And so it goes.
Our choir sang at the opening of a local art museum two weeks ago on Thursday, and I was chosen to act as a speaksperson and representative of our choir. Despite being nervous it seemed I managed to get the point across. The singing stuff was a bit hectic, though, because I was the only tenor around (yay -_-) and most people's throats were sore so they couldn't sing as well as they should've. I met my friend Niklas's girlfriend Ida as well as my sister Marika and her husband (which was a positive surprise). I also managed to talk a bit with my high school's art class teacher. I also managed to have a "lengthy" conversation with Emma about various kinds of stuff, and it was nice to talk to her.
On Friday Sephiroth1999AD came to my place and we talked a bit. Then we drove to our old high school so that we could meet some of our old teachers. It turned out that most of the teachers weren't around that time and that a bunch of them were in the other building, so we headed there. We managed to talk with our maths teacher, our history teacher and Finnish language teacher, and they were joking pretty much all the time. We spent some time talking to them, and then I drove Seph back to his home.
Later in the evening I went to Seph's place, and he showed me clips of some Final Fantasy themed concert where Nobuo Uematsu was, and the Nobuo was having a good time. The aria bit from FFVI was nice although they weren't singing as well as I would've thought (although they were decent in any case, and the orchestration was nice). We also listened to some Christian songs which were alright, and we talked about a bunch of stuff. I eventually drove back home as it was getting late, but after getting home I decided to catch up on the latest Bleach episodes as well as the manga, and I also watched some Monster episodes.
Since then I've gone to a bunch of lectures, and I've been trying to do all the homework for the German course I'm taking. Deutschland über alles! As if. It seems the PCB stuff at our university is finally taken care of, but I wonder if the renovations and the environmental cleanup operation will be done before summer. Until then we'll have to run around the campus to different lecture halls. Oh well.
Today our choir got together again, and we practiced a bunch of Medieval and Renaissance choral songs. To my amazement I also found out that Emma was interested in seeing the Finnish version of the Beauty and the Beast musical (seriously, what are the odds of that? xD), and she was genuinely surprised when I told her I'd seen it, and she asked me a bunch of questions. She gave me her MSN address, and I promised to send her some of the songs from the UK and US cast recordings if she wanted to hear them. So far so good. I also pointed out to her that YouTube has some clips from the Denver run of The Little Mermaid Broadway if she wanted to hear some of the songs, and she said she might check them out eventually. ^^;
Speaking of TLM, I found some nice audio clips of The Little Mermaid Broadway posted on YouTube. The finale in particular was quite sweet, although it seems it might become shorter for the final version. I like many of the new songs, although I'm still sad that "All Good Things Must End" wasn't included, but oh well.
I managed to find some new pics from the animated portion of Enchanted, and they look quite good. Pip (the chipmunk) looks especially cute, and in some shots Giselle looks absolutely stunning. My favourites of the new pics are: this, this, and this. I can't wait to see this movie. ^^
I listened to the Transformers score by Steve Jablonsky and to my amazement I was surprised by it. I was expecting a trashy experience similar to his promo, but the album was quite polished and managed to include some great cues. This album is yet another guilty pleasure for me, because we've heard all those Remote Control melodies in other movies already and yet Jablonsky managed to make them enjoyable. I should be blasting the album to bits because it's a shameless ripoff and yet I really can't because I enjoy the music as it is. My favourites in the OST are the tracks "Optimus" with its soft woodwind interlude and the epic "Arrival to Earth".
Whoa, "First Love, Final Love" from Genesis of Aquarion OSTs is surprisingly good. Although it seems it's based on some Prokofiev melody (at least according to some people in Filmtracks forum), it's still a great piece of music. I really like when the choir kicks in and the whole track gets into this Disney kind of feel that is similar to what Menken did with some of Disney's animated classics. I guess I need to put Genesis of Aquarion into my must-watch list, because I want to see how well the track works in the story's context. Superb piece of work once again, Yoko Kanno!
I watched the recent episode of Bleach, and I don't quite know what to say about that. Some of the Espada voices sounded alright, but Aaroniero's and Nnoitra's really freaked me out, because I didn't expect them to have such voices. Especially Aaroniero was a huge disappointment, because now he sounds like some lameass villain although he should be much more than that. Well, maybe I'll get used to those pesky voices eventually. We'll see. =P
City of God is a surprisingly touching and tragic story of the life of street gangs in the violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Although the character Buscapé acts as the narrator, there are actually multiple plots going on in different times and they're all tied together as the movie progresses. The actors do a great job in portraying the morally grey characters, and even the evilest characters have some sympathetic traits. The way how the story mixes different eras and intertwines different stories is a marvel to look at and brings such a rich canvas to the plot itself.
