my favourite things

don't you just LOVE christmas trees?

ok, time to look back at an extraordinary year.

this time last year i was a bit pessimistic about 2005, i thought it's gonna be an anti-climax after last year's ecstatic summer (Olympic Games, trip to the islands, Florida etc).

it's true that 2005 has gone by disturbingly quickly - i often felt like time was passing me by and i was watching my life literally unfold before my eyes in a speed i can't control.

still a lot has happened, qualitatively and quantitatively. 2005 is saturated with emotions, activities and words - to others, from others; in lecture theatres and conference rooms; on paper, on MATK and on the phone; over coffee, breakfast, dinner and lunch; there were even some words in an interview room that ultimately made a difference.

mercifully, the highs were a lot more (and more important) than the lows. So basically, i feel really lucky. I know this sounds reaaaallly cheesy and crass, but it's true. And because the readers of this blog have been subjected to a fair amount of ranting over the last year or so, i think it's important for the sake of balance to clarify that things are good at the moment. Not sure how long this will last but the good thing is that at the moment (and i stress that, maybe only for one moment) i don't really care.

so the only appropriate way to end this year of blogging is to say a few quick thank-yous (for those wondering, no this isn't the Oscars, merely me being myself).

So, thank you...

...to British Airways, KLM, Northwest Airlines, Jet2.com, Thomson and the late (and great) Hellas Jet for maintaining their aircraft and sending me to Paris, Belfast, Detroit, Chicago, Amsterdam, Athens and London without crashing.

...to Lena Divani for one of the best books i've ever read ("Ψέματα. Η Αλήθεια είναι..." - "Lies. The Truth Is..."); i strongly recommend it.

...to the team of 10% for producing one of the coolest, slickest, simply-the-best magazines and websites around, and giving us hope that something is moving in the right direction; special thanks to Ilias Kyriazis for his amazing artwork both for 10% and for the awesome Manifesto.

...to Madonna (and Jeremy), for that gig.

...to my students for making my first few months at the lectern not just enjoyable, but truly creative and generally ecstatic (by the way, your essays are looking good).

...to Maggie and Evi for driving me crazy on the beach and on national radio.

...to Dorothy, for putting up with my nerves, anger, frustration, sadness, happiness, constant rush and endless swearing day-after-day and still carrying me safely through the streets of Bournemouth and London; i love Renault.

...to fellow-bloggers - especially BlondeButBright, Patty, Terri, Takis, Michalis, Maiandros, Panos, Catsula, Vasvoe, tr0l, de(e)lumina, phantasmak, George, Lolita, Alximist, Kaltsovrako, Tseligkas, Respect - for being so inspiring and basically cool.

...to you for being so patient with me (indeed, this is the only question - why?).

Review: La Marche De L'Empereur [The Emperor's Journey]

Tonight i watched Luc Jacquet's La Marche De L'Empereur [The Emperor's Journey, also known as March of the Penguins].

While i was reluctant - initially - to spend an hour and a half watching penguins walk around, i was eventually won over by this fascinating and charming story, which is at the same time funny and moving.

+ basically, they're cute - it's impossible not to love them; a bit like nuns with tuxedos.
+ the story is gripping and you learn a few things about how amazing nature is, so entertainment is combined with education
+ all that is partly due to the penguins themselves, but also to the great work of Jacquet and his partners, esp. the director of photography and the editor.

- one of the reasons i don't like watching nature documentaries is the food chain thingie whereby someone must always die (because as Sharon Stone said in Basic Instinct "somebody always does"). Thankfully, the dramatic moments are carefully measured and scripted.
- Greek dubbing has been, is, and always will be horrid. Ever. Period.

Overall, and unexpectedly, i think you won't regret watching this charming documentary with lessons that go beyond one species. It's refreshing to see such original and interesting films get such good distribution / marketing and, yes, reception (Elli was full on a Monday evening).

the 'essence' of my desire...

...has beautiful eyes that kill me; a smile that i want it only for myself; a voice that heats me up like a stove; and attitude that "melts" me.

arghh, i'm sick and tired of falling for the wrong people.

like a butterfly approaching the warm, cosy, deadly light; about to burn its wings without noticing. Or worse; about to burn its wings while noticing...

