The pledge, the turn, and “The Prestige”

Posted on in News

'The Prestige' poster I watched “The Prestige” last night and, believe me — it’s one helluva movie. I can’t remember the last time I was so, what’s the word… Moved and inspired? Yeah, that’s it — moved and inspired by a movie. Maybe after I watched “Donnie Darko” or “Se7en“. “Inside man” with Denzel Washington and Clive Owen was awesome too, but nothing like this. I remember saying something in lines of (add 80’s space echo) “I feel like this movie has changed my life forever” to my girlfriend when we walked out of the theater.

In short, it’s a movie about two rivaling magicians (illusionists, people who do magic tricks — not magicians as in wizards, sorcerers and warlocks, as I thought at first, eh) and the ultimate magic trick, with the plot set at the very end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century in London and Colorado.

Both Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale are excellent as main characters, Michael Caine is as splendid as ever, and mr. David Bowie as Nikola Tesla… Oh my, I don’t think anyone else would fill those shoes as properly as he did. Marvelous. Also, Christopher Nolan (of “Memento” and “Batman begins” fame) is a great director, but that almost goes without saying. He and his brother Jonathan wrote the screenplay based on the book by Christopher Priest (here’s an interesting ‘Prestige’-related Q&A on his own website).

If you haven’t already, please go watch this masterpiece.

Dana is losing it, Fox is already lost, Walter is clueless, Alex is pulling the strings

Posted on in News

Of course I’m talking about the beginning of season 7, what else? :)

Merry Christmas to everyone!

I hope you’re not about to spend the night sitting alone in front of TV (like I am) ;) Well, I guess I’ve done that a couple times in the past 10 years, it doesn’t even feel strange any more, haha.

My tree is 1,20 meters tall (short) and plastic. I’ve paid it ~$6, plus equal amount for the decorations and voila! — I’m happy with it. Sorry, no photos, maybe tomorrow ;) But there are some presents waiting beneath it, yes.

Alright, I’m gonna take a Christmas shower, make myself a sandwich, have a Coke and light up a menthol cigarette. Oh, yeah :D

I’m silly, I’m happy, I love/hate these last few days of December. Don’t we all?

Have a good one! ;)

The “What I want” moment in my own little history

Posted on in News

So, without further ado, here’s a list of stuff I’d (really) like to own (not necessarily sorted by their level of hotness):

  1. Nintendo Wii and a bunch of games for it
  2. 4GB Pro Duo Memory stick
  3. Rode NT4 stereo microphone
  4. Zoom H4 portable stereo recorder
  5. Canon XL-H1 HD digital camcorder
  6. Sony PCM-D1 portable stereo recorder
  7. a stable but lightweight microphone stand
  8. new hard disk (preferably SATA, 160GB or more)
  9. new scanner
  10. new printer (preferably Canon Pixma iP4300 or better, one that can print on CDs)
  11. new pair of jeans (ahem, I’ve got ONE good pair and… well, after wearing it for over 2 years, do I even have to explain?)
  12. fat and warm sneakers for the winter (I know, I know :) )
  13. Wacom Cintiq or a tablet PC (ahh, the freedom…)
  14. a real concert piano (and a big room)
  15. 23″ Apple Cinema Display (or a Samsung in that size and quality range)
  16. HD LCD TV with HDMI (preferably 32″ or more)
  17. a top of the line DSLR camera with wide lenses
  18. a mobile phone that can handle 500 or more SMS’s (without slowing its operation when opening Inbox)
  19. a DVD/DivX player that has no problem reading files encoded by any possible DivX/XviD version and utilizing “that and that” feature (qpel, gmc, VBR audio, etc.)
  20. my own apartment with a sound-isolated room
  21. mad pd (pure data) skillz and a bunch of MIDI hardware gadgets to play around with
  22. all the other stuff on my Amazon wishlist and plenty of other stuff I can’t think of right now :)

What do you think: how would a world in which everyone has everything they want function? Would it function? Would there still be people who’d be willing to do their jobs so the world doesn’t come to a stop? And how do you even define that kind of world? Is it possible for it to exist?

And I’m still waiting for the snow >:(

ps.: this is something I really don’t need, but it looks waaay too sexy and I had to post at least a link to it: Cantar-X by Aaton. Why don’t all products look this good? I’d be definitely willing to pay more for a better designed product.

