Wim Wenders

I tried out the independent cinema "around the corner" today. Its called riverside studios; hosts a gallery, theatre and cinema and shows independent movies with the occasional blockbuster strewn in between. My course mate Pawel had texted me friday night that we need to go check it out, so i looked up the website and found out that today they showed two wim wenders movies in a double feature.

Wim Wenders, a german director. One of the few who makes me believe that movies are not only the high polished crowd appealing and softly wallowing (not to exercise the brain at all) pictures that can be seen in any big movie palace on this planet. One that makes me believe that movies still can be pieces of art: angles and lighting thought about, music not only fitting but interesting, pictures speaking for themselves and dialogues meaningful, thought provoking, if not too intellectual for the viewer to grasp.

Wim Wenders is the same director of the film "pina" i wrote about a year ago. His former movies "alice in the cities" and "wings of desire" which i saw today were just as touching. the former was about a little girl that in the help of a journalist, a solo male guy who seemed to have lost his identity and his meaning in the world tries to look for her mother. It was a road movie, set in the US, amsterdam, germany. It was a glimpse of life in the 70s, if nothing else.

The latter story was a bit more complicated - the plot being later used for a hollywood remake. It was set in Berlin. Angels exist and walk unseen amongst the people. One of them wants to become human, falls in love. Half the dialogue was in poetry based on Rilke (german poet). And again, beautiful pictures, great music. Sometimes both movies seemed slow, especially after being used to blockbuster full speed action, but anything else wouldn't have fit.
They seemed to be showing life - scenes other movies don't show, like the view out of the front window of a car in heavy rain. Peoples fears, how people think, feel and reflect: not on the surface but the things that go on inside if you are worried or are in pondersome philosophical mood.
It was wonderful - a good sunday, and hopefully a favorite place of the future.

ROH - La Bohème

its not breakfast at tiffanies which gives the world its shine, its a night out at the royal opera house. and today i discovered my favorite show there: la boheme. the best opera i have seen yet. beautiful music, an unusual (but romantic and fantasized of) setting in the poorer artist circles of fin de siecle paris, and a beautiful, touching, heart wrenching love story. halfway through act 1 i admitted for the first time: this is why i love opera. if nothing else had me converted, this production did the trick. today was a special night, the bbc was filming for a documentary. this meant i git ti see act 2 twice! lucky that! i had 9 pounds standing tickets, but after the first interval, gabriel (my good friend and opera/culture company) quickly converted those into 4th row seats. I need to attach some youtube for you to get an inclination of what it was that blew me away:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2Y353fyL0w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5IJ_p6WHi8

Book review: The Hunger Games

Why do I have time for this? Im supposed to do haematology for exams!! anyways, I wrote most of this in an email correspondence to a friend so ill just copy, paste and edit a bit:
The Hunger Games:
...a bit too sappy to be a good dystopian novel, but then again i think the author is trying to appeal to all those twilight lovers...anyways apart from the entire last half where katniss is too stupid (blind/not versed in these things) to realise how much that boy loves her, and to what extend she has feelings for him as well, its all right...

MY FRIEND: i know what you mean, katniss's character really pissed me off cos she was so annoying. and yeah i think its quite twilight like with the peeta/gale thing.

I must admit, i was very very bored and did end up reading the first of the twilight books like 2 years ago - and bella just really really pissed me off - mixture between dumb blonde and immature little girl that cannot think. It just kept going in circles! I love him, he loves me, we can't be together, I love him, he loves me, we can't be together... for f*** 400 pages?!? too much for me...

Katniss is fine - at least there is a sense of honor and a braveness and some sort of intelligence to her - apart from when it comes to boys. just sometimes there are some glitches in her character - the way she doesn't get the honor thing on the roof with peeta before the games, the way she doesn't get the love thing - like ever, the way she sometimes reacts quite cold hearted even though we all know she is super protective. That doesn't fit. It almost feels a bit like the author stole some personality traits of bella (in the love sense) and stuck them into katniss. Whats worse, the circles seem to be starting as well. Perhaps the author realized that this sells well (see twilight) and decided to add some in too? It probably works the trick on the wider audience, but I still think its incoherent with the rest of her character.

Another point: the dystopian world with its problems is only created as a backdrop, and not (as a good dystopian novel should) in order to draw parallels to the world we live in and criticize society. It feels like a bit of a genre mix: not really dystopian, not really an adventure novel, nor a romantic one. That means it feels a bit mindless - action, fear, love, that sells well, but it would have been better with a bit more essence. You can tell its written to appeal to a wide audience, motivation of money as my english teacher used to put it...