Review: Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute]

I just got back from the new, über-trendy Alexandra Triandi Hall of Athens' Megaron (Concert Hall), where I watched Mozart's two-act opera, Die Zauberflöte [The Magic Flute] (libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder), directed by Michael Hampe.

The medium is the message.

How do you rate an opera, which was produced and delivered well, yet one which is still a fundamentally offensive (explicitly racist and sexist, implicitly homophobic) piece of art with completely parochial and limited-scope messages?

Do you separate between the work of art itself and its performance / production? Can you still appreciate some great technical or artistic elements, without validating the key messages and content? And where do you draw the line? Is the carrier of the message responsible for the contents? After all, someone decided to produce that particular opera and is, deliberately or not, promoting its messages.

Can you view the opera in a detached manner, e.g. separating between music and libretto, or between text and performance, or is it all a package? Is it ok to enjoy music, say, by Eminem or Elephant Man, despite the fact that their lyrics may incite hatred, violence, sexism and homophobia?

Less than a sum of its parts.

+ Hans Schavernoch's a-ma-zi-ng production design, Hans Toelstede's lighting, and Hampe's own direction (its more technical / sequential aspects) really steal the show. I mean it really is a *show* with an almost unprecedented quantity (and quality) of stage effects, sets etc.

+ Rainer Trost, Simona Houda-Saturova, Johannes Mannov and Claudia Rohrbach, as well as the rest of the cast, deliver excellent performances combining solid vocal delivery with overall dramatic impression.

+(?) Yan-Guang Cui just about manages to pull off one of the most difficult soprano roles ever written - only three arias, but extremely demanding.

+ The Camerata Orchestra and the Fons Musicalis Choir are very well "tuned" and support the narrative and the singing without overdominating (although there were a couple of timing problems towards the end of the first act).
It was a shame i didn't get to see Sir Neville Mariner conducting [he directed Camerata for six performances earlier in December], although Vasilis Christopoulos was fine too.

+ oh yeah, and the music is not bad either; this is after all Mozart.

- Still, the opera contains really unacceptable stereotypes (which could only be compared to repetitive and deliberate use of the 'n' word today) as well as a core message that is deeply sexist. Finally, the opera (plot-wise) is little more than cheap promotion of freemasonry with lots of rituals, symbols, legends, values etc which range from boring / pompous to disturbing, depending on your worldview.

Overall then, this latest version of Mozart's Magic Flute by Michael Hampe et al. is like a beautifully framed, slick certificate which is full of spelling and grammar mistakes. This is not Hampe's fault although one would think that he could have put all that energy and work onto a more worthy project.

Review: Tim Burton's Corpse Bride

He-llooo.

On Friday i visited Athens' gigantic The Mall where i watched Tim Burton's latest visual feast, Corpse Bride.

+ The film is great fun, with lots of dark, Burtonian humour and puns
+ Amazing songs and score (Danny Elfman is one of my favourite film composers - check this cool site)
+ Beautiful visually, using the stop-motion animation, a very very difficult, time-consuming but also amazingly realistic and rewarding technique first used in Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, which won the Special Effects Oscar.
+ (Vocal) Performances are brilliant, esp. Johnny Depp as the timid groom and Helena Bonham-Carter as, well, the corpse bride!
+ The film is a very aptly (and subtly) constructed critique of class, especially the hypocrisy and stiff-upper-lipness of the middle classes (represented by the living characters, esp. the four in-laws), as well as the careless and degenerated happiness of the working classes (the world of the dead). The confrontation of those two worlds leads to some hilarious scenes.
+ Keep an eye for the many cinematic and cultural references, from the obvious ones (Gone With the Wind) to the subtler ones (Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado).

- The film is quite short (just over an hour), which is not a bad thing in itself (well actually it is when you've paid 8 euros for admission), but means that there isn't enough time to really develop some key characters and narratives.
- Also, the story / plot itself feels very, very familiar and fuses Hollywood romantic comedies with gothic thrillers.