Retro Remakes concludes its voting – CounterClockWise wins ‘best sound’, ‘Heroes’ leave us with a cliffhanger

Posted on in News

It’s taken them a while (3 months), but the Retro Remakes crew has finally managed to go through all the submitted games and tell us what they think. To be honest, I’ve expected CCW to win, or at least find its way into the top 3, but it seems that the accessibility has decided that fourth place is…the place to be. I’m just a little bit disappointed, even after playing the games that won, but those are some great remakes – congratulations to the authors. I’m well aware that I’m being subjective, but I really can’t do anything about it :)

I won’t speak in Nenad‘s name, but I do believe he’d agree that the fourth place rocks, the ‘best sound’ award is something we both can be proud of, people love the game and I’m glad I was given the opportunity to be involved in a part of its creation. We won, wooohoooo! :D

Alright.

I’ve watched the 11th episode of “Heroes” just a couple of hours ago, I love that show. After “Buffy” and “Angel” had ended, I was in a dead zone for a while, looking for some great new show(s) to watch. First, I stumbled upon “Battlestar Galactica” after a friend had recommended it — whoa, I was hooked instantly and I still am. Then there were “Joan of Arcadia” and “My name is Earl“, for example, and “Lost“, which had me going for a while, but come on… Now I’m anxiously waiting for January 1st (or 22nd, says Wikipedia), 2007 so I can continue watching “Heroes”. Cliffhangers are something you gotta love and hate at the same time, especially if they’re as great as this one at the end of “Fallout” (11th episode of “Heroes”) was. And this Friday, BSG will leave us with cliffhanger too (most probably), and it’s coming back on January 21st.

Got any shows to recommend? Please, don’t be afraid and fire away at the comments, I need something good to watch until January :)

BTW, Masi Oka, the actor who plays Hiro Nakamura on Heroes — please check his biography on IMDB, the guy is incredible! Respect ;)

This week in comics, portable social networking, music, and addictive beverages

Posted on in News

After two months of waiting (ground mail is still too-damn-slow), I’ve finally received my copy of Battle Angel Alita “Angel of Chaos” (book 7, 1st edition). And, same as my copy of book 3 (“Killing Angel”) that came two weeks earlier — it’s a used copy, not brand new, as a I thought. That said, I feel really stupid and illiterate. I guess I’ll have to bug some of my American friends to send it to me, after all.

Why is it so hard for people to ship their products worldwide? What’s the difference? I’m the one who’s paying the shipping cost, the seller doesn’t have to do a thing about it, but write ‘Croatia’ instead of ‘USA’.

Never mind, I’m not ready to rant about not being able to order anything but books, CD’s and DVD’s from Amazon. Not even games. Eh.

So, “Angel of Chaos” is a brilliant issue, I must say, a great read. Fun, very humorous, with plenty of action (well, as always), and more intriguing than, for example, issues 4–6 (which, although great, left me feeling unsatisfied). 4.5 stars, out of 5 :)

Continuing with the comics, I’d like to point you to the most recent Sinfest trilogy: “Broke into pieces“, “Broke into pieces 2“, and “Broke into pieces 3“. I love Sinfest, it’s one of the best comics I’ve ever had the pleasure to read, on- or off-line. And this mini trilogy is one perfect example why. It’s so simple and down to earth, yet so touching and über cute :)

Then we have the Penny Arcade folks who reveal how and why those “Wii-mote killed my TV” accidents took place.

And a Wulffmorgenthaler jewel from back in August :)

The problem with social networks friend-list portability was first pointed out by John Hicks (on his Flickr page, which shows no photos now?), expanded on “box of chocolates” by Derek Featherstone and finalized on Adactio by Jeremy Keith. Interesting reads with some good points.

I’m waiting for Breedart.org to come back online bigger, better and badder then ever before. I miss it badly, it’s like losing your address book and your phone. It’s like being stuck in small room with no door or windows, and with nothing in it to inspire you. Emptiness. Until it resurrects, I’ll be posting some of my music right here. I’m working on another piano track and thinking of adding a string quartet to back it up. Also, I’ll put up some of my old tracks in a new “other and unsorted” category :)

Ever heard of Regina Spektor? I’ve just found out about her by watching her video “Fidelity” on YouTube. She reminds me of Feist — a lot. But, when listening to miss Feist, I feel like I’m listening alone. With miss Spektor, I feel like I’m listening to her music with the whole world. I don’t know if that makes any sense, I can’t describe it any better, heh. I’ve been listening to her latest album “Begin to Hope” and I like it very much. It’s easy on the ears, she’s got a great voice and it makes you feel good. Recommended? Yes. I’m gonna go find and listen to her previous stuff now.

One last thing, as the title may suggest, is my Nescafé 3in1 addiction. I’ve successfully dropped the real coffee back in March, but this pest just won’t let me be. No tea feels like a good enough replacement for the sweet taste of this monster early in the morning :( What should I do, oh, how can I overcome this… need? I’m toasted, I get nervous if I don’t see that little brown packet on my kitchen desk when I wake up. Damn you, Nestlé!

I can’t wait to see the first snowflakes falling down. How about you?:D