worried when I checked my account balance this morning. I'm in overdraft now, and I really wonder why.<br />
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Wednesday, 23.02.2011, morning, work<br />
Arrived half an hour too late at work after waiting some time at the bank. Got told off by my boss. Doesn't matter, he doesn't like me anyway. At least I found out that the cinema charged me twice for two tickets I haven't received. There must be a mistake. Quickly thought about the fees for the unplanned overdraft. But got confidence in the people at the cinema, they will help me when I explain. I never know what to do in my lunchbreak anyway, will go there later and ask. I'm sure it won't be a problem to correct the mistake. And I'm going to watch the movie at last!!! Yey!<br />
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Wednesday, 23.02.2011, lunchbreak<br />
Went to the cinema. spend half of my lunchbreak waiting in the children's cue for the new Justin Bieber movie. Have to admit that it really got me a bit angry. Waited another quarter hour for the manager to come. Must be very busy job, being a manager at the cinema. Bet, she has a lot more to do than me, otherwise I wouldn't be the one waiting. *g* And she was so kind! I regret having started to be angry now. She told me that it might only be temporary and that my bank should be able to confirm that. Unfortunately, I could not eat anymore. It's bad because I always feel a bit charged. Anyway, I'm sincere that after my visit to the bank later, I'll be better.<br />
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Wednesday, 23.02.2011, after work<br />
Went early to avoid cues at the bank. Boss told me off again. Think I can screw that position I was after. Cheeky bastard, he hates me anyway! Fuck my job, it sucks anyway. I have to prioritize the important stuff now! Bank closes in half an hour, so first there, then to the cinema! Hear my own blood pulsing in my ears.<br />
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Wednesday, 23.02.2011, Bank<br />
employee at the bank told me that the money actually really was deducted from my account, so I'm in overdraft now, and have to pay 25 GBP as fee per week, starting for today. To avoid that, the bank people proposed me to take up a credit of 1000 GBP at a much higher interest rate. How stupid do they think I am?<br />
But I'm more angry at those idiots at the cinema. What are they thinking with their stupid machines!? So tried to get my money back, the bank can at least help me with that, given that I pay them for my account.<br />
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Wednesday, 23.02.2011, on the way to the cinema<br />
Got kicked out of the bank after having waited half an hour for a customer consultant. I don't care how friendly they are, even when I started shouting. Fortunately for them, they had cameras everywhere. Could have killed those assholes!<br />
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Thursday, 23.02.2011, in the back of a car<br />
I must have blacked out somehow. Guess the combination of the Manager asking me for a bank statement to get my money back after in one week's time the earliest started it. Bitch wouldn't want to offer me anything for my wasted time and money. Almost slapped her. Only could hold back by running down to the Ticket machine, cause I knew that the movie was my only hope against the voices in my head, telling me to burn everything to the ground.<br />
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Only two vague impressions I remember after that: the ticket machine, displaying the "voucher has already been redeemed"-message, and the feeling of the ground of of the gas station near the cinema against my face, where I must have been trying to steal a container of fuel, a window cloth and matches. Must have told the policeman too much about my plans. I talk too much sometimes.<br />
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Monday, 28.02.2011, prison<br />
I lost my job and my flat. And my overdraft will go to the thousands before my trial begins. John seemed to be unsure if he can make a quick visit next week. There's not even a TV in my cell. But at least they said, that they show movies usually five years after they're released. Just have to be patient.<br />
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Links:<br />
<a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/">http://www.storyofstuff.com/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77UwTx2Sou4">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tI798T2tRrQ&feature=iv&annotation_id=annotation_196109</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-35577781926014078302011-02-06T19:12:00.009+00:002011-03-08T16:00:44.250+00:00Never Let Me Go + Q&A @ Stratham East Picture House"Never let me go" is the chorus of a fictional song in Kazuo Ishiguro's dramatic sci-fi love story novel, which was recently made into a movie by director Mark Romanek, so far not so well known for music videos for bands like the Red Hot Chili peppers or R.E.M. While Mr. Ishiguro himself being the co-producer seemed to guarantee a decent conversion I anyway liked the book a lot, so when my colleague Silke offered me the chance for a ticket to watch an exclusive preview including a live broadcast Q&A featuring director and producer, I gladly joined her.<br />