Overall, while probably less ambitious and developed than Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride is a good night out. Or, err... a half night out.

happy

...and it's not (just) because of Clinique.

by the way, despite my previous post about going back and forth, i'm surprised by the cultural shock which i still face everytime i come back home:
- internet speed feels like i'm in the Stone Age (i probably am!)
- magazines which I used to enjoy a lot, and which i used to have high expectations of, (e.g. Sunday's BHMAgazino) have turned into product catalogues for upmarket designers focusing exclusively and obscenely on consumption (food, gifts, home, design, fashion)
- the culture of celebrity, fame and traditional gender roles still reigns Greece - nothing seems to have changed since 1980

still, i can't help but feel great for some reason. too much coffee i reckon.

back and forth

It's easy to take things for granted when you're going back and forth for 10 years. It's easy to forget that most people in the planet rarely leave their hometown (if they survive famine that is).
It's easy to be very blasé about living in two countries.

But i try not to be.

I've done this journey more than 30 times now; i've travelled with most major and charter airlines; i've seen so many faces; hunky, funky and cranky flight attendants and passengers; nervous, excited students leaving home for the first time to study in the UK; chavs with kids going on a booze-trip to Faliraki; proud parents visiting britain for their offspring's graduation; posh ladies popping to Knightsbridge for a bit of shopping, etc.

For most people the journey between London and Athens is a real pain, a "necessary evil", an ordeal they have to go through so as to get to their destination.

For me it isn't. It provides me with a few hours of relaxed reading and reflection on what i'm doing and where i'm doing it. It allows me to appreciate the fact that i'm currently enjoying the best elements of both worlds (read this and that).

I always leave / arrive with mixed feelings: frustration for the things i didn't do / say; excitement for seeing family / friends; anxiety about experiencing new situations / people; depression for going back to the routine; relief for going back to the routine; doubts about how long this can go on; plus the usual mix of last-minute panic-packing (Personal Best is, believe it or not, a total of 30 minutes packing for 1 month's stay); and the odd thoughts about planes crashing, suitcases ending up in Barbados (i wish!) etc.

All this chaos of emotions, activities and experiences has become such an integrated part of my life - almost a routine in its own merit.

God, i can't imagine what it's like to be a pilot!

the art of being late

what is this? i mean is it some kind of perverse ritual?

it seems i've turned being late into an art form.

i have 24 hours until i leave for my Christmas "holidays" in Greece (which, trust me, as things are going it will turn out to be anything but a holiday, marking essays under the Christmas tree and writing papers next to the turkey); and, as always, i have compiled a list (running into several pages) of things i absolutely positively have to do before i go - i mean, things i NEED to do otherwise you'll have to bail me out of jail for a menu of criminal acts such as outstanding payments etc; plus there are those things that i've "had" to do for, like, 3 months now and kept putting them off... argh!

[i mean if i were to actually do those things (as in, really do them, rather than just list them) i'd need about a week].

oh, and to top it all, i drove back with a flat tyre all the way from the office tonight. As you do, obviously, in an "i'm-Michael-Schumacher-and-i'm-refusing-to-quit-the-race" mode.

[as for the "holiday" itself: Plan A was "no work whatsoever"; Plan B was "only light reading"; Plan C was "ok, anything but essays"; currently i'm on Plan D, which is "mark the rest of the essays and do some reading / writing". By the time i touch down at Eleftherios Venizelos airport I will have reached Plan Z "write the PhD, do the year's marking, write 5 papers and find the cure for cancer".

anyway, the point is i'm sick and tired of running late! i'd rather sit down and do my Top-20 ABBA songs list for my blog [whatever!].

24 hours....
hm...
that reminds me... only one man can rescue me...

Jack?

Review: De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté [The beat that my heart skipped]

During one of my most civilised, cultured and "continental" London weekends in recent memory, i enjoyed watching Jacques Audiard's latest film, De battre mon coeur s'est arrêté [The beat that my heart skipped], based on James Toback's Fingers (1978).

+ direction and screenplay, thoroughly French in its psychological / character-focused narrative, urban context and noir mystery. The political subtext, esp. about the real estate mafia running most of the urban centres of the West.

+ great acting, especially by Romain Duris [who also starred in James Ivory's Le Divorce] and by the three 'supporting' actresses [Emmanuelle Devos, Linh Dan Pham and Aure Atika].

