Cluj-Napoca on the moon

Union Square in Cluj-Napoca.

taken on 13 December.

Cemetery Junction - UK cinema gem

Hilarious comedy legend Ricky Gervais takes up directing, starts with tearjerking drama

A look at british productions over the years

You don't need a particular taste, mood, or mindset to enjoy quality british movies because when it comes to movies, the brits are just as capable as huge Hollywood studios to produce great features for the silver screen.

You might have heard as such movies as... i don't know, let's say the Harry Potter series (oh you have? that's good, that means you haven't been living under a rock or on a deserted island or in China. Yeah, that's right, they hate fun in China, all they do is build stuff, just expanding the economy, till there's nothing to expand anymore. I'm sure the children from the slums of India have heard of it though, with all the electronics we throw out nowadays they're bound to end up with a dvd player and a couple of Harry Potter movies.

Enough about a middle-aged woman fantasizing about a teenage dorky boy with a stiff wand, my point is that if you're going to watch a movie, don't dismiss it because it's british, cause they're usually loads of fun, and if not, it's sure to be an interesting watch. If you haven't seen Trainspotting, you haven't missed out that much, but this feature is a cult classic in it's own right. It will rattle you to your core and keep you off drugs (that's the only way they could get away with making a movie about Ewan McGregor sh*tting himself). In all seriousness, watch it, it's great, well put together and rounded, and good entertainment value. Ah, did I mention it was directed by the british god of movies which young kids just go nuts for, after he made Slumdog Millionaire - a tearjerker about the kids in the slums of Mumbai, particularly one of them who has seen a Harry Potter and won a million bucks because he held the knowledge of the western world [later edit: this is totally somewhat inaccurate]. He also made The Beach, a movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio in some exotic Thai island, this movie rendered 13 year-old girls helpless to contain their orgasms when watching it, i remember loving and hating this movie at the same time (hey hey, i'm no pedo, i was 13 myself back then).

Other gems from the british film industry are: Lock stock and two smoking barrels, Snatch, more recently: Rock'n'Rolla, Sherlock Holmes (by the courtesy of Guy Ritchie, another great director), [Green Street] Hoolingans, Kidulthood, Boy A (these are some teenage hard violent drama films, they just love these), Dogging and loads of other titles.

Ricky Gervais and his writing desk partner Stephen Merchant.

This duo started getting noticed through the hugely successful BBC Television series The Office. This had so much success the americans just couldn't wait to get their grubby little gravy covered hands on it, and Gervais being a practical man, made a contract with them and basically retired from ever needing to work again. He did continue however to experiment with different ideas, and like in The Office, he drew his inspiration from real life, or better yet, he drew an element, a particularly free thinking individual, Karl Pilkington. Gervais, Merchant and old "orange head" as they sometimes like to call Pilkington, sat down at a table and started discussing different matters. Ricky and Steve would incite Karl to expose his ideas about the world, about how old people are useless, about how some species of animals are useless and should not exist, and other stuff that might cross any normal human being's mind, but what keeps most of us normal, is not stating those facts, things like: "well, i can't describe this pain to my doctor, we should just invent a machine to transpose his brain into my body so he could feel what i'm feeling right now", or... "turtles are useless, what have they done for anyone lately, or ever for that matter?". He's not daft, or thick, he's just a very free thinker and agrees to have his uninhibited brain picked by Gervais and Merchant, cause let's face it, showbusiness pays good. He was once instructed to write a diary, so all the quirky ideas and thoughts be read at the weekly radio show they were doing, transforming them into a comedy gold.

They went from radio to podcasting, to HBO animated series (which basically depicts them in a room talking about stuff, then animating Karl's ideas and thoughts into the ridiculous nonsense Ricky and Stephen expose them to be. Karl needs them, because the whole process is helping Karl be himself, he wouldn't say all the things he does alone in front of a camera, at least not in the beginning.

More recently Gervais and Merchant sent Karl around the world to visit one thing or another and come back with impressions and ideas. This is particularly hilarious because he's not an ignorant person, he is interested in culture, but has his own particular absurd opinion which is usually comedy gold, or made that way by his co-stars.