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<a name='more'></a><br />
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<span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">-- WARNING for people who did not read the book and watch the film yet and want to do so: May contain huge traces of spoilers!!! You've been warned. ---</span><br />
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Being a speaking title, "Never let me go" sets the theme for the story, which is the same in film and book: In a slightly alternative post-WWII reality, the world did not see the rise of nuclear weapons and the following cold war, but the discovery of advanced genetics and cloning technology, which allowed mankind to overcome serious illnesses such as cancer and develop an ever-increasing life expectancy. The price for this utopian society however is payed by clones, named "donors", who "complete" (die) young after they were used as organ sources.<br />
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Being based on the same story, the film deviates from its novel source, without doing injustice to the general idea. The focus is much more laid on the three main characters, Kathy, Tommy and Ruth, who spend their young life at Hailsham, a remote schoolhouse, which was established by a group of idealists to provide the future donors with a better life for a change and to prove to society that the clones more than soulless slaughter cattle, a rather futile attempt as we learn later on. During their years as pupils, the three befriend and, growing up to young adults, they get into a complicated triangle of love and friendship. Theire relationship is focused on in a larger scale than in the book. Still, thanks to an outstanding performance of all three actors, the figures individually obtain a noticeable depth, much more elaborate than the author himself could imagine them when writing the novel, as Ishiguro stated himself in the Q&A.<br />
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The theme of the book being how people struggle to live in spite of all obstacles, thus a metaphor for the idea of life in general, the movie lays emphasis on the different views and approaches of the three figures to their difficult situation. Ruth is presented craftfully by Keira Knightley as a deeply insecure sceptic beside all her superficial confidence, always in doubt and trying to find strength in copying role models, in contrast to Tommy (Andrew Garfield is the only actor who did not match my imagination of the character well as he was not "Wayne Rooney" enough, as Ishiguro stated as well, but still did a great job) who in his naivety can't accept the injustice of his life and only comes to accept the inevitably of his early death through the love of Kathy, a thoughtful but realistic and pragmatic soul, whose approach to make the best of her life as good as she can (Excellently incorporated by Carey Mulligan - In some shots she even reminded me a bit of Audrey Tatou).<br />
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In the final stage of the movie the latest, when you see the characters going through their "donations" and eventually "complete" one after another, it is obvious that the moving pictures were painted with a darker palette, compared to their literal source. The easyness of the characters lives is always clouded by electronic check-in / check-out surveillance (such a obvious reason for the characters inability to escape their fate was never mentioned in the novel), and medical examinations at school or the "donations" and their effect on humans are shown much more explicitly. Also, the early disclosure of the children's destiny as donors (to them and the viewers) shifts the atmosphere a bit more towards bleakness than the book did, which concentrated a lot more on their somehow "paradisiac" unaware childhood.<br />
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Having said this, the makers of the film certainly succeeded in pointing up Ishiguro's positive idea of mankind. The author said for himself that he is confident the movie shows well his idea that love, friendship and shared memories get acknowledged at the end of life, independent of all sufferings. And indeed, like the book, it's a fantastic but credible metaphor for the universal struggle of humankind to give their life sense, and defends quite powerfully the idea, that even if a chance to get a"deferral" for death (the donor's parallel to "our" beliefs in an afterlife, as stated in the Q&A) seems to be unlikely, it is still possible to live (and die) in dignity.<br />
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All in all, the crew did a great job and developed highly captivating storytelling which reflects the marvellous ideas of the novel well, although it was of course inevitable to change some scenes or leave them out in the first place (only the quite deviating imagination of Kathy's pillow-dancing scene still troubles me a bit, as in its negligibility it failed to occupy the key role it did for me in the book). "Never let me go" is a enlightening, moving and highly enjoyable experience, and although reading the novel is not necessary for understanding the action, I would definitely recommend to do so, as it applies a different focus on some things and gives a lot more background information.<br />
