looks kinda good :)
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movie. Show all posts
Castaway on the moon
About a man who finds himself on an island after a failed suicide attempt and a girl who is bound to her apartment living through the cyberworld. Both want to avoid their realities however in a strange way they connect and communicate, inspiring each other and sharing hope.
SBS has yet again put on a great unexpected film. A Korean on this time directed by Hae Jun Lee. It's heart warming and very qwerky, has beautiful cinematography and deals with the question about identity.
on edge
I went to check out Matt Corby at the Oxford Art Factory the other night, a little hesitant but hopeful that he was better live than recorded sound through my headphones and speaker. And oh boy, his cd doesn't come close to how raw and passionate his voice and music is. There's only so much a cd can replicate. It can't make your heart thump and clothes vibrate to the drums the way it does live, and the sheer whisper of the voice isn't as delicate as it is intended to be.
Writing about this concert has made me think of a quote in Music and Lyrics:
Writing about this concert has made me think of a quote in Music and Lyrics:
"A melody is like seeing someone for the first time. The physical attraction...But then, as you get to know that person, that's the lyrics. Their story. Who they are underneath. It's the combination of the two that makes it magical"
I think there are two types of people, one more attracted to music and the other to lyrics. I find it tough using words to explain myself, so i'm most definantly a music person, judging the story by how sounds are put together. Matt Corby's songs hits the spot for me, apart from the occasional profanity, musicality wise it makes me shiver at how beautifully his emotions are expressed.
La Pianiste
The Piano Teacher is a french movie about "a young man [who] romantically pursues his masochistic piano teacher." The character Erika is disturbing and I was a little squeamish during a lot of the parts (obviously since she's a masochist and it is a french movie), however I stuck through the movie for the music and especially when the antagonist is a handsome pianist. I have a thing for guys who can play the piano well. I'm not sure if that makes my view biased, I won't be specific as to ruin the movie, but overall I think they did a dandy good job. Such a fine job that I felt inspired to practice Rachmaninoff's Prelude Op.23 No.5 in G Minor. Some serious solid effort on the first 9 bars!
Rachmaninoff (played by Gilels) - Prelude Op.23 No.5
Not quite August yet...
So this movie, August Rush was recently on tv (by recently I mean...an hour ago) and the tv info blurb mentioned a cello so I was definantly hitting it up. It's a about an orphaned boy who uses his love for music to find his family. Usually there's a disappointment after a movie involving musical instruments because more often than not, the actors have never played them. But I was really impressed. The actor who plays the boy, Freddie Highmore (Charlie in Willy Wonka and Peter in Finding Neverland) must have done some serious practicing on the guitar to make it look legit and of course along with a good double.
And of course, a good old guitar slapping in a movie never hurt anyone.
centre of the universe
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Since watching Julie and Julia, this one scene has been engraved into my brain, the scene where Julie and Eric argue about what she has become due to her cooking blog and I guess it poses the question on the very nature of writing a blog (especially fashion blogs). I think the movie pretty much nails it on the head, it can be a "me, me, me day after day" thing, and one can potentially turn into "a totally self-absorbed person who writes this stuff for a bunch of complete strangers". Clearly I don't think blogging is bad since i'm writing one write now, but I guess i'm more interested in the attitude towards it and whether it turns you into an egotistical monster and forces your relationships start to break down.
And there are other things that i'm debating and mulling over in terms of blogging. Though I do enjoy reading fashion blogs and seeing the crazy extents to which people go to to take a good picture of them in clothes and makeup they took hours preparing and deciding, in the past when I have asked people to take a picture of me for blogging purposes, there's an ever so slight sense of vanity that creeps up and grows every time. I see it happen to people (not necessarily bloggers), however do you call it confidence or egocentricity? art for others or self worship? or has society completely allowed for the two words with different meanings to meld into one? consequently producing jobs that thrive on self obsession.
Lots to ponder on...
