The Mirror

Nightendday

2009-01-03T15:02:00.002Z

Not the Pelican song, rather a bonus extra stemming from a comment to the previous post on Murakami's "After Dark". Considering it was written in Portuguese, I've taken the liberty to translate it as I believe it deserves its own post, knowing beforehand that some of its meaning will be hopelessly lost in translation...

i. writes:

"As far as the underlying subject is concerned, what separates night from day, I think we all feel a distinct difference as how time flows and people move about. However, and I don't want to sound constraining, I'm afraid the absence of light is actually the key factor, the central factor.

Night is almost always a companion. For those who like to go out, it's inebriating, a less constrained territory, less serious, where you're able to extrapolate the rules you have during the day. For those who prefer home, night is a friend of writing, reflection, of reading. Night is, undoubtedly, friend of confession. Friend of unveiled secrets. Sometimes, a treasonous friend."

Haruki Murakami - "After Dark"

2008-12-31T00:27:00.004Z

Here's a contemporary Japanese writer which I couldn't help but notice given how well published he seems to be in my home country. Translations of his work proliferate in Portuguese libraries and a year ago one of his books caught my eye and I decided to give it as a Christmas present to a friend of mine. Before wrapping it though, I couldn't help but read a few pages. I found it somewhat entrancing, weird but very appealing at the same time. I didn't read much of it though but made a mental note of Murakami - alongside hundreds of other authors in my ever growing list.

A couple of days ago, while spending some time in my hometown for Christmas, I went out for a stroll and visited the local shopping mall. Sometimes I enjoy being on my own, wandering from store to store, especially bookshops. Taking my time to peak over a few titles, Murakami came up again and, on a whim, I brought "After Dark" home with me.

What distinguishes night from day? Is it simply the sun that is set? Or is there something else? What happens after dark? This book got me thinking about it and while there's hardly any definite answer, I'd say there's certainly a different feeling at night.

Murakami's story is then a simple tale of a group of seemingly unrelated people for the duration of one late night in Tokyo. Like many people, I'm somehow attracted to Oriental culture and Tokyo has a certain je ne sais quois, some kind of sophisticated glamour that it's not entirely easy for me to pinpoint. Sofia Coppola's "Lost In Translation" pretty much exhales whatever I'm getting at here.

And so does Murakami, with mundane people affected by mundane thoughts resulting in a story that's everything but mundane, in a David Lynch-esque sort of way, where the line between fantasy and reality is blurry most of the time, such as when a TV set suddenly comes to life or when a mirror keeps the reflection after the subject is gone. Murakami manages to convincingly turn random and otherwise passable scenarios into remarkable and compelling situations and dialogue, using the stillness of the night as his best ally.

I finished this somewhat short book a few minutes ago and because of its nature, it's still a bit difficult to gather my thoughts about it. Thought-provoking books like these usually take some time to ultimately sink in but the immediate experience was definitely rewarding. Books are devices in our way to becoming better persons, even if some are just trash and don't contribute a thing to that design. Trust me, this one does.

4/5

Righteous Kill (2008)

2008-12-30T09:17:00.006Z

It should be considered a sin to finally reunite De Niro and Pacino on the big screen and pretty much waste the opportunity to do something really good. Clearly, two star actors together do not a great movie make, if the story is maybe just passable and, worse than that, it's presented in a very lukewarm fashion.

Up until now, after having only spent five minutes together at a coffee-shop table in "Heat", De Niro and Pacino had only been cast on the same film back in 1974 for the second installment of "The Godfather". Sadly they occupied two different story arcs, set in a different time and obviously never actually interacted. Overcoming what must have been a series of technicalities and financial difficulties, director Jon Avnet has brought the two together for almost all of the film's 100 minutes duration as detective partners chasing a psychopath who may not be who they (we?) think he is.

Lot of potential, right? Indeed and I can't say I hated this movie, only that I wanted much, much more. I mean, imagine Waters and Gilmour finally reuniting but instead of playing the good stuff deciding to tour only to play, say, rehashed Beatles covers. Anti-climax, right? The same happens in "Righteous Kill", as we get a shitload of dialogue between the two greats but it just isn't compelling enough. Unless you count Carla Gugino as the police officer who likes it rough.

The truth is that nothing in this movie is compelling or a novelty in the genre and if it had two unknowns in the leads its fate would most likely be a pass-through ticket straight to DVD/Cable release. One asks himself what have these two guys seen in the script to take the opportunity. But then again, I ask the same thing when I see De Niro in stuff like "Meet The Fockers" or Pacino in films like "S1m0ne" or "88 Minutes", so it should maybe come as no surprise, after all.

Definitely not one of the worst movies of 2008 - a lot of trash came out as always - but certainly one of the biggest disappointments of the year.

2/5

prla's favorites of 2008

2008-12-26T13:05:00.002Z

It's that time of the year again. Yes, I love lists even if most of the time they are hard to compile. Same happened this year and, I must admit, when it came to movies, it was a sad affair for yours truly. I did go the cinema more often than last year, but I wasn't particularly lucky either: walking out in the middle of "Get Smart" was one such example.

I did however see a few interesting films, some at home, others outdoors, just not enough to build a strong Top 10. "The Dark Knight", "Body of Lies", "John Rambo", "Transsiberian", "Felon" and "Traitor" were all particularly enjoyable and let's not forget 2007's tour de force "Elite Squad" which I did see only this year. Then I can only recall a string of disappointments, starting with "Burn After Reading", "Vantage Point", "Get Smart" and even, to some degree, "The X-Files: I Want to Believe" (I am now in the process of catching up with the very first season of X-Files, by the way, and this last movies crawls lower and lower in my ranking as I go about it).

The more interesting list, sadly, is the one made of movies I should have seen and for one reason or another haven't. All these titles are in my so-called "to see" list, so better late than never:

Son of Ranbow
W.
Appaloosa
Wanted
4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millonaire
The Wrestler
In Bruges
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor
Man On Wire
Wall-E
Frost/Nixon
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Iron Man

As far as music is concerned, the only thing I'd like to say is that, again, I've listened to far less music than I would have liked to. But that's inevitable, I guess. So, without further ado, here's my favorite list of 2008 (which, again, was a great year for music):

Portishead - Third
Opeth - Watershed
Torche - Meanderthal
Russian Circles - Station
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
Steven Wilson - Insurgentes
Cult of Luna - Eternal Kingdom
Boris - Smile
Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
dEUS - Vantage Point

A few honorable mentions while we're at it:

Black Mountain - In The Future
Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Mouth of the Architect - Quietly
Burst - Lazarus Bird
Helms Alee - Night Terror

And to wrap this up, some great shows I've attended this year:

Murdering Tripping Blues (PT)
Cynic (US)
Opeth (SWE)
The Ocean (GER)
dEUS (BEL)
Porcupine Tree (UK)
Iron Maiden (UK)
Switchtense (PT)

Welcome, 2009.

The Ocean + Cynic + Opeth @ Madrid, 30 Nov 2008

2008-12-10T16:06:00.004Z

The truth is I'm tired of receiving email literally begging me to write something on this blog. I hadn't realized we had this audience of millions around here.

Actually, only one person complained, but we care so deeply about our customers that we heeded that single request. Thus, here I am talking about something utterly unimportant that no one will read. The wonders of Internet democracy.

Back to the subject at hand, a week and half ago saw me and a couple of friends doing the nonsensical act of driving all the way to Madrid to attend a music gig (the horror!). Back to Sala Heineken almost three years later where we saw Opeth in what was our first time (it didn't hurt much, if you ask me) and Opeth again we went to see. Tagging along - and maybe more than half of the reason why I bothered to travel over 1000 km in two days again - were the reunited Cynic and the German prog/post/sludge/screamo/rock/metal outfit, The Ocean. Also, we decided to stay an extra day so we could take time off to go see some of Madrid's offerings and let me tell you that, yes, the Prado museeum is beautiful, Real Madrid's stadium is amazing and Starbucks is lovely as always.

Strictly speaking about music though, The Ocean were the first to hit the stage and they definitely took the prize for most energetic band that night, what with the bass player ending up bleeling from his forehead and all. With only around 30 minutes to do their thing, they chose to go the heavy screamo way, which I don't really complain of, but left me kind of cold as I was expecting much more of Precambrian's second disc heavy prog sweetness. In any case, they rocked the house by being loud and tight and I look forward to listen to their albums many times over.

Next up were Cynic, a band that achieved cult status back in 1993 with their only EP, "Focus", disbanding right after releasing it. They got back last year and recorded "Traced In Air", 14 years later, and as far as I'm concerned, didn't lose any charisma or ability. Quite the contrary. I was especially impressed with Paul Masvidal, who seems to have a way about him that I seldom see on stage. My only rgeret was that bassist extraordinaire Sean Malone isn't part of the live band these days. They played a short set (around 40 minutes) focusing especially on "Traced In Air" but "Focus" wasn't entirely forgotten either. And I got one of Sean Reinert's drumsticks! That guy can surely play and seemed completely at ease behind his kit.

Finally Opeth hit the stage to the sound of "Heir Apparent", arguably Watershed's (or rather Watershit, as Mikael put it) heaviest song. Opeth are always Opeth and despite a lot of personnel changes in recent times, these guys are stronger and more solid than ever before. Fredrik from Arch Enemy is a huge addition to the band's sound, despite the charisma Peter had, and Axe is a fucking drum machine. The man destroys even if he certainly doesn't have Lopez's salsa. Their set wasn't too long either, they played maybe 90 minutes but it was one of the many perfect setlists they could have played so everyone left happy, I guess. Highlight for me was Still Life's "Godhead's Lament", a definite surprise, and of course the fans' favorites "Deliverance" and "Demon Of The Fall". Oh, and Akerfeldt's banter was hilarious was always...

To get a glimpse as to how it actually went...

In the end, this felt like the turning of a golden page for me. I've been fortunate enough to attend many many concerts of bands I've gotten to love over the years and I've been quite insistent in going to certain gigs of certain bands on consecutive tours. I've seen Dream Theater six times, including two very very special evenings in London, Opeth three times, Iron Maiden three times (including two early years tours), Porcupine Tree, Tool, etc etc... the list goes on and on. I feel that for a long time it is enough for me and that now I feel like attending smaller shows in smaller places with smaller bands, bands I've come to really enjoy to discover and listen to. And also to explore different genres, no matter how great it is to go out and headbang.

Slated for 2009 already are Mogwai and God Is An Astronaut, for instance...

Spin it, baby

2008-10-22T09:11:00.002+01:00

How about a thoroughly useless post? This is what I've been listening to lately here in my neck of woods. To quote Rob in High Fidelity: "It's the record we've listening to and enjoying, Barry." In that particular scene, they were listening to Belle & Sebastian... anyhow, here's the high rotation list:

Zozobra - Bird of Prey
Helms Alee - Night Terror
Scott Walker - The Drift
Faith No More - The Real Thing
dEUS - Vantage Point
Black Sabbath - Never Say Die!
The Ocean - Precambrian
Russian Circles - Station
These Arms Are Snakes - Tail Swallower And Dove
Boris - Smile

Oh and went to see dEUS again. Review forthcoming. Later.

Echoes: RIP

2008-09-15T19:49:00.002+01:00

It is a sad day for us die-hard Pink Floyd fans. Founder keyboardist Richard Wright has unfortunately passed at 65, another casualty of that fucking disease.

Personally he was probably the member I respected the most and always thought was an incredible musician to begin with. I'll be listening to "Wearing The Inside Out" and "Echoes" a few times to honour his memory.

So long Rick, may you rest in peace, and thank you for all the music. Time for you to join the great gig in the sky, which is getting greater and greater with each musical genius that travels up high.

Strangers passing in the street
By chance two separate glances meet
And I am you and what I see is me.
And do I take you by the hand
And lead you through the land
And help me understand
The best I can.

Machine Gun

2008-08-28T14:12:00.008+01:00

Musical reviewing is all about albums. Traditionally...

When a new album comes out critics write their opinions about that group songs and the rest of the world reads it. Then the XXI century came and everyone gets to write about music, photography, moving pictures and even tea flavors. Even the writers of this web log do that!

The new century also brought new models of distribution (I avoid "trade" for... well, everyone knows about what Radiohead did and they did it great). Nowadays one can buy stand alone songs and the unity of the album is shattered into 10 little bits, more or less. Each song has its own value and has to prove itself on the radio, Internet stores and P2P (oops...)

Of course this is reflected in the witting process: albums get shorter in length (how many albums do you know with 80 minutes?) and individual songs are being released before and after the main anchor-albums. Artists get creative thinking about how to get to the listeners and how to do it bypassing the giant evil records.

But we are already drifting away from what I wanted to say today...

Portishead's last album features songs that seem very different from each other to the listener. One of the songs, "Machine Gun" happens to be my "Best Song of 2008". This particular song has a sweet yet kind of disturbed voice singing simple melodies while some electronic noisemakers set the pace of the song on a background that clearly goes against the song.

So we get more than one song. There is an anti-song inside it. One could expect that song+anti-song=NOTHING AT ALL. That couldn't be far from the truth. Although the instruments we hear could fit perfectly in some Wolf eyes noise album in this particular case they are used in a clearly defined and repetitive cycle - a simple one actually.

So the result is a very mechanic background with no personality at all and a voice that shatters all that, calling the listener for further reflection. This is an example of the "thesis, antithesis, synthesis" triad, as Hegel put it.

In this case the thesis is the voice and lyrics that change and show evolution as the song goes. The antithesis is the negation of the thesis (sweet voice, melody, etc): organized repetitive noise. The synthesis is not in the song - the solution, instead of being formed by a common truth, is the sense that all that makes in our heads. And the title of the song helps to form this meaning. This is all a big philosophical pile of shit if you don't hear the song for yourself and find your own meaning. I thing that the process is the same but the synthesis that comes out of it may be very different and subjective, as Hegel would want :)

The veredict: *****

Another day at the office

2008-08-26T10:59:00.005+01:00

[reality]

It's 13.25 when I finish the lunch. 35 minutes left - in 35 I will be back at the office.

So what do I do? Sad people wander in the streets like shades; 8 in 10 of the women I see have the manners of a cowboy yet they look less trendy than the Marlboro man.

Both men and women show their best twisted sad faces - these are sensible people that go "I'm so unhappy" just because. If one could ask them they would surely blame the weather - so many people on this part of the world blame the atmosphere for their mood! Sun7heat - tired, sleepy, clouds/rain - unhappy, without motivation. They miss they joy that is watching an ant carrying food for the winter.

The ghostly streets and the cloudy sky make the sad town even worst. The whole world aches inside my stomach...

[delusion]

Bring me the big crowded streets of metropolis; the noise - planes, trains, cars, boat horns, tram bells, words floating from thousands of conversations that pass by with the Doppler effect. Let the colors and confusion of all the stores invade my eyes; let the schedules of the transports be the only limit to the otherwise eternal deambulation.

People jump in and out the doorways, cars wait for the green light like racers on the starting grid. Books lined up on the shelves seem to scream - take me with you - and my debit and credit cards burn from the use...

Over there! I've been here countless times and I never saw this glove store - the is enough room for one costumer only yet they sell to all the world.

Meters ahead there is a man working 24/7. His job being singing "fado", a Portuguese traditional song and a great voice he has. One could swear that there is some microphone and loudspeakers hidden somewhere. The box has coins. Mostly 10 cents of euro - this is the lowest value you can offer without using a bronze-colored coin.

[reality]

7 minutes to 14.00... The cup of lady Grey tea is now empty. I take a look at the pictures on the magazine before it goes back to the shelf: the city...

6 minutes left and I just realized that the mayor is right here having his coffee too. He didn't noticed my presence - I am as invisible as I like to be.

It is now 14.30 and I press the keys at light speed. The mayor passes on the corridor, I see him through the glass wall. Another day at the office.

Killer of giants

2008-08-21T11:58:00.005+01:00

I will spare you the story of the nuclear bomb. We all have in mind that in 1945 this kind of device was used for the first and last time (two bombs of different kinds, one target country, one aggressor).

Since then more and more countries developed their own systems: weapons, trigger devices, and security plans to protect inadequate uses of those weapons. Funny thing is with all the money burnt on that research, protection, planning... ...no one has given use to their bombs since that August in 45.

There was a so called cold war between the two countries that had the most powerful nuclear arsenals. The cold war never got hotter for both had retaliation abilities: they could blow their enemy even after being hit.
And that was how nuclear submarines from USA and USSR chased each others vessels, and the top brass from both sides was sleeping with a finger on the trigger.

Yet nothing happened. Enters Afghanistan, John Rambo and stuff - the cold war gets frozen. Instead of building nuclear shelters we all breathe, anxiety is washed away. There are wars but not in Europe; there are enemies but not the big powerful nations; there are bombs but they are stored in underground hangars.

