Listen and Watch¶
788 words on Asian Films , Films , German Films , Music , Takeshi Kitano
These have just been a few quiet days around here. I didn't feel to well, still trying to cure that strange condition of over-workedness/amnesia/whatever-it-really-is I started having last weekend. It's really odd. I stopped being familiar with many things that I am really familiar with usually (like phone numbers – I still seem to manage to get most of them right but I am not as sure about them as I usually am – it's more like a guess than like knowing them).
Anyway, I just wanted clean up a little list of albums and films I had that I feel I could write about but won't get round to doing anyway. In the music department, I mention: Björk's new Medúlla album which is nowhere as strange as everybody seems to claim it is; it sometimes seems even more approachable than some of her earlier stuff. Then, for contrast the 5678s, bringing us light-hearted noise from the 1950s.
Then there are Soulwax with their album Any Minute Now which may just have the best cover art of the year and rather good music as well; Buy it on vinyl as the cover will be larger! Then come The Dresden Dolls. Modern Piano and singing Old-School stuff; Not too bad. Then Arcade Fire who got overwhelming reviews everywhere; Not bad at all; But that overwhelming? Yes! Then there are Bloc Party; Nice, accessible stuff; Not overwhelmingly original, perhaps. Then, from a completely different and more acoustic universe, Ben Kweller who sings along to his guitar. Then, from a similarly acoustic, but more musical universe, José González. Then, there's Feist's quiet and sympathetic record Let it Die with two extra tracks on the UK/iTMS version; She also sang some songs with the Kings of Convenience. Then, more on a classical theme, are Max Richter's Notebooks; Quite different and interesting, that one. Then, for more fairly standard indie tunes are Dogs Die in Hot Cars; Not exceedingly brilliant, perhaps, but good music for happy days. Then – and finally – Brian Wilson's SMILE should be mentioned; Both for broken capitalisation and that it's OK to listen to despite its age; Not exactly my cup of tea, though.
Right, that was that. At your service as unenlightening as I can possibly be. Next, let me mention the names of a few films, beginning with Before Sunrise and Before Sunset; Those are a sweet idea and the whole 'sequel' thing didn't work too badly; It's cool how a film can consist of continuous movement and talking only; On the other hand I found it a bit too exhausting; Too much talking, with people not having too much to say anyway. Then there is the German film Was nützt die Liebe in Gedanken (Love in thoughts); A strange 1920s era film starring Daniel Brühl and August Diehl who are probably among Germany's best young actors; Sex, drugs and tragedy in short; Not a happy film, not exactly my cup of tea though. Then, on the more factual side, we have The Corporation which is as depressing as its title; With its three parts adding up to a total of well over two hours it's a bit too long as well. In a similar spirit, there is Outfoxed, another documentary; Not art either, not nice. Then, on more artistic but not necessarily more uplifting backgrounds work some Asian films, such as Taboo directed by Nagisa Oshima which features a slightly sleepy Takeshi Kitano but seems to be mainly about a pretty boy who joins a troupe of slightly gay samurai; Right, it's not quite as absurd as that but I am tempted to claim that the story could've been better; good enough to match the nice imagery perhaps. Then there is the Korean film Seom, The Isle which completely takes place in little one-room holiday flats on a lake; People are quite weird as well and we see fishing, prostitution, other killing and suicide attempts. Then there is the completely different, very strange and painful Old Boy; A very harsh Korean movie, that. Then there is Hero which is stunningly beautiful and I liked very much. Then there is Cinema Paradiso which is fifteen years old already but very nice. Finally there is The Bourne Supremacy which is a poorly filmed instantly forgettable story.
I think that's it for the moment. I may just want to add a note that (during an outage of our network) I found out that I can use our neighbours' wireless network from my room. But funnily the reception signal strength varies greatly. Moving the Powerbook by a few centimetres will let the signal go from none to three bars in the Airport menu item. Very odd.