Music works quite well, although it isn't cohesive (but then again, it isn't meant to be). Cinematography is absolute brilliant in the way it utilizes camera moves and changes colours to indicate different moods and eras. The plot itself is great too and has all those great nuances going on. All in all City of God is definitely worth watching if you enjoy contemporary crime drama with some tragic and dark twists. I'll give it 4 stars out of 5.
Goodfellas is a story about Henry Hill and his pals who move up the mob hierarchy, but as times change and things like drugs enter the picture, things turn out for the worse, and the audience is gasping how it all will end. The acting by particularly Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, is quite good and believable, and they bring richness into their characterization of these lovable crooks. The songs work well, and Scorsese's long camera moves are fantastic as always. The story is quite gripping too with its depressing tone. I'll give this movie 4- stars out of 5.
Secondhand Lions is a story about a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who goes to live with his eccentric uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) in the countryside. He tries to find out if they've actually stolen money from the mob bosses, but in the meantime he gets to learn the heroic deeds of his uncles narrated by Caine's character. However, not everything is what it seems. Are the stories true or just made up to entertain the boy? This and many other questions are answered as the movie progresses.
The movie combines traditional countryside drama with adventurous stories about the deeds the uncles did allegedly did when they were young. This contrast is great and makes the movie go on in a steady pace. The actors do a good job, and cinematography works well, especially during the scenes of adventure when it looks quite cartoonish in a good way. The overall story is well told and is quite sentimental, which makes it work in so many levels. Patrick Doyle's score is both romantic and heroic, a perfect fit for the movie. If you enjoy good drama with occasional adventurous scene, you should give this movie a try. I'll give it 4- stars out of 5.
The Missing is a story about a father (Tommy Lee Jones) and his daughter (Cate Blanchett) in the Wild West who haven't been speaking for a while but who are forced to work together when the daughter of Blanchett's character is kidnapped. The story mixes supernatural elements and some horrific images as the heroes face the evil witch, brujo, and his minions. The actors do a good job, and the story is quite thrilling, giving dualistic explanations to the brujo's magic depending on how you view it. Cinematography is great with its play of colours, and James Horner's score is surprisingly dramatic and powerful with great thematic content. All in all it's a successful movie and worth watching if you enjoy a dark rescue story set in the Wild West. I'll give it 3½ stars out of 5.
As for tGA, I managed to think of a great way to introduce my new character, but this depends on whether we get enough people to the site. So far quite a few people have been interested in starting up, but we'll see how things go from here.
Yours,
Mikko
On Friday Sephiroth1999AD came to my place and we talked a bit. Then we drove to our old high school so that we could meet some of our old teachers. It turned out that most of the teachers weren't around that time and that a bunch of them were in the other building, so we headed there. We managed to talk with our maths teacher, our history teacher and Finnish language teacher, and they were joking pretty much all the time. We spent some time talking to them, and then I drove Seph back to his home.
Later in the evening I went to Seph's place, and he showed me clips of some Final Fantasy themed concert where Nobuo Uematsu was, and the Nobuo was having a good time. The aria bit from FFVI was nice although they weren't singing as well as I would've thought (although they were decent in any case, and the orchestration was nice). We also listened to some Christian songs which were alright, and we talked about a bunch of stuff. I eventually drove back home as it was getting late, but after getting home I decided to catch up on the latest Bleach episodes as well as the manga, and I also watched some Monster episodes.
Since then I've gone to a bunch of lectures, and I've been trying to do all the homework for the German course I'm taking. Deutschland über alles! As if. It seems the PCB stuff at our university is finally taken care of, but I wonder if the renovations and the environmental cleanup operation will be done before summer. Until then we'll have to run around the campus to different lecture halls. Oh well.
Today our choir got together again, and we practiced a bunch of Medieval and Renaissance choral songs. To my amazement I also found out that Emma was interested in seeing the Finnish version of the Beauty and the Beast musical (seriously, what are the odds of that? xD), and she was genuinely surprised when I told her I'd seen it, and she asked me a bunch of questions. She gave me her MSN address, and I promised to send her some of the songs from the UK and US cast recordings if she wanted to hear them. So far so good. I also pointed out to her that YouTube has some clips from the Denver run of The Little Mermaid Broadway if she wanted to hear some of the songs, and she said she might check them out eventually. ^^;
Speaking of TLM, I found some nice audio clips of The Little Mermaid Broadway posted on YouTube. The finale in particular was quite sweet, although it seems it might become shorter for the final version. I like many of the new songs, although I'm still sad that "All Good Things Must End" wasn't included, but oh well.