Err...

Fact is last week we had a war in Europe and even if it was a small skirmish we can read between the lines and figure what is happening. Cold war is a victim of global warming and is alive again. This time the cold war is brought to you in a more exquisite manner. Wrapped in politeness and democracy.

What's new on the Cold War II / Word War III?
There are more players this time. It is not mighty USA versus an apparently strong USSR like it was in the 80s. This time we have war-exhausted USA, restored Russia, rising China and the rest of the unhappy world. Should we care about Iran having nukes? SURE! But shouldn't we care about USA having them? They were the only country that ever used them and they used it on civilian targets. "USA is responsible, stable democracy" - fine. What about Pakistan?

Pakistan is in political chaos for more than a year now. They do have nukes and they have a lousy security system. What about the word-war between Israel and Iran? We all know that Israel has been training for a possible attack to Iran.
Israel HAS nukes, Iran HAS NOT. Shouldn't we be worried?

Then we have the rest of the nuclear-confirmed countries: France, UK, China, India, North Korea, Israel. Then the ones to whom nukes have been borrowed: Belgium, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Greece. The ones that had in the past: South Africa, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan. And the ones that are suspected to be building nukes: Iran and Syria.

So why are we only worried about Iran and Syria?
You want to make nukes? CANT
You have nukes? THATS OK

Fishy.

Photo Of The Day

2008-08-20T16:26:00.002+01:00

John Dyer Baizley with Baroness (source)

Vantage Point (2008)

2008-08-16T00:34:00.004+01:00

"Vantage Point" hints of "Rashomon" in that a single event is told from different points of view, six different ones in this particular case. While the similarities end there, it is an interesting spin on an otherwise trivial action movie by first-time director Pete Travis. It tells of how POTUS (that's President of the United States for you) goes to Salamanca, Spain, to talk at an anti-terrorist summit and ends up getting shot by... terrorists in front of every one at the plaza plus millions of viewers at home. Or did he?

So, about every 15 minutes you see all that happened again. Despite getting new facts in each re-telling of the story, it gets repetitive after a while and the intended suspense kinda gets stale because of how old the procedure quickly becomes. Thankfully, most of the twists are interesting but it smells of a movie that wants you to think it is smarter than it actually is.

One of those points of view is that of Secret Services agent Thomas Barnes (Dennis Quaid) who is back at his job after taking a bullet for the same President a year before. Quaid does a good job as the permanently scoffing veteran agent, with shades of Clint Eastwood in Wolfgang Petersen's "In The Line of Fire". Another perspective, which really is useless to the whole story until the final unbelievable coincidence that brings closure to the film, is that of American tourist Howard Lewis (Forest Whitaker). He's running around with his camcorder not doing much until... he saves the day. But be that as it may, it's always a pleasure to see Whitaker (who was fresh from winning an Oscar the year before) on screen. His last scene has such an incredible acting from him that is actually emotionally moving amid all the hardness of the previous ninety minutes.

"Vantage Point" is a simple action movie with a somewhat simple plot told in a convoluted way. It works pretty much all the way as long as your suspension of disbelief device is functioning. If you're the kind that is constantly looking for holes and pointing out stuff that could never happen in the real world, steer well away from this. Other than that, "Vantage Point" is like half a season of "24" condensed in less than ninety minutes. Without Kiefer Sutherland.

Oh well, you still get a Jack, but it's the other guy, from "Lost".

Get Smart (2008)

2008-08-15T18:14:00.002+01:00

Steve Carell is a good, funny, actor. Anne Hathaway, I don't know why, she always got on my nerves a little bit, one of those people who can piss you off just by looking at them (it's surely my problem, not hers). So, finding the trailer quite funny, I went to the theater to see it.

DON'T

Guess my prayers for a bad movie to review have finally been heard, with a vendetta. This is not Get Smart. This is Get Dumb and it's not pretty, either. I won't trust a trailer again for a long time. So what do you do when the entire first half of a comedy goes by and you haven't really laughed at all, not even once?

You leave. That's what I did. Wish I could get my money back.

That's my damn review of "Get Smart".

Hero Wanted (2008)

2008-08-14T15:18:00.005+01:00

When I look at the poster for "Hero Wanted", I cannot help but think this should be an old-fashioned cops and robbers action flick. I mean, just look at it. The burning cityscape, the title with a flame-like background itself, a gun in the middle and both Cuba Gooding Jr. and Ray Liotta ready for a face-off. In fact, it also reminds me of a very old arcade racing game I used to play hours on end on my old faithful ZX Spectrum. It was called Chase HQ and you can see its poster on the left. Remember that one? It just royally sucked that you had to reload yet another portion of the tape to actually get to play the next level. Good times.

Back to the subject at hand. The truth is that "Hero Wanted" is indeed kind of an action flick (not in the sense I implied, certainly) and it does have good guys and bad guys and one of them, especially, I had a hard time figuring out which side was he on, despite knowing all the facts about him and everything he'd done, right and wrong. "Hero Wanted" is director Robert Smrz's debut and thus, this time, he's forgiven for his sins. This is a really good story, marred by questionable directorial choices. That which could have been one of the season's best movies, ends up being just another flick, passing pretty much under the radar.

I won't be able to say much about the story without spoiling all the fun, as this is an anachronistic Pulp Fiction kind of movie, but suffice to say that Liam Case (Cuba Gooding Jr.) walks alone as he lost both her wife and child. Tough times for him and when he finds love again, he does something really foolish with dramatic consequences for everyone involved. Especially for those who drop dead. Ray Liotta plays (or shall we say, underplays) the cop who figures things out, but I was left really cold with his performance. Liotta can't act bad, because he's so good, but the truth of the matter is that the script doesn't call much for him. A pity.

Cuba Gooding Jr. however is superb and I could really feel for the guy even if he made some questionable choices along way. And not just because he lost his loved ones. His story arc is fantastic. The film bets on shocking the viewer multiple times along the way, but some things are so unbelievable - for instance, a little girl, crucial in the plot, talking like she's 35 - that we don't know whether to feel shocked or outraged.

But in any case, despite all its pitfalls, "Hero Wanted" is a movie worth seeing. The action scenes are nothing special, the characters are too plain except for Liam, the bad guys are too stupid and full of themselves to be taken seriously, the few cops that show up are even more stupid and simply get shot, plus the pace of the movie is sometimes a little bumpy with a few scenes after which we're left wondering what the hell was that for anyway.

But the story kinda makes up for it, reminding me of the well intentioned motives behind all the tragedies in Sidney Lumet's brilliant, brilliant "Before The Devil Knows You're Dead". That movie though, is a whole different thing.

Mother tongue

2008-08-12T22:04:00.004+01:00

I love to hear people talking in strange, foreing languages in the streets of my town. Russian, Ukranian, Chinese, French, Spanish, English... Specially if I don't understand them. Gives a touch of melting pot to little Portugal, little Lisbon, little Torres Vedras. Reminds me of the real big cities NY, London, Beijing, Hong Kong, Paris, Dubai...

It's a good sign, me thinks. One day we shall be citizens of the world... all of us!

If we don't burn all the planet before that is :)

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (2008)

2008-08-11T00:56:00.002+01:00

There are comedy movies in which you leave the theater no smarter than when you got there. Some unfortunately have the lasting effect of dumbing you down, hopefully on a temporary basis. The second installment of Harold and Kumar's adventures could hardly be any more silly and nonsense. But the fact of the matter is, unless you really lack a sense of humour, they're actually funny as hell sometimes. Ok, most of the time.

These are talented actors doing a silly comedy movie. I'm particularly partial to John Cho having seen him for the first time in a show that aired on Portuguese TV a few years ago called Off Centre in which he plays the brilliant Chau Presley. Unfortunately, on "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" there's much more Kumar than Harold (and even less of Guantanamo Bay, if I may add), to the point of me thinking John Cho was actually way underused in this movie.

But no matter. Their adventures are actually fun to watch, no matter how improbable they get. From bottomless (forget topless, that's out, man) parties, to crashing out a Ku Klux Klan get together unlike any you may have heard of, with a lot of joint smoking in between, including an hilarious cool down with George W. Bush himself. Neil Patrick Harris also plays a small but deadly (literally) hilarious part as himself.

These movies have an awful tendency to suck, especially when they get to slapstick territory which, thankfully, is not the case here. "Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay" gets away with only a couple of really stupid not funny type scenes. Being as it is, other than that its only fault is probably being just a little too long but even that doesn't keep it from easily being one of the funniest Summer comedies around. Oh and it helps if you go see it with low expectactions.

RAMÓN!

Share-a-Track #1

2008-08-09T20:45:00.005+01:00

Being as it is that this blog is so connected to music, it's only fair that a new feature comes up where the authors of this blog share a song - preferably fairly obscure stuff - with our beloved audience. Yes, all two of you.

There may be no particular reason for the impulse of posting this or that track for your listening pleasure or else there may be every reason. Music is made to be listened and we here at The Mirror are doing our little bit to help the cause. In case someone has something to say about illegal downloading, I strongly suggesting putting a sock in it. Or sticking it where the sun don't shine. No offense.

Without further ado, the first installment of Share-a-Track comes courtesy of Swedish progressive death metallers Opeth. Contrary to what used to happen back when they recorded this, these days they need little to no introduction. The song I bring you today is an Iron Maiden cover, "Remember Tomorrow", which as you may or may not know is part of that band's eponymous debut album.

I only got to know Iron Maiden really a few years ago and wasn't even born back when they started and did this. But then again, when they toured celebrating their 25th anniversary in 2005, I was fortunate enough to attend two Early Days shows and saw "Remember Tomorrow" performed both times. It's a fantastic song intertwining slow and faster parts with a memorable melody, beautifully sung by Paul Di Anno, Maiden's first vocalist that stuck in the band for more than a week. It was actually special to see this song performed in 2005 because they hadn't played since the initial tours and because they were dedicating it to a Portuguese friend of theirs, Manu da Silva, who had died at the time.

The version you get here however is Opeth's and, in my opinion, it's no less hauntingly beautiful. It deviates a little from Opeth's trademark but they're so good, even at this time in their careers, that they simply nail it. This comes as a bonus track to their "My Arms, Your Hearse" album.

Enjoy and until next time!

Opeth - Remember Tomorrow (Iron Maiden Cover)

The X-Files: I Want To Believe (2008)

2008-08-09T19:06:00.003+01:00

There's one thing most of my friends have in common. They've seen a lot of X-Files episodes back in the day. Some have seen it all. Oh and they all found Scully (Gillian Anderson) really really hot. My personal involvment with the series has never been more than watching a few episodes here and there a good many years ago when they first aired on Portuguese TV. I remember I liked them quite a lot but never got really hooked. Then I think I saw the first movie but it was during my freshman year at University and that's, well, a little blurry on my mind.

In any case, "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" premiered last week and there's such a lack of quality movies in theaters these days that I thought "...well, let's just go see it". For me it's hard to talk about movies like this that involve many twists and turns without spoiling the fun for whoever reads this and hasn't seen the movie yet. So I'll just go on record saying that despite having a shitload of clichés and not really adding anything new, "The X-Files: I Want To Believe" is pure entertainment and plays like one long 100 minute episode, which I think is what any die-hard X-Files fan is probably looking for in these movies anyway.

I never thought Scully was really hot before but I guess she aged well, let's just say. Mulder inevitably gets dragged from seclusion (one joyful seclusion, it seems) into solving yet another missing person case and guess what.. he's sporting a huge beard. Yeah, well, he eventually shaves, but he really shouldn't have. He lost his sense of humour pretty much at the same time he lost his beard.

I remember that back in the day some of the episodes were really really good. If you're looking for another long episode here, you came to the right place. It may be far from the best of X-Files but it's certainly enough to justify a trip to the nearest theater.

Loud & Clear

2008-08-08T15:39:00.009+01:00

Apart from The Offspring, there are a few other bands that have been heavily doing the rounds in my particular neck of the woods. Because I still have to digest most of these albums entirely but all the same they are too good to pass up, here's a quick and dirty heads up if you're looking for some mighty stuff to put through your speakers or headphones.

Baroness - Red Album (2007)

I was turned on to this band by a guy I know who owns a record store (or used to own, he sadly closed shop last month). At the time he recommended a lot of stuff which I couldn't afford to simply buy on sight plus I didn't really know Baroness. But then I kept hearing about them here and there and last time I went to the best record store in Lisbon, I picked this one up, new and shiny (sorry Miguel, if you hadn't closed your joint, I'd have bought it from you). The sticker on the cover claims this one is for fans of Mastodon, High On Fire, Mastodon and Explosions in the Sky, among other bands, but I don't know. This is simply modern rock and fucking roll the way it should be done in the 21st century. Enough technique, big fat groove, huge sound and I can't recommend Baroness' Red Album high enough. Yeah. Really.

Capricorns - Ruder Forms Survive (2005)

Another recent discovery of a fairly unknown band, again thanks to Miguel from the tiny record store. I actually bought this one there in one of my after-work visits last month. This was the first record he played for me in one of those afternoons and I was sold after a couple of minutes. Capricorns are part of the small roster of Rise Above Records, a label owned by Lee Dorrian (Napalm Death, Cathedral, Teeth of Lions Rule The Divine). This is stoner meets doom, mostly instrumental, lots of repetition, one of those records that seems fairly uneventful most of the time but that you slowly absorb until it grabs you and doesn't let go. Been spinning this quite a lot lately.

Ulver - Shadows Of The Sun (2007)

I pay a lot of attention to every sort of end-of-year list from every sort of genre and I couldn't help notice Ulver was included in a lot of those last year. It's quite hard to describe Shadows Of The Sun even more so because I thought this was post-rock/metal a la Isis and ends being different from anything I heard before and different from everything I had expected. Slow, evolving, music that surrounds you and takes you places, attracting and repulsing at the same time. Cliché description, but there's nothing cliché about the music herein. Check it out for yourself, preferably through headphones, and you'll see (or listen to) what I'm talking about. Oh and that's a damn cool cover, if you ask me.

Khoma - The Second Wave (2006)

Last time I went to Carbono in Lisbon I saw this one on sale second hand for 10 EUR. Now I regret that I didn't bring it home with me. I'm still in the middle of discovering this album but it definitely sounds like Oceansize meets Sigur Rós with a lot of introspection going on. Oh, the intro is hauntingly beautiful, by the way. But as I said, haven't absorbed it yet, but here's a winner, definitely. And if you like Cult of Luna as well, double check this one out as Johannes Persson plays guitar here.

Torche - Meanderthal (2008)

Man! Saved the best for last. Goddamnit. If you follow Feral Pig Isis' Aaron Turner visual art blog, you'll instantly know an Aaron Turner artwork when you see one. That's how I first got to know Torche's Meanderthal which is a strong contender for my favorite album of 2008 only matched by Portishead's comeback. Anyway, the artwork caught me eye but it took me a couple of months to actually get to the music and let me tell you, this is a motherfucker of a rock/pop/metal/whatever record. First half dozen songs go by in less than 10 minutes and you are left wondering exactly what fucking hurricane just went by. Then more slowly post-metal like progressive songs kicks in and you understand this guys are no fools. They know their stuff and I can't wait for their next effort. Until then I'll spin Meanderthal to death and encourage you to do so as well.

It's a golden era for music!

one, two, three... WAR!

2008-08-08T12:34:00.004+01:00

1 - South Ossetia declares independence from Georgia.

2 - Georgia claims sovereignty over those territories.

3 - Russia supports South Ossetia.

And a war started at EU's gates while we all looked to China...

Felon (2008)

2008-08-06T16:20:00.005+01:00

I must have done a lot of good to the Film God Almighty® because right after I wrote a glowing review, here's reason to write another. And mind you, this one's even better, for my particular money. This shit better stop though, because it's making me look like some fanboy who loves everything in sight, crappy or not. I want to trash something.

Seriously though, just like the previous movie I reviewed, 21, this one, "Felon", is another prime example of how story lines that have been done many times over can still be fresh and impacting if they're done the right way, with seriousness and rid of any sort of film pretentiousness.

Cutting to the chase, Wade Porter (Stephen Dorff, a good actor who has sadly been passing very much under the radar) is a hard working family man, with one child and a lovely wife (Marisol Nichols, who you may have seen in a leading role in 24's last season). Everything is sweet until some thug decides Wade's house is a nice place to rob. As it happens, and I won't tell you how, Wade finds himself in prison (wait, shouldn't that be the thief? Right.) and his situation only gets worse as his time goes by. In prison he meets an old-timer known to have wrecked havoc wherever he's done time, a man that may not be exactly what he seems to be. Or is he? That's Val Kilmer in one of my favorite roles of his. There's a memorable passage in the film when his character, John Smith, is assigned the same cell as Wade and he introduces himself:

Smith: You wanna fuck or fight?
Wade: None.
Smith: Keep it that way.

