Food may not be the answer to every problem.

The Sopranos, going in their final episodes, still very much relevant.

Out there.

From stormy New York last week to sunny Provence tomorrow, we sure are busy travelling at the moment and staying away from the computer. Hope all you kids are doing good as well and don't forget: "Remember When..." is the lowest form of conversation. Go out and holy thou road.

Sleepless Long Nights

We already declared our eternal love in 2004 to Leslie Feist upon watching her doing the slickest moves with Richie 'Buck 65' Terfry...



But now Leslie is coming out with a new album and by golly gosh, what a brilliant suprise it is again. The first single & music video "1234" is putting me in such a good mood I would almost break a leg while grooving along. Improving on their previous collaboration, director Patrick Daughters may be somewhere inspired by Gondry and Björk but is still very much able to stand out on his own. More eternal Feist Loving!

Intelligent doesn't mean lack of clarity.

Shorten your words, shorten your meanings, make it snap, make it count. Genius is doing something brilliant with simple things.

Here's to Daniel Johnston's magnificent Devil Town lyrics (and the pretty awesome Bright Eyes interpration).

I was living in a Devil Town
Didn't know it was a Devil Town
Oh Lord it really brings me down
About the Devil Town

And all my friend were vampires
Didn't know they were vampires
Turns out I was a vampire myself
In the Devil Town

I was living in a Devil Town
Didn't know it was a Devil Town
Oh Lord it really brings me down
About the Devil Town.

Kill For Peace

Great music video for the song "Kill For Peace (& Peace Will Die)" by The BlackBox Revelation, directed by Jonas Govaerts.

People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad.

What Kept Grandpa Up

Great new video from anticon's The Bomarr Monk:

The Best Trial Movies

The following list is by Patric M. Verrone, in an article from the ABA journal/November 1989.

THE 12 BEST TRIAL MOVIES

1 The Passion of Joan of Arc (1928)
2 "M" (1931)
3 Twelve Angry Men (1957)
4 The Wrong Man (1957)
5 Paths of Glory (1958)
6 Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
7 Inherit the Wind (1960)
8 Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
9 The Trial (1962)
10 To Kill a Mockingbird (1963)
11 A Man For All Seasons (1966)
12 The Verdict (1982)

Very interesting list; I tend to agree, although I haven't seen all yet (Wrong man, Anatomy of a murder, Inherit the wind & A man for all seasons).

The one I would include as well though would be Adam's Rib. A light trial comedy but definitely top 5 material.

Lots of love to Jason Schwartzman's genes

Jason Schwartzman is a little genius in the making.

Not only is the 26-year old a fabulous actor, he also co-wrote the upcoming Wes Anderson pic The Darjeeling Limited with Wes himself and Schwartzman's cousin Roman Coppola (yeah, son & brother of). These pics were taken in India where they have just wrapped up filming the movie. Hopefully it will hit the theatres before the year is over.

But to make things even worse, I also discovered Jason's myspace page which features probably one of most fun & poppy songs of the year so far: West Coast.

So the boy can sing as well? Damn you Jason, damn you!

R.I.P. Jean Baudrillard

Deep down, no one really believes they have a right to live. But this death sentence generally stays tucked away, hidden beneath the difficulty of living. If that difficulty is removed from time to time, death is suddenly there, unintelligibly.

Thus perhaps at stake has always been the murderous capacity of images: murderers of the real; murderers of their own model as the Byzantine icons could murder the divine identity. To this murderous capacity is opposed the dialectical capacit of represenations as a visible and intelligible mediation of the real. All of Western faith and good faith was engaged in this wager on represenation: that a sign could refer to the depth of meaning, that a sign could exchange for meaning and that something could guarantee this excahnge--God, of course. But what if God himself can be simulated, that is to say, reduced to the signs which atttest his existence? Then the whole system becomes weighteless; it is no longer anything but a gigantic simulacrum: not unreal, but a simulacrum, never again exchanging for what is real, but exchanging in itself, in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference.

At male strip shows, it is still the women that we watch, the audience of women and their eager faces. They are more obscene than if they were dancing naked themselves.

How To Re-Interpret Old Forgotten Instruments.

Watch this enchanting palindrome performance by Dutch lute player Jozef Van Wissem and check his albums at the BVhaast online store.

Soul.

The first essential, the life and soul of Tragedy, is the plot; and then the characters come second. Compare the parallel in painting, where the most beautiful colours laid on without order (unity) will not give one the same pleasure as a simple black-and-white sketch of a portrait.

-- Aristotle

Scottish Can Be Sexy Too

And she has been holding on for too long.
And where will she go?
But don’t worry cuz I am leaving
And don’t worry
And your thoughts aren’t clear
And I’m thinking about you
And your brother won’t be found
And you’ve stopped
And you’ve stopped
And you’ve stopped killing

The Glasgow-based band The Twilight Sad are great guys to hang with and their self-titled EP is slowly becoming one of my most played records of the year sofar.