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The movie will be released on February 11th in Britain and hopefully all over Europe later this year. And if you have the slightest interest in philosophy, down-to-earth sci-fi or even only great cinematic storytelling, go watch it, and I promise you you won't regret it!<br />
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"Never Let Me Go" on the IMDB: <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/">http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1334260/</a><br />
Picture house cinema, where I watched the preview: <a href="http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/">http://www.picturehouses.co.uk/cinema/</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEt2bTFtjeFZjaaAxJEgT9XZsOSvxhdcUCTHUyGi1dk2qFHWqdQgaiyXk2apa9T85rtQA5agBUX-o5pSiOZqm_IoP_kzUSmoxI4_WUQq_lYMZocE9eJJqrJHKsYm3slVH5b-_bnpQqQHt-/s1600/podium.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570692666837292978" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEt2bTFtjeFZjaaAxJEgT9XZsOSvxhdcUCTHUyGi1dk2qFHWqdQgaiyXk2apa9T85rtQA5agBUX-o5pSiOZqm_IoP_kzUSmoxI4_WUQq_lYMZocE9eJJqrJHKsYm3slVH5b-_bnpQqQHt-/s320/podium.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2SPCgbk1dtBBkzEA8648BNfznjUtvaEmYukv3sBTyOpRBOYtkCwRniHBlGoc8kDH0jtQEeSsGmvYOuzeR02ZzS59aNy4Wmk-77vZVmwlzbMr3VnQXF3RmV244prGZZkQjYsmYaLc4CLV8/s1600/Ishiguro+Romanek.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570692672338293682" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2SPCgbk1dtBBkzEA8648BNfznjUtvaEmYukv3sBTyOpRBOYtkCwRniHBlGoc8kDH0jtQEeSsGmvYOuzeR02ZzS59aNy4Wmk-77vZVmwlzbMr3VnQXF3RmV244prGZZkQjYsmYaLc4CLV8/s320/Ishiguro+Romanek.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykIZ_Z13mo_SREZsQfMqmyFRw264R_3cugfisjVA9xjbvha2bbzhwB1rY_VC81np1_quRKzw0Npo9xc70HuWOu5LsQOiqssfyXkDw4scsd_xzqCUZF_mH39gyEFScOIH6HaTUK2l82srW/s1600/ishiguro.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570692677769180738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhykIZ_Z13mo_SREZsQfMqmyFRw264R_3cugfisjVA9xjbvha2bbzhwB1rY_VC81np1_quRKzw0Npo9xc70HuWOu5LsQOiqssfyXkDw4scsd_xzqCUZF_mH39gyEFScOIH6HaTUK2l82srW/s320/ishiguro.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 240px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 320px;" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-76066460011215252852011-02-05T16:36:00.021+00:002011-02-12T23:07:52.717+00:00Cemetary walk (Chelsea)Went for a walk where old time sleeps<br />holding its breath beside lively streets<br /><br />venturing birds over tinny clouds<br />preying for red between the rows<br />humble greetings with a running nose<br />dark dressed folk enjoy feeding crows.<br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr637aHwLC2Vs2ic151ZDOftYM6tdMQ_za9lT-jNvphpzuQhzOF-HcY2vOt-gn6_TuVV59TfgpobfQuJCMnLTVVKVvFRZFaqRse_aMA_T35bqNax2GHXGeQ0MBS3QFg3N3Z6DJNt22XKg5/s1600/Photo0073.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr637aHwLC2Vs2ic151ZDOftYM6tdMQ_za9lT-jNvphpzuQhzOF-HcY2vOt-gn6_TuVV59TfgpobfQuJCMnLTVVKVvFRZFaqRse_aMA_T35bqNax2GHXGeQ0MBS3QFg3N3Z6DJNt22XKg5/s200/Photo0073.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570356040667968450" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3vL_EJICd9rjHHLEZT16Zd3PfITZeEcmsW3yp01heoBWUeRUz0TrooSfGeOWm5JqzhMWGCtTKngx9D8dBtDMX1H_41_QIYrn7b-LqssGePWLPF1Xtlsb86h_wawzgtbx7eQWV37tURxl/s1600/Photo0082.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ3vL_EJICd9rjHHLEZT16Zd3PfITZeEcmsW3yp01heoBWUeRUz0TrooSfGeOWm5JqzhMWGCtTKngx9D8dBtDMX1H_41_QIYrn7b-LqssGePWLPF1Xtlsb86h_wawzgtbx7eQWV37tURxl/s200/Photo0082.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570346664903449010" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpD_gTuCK0ZKwJlZPFfWHJxcTgvuoY9DQdF5hr06SuwE7TQ-hi116GtkictYMM5dyIJP8XUrPEuxMm4UXchCcF0a6RBMv4BQzb_AJkDki1UBXLkhQvKLKQ0ulPjFvAYCD1Id0EG-kdECi/s1600/Photo0081.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLpD_gTuCK0ZKwJlZPFfWHJxcTgvuoY9DQdF5hr06SuwE7TQ-hi116GtkictYMM5dyIJP8XUrPEuxMm4UXchCcF0a6RBMv4BQzb_AJkDki1UBXLkhQvKLKQ0ulPjFvAYCD1Id0EG-kdECi/s200/Photo0081.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570346659772369122" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1pb7TJ8qTECBB1JUcun0TSPo3eu4FefNShEi_CuDgbB2fOOEqSc2uLL3yBy1HGdP9tevYxx0ZXx2M_KzeWKwBF2zNSNGym1D70KkcV2fFDrXkKfbhTb3To6dyqPpWV2-ouY_V3b-cmyM/s1600/Photo0076.jpg"><img style="float: left; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgw1pb7TJ8qTECBB1JUcun0TSPo3eu4FefNShEi_CuDgbB2fOOEqSc2uLL3yBy1HGdP9tevYxx0ZXx2M_KzeWKwBF2zNSNGym1D70KkcV2fFDrXkKfbhTb3To6dyqPpWV2-ouY_V3b-cmyM/s200/Photo0076.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570355549473952370" border="0" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0FxnWAMFXiTbp-X4H8VCFVaQvb7Ax2L1GpwOUWOnWDQvpGBWcuadLY4OEndV3ZJzDGjvKlRMNWZXHH7x_8yEWjO3HY3XM6Os2sBizM9oQXnMnX_CL9TljXr-vryUgaSfggsx-XjDN6dJ/s1600/Photo0083.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhM0FxnWAMFXiTbp-X4H8VCFVaQvb7Ax2L1GpwOUWOnWDQvpGBWcuadLY4OEndV3ZJzDGjvKlRMNWZXHH7x_8yEWjO3HY3XM6Os2sBizM9oQXnMnX_CL9TljXr-vryUgaSfggsx-XjDN6dJ/s200/Photo0083.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570356043675347682" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiog44KxGkoA_yNp_7RJiRygMznAsbTAoSOMB4RhoG8ss8ZtB7p9o-yYxdFL-T2qkwy77gOrPrpbGv1-mqrsrtNiSXB6nSxg4nklNEtlm-TN985K6GziLp3qsxdh4OxT0RWK3X83fCY65Nh/s1600/Photo0084.