Nitin Sawhney - "Philtre" (album)

Dark, though not gloomy, slow triphop (sliphop?), interlaced with fragmented ambient sounds. Subdued.

The following list is not complete

• "Everything" got me immediatly interested
• female voice on "Spark" is slightly eerie
• "Dead Man", more hiphop, with oriental influences. Not particularly good
• "Mausam", even more Indian-sounding, not really my thing
• "Journey", starts jazzy, reminds a bit of Seal, but the close-harmony later on is a bit too boybandish
• "Koyal (Songbird)" start slow, melancholy. Oriental voice and words again. A gem.
• "Noches en Vela (pt1 & pt2)", starts slowing, builds up to a fast South American rhythm. 
• "Throw", standard
• "Swing set", bit too hyper

Moon (2009)

A moodpiece. Lonely man on the moon, fulfilling a 3 year contract, suddenly finds his own clone.. and realises he himself is a clone.

It can't be helped that there are strong reminders of "Do Androids Dream Of Electronic Sheep?" and the like. Is man more than the sum of his memories? This film does not provide an answer. One could argue that, since one of the clones manages to destroy the blocking antennae and escape in a pod to Earth, he is.

But he merely responds to new information, so one could argue that, still, man is nothing more, but.

Music: Clint Mansell. Obviously, it was perfect. Kevin Spacey as the robot. Good voice.

I realised you need reoccurring scenes to establish routine first, only to show something is different later.

To me, the film wasn't too much about existentialism, though there are definitely anchors and pointers to fire up a discussion, it was a classical moodpiece with unity of time, place and character.

A film to ponder about when you walk out of the cinema, to relish its feeling, its mood.

Roger Whittaker - "I don't believe in if anymore"

This song got stuck in my head more than a few days ago. In one of those lucky circumstances that never happens when one wished they did, the song played in a pub in which I was having too many beers after a 16km walk (without food).

Later, fuelled by Fry's fantastic "The Ode Less Travelled" I even imagined for a little while that it was an answer to Rudyard Kipling's poem "If". It isn't, of course. (I say this with the dedain of someone who just looked up the actual lyrics: I've always thought he said "fool" where it is actually "foe"). But a small part of my mind still wishes it was. 

But nevermind that. It was, is, and will ever be a wonderful song full of grasping, wishing, fearing. 

Dollhouse s01e13 / s02e01

Still an intriguing series. Am thoroughly happy that it seems to continue. After all, wasn't there some talk after s01e12 about this series "doing a Firefly"?

Fortunately, not.

s01e13 was described to me as "chaotic, not really having to do anything with the storyline". I completely disagree and would almost refer to Irving, who, in my opinion, is still master of "telling what will happen long before it does, yet keeping you glued to your seat" (think "A Prayer For Owen Meany"). This episode - is it really the unaired pilot? - draws you to the inevitable conclusion. Mankind will destroy itself with this knowledge. And you want to know how. And you want to know how the few are gonna escape. Because they are the good, so they must live, right?

I have enough faith in Joss Whedon to trust him to make the right decision. After all, his characters are merely imprints with which we love to identify.

s02e01 is a fairly common episode, but it continues the thread of psycho Echo, starting to remember.

All in all, Dollhouse keeps messing with facts you take for certain; the mind, the "me". A body is downgraded to a mere vessel, a mind is constructed from a harddrive. The horror in the eyes of creater Topher as he realised, it was me who unlocked the secret of how to turn millions into drones. How brilliant. How horrible.

Children with matches. Yet we are fireflies. Always drawn to the fire, no matter how destructive.

Clint Mansell - "The Quiet American OST"

There are two words scribbled in my notebook and I have no idea what they say.

The third, though, I can decipher: "ok".

I listened to this right after his "World Trade Center OST" and remember it was much better. More Mansellish?

Clint Mansell - "Word Trade Center OST"

not very interesting.

Sarah Waters - "Little Stranger"

Bought just because it's her latest book. It took me quite some time to get through it. Two months, it seemed.

She's very good at describing moods by describing physical buildings, details, people. Perhaps sometimes a bit too much.

The struggles of the main character are well-written, but all in all it all takes a bit too long. Not enough pace?

Her alternating use of the main character's POV and an all-knowing writer's eye was a bit strange when you look for it, but it didn't hurt the story. One could easily read through it without noticing it.

All in all, ok. But I probably won't reread it.