That's enough to frame the story, dear reader. Needless to say, the vast majority of the film's 100 minutes running time is spent inside prison walls and my eyes were stuck on the screen for each and every one of those. You sympathize with the most unlikely characters, you feel for their problems and not only Wade Porter's.

The best movies are the ones where you take sides and you actually care about something or someone, forgetting for a moment that you're just a peeping tom glancing at the screen and at other people's lives. Who, by the way, do not exist. This is one such film, so make sure you catch it somewhere.

The Offspring: Prologue

2008-08-06T11:39:00.010+01:00

I've got about 2500 music albums. As of today, my main iTunes Library claims to house 1774 albums from 876 different artists. That adds up to 20666 songs, which would take me no less than 66 consecutive days, no stops, to listen in their entirety. Every day I learn about different bands, every day I download new stuff I never even remotely heard of and often I go out on a rampage and buy a lot of CDs at different stores. I got a couple of iPods (one of them is dead) and recently I've acquired an iPhone which also acts as an iPod in its own right. I listen to music while I'm at home, I listen to music at work on my laptop and I listen to music every minute I'm inside my car, wherever I may roam. I've attended dozens of great live shows, most of which I have fond memories of, others which sucked on end. It's been like this for about 15 years and I'm proud to be a true music lover (because I am), regardless of my shortcomings. I have a few favorite bands and don't even get me started on the amazing people I've gotten to know and cherish a friendship with, thanks to the music.

And that all got started back in day with three bands, all of which I still love with a huge passion after all these years. I often joke that music lovers should be like sponges in that they absorb whatever they get to know without the need to purge what came before. "I don't listen to insert genre or band here anymore, that's for kids" is something only a dumbfuck would utter. So, whatever people might say forgetting that music is all subjective, I kinda wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Nirvana, Green Day and The Offspring. I would simply be a different person that the one who's writing this post right now. Not necessarily better or worse, just different.

The Offspring - and music in general - came into my life through a close friend back when "Smash" came out, so that would be about 1994. I listened to that record like there would be no tomorrow and then I found out about "Ignition" and the self-titled debut album. Soon they came up with a new album, "Ixnay on the Hombre" which had a few songs that really kicked me into high gear though I began to understand they were going in a different, poppier direction. I kept avidly listening to every The Offspring album that would come out, "Americana", "Conspiracy Of One" and I culminated almost a decade of fandom seeing them live in Lisbon back in 2001. One mofo of a show, if you ask me, with all the classics being played.

Anyway, I've recently been going through a massive Offspring overdose, with almost 400 plays in a single week so I thought the time is as good as any to write about one of my favorite bands. Listening to the entire discography, I've understood that I love every album in a certain way and each of them evoke a different period of my life. With that in mind, in the coming weeks I'll be posting a small article on each of their albums, as a kind of homage.

My cup of tea

2008-08-05T11:24:00.008+01:00

I can't recall when I first tried a cup of that hot drink but I hated it. It was a strange taste - impure water as it seemed to me. Years passed and the common sense that tea is for ill people slowly faded. So the day came that I would re-try something that I couldn't understand before. It happened with Pink Floyd, with Madonna and with Quentin Tarantino - I waited for the right time to enjoy all this - so why would tea be any different?

I tried different types, flavours, blends, etc. I looked for some of the best brands and slowly the hot drink came into my life. Not a single day passes that I will not have a cup of tea, carefully prepared (the care and dedication I put in it depends on my frame of mind).

My choices of tea depend on several factors: time of the day, physical condition, state of mind, company, etc. In a typical morning situation I take English Breakfast or some strong unflavoured dark tea - "wake up and smell the tea". After lunch I would rather have Ceylan or green tea (either with lemon or mint). Then night falls and Earl Grey is the best for the late hours - the cytrus flavour softens the otherwise strong taste.

If I happen to be in a more introspective mood Earl Grey or Lady Grey are the best for meditation - watch the water changing its color as it passes through the leaves; feel the heat of the cup; smoke rising and the smell invading the soul. Four minutes later we have my favourite drink. It has something spiritual - one can feel out of itself ("je suis an autre" when I have my tea alone). And that is why I love having tea alone. The time that the leaves stay on the hot water, the temperature, and the way the water falls over the leaves are very important to me. I know that most of the times it does not make such a big difference but I do care for details and there is a psychological factor in my ritual.

It is like a daily prayer and since I do not pray in the common meaning of the word there are some situations when I have this contact with the divine things - tea time is one of those.

If you have any doubts try one. And next time you are about to ask for an expresso try something different and don't overlook the sensations and feelings you may get from a single cup of tea when it is taken in the right place at the right time.

21 (2008)

2008-08-04T21:11:00.007+01:00

Every now and then comes up a movie that is far from a masterpiece but feels immensely satisfying to me. Robert Luketic's "21" is a prime example of that and although I admit I've always liked every sort of card games and gambling, there's so much more than that in here.

And also so much less, as this story arc is something that has been done to death in films of all types and genres. Humble guy finds a way to get big, changes himself along the way without even noticing, gets greedy, ignores friends, loses control and incidentally loses everything. Oh, he gets the girl, too, of course. Without giving too much away, that's exactly what happens in 21, with a couple of, shall we say interesting, twists. This is a tale based upon the real life mid 90's MIT Blackjack Team which had a conceptually simple principle when it came to playing this card game, known as card counting. Wikipedia describes it in a clearer way than I could ever hope for:

The principle behind counting cards in blackjack is that a deck of cards with a high proportion of high cards (ten-valued cards and aces) to low cards is good for the player, while the reverse (a deck with a high proportion of low cards to high cards) is good for the dealer. A deck rich in tens and aces improves the player's odds because blackjacks (which offer a higher payout than other winning hands) become more common, the dealer is more likely to bust a stiff hand, and double-downs are more successful.

Think "Ocean's Eleven" meets "A Beautiful Mind". Kevin Spacey (in yet another brilliant performance with a boatload of memorable quotes) leads the secret team that meets at night in obscurity in one of MIT's classrooms. They soon go to Vegas to "make a killing", meaning using the card counting scheme to score a lot of money. Of course everything goes right until it goes wrong. Ben Campbell is the smartest kid on the block, recruited by his Nonlinear Equations teacher, Prof. Micky Rosa (Spacey) to join the team. Well, it wasn't hard, as Ben needs about 300,000 grand to get into Harvard Med without the need of the only scholarship that's very doubtful he'll be offered.

I won't unveil more, because the thrill is in the twists and turns of what they do. Most of all it's in the intensity of Ben's relatioship with Micky and how it sours going from point A to point B. Their scenes in the classroom both pre and post the happenings in Vegas are unique, full of sharp and witty dialogue. In the end, the message is that if you want it all, there's a big chance you lose it all. 21 delivers that message with a little poetic, zero-sum type justice served at the end.

The Grey Knight

2008-08-04T15:26:00.005+01:00

Imagine an action movie with more than 120 minutes in which the hero (there is always a hero and a villain - the quality of the villain makes the hero) is absent. You can't identify with him: he has doubts and troubles but he seems to be away from that - our hero is simply NOT THERE. He is a pretty nice guy but that's all.
Then there is the villain. He is a much stronger character yet he is so mad, so psycho that you just can't identify yourself with him either.
There is a sub-hero: but he turns to the dark side for weak reasons (Two Faces is too much of anger for so little).
And of course, the pretty girl that should end with the hero is a double crosser, kissing the tow heroes one at the time.
Did I mentioned the general citizens scared to death? - they seem weak and general portrayed.

That would be a lousy movie...

The best thing in The Dark Night is Joker. Great character and great acting YET I could identify two Jokers in that movie. The first one is confident, strong voiced, etc. The last one is crazy, nervous, hysterical. This last one is THE JOKER.

The Batman has an armour. BAD
Batman has a stupid voice. BAD
Batman seems apathetic (and pathetic). BAD

Badman :)

We could call this movie "The Joker" yet this villain is not good enough for that. Too crazy, too stupid for that. But this is not a Batman movie - he is not even in the title.
So the only thing worth seeing was the acting of Ledger... but that is not enough to make a great movie.

Overall rating - *** (3 in 5)
(MEANING:I would not see this again, I would not rent this movie, I would not buy the DVD. Yet I wouldn't mind seeing it on TV - Sunday afternoon)

as disposable action movie - ****
as comics movie - ***
as comics hero movie - ****

Batman - **
Joker - ****
(see how bad this is?)

storyline - **
(there is no story at all... and the plot as it is seems too much confusion for this kind of movie)
visual FX - *****
sound - ****

The Dark Knight

2008-08-04T10:43:00.008+01:00

"It's easy, we, uh, kill the Batman"

So says The Joker in "The Dark Knight", the latest of the Batman franchise. If only it were that easy. Perhaps what makes this sequel to "Batman Begins" so appealing is how ironic that plan actually is because the Joker simply has no plan. That's what makes him such a menace. Generating so much hype that it spectacularly landed and got stuck at #1 of IMDb's Top 250 Movies of All-Time, "The Dark Knight" may not actually be the best movie ever but it certainly makes a good attempt at being the best comics hero movie to reach theaters worldwide.

Reasons for this are manyfold and not every one of them has to do with its story. Ledger's untimely passing has no doubt been a decisive factor as it is human nature to sympathize with these situations. Fortunately for us moviegoers, Ledger was still very much alive and kicking when he did what's certainly the best performance of his career as a completely deranged Joker who sees himself as an agent of chaos. Comparisons to Jack Nicholson's portrayal of the character almost twenty years ago abound, but to me they're just pointless. Different time, different actors.

But most of all, different approaches to the Batman story. Think "Heat" or "The Departed" and you see how far removed from Tim Burton's overall feel Christopher Nolan has gotten. So to say you prefer one Joker over the other, for me is really a matter of preferring Nolan's or Burton's way of doing things. In any case, regardless of all the Oscar talk coming from the sympathetic global heart of the world, the truth is that with this performance Ledger is no less deserving of at least a nomination for supporting actor than anybody else. In fact, if you heard it, it's true: he steals the movie, he's the one whose next scene I kept eagerly awaiting, he's the main reason why I went back to the theater a couple of days later.

But this is definitely an ensemble movie. Everyone has just the right amount of screen time - including the Joker. I don't know whether there was any last minute editing after Ledger's death, but Nolan was definitely smart not to overuse him. Michael Caine as Alfred, Morgan Freeman as Lucius Fox and Gary Oldman as Gordon all reprise their roles from "Batman Begins" and all support the action pretty much perfectly. Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent is also spot on but unfortunately I couldn't feel much for him and his situation as I couldn't sympathize with Maggie Gyllenhaal as much as I wanted to. I think the right actress to play Rachel Dawes is still to come along, but it's certainly not Gyllenhaal.

I've never been much of comic books/films fan, but I gotta admit "The Dark Knight" turned me on. I went in surrounded by all the hype and came out delighted because the movie ends up being light on the fantasy aspect and heavy on the real life believable side of things. So much so that if someone had to go and the film remain very strong, it could be the Batman. He wasn't the center of my attention and in fact the story focuses as much on him as it does on Bruce Wayne. That's telling.

The Dragon

2008-08-04T09:45:00.005+01:00

I've been willing to write here for days but I just couldn't find a way to start...
Now I don't have that problem, I am already writing.

I would like to thank PRLA for the invitation. I will try to do my best to stay on the editorial line of this blog, even if it doesn't have one (which appears to be case).
Due to censorship I am not authorized to discuss some issues of international politics at my will (so much for the free speech) but I will touch those topics from time to time.

So lets start with some Olympic matters. As most of the inhabitants of the planet know, the Olympic Games will take place in China this year and 1/5 of the world is worried about Human Rights issues in that country (2/5 are busy with their own problems: hunger, war, civil unrest, dictators, etc; 1/5 does not care about that and the rest of the people are Chinese).

It is indeed nice these days to be pro-Tibet and say Dalai Lama is a nice dude, a bald laughter like no other. So we have to fight China for they employ little children, exploit their workers, limit freedoms and conquered Tibet. That is all true but let's not lose the bigger picture.

Such places (I wouldn't say countries, regions, etc for most of the people of an oppressed country are victims) exist all over the world and this is a global fight, one much more important than fighting terrorism (which by the way is a subjective term - we will discuss that later - and is invisible - no one is a terrorist until he/she spreads terror).

The struggle against hunger, war, oppression, exploitation must be taken in a global scale. And economic sanctions are not solution. You can't also "bomb" countries with food - that's not help; that's hypocrisy in cereal boxes. Most of the world needs know-how and that kind of help is not a task for ONG's or for common citizens. A new kind of United Nations has to make it's appearance in the world.

Of course China is the most visible case of HR violations right now and thus every western citizen waits to see China failing. That will not happen from China's perspective; that will surely happen from Europe / US perspective. The problem is that the US are scared - China WILL become the next superpower; the world will no longer be ruled by one nation. Europeans are simply jealous - over the last 60 years they watched the rise of US, USSR, Russia post-91, India, China, etc. And EU still is discussing internal matters and will be forever. The bigger it gets (27 and counting) the harder it will be to have a one voiced supra-national entity that is a world player and with worldwide respect.

So the story about China is this - the rise of a new giant. As Tom Clancy is changing it's novels (the red threath is now China, not Russia) the politicians at Capitol Hill are changing their focus too.

And so do we, carried on by the media.

PS - we came to the strange situation of Europeans wanting independence for Tibet, something that not even Dalai Lama wants...

Reloaded

2008-07-31T11:19:00.004+01:00

Having gone through so many changes over time, this blog enters yet another cycle in its lifespan. Having published here since early 2005, it would suck progressively more to shut this place down as time goes along. I've never been one to write religiously every day and as you can see here, there are a lot of hiatuses now and then. I guess that's the nature of a blog for me: it should reflect the very nature of its author(s) and, in a sense, not writing tells as much about myself as writing does. Incidentally, I always felt that I alternate quite often between read-only mode and read-write mode, to use a technical metaphore.

In any case, let's not make a big deal about this. If there's one thing I hate more than leaving a blog for dead is announcing that it will be everything you always wished for in a blog (and then some) and then leaving it for dead. So without further ado, I welcome Pedro (aka Enolough), of Sure You Will (Portuguese only) fame, to the fold. We plan to write about everything and, more to the point, about nothing. We also plan to finally disclose who killed JFK (don't believe the hype), among other impressive discoveries. A PayPal link will be set up, in case you really wanna know this little bit of inside information.

A word of caution: don't take this blog's tagline too seriously, because it's so much less than that. In fact, just don't take us seriously at all. Better that way.

I.

2008-06-08T19:16:00.003+01:00

The sun was shining high up in the sky, reflecting down equally in every one of the skyscraper's windows. Every year it gets hotter and it is anyone's guess where this will all end. Some say it will end for good and sooner than we might think. Right now, my only concern has nothing to do with global warming or how the world is coming to an end. My own world is already crumbling, tearing apart at the edges and saving it, for all it might mean, must take precedence over saving the world that is everyone's. I sit in a park bench, my clock telling me two minutes already past three and I try to gather the necessary strength not only to go inside but, more immediately, to get up on my feet. I'm still sitting down but my legs will surely feel little more consistent than a bowl of jelly. The fact of the matter is that all guilt bears heavily upon my shoulders and no one else should be blamed for my own actions and their dire consequences.
In the vastness that a split second can entail when lived in such circumstances, fragments of childhood memories race through my mind. I remember when my mother used to prop me up early in the morning for going to school and then my father took me by the hand to the Honda and off we went until he would drop me at the school gate and a new day of adventure would begin. I've never been the brightest chaps in the groups I was involved in but then again not the one that always got picked last for the soccer teams. In fact, I was nicknamed Shadow for a reason. I didn't really like the spotlight and no one ever felt the need to point it at me, which suited me just fine. Only once did I ever really get in trouble and when a desk came apart and literally split in two and they traced it back to me. To this day I still don't know which fucked snitched me but the truth is I was bored and three hours in class seemed more than enough time to test my new swiss army knife and its multiplicity of tools. That the desk would suffer because of my new toy I regarded as simply an unfortunate side effect. I did a good job of maintaining the two halves up against each other and then in a precarious balance as I left the room, but I guess I couldn't expect it to stay that way for too long.
I smile at those distant memories, almost feeling the surge of adrenaline I felt at the time as I admired the stupidity of what I had just done, but now they transport me back to the present, bringing my heart rate up by yet another beat or two. Because the task at hand is not something to feel too icy about. When it does, you are in serious trouble.

to be continued...