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiog44KxGkoA_yNp_7RJiRygMznAsbTAoSOMB4RhoG8ss8ZtB7p9o-yYxdFL-T2qkwy77gOrPrpbGv1-mqrsrtNiSXB6nSxg4nklNEtlm-TN985K6GziLp3qsxdh4OxT0RWK3X83fCY65Nh/s200/Photo0084.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570346670539561970" border="0" /></a></div> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuWjHURVQ6tYjrwOqg3s-swmyn4Myy-2kS16lVjHUzN4yKAUSYdvXkELX2qXtCjwvsuY-Vap0XoPaDfWNt7D3Ft-UeL26icSLC6SS8GiUgIr-2_zyByBui9O5mpVB_48_UQiqzK9Mpymv/s1600/Photo0070.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 150px; height: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcuWjHURVQ6tYjrwOqg3s-swmyn4Myy-2kS16lVjHUzN4yKAUSYdvXkELX2qXtCjwvsuY-Vap0XoPaDfWNt7D3Ft-UeL26icSLC6SS8GiUgIr-2_zyByBui9O5mpVB_48_UQiqzK9Mpymv/s200/Photo0070.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5570349337338789170" border="0" /></a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-20755837370718772722011-02-04T09:26:00.012+00:002011-02-04T22:09:03.174+00:00Double day of departure (sadly / hopefully): Carine's Farewell at Ask Restaurant, The Cask, Marquis pubs (Pimlico)While the people of egypt are still hoping to overcome their opressive regime on this "day of departure" as it has been called, another day of farewell has come for me and my friends at work, albeit on a way smaller world-politic scale ;) Carine, one of my French collegues, is leaving for a great new job to Amsterdam this weekend, so we arranged a "dinner plus pub" evening yesterday to say goodbye appropriately.<br /><br />We first went to an Italian chain restaurant, called "Ask" near Victoria. Thanks to a voucher Carine got from the Internet, we could get the half of the main dishes for free, which was perfect value for money, as my wine and calzone tasted well, but the amount would have been a bit mingy for the full price (and the food was arranged like a face, which I really hated :D). As the service was quite slow as well, I would not recommend the place, although waiters were friendly. But we still enjoyed our time a lot, and also Eric, whom we hadn't seen for one month, took time from flathunting with his wife to be there and there was also another new face, Gilles girlfriend Haruna, still a bit jet-lagged having just arrived a day ago from Washington D.C., where she studied.<br /><br />So we took our time to "synchronize" and getting to know each other and of course presented Carine her farewell-present, a mug with some carefully selected and skillfully arranged portraits of important game industry representants on it (yes, that means Aurelie, Gilles and me, so she always remembers our beautiful faces between our visits in Amsterdam). We had a great time, so great we ended up as the only ones left and as eventually the waiters started to put up the chairs and "closing time" started to play we decided to grant the staff their evening rest.<br /><br />Although it was around 11-ish by now, nobody really wanted to go home, so the map with the pubs of the area I printed out before came in handy. My favorite option was "The Cask", a smaller pub a bit off from the big tourist venues around Victoria station. Although a bit inconsiderable from the outside the interior did not let my expectations down. It had a nice atmosphere: a small room, not too bright light, felt very familial but still not to shabby, with cosy pillow-covered benches. The "menu" featured a selection of ales as well as the usual beer selection and as a special a range of Belgian and German beers. Just when I already had sat down and got ready to order my first ale, I discovered that there was only one problem about the place at this time: it had already had its last round.<br /><br />Allthough there is no standard curfew in England anymore, still every pub which wants to serve alcohol has to buy a licence to do so. Up to that point, it's the same I knew from Germany (which is the reason why in German kiosks you're often not allowed to drink the beer you purchased there, but that only by the way). But to make things more complicated, in Britain there are different kinds of licences which enable pubs to serve alcohol until different hours - the more you pay the longer you serve. And as especially at small and local pubs the drinking crowd tends to go home early, an expensive licence often does not make any sense for them. So at those places last rounds tend to be served early, which is indicated by the typical bell ringing, followed by hectical business at the bar. Which is just what had happened at "The Cask", some time before we arrived.<br /><br />So, wanting or not to, I waived goodbye to that warm place, not without promising to myself to come back some time for an earlier evening drink, and started to look out for alternatives. Fortunately the locals were happy to help, so in no time we found another pub in a side street which was by far not that great but at least left us time for one beer (les dames and Eric) / ale (me) / teeth-pulling sweet leechee liqueur with lemonade (Gilles). It was called something like "Marquis of ..." but I would not recommend it anyway, although having the local drunks suspiciously gazing upon us clear "outsiders" had its appeal :D<br /><br />At twelve o'clock, with heavy hearts, we managed to say goodbye to Eric and Carine and embarked on our long journey to the Southwest, which for me should only end at half past one in my bed. How great that my alarm was only ringing at 7am this morning! Still, the evening was an adequate farewell to Carine and worth the tiredness I felt the whole day.