adastra

29 May 2008

International Cinema I: Argentina to South Africa

I watch a lot of movies. The movies I’ve been watching since about a year are mostly Hollywood classics and foreign films. Next to working my way through the remaining 65 movies I haven’t seen from this list, I currently also try to work my way through the world, so to speak. That is, I want to watch at least one movie per country, more wherever possible. That is of course a very time-consuming hobby, but time is not the only barrier in the completion of this task. It’s very hard to find decent foreign movies. Browsing amazon.de can result […]

4 April 2008

Got myself a gun: The Sopranos

The Sopranos first caught my attention in December 1999. I had just turned 15, young and innocent as I was I visited my family in New Jersey and New York to celebrate the 99/00 thing. As sort of a souvenir, because it seemed so weird and different from what we have in Germany, I took home an out-of-date issue of the TV Guide. It had The Sopranos on the cover, advertising the upcoming Season 2. I’m not sure whether I ever read the accompanying article, but I probably never fully grasped (or just didn’t care) that the show was about […]

29 January 2008

Most Memorable Movie Characters

Inspired by Nellie who was inspired by Britney, this is a small list of all the movie characters I think are most memorable. I have seen far more movies than healthy in the last few years, a habit which is probably not gonna change anytime soon. I recently started renting movies from amazon and my renting list already has over 60 mostly weird foreign movies on it, so I might have to post an update to this list someday…. Hans Beckert (M – Eine Stadt sucht ihren Mörder, Germany 1931) Why would a creepy child murder be memorable? Peter Lorre’s […]

27 August 2007

Stockholm and the Land of the Vikings

I have spent the last couple of days in the amazing city of Stockholm, Sweden. I went there on my own. Right before I left, not really knowing what to expect, I had a few paranoid doubts about whether I’ll like it there, whether I’ll be totally bored and just wanna go home. I wasn’t, instead I was completely overwhelmed by how beautiful that city is! Both Stockholm and Sweden are stunning and on top of that the weather was perfect (I got sunburned!). And everything is in Swedish! Swedish people everywhere! How exciting! Anyway, here’s my diary, complete with […]

29 July 2007

Dexter

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to Dexter Morgan, who works as a forensics blood expert with the Miami Police Department. He loves his job, and not only does he help his coworkers a lot with his analyzing of the blood splatter on crime scenes, his instincts about killers are always dead on. Why is that? Because he moonlights as a serial killer himself and is a true perfectionist at his little ‘projects’. But he doesn’t just kill randomly – he only kills those who deserve it, people who have killed other people without reason. In their final minutes […]

12 July 2007

Swedish Music (Musik Non Stop)

A little post about (for normal people) unusual music, inspired by my own ramble about the world and how it needs more singing and by Michael’s posts about cover versions of songs. This my small ramble about unusual music in Swedish language which is nevertheless pleasant to listen to. Unfortunately the sample songs are not always my personal favorites, but most of them are good anyway. To listen to the sample, just click on the small arrow! Dia Psalma – Balladen om lilla Elsa Best of Album: Psalmade Psalmer Dia Psalma are a Folk Punk band – their music is […]

21 June 2007

Doomsdaylight: Heroes

Yesterday I finished watching Heroes. It’s been a long journey. Sorry for this geeky post. I started watching this show exactly a week ago, and since then I’ve been consuming it like a zombie with the result that I now feel like someone ate my brain. It sure is a lot to absorb, but at the same time it’s relieving to be at the end of the journey. That’s the impact a simple TV show can have on you ?! This definitely isn’t the easy Friday night entertainment you’d expect it to be. On top of that it’s quite graphic […]

25 May 2007

Dead Men Tell No Tales (not even At World’s End)

I have seen Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End last night, and my expectations were pretty much confirmed – the movie didn’t really make sense. (x-posted to the reviews) I’ve been a fan of the Disney ride since 1996 (I haven’t been there again since like 1999, but I’m dying to), so I was all the more excited when I saw the first movie in 2003. I absolutely loved it, it was a solid, spirited story and great escapism. But now imagine the writers – you have a great hit movie, the people are screaming for more, so what […]

30 March 2007

Everything you always wanted to know about time zones but were afraid to ask

Some time around last Tuesday or so I had this idea to make a wallpaper for my desktop that shows a map of the world divided in it’s time zones (having relatives all over the world and stuff like that). I’ve tried searching the web for something nice, but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything, so I just started doing it myself. I took a time zone map I found on the net and the started drawing paths of the time zone parts of the continents, and once that was done I drawed paths of the lines between the zones, and […]