Thousandapologies

People that have me heard talking about my travels to Scotland, know of my enthusiasm about that country. Up till now this country ranks high in the “top-five most beautiful places I ever visited”. The rough beauty of the landscape, the rich history present for each step you make, the castles, the lochs, and the isles provide you with such a complete experience that it’s a holiday location I can recommend to everyone. Because of my enthusiasm, I also try to follow the TV documentaries about this country I happen to come across. Luckily, the BBC seems to have a lot of them nowadays, the latest being Monty Halls’ Great Escape which reports on a marine biologist, tired of city life, and following his dream to become a self-sufficient crofter (Dutch: keuterboer) on the Scottish west coast. What makes the documentary interesting in my opinion is that such a decision takes a lot of courage but also at the same time illustrates a person that’s tired of the hectic city life we all got so used to and goes in search of a life of harmony, quietness, in touch with nature, but most of all less stress. The BBC website gives the following summary:

Marine biologist and professional diver Monty Halls turns his back on city life to become a 21st century beachcomber on the west coast of Scotland. Inspired by his childhood love of otters, Monty moves into a run-down cattle shed overlooking an isolated beach. With the help of a team of locals, he turns it into a comfortable home. The spring weather is the best anyone can remember and Monty is soon bringing the croft to life, with a crystal clear sea inviting him to explore.

So if you share my love of Scotland and feel for romantic days of yore, go and check it out!

Last Saturday, I really enjoyed watching this documentary on the history of Scotland, one of the most beautiful countries I’ve ever visited. As it turns out, it’s a series, so I hope I can watch the next episodes too. The documentary explored the Scotland of the early middle ages, when it was still divided into four large parts, every part ruled by a different tribe: vikings, Picts, Gaels, and Angles. Most of all, the documentary was beautifully shot, showing off Scotland’s most beautiful scenery, the rough Highlands, the glenns, the lochs, and the ruins of old castles. It reminded me off our beautiful journey to the Isle of Skye and furthermore think of visiting the country again soon. The documentary is broadcasted on BBC 2, on Saturdays from 21:00-22:00 CET, and made in cooperation with the Open University UK. More information can be found here. Oh yeah, and check out the accent of the narrator/presenter: it’s just brilliant!

Last Night, I watched a new film version of the old English myth Beowulf.  This cartoon-style movie really surprised me, as I did not expect too much from it. However, the characters, based on famous actors like for example Antony Hopkins, John Malcovich, and Angelina Jolie, are beautifully animated and the film is definitely entertaining. Not sure if the story was adapted though, because an earlier movie I saw about the same myth, was telling a somewhat different story. In short, the legend tells the story of Beowulf, a legendary hero that sails out to Danish shores to help King Hrothgar defeat the evil giant Grendel. Grendel attacked the mead hall Heorot and killed a lot of King Hrothgar’s subjects. It’s an old epic poem in a Viking tradition, and for those who like old mythology with monsters, dragons, and mighty heroes or enjoyed the 13th Warrior, this is definitely worth the while. Go and check it out on imdb, then I will try and find a version of the poem.

One of the best songs by the Beatles I think, but now also a movie with only Beatle-songs in it, it turns out. Last week, I watched this film and still I am not too sure what I need to think of it. The film portrays the story of a young fellow Jude moving from Liverpool to New York in the late 60s, getting involved in the hippy community, student protests against the Vietnam War and finally, how could it be different in the ‘All you need is love’ spirit of the Beatles, falling in love with one of the hippie women, Lucie.

First, I thought the film just used Beatle-songs performed by John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves as background music, but it turned out to be a musical-like flick with the actors singing the songs, backed up by new compositions of the music. In my opinion, trying to portray the songs in a similar or better way than the Beatles, is one of the most difficult things one can do in music. The vocal lines and the music itself, especially in their later period, is just of a genious quality. Additionally, Beatles songs are still played every day, and thus very much established, therefore changing them too much might lead to critiques easily.

So when I found out the actors where singing themselves, my feelings about it were immediately mixed, although I must say the creators of the film (and the new compositions) did quite a good job with a lot of songs; trying to modernise the music a bit, but still adhere somewhat to the original atmosphere or style of the song. Conversely, some of the songs were a complete disaster. Really, one thing that I realised after viewing this film is that they should forbid Bono to sing Beatle songs, if not forbid him to sing altogether…arggg I was just outraged by his feeble voice trying to sing one of the lyrics; he provided the perfect example of the fear I wrote about above. Another thing I wasn’t to sure about was the musical-like quality of the film, song after song followed and this might have been a little less dense, some more normal conversations, a bit more attention to the story, and a lot less cheesy musical dancing choreography. However, I would still advise you to go and see this movie, just because the Beatles and their songs, in what form their songs are put, are just awesome. Oh and one last thing…all characters in the film are giving names from beatles songs, quite nice

In the middle of the now oh so common waste of time of what’s called a windows reinstall, I decided to spend my time a bit more wisely than just waiting for the next “next button” to click. Therefore, I’m typing this post on the macbook pro I borrowed from OUNL’s new medialab, and, to not waste the geeky atmosphere I already created, I decided to tell you about the new media pc I recently assembled and is now the subject of a brand new Vista install.