+ the awesome, Berlin Festival Silver Bear-winning score by Alexandre Desplat, one of the most prolific, contemporary French composers [who also did the amazing score for Girl With a Pearl Earring]. Combined with some classical (and contemporary) masterpieces, the film "sounds" amazing [by the way if anyone tracks the soundtrack let me know, neither Amazon.co.uk nor E-Bay have it - too sophisticated perhaps?].

- just a minor point to note; while the film does its best to communicate the amount of effort that Duris' character [Thomas Seyr] puts into becoming a good pianist, the timeframe chosen [a few weeks? months?] is not appropriate as anyone who has ever played an instrument would know. Also, I would have liked to see some more background / context about Seyr's initial motivation to go back to playing the piano and his relationship with his mother - that part of the script was a bit underdeveloped.

Overall, however, this is a good and slick art-house film that successfully mixes traditional French ingredients with a more Anglo-Saxon approach to noir.



For previous film reviews click here.

get ready for the big bang...

I have a hunch. It's exactly as if all the stars are falling into line. It's like the tsunami has gathered enough pace and height and is about to hit the shores. It's like the pain in your neck (for lack of a better venue) is about to break. The pus will spill out, but soon the wound will heal. The water is boiling and the boiler will soon flip.

random things, patterns that cannot be possibly connected to each other. Or can they.

Brokeback Mountain. First gay weddings in the UK. Some courageous Greek politicians pushing the issue in the policy agenda. Some courageous Greek journalists pushing the issue in the public spotlight. Discussions in blogs, sites, tv channels, radio stations, newspapers. Family dinners, chats with friends, coffee tables. Things coming out in the open, in the fresh air. 10%.

i've just got this feeling that this country [i.e. greece] is gonna have the gay debate a lot sooner than we had all thought. Are we ready yet? Only time will tell.

In the meantime, some of us are gonna have to be A LOT, VERY, MUCH patient as friends, foes, politicians, scared housewives, (even more) scared alpha males, and the entire media circus negotiate our fundamental human rights and civil liberties [who are you to judge whether i should marry the one i love or whether i should have children? how can i accept the terms of a discussion that will debate and define my human rights only, how about yours?] and as they all come up with every conceivable (and inconceivable) theory and opinion, including one that i heard earlier today, citing a "doctor" who said that being gay is emotional instability - apparently, gay people "can make love to a woman" [as if that's the criterion of manliness / existence as a valid human being] if they overcome their "emotional problems". I mean how can this person be professionally qualified when the AMA has taken homosexuality off the sick-list since the 1970s??

This "emotional problem" wank might have been true were it not for the 35% (on average) of gay and bisexual animals, including sheep, penguins, monkeys, primates, dolphins, dogs, et al.
And for the thousands of (human) twins, growing within exactly the same environment and one of them being straight.
And for the consistent appearance of that "phenomenon" throughout humanity, across civilisations.

Achilleas, Plato, Sapfo, Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, Byron, Wilde, Tchaikovsky, Andersen, Albee, Williams, Wittgenstein, Woolf, Barthes, Capote, Coupland, Cunningham, Foucault, Garcia Lorca, LeRoy, Marlowe, Maugham, Maupin, Proust, Vidal, Almodovar, Amenabar, Jarman, Ivory, Bogarde, Botticelli, Britten, Butler, Caravaggio, Edward II, Mary II, Richard I, Easton Ellis, Forster, Gaultier, Gielgud, Hawthorne, Haynes, Elton, Kinsey, Kushner, LaChapelle, Cocteau, Marais, Mauresmo, Navratilova, McKellen, Mercury, Nureyev, G. Michael, Pasolini, Sondheim, Van Sant, Versace, Visconti, Warhol.

Should I go on? [Bloody hell, are there any talented straight people?]. If it means having a tenth of those people's talent; if the "emotional problem" brings creativity and insight (apart from a good f*ck at the G-spot), i might as well burn in hell.

It's the DNA. No, it's the first five years. No, it's the overdominant mother. No, it's the abusive father. No, it's being sexually abused (excuse me?). No, it's emotional problems (whatever). No, it's the hormones. No, it's actually the media. The curse of God (HIV/AIDS - which is 75% straight people). Fuck Off. Gimme a break. Who are you to judge what i am? Who are you to think that you can have an opinion over my fundamental human rights?

We are asking the wrong questions.

The right question is: do you mind? why? what are you looking at?

go get yourself a gift for this Christmas: a life.