Stagnate

2008-04-28T13:52:00.002+01:00

Back to my parents' home for the weekend, been here a bit too long for what's currently my taste. Friday was a holiday here, so it made sense to come back then and now I'm held up here because a fool decided to smash the front of my car with the rear of his and the repairs could only be done today, Monday. In any case, I seriously hope it's all fixed by the end of the afternoon as they promised me, or else...

Or else, nothing. I'll just have to wait and moan some more.

In any case, while the weekend proper has been completely unproductive and basically a total waste of my time, I've been able to do some work this morning. Some bad work related news, concerning near future prospects, but we'll see where it will all ultimately go. I should be more certain of what I'll be doing by the end of this week or so I hope.

But what really prompted this post was to share the Pitchfork review for Portishead's new album, "Third". On the rare occasions I got out with my colleagues for lunch, we invariably talking a bit about music and it was the general consensus that "Third" sucks, especially the first single, "Machine Gun". Clearly a lot of people are positively frightened by anything that's unconventional in the slightest. It just scares the hell out of them. Or maybe they are simply unable to comprehend it.

In any case, I thought "Third" is yet another work of genius by this fabulous band and I'm happy Pitchfork agrees with me. Here's a little quote from the aformentioned review:

Keep in mind just how out-of-nowhere this all seems: The notion of a new Portishead album had, for many fans, fallen out of the realm of possibility. If Third had come out in 1999 or 2000, maybe writers would be calling it Portishead's answer to Massive Attack's Mezzanine, another third album by trip-hop icons eschewing dinner-conversation music by embracing anxiety and moodiness. Released today, it instead feels like a staggering transformation and a return to form that was never lost, an ideal adaptation by a group that many people didn't know they needed to hear again.

So true, I couldn't agree more. And "The Rip" is seriously one of my favorite songs of the year. "Third" is definitely a candidate for album of the year, as well. Not that it matters, but it shows how important this can still be after an 11-year hiatus.

Back To Writing Mode

2008-04-24T10:36:00.002+01:00

So, a lot has happened since I last posted a proper entry - something that goes back to... let's see... October 2007, about half a year ago. I've gotten into another band and I've fallen out of it, I've ceased writing music reviews for progscape.com, I got into a day job and I'm about to leave it for another... well, it's a state of constant motion, as Mike would put it.

Admittedly, I'm a little rusty on this writing thing. I've always toyed with the idea of writing consistently, even if briefly, every single day, in order to keep somewhat of a life log, something I could refer to later that would help me put together the pieces of my past. We tend to keep only the strongest memories, the proverbial "big picture", of what has happened to us in the past and the little details obviously tend to be forgotten. Writing some notes every day would help me, I thought, to keep those little details alive somewhere so I could come back to them later and better remember whatever I've been through. Problem is, there's simply no consistency to write that regularly on my part. Is that a problem though?

All questions and no answers, as is usually the case with me. Anyway, it doesn't really matter right now. To get my dear readers, all two of them, up to speed on what I'm up to lately, suffice to say I'm working for a software company during the day, while trying to create my own startup with two other people at night and whenever time allows. As for the former, I'd rather not disclose who I'm working for as I'm leaving soon anyway and as for the latter, we have a small web presence as of now in the form of 3anglesoftware.com. Other than that, I'm also trying to finish my CS degree, of which only Mathematical Analysis II remains and I'm halfway through the semester, hoping it's for real this time and that come summertime I will be a graduate. Finally, I'm also getting deeper into my masters thesis (MSc) which concerns itself with constraint logic programming. More on that later.

Progress on all these fronts will, I hope, be recorded on this blog from now on. Of all these tasks, maybe the most interesting stuff lies in that entrepreneurship bit, what with starting my own company and all, and I initially thought about creating a new blog simply about the experience of trying to bootstrap my own startup, failures, successes and all that jazz. Ultimately decided against it and whatever I have to say about it will be written here instead.

Enough out of me for me, better get back to work.

Paulo's Playlist: 21 April 2008

2008-04-21T11:50:00.005+01:00

Well, this time is as good as any. Let's get the weekly playlist tradition back on. Without further ado, here's what's currently on rotation around here.

1. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
2. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster...
3. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
4. The Magnetic Fields - Distortion
5. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
6. Jonny Greenwood - There Will Be Blood OST
7. Xiu Xiu - Women As Lovers
8. David Bowie - Hunky Dory
9. Renaissance - Prologue
10. Marillion - Clutching At Straws

http://www.last.fm/user/prla/

The Dream

2007-12-09T02:55:00.000Z

Is this a dream
Within a dream
Within a dream?...

No frame feels new
Trapped inside the same old maze
Running down that old up staircase
Out of myself and into the river of you

Teaching me something new
Look into my eyes and tell me the truth
When I fall from the sky
Drop of a river of memories
Where you will be waiting for me
Holding me exactly where I always should be

Is this a dream
Within a dream
Within a dream?...

A glimpse of your face, breathing lapse
You disappear without a trace and I collapse
Hours die and fade away in this room of mine
Teargas and endless thoughts lurking inside
About the million things I wanted you to see
Holding you exactly where you always should be

But now alone in my bedroom of shadows
I think that all this can't pass for a dream
And all these voices that I heard over the night
Every single word lost in my conscience
Show me the best way to be apart
From a world so full of your presence

And then you no longer holding me where I always should be
You merely disappear without a trace and then I just collapse

This is not a dream

D. & P.

(Despite the 50-50, I feel this one's all yours. Thanks, D.)

Lilac Wine

2007-11-22T14:12:00.000Z

OK, I might as well admit it. This is now nothing more than a quote of the day repository. But maybe that is because others can put it so much better than I could ever hope for myself?

Today the award goes to Jeff with a reminder that only the good die young.

I lost myself on a cool damp night
Gave myself in that misty light
Was hypnotized by a strange delight
Under a lilac tree
I made wine from the lilac tree
Put my heart in its recipe
It makes me see what I want to see
and be what I want to be
When I think more than I want to think
Do things I never should do
I drink much more that I ought to drink
Because I brings me back you...

Rest in peace, Jeff.

(The Other) Quote of the Day

2007-11-20T16:52:00.001Z

I'm not even going to justify myself again...

From Time, by way of Pedro (thanks!):

"Why is eating healthily equated with being boring when nothing could be more boring than being dead?"

Think about it perhaps next time you mindlessly make fun of a vegetarian. Or just think about it right now.

Yes, I'm picky today. But nothing could be closer to the truth than that very statement.

P.

Quote of the Day

2007-11-20T16:14:00.000Z

(I don't want this blog to become a repository for quotes only, but this one is just too good to ignore and let pass)

"The first step - especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money -- the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art."

-- Chuck Palahniuk

And while we're at it:

"Because after you've crossed some lines, you just keep crossing them."

-- Chuck Palahniuk (again)

Quote of the Day

2007-11-12T11:11:00.000Z

“It’s a matter of discipline, and it starts by looking at the problem and collecting all the available information about it. If you understand the problem, you have the solution. It’s really more about logic than imagination.”

-- Massimo Vignelli (source)

Put The Freaks Up Front

2007-11-02T18:27:00.000Z

Come and feel what it does to me,
so much more than fantasy
put your panic on hold, amplify your very soul
and keep breathing.

(dEUS)

Living On The Edge (And Then Falling Off)

2007-10-29T11:46:00.000Z

I was going through some single paragraph reviews of albums that interest me in the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (a dubious list as every other) and came across this fantastic bit about AC/DC's "Highway to Hell":

Upon being promoted from the band's driver to its lead singer, Bon Scott immediately came up with his singular formula for recording vocals: He downed half a bottle of bourbon, chased it with some weed and a fat rail of blow, and proclaimed, "I'm ready." Then he got the take. Scott was a force of nature, and by AC/DC's fourth studio album, he and guitarist Angus Young had become an explosive one-two punch. "You'd need several volumes of Britannica," Young noted, "just to chronicle what Bon got up to in one day." Inevitably, Scott's wicked ways caught up with him, and he was dead six months after Highway's release.

Talk about living on the edge...

Anyway, it's been a fun little trip so far and it got me to pop in Weezer's Blue Album again after so much time. This fits in perfectly with my alt/indie rock recent mood and now I'm convinced this Weezer album is definitely one of my favorite albums ever. I just love the lyrics, the guitars building up this huge wall of comfortable noise, the pop sensibility, the simple pounding drums, River's voice, everything. It's good that albums like this exist and are within reach. Somehow it makes me feel good amid chaos and that's something to cherish.

The world has turned and left me here
Just where I was before you appeared
And in your place an empty space
Has filled the void behind my face.

Ain't it?

Melting Pot

2007-10-28T18:47:00.000Z

Lately, as far as music is concerned, I've been pretty much going back to my earlier life of indie/alternative bands and beyond all the stuff I've been rehashing, I'm becoming familiar with Interpol. I guess these guys showed up on the radar just after I stopped monitoring it but it's a good thing I'm picking it all up now. It does have the Joy Division vibe (of whom I listened to the "Substance" compilation earlier today and enjoy it immensely) but I think they totally have an identity of themselves.

As usually happens, I was going through some online stuff about the band and a Pitchfork interview with vocalist Paul Banks came up. At some point he says:

You can't just imitate and keep coming up with ideas. You have to be tapping into something that's pure and unconscious in yourself or you'll have no career. You've got nothing to draw from. So the idea of starting a band because of Nirvana and thereby trying to sound like Nirvana is totally not the case. Nor is it the case a lot of times when people talk about a band's influences. Anybody that's in a band probably has millions of fucking influences and loves music so much that they're totally cross-genre and don't say, "I only listen to this." That's for non-musicians to say: "I only listen to this or that type of music." I think musicians love all music, or at least that's my case. Neil Young and Crazy Horse was a huge influence, folk music-- fucking Leonard Cohen-- those were all big influences. Jane's Addiction was a big influence. But at no point did I ever say, "I'll chemically fuse these sounds together and some kind of concept and develop a band sound as a result of that." Our band's sound is developed out of the four of us influencing each other.

Quoted for truth. Incidentally I doubt my musical abilities but I've been claiming exactly this for so long that I can't really understand people who only listen to a single style of music. For me, that would be a very scary place to be trapped in. But to each his own, so I'm not complaining and everyone is entitled to listen to whatever the fuck they enjoy listening.

Just a thought. Sucks that there's no tickets left for Interpol in Lisbon next month. Serves me right for not waking up earlier. Metaphorically speaking.

Quote Of The Day

2007-10-25T19:46:00.000+01:00

"English people aren't impressed. There's this automatic assumption that any degree of success means that you've cheated. Or you're full of shit."

-- Thom Yorke in Meeting People Is Easy

The Enigma

2007-10-21T05:21:00.000+01:00

In every breath you take
In every move you make
In every step you fake
Your thoughts unknown
You are the enigma

Is this all in my mind?
A sick trick of the delusional kind
The illusion that grabs me and doesn't let go
Wouldn't it be nice to just say no
Wake up and know you're not right for me
No longer sell out for free

In every word you don't say
In every letter you don't read
In every signal you don't give
Your thoughts unknown
You are the enigma

Are you in?
Or are you out?
Will you help me understand?
Far away and unable to bridge the gap
Searching for the right words, bleeding good will
Lost in the haze of your deafening silence

We're not taking any of the advice
And we will pay the price
Right or wrong
Sometimes you just don't care
Self destruct, crash and burn
Blame someone else for the wrong turn

Anything I may say
Anything I may do
Is certain to be
A mistake

P.

Blind Spot

2007-10-19T02:36:00.000+01:00

A self deprecating prophecy
Such amazing delicacy
It's not the way you want to be
But there's no other sight you care to see
The jigsaw drifting out of place
Clutching at straws with nothing but a face

Analyze, jeopardize
Every day wearing the same old disguise
Every hope scarred by coffee and cigarette burns
Tears and holes in the fabric of the soul

Dislocate
Deprecate
Black swan says check mate
Don't believe a word he says

Sheets are cold, you left without a trace
You never been there in the first place

P.

The Eraser

2007-10-16T23:23:00.000+01:00

The more you try to erase me, the more that I appear

(Thom Yorke)

Sentimental

2007-10-13T11:41:00.001+01:00

But am I here?
It's kind of hard to tell
I do a good impression of myself
But what's normal now anyhow?

(Porcupine Tree)

Just To Let You Know...

2007-10-11T23:08:00.000+01:00

...that I'm still here. And that I should probably quit posting these title-first sentence connections.

Life is made of ups and downs and if you've been unfortunate enough, or bored enough or any combination thereof, to be following this blog recently you understand that my lows are particularly low. If you knew me personally on a daily basis, you'd also notice my highs are particular high. I don't even want to look up the definition of bipolar disorder.

But anyway, we're always learning to live throughout our entire lives and whoever thinks otherwise, I pity you. These past few weeks have been particularly intensive on that learning to live subject and I guess finding out one or two (or more) truths about life has been scary enough for me. The question I beg to ask and which begs to be asked is this: We can prepare for most things in life... but can we prepare for life itself? Always the one with the hard questions, right?

I've been fighting a good fight of not letting the highs soar so high and, most importantly, not letting the downs plunge so fucking deep. This is a constant battle, I tell you. Kurt Cobain claimed he "missed the comfort of being sad", on "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge In Seattle", off In Utero. I hear ya, Kurt, wherever you are now. Sometimes - most of the time? all the time? - it just seems and feels so much easier to revert back to ourselves, close the door behind us and conveniently forget others exist and that the world is still ticking away outside.

I've been trying to learn what is valuable and what's not. Been trying to learn how to separate the wheat from the chaff. Been trying to learn which fights are worth picking and which are not. Been trying to learn who is my friend and who is not.

I haven't really graduated on any of these accounts. But I've learned that I will never get it completely right. It may be obvious to you and superficially it is also obvious to me, but deep down inside where it matters the most, there's still a longing for perfection, for getting it all right, the proverbial bull's eye. But there are shades of gray and you have to pick your favorite one or at least the one you can afford.

As those guys I love once said:

Here before me is my soul
I'm learning to live
I won't give up
Till I've no more to give

Damn right. That's hopeful as hopeful can be.

The First Day...

2007-10-08T09:05:00.000+01:00

...of the rest of our lives.

That's how we probably should face everyday, Carpe Diem and all that you know?

It just seems so difficult... every day.

You know?

Grow Up, Will Ya?

2007-10-05T19:20:00.000+01:00

I've been around for over 24 years now. Put that way I notice it is almost a quarter of a century. It's been an... interesting ride so far and I can't really complain much. But one thing I've been noticing is that I have trouble feeling exactly how old I am.

I've always been the type that gets along much easier with older people than people my own age. Back when I was 8, I remember my best friends were 16 and 13. When I got into university (already under aged for reasons that I will not get into right now) I was 17 and bonded instantly with the guys that were 20 and over. Over time, the weak links I had with those in my year became fewer to the point that there's simply no one my age I deal with on a daily basis. All my house mates up to this point were older than me, usually by a couple of years.

So when I was, let's say, 14, if I got in contact with someone 24, I'd regard him or her as a fully grown adult. I mean, wow, at 24 these guys must have seen everything and there's probably few secrets still out there for them to uncover. Now that I find myself being 24, I feel like I'm really 18. Now that I'm among the older guys at university - not to mention I shouldn't be there by now - I look at all the other people, especially the ones that just got in and are 18 in their majority... and I feel like I'm just one of them. By now, whoever is reading this is probably thinking "yeah well, what's your fucking point anyway?" and I applaud whoever thinks that because I'm pondering over the exact same thing.

But in any case, this brings another question. When is the inflexion point? When will I suddenly start feeling older than I really am? Will that ever happen? Or will I just be hoping I was younger but feel exactly my age? Hold your blue pill jokes for a moment there, please.

One thing is obvious, though. Girls are developing much faster and much earlier these days. Or was I simply too busy playing Championship Manager, Command & Conquer, playing soccer and listening to all those Offspring and Nirvana records?

What Happens Next?

2007-10-05T14:10:00.000+01:00

Continuing along the theme of expectation, which I kickstarted yesterday, one of the things I've been thinking about, for all the right and wrong reasons pertaining to my own personal and convoluted little life, is what happens next. I mean, you expect, it doesn't happen. How do you deal with it? Surely there are different ways to get at it and all seem to involve some degree of healing. If we see it that way, then maybe we should think about ways of not letting the cut be as deep as it would otherwise be. Because the deeper it gets, the longer it takes to heal and, honestly, the more it fucking hurts. That's prophylaxis for you.

A prophylaxis is a measure taken to maintain health and prevent the spread of disease. (from Answers.com)

That's also an interesting way to look at it. As a side note, I always marvel at metaphors and how they always seem to exist for any and every subject. And they usually come straight from nature. Awesome.

