Lavonardo

Few things are more appropriate for this week’s thursday challenge than the pictured whale. The topic is large.

icanhascheezburger, the ever-prolific provider of daily lolcats has collected its finest into book form.

And I bet there are quite a few chuckles provided for the meager price of ten bucks. And I sure hope the ongoing lolrus saga made it in to this first collection.

This week’s photo thursday challenge derives its topic from a poem in finnish. Basically the instruction is to provide a heavy secret.

My choice is the attached photo, of ground zero in New York, less than half a year after the 9/11 attack. Most of the rubble had been excavated immediately, but work was still going on at the site.

Even now the world is still reeling from the aftershocks of the event, so the burden of secrets must be heavy indeed.

99 Francs, Jan Kounen’s critical take on the advertising industry was the only movie of the festival I watched outdoors. Indeed, the R&A-festival traditionally forms the tail end of the outdoor presentations at Engel, and this year was no exception.

I loathed Kounen’s previous film, Blueberry. It managed to take a perfectly decent western movie, and turn it into a pretty but ultimately empty trip to innerspace when the protagonist ingests some serious peyote.

The very same mannerism rears its ugly head here. The inevitable coke binges are visualized in a psychedelic and longwinded fashion.

But fortunately they remain sidelined for almost the entire length, and the plot actually advances.

The satirical depiction of the life in an advertising agency veers between believable (a beautifully realized brainstorming session) to the utterly bonkers (which, obviously, may be just the protagonist’s drug-addled synapses misfiring). I’m pretty sure the executives of Danone were not amused with the target of the bluntest attacks.

Jean Dujardin in the starring role occasionally bore a striking resemblance to Josh Holloway (of Lost fame), a fact that took almost half of the distance to figure out.

And sure, it was growing cold outside after the sunset. But a spare hoodie, a big blanket and a cup of seriously spiked tea helped endure the chill.

Astrópía was the first truly good movie of the festival. Pretty much par for the course, I didn’t worry too much about the uneven progress thus far.

The first thing apparent from Astrópía is its origin. The characters spout icelandic, and never let go.
The occasional english phrases folded in are there just for contrast.

The movie is a beautifully realized Beauty and the Geek. A model-class blonde is forced to seek out employment in a gameshop upon a sudden turn of events. After the expected clashes with the people threatened by the presence of a misfit (in their circles), the movie turns even better. Occasional injections of scenes from an ongoing role-playing campaign - definitely played at a table, the film disrespects the live action players quite fiercely - and the reality and fantasy mix very well at the hands of the creative team.

Definitely a movie I intend to seek out in dvd form. If only to inflict on gamer and non-gamer friends alike. And with partial finnish funding, such a release is not too outlandish a concept to consider.

The first animated film of the festival was Evangelion: You Are (Not) Alone.

As far as I can understand, this movie was the first part of a quadrilogy, that reimagines the very popular Neon Genesis Evangelion anime series.

To someone who’s never seen a single episode of the show, this movie was both over- and underwhelming.

While the imagery is pretty, the action constant and the interpersonal relationships appropriately angsty, it’s still rather hard to understand the plot. The script is full of references to unknown things, and with the dialogue bristling with abbreviations, the storyline was occasionally challenging to figure out.

I’m pretty sure that this quartet of movies is an easy introduction into the subject, and with all the rest of them slated for release in 2008, this review probably would warrant an update once the whole epic has been watched.

Dart Splash Sequence by iDream_in_infrared by iDream_in_infrared (CC)

The annual Darts Association cup meant yet another bout of Kangaroo.

Didn’t suck as bad as on couple of previous occasions, but came nowhere near qualifying to the later rounds of playoffs.

Then again, this being a birthday party, the tossing of darts was just a side feature of the occasion, not the root cause for the gathering.

When forced to perform a literary confession, there are few more embarrassing than the fact that I’ve never read Mika Waltari’s greatest hit: the Egyptian (known as Sinuhe Egyptiläinen in finnish).

2008 being the hunderdth anniversary of the author’s death, I finally decided that it’s time to see what this book is all about. And got hit with a double whammy - in addition to buying the hardback novel at a very reasonable discount, it’s actually featured in this week’s Aku Ankka as well. The cover image is a great homage to the Björn Landström original.

(And nope, I’m not a totally uncultured boor - I have read Waltari - but only his detective novels.)

This week’s Macro Day challenge is a map.

My take is one of an influential literary map - that of the finnish edition of the Lord of the Rings, with the Shire (Kontu) in the best focus. Having a real map certainly added to the experience when reading the book for the very first time some time around twelve years of age. At least it gave an illusion of being able to follow the plot.

The first day of exposure to new and unusual movies at the annual Rakkautta ja Anarkiaa festival began with a trio of films. While this entry covers multiple movies, regular service will resume for the rest of the program.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson was exactly what the name points out. A ninety minute journey into the life of the guy who created his own brand of journalism. The involvement of Johnny Depp (who played the author in Terry Gilliam’s 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) is surprisingly small role. The movie consists of interviews and monologues, and quite a few outtakes from Gilliam’s movie (which do not really add anything). Three stars.

I thought Gogol Bordello Non Stop would be a full-length concert video, but was sadly mistaken. The film details the life and times of the world’s premiere gypsypunk band, but has not got very much music in it. The interviews with the raving eastern europeans start off interesting, but begin to loop the very same loop quickly. Two stars.

Preceding Timecrimes was perhaps the gloomiest short movie I’ve seen this side of the millennium - being exposed to theory and practice of euthanasia was not an ideal kickoff to a weirdly familiar film about time travel paradoxes. I’m sure I would’ve enjoyed the movie a lot more had I actually been fully awake, and will thus refrain from giving it a rating. The big twist was pretty much apparent from the onset, but the story did take a couple of interesting shortcuts working through to the conclusion.