Inspiro releases new single

"the magic moment you've been waiting (for) is due":

Inspiro releases new single, "Lover to Lover", out today by NRG records.



The follow-up to two of my favourite dance tracks of the last five years (Thoughts of You, Magic Nature) is based on Joe Yellow's "Lover to Lover" and is being described as an "electro-soulful" production - it is truly an emotional, uplifting anthem.

Samples of the track and its remixes are available both on Inspiro's site and NRG's promo page. Tracks #2 (Inspired Club Mix) and #4 (Dimension-X Disco Mix) immediately stand out, the latter one produced by the uber-cool Dimension-X of "Why'd I have to fall in love with you" fame.

I had the luck to watch Inspiro play a live dj set during the Athens Olympics beach parties last year. The dude ROCKS.

High five, and (finally) 'Hung Up's domination of my playlist seems to be coming to an end.

get the (phd) skeletons out and rock on...

i **finally** managed to catch up with my PhD after 2 months of complete inaction due to increased teaching and marking.

i had planned today to be 'phd day' - famous last words. You know when you plan something for a long time and are really scared that it won't work out? I mean, i've had plenty of 'phd only' days that ended up being 'anything but phd' days. But for some reason, things worked out today.

to the extent that i came up with a few good ideas to bring things together.

phew...

Golden Globes Nominations

Brokeback Mountain leads pre-Oscar lists

Oh yes, it's that time of the year again (and, once again, it's unbelievable how quickly it came).

This morning's Golden Globes nominations only confirmed the pattern of the last few weeks, that is to say, Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain is dominating the critics' and the industry's awards and looks like a very strong candidate for the big one.

A few days ago Brokeback Mountain led the American Film Institute's Top-10 list of official selections for the year. Ang Lee's "gay cowboy" (according to CNN, or "heartbreaking love story" according to MATK) also won best Picture and Director at Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) Awards.

The list of motion picture nominations is this:

Best motion picture - Drama
Brokeback Mountain
The Constant Gardener
A History of Violence
Match Point
Good Night, and Good Luck

Best motion picture - Musical Or Comedy
Mrs Henderson Presents
Pride & Prejudice
The Producers
The Squid and the Whale
Walk the Line

Best director - Motion Picture
Woody Allen - Match Point
George Clooney - Good Night and Good Luck
Peter Jackson - King Kong
Steven Spielberg - Munich
Ang Lee - Brokeback Mountain
Fernando Meirelles - The Constant Gardener

Actress in a Leading Role - Drama
Maria Bello - A History of Violence
Felicity Huffman - Transamerica
Gwyneth Paltrow - Proof
Charlize Theron - North Country
Ziyi Zhang - Memoirs of a Geisha

Actor in a Leading Role - Drama
Russell Crowe - Cinderella Man
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote
Terrence Howard - Hustle and Flow
Heath Ledger - Brokeback Mountain
David Strathairn - Good Night and Good Luck

Actress in a Leading Role - Musical or Comedy
Judi Dench - Mrs Henderson Presents
Keira Knightley - Pride & Prejudice
Laura Linney - The Squid and the Whale
Sarah Jessica Parker - The Family Stone
Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line

Actor in a Leading Role - Musical Or Comedy
Pierce Brosnan - The Matador
Jeff Daniels - The Squid and the Whale
Johnny Depp - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Nathan Lane - The Producers
Cillian Murphy - Breakfast on Pluto
Joaquin Phoenix - Walk the Line

Actress in a supporting role
Scarlett Johansson - Match Point
Shirley MacLaine - In Her Shoes
Frances McDormand - North Country
Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener
Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain

Actor in a supporting role
George Clooney - Syriana
Matt Dillon - Crash
Will Ferrell - The Producers
Paul Giamatti - Cinderella Man
Bob Hoskins - Mrs Henderson Presents

Best Screenplay
Woody Allen - Match Point
George Clooney and Grant Heslove - Good Night, and Good Luck
Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco - Crash
Tony Kushner and Eric Roth - Munich
Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana - Brokeback Mountain

Best foreign language film
Kung Fu Hustle (China)
Master of Crimson Armor (China)
Merry Christmas (France)
Tsotsi (South Africa)
Paradise Now (Palestine)

Best original song
A Love that will Never Grow Old - Brokeback Mountain
Christmas in Love - Christmas in Love
There's Nothing Like A Show on Broadway - The Producers
Travelin' Thru - Transamerica
Wunderkind - The Chronicles of Narnia

Best original score
Alexandre Desplat - Syriana
James Newton Howard - King Kong
Gustavo Santaolalla - Brokeback Mountain
Harry Gregson - The Chronicles of Narnia
John Williams - Memoirs of a Geisha

The full list is available here.

enough space for everyone

...you know something has gone horribly wrong when you find yourself in agreement with ultra-right religious fanatics.