I managed to find some new pics from the animated portion of Enchanted, and they look quite good. Pip (the chipmunk) looks especially cute, and in some shots Giselle looks absolutely stunning. My favourites of the new pics are: this, this, and this. I can't wait to see this movie. ^^
I listened to the Transformers score by Steve Jablonsky and to my amazement I was surprised by it. I was expecting a trashy experience similar to his promo, but the album was quite polished and managed to include some great cues. This album is yet another guilty pleasure for me, because we've heard all those Remote Control melodies in other movies already and yet Jablonsky managed to make them enjoyable. I should be blasting the album to bits because it's a shameless ripoff and yet I really can't because I enjoy the music as it is. My favourites in the OST are the tracks "Optimus" with its soft woodwind interlude and the epic "Arrival to Earth".
Whoa, "First Love, Final Love" from Genesis of Aquarion OSTs is surprisingly good. Although it seems it's based on some Prokofiev melody (at least according to some people in Filmtracks forum), it's still a great piece of music. I really like when the choir kicks in and the whole track gets into this Disney kind of feel that is similar to what Menken did with some of Disney's animated classics. I guess I need to put Genesis of Aquarion into my must-watch list, because I want to see how well the track works in the story's context. Superb piece of work once again, Yoko Kanno!
I watched the recent episode of Bleach, and I don't quite know what to say about that. Some of the Espada voices sounded alright, but Aaroniero's and Nnoitra's really freaked me out, because I didn't expect them to have such voices. Especially Aaroniero was a huge disappointment, because now he sounds like some lameass villain although he should be much more than that. Well, maybe I'll get used to those pesky voices eventually. We'll see. =P
City of God is a surprisingly touching and tragic story of the life of street gangs in the violent neighborhood of Rio de Janeiro. Although the character Buscapé acts as the narrator, there are actually multiple plots going on in different times and they're all tied together as the movie progresses. The actors do a great job in portraying the morally grey characters, and even the evilest characters have some sympathetic traits. The way how the story mixes different eras and intertwines different stories is a marvel to look at and brings such a rich canvas to the plot itself.
Music works quite well, although it isn't cohesive (but then again, it isn't meant to be). Cinematography is absolute brilliant in the way it utilizes camera moves and changes colours to indicate different moods and eras. The plot itself is great too and has all those great nuances going on. All in all City of God is definitely worth watching if you enjoy contemporary crime drama with some tragic and dark twists. I'll give it 4 stars out of 5.
Goodfellas is a story about Henry Hill and his pals who move up the mob hierarchy, but as times change and things like drugs enter the picture, things turn out for the worse, and the audience is gasping how it all will end. The acting by particularly Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci, is quite good and believable, and they bring richness into their characterization of these lovable crooks. The songs work well, and Scorsese's long camera moves are fantastic as always. The story is quite gripping too with its depressing tone. I'll give this movie 4- stars out of 5.
Secondhand Lions is a story about a young boy (Haley Joel Osment) who goes to live with his eccentric uncles (Michael Caine and Robert Duvall) in the countryside. He tries to find out if they've actually stolen money from the mob bosses, but in the meantime he gets to learn the heroic deeds of his uncles narrated by Caine's character. However, not everything is what it seems. Are the stories true or just made up to entertain the boy? This and many other questions are answered as the movie progresses.
The movie combines traditional countryside drama with adventurous stories about the deeds the uncles did allegedly did when they were young. This contrast is great and makes the movie go on in a steady pace. The actors do a good job, and cinematography works well, especially during the scenes of adventure when it looks quite cartoonish in a good way. The overall story is well told and is quite sentimental, which makes it work in so many levels. Patrick Doyle's score is both romantic and heroic, a perfect fit for the movie. If you enjoy good drama with occasional adventurous scene, you should give this movie a try. I'll give it 4- stars out of 5.
The Missing is a story about a father (Tommy Lee Jones) and his daughter (Cate Blanchett) in the Wild West who haven't been speaking for a while but who are forced to work together when the daughter of Blanchett's character is kidnapped. The story mixes supernatural elements and some horrific images as the heroes face the evil witch, brujo, and his minions. The actors do a good job, and the story is quite thrilling, giving dualistic explanations to the brujo's magic depending on how you view it. Cinematography is great with its play of colours, and James Horner's score is surprisingly dramatic and powerful with great thematic content. All in all it's a successful movie and worth watching if you enjoy a dark rescue story set in the Wild West. I'll give it 3½ stars out of 5.
As for tGA, I managed to think of a great way to introduce my new character, but this depends on whether we get enough people to the site. So far quite a few people have been interested in starting up, but we'll see how things go from here.
Yours,
Mikko