This week’s photo friday challenge is about something extraordinary.

My choice to be considered out of the ordinary is the attached amphibian, a poison arrow frog photographed in Korkeasaari this past summer.

Finished the fifth and last season of the Wire last week, and am even more convinced than before that this is one of the definitive television shows of the decade.

The journey, at sixty episodes, runs to a conclusion with the methods honed to perfection in the previous seasons. While there is an overlying arc, both to this collection of ten episodes, as well as to the whole collection - it’s not the masterfully laid out plotline that makes this a classic show. No, there’s plenty of smaller, yet meaningful stories told - told via the use of scores of characters, all of whom believable from their first moments on screen. None of them perfect, all plagued with defects.

Indeed, the five year tale of Maryland’s largest city draws to a close just like it has run. Through deception, multiple layers of plans that go awry with friction, through occasional serendipity, and inevitably: through honest detective work that reveals the rot within. The victories tend to be small and come at a price. David Simon’s not as merciless to his characters as, say, George R.R. Martin, but not many of the featured folks can be thought to be assured of any kind of success.

As with the previous season, a whole new perspective is introduced here. The newsroom of the ailing Baltimore Sun provides a lot of insight into how news is reported, and occasionally manufactured. The segments outline the crisis of print journalism, and neatly weave in a clash between cultures. The plotline concerning the cynical newsmen is not as touching as that on the four schoolkids in the previous season, but it does hammer in a powerful message.

There’s been plenty of characters and plotlines in the five year run, and the final episodes tie them all together. Even if some of the participants have not been seen in years, their presence on screen feels natural. And the cycles begin anew - some with new protagonists, some with a return to their former glories. The city remains the same, dysfunctional as ever.

Bring on Generation Kill, David Simon’s next effort.

Bring on Love and Anarchy, I come equipped with a two-figure count of tickets.

One movie outdoors.

One biopic.

Two concert movies: Gogol Bordello and CSNY.

A couple of documents on the situation in Iraq - both political and musical.

Two three-movie days, with miniscule pauses inbetween.

Two animated movies. Neither by Miyazaki.

Probably a few post-movie beers.

And a movie about a font.

Not on the agenda: seeing the opening club evening at Tavastia today.

Bootleg demakes.

This can only be good.

Stanford’s Computer Science and Electronic Engineering departments have begun to offer courses free. The first ten classes are now available, with more to come. The courses initially offered range from elementary computer science to robotics and natural language processing.

Obviously the Palo Alto university is not the first one in the game, MIT begun its own open courseware campaign in the beginning of the decade.

This week’s photo thursday challenge is easy.

And guiding tourists in the off-season in Athens must be really easy, if the employees can take it as easy as this dog does.

The latest victim in the covert loudness war: Metallica’s Death Magnetic.

According to Wired the recent album’s hopelessly over-compressed.

I haven’t really spotted this. But then again, my left ear is still half locked from the flu/flying-combo, and all in all the album is a fine return to form.

OS 007 by L. Marie (CC)

Both of the campaigns continued with victories on the second week of the season.

Hakkapeliitat had an easier time this time, winning with a comfortable margin. Though the team’s composition is far from the original. The Cincinnati Air Force is having terrible problems hittings its stride, and I’m truly glad I benched Carson Palmer in favor of Aaron Rodgers. The kid replacing the Cheeseheads’ icon in Green Bay has had a running start for his first season, fortunately dragging Greg Jennings from the reciving corps with him. And even when T.J. Houshmandzadeh continues to wilt alongside with his quarterback, the WRs were not a problem this week as the Washington team got their act together from a lopsided game in the first week. The triple-scorer from week one, Steelers’ Willie Parker had a quiet night, just like the rest of the team. The defense and kicking were both OK, though nothing spectacular.

Haaga ‘99ers had an extremely tight matchup, only pushing ahead of the opponent on the shoulders of two players having a successful bout of MNF. Consistency was the key this week, no player scored north of twenty points, but apart from the two highest offensive picks (and a curiously off-key Devery Henderson) everybody contributed to the pot. LaDainian Tomlinson is having a very slow start of the campaign, just like last year. Unfortunately this year he’s nursing a hurt toe, and not just having some random issues in the red zone. All of the three rookies in the team played well, and even with the return of Brandon Anderson to the bucking Broncos’ offense Eddie Royal put up respectable numbers. Kicking and defense (Dallas’ Nick Folk and Chicago, respectively) continue to be pillars of the team.

Next week looks scary, with both opposing teams fielding prolific Jay Cutler as the QB. But it’ll be the games on sunday that decide and not statistics.

Bring on week three.

The 2:30 arrival in Helsinki was probably my latest ever thus far.

And with the luggage among the last to emerge on the carousel, this meant an even later arrival home.

Got to bed around four. Both ears firmly locked up from the combination of flu and pressure changes. Mr. Otrivin will so be employed tomorrow to do its unblocking magic.

The late flight meant plenty of time to walk around the city. And an interesting discussion on the fair price of a late checkout.

One of the things on the shopping list was local music. Metal, not folk-dancing. Locating a recordstore proved to be on the hard side, but one was available near Acropolis. The cellar shop had plenty of domestic metal, but it was also missing a lot of the shop-owner’s favorite bands for some reason. Settled on one stoner album and another that seems to be death metal (Nightstalker and Nightfall, respectively).

Noticed that I had a nicely building up flu in the morning, and it kept escalating with semi-automatic sneezes throughout the day. Flying out will probably be an unpleasant experience.

The late checkout - that turned out to cost 50€, not too bad when divided between three people, and especially not bad since it kept us cool up until it was time to split.