In any case, it seems that we also need to differentiate between different degrees of expectation. If you expected the weather to get cold and then it doesn't, that's quite alright. Worst case scenario, you'll sweat a little and that can even be good to you. If you expected an A in your latest test and you get a B, maybe you get a little dispirited. If you expected your paycheck at the end of the month and it's not available yet, that may cause some trouble, sometimes a lot of trouble. If you expected to meet a friend but something came up and he or she didn't hesitate to forfeit your encounter, then you probably get sad, question the friendship and will think twice next time. If you're in love with someone and expect it to be mutual and then it's not, it can put your self-esteem in the gutter.

Clearly, the closer we get to the heart, the more dangerous expectation becomes. Not being heartless is however exactly one of the things that makes us human and we're not in the business of becoming inhuman here. Getting back to the point, in these extreme cases, how do we prepare? How can we avoid taking the hit straight on the chin, knocking us out cold? How can the cut be, if not superficial, at least not too deep?

Again, we're thrown into a balancing problem. How can I adjust expectation so as to believe enough in what I want but avoid getting seriously hurt if it just doesn't happen? One hell of a good question. Right now, I have no idea.

Expectation

2007-10-04T17:21:00.001+01:00

While I go about my daily life - even as dim and gloomy as it's been as of late - I sense that my "background processor" is constantly chewing at some sort of metaphysical meaning of life type question. Why are we here? What is our purpose? What am I doing wrong? Will the world ever close shop? Am I an asshole? You know, that kind of stuff.

One of those questions concerns happiness and how happy - or unhappy - we are. In particular, what is the measure of happiness? From the get go, I guess we can pretty much agree that my definition of "happy" can have little resemblance to what you or anyone else thinks being "happy" or happiness is in general. Certainly there is at least one point that is safe to assume: it leans more towards feeling good than feeling bad (Monsieur de La Palice would be proud).

But am I happier than you are? Is it the other way around? Is it even comparable? Am I happy at all?

In the end what prompted me to write this is my sudden realization - which is entirely up to debate - that happiness is intimately related to the concept of expectation. Meaning that if I greatly reduce my expectations, it's much more likely my degree of happiness will increase. If I don't expect something to happen, it just doesn't matter. On the other hand, the more I expect, the more I can get frustrated at.

But are expectation and happiness, in the limit, inversely proportional? In the extreme case of increasing your expectations to the very top, I think you're pretty much up for a huge disappointment, decreasing happiness. Or, you are one lucky sonofabitch for whom the cosmos is working for and makes everything happen for them (I know a case or two which at least look like they have that going for them).

On the other hand, what happens if you reduce expectations to zero? Will you guarantee happiness that way? Probably not, if it were that simple the world would be a better place (or would it?). In all likelihood, all you would achieve was a complete lack of interest and motivation. Happiness killers, let me tell you. (Then again, is there a direct relation between expectation and motivation? I sense there is, but maybe there's more to it than meets the eye. Food for thought).

So is it safe to assume that the virtue is, as they say, in the middle? Expect, but not too much?

Maybe. And maybe not. Finding that balance, be it in the middle or a little to the right or left, seems to be one of those challenges that make life arguably interesting. And incredibly frustrating sometimes too.

Self Control

2007-09-28T16:52:00.000+01:00

My heart rate is jacked.

My hand... steady. My hand does NOT shake. Ever.

Just so I never forget this line, it's here on this blog.

Drained and Confused

2007-09-26T21:21:00.000+01:00

A good impression of myself
What is there to conceal?
Living another life
Forging another lie

Silly make up
Acting cover up
Impersonation, imagination
Weapon of mass deception

Void
Schizoid
Paranoid
Spinning timidly out of control

Mouthful of questions
Avoiding the answers
Who are you anyway?
And who am I anyway?
Wishing away each day
That's the way I've been choosing to play
Every single day

P.

The End is Begun

2007-09-25T16:27:00.001+01:00

Fuck it. No more.

One little story

2007-09-25T14:37:00.000+01:00

While we're on the subject of 3, it would be interesting to learn a lesson from a lesson learnt by Joey. He writes in his myspace weblog:

I was an intellectual little 4 year old. Thinking back to my state of mind then, its funny but I haven't changed much. Anyway I fell deeply in love with a girl named Kim in my nursery school class. At the end of what was to be my last day we played a game of: "name a fruit or vegetable and win a trip down the mini-slide. " I remember being last in line, and Kim was just in front of me. "Apple," she said, but the teacher would not let her pass. "What is his name," the teacher asked and pointed at me. Kim turned around looked at me. "joey!," she said with a laugh. It was an amazing feeling to be acknowledged by some one you feel powerfully drawn to.
That night I went home and thought to myself: "I've got to tell her how I feel. Nothing could be worse than to not at least try. (I was an intense little 4 year old!) It seemed at the very moment I had decided to tell Kim how I felt, my parents came into my room and told me that I wouldn't be going back to nursery school because they couldn't afford to keep me in. It was already too late. I was devistated.
I think this was one of the most profound events in shaping who I am. I turned to song to survive, without it I would be over run with the emotions I feel. I think that my music, my artistry, is an echo of this beautiful sadness that has haunted and inspired me for all my earthbound years.

It surely hits home. But still hanging in the balance between too early and too late. Between too little and too much. Between right and wrong, between hope and despair.

I didn't know I could get like this. Damn.

Serpents in Disguise

2007-09-25T10:55:00.000+01:00

Have you come to die?
Or have you come to learn?
Deeper do we dive
Longer to return
Said we won't survive
So now we have to burn
Crashing through the sky
I'll be coming home

And there's a look upon your face
As if there's something out of place
You disappear without a trace
Now you're going home

This moment speeding by
Is never to return
Running out of time
For lessons to be learned
Said we won't survive
So now we have to burn
Crashing through the sky
I'll be coming home

Where did you go
I need to know
What is in my mind

I guess all this time the enemy has really been right there in the mirror.

2007-09-24T16:11:00.000+01:00

Been a while since I last wrote something and I figured now would be as good a time as ever.

It's also because I'm desperately hoping writing will be therapeutic and that it will help me overcome this time of crisis. When I say it like this, it may sound like war has broken outside and that I'm a refugee running for cover. Things like that don't happen in this paradise country of ours and we must be thankful for that, I guess.

They do however occur inside my head. So, in a sense, I guess quoting DT would be appropriate because, want it or not, I'm constantly waging a war inside my head. It's not because I was in Vietnam as the song implies. I was not. I wasn't even born, I guess. It's because things keep colliding no matter what the problem is. This would also be a good time to apologize to whoever is reading this as it is written in a stream of consciousness type format and hardly anyone will understand what in the blue fuck I'm talking about. That's OK, because by now I probably already lost most of my audience. Pleasure meeting you.

Anyway, I just need to vent. I need something to somehow energize me, something that can go some way to making me get through the day and get to tomorrow. It seems I can never have an element of instability in my mind without it completely affecting me. I'm going through yet another of those phases, which are becoming worryingly frequent, and I feel completely drained. Fortunately not physically, but psychologically there's nothing in there. Even music is further away from my mind, even now that I got a few discs in the mail awaiting my reviewing. And I wanted so desperately to be a reviewer. Now that I am, there's this situation.

It shouldn't work this way. I'm confident what I'm going through is a completely natural and normal process, but maybe it's been too long since I felt this way and this time is not particularly pretty. The "game" should be fun, but only if two people are playing it. Single user mode sucks mightily, especially when the other person probably doesn't even know there's a game going on.

I'm overreacting as always. I'm in serious need of that awesome virtue called "patience". I know I am. But it's so difficult for me to live on a limbo. I'm not actually worried about the outcome. I simply want - need - an outcome. I need to find some way to lift these shadows, this uneasiness, this queasiness, this anxiety because it's affecting my work and it so happens that affecting my work will no doubt affect the work of others. That cannot happen. Must not happen.

It's difficult to believe things can get this way. I'm incredibly drawn to that beautiful sight and it makes me feel so bad at the same time. I have a feeling there's a lot in there despite the interaction being so thin, so short, so objective, so... cold.

I feel disoriented and it worries me so much that a glimpse of hope can be ruined by taking the wrong action at the wrong time. And it's so easy to slip and make that very wrong move.

Hopefully tomorrow will be brighter. At least I hope.

Pushit

2007-07-02T21:14:00.000+01:00

All bets are off.

Deliberation

2007-06-01T21:36:00.000+01:00

Repeating cycle of light/no light
There's nothing in the airspace
There's no one in the airspace
Repeating cycle of love/no love

Zodiac (2007)

2007-05-21T00:17:00.001+01:00

Went to see Zodiac earlier today. Knowing in advance that it was directed by David Fincher, one of my favorites, the stakes were high as far as I was concerned. I loved Se7en, The Game and Fight Club, but Panic Room was a real let down, so I had mixed feelings.

Still, Zodiac sounded like it could be pretty much like a reprise of Se7en. Now that I've seen it, I can say that it has similarities with it and one important difference. First, obviously the subject matter is pretty much the same, and the film has the same tone and colors (though Se7en was more... I don't know... damp, dark and sharp I guess are the words I'm looking for here, which in that sense made it even better). I could also swear that one particular scene looks so much like another scene on Se7en, that it could very well be a deliberate nod to the director's 1995 movie.

The key difference though, is that whereas in Se7en people (namely, a couple of detectives) are trying to catch a serial killer before he completes what he has set out to do, in Zodiac most of the film is about what happens after that point is reached. How the trail grows colder every day, except for a few obsessive people.

I liked it, but unfortunately its length (158 minutes) and uneven pace make it a film more difficult to digest than it should be in the first place, as far as I'm concerned. At nearly three hours, it's a really long one. Another minor gripe with it for me was that the cast although really competent wasn't memorable. Maybe I'm biased because of the incredible doubles of Pitt/Freeman and Pitt/Norton, but still I would have loved that the two detectives had been played by more interesting actors. In the case of Gyllenhaal, though I admit I'm not a fan of his, I do think he's been perfectly cast for his role.

Still, Fincher seems to be very much in control of his game, delivering again a top film, recovering from the mild disappointment that was Panic Room.

Quote of the Day

2007-05-20T15:18:00.000+01:00

"Vertigo, they say, is not really a fear of falling; it's a fear of jumping. The gap between the subject and the ground creates such strong psychological conflict in the afflicted that the temptation to eliminate it by leaping into the void is overpowering, and dizziness sets in."

(from Jim Emerson's review of "Red Road")

When Being Famous Actually Makes a Difference

2007-05-08T17:35:00.000+01:00

It has come to my attention (via Isabel) that Cristiano Ronaldo, who's probably Portugal's most famous footballer nowadays, has issued a video statement appealing for any information concerning little Maddie McCann's disappearance last week in the Algarve, here in our country.

For one thing, this post serves as a little echo for such appeal and on the other hand to give two thumbs way up for Ronaldo. Sometimes being famous does make a difference and this is definitely one such case.

Let's hope this case has a happy ending, even though it's harder and harder to believe so as the days go by.

Quote of the Day

2007-05-07T16:46:00.000+01:00

"Your dream world is a very scary place to be trapped inside"

-- Anathema, "Closer"

Stuff To Check Out Later

2007-05-07T16:19:00.000+01:00

Rome - The Complete HBO Series 1 (6 Disc Box Set) (IMDb)
Heard nothing but good things about this one and the IMDb rating is huge for almost 5,000 votes. Guess I'll have to pick it up as soon as I get my degree done with.

Six Feet Under (IMDb)
Somehow I ended up buying the second season a couple of years ago without having seen any of the first beforehand (yeah, dumb me). Saw a couple of episodes the first time around and I guess I just wasn't in the right frame of mind because I detested it. One day, a few months later, on a whim, decided to put it on again and it blew me out of the water instantly. Saw the entire season two, and though I'm sure I could have enjoyed it even more had I seen the first season previously, it was still a huge kick. Isabel has the first season (I should know, I gave it to her last Christmas *grin*) so I will pick that up as soon as I got some free time. Looking forward to move on and catch up on seasons three, four and five!

The Proposition (IMDb)
Have had this one lying around (regretfully alongside many others in the same situation) since Cláudio offered it to me last Christmas. Sounds like it can be a very good one, and I really need to see it. Again, time... and the fucking degree out of the way.

Dalí and Pablo Picasso (Taschen Basic Art)
The enlightening and stimulating conversations with Pedro are starting to pay off in a most unexpected way: I'm starting to feel inclined towards learning about painting! Which is a good thing, of course. I'm also really glad I found out about Taschen, because their catalogue is nothing short of amazing. Saw these two at Fnac earlier today, just didn't pick them up right away because, honestly, I'm really low on currency right now. But that's a whole different story...

A Letter Concerning Toleration
Entirely thanks to Pedro again, following a quick chat about tolerating other people's actions and reactions and basically what's that all about. In the end, how to live better with ourselves and alongside the people that we really care about with conflict and unhappiness reduced to a minimum (this could really lend itself to an entire post about it... maybe some day).

Any thoughts on these ones?

One Pixel Border on Photoshop

2007-05-02T13:15:00.000+01:00

I was never proficient with Photoshop (or its open-source derivatives) and I still don't know jack about it. However, because of some web design work I got myself into lately, I now move a little more freely about. One thing however that has eluded me forever was how to apply a 1px border around an image or a banner, in this particular case. So, here's a quick recipe I found somewhere on the interweb...

Create a new layer

Press Command+A (or Ctrl+A on the PC) to select all. Then go to Edit->Stroke and apply the following settings: Width: 1px. Color: Black. Location: Center. Blending Mode: Normal. Opacity: 100%

Of course your mileage may vary so you should adjust these settings to your particular need. Here's the small banner I created for this blog featured this 1px border:

This comes along with some cosmetic changes to the site. Hope you enjoy it, feedback welcome!

13 Years

2007-05-01T20:57:00.000+01:00

It was 13 years ago today that the sports world became poorer after Ayrton Senna died during the Imola Formula 1 Grand Prix, in 1994. I have fragmented memories of that day, I was at our beach place with some people from our family when it all happened. I was only 10 at the time, so I probably didn't understand the full extent and magnitude of what was happening, but Senna was my favorite driver and it was brutal. I couldn't believe it for some three or four days afterwards, like it couldn't be true. And I remember everyone was feeling very uneasy during those hours where no one would say if he made it or not after being taken to the hospital.

And let's not forget Roland Ratzenberger also died earlier on that fatal weekend...

American Church Signs

2007-04-30T18:17:00.000+01:00

"If you give the devil a ride, pretty soon he'll want to drive".

Priceless and oh so true.

Interesting New (Old) Music

2007-04-30T15:38:00.000+01:00

These are the sounds that have caught my ear as of lately...

Pineapple Thief - Abducting The Unicorn (long overdue thanks, Rui)
Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet, XM and XMII
Alluminia - Power On Self Test
Meshuggah - I

...and of course the released track off the new Dream Theater! Isn't this a beautiful cover artwork?

A Couple of Exciting Prospects

2007-04-30T15:13:00.000+01:00

There's at least two new movies that have caught my eye. One has just come out stateside and is called "Next". Featuring the great Nicolas Cage alongside the equally great Julianne Moore, it's (yet another) adaptation of a Philip K. Dick work, in this case the short story "The Golden Man". I remember having read it off of this anthology about a year ago but honestly it has quite evaporated from my mind. I know I enjoyed it at the time though.

If Dick is one of the most adapted authors in history of movies and fiction, what can you say about Stephen King? I wonder who counts the most adaptations. This new one, "The Mist", I'm actually excited about because it will be directed by Frank Darabont, the fantastic director who also did my favorite movie of all time and the mildly interesting "The Green Mile", both King's adaptations. Incidentally, IMDb also tells me that Darabont will also be doing Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451 come 2008.

And I still haven't seen "The Fountain" and "Inland Empire". Damn!

The Big Scary Unknown

2007-02-06T14:15:00.000Z

"People don’t want their lives fixed. Nobody wants their problems solved. Their dramas. Their distractions. Their stories resolved. Their messes cleaned up. Because what would they have left? Just the big scary unknown."

— Chuck Palahniuk

(Photo: The Void, The Jewish Museum, by running for asthma)

Evol?

2007-01-24T22:15:00.000Z

Earlier today, I was part of a two-way conversation with a good friend, one of those chats that somehow turn philosophical, maybe because in that particular moment in time the planets were especially aligned. And out of the blue, I get the accusation:

- I think you haven't actually found love yet.

Time stops... What? Huh?

Then it hits me...

(He's right.)

...like a ton of bricks.

Guilty, Your Honor.

Zealot? Realist!