In a few weeks time (march 19th) Fat Cat will release their debut album called "That Summer, At Home I Had Become The Invisible Boy".

I'm not sure if the album has the same songs as the EP, but hopefully this amazing song Three Seconds of Dead Air is on it.

Oscars recap

Well thanks to the amazing TVU player we were still able to see the Oscar show and let me first say that for the best night out you should bring friends, a bottle of champagne, ben & jerrys icecream and all have a bet. It truly makes things fun and even the more tedious categories interesting since each wrong prediction could mean a defeat or a win (in our case the prize was a bottle of champagne and for the record: I won)

As far as the fashion police goes: I truly missed the real cute women this year (natalie portman?), so I have to say the elder women looked sometimes better than the younger generation. Helen Mirren is still looking strong at 60. Dress awards go imho to Nicole Kidman (although I woulda cut that neck noose), Helen Mirren and Reese Witherspoon. Worst choices this year would definitely be Kate Winslet, Jennifer Lopez & Jessica Biel.




And now then, I'd never say I'd say this but bring back Jon Stewart!! Jeezes H, Ellen Degeneres was dreadfully unfunny. Ughhhh. I only smiled once when she did that picture thing with Clint and Spielberg.



Funniest skit of the evening: Jack Black and Will Ferrell vs John C. Reilly



First pleasant upset of the evening was Alan Arkin winning Best Supporting Actor. I was so glad he did, although I had bet my money on the wrong horse (Eddie). But amazingly, Alan took it home. I can't believe he only comes under the big audience's radar now, what a fine actor and a great stoic speech:



Overall, it was great to see Dreamgirls lose almost everything! And the other results were really heartwearming as well, EXCEPT FOR Best Cinematography. I cannot believe Children of Men lost to Pan's Labyrinth!!!! Emannuel Lubezki did the most amazing job, TRUE SHAME!



It was great to see Michael Arndt on stage, even with a weird little cold voice. Little Miss Sunshine did better than expected I think, winning Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor. There are no clips of this on youtube, neither of Bill Monahan's speech. I guess screenwriters aren't that popular huh. So here's a short clip of Arndt on the WGA awards. Also note to the academy: I loved your presentation of the screenwriting nominees, reading a piece of the script and then showing the clip. Please do this again, next year.



Meanwhile I loved Ennio Morricone's Italian on stage. I had never seen that. Eastwood didn't understand a word he said either I think but it was truly great to see such a legend get honoured.



Second upset of the night: Guillermo Del Toro losing to Das Leben der Anderen! Wowww didn't see that coming. I can't say whether it's for the better, Pan's Labyrinth is an okay movie but not the masterpiece they make of it and I havent seen Das Leben der Anderen. But good for Germany again, they're making the most interesting European movies anyway lately.



Also good to see old Road Warrior George Miller take a surprising win over Cars. I loved the first hour of Happy Feet way better over them silly race cars. Cameron Diaz however is one big dumb cow.



I almost forgot Robert Altman died during this year's In Memoriam montage. Love you Bob.



It was as expected but nonetheless I'm so happy for Helen Mirren & Forrest Whitaker. Whitaker should have taken it countless movies before, but although his speech was brilliant at times and honest, a little less God I could do with.



And then Scorsese off course. What a victory and what a wonderful trio to present. My highlight of the evening. I thought he was almost gonna cry when Schoonmaker thanked him and he seemed really nervous when the almighty trio were announcing the nominees but yeah, this wasn't going to escape him. Great on you. We were giving you a standing ovation here too Marty!

How To Watch The Oscars 2007 Broadcast Online!

Thank God for the internet again. Everyone who won't be able to see the oscars tonight through their local or national television, do not panic! You can see the whole show easily and for free through the p2pTV application TVU player.

STEPS

1. Download the TVU player here. (i'm using the latest beta)
2. Save it to your hard disk, open the zip, run the setup and install.
3. Connect to the TVU channel 38474 which says "2007 Academy Awards" (EDIT: as of now, the channel is 51222, they are directly broadcasting from ABC!!)
4. Follow up any questions you might have on the andromeda forum
5. The schedule is as following:

17:00 (GMT): Countdown to the Red Carpet: The 2007 Academy Awards (E!)
23:00 (GMT): Live from the Red Carpet: The 2007 Academy Awards (E!)
01:30 (GMT): The 2007 Academy Awards

EDIT2: people are chiming in from everywhere it seems, if this doesn't work, you also might try next link: http://cache.club.ppstream.com/topic/10803/314488/1.html

HAPPY VIEWING and go Little Miss Sunshine, The Departed & Babel.