Despite my ranting, its well written, "kurzweilig" and a nice read - with the potential of more, but that was sadly not exploited.

Beatsteaks, but slightly late timing

Last year I went to a concert by the Beatsteaks, A german rock band who played a gig in KOKO, london. It was one of the best nights ever!!! I finally found the song that gave me goosebumps: Imagine in a crowd of happy people, amongst the first few rows, in an old, converted theatre and then just amazing live music that manages to lift your mood and make people want to dance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIz-oRLDVUM
and for completeness sake:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QiNNmRsICg&feature=related
hihihihi. it was epic

my screen background :D

It was so special seeing you. I wish we had more time together

IVDC, dancing, aldo and slavik

Another dance season has ended in the culmination of IVDC, inter-varsity dance competition. The biggest student ballroom dance competition, held annually in Blackpool, in the famous winter gardens ballroom.
the last season was a rollercoster. I could fill a book (or a soap). it started with an annoying endless day of team trials, where Jürgen was over for the weekend, and I really did not have the patience. I met my dance partner, aldo, did a bit of cha, was pissed off with the entire day, realized he'd be rather a pain and that he has quite an ego (which didn't make things better) and got the hell out of there as soon as I could.
first weeks of getting used to each other was hell. he was a dick (and I probably a b*** in response) to the point where our teacher elena gave him a run down on how things work, and he got his act together a bit.
The first comp: two weeks of practice, and somehow we won?! we actually were friends for once...
dance practice and rolling my eyes at aldo took over my life. 4x, 5x, 6x a week even, I found myself in the JCR (Junior Common Room - my second home in london). We won the second competition - and aldo actually started being nice to be.
There was one dispute we had - aldo saying something like, "I just want to be loved" me saying "how do you expect people to love you if you're behaving like a dick?" ... "hmm yea, I guess you're right there"... maybe that was a turning point.
we are friends now - I know more about him than his girlfriend, he doesn't know that much about me - he's not the kind of guy to trust...
SUDC - southern uni championships - we won
in between, watching the UK open, such an inspiration! Watching ballroom dancer with my course mate and fellow dancer Pavel, a documentary of slavik and his ex partner anna melnikova, two world class dancers. I copied in the link to the trailer below.
and finally IVDC, - we won. somehow. clear plate. I am amazed.
The picture shows us before a round.

Its over now, Aldo is out of the country for a month, so no dancing. I compensate by what I am supposed to do: studying, and eating and putting on all that weight I have lost the past few months :(

At last: a treat for the eyes (pretty people and amazing dancing), a story as only life writes it, and the soap like ups and downs in ballroom dancing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnHYJhXXJS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwc6c_UJu_U&feature=related

the night before the new day

Im on the verge of a new century. My last day of a ten at the beginning of my age has been super lazy, sleepy, drizzling by quicker than wanted and yet so endlessly long. I need time to think, but time slips away. I once heard that the time you experience until you are 18 and the time you experience for the rest of your life feel the same - a very scary thought.
I realised I miss home. I wish nothing more than to wake up in my room in stuttgart tomorrow morning, with my mum having some sort of surprize there for me (even if its only ready made breakfast) and for her to make me feel special tomorrow. my birthday is too early in the aceademic year for any of my uni friends to realise or to care. I am thus not hoping for anything great. I just hope that the friends I asked to come over care enough for me to keep the afternoon free - but as I said, I do not have high hopes.
It hence follows that I really dislike my birhtday. Its perhaps the most horrible day of the year. I hang around in melancholy of what has passed and never will be again. I hope for some cool thing to happen which never does, and I am too rubbish at organising parties to organise one for myself.
as already the chickflick "shes all that" said: "blaming (someone) isnt going to change the fact that the future is going to happen, whether you are ready for it or not"
when I look towards the decade that awaits me I can say with certainty that whatever the future holds, I am very ill prepared. or maybe not. After all "yo no se manana". whatever it will hold. it is my life and that makes it worth me living it. I have the priviledge of the choice, and I hope the choices I make now are going to fall into their place.
what is left is a good reason to enjoy the import from the distille, and the half price sainsburys wine. cheers to another healthy, happy, eventful, and enjoyable century.