2007-01-22T23:11:00.000Z

As far as I'm concerned, Rui Carmo, over at The Tao of Mac, has pretty much clarified a question and in fact defined something which had eluded me for quite some time (and honestly seems to keep eluding a lot of people, particularly in, but not exclusive to, the IT industry):

There's a lot of noise about Vista. Here's my take: I want to use it. It would be irresponsible of me not try out, partially live in and try to understand something that will shape a lot of people's computing experience from now on, regardless of my personal preferences (that, my friends, is the difference between zealotry and reality).

Bull's eye. Indeed the difference between zealotry and reality.

Photo Beauty

2007-01-22T22:31:00.000Z

I wish I was a good photographer. Not a professionally good photographer. Just an average run-o-the-mill just-for-fun photographer. Hell, I wish I could take pictures with a third of the quality Thomas Hawk has recently posted on his blog.

Obviously I could just hop on to Flickr and instantly look at bazillions of awesome pictures that would floor me right on the spot, but those three specimens are just positively stunning. Especially the one labeled "The Old Train".

And how about this priceless sunset? (via Scoble)

Hell, here's the entire Thomas Hawk set from his recent visit to a train museum. (hosted at zooomr, an interesting Flickr competitor, or so it seems, which comes complete with an interesting Google Maps mashup. Hawk is CEO of zooomr, right...)

Let me just pick my jaw off the floor and I'll be back with you in a second.

Genious Behind the Camera

2007-01-22T18:02:00.000Z

I tend to think of myself as someone who enjoys good cinema. One could argue that may not be exactly the case, considering I'm very impatient with the films I see and often grow tired and move on midway into them. Which is kind of weird, I must add, considering I have seen my favorite movies countless times. Still, on the other hand, at 23, I don't think I have reached a plateau of, shall I say, understanding, which would allow me to truly appreciate many so-called works of art. Unfortunately, at this stage so many things compete for my attention that it's not easy to work towards solving this shortcoming of mine. I feel the same thing towards many other types of art, mostly painting and to a much lesser degree, music.

Since I can remember, I've always been aware of such masterpieces as Doctor Zhivago, The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia. Earlier today as I went shopping for groceries and other assorted trivialities, I came across a sale of low-price books and ended up (against my wishes, but that's entirely a story for another post) buying a couple of them.

One was Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier. I never saw the Anthony Minghella directed 2004 movie (which incidentally won an oscar and grabbed a few nominations), but saw Neil Peart recommending it in one of his books while alluding to his having read it. Since then, and probably thanks to the way he spoke about the book, I've been intending to buy it and that's what I did today.

The other was a low-budget edition of The Bridge on the River Kwai. My father has always told me great things about the movie, which he saw countless times back in the day, but just like Cold Mountain, I never got around to it. Now I found the book on which it was based and an impulse stirred in me to buy it. Afterall, I always preferred to read the books that originated the movies and not the other way around. I've always hated movie books that come after the book. Always sounded to me like a senseless opportunity to cash in and that, obviously, sucks from a "mere" artistic point of view.

I'm currently going through a couple of other books, Newtow's Wake and Martin Eden, having just finished The Art of Travel (these later two being yet another two examples of Peart recommendations, I have a tendency to follow them), so I'm not touching the new two acquisitions yet, but I was inclined to check out the IMDb movie page anyway. Digging a bit deeper, noticed that David Lean, English filmmaker born in 1908, was the director for River Kwai and that he got an Academy Award for it. What surprised me was that he's also the director for both Doctor Zhivago and Lawrence of Arabia, both huge classics, of which the latter also granted him the Academy Award for best director. Another interesting tidbit was noticing how some great directors constantly rely on a favorite actor, in this Alec Guiness, much in the same vein Toshirô Mifune was Kurosawa's wildcard.

David Lean has already gone on to a better place, but his genious endures. I've always wondered what makes these people really tick, what makes them relentlessly turn over these works of art. I still don't know how to answer that particular question, but Lean is certainly yet another example of such.

And I didn't see any of those three films yet. Shame on me.

Playlist

2007-01-15T19:17:00.000Z

15 January 2006

Isis - Oceanic
Pelican - Australasia EP
The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute + Tremulant EP
...and you will know us by the trail of dead - Source Codes & Tags
Death - Sound of Preserverance (*)
Marillion - Marbles
Portishead - Roseland NYC Live (*)
Camel - Never Let Go
Radiohead - Kid A
Chroma Key - Dead Air For Radios

Thom Yorke's "The Eraser"

2007-01-10T20:06:00.000Z

The more you try to erase me, the more I appear.

Proof yet again that Thom Yorke is one of the biggest artists of our generation. "The Eraser" has just today slapped me in the face, and I'm strongly considering it for a late addition to my top of 2006.

Considering my increasing interest in electronic noodling lately, this comes really close to part of what I want to do in the (near? far?) future. For now, it remains a huge inspiration and an album I'm certainly spinning quite a lot in the coming days/weeks (currently in the 4th consecutive play).

This in a way complements my rediscovery of Radiohead, coupled with a discovery (as opposed to a rediscovery, mind you) of Thom Yorke himself. I've always been keen on sincere and soulful voices, such as Tool's Maynard James Keenan and obviously Porcupine Tree's Steven Wilson, but obviously Thom easily fills the top three.

On a side note, it seems Radiohead have been playing new rocking upbeat tunes in their recent 2006 tour, stuff slated for inclusion in the forthcoming album. I hate the "return to the roots" silly advertisement so many people insist on doing these days regarding so many bands even when it's so obviously NOT the case and I refuse to jump on that bandwagon as far as Radiohead or anyone else is concerned. But if these talented guys have decided to take yet another step on evolving their sound, be it forward, backward or sideways, I'm ready to embrace it and get a huge kick out of the result.

Playlist

2007-01-08T16:26:00.000Z

08 January 2007

Symphony X - Twilight in Olympus (*)
John Frusciante - Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt
Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds
Porcupine Tree - Metanoia
Peter Hammill - In Camera
Tangerine Dream - Zeit
Thom Yorke - The Eraser
OSI - Free
Dream Theater - Train of Thought
Marcy Playground - s/t

Fear Falls Burning

2007-01-04T00:05:00.000Z

Lately I've been increasingly drawn to all things Porcupine Tree which eventually led me to buy all six released official fanzines so far (arrived in the post a couple of days ago). Also lately I've been keen on reading up online on my influences and things related to them. I eagerly keep checking back on Steven Wilson's website in order to keep track of his playlist which he is so kind to share with us mere mortals. I've always been attracted to artists which insist on pushing the proverbial envelope and Wilson is one such character. His work both as an active musician and on the producer's chair is nothing short of staggering and he's a huge influence on me.

But I'm losing myself here. What I meant to say is that his latest playlist includes an album by a project called Fear Falls Burning, which in itself is, I think, a fantastic moniker. I've been on background processing trying to come up with a name with which to christen my own band and I always wish I had come up with names like this when I come across them. Anyway, perilous are the paths of the interweb, and I end up on Fear Falls Burning website which is basically Belgian artist Dirk Serries one man guitar drone show. I haven't been able to get ahold of any of his work yet (he's so underground that not even on eMule I could find any sample of his work!) but I'm eager to. I also learned that he's been on and off collaborating with Steven Wilson, notably on his Bass Communion side.

So, long story short, the guy has been maintaining a blog since the beginning of 2006 and I decided to check it out. Ended up reading the whole thing and while it's mildly addictive, two interesting things came up as far as I'm concerned.

First, the man has been having a frenzy throughput since starting Fear Falls Burning at the end of 2004 and he already came up with a DVD, entitled "The Infinite Sea of Sustain" (yeah, the guy has a knack for great naming). What struck me as particularly interesting is that the DVD cover is a special thing. Quoting from the blog entry:

"the infinite sea of sustain" is a special release, and naturally the packaging reflects its special status. In keepingwith Soleilmoon's uncompromising standards this DVD is presented in a stunning 5 x 8 inch (12.5 x20.5 cm) foldermade from hand-processed wood grain paper. The paper was custom made for Soleilmoon by Shantilal & Sons of Bombay, India, and no two copies are alike. The texture is an unbelievably fluid vision of wood; mere words cannot doit justice. A screen-printed insert and three postcards rest with the disc in a pocket inside of the folder, and an obandon the outside holds the whole package together." Take a look :

Beautiful. This is what I called both artistic expression and the positive campaigning against downloading and the so-called "piracy". Forget witch hunts, let's embelish our offer instead on aspects that cannot go through the wire and have to be physically acquired instead. Well done, good karma. This is akin to Wilson and many others I'm still to discover, who make a point of releasing stuff on beautiful vynil pressings, with amazing sleeves and liner notes. The real gods of music as far as I'm concerned. Music is art, so it should be handed and handled as such.

The second thing derives naturally from the first and that's the culture of "limited quantity" that Fear Falls Burning also seems to defend. And rightly so. I think it makes a lot of sense with this kind of art work. He goes on to explain:

The DVD has been selling tremendously well and this brings me to the limited edition issue. Many customers and listeners asked us whether the DVD or any of my previous limited edition LP's will be reissued. My personal opinion is that a limited edition needs to stay limited so for me and the music of Fear Falls Burning the past releases will remain sold out when they're out of stock. The LP's will not be reissued on CD and the DVD will not get a 2nd pressing.
I love the limited quantity aspect as it gives you the chance to share your music for only a specific period in time. Since I'm constantly evolving with ffb, it's for me interesting and healthy to leave a specific release behind me and move forward. Each ffb release belongs to a certain moment in time and it should remain that way.
Apart from this grants a limited edition you as well the option to make the packaging unique and special, "handmade on order" so to speak.

Well said. Now, I should really get on the lookout for a new nice turntable as it seems to have become a nightmare to find a new needle for my old one. I really want to start listening to some vynil again...

Three cheers for people like Fear Falls Burning, by the way.

Favorites of 2006

2007-01-03T19:20:00.000Z

In no particular order (except for top 3):

Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance
Pure Reason Revolution - The Dark Third
The Beatles - Love
Stone Sour - Come What(ever) May
Spock's Beard - Spock's Beard
Tool - 10,000 Days
Vanden Plas - Christ 0
Mastodon - Blood Mountain
Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Isis - In The Absence of Truth

Honorable mentions include:

David Gilmour - On an Island
Dream Theater - Score
OSI - Free
Muse - Black Holes and Revelations

Playlist

2007-01-03T16:47:00.000Z

03 January 2007

The Beatles - Love
Teenage Fanclub - Howdy!
The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
David Gilmour - On An Island
Porcupine Tree - Voyage 34
Stone Sour - Come What(Ever) May
Spock's Beard - Spock's Beard
Red Sparowes - Every Red Heart Shines Toward The Red Sun
Radiohead - The Bends
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife

Book Review: "Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road" ~ Neil Peart

2006-08-20T00:33:00.000+01:00

"Ghost Rider" is a fantastic book about travelling in many different ways, both literally and mentally. Neil Peart, legendary drummer of the Canadian progressive rock trio Rush, had to endure the terrible loss of both daughter and wife over a period of 10 months and this book is the very process of healing told in the first person.

This was my first Neil Peart book and I loved his prose style. Descriptive, yet it doesn't drag. An easy read and if you like stories about travelling, you'll love this one as Neil tells of his ramblings across North America (Canada and USA including Alaska) and Mexico. He's also a very gifted letter writer and his process of healing included writing a lot of letters to close friends over solitary dinners at roadside restaurants and motels. It's true the book can be a bit boring in some brief passages but even those I felt were very important to Neil on overcoming his personal tragedies. And the rest more than makes up for those.

A great book from a fantastic person. If you like travelling, especially on motorcycle, and even if you've never heard of Rush before, you'll certainly enjoy this one both as travellogue and an insightful narrative of healing the deepest of wounds. I'm definitely looking forward to reading the other books by Neil.

Film Review: "American Psycho" (2000)

2006-08-04T10:50:00.000+01:00

The story of Patrick Bateman, the serial killer of Bret Easton Ellis 1991 novel, seen through the eyes of a woman director. Would this have been the same movie if it was done by a man? It probably wouldn't. And that's a good thing.

There's black comedy, satire and gore in equal proportions. The way violence is shown to - or kept from - the viewer reminded me of "Reservoir Dogs" in the way that the camera slightly deviates from the target forcing us to imagine exactly what's happening right there. Andrezj Sekula cinematography struck me as particularly good as it perfectly resembles that 80s look and feel in a picture that's been released in 2000.

And then there's a brilliant performance by Christian Bale, one of the best serial killer impersonations I've ever seen and Bale's best acting ever if it wasn't for stuff like "The Machinist" which would come later in his career. What's really difficult about doing a serial killer role is not exactly the killings but rather, and very much so in this case, the downward spiral of their mind. Bateman is a victim of the mid to late 80s lust in America, Wall Street in particular, like all of his colleagues. He's just gone a little bit overboard (this is obviously an understatement but you get my point). His insanity is in fact a by product of his lifestyle. There's this scene where Bateman, in a state of complete despair, admits all his crimes to his lawyer over the phone which is utterly brilliant and Bale nails it.

The final stages of the film are kind of open, lending themselves to different interpretations and personally I prefer having to rethink the whole film under a different light after I've seen it.

Album Review: "Ænima" ~ Tool (2006)

2006-08-03T13:45:00.000+01:00

It's really interesting to see how Tool logically progresses from one album to the other in an orderly manner. Ænima can be regarded as Tool's breakthrough album, three years after "Undertow", a record that showed a band clearly above average but hardly progressive and pretty much like a diamond in rough.

With Ænima, pieces started to fall into place, with a bang. Personally, it took me quite some time to get used to it and I always remember when I used to walk around town with this record on my walkman and nothing made sense. But something in the back of my head kept telling me to insist on it and I'm glad I heard it. Suddenly, out of nowhere, bang! And then there was light.

"Stinkfist" is one of my favorite Tool tracks, a terrific opener, but it's the second song, "Eulogy" that really grabs me by the nuts and doesn't let go. This, for me, is like perfection at all levels, not the least the lyrics department. The way Maynard sings "you claimed all this time you'd die for me/why then are you so surprised when you hear your own eulogy?" there's just something utterly beautiful on the tone of his voice - which also happens in most of "H.", the track that follows.

These are basically the highlights, along with "Forty Six & Two", with its unforgettable and unmistakable bass line. What keeps me from giving this album five stars is the weaker numbers like "Hooker With a Penis" and "Die Eier Von Satan" and also how this still feels a bit all over the place and in need of some tyding up. A handful of classic Tool songs isn't enough to make a classic album just by itself and Ænima I think suffers from that. The album that would follow five long years later would fill in those blanks perfectly, though.

People who sporadically listen to Tool and don't lean too heavily into progressive music, tend to prefer this. For the proghead, though, "Lateralus" is a few notches up. Still, an excellent addition.

Album Review: "Camel" ~ Camel (1973)

2006-08-03T13:44:00.000+01:00

As I write this review, I'm not exactly a Camel expert knowing almost nothing about the middle of their career. Judging by reviews of albums of that era, though, it seems I'm not missing much.

Camel's self-titled debut is, however, one of my very favorite albums and quite possibly Camel's strongest album as well. There's virtually no filler on this one and their energy is at its peak.

And in fact, this is not prog in the same way early Genesis is prog, to cite a reference in the genre. Camel from this age is quite a bit more rythmic and rocking. This doesn't happen in later albums, particularly towards the end of their career, when everything getts much more mellow, yet beautiful.

"Slow Yourself Down" sets the pace for the entire record, an upbeat track sang by Andy Latimer in his quite original tone. But it's "Never Let Go" (which has an even better rendition on "A Live Record") - my favorite Camel track - and "Arubaluba" that steal the record for me. "Six Ate" has this great grooving bass line as the backbone of the entire track while "Mystic Queen" is the most mellow track yet doesn't disappoint, being beautifully sung by bassist Doug Ferguson and featuring Bardens intensely exquisite keyboards. And everywhere Andy Ward's drumming is perfect for the mood.

I find Camel to be an essential band in the genre, and as I find this to be their best effort, this record is also essential, even if you're probably better served with next year's "Mirage" for a more progressive output.

Film Review: "Clerks" (1994)

2006-08-03T13:40:00.000+01:00

Like many others, I believe, I got hold of the original 1994 "Clerks" because of the recently release sequel. What I found in this first installment is a good, authentic, sometimes quirky, sometimes hilarious comedy which I think we should take a bit more seriously that it takes itself.

Despite being shot pretty much in its entirety in the same two basic settings - a convenience store and a video rental store - "Clerks" manages not to get stale as it progresses because Kevin Smith is inventive in the way he shoots. The fact that this movie was done in a real life setting, where Kevin Smith actually worked at the time, lends it a lot of authenticity. The dialogue contributes for that and even the grainy amateurish black and white picture helps it.