<br /><br />Ask Italian restaurant chain: <a href="http://askrestaurants.com/">http://www.askrestaurants.com/</a><br />The Cask Pub and kitchen, Pimlico: <a href="http://caskpubandkitchen.com/">http://www.caskpubandkitchen.com/</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-81311682558925858572011-01-16T19:42:00.010+00:002011-01-16T23:15:36.189+00:00Comment-Bots an der Minarettfront - Gedanken über die Möglichkeiten des WWW, wie sie mißbraucht werden und was man dagegen tun kannHeute will ich in diesem Blog den ersten Eintrag auf Deutsch schreiben, es fällt mir beim Thema, über das ich schreiben will leichter, meine Gedanken in klare Bahnen zu lenken, wenn ich in meiner Muttersprache schreibe. Das soll aber die Ausnahme bleiben, denn ich will ja meine writing skills schulen :)<br /><br />Worum es geht: Ich möchte mich auslassen über ein Phänomen, dass mich seit langem beschäftigt und das mich kollosal stört: Wie Kommentarseiten auf den Webseiten großer Nachrichtenfirmen dazu missbraucht werden, mit Gedankenmüll die Lust auf freie Meinungsäußerung kaputt zu machen.<br /><br />Ich lese gerne online Zeitungsmeldungen und habe auch einige Newsfeeds abonniert, die mich über neueste Entwicklungen im Weltgeschehen halbwegs informiert halten. Auf dem neuesten Stand zu bleiben, ist mir wichtig und deshalb finde ich solche Möglichkeiten toll. Worüber mir allerdings regelmäßig fast das Kotzen kommt, sind die zugehörigen Kommentare. Eine Kommentarfunktion ist ja mittlerweile überall Standard (wie auch hier im Blog) und sie ist im Grunde ja auch eine prima Sache. Nutzung der möglichkeiten neuer Medien in Reinkultur möchte man meinen, ermöglicht sie doch zumindest theoretisch den Ausbruch aus dem alten medialen Sender-Empfänger-Schema. Im Grunde verwirklicht die Kommentarfunktion eine sehr wichtige demokratisch-liberale Idee: Das grundsätzlich Alle die Möglichkeit haben, sich durch Diskussion am Medienschaffen zu beteiligen.<br /><br />Und wie das eben immer so ist: Eine tolle theoretische Idee kann in der Realität schnell ganz hässliche Folgen haben. Ich will das an einem Beispiel klarmachen, durch das ich darauf gekommen bin, diesen Eintrag zu schreiben.<br />Tagesschau.de meldete heute unter der Überschrift "<a href="http://meta.tagesschau.de/id/44785/freizuegiger-tv-sultan-erhitzt-tuerkische-gemueter">Freizügiger TV-Sultan erhitzt türkische Gemüter</a>", dass es in der Türkei zu einem Protest gekommen sei, weil in einer Fernsehserie über das Osmanische Reich ein türkischer Volksheld angeblich zu freizügig dargestellt wird. Persönlich fände ich es ja grundsätzlich mal interessant, die Serie zu sehen. Über das osmanische Reich weiß ich persönlich sehr wenig und Geschichte als Fernsehserie aufzuarbeiten, war noch nie eine schlechte Idee, wenn's denn gut gemacht ist. (Hat jemand zufällig eine Idee, wo man "Das prächtige Jahrhundert" her bekommt, am besten mit Untertiteln? ;D)<br /><br />Davon abgesehen, kann man zur Fernsehserie und der Meldung meinen, was man will. Man kann sich eine Meinung darüber bilden, ob es wirklich berichtenswert ist, wenn irgendwo im Osten 40 Menschen gegen eine Fernsehsendung demonstrieren. Man kann sich darüber wundern, wie bescheuert Heldenverehrung sein kann, wenn es Menschen gibt, die es anstößig finden, wenn ein längst toter Sultan mit einem Bierkrug in der Hand gezeigt wird. Von mir aus auch darüber nachdenken, wie unterschiedlich Menschen aus verschiedenen Kulturen manchmal ticken. Alles das ist legitim, aber man muss doch nicht immer zu allem seine Meinung kundtun!<br /><br />Und hier genau liegt das Problem: Es gibt nämlich bestimmte Stichwörter, bei denen anscheinend plötzlich ganz viele Menschen ganz doll meinen, dazu ganz viel meinen zu müssen. Ich stelle mir das wie eine menschliche Bot-Armee vor, destruktive Computerprogramme aus kleinen, dunklen Räumen, die nichts anderes zu tun haben, als tagein, tagaus per Google-Suche nach Stichwörtern wie "Islam" oder "Arbeitslosigkeit" zu suchen und ständig danach streben, die Kommentarseiten mit dem ewig gleichen Gesülze unübersichtlich und unangenehm lesbar zu machen.<br /><br />Kaum kommt nämlich in einer noch so unwichtigen Meldung das Wort "Türke" vor (wie in der Tagesschau-Geschichte sogar im Titel), ist die Hetze gegen den Islam nicht fern. Die angesprochene Meldung macht da natürlich mal wieder keine Ausnahme: Da wird dann die Türkei ein "islamischer Staat" genannt, obwohl die Türkei doch eine sekuläre Republik ist, oder davon gesprochen, wie angeblich die "islamischen Kreuzzüge" bagatellisiert werden. So ist es bei vielen Themen und Stichwörtern: Statt bei der Sache zu bleiben werden dann ruckzuck wieder übliche Klischees bedient, ob gerade zum Thema passend oder nicht: Faule, korrupte Politiker, böse Einwanderer, verfallende christliche Werte. Die Welt allgemein ist ja so ein furchtbarer Ort und die Anderen grundsätzlich Schuld daran.