Ricky Gervais is really known for the Office despite all his other work as a brilliant standup, he has a very good chemistry working for him, he's intentionally being an ignorant asshole and he does it in such way that you can't help yourself but laugh yourself off your chair. I can't imagine he might be revered as offensive by some, even though he is very brutal in regards to some subjects, i imagine that any obese people support groups hate his guts (well, obviously, first of all for being a lot smaller, specially now, in 2010 when Ricky's lost a whole lot of weight, i guess ripping on the fat people and being fat himself doesn't work as good if you are one, although in all fairness he isn't what they'd call fat in the states, a fact which he always points out in his standup).

Now for the shocker:

Out of nowhere (although recent appearance in several feature films and a few tv shows might have been a warning this might happen), Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant direct and appear in a british movie called Cemetery Junction. This is by all means a great british movie, even though it's made by Columbia (Sony, whatever), which is very "cash" and very very american. The spirit of the movie is totally british, the story, the acting, although the fact that the characters are a bit two dimensional is somewhat newbie it can be forgiven considering it's Gervais&Merchant's first feature film, and is much better than you'd expect a cinematic debut as a director&writer team to do.

Contrary to what IMDb clasifies as a "comedy", the core of this movie, is drama in the british suburbs, it's not about factories closing down, it's about how to live, or better yet how not to live your life.

The story is set in 1970's UK and follows the life of 3 young adults searching for a way in life, dealing with particular and general issues of the youth.

In the following trailer, very transparently Gervais tries to use his statute of a comedy god to make this movie appealing to a greater audience:

This trailer is indeed hilarious, but has nothing to do with the actual movie and/or zeitgeist of the movie.

Although it is salted with some funny lines thrown back and forth between the protagonist's dad (Ricky) and the grandmother.

Stephen Merchant also makes a short appearance in a comedical moment, but i'm not going to spoil it for you, watch the movie, it is really worth it!

And buy and go see more british productions, you always know you're going to get a good honest film. You never gamble when you watch a UK production, you usually don't expect ET or Schindler's List but you get more than your money's worth in artistic value, compared to weekly american movies that are thrown onto our big screens.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Best 20th century Symphonic

I would like to share with you my favorite pieces of music. I love all classical and cultural music that span through hundreds of years, from Tomasso da Celano, J.S.Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and to the contemporary classic music.

So i present to you:

John Adams: Harmonielehre (1985)

The composition's title, German for "study of harmony," also the title of a book by Arnold Schoenberg, hints at the work's combination of Schoenberg's harmonic principles with those of minimalism.

Adams has stated that the piece was inspired by a dream he had in which he was driving across the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge and saw an oil tanker on the surface of the water abruptly turn upright and take off like a Saturn V rocket.[1] This dream and the following composition of the piece ended a writer's block Adams had been experiencing for a year, and the movements reflect his situation, representing, respectively, liberation (I), spiritual sickness (II), and grace (III).

Sergei Rachmaninov - Symphony no.2

Rachmaninoff was not altogether convinced that he was a gifted symphonist. At its premiere, his Symphony No. 1 (conducted by Alexander Glazunov in 1897) was considered an utter disaster; its criticism was so harsh that it sent the young composer into a bout of depression. Even after the success of his Piano Concerto No. 2 (which won the Glinka Award and 500 rubles in 1904)[1], Rachmaninoff still lacked confidence in his writing. He was very unhappy with the first draft of his Second Symphony but after months of revision, he finished the work and conducted the premiere in 1908 to great success. The work earned him another Glinka Award ten months later. The triumph regained Rachmaninoff's sense of self-worth as a symphonist.

Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird Suite (1910/1911/1919/1945)

This is by far the best known of the 3. My ascent to love of classical music started with Tchaikovsky's symphonies, Rimsky-Korsakov's suites from ballets and really took a permanent place in my life after listening to Stravinsky's music.

The ballet centers on the journey of its hero, Prince Ivan. Ivan enters the magical realm of Kashchei the Immortal; all of the magical objects and creatures of Kashchei are herein represented by a chromatic descending motif, usually in the strings. While wandering in the gardens, he sees and chases the Firebird. The Firebird, once caught by Ivan, begs for its life and ultimately agrees to assist Ivan in exchange for eventual freedom.