Duffy - Mercy
Old Love
Lots of sales going on and that means time to get cracking on making decisions on the things that have caught my eye over the year. I'm yet to try them the dress and shirt on, so who knows...they might look heinous on my body.
There's hype building up surrounding The Hobbit the movie and quite frankly, I'M EXCITED. Such a fan of The Lord of Rings, awesome film though i'll admit I never finished reading the book. I got my hands on the new pocket sized hardcover version of The Hobbit from Kinokuniya and just started knawing my teeth into it. I highly recommend it, it's great for anyone - read it as an on going bed time story to the kids, really easy to follow.
Whilst in Melbourne, I bought a book, Morning Poems by Robert Bly inspired by William Stafford who wrote every morning for 40 years. Although not as dedicated as Mr. Stafford himself, I did make a semi new years resolution (if that's even possible) to try and write a poem everyday - the keyword in the resolution is 'try'. So there's my poem written on the 1st of January, 2012 upon which I was at my very first Kid's Camp, a camp where kids from broken families and tough backgrounds ranging from kindergarten to year 12 come to relax and have fun. We show them God's love and tell them there's hope in something bigger despite ones circumstance and situation.
Shirt - A.P.C - Boyfriend Shirt
Book - The Hobbit - J.R Tolkien
Lots of sales going on and that means time to get cracking on making decisions on the things that have caught my eye over the year. I'm yet to try them the dress and shirt on, so who knows...they might look heinous on my body.
There's hype building up surrounding The Hobbit the movie and quite frankly, I'M EXCITED. Such a fan of The Lord of Rings, awesome film though i'll admit I never finished reading the book. I got my hands on the new pocket sized hardcover version of The Hobbit from Kinokuniya and just started knawing my teeth into it. I highly recommend it, it's great for anyone - read it as an on going bed time story to the kids, really easy to follow.
Whilst in Melbourne, I bought a book, Morning Poems by Robert Bly inspired by William Stafford who wrote every morning for 40 years. Although not as dedicated as Mr. Stafford himself, I did make a semi new years resolution (if that's even possible) to try and write a poem everyday - the keyword in the resolution is 'try'. So there's my poem written on the 1st of January, 2012 upon which I was at my very first Kid's Camp, a camp where kids from broken families and tough backgrounds ranging from kindergarten to year 12 come to relax and have fun. We show them God's love and tell them there's hope in something bigger despite ones circumstance and situation.
Lior - This Old Love
Note to self: 5 things worth considering & remembering for the future...
I've learnt/realised a couple of things over the last 24 hours...
1. Be patient with the poor old VHS player, it's so outdated that it doesn't exist in the average persons' vocabulary. It's doing the best it can.
2. When trying to book flights, do it during monday afternoon to tuesday morning. It's cheapest then!
3. Try not to fly on public holidays. It's expensive. If not, you may be taking a very long train ride home in the effort of saving $200.
4. Don't use your flash when trying to take a picture of the VHS players' electronics.
5. Make sure the address is right when you post your Christmas cards/gifts out or they'll end up in strangers' letterboxes.
5. Make sure the address is right when you post your Christmas cards/gifts out or they'll end up in strangers' letterboxes.
So, if your household is still a little stuck in the past and is a little sentimental on getting rid of the VHS player, I say use it to your advantage! Your local Op Shop is probably bursting out the seams with very cheap video tapes of your favourite movies from the past.
Frank Sinatra - I Love You Baby
"I know you can be overwhelmed, and you can be underwhelmed, but can you ever just be whelmed?"
- 10 Things I Hate About You
Vier Minuten
It's such a treat when an interesting foreign film is showing on sbs! It must have been piano movie night because the movie after was The Beat my Heart Skipped about a french guy who goes from rent collector to pianist. Four Minutes is about Jenny, a convicted murderer who's taught by Frau Krueger for a piano competition. Both have experienced/experience painful things and use the piano as a medium of expression, however in completely different ways.