According to Smith - who has this brilliant little role as an actor himself - this was meant to be the proverbial "movie about nothing", with a lot of F-word jokes. In theory, and then in practice, this kind of sounds like an R rated version of Seinfeld. Instead of Seinfeld's place and the coffee shop you have both stores, the relationship problems are also ever present even if in a much more earthly fashion. The real difference is that you get a lot of cursing. Other than that, it's just a day in the life of these two guys running two rusty little stores in Central Jersey.

Dante is the main character and his day shouldn't have gone down this way in the first place. He's just covering for a colleague at the store and all hell breaks loose throughout the day. Who really steals the movie for me is Randal, his partner at the video rental store right next door, with his acid view of life. The way he messes up with the head of all his costumers - including Dante's - is brilliant and funny. Nevermind if he should act like he does.

The dialogue ranges from fascinating to downright boring sometimes and it's definitely Tarantinoesque when at its best. It does suffer a bit on the acting department, which could have benefited from being a little more natural - seems rushed some of the time - but overall it's a great insight into the minds and state of affairs of Generation X America of mid 90s.

Which leads me to ask, where are we now? Maybe "Clerks II" will answer that, but I haven't seen it yet as I write this.

Film Review: "Hable con Ella" (2002)

2006-08-03T13:32:00.000+01:00

"Hable con Ella" is the first Almodovar film I see so I can't quite put this in perspective. What I can say is that this is a powerful drama done in a way that only non-American cinema looks and feels. There's just a "je ne sais quois" that sets this kind of cinema apart and Almodovar seems to be a master of this effect.

Perhaps much of the reason behind that is how crudely and in-your-face Almodovar tells us the story he chose to tell us, never shying away from the bare naked truth of what it really means to be in a comatose state. This, in fact, is the story of two women who are in a vegetative state and who both have a man deeply caring for them. Benigno is a male nurse who hardly knew Alicia but who fell in love with her after she had a traffic accident and got under his care. Marco had feelings for Lydia, the most famous female bullfighter in Spain, but after she's gored by a bull, all that's left to him is trying to put the pieces of his life back together while seating at her bedside.

The core of the film turns out to be the developing relationship between Benigno and Marco inside the clinic. This lends itself to thought provoking moral issues that Almodovar has no problem in presenting us in a daring and touching manner. From showing us objectively the effort that's involved in taking daily care of someone who is in a coma, to a brilliantly metaphoric short and sexually explicit - in its own extraordinarily peculiar way - silent movie, "Hable con Ella" is never ashamed of itself.

Personally, though, I couldn't really connect with these four people. I felt there was some missing link that kept me from caring as much as I felt the viewer is intended to care. Perhaps this warrants a second viewing some other time, maybe then, with the plot details out of the way, it reveals subtleties on the characters that I couldn't quite grasp upon first viewing.

Still, a beautifully constructed film.

Goodbye, Syd.

2006-07-11T20:04:00.000+01:00

In these moments, words can't do justice to feelings, so I'll be brief.

Just learned that Syd Barrett (born Roger Keith), founding member of Pink Floyd, and one of the most influential musicians in the British scene of the 60s, has died at the age of sixty.

Personally, I can only thank him for what he's done and regret this loss.

Shine on, you crazy diamond! How we all wish you were.

R.I.P. Syd Barrett (1946-2006)

Book Review: "The Long Walk" ~ Stephen King

2006-07-11T19:56:00.000+01:00

King is pretty much hit and miss for me despite writing really well every time. When all is said and done, though, "The Long Walk" is a hit. Well, most of it, yeah.

In this, King is actually writing under the pen name of Richard Bachman. In the Signet reprint, there's a cool introduction by King himself explaining the importance of being Bachman in which he sheds some distinct light on this particular matter. Funny how he never meant for people to know Bachman was really King and that once the word got out, it meant Bachman's death, back in 1985. This and other early manuscripts are then really what Bachman's wife found hidden away in the attic of the Bachman's residence in New Hampshire. Meaningless and made up but interesting. Personally, I don't find much of a difference between King and Bachman, but then again this is the first Bachman book I've read.

As for the story itself, it takes a very good premise and uses it to muse about life and the meaning of it all. One hundred boys have been drafted for The Long Walk, a yearly event where you can't stop walking literally for the life of you. If you stop, you're warned. If you don't get moving, you're warned a second and a third time. Then you're no longer warned. You're history. The last man standing is proclaimed winner and takes the Prize.

"The Long Walk" reminded me of "Stand By Me" except it's inherently more gory. King suceeds in progressively turning sanity into insanity as time goes by and the boys each reach their ultimate stages of resistence much in the same way that you sense the crazyness going on in "Apocalypse Now". It's there, you can feel it, everything becomes more and more outworldly as time washes by. Where King in my opinion doesn't quite succeed is that the plot drags a bit in the middle and the end though surprising can be frustrating. If I got it right, that is.

A good book but by no means essential King.

Book Review: "Digital Fortress" ~ Dan Brown

2006-07-11T13:37:00.000+01:00

After reading "Digital Fortress" I've finally read all four Dan Brown books to date and I find myself in a love/hate relationship with this author. I couldn't care less about the hype surrounding him because of "The Da Vinci Code". But despite having a great gift for writing engaging and suspenseful prose, for me Brown always loses himself three quarters of the way in. In other circumstances, it's falling in old boring clichés. Here the plot just becomes a laughing stock for anyone who's even remotely computer-savvy.

In "Digital Fortress", two different plots are interleaved, one happening at the NSA headquarters wherever that is and the other happening in Seville, Spain. None is believable, both are page-turners. Being the first of Brown's books, it seems this is the blueprint for what was to come. Inevitably someone dies in the prelude. Inevitably there's a hot chick with brains. Inevitably there's the innocent smart guy who has to figure out all the riddles and gets to keep the broad in the end. Meanwhile, some mean vicious assassin is repeatedly fooled along with his master, until they're eventually defeated. World is saved, all is well again, until the next adventure.

Put in perspective, this was still my second favorite Dan Brown book, following "Angels & Demons". There's that something in his writing that makes me come back but inevitably I reach the end in frustration. "Digital Fortress" was no exception, and even more so because it was really good until a certain point.

DVD Review: "In The Flesh: Live" ~ Roger Waters (2001)

2006-07-09T10:53:00.000+01:00

Some love Waters and hate Gilmour. Others do it the other way around. I say love them both, because honestly together they've done some of the best music ever. In "In The Flesh (Live)" we get a great taste of the Floyd legacy, performed by incredible musicians who make this DVD as indispensable as they come.

Starting out with the unavoidable "In The Flesh" and naturally flowing into more "The Wall" material (including what is probably the most heartfelt rendition of "Mother" I've ever seen), I think this show really starts to shine with "Dogs". You can't really tell this is a 17-minute epic, because it just flies by. What really struck me was Jon Carin's voice, the keyboard/guitar/lap steel player who just sits up there quietly doing his thing until this point and here unleashes a powerful, forceful tone. The musicians are all top notch, from the incredible stand-ins of Doyle Bramhall II (this guy is just spot on) and the classy Snowy White, to a brief appearance of Norbert Statchel on sax for "Money" and "Set the Controls For the Heart of the Sun", well... the list goes on. The background singers are beautiful and sing just lovely. The perfect backdrop for all that's going on around them.

The solo Waters songs also get appropriate treatment, with highlights for me being "Amused to Death", "Perfect Sense" and "Each Small Candle". Finally, many probably agree that the highest moment of this show is undoubtedly "Comfortably Numb" with Bramhall and Snowy White trading back and forth parts of one of the best guitar solos ever laid on track.

Technically, the image quality is excellent, and the soundtrack is crystal clear. I have absolutely no objections to the technical merit of this release. My only complain is the lack of extra material, which includes only an 18 minute documentary about this tour plus some stills and biographies of each band member. I'm still giving this 5 stars based on the sheer brilliance of the show itself, though.

This is an absolutely must-have DVD. Period.

Book Review: "Diary: A Novel" ~ Chuck Palahniuk

2006-07-09T10:48:00.000+01:00

I'm one of those who comes into Palahniuk straight from watching the "Fight Club" movie. Considering the dialog on that is probably one of the things I like the most about it, checking out the source sounds like a reasonably enlightened step to take.

So I picked "Diary" by chance. I have bought "Fight Club" a long while ago but for one reason or another never really started reading it. Now that I've gone through "Diary", I have a hard time making up my mind about Palahniuk. Do I hate the way he writes? Or is he a genius? The thing is, the back cover synopsis kinda misled me. I went expecting one thing and got another. What I expected? A diary of someone at the bedside of her comatose loved one. What I got? A tangled mass of disturbing thoughts and past recollections collected in an unstructured way, like someone pouring her heart out, psychological blood and guts.

"Diary" is disturbing and confusing. I get the sense that confusing the reader is one of Palahniuk's trademarks, I just don't know if I like it. This is definitely no page-turner and in the end it didn't leave a lasting impression on me. Palahniuk's prose reads and sounds like a drone saying a lot of truth, but in a mindless way, like an intravenous pump of very real surrealism.

A confused review from a confused reader of a confusing book.

Album Review: "10,000 Days" ~ Tool (2006)

2006-07-09T10:44:00.000+01:00

Because Tool have this tendency to release their albums five years apart and because there's also this other tendency of producing masterpieces, turns out the anticipation prior to each release reaches fever pitch. Perhaps "10,000 Days" has disappointed some people, and it certainly puzzled me for the first couple of days, but now I'm pretty sure this is quite simply "just" another Tool work of art.

As usual, the album is broken down into segments, groupings of tracks even if it all naturally flows from start to finish and it's over before you know it. "Vicarious" starts off powerful, great riffing and in a sense it reminded me both of Aenima, Lateralus and even A Perfect Circle mixed together. It segues naturally into "Jambi" which is another powerhouse of a track, including a most excellent talk box solo by Tool's guitar player Adam Jones.

I had some hard time trying to intuitively make sense of the "Wings For Marie"/"10,000 Days" segment that follows, but it was just a matter of turning the volume up a notch and letting myself get involved in the eerie atmosphere of these tracks. Beautiful, just beautiful. And moving.

From here, highlights for me are definitely "The Pot", old school Tool again with a great riff and "Right in Two", a beautiful slow song which showcases Keenan's amazing capabilities. The rest of the band is at the very top of their form as well. The music tends to revolve around Jones' guitar, which is versatile as always, but Justin Chancellor really does a great job with a lot of unconventional and powerful bass lines. As for Danny Carey, what else to say, this guy is simply one of the best drummers out there these days.

It's still too early to say whether this can be Tool's best album ever - and does it matter? - but it's already obvious that they did not disappoint at all. This band has undeniably been on a constant progression and refinement of their craft with each release, this one being no exception. The test of time will tell how good this album really is. Certainly one of the best of 2006.

What's Been Playing...

2006-06-06T15:26:00.000+01:00

Following the desperate need to get my shit together and do some tangible work, music insists in having this strange tendency to soothe the pain, much like aloe does for my recurrent mouth ulcers (this time, in the interest of full disclosure, it was my fault, as I bit my lip and it soon developed the damn ulcer). Weird oral diseases apart, here's what's been getting airplay around here.

Devin Townsend ~ Terria - See my earlier post on Devin. Cool weird stuff.

Strapping Young Lad ~ City - Ditto.

Tool ~ Mini-Tour 2006 setlist - Whenever we plan to go to a concert, we have this habit of searching for prior setlists from the artist or band and use that to compile a CD. This way, in case we're not talking about Dream Theater or something like that, we get better acquainted with the songs and the show tends to be more enjoyable. This time, it was Tool, so this reflects what they've been playing on their current warmup tour (they're doing some festivals around Europe these days).

Spock's Beard ~ Kindness of Strangers - I've been struggling to enjoy the Beard in particular and Neal Morse in general because I feel there's something really nice about his composition but it just hasn't clicked yet. Not for Spock's Beard anyway, as I really like Neal's latest solo album. Someone whom I respect a lot, over at the Mike Portnoy Forum said "Kindness of Strangers" and "Beware of Darkness" are their best albums, despite getting overshadowed by stuff like "Snow", "V" or "The Light", so I'm giving these a chance. More to follow on this particular soap opera...

Iron Maiden ~ Piece of Mind - I finally saw the "Early Days" documentary and I simply couldn't resist the urge to listen to some classic Maiden from that era, now could I? "Piece of Mind" is great, though I find it a bit uneven. The first half is awesome, but I can't help feeling the second half is a bit filler.

Muse ~ Absolution - Played it intensely when I bought a couple of months ago and lately it kinda took the back seat. Gave it another shot and it obviously reminded me how brilliant this whole goddamn album is, from start to finish. I wonder what Muse will come up with now and whether they'll ever be able to top it.

Nevermore ~ This Godless Endeavor - Definitely one of Nevermore's best albums to date (though I still prefer "Dead Heart in a Dead World") but it seems it doesn't stand the test of time for me. Maybe I'm just not into Nevermore these days. Still a good listen, of course.

Rush ~ Moving Pictures - A classic. Enough said.

Megadeth ~ Cryptic Writings - Had developed a deep antipathy towards this particular album (while loving "Youthanasia", for example), but that feeling is now totally reversed, somehow. Gotta love "Trust" as an opener.

Pink Floyd ~ Animals - I'm more in awe with the Floyd by the minute. Historically, this has been a tough album for me to get into but now that it clicked, I find it astonishing, brilliant beyond words. There's just something about Gilmour's guitar coupled with Waters composition in this album that makes it irresistible to me. Won't please everyone, but if one's willing to take the time to discover it, then this is surely one of the Floyd's best albums ever.

Tool - Undertow - Must grok this album. It's definitely worth it and it suffers only from being the (worthy) ancestor of two of the best albums ever. No reason not to pick this one up though, it's got amazing songs which show the brilliance of Tool in the making. Kinda like the Tool Foundry, so to speak.

Vanden Plas ~ Christ 0 - Excellent. There's something about this band and Andy Kuntz's voice that sets it apart from the rest. See earlier playlist entry for more on this.

Hevy Devy

2006-06-04T21:44:00.000+01:00

Following the recent purchase of "Infinity" and "Terria", two earlier Devin Townsend albums, I've been rediscovering the man. Historically, I've been hooked to "Ocean Machine", one of Devin's brilliant efforts, but now "Terria" and especially "Infinity" are growing on me. Earlier today I was doing some research on Townsend and hit an interesting interview from last year, when he was doing the Sounds of the Underground tour with Strapping Young Lad (which incidentally are about to release a new album which, judging by the advance track ("You Suck"), is every bit as brutal as its ancestors). From the interview, quoting Townsend:

I did acid for the first time around that time ... and fuckin' flipped out, had a Christ complex and made a record about it. I went zippy and went to a fuckin' looney bin and came out and now I don't think that way anymore. But, again, that's what I mean by practice. If I hadn't gone through that, then I wouldn't be where I am now. Like having gone through Alien - Alien is the opposite to Infinity, those two go together - so if I hadn't have gone through Alien then I wouldn't be able to do Synchestra, if I don't do Synchestra I won't be able to do whatever the fuck happens next.

I guess this gives a little insight into the man's mind. Personally, I'm delighted to find artists like these who do whatever they want to do, breaking new ground with every step they take. I'll be on the lookout for the new SYL (it's cool for those moments when you simply want to immerse yourself in noise and shut out the rest of the world) and I guess "Synchestra" will get a little more rotation soon as well.

What's Playing Right Now?

2006-05-12T11:22:00.000+01:00

I guess I'm bored so I decided to break the cycle of reviews. So I'll go out on a limb right now and just let you know what has been insistently coming out of my room's speakers as of lately.

Vanden Plas - Christ 0
This German band plays a true brand of progressive metal and they're probably the best example of binding melody and heaviness together. They also seem unable to disappoint with every subsequent release and "Christ 0" is absolutely no exception. I still need to give this one a lot more spins but from the get-go this album reeks of heavy beauty, in a manner of speaking. Plus, being a concept album loosely based on Dumas' "Count of Monte Cristo" story gives it nothing but extra points I guess.

Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance
I wonder why I never got into these guys before. Hailing from Sweden, all I know about them is that they're familiar with Opeth and that both bands used the same studio to record their respective last albums last year. Finally, I got hold of "The Great Cold Distance" and oh my. Rarely I like an album so much upon first spin but this one totally succeeded. I still need to give it much more love, but it sounded like a much more metallic Chroma Key. Also, reading the AMG review for this album, I learned that Katatonia's singer had to drop his so-called Cookie Monster type voice for medical reasons, and from listening to "The Great Cold Distance" I feel like saying that some evil comes for the good.