Before Christmas, the range of multimedia content on my harddrive was already growing; I’m a big music fan, and want to have the my music collection always near me, so basically this meant ripping all my cds to mp3. Furthermore, with my new found hobby of photography, the number of photographs in my photo collection was also growing. Nothing that couldn’t be handled my old pc so far. But then came another hobby of mine….movies…having recently acquired an enormous amount of HD-ready or Full HD movies (some of you might have seen me carrying around with half a terabyte of new movie material in my arms) the need for a separate media machine became clearer and clearer. Not in the least, because my old machine was not able anymore to playback the movies. Therefore, with some advice of my fellow colleague Tally, I decided to assemble a new media pc.

Read more…

Gisteren het programma Carmen meets Carmen gekeken dat mijn broertje voor me had opgenomen. Mijn vikingbroeder Stephan (Ik heb eens met een paar vrienden mede gebrouwen) had me via een e-mail aanbevolen om er naar te kijken omdat het koor van Opera Zuyd, waar hij deel van uitmaakt, gevraagd was een deel van de zang voor haar rekening te nemen. Ik had zaterdag al een stukje gezien en was uit verveling doorgezapt omdat ik het gekwijl van een paar musicaltrutjes moeilijk kon aanhoren met mijn oververmoeide hoofd. Carmen meets Carmen bracht namelijk de opera Carmen en de musical Carmen samen. Schijnbaar heeft één of andere figuur het nodig gevonden ook een musicalversie van Carmen te maken voor het gewone gepeupel dat het te moeilijk vindt Franse liedteksten aan te horen. De Engelse vertaling van de Franse liedteksten (hoe kun je het gevoel van een warme zuidelijke taal vervangen door het koude gevoel van een germaanse?) viel me nog het meeste tegen.

Toch was niet alles slecht van de musicalliedjes; Glennis Grace deed haar uiterste best en ondanks dat haar stemgeluid niet geheel volledig zuiver was, liet ze toch af en toe zelfs de operazangers achter zich. Ook vond ik het lied uitgevoerd door de zanger van…jah hoe heet die band ook alweer…Intwine, heb het echt moeten opzoeken… best goed, ondanks dat het mijn stijl niet was. Hoe anders was het met Do, blegh wat een verwend popsterretje alla britney spears, zij kon me echt totaal niet boeien met haar totaal overdreven uithalen en slap gekwijl…ondertussen zo vaak haar ogen sluiten dat het zelfs voor de grootste nitwit ongelooflijk duidelijk wordt dat er totaal geen emotie in het spel is…elke keer dat zij in beeld kwam kreeg ik de neiging de afstandsbediening te pakken en door te zappen…helaas was het een dvd.

Echter, niets dan lof voor de operazangers, het koor van Opera Zuyd en het symfonieorkest! Vooral Carmen (gespeeld door Tania Kross) had een ongelooflijke mooie stem en in tegenstelling tot de slappe poging tot emotie van het eerdergenoemde popsterretje, bleken de acteercapaciteiten van de operazangers een stuk beter. Over die acteercapaciteiten gesproken trouwens, tussen de muziek door werd het verhaal van Carmen verteld door de actrice Hadewych Minis, wow! Niet alleen was het wondermooie meid, maar ze zette de rol van valse, mysterieuze en toch ook wel ontroerende zigeunervrouw Carmen ongelooflijk knap neer. Prachtig! Moet zeggen dat ik toch wel genoten heb van het programma, en het was ook gaaf om mijn vikingbroeder een keer op de beeldbuis te zien! Zul je straks zien dat we nergens meer rustig een Guinness kunnen gaan drinken omdat hij handtekeningen moet gaan uitdelen aan schreeuwende tienermeisjes…

Yesterday, I finally started watching the second season of the tv series Robin of Sherwood, which all of you might remember if you’re about the same age as I am (or older of course). Ever since the 1980s, when the series was broadcasted on Dutch Television, I’ve been longing to see it again. A sweet sense of nostalgia you might say, and yes it is. Although sometimes nostalgia is better left nostalgia; some series you should not watch again and just keep in memory.

That I really wanted to see this series again maybe also illustrates how I was hooked at it from the very first beginning when I was a little boy. The darkish, sometimes approaching the scary, atmosphere of the series backed by the mysterious music of Clannad, the thrilling story and just the amount of work spent to get every detail right for the atmosphere of the series, just left me breathless back then. So it was also my curiosity of finding out if the series really have been as good as I remember that made me check it out again. Some couple of months ago, probably sparked by the popularity of the new BBC series, Robin of Sherwood was brought out on dvd and of course I bought the first season immediately.

And yes, the series was as good as I remembered it. The first season was already nice to see, although looking and sounding ancient because of the old soft focus recordings and sometimes amateuristic sound effect. However, the first season I finished already too fast, and it left me wondering more and more about the rest of the series, increasing my impatience for the next dvd boxes to arrive. Luckily, about a month ago I stumbled across the second season and started to watch that yesterday. And from the first episod, I already dare to say that I think that this second season was the one that impressed me so much. The acting of all of the actors greatly improved and also it seems that more detail has been spend on the decors, probably because of a bigger budget than the first season that only was 5 episodes long. Writing this post, I think I will again watch an episode this evening, getting that old rush and starting to roll into that old addiction again…