Mono - "Mopish Morning, Halation Wiper" (One more stpe and then you die)

Must've listened to them before but can't remember. Instrumental, near soundscapish, not really ambient, but slow and... amazing.

Ok, true, I did blog this just for the sheer title. Blame me!

(Also, the rest of the album is just as great. Good writing background music. Also also, the near off-key synth tones are amazing.)

Parataxis

Parataxis is a literary technique, in writing or speaking, that favors short, simple sentences, with the use of coordinating rather than subordinating conjunctions[1] (from Greek for 'act of placing side by side'; from para, beside + tassein, to arrange; contrasted to syntaxis or hypotaxis).[2] It is also used to describe a technique in poetry in which two images or fragments, usually starkly dissimilar images or fragments, are juxtaposed without a clear connection. Readers are then left to make their own connections implied by the paratactic syntax. Ezra Pound, in his adaptation of Chinese and Japanese poetry, made the stark juxtaposition of images an important part of English language poetry.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parataxis

Hodejegerne (Headhunters) (2011)

Entertaining Norwegian action thriller of a story by the famous Jo Nesbø.

Nothing extremely fancy, but well done.

One scene made me wonder why the heck Dutch acting often looks so bad. Does this look as bad to Norwegians as Dutch acting does to us? Hard to say. (To make myself absolutely clear: the acting in this film *was* good, hence I wondered.)

Synecdoche, New York

Wonderful film. The usual Kaufman themes are there - uncertainty, death - but the theatre that becomes a stage for New York with actors for real people...

It's such a simple concept, and I loved it. A film well worth watching a couple of times.

Haruki Murakami - "Norwegian Wood"

Ok, no magic realism! To be honest, yes, I had expected that. No, I had not read anything about it first. Why would I?

But the story was written wonderfully, and it did grow on me. The struggle in the book, chosing between Midori and Naoko, doesn't start until the last quarter of the book or so, which makes it a kind of silly spoiler.

The beauty of his writing is in the soft, undemanding poetic way he describes everything, including the distant character of the protagonist. You cannot feel angry at the guy for the distance he keeps between himself and the world. It is an utterly natural thing for him, and as such, makes you wonder about your own compulsions.

Nick Cave - "The Flesh Made Word"

You could call it the B-Side of his "Love Song" lecture.

A wonderful listen of how Nick Cave relates to the Bible, the word of God.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3p_gzuLaVM