Adrian Belew - Side Three
All I knew about Adrian Belew up until yesterday was that he played with King Crimson at some point. Shame on me. Since then I learned he has played not only with the Crimson but also with David Bowie and Frank Zappa among others while having a pretty extensive solo discography to show for. From a recommendation on the Mike Portnoy Forum I decided to pick this one up and it didn't disappoint. Belew is not overly self-indulgent and that helps for pleasant listening. Oh yeah, and Tool's own Danny Carey gives a helping hand (or rather, hands and feet) on the drumset for a couple of tracks. Great! Now I need to get Sides One and Two, which together with Side Three make up for a trilogy which Belew managed to produce and release in the short span of a single year!

Pearl Jam - Ten
Following the self-titled released of Pearl Jam a couple of weeks ago, I decided to go down memory lane and unearth their seminal debut "Ten". Boy, this is a great album and it doesn't really need an introduction, or does it? Just pop this one in, listen to "Once", "Alive", "Even Flow", "Black" or "Jeremy" and you'll know (or recall) what I'm talking about.

Tool - 10,000 Days
Last but most definitely not least, I've been spinning Tool's latest opus quite a lot recently. Having a release every five years tends to help building up excitement and hype around it. As always before, this one takes some time getting used to but once it does, it does with a bang. "10,000 Days" is hard to put in perspective alongside Tool's previous efforts but the thing is that this one will easily be one of the best releases of 2006. I love the way Tool crams so many concepts into a single album and how they interplay heaviness and moody pieces. I can't wait to check out these guys live, too.

Well, more to come next week. Until then, tune in!

Movie Review: "Aardvark'd: 12 Weeks with Geeks" (2006)

2006-05-11T00:55:00.000+01:00

Boy, what can I tell you?

"Aardvark'd" is supposed to be a movie documenting how four intern developers at a New York based software company create a new application in twelve weeks. In itself, this is probably already uninteresting for anyone who's not tech-inclined and has no idea how software is actually developed in the real world. Problem is, even if you fit this bill but were in fact interested in learning about it, it's certainly not in "Aardvark'd" you'll find out how it goes. Producing a movie like this, you not only alienate about 95% of the world population from the get-go. You go the whole distance and simply alienate everyone.

For this is a terrible, terrible documentary. I can't even begin to tell you how much this stuff sucks. Rarely in the past I've been so disgusted with something I see on the screen, even moreso when I spend real cash having it shipped all the way from New York. Because what we actually get to see is four dudes, some of which look like it's the first time they're getting out of their respective houses, doing just about everything except for coding and getting an application off the ground: one plants tomatoes, another covers his windows with alluminium paper because he thinks some end-of-the-world type thing outside is targetting him (incidentally this is the same guy who seems to be conditioned into saying the word "like" every couple of seconds. Go figure.), another speaks so slow he's either stoned or retarded. I could go on, but you get the idea. And don't even get me started on the soundtrack. I want a puff of whatever these guys have been smoking.

This is a real shame simply because the potential for this to have been a great innovative documentary was enormous. Instead we're left with an incredible waste of our time. I feel like Joel Spolsky - the company owner, mentor of this project and the one who's pitched so much about this DVD that he tricked me into buying it - literally sucked 80 minutes out of my life for nothing. I should be reimbursed for this.

Not even the short appearance of Paul Graham, one of the most proeminent advocates of creating your own company, makes up for it despite those incredibly short five minutes truly being the highlight of the feature.

I hate the concept of censorship, but this one shouldn't have been allowed off the press. This movie is just wrong. Just wrong. Avoid at all costs.

Gig Review: Riverside @ Ritmo y Compás, Madrid (30/04/06)

2006-05-01T20:46:00.000+01:00

[Disclaimer: what follows is a sort of unconventional, in-depth and deeply biased personal review of Riverside's show, April 30th, in Madrid]

What I'm about to tell you is how the lost dream of seeing Polish band Riverside live (with myself living in Portugal and all), something which I never thought would be possible, came true. It's also a desperate stab at trying to capture all the incredible memories I got from last night. I hate the way our memories are so short-spanned and how we progressively lose bits and pieces of even our dearest memories along the way. If I can tell a good story at the same time, then sure, why not.

So I went to the band's site, surprised that they were touring again in 2006 for "Second Life Syndrome", and for a second there I thought my screen-worn eyes were playing a prank on me: a Madrid date?! It couldn't be!

It was. The date was also perfect because it's a holiday here in Portugal today, so we could afford not getting back in a hurry plus the show would be on a Sunday - slow day, especially in Madrid as we found out later (corolary: lots of parking spots ).

So to try cutting to the chase here, we left Portugal at around 8:00am on the day of the show (scheduled for 9:30pm) and arrived on the outskirts of Madrid at around 1:00pm, at the Formule 1 Hotel, where we had reservations. We checked in, left our sparse luggage there and went off to the heart of Madrid in order to find something to eat.

But first, once there, we decided to try and find the venue (Ritmo y Compas). Needless to say, we got hopelessly lost for a while but eventually found it. This is both a recording studio and show venue, it's quite nice inside and despite the small stage it has very good conditions as we would certainly find out later. Considering we couldn't convert our reservations yet, we went to find somewhere to eat. From the previous time in Madrid, to see Opeth at the former Sala Arena (now Sala Heineken), we knew there's a nice Starbucks (I could start another whole thread just about how we, depleted Portuguese lads, love the Starbucks but have none in our crappy country). Eventually we landed one of the worst lunches of our miserable lives in a Pans & Co. Beautiful.

Of course, to wash all that mess down, we went straight to the Starbucks, seating our sorry little asses in the sofas (we finally got a sofa spot! Miracle! Again, thank god for slow Sundays ) but not before I went to a convenience store nearby and got myself a paperback in Spanish - I love to read and stupidly forgot to bring a book with me, so this also served as good opportunity to improve my Spanish. Sadly not to much avail.

So, after giving peace of mind to our stomaches, we went back to the venue, to try and get our reserved tickets. While we were waiting around for the girl responsible for that to end her phone call, I was looking around the place and started hearing some sparse drum sounds. So I followed the sound and that led me to the room where the show would be held... with half of Riverside doing their soundcheck! In the mean time, after finding out we wouldn't get our tickets at least for another hour, I alerted my friends for what the gods just dropped in my lap (fanboyism rules, right? ) and the three of us just stayed back against the wall for an entire hour watching the band going about their entire soundcheck business and generally shouting to the sound guy in Polish for the duration. We couldn't believe our luck, especially when the whole band got together on stage for the final stages of soundcheck and jammed a great bit of "Second Life Syndrome" (the song) a few times together. It just sounded so good. And, believe it or not, we seem not to be the only sick (as in a nice sickness ) people like this in the world, because a Spanish fan who got there early aswell seemed to be calling everyone in his phone contact list letting them know he was watching Riverside's soundcheck.

(Seriously though, for true fans of progressive music and Riverside in particular, I think it was a really nice thing of the band to let us be around and watch them go about their (private) business. It's not every day you get to see an entire soundcheck in loco of one of your very favorite bands, no matter how big or small they are).

So after the soundcheck was over, we grabbed a bite, eventually got our tickets and just stuck around the stage waiting for the procedure to begin. A spanish couple, one male guitar player and a female bassist, who called themselves The Electrohousen Duo (sp?) were the opening act and together played this weird Yes meets jazz sound, which was quite confusing but quite technical. I can't say I went head over heels about it but hey, much respect for anyone who works towards their dreams and actually gets on stage doing their own thing.

After them, following a 10 minute intermission, Riverside hits the stage. I apologize if I get lighter on description now that I finally got to telling you about the show, but honestly it's hard to put something like this into words, it must be seen, heard and most of all felt (after the show, we agreed that above this, there's only the Dream Theater live experience). With my being so ecstatic about what I was seeing, I kinda lost track of the setlist. I think it went something close to this, but don't trust my word on it:

* Intro (with "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" excerpt) segue'ing into...
* Conceiving You
* Out of Myself
* Reality Dream I
* Second Life Syndrome
* Artificial Smile
* I Believe (with what seemed like a different arrangement) segue'ing into...
* Acronym Love
* Reality Dream II
* Dance With the Shadow
* The Curtain Falls

I know this is borderline insane (I mean, spoilers on setlists and all), but if you are going to see this band live and want to preserve any surprises, no matter what you do, don't read the following paragraph. Otherwise, highlight it using your mouse.

On "The Curtain Falls", the band extended the final part of the song and one by one, each of the band members put down or left their respective instruments, thanked the audience and quietly left, first the guitarist, then the singer/bassist, then the drummer and finally the keyboard player. This may not sound like much but it hit me as particularly classy. Plus, the way the song gracefully "degraded" as each instrument went quiet was a truly unique effect.

OK, we're back! The band left but not much cheering, whistling and shouting was needed to get it back on stage. And what a comeback, what with the first track of the debut album, the 12-minute masterpiece...

(1st encore)
* The Same River
* Reality Dream III
* Loose Heart

Again, the band left and got back. The people demanded it!

(2nd and final encore)
* Before

And that was that. The pictures I'm linking below surely tell a much better tale about this show than I could possibly offer here. In short, from someone who listens to a lot of different bands and different genres, with a strong emphasis on Prog Rock/Metal, I honestly think these guys are destined for huge stardom, at least on Prog circles. Letting alone their undisputable technical ability, they also possess a fair bit of that *something* that sets Dream Theater apart, you know what I mean? I don't know, maybe the attention to detail, the little nuggets and of course a huge passion for creating and playing their own music, the way they intend it to be. I just hope they're have that little bit of needed luck and that they stay true to their current beliefs - while still having as much success as possible. They truly deserve it.

And in all honesty, I wish everyone who loves this band could be, like I luckily found myself, in a position to travel and spend money to be able to see these guys. I'm thankful for that, and I wish everyone else could aswell, because it's so worth it.

Oh and one small bit of inside information: expect a new Riverside album sometime in 2007.

Finally, if you got this far, a) you're insane and b) thank you very very much for sharing this trip (in more than one sense) with me!

You can find all the pictures I took right here (slideshow).

Thanks again for reading!

Book Review: "2061: Odyssey Three" ~ Arthur C. Clarke (1987)

2006-04-20T23:25:00.000+01:00

If there are authors for whom I have the utmost respect, Sir Arthur C. Clarke is surely one of them. Every book of his I read in the past never disappointed me and most are among my very favorite fiction works. "2001: A Space Odyssey" was particularly fascinating and "2010: Odyssey Two" is a very worthy sequel which successfully extends the mythology of its predecessor.

"2061: Odyssey Three", however, leaves something to be desired and definitely cannot be regarded in the same light as the previous two books. Clarke's undeniable wit and especially his gift for writing prose are still very much present, but I find "2061" to be lacking a bit too much in the plot department. Forget the drama, tension and mysticism of the "2001" and "2010", because unfortunately you won't find that here. More importantly, we are not let in on much more regarding the Dave Bowman mysterious existence - or lack thereof - and the few we get about that and Europa's secret is scarce at best and confusing at worst. And it's frustrating that every situation that could possibly lend itself to something interesting and dramatic ends up resolving itself in a banal fashion.

Even the under-achievements of Clarke are not bad books. And it's certainly hard for me to classify "2061" as a bad work. The problem is, the standard had been set so high that "2061" just doesn't live up to it. Perhaps the final odyssey, "3001", sets the record straight? No matter. "2010" and especially "2001" more than make up for everything else, even if they leave a lot of questions hanging in the air - or should I say, in the void of deep space?

Book Review: "Deception Point" ~ Dan Brown (2001)

2006-04-16T01:32:00.000+01:00

"Deception Point" is the third Dan Brown book I've read and I'm starting to wonder if this author makes a point of always having some character killed in the first couple of pages of his books. More interestingly, he also seems to make a point of writing damn good thrillers. In my opinion, "Da Vinci Code" was alright, "Angels & Demons" was rather good and now I find "Deception Point" hanging somewhere in between.

The action unfolds for the most part between the Arctic and Washington DC. Long story short, NASA claims to have found a meteorite, packed with fossils of what appears to be an extraterrestrial being, which fell on the earth and got buried in the Milne Ice Shelf. The truth however is usually stranger than fiction and so we follow three civilians, two of them reputed scientists, trying to put the seemingly disjointed pieces of this puzzle together while doing their best to avoid getting wacked by ruthless (but in all honesty not very smart) killers. But you can learn all this from reading the book synopsis, right?

I found this to be a satisfying book, an undeniable page turner and exceptionally well written featuring a couple of rather intelligent plot twists. As I said before, the action unravels between the Arctic (and later on the Atlantic shore) and Washington DC. Whereas at the former reside the thrills and crazy Hollywood type fireworks, it's in the latter that the really interesting stuff, at least for me, is happening.

Brown swaps back and forth between the two intertwined plot lines but I found myself constantly eager for the political games going on in DC and involving top ranking US government agencies all the way up to the White House. Unfortunately, the final showdown aboard a ship is described at such exhaustive length that I couldn't help but feeling bummed every time a new chapter on it presented itself. Also, some more character development, at least for the main parts, wouldn't hurt. I personally would've liked to know more about them, as they seemed interesting but not dense enough. Nevertheless, this should not taint some great classic moments this story contains.

Finally, after reading three books by Dan Brown, he reminds me a bit of the TV show "24". Both found a great formula that thrills the viewer/reader but whereas "24" keeps successfully reinventing itself every season, Brown's way is becoming a bit tiresome for me. Like, I'll read "Digital Fortress", sure. Just not now.

Book Review: "The Broker" ~ John Grisham (2004)

2006-04-03T13:41:00.000+01:00

I've read some of the Grisham classics back in the day - namely "The Client" and "The Pelican Brief" - plus thoroughly enjoyed the screen adaptations of "A Time to Kill" and "The Firm". Lately however, I've fallen out of touch with his work, and it's been a good while since I picked up a novel penned by Mr. Grisham. I'm given to understand that his standard dropped a bit in recent novels, but as I say, I can only take others' word for it.

In fact, after finishing "The Broker", I have a hard time believing it, unless this is his return to form. Some writers, not unlike Dan Brown, have this talent that makes most of their work instantly seem perfect for the big screen. "The Broker" is no exception and while reading it I was constantly viewing the inexistent (as of yet, I hope) movie in my head.

Most of the story happens in different locations inside Italian borders, particularly in Bologna. This is a welcome change and it reminded me a lot of the Sicily section in "The Godfather", when Al Pacino is exhiled following the murder of a couple of important people. Bologna has a certain charm to it, like most of Italy, that definitely comes across here.

I've seen others commenting on this book downplaying it as simply a byproduct of Grisham's Italian learning. As with so many other things in life, there's more than one way to look at it. I prefer to think of it as a great excuse to write an engrossing story like this one, an intelligent plot with some smart and well drawn characters. Grisham's fluent and undemanding writing binds it all together and the story flows naturally and excitingly from one page to the next.

For me, this was interesting from the get-go, rarely lost its momentum and the ending does pay off. Sure the technicalities involved aren't rigorously depicted, but that's alright as it's not really the point. So I highly recommend "The Broker" and cross fingers for it, with the right director, to get adapted to the big screen. And if you've been averse to Grisham for the past few years, perhaps now is the time to give him another chance. You'll even pick up some Italian along the way.

Book Review: "Forty Signs of Rain" ~ Kim Stanley Robinson (2004)

2006-04-03T12:11:00.000+01:00

As someone else already put it, Kim Stanley Robinson's "Forty Signs of Rain" is like the real world version of "The Day After Tomorrow" and I wholeheartedly agree with that point of view. The difference however is probably more subtle than it meets the eye. In the film, everything gets graphically exaggerated whereas here, and thus in the real world, things are much more likely to be less spectacular but its implications far more complex, tragic, difficult to assimilate, to accept and to live (or not) with. It's not a matter of avoiding a catastrophe that didn't happen yet. It already begun and, should we accept the challenge, we're already poised for damage control.

"Forty Signs of Rain" tells many tales at once, with a common ground: the destiny of the biosphere and how the world we live in is quickly becoming quite uninhabitable. It also tells a story of how science gets done and how the scientific process truly unfolds, how scientists are not as cold hearted as many people suspect they are, how buddhism can shed new light on science, how capital makes it all the more difficult and even how a "Mr. Momhood" type of father deals with his baby son on a daily basis while trying to help a senator do the right thing.

This is a book which most of all tries to propagate important ideas. Never boring, but rarely amusing, it gets its message across loud and clear, even if it objectively lacks in the plot and story department. If, like me, this is the first Kim Stanley Robinson book you're planning to read, this nevertheless felt like a pretty good introduction to the author.