Clair de Lune et Soleil Levant
Moonlight
Your soul is a select landscape
Where charming masqueraders and bergamaskers go
Playing the lute and dancing and almost
Sad beneath their fantastic disguises.
All sing in a minor key
Of victorious love and the opportune life,
They do not seem to believe in their happiness
And their song mingles with the moonlight,
With the still moonlight, sad and beautiful,
That sets the birds dreaming in the trees
And the fountains sobbing in ecstasy,
The tall slender fountains among marble statues.
Paul Verlaine
Debussy - Clair de Lune (played by Alexander Lubyantsev)
I was watching a television show about a pianist and the three composers he most related to: Rachmaninov, Ravel and Debussy, and found out that Clair de Lune was written inspired by a poem by Verlaine. The piece compliments it and is such a perfect translation of words into music. The main tune has such a heart ache to it and the second prominent tune with the cascading bubbling fountain in the background. Debussy was labelled an Impressionist, and I don't see why not, looking at the score and listening to the piece, it's seamless as if bar lines don't exist. And I'm going to use the analogy, that Debussy paints a picture with his music, makes a film even!
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| Monet - Soleil Levant |
If I recall correctly from my high school art lessons, the Soleil Levant painted by Claude Monet (other famous paintings include the water lilies) was the first Impressionist painting. And it is, just an impression, not realisitic, rather capturing moreso the mood that go with the scene. I think the Arts go hand in hand together, they all serve to make an impression on the reader/viewer/listener, take you away from where you physically are at that particular moment in time. Art, music, etc, they're all intertwined. In year 5 during music, there was a particular lesson where we listened to some famous pieces and used colours and lines to describe it. I remember the Ride of the Valkyries came on, and I got my red and black pencils and just went nuts with the crazy angry lines :)
Even with food this happens, now that I'm writing about this...
"The heart is an organ of fire" - Almásy
The Smiths - Asleep
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Image via IMDb
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I bought a set of 3 dvds with The English Patient, Girl with the Pearl Earring and Chocolat a couple of weeks back for the bargain price of $20! On the weekend I watched The English Patient, never having seen it or having any prior knowledge of story line I really enjoyed it. So many lovely metaphors intricately woven throughout the story.
I remember reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and found it quite dark and realistically raw in the way feelings and situations were written and overall a really moving novel, however I do think it is a more mature read. Coming to the end of the book a friend of mine who had read it pointed out something I never took notice of, Charlie always cries. This quite frankly did make the last few pages hard to read because all I did was mentally highlight when it happened. I guess i'll never know what I would have thought of the book, and I'm a little saddened by the fact that I didn't appreciate the ending as much as I did leading up to it. One day in the far future when I forget the story, I'll have to read it again.
"Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again."
In the movie Almásy, Hana and a bunch of people are stuck in the desert and Hana asks about water. Almásy tells of this rare plant and that if one cuts out its heart and leaves it overnight, the plant is full of water. Later on as they secretly become lovers, Almásy uses the plant to describe himself when they were apart and how he was in a contradiction, painfully filled with her love.
This brings to mind how I think when the first time books, movies, music are read, seen and heard without someone telling you about it is when you'll know what your opinion of it is, unhindered by someone elses. And I guess someone may be endangered if they keep reading this, so divert your eyes if you haven't read The Perks of Being a Wallflower!
I remember reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky and found it quite dark and realistically raw in the way feelings and situations were written and overall a really moving novel, however I do think it is a more mature read. Coming to the end of the book a friend of mine who had read it pointed out something I never took notice of, Charlie always cries. This quite frankly did make the last few pages hard to read because all I did was mentally highlight when it happened. I guess i'll never know what I would have thought of the book, and I'm a little saddened by the fact that I didn't appreciate the ending as much as I did leading up to it. One day in the far future when I forget the story, I'll have to read it again.
The Smiths - Asleep
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