Inglorius Bastards, remembrance of things past

Yesterday I went to check out the new Tarentino movie. Afterwards in Tikis, several guys remarked that they would probably see this movie multiple times, also in the theater. Not surprisingly, the Matrix was brought up (I watched it 2x in the theater and probably 10+ times since). I had a flashback to high school times. It was summer in North Carolina and I was with Gemma, Lucy and some boys. We ate Goodberry's frozen yogurt cream before the movie in an enormous empty parking lot. Lucy was raving about how she loved the movie. I still remember the black skin chunks dotting the purple of the blueberry ice cream and the texture of the yogurt on my tongue. It was really a madeleine moment.




Vanilla with blackberries


Goodberries

Slacklining, Man on Wire

Yesterday I tried slacklining for the first time. Loucas became obsessed with it on a trip to Dortmund, and ended up buying one for himself. We made plans to make fish for dinner, but once the line was up between the two trees, our dinner plans quickly devolved to take-out anchovy pizza.

We strung the slackline between two trees in the park behind his apartment. Though it was initially hard to get on the line, I got the hang of it pretty quickly. We spent the next 2.5 hours practicing, with some happy interruption from some little girls who also wanted to try it out. My furthest record was to the midpoint of the trees. Heart banging in my chest, one would have thought that I was 500 m up in the air rather than a mere foot off the ground.

I'm definitely hooked. We ended our day by watching Man on Wire, a great documentary about Frenchman, Phillipe Petit, who fufilled his dream to walk between the Two Towers in NYC.

By the end of summer, my goal is to walk across my canal without falling into the water, or more importantly without impaling myself on a bike. More to come...

Spring updates

amaryllis and basilicum

jasmine, rose, thyme, rosemary

Originally uploaded by raisin.detre

I've been doing a bunch of things lately but haven't had time to record them or reflect on them. Here's a list. Maybe I will go into more detail later.

1. Motel Mozaique 2008. Unfortunately I could only go Friday because I left on tour the following Saturday morning at 6am. My plans to volunteer again, get a free tshirt were not totally foiled though. I did get to watch Holy Fuck in Rotown, and some dude in Schouwburg. Lisa had some chance performer wristbands for us (Inga, Jorn, I) as we left the 1upToys 2 year party round the corner at 10pm.

2. Krashna tour (Saturday 12 - Friday 18). Four concerts in Hamburg, DUT (Denmark Technical University), Malmo, and Copenhagen. Numbers in the audience ranged from 15 to 1,200. It shows that good publicity helps. Also, I think Copenhagen is the most beautiful big European city that I have seen so far. Every nook and cranny is beautiful and filled with character. I performed for the last time in the Aula of Delft this past Tues, playing Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony.

3. Plants! This is the part I get most excited about. My plants are doing great. When I came back from tour, my basil had sprouted and my jasmine had bloomed. Apparently Vaniek did a better job watering than I would have expected.

4. Beginning of graduating. Yes, I am officially graduating now. I had my kickoff meeting with everyone official and everything. I am excited but feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything.

Movies watched: Species 1, Into the Wild
Books read: Art of Innovation, Debt to Pleasure

Upcoming: See Lanna walk or 1 week in California; koninginnenacht bbq at my place.

A Weekend of Movies

Without planning to, it seems like I spent all weekend watching movies and eating spinach (2 spinach salads in two days!). Here are my reflections:

No Country for Old Men - I watched this movie on account of having seen two seconds of a guy's skull and brain neatly punctured through with an air tank and cattle something. It starts out like a straightforward modern Western. It is obvious who the good and bad guys are; the bad guy is a great, twisted, and admirable bad guy. The good guy is slightly morally shady and very likeable. Straight forward right? It lives up to this first impression with great pacing, action, and character development until the very end where the film jarringly prompts the viewer to reflect on the past 90+ minutes.

Breathless (1960 version) - Wow, really great movie. I can't really say why I liked it so much. Neither of the main characters were as lovable as much as they were gorgeous, flippant, and unscrupulous. Awesome dialogue, nuanced, convincing love story, and a beautiful ending.

Terminator 2 - nuff said. I only want to comment that it is a good thing Arnold dies in the end so he and Linda Hamilton don't have to compete over who has bigger biceps.

Juno - When I went to New York a month back, I kept hearing about this movie (people going or wanting to see it), even though all I wanted to see was There Will be Blood. I finally watched it last night. It was funny and enjoyable despite the fact that the kid from Arrested Development and the girl from Hard Candy had the same exact personality as their other roles. The supporting cast was also great with Jason Bateman, that Alias chick, and the psychiatrist lady from 10 things (RIP heath). It didn't get too preachy and handled serious issues in a thoughtful, refreshing manner.

Assassination of Jesse James - Watched this movie at Inga's house waiting for dinner time (corn chowder, spinach salad, and Inga bread). Waiting for dinner time turned into waiting for the movie to be over. Although IMDB gives this movie high ratings, I felt like the whole production should have gone straight to the A&E channel. Good acting by the two main actors (too good by the villain - I couldn't bear to watch the movie because he was so convincingly disgusting and creepy), but the plot dragged and the story was only almost engaging at points. Oh yeah, and the movie took itself WAY too seriously and didn't measure up. I hate that.