<br /><br />So ängstlich aufgeladen verkommt die "Diskussion" so im besten Fall zu einem (pardon) ekelhaften Selbstmitleidsgewichse, was schon schlimm genug ist. Leider bleibt es dabei nicht. Von einer Fernsehserie über das Osmanische Reich in Streit darüber zu geraten, ob nun die christlichen Kreuzzüge oder die "türkischen" Plünderungen des Mittelalters schlimmer waren, oder mal wieder die alte Leier vom ja so "asiatischen Land" anzufangen ist perfide und zeigt, wie die Kommentarfunktion zur Emotionalisierung und Hetze mißbraucht wird. Dazu werden dann gerne "Fakten" aus dem Bereich des gefährlichen Halbwissens aufgefahren, gemischt mit fieser Stammtischrhetorik aus der untersten Schublade. Nach Herzenslust kommt eine Scheißmentalität nach dem Motto "das wird man ja noch sagen können" zum Ausdruck, und traut sich irgendwer anderes, eine wirkliche Meinung zu vertreten, kommen Kampfbegriffe wie "Zensur" oder "politische Korrektheit" zum Einsatz und erschlagen ganz fix jede Widerrede bis auch der letzte geltungssüchtige Ängstling sich an seiner standfesten Meinung aufgegeilt hat. Nachvollziehbar ist das selten, fundiert umso weniger, und eigentlich nie in einem sachlichen Ton geschrieben. Eine Kultur der Meinungsfreiheit, die die Kommentatoren so lautstark einfordern, wird von ihnen selbst kräftig untergraben.<br /><br />Angesichts dieser unappetitlichen Diskussionszerstörung ist mir bisher noch jedes Mal der Apetit auf mein Recht zur Meinungsäußerung in dieser Form vergangen. Ich muss zugeben, dass ich noch nie Themen auf großen Nachrichtenseiten kommentiert habe, selbst dann nicht, wenn es Berichte waren, die mich bewegt oder aufgerüttelt haben, Themen an denen ich interessiert war und zu denen ich eventuell etwas beizutragen hätte. Ich ärgere mich darüber, dass es die Ekel-Bots geschafft haben, mir jegliche Freude an meinem (Grund-!) Recht zur freien Meinungsäußerung nehmen. Angesichts des kolossal ungleichen Verhältnisses von Müll zu Brauchbarem, das man leider überall vorfindet wo man sich Kommentarseiten anschaut, kann es nicht nur mir so gehen.<br /><br />Gerade hier schleicht sich ein Gedanke ein: Könnte nicht das, was mich von diesen ganzen Feinden der wirklichen Meinungsfreiheit unterscheidet, sein, dass ich mir von diesen Miesepetern eben nicht meine Lust am sachlichen, kontroversen und konstruktiven Diskutieren versauen lasse? Wenn ich dafür nicht genügend Energie habe und ihnen das Feld überlasse, kann ich mich ja auch eigentlich nicht beschweren, denn dann würde ich mich ja auch aufs Schmollen zurückziehen und wäre nicht besser als die, die ich hier angreife. Warum es also nicht besser machen und bei mir selbst anfangen? Wer weiß, vielleicht schreibe ich ja demnächst mal etwas im Kommentarbereich bei zeit.de oder tagesschau.de und schaue mal, wie es sich so anfühlt. Wenn es gut läuft, werde ich dann vielleicht öfter mal versuchen, meine Meinung in großen Nachrichtenportalen zu vertreten und zu einer besseren Diskussionskultur beizutragen, einen Versuch ist es ja allemal wert.<br /><br />Zu der Meldung um den türkischen Fernsehprotest werde ich mich allerdings schön bedeckt halten, dazu wird das tagesschau.de-Forum wohl keinen Kommentar von mir erleben. Diese unwichtige Randnotiz hat mir auch so schon viel zuviel Zeit gestohlen :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-15259214364445854272011-01-13T15:06:00.001+00:002011-01-14T21:54:16.368+00:00London Bridge pub crawl and short film festival"Lose the winter blues with 10 days of noise and pictures" - the motto of the London short film festival instantly attracted my attention when Stefan sent me the link last week.<br /><br />The last film festival I attended was some years ago, so I thought it couldn't hurt to go for the shorts again. The festival offers many different themed evenings on different themes, but we agreed on watching the documentary special, which took place on Tuesday. It was divided in two parts, the first one being an international special, the second one Britain-centred and from a more "personal perspective", what ever that was supposed to mean for a documentary. In spite of watching both with a total runtime of 200 minutes we chose to get tickets for the second part only and go for a pint first.<br /><br />Of course, it didn't remain one. It's really impressive how many nice pubs there are to be found in this city and London Bridge area is of course no exception from this. We first stayed in a small one which was quite full already at six o'clock, so we only got bar stools. The good thing about it was however, that they were located right in front of the open fireplace, so we could take a look at the flames and warm ourselves while talking and of drinking ale. The second one was a bit bigger, brighter and stylisher and I forgot the name, although it had a very particular atmosphere, although a bit posh maybe. There was a staircase leading up to a gallery where you could sit and and take a sip, what we did.<br /><br />So was there something more I wanted to write about? Ah, yes. The film festival! It took place in another nice venue, a small pub with two areas divided by a heavy brocade curtain. On the one side there was the "bar" area, on the other side the cinema, where the movies were shown.<br /><br />The short films differed a bit in greatness, although most were quite good. The start was a bit unlucky with a 20-min-feature about people who restore old boats, but after that it got better with a non-documentary (some scenes were actually played by actors) which evolved around family members of prisoners. Another one told the stories of "good souls" in a poor area. The rest were about a woman who was into extreme sports and held her own wake before she was actually dead and two documentaries about buildings, one of which showed different personal viewpoints on a concrete "brutalist" living complex to be demolished soon. The other one an withered ruin on the Scottish coast which is used as a sort of gallery by a group of artists.