Next, Prince Ivan sees thirteen princesses, with one of whom he falls in love. The next day, Ivan chooses to confront Kashchei to ask to marry one of the princesses; the two talk and eventually begin quarreling. When Kashchei sends his magical creatures after Ivan, the Firebird, true to its pledge, intervenes, bewitching the creatures and making them dance an elaborate, energetic dance (the "Infernal Dance"). The creatures and Kashchei then fall asleep; however, Kashchei awakens and is then sent into another dance by the Firebird. While Kashchei is bewitched by the Firebird she tells Ivan the secret to Kashchei's immortality - his soul is contained inside an enormous, magical egg. Ivan destroys the egg, killing Kashchei. With Kashchei gone and his spell broken, the magical creatures and the palace all disappear. All of the "real" beings (including the princesses) awaken and, with one final fleeting appearance from the Firebird, celebrate their victory.

I hope you enjoyed listening to these classical music treasures!

Later Edit: Shostakovich and Prokofiev. (you can't mention 20th century symphony without them!) I will select the best material I can find on them soon for your listening pleasure and of course mine.

RANT: Google Search.

The most utilized web application, EVER, sees the end user as a poor blind helpless confused bastard.

or

It ain't broke, but we're gonna fix that for ya anyway.

or

Google is becoming a communist super-power.

Yeah you heard me, i sad the very tabu political c-word. And even though it's a bit of a hyperbole, it's not far from the truth. I don't mind the fact that it remembers my searches, where i've been and where i'm going, what accounts do i have, where do i live and how much time i spend online, but please, don't restrict your programs in such a way that you are inconveniencing the end-user.

You do not, i repeat, do NOT need to filter results to show me the ones most relevant to my location, i can add my location to my searches if i want to, but i mostly do NOT browse the web to look at things that are around me, close to where i live. Sometimes i buy stuff from amazon.com, sometimes .de, sometimes, just for the heck of it, i'll look for product value in Spain.

Can I turn off location-based customization?

The customization of search results based on location is an important component of a consistent, high-quality search experience. Therefore, we haven't provided a way to turn off location customization, although we've made it easy for you to set your own location or to customize using a general location as broad as the country that matches your local domain.

Okay, all in all, it is not a bad adjustment to Google Search, but WHY make it permanent and unchangeable? It does bother me a little, it won't screw too much with my browsing of the internet, but ... for crying out loud.... i really don't see the point of making it unchangeable, how much money did you save exactly by doing this? was it really that critical?

Another problem i have with google's irreversibility: I made an email adress, which is kinda childish now that i think about it, it's called "flav.firebird" ... why? because it's inspiring, and that's what an 18 year-old wannabe artist is looking for. I input my real name into an affiliate account (some thing or another related to google at the time) and now i can't register my own name as an email address.

This to me is ridiculous, since that address does not exist, and it cannot be created.

That is seriously messed up, and what's even more annoying is that there's nobody to complain to, it's a free service and therefor there's only FAQ and tutorials, which have answered NOTHING.

Assange totally looks like Bill Maher

I created this "lol" as they call it.

I'm not the first person to call it, by googleing the comparison some news article pointed it out before, but i think i'm the first to make this comparison, searching for a visual comparison between the two didn't yield any reuslts.

What do you think?

Vote here if you like it:

http://cheezburger.com/View/4222489344

A (Saturday) night in Paris

Walking the busy streets of the Latin Quarter on a Saturday evening. It's very lively during weekend nights. The whole area is transformed from a nice place to drink a cup of coffee and eat a kebab to a big raving night-club zone. Every fancy caffee is transformed over the evening into a club with entrance fees, live performances, mandatory evening apparel, it's a very impressive metamorphosis.

Some other instantaneous shots at the end for your viewing pleasure.

Thank you for visiting.

Come again!

Paris (to be continued)

Paris: it's raining gifts

The big stores have started decorating for Christmas. Lafayette Galleries (just in the back of the Garnier Opera) have decorated very opulent and suggestive. This place is wonderful, i have only seen Harold's in pictures and filmed, but i doubt it's as fancy as Lafayette.

Picture of the day: In France even the statues drink

Yes, the people here really appreciate a good wine, apparently they appreciate it so much they'd like to share it with their inanimate friends.

Picture of the day: Dans le Louvre

Louvre Pyramid in the evening.

handheld. Exif data will be comming soon.

Picture of the day: Sacre Coeur

Sacre Coeur at night.

Picture of the day: La Defense from Arc de Triomfe

On a cold windy day.