Let me clarify a few things before i state my argument:
- i'm not a religious person in the traditional sense (e.g. Church, Bible etc) and i usually disagree fundamentally with everything that some (by no means all) "religious" people stand for, including intolerance, bigotry, terrorism, exclusion, discrimination, etc.
- i do like to explore my spirituality; my religion (Christian Orthodox), which was randomly assigned to me, is a vehicle for that journey
- i do believe in the separation of Church and State, with the caveat that for many countries, religion and the Church are an integral part of their history, tradition and culture; and that culture should be celebrated and protected, rather than demolished.

I was very angry when the Taliban destroyed important religious and cultural artefacts in Afghanistan, which went against their beliefs.

Anyone who was angry then should also be angry now. I am equally frustrated when political correctness goes mad (and this comes from someone who has been the victim of political in-correctness many times). I may disagree with born-again evangelists but i will die for their right to express their voice, because i believe in freedom and democracy more than anything else. I may hate everything that right-wing bigots stand for but i prefer to be called an uncivilised, sinful faggot, and to have the right to call them fascist, sick bastards who contradict themselves and are still in the closet. That's the beauty of liberty.

Compare that to banning "Merry Christmas" from the workplace [see Lionel Shriver's excellent article in The Guardian].

When you are unsure about how much freedom of speech we should have, then the rule of thumb is that more is better than less. Of course some will be offended. But that very environment allows them to respond (always within a non-violent context). Because if they can't, then everybody is offended.

I was brought up with Christmas carols, nativity art installations and Christian wishes. All these (and many more) were part of my everyday life and my country's culture.

I demand that these cultural symbols remain an integral part of my (and my children's / grand-children's) everyday life.

I demand that these cultural symbols remain an integral part of my workplace, my country and my country's schools and public places.

And I would be very happy for those who believe in Hanukkah, Solstice or Kwanzaa to demonstrate and celebrate their own holidays in our public spaces and workplaces and schools. Because we would all learn and broaden our horizons through public displays and everyday interaction with those events and cultures.

We should be embracing and protecting different religions, cultures and holidays - not banning them as if we live in Orwell's animal farm - there is enough space for everyone.

The beautiful nativity picture above belongs to California Yankee.

me against the essays

150 essays.
2 weeks.

enter the (n-th) dimension

This is it.
Today i entered one of the most challenging periods that one can experience.
One of those situations that can change your life (and those around you) for ever;
that, according to the experts, can really strip you of your own self / identity and challenge your very core.
No matter what the outcome of this process is, going through it is a challenge (a trauma even) per se.

[No, this isn't about marking the undergrad essays (...) although that's challenging too (but not quite as challenging as what i'm referring to).]

Since this morning, my mind has already travelled a few million miles; i have already reconsidered my own attitude towards and perception of (certain) others; i have already gained some useful insight (that may eventually be just the beginning). And for the next 10 days or so i will be in a trance-like state so forgive any reactions or behaviour that is unlike me. It should all be over in a week or so. One way or another.

Madonna was right (once again). Time goes by so slowly for those who wait...

the end is now close

24 hours until the end of term.

don't ask me where i was when this term passed - i have now idea; probably in a different dimension. i can see the days, weeks and months since Chicago passing before my eyes in infinite speed.

it's all over, at least for 1 (whole) month.

yeah baby, weeee loooooveee Christmasssss!

excuses are over

big day today.

massively big day today.

if nothing else, it removes our cosy excuse that we can't marry. oh yes you can sir. shit. i gotta start searching for a groom. fast. any volunteers? come on i'm 30 next year, i gotta get married now. oh my god. i've become a mainstream, middle-class cliche.

i can see me running around with a wedding dress like Joan Cusack in In & Out...

