She and Him - "Volume One"

Zooey Deschanel and someone else.

Not bad, yet nothing special. No spark. Bit 60-ish at times. It goes on and on without irritating you, yet without grasping you at the throat.

Or the balls.

J. Slauerhoff - "In Mijn Leven..."

In mijn leven, steeds uiteengerukt
Door de vlagen waar 'k aan blootsta,
Daar 'k niet kan hectehn aan liefde en geluk
Die mij zullen drijven tot ik doodga,
Ontstaan soms plotsling enkle plekken
Van een stilte zoo onaangedaan,
Dat ik geloof in slaap te zijn gekomen
Bij de diepten waar geen onderstroomen
Meer door 't eeuwig stilstaand water gaan.

The Osmonds - "Crazy Horses"

Crazy Horses (waaaaah! waaaaaaah!)
Crazy Horses (waaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!)

Wonderful! Seen at "Wintertijd" with Def. P

Paul Auster - "The book of illusions"

A wonderful book, but I will not be able to say many useful things about it.

I have been reading it on and off, and almost only when I wanted to relax.

In any case, I am not very good at dissecting the story, characters, motives, structures, &etc.

It is about loss. Chance and loss. About finding a new goal, a new purpose again, about more chance, another love, and more loss.

About films that nobody has seen and books no-one can ever read.

A good book to reread in a couple of years.

Theo van Gogh in gesprek met Maarten van Rossum

"en nu je toch het woord 'druilerig' in de mond neemt, ik ben van mening dat het Nederlandse klimaat het mooiste klimaat ter wereld is. Wist je dat het maar 6% van de tijd regent?"

"Ondanks dat er nog geen wetenschappelijke verklaring voor is, zit er één paragraaf in een sigaret."

Grinderman - "Lazarus Dig Yourself"

More than once, iPod shuffle creates a horrible mix. Besides that, it seems incredibly non-random in its randomness (yes, I am aware of the fact that 1.2.3.4.5.6... can be randomly generated)

But today was a Good Shuffle Day.
And "Lazarus Dig Yourself" came by, and all was well.

But Larry grew increasing neurotic and obscene
I mean, he, he never asked to be raised up from the tomb
I mean, no one ever actually asked him to forsake his dreams

Jim Jarmusch' "Dead Man" (1995)

Wonderful film. Black & white. Johnny Depp. Neil Young.

Mystique. Travelling. Becoming someone else. An Indian as companion, but is he real? Other people see him.

Do you have tobacco?

Need to interpret this further

Choir of the King's Consort - J.S. Bach - "Matthëus Passion"

Shivers. Impressive.

It's long, but I wasn't bored for a moment.

The "30 pieces of silver" story-idea popped up around three-quarters.

Andrew Lloyd Webber - "Jesus Christ Superstar"

Forever a classic for me.

The endshot of the film, the bus leaving with the actors, is fixed in my mind.

Per qualche dollaro in più (1965) ("For A Few Dollars More")

Nothing to add. Love it. Loved it. Will forever love it.

Tom McRae live @ Melkweg, Amsterdam

Liked him, didn't I.

It's been too long.

The music is gone, the mind is failing. The love fleeing.

Scarlet Thomas - "Popco"

Just like "The End of Mr. Y", this story grabs you along for a fun and wonderful ride. Particularly the first half of it is filled to the top with anecdotes and information without the author trying to show off, making you want to read/watch/learn all of the things she mentions.

Powerful writing.

But, in contrast with "...Mr. Y" the ending of this story is a bit of a let-down. Not exactly deus ex machine, but the rabbit-out-of-the-hat feeling is nagging somewhere at the back of my mind.

What she manages though, is to nag you a little, just enough to make you wonder whether any of what she wrote, might actually be true. What helps are the numerous correct references to existing cryptographic ideas and methods, and the self-referencing of the story is not bad by itself... but somehow, "too sudden"

Still, a wonderful read when you don't want anything difficult.

Natural City (2003)

Cyborg, neural transformation, bad cop trying to safe his cyborg-gf. Good cop trying to put him right. Evil scientist.

Admitted, the first time I stopped watching this film after 20 minutes, simply because I was too tired.

Finished it a day later, but not with great enthousiasm. It was ok, but somehow it seemed the film couldn't decide whether it was an actionfilm, love-story, metaphysical pondering, or... something else.

It was slow. I pride myself on the enjoyment of slow films ("Innocence"!) but this film simply didn't do it for me.

Damien Rice & Lisa Hannigan - "9 crimes"

playing it over and over, inbetween Marina & The Diamonds.

"Is that alright, yeah?"

Joe Henry - "The Man I Keep Hid"

trumpets, jazzy!

Marina and the Diamonds - "Mowgli's Road"

Already knew her wonderful "I'm not a Robot" (heard it recently @ KinkFM, but I'm sure I stumbled upon it before, though unlikely during the Robot special at V-Radio)

Got link-linked to a clip of her doing "Mowgli's Road". Quite nice as well, has a bite.

Do they really have just one album ("Family Jewels") yet?

Flickan som lekte med elden ("The Girl Who Played With Fire") (2009)

2nd in the adaptation of Stieg Larsson's trilogy.

Nice, but not overwhelmingly so. I wasn't blown away by the first one, but it was quite alright. This one performed slightly less.. You seem to know the drill, the crazy girl's character... so what else?

"just" a whodunnit. but ok.

Watchmen (2009, Director's Cut)

Wow!!!

Amazing film!

Superheroes. A by now quite familiar visualisation. Why familiar? Exactly because it is like the comic-books? Or do all the films have something in common?

The story, wonderful! Cliché's, yet none. Stereotypes, yet feelings, changing personalities. Good isn't good, bad isn't bad.

The familiar music (Leonard Cohen twice, Bob Dylan), good juxtaposition.

I must investigate my mind. What is it about.

About changing people? Changing the world? Believes? Masks, or their absense?

Songdog - "A Life Eroding"

Singer-songwriter-ish. Bob Dylan-ish voice, but absolutely no copycat.

beautiful, simply beautiful.

Marina and the Diamonds - "I'm Not A Robot"

guess what, I'm not a robot, a robot
guess what, I'm not a robot, a robot

catchy!