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.
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weekend. Show all posts
Monday, January 28, 2008
Saturday, December 8, 2007
long weekend
Every day this weekend has been excruciatingly long, though fun. I wonder if I will feel rested enough to be alive next week.
Friday, directly after an afternoon of boatweek presentations, I hopped on the train to Amsterdam. The event was the opening of Anouk van Dijk's new studio, Tokoyo Studio's or something. I was there because Jorn was helping one of the dancers compose a live piece for the event. They had ordered green curry for us, which was nice because I went into a feeding frenzy before eating lots of hors d'oeuvres. The whole audience was mostly well dressed old people, dancers, and one or two random sound and lights guys. I felt pretty out of place, but I continued eating and looking like I understood Dutch. I watched a couple of dance performances, but the highlight of the evening was definitely the piece that Jorn had worked on with the one dancer.
To tell the truth, I didn't really understand the whole dance but I liked it. The piece started with the girl huddled in a corner wearing nothing but her underwear. The music was kind of ambient electronic sounds fitting in with the warehouse setting. Eventually she got up and started dancing/thrashing around. The nudity was surprisingly not that distracting and actually added to the dance somehow. The word "nu" (now) was interwoven into the music here and there reaching a climax, while the girl progressively fell on the ground and got dustier and dustier. At the very end she moved to a corner of the room, prompting the audience to also move from their original space. Taking off her underwear, she moved to stand in front of a projecter with an image of her nude self on her belly. On the belly of the projected self, there was also a smaller version of herself, dancing the previous dance. I don't know what it all meant.. maybe I'll try to decipher it later.
After the dance, we drove to Rotterdam picking up Kakee on the way to Ivo's house warming in a record time of 35 min. I was only there shortly because I was so tired, but his house is awesome. It's right in the middle of Schouwburgplein.
Saturday noonish, I started on my way back to Amsterdam to see Jorn play in the Melkweg as part of the band outfit for singer/songwriter (hahahha.. hate that term) Emil. On the way there, I managed to miss both the people I was trying to meet at two separate train stations, but we met up at central station so it didn't matter. Fuck the Writer won second prize in the Grote Prijs van Nederland. Everyone was boohoo sad. It was also conveniently raining to complete the depressing scene.
Having lost the others Pieter, Gaspard, Jorn, and I tramped around in the rain looking for the Koe. When we got there, there was a lot more waiting involved, but my rack of lamb was delicious. Afterwards, we drank some beer so we wouldn't feel like total losers going home so early. We even managed to just catch the 20:10 train back to Delft. Getting home from Amsterdam was, as always, an ordeal, but my spirits were high after watching Breakfast Club again.
On an up side, Lanna and her friend Erika are visiting me next weekend.
Daniel: the idea of a whole week of work and study is so depressing after drinking/playing away your whole weekend
Friday, directly after an afternoon of boatweek presentations, I hopped on the train to Amsterdam. The event was the opening of Anouk van Dijk's new studio, Tokoyo Studio's or something. I was there because Jorn was helping one of the dancers compose a live piece for the event. They had ordered green curry for us, which was nice because I went into a feeding frenzy before eating lots of hors d'oeuvres. The whole audience was mostly well dressed old people, dancers, and one or two random sound and lights guys. I felt pretty out of place, but I continued eating and looking like I understood Dutch. I watched a couple of dance performances, but the highlight of the evening was definitely the piece that Jorn had worked on with the one dancer.To tell the truth, I didn't really understand the whole dance but I liked it. The piece started with the girl huddled in a corner wearing nothing but her underwear. The music was kind of ambient electronic sounds fitting in with the warehouse setting. Eventually she got up and started dancing/thrashing around. The nudity was surprisingly not that distracting and actually added to the dance somehow. The word "nu" (now) was interwoven into the music here and there reaching a climax, while the girl progressively fell on the ground and got dustier and dustier. At the very end she moved to a corner of the room, prompting the audience to also move from their original space. Taking off her underwear, she moved to stand in front of a projecter with an image of her nude self on her belly. On the belly of the projected self, there was also a smaller version of herself, dancing the previous dance. I don't know what it all meant.. maybe I'll try to decipher it later.
After the dance, we drove to Rotterdam picking up Kakee on the way to Ivo's house warming in a record time of 35 min. I was only there shortly because I was so tired, but his house is awesome. It's right in the middle of Schouwburgplein.
Saturday noonish, I started on my way back to Amsterdam to see Jorn play in the Melkweg as part of the band outfit for singer/songwriter (hahahha.. hate that term) Emil. On the way there, I managed to miss both the people I was trying to meet at two separate train stations, but we met up at central station so it didn't matter. Fuck the Writer won second prize in the Grote Prijs van Nederland. Everyone was boohoo sad. It was also conveniently raining to complete the depressing scene.Having lost the others Pieter, Gaspard, Jorn, and I tramped around in the rain looking for the Koe. When we got there, there was a lot more waiting involved, but my rack of lamb was delicious. Afterwards, we drank some beer so we wouldn't feel like total losers going home so early. We even managed to just catch the 20:10 train back to Delft. Getting home from Amsterdam was, as always, an ordeal, but my spirits were high after watching Breakfast Club again.
On an up side, Lanna and her friend Erika are visiting me next weekend.
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