"will you marry me??!! is everybody straight??!!!! where am i, in the twilight zone????!!!!!"

Review: Flightplan

On Saturday i watched Robert Schwentke's Flightplan featuring my beloved Jodie Foster.

What is it with Jodie Foster, daughters and confined spaces?

Flightplan feels like a sequel to Panic Room, in its theme, directorial approach and overall visual feel.

+ Well, obviously, Jodie Foster. I mean she has the Midas' touch, she can produce and deliver performances out of very little.
+ Sean Bean and the supporting cast (Greta Scacchi in a short but brilliant cameo) do a great job in creating a claustrophobic / paranoid context within which Foster starts to search for her daughter.
+ Brilliant opening credits (make sure you catch the shadows of the credits on the moving train, amazing) as well as - finally, thank you God - some catchy closing credits.
+ Overall this is a pleasant experience (not sure if this is an appropriate term given that we're talking about a suspense / psychological thriller here, but you know what i mean) well managed and executed...

- ...but is just that i fear. They didn't have to re-invent cinema, and it could be seen as a tribute to Hitchcock or indeed to Roman Polanski's Frantic. Yet, they had the material for something ...richer. Jodie Foster could have pulled an even more amazing performance if the script allowed her to; this could have been a brilliant study on game theory (prisoner's dilemma), human psychology, the collapse of the boundaries between reality / fiction (e.g. we can persuade ourselves that something is true when we know / have experienced that it's not; and vice versa). Or simply they could have provided us with a more believable and well-researched plot. The end is definitely a big let down; the film collapses in the last 20 or so minutes.
- James Horner's music. While the plane certainly feels like Titanic, the score most certainly doesn't!

Overall, this is probably a fun night out or a good DVD to rent; while the film does not go beyond well-established clichés it is perfect escapism for Saturday night.



For previous film reviews click here.

waste the day

I'm so used to overscheduling my everyday life that i've forgotten what it feels like not to have every minute of your day preplanned. It goes without saying that very rarely things do go according to plan and i usually end up being 3 hours late in everything, but at least when you plan things you end up doing more, slotting more into the 24-hour cycle.

Anyway, this morning i decided that although i do need to do a few things over the weekend (clean my room, write a lecture, revise a paper, go shopping, go to the gym, watch a film, read a dissertation, finish the book i'm reading, see friends etc - which is much less that my usual share of weekend workload) i will try to just take it easy and as it comes - "i won't schedule anything".

The problem is that when daily schedules and advance planning are so embedded into your life they become an integrated part of your brain - i don't see going to the gym as a leisure activity anymore, i see it as something that needs to be done 17:00-18:00; otherwhise it won't be done at all (and that's even worse than not fully experiencing it as a leisure activity, if you know what i mean). Even when i'm in holidays it takes me weeks until i get out of the mental straitjacket of time management.

It appears that time mismanagement, just wasting time, doing nothing, not thinking about time, not caring about time has become a skill in itself - something that we need to acquire, something that we need to put into our schedule so that we learn how to do it. Let me say this again: i (we?) have forgotten what it feels like not to care about time, and need to put aside some time so as to remember / re-learn not to care about time. So, for example, from 2-4 today i won't do anything, i won't care about time (until 4 that is, which isn't like the real thing when you really don't care about time, but i'll settle for 2 hours). A bit of a paradox there as one needs to use the 'time' frame so as to deconstruct it and ultimately become independent of it.

That brings me to another issue, which is the entire obsession with making the most of life, and seizing the day, and all the rest of it. In our effort to avoid wasting our life or our time we have entered an agonizing race to 'do things' and take advantage of the day and spend 'quality time' with people and achieve aims. And we get so focused and purpose-oriented that we stop actually enjoying things; the extreme state of doing things or thinking about the utility / function of everything leading us to ultimately wasting time in not-so-important things.

Thus, sometimes seizing the day ends up feeling like wasting it; and - just sometimes - wasting the day is 'the new' seizing it.

Go on, waste time.

today. every day.

Number of people living with HIV in 2005: 40.3 million

People newly infected with HIV in 2005: 4.9 million

AIDS deaths in 2005: 3.1 million

more stats here