<br /><br />All in all, most movies were interesting and well-produced, although some did not earn the name "short movie" really. However, for the entry of 5 GBP it was a fun night and I'm thinking of visiting the ending celebrations on Sunday for another round of short movie pleasure :)<br /><br />Links:<br />Shorts festival <a href="http://2011.shortfilms.org.uk/">http://2011.shortfilms.org.uk/</a><br />The pub with the fireplace ;) <a href="http://www.lordclyde.com/index.php">http://www.lordclyde.com/index.php</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-1767299572812813082011-01-09T12:05:00.002+00:002011-03-08T10:08:34.303+00:00A cold day in the sun (Visiting Greenwich Village)Last Sunday has been one of these precious, very rare days when the usual London atmosphere of fog and clouds lifted for once and the sun came out.Reason enough for me to spend the day outside and in the green. Considering I quite know Wimbledon Common by now and made the resolution to get to know more of London than the southwest, I decided to go and explore.<br />
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The target was soon to be found: I already heard that Greenwich is a nice place, one of those various skyscraper-free suburbs / satelite towns with one of London's rare parks, where you can actually find some trees. Not to mention of course the planetarium at the "place where time and space start", the zero meridian.<br />
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Luckily, I could convince Gilles to join me, so we embarked from Embankment, literally, because we took the ferry across the thames to go to Greenwich. Sitting on the outer deck, with the cloudless sky above and the river's spray in our faces we drove along the London Eye, the city center, Canary Wharf and got some new viewpoints of the city. I think you can tell how much we enjoyed this from the pictures (those I'll upload later :D).<br />
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Having arrived in Greenwich, we went on a walk though the city first, quite nice, although it was of course crammed on a sunday. Still a quite urban area, with its small streets and old houses, with all the buzz going on and a marketplace right in the middle. Clearly a place for topurists and those with a better income. We also found a record- and a boardgame store, where we returned to later, because first we wanted to enjoy the sun where you can do that best, in the park.<br />
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So we got ourselves some coffee and went up through the well-kept park to the planetarium, which thrones on a hill, overlooking the city from the southeast. Quite a view from up there! We enriched it with the sandwiches we got "downstairs". The planetarium looked interesting and featured some special exhibitions, but of course was not free and on top of that: we would had to have gone inside. So no way! ;) Anyhow I set my mobile clock to official GMT manually (convenient enough for me) with help of the 24-h-clock and we walked on and saw the rest of the park, before we returned to the town to check out the boardgame and record stores.<br />
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The game store was the first one I've ever seen around here specialised in boardgames and didn't even have a very big selection (saw "Pandemic", "Settlers" of course, but no Dixit!). Funnily, the "Spiel des Jahres" (German game of the year-award)-Logo is used on British game boxes as well, without translation, seems to be quite famous. There was also a huge Carom-Table (Indian dexterity boardgame, I'd describe it as pool with checkers-tokens on a wooden board). I played only once in Germany, it was fun and required quite some skill. Anyways the players seemed to be way too absorbed, otherwise I'd have liked to give it another try.<br />
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The record store had a large selection of metal / rock / punk - vinyls, which meens "wow but useless" to me, lacking a record player and much money anyways. Still there were some nice CDs and I enjoyed flicking through the selection.<br />
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After that Gilles wanted to go home, so we took the train and after a small detour to the center (I can never resist taking photos of the city at night) I spend an easy evening. All in all a great day. I hope it won't be the last "Sun"day which lived up to its name in the near future!Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-82287235177274513722010-10-31T11:49:00.000+00:002010-11-01T19:10:53.100+00:00Geil. Danke!Met my friends for dinner at Super Mario's Restaurant<br />Took them back home on a date with Mr. Jack<br />Zombies on the last train to Cockfosters<br />Helped to shut a Camden Club<br />Lost my mind on the bus back home<br />long since I fell asleep with the morning sun.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-38484182987728650752010-10-15T10:20:00.000+01:002010-10-15T13:56:29.043+01:00Comments enabled for unregistered usersDue to standard options, the commentary function has so far been disabled for unregistered users. I changed the function so anyone can post comments now.<br /><br />BTW Just listened to the old <span style="font-weight: bold;">Command & Conquer</span> soundtrack. Felt like "good old times". Amazing! :)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2501085535454228720.post-26790936205698246792010-10-14T09:02:00.001+01:002010-10-14T14:47:02.975+01:00The Social Network - Review<span style="font-style: italic;">The Social Network</span> is a mixture of teenie-movie and court-thriller which could change our view of the modern internet. Even though some actors stick out and the composition of pictures and music is amazingly well carried out, the story lacks the remarkability for a two-hour movie.<br /><br />The film tells the story of facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, a person as peculiar as intelligent, marvellously enacted by Jesse Eisenberg. The character of Zuckerberg is well reflected from the first scenes onward, where viewers experience how the college student acquired a reputation for his programming skills when he - just ditched by his ex-girlfriend (Rooney Mara) - codes a page which allowed the judgement of female undergraduate students from different universities for their outer appearance, which is achieved facebook-style by writing an automated script to accumulate profile pics from university web pages.<br />The site is a big success, generating in just one night such a high number of web traffic that the network hub to which the site server is connected has to be shut down by university network security. Due to his following suspension and growing publicity, Eisenberg is approached by fraternity whippersnappers Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss (Armie Hammer in a double role) who search for a programmer to realize their idea of an exclusive virtual network for elitary harvard university students, so they can get laid more easily. Zuckerberg falls for the appeal of the idea, realizing it with his own team and the rest is internet history.<br /><br />While this story could have been told on merely one-page of script, the film develops the action in a two-hour mixture of a court thriller and teenie movie. Fraternity integration rituals take turns with conference room scenes where you experience whise guy character Zuckerberg disgracing his former fellows in their pre-court-meetings. Only a few scenes are really intrieguing, mostly notable the one in a club, where you - in Zuckerberg's first person perspective- get actually yourself tempted by the megalomaniac business model presented by co-founder of napster Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake, who seems to play himself most of the time). The craftfulness of this passage is really impressing, being superiorily arranged both in perspectives and composition of dialogue and musical background (awesome score by former Nine Inch Nails-head Trent Reznor in general, but here it is another song, Sound of Violence by Dennis de Laat).<br />The other outstanding scene is the encounter of the newly rich and popular entrepreneur Zuckerberg with his ex-girlfriend who in a gorgeous dialogue shows him quite insistently that even being facebook-millionaire does not make you king of the world (I heard that Rooney Mara may be nominated for an academy award as best supporting actress, which would be no overstatement at all, concerning her performance in this scene).<br /><br />Except from that, the storytelling mostly stays neither exiting nor boring but unremarkable, exept from one really annoying aspect, the sex-seperated picture of women and men, being either sex-symbols running around in hotpants after a one-night stands / dumb / drug addicted (women) or business apt, computer genius megalomaniacs driven by their urge for sex / money (men). The film definetily got its lenghts and fails in its attempt to transport dramatic in most scenes, the characters not being sympathic at all in their motives. On the one hand, I really appreciated the effort taken for not making it easy for the viewer to take sides or come to easy conclusions about who's right or wrong (except for Zuckerberg's only friends, ex-GF Monica Albright and ex-CFO Olsen, who get away quite well), on the other hand the archieved originality is also a disadvantage because it uncovers the unremarkability of the original events and the persons involved and so despite its superior way of storytelling the film fails to absorb.<br /><br />Overall, the movie is a good image of our time, where the inspiration and ideals of the community of internet pioneers exploring digital possibilities of expression and creativity get more and more replaced by the greed and sex-drive of selfmade millionaire business men. In its ideas, its gorgeous technique and it's way of fluffing a small story up to something big the movie occured to me as a reflection of the "Web 2.0" and the changes it brings about on our society and view of the world. Although I still ask myself if the story of Zuckerberg himself was worth telling it in a full-featured hollywood movie, I got the feeling the film might contribute to a consciousness of responsible use of new communication technology if seen in a media (-business) critic perspective, which is a quite unusual effect despite all the popcorn-movie-aspects.<br /><br />It might be a small hope, but I hope that people will discover this "greater" idea of the movie and appreciate this underlying effect more than the unremarkable story itself.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1