I’m so sick of being sick! It’s been going on for so long that I actually don’t remember the last time I woke up and said “I feeeeeeeeeel good!” Over the past 5 months my health has gone from bad to bad (I’m just hoping it doesn’t go to “worse”!). No huge problems to complain about, but there’s always something wrong. Right now I’ve got deminished lung capacity which makes walking up stairs feel like a marathon, headaches that comes and goes and a slight fever. Nothing to go to the hospital or anything for (yet!), but I just want to wake up and feel good for once.
I recently got “The Running Man” special edition DVD. “So what, that’s an old movie”, right? It is, but the reason it’s been re-released are the two documentaries on the DVD. Two really, REALLY, good documentaries too. The first one is about the society in “The Running Man” (with the Big Brother Is Watching You-theme) and the Patriot Act. And it’s not as far fetched as it may sound, and they make alot of good points about how not thoughtrough that Act was. For example, they point out that if the Patriot Act had been in place 150 years ago, the movement for liberating the slaves in USA would never have been allowed, the Women Suffrage would have been illegal and Marthin Luther King would’ve been thrown in jail for being unpatriotic. I think we can also add the entire american revolution to that list since it would have been illegal if the Patriot Act would have existed back then!
The other documentary was about how reality shows are becoming more and more extreme and just how far they can push it. And if there can actually be a show like “The Running Man” in the near future. So I highly recommend you buying the DVD to see the documentaries, well worth the $15 I paid for it!
Oh crap, here comes my asthma again! I can’t remember the last time I had a problem with my asthma, but it was really long ago. But it’s back. Fortunately I’ve still got the meds to combat it, but it’s another sign that my health is being fedexed to hell. But I am pretty thankful that I’ve got this little genetic screw-up because that’s what I used to not do the military service here in Sweden!
Did you see the “re-elect Bush” video they’ve got going over there? I particulary like the part when they say Bush is a stabilizing force in a rapidly changing society. Riiiiight… “oh my god, gay people who want to do something we all take for granted and get married, let’s make that unconstitutional!”, call that stability? And they also play on the “September 11th”-factor to “emphasize how Bush rose to the occasion and dealt with the biggest crisis in american history”. If sinking the economy and invading two countries is “rising to the occasion”, I’m a little bit scared. It kinda reminds me about this animation.
Please don’t re-elect him.
Well this has been fun. Once more, a weekend only dedicated to entertaining me, myself and I. Not really doing anything, no obligations to anyone or being anywhere. I like that a little know and then. And so I got to catch up on movie-watching ; “Schindler’s List” again. Damn that’s an awesome movie. One of those movies I can see over and over and still end up crying. I wonder if it’s a part of modern schooling to see that movie? It should be. “Scary Movie 3” ; hilarious movie, way better than I thought. The first one was hilarious, but second one was a little too much. But this one redeemed it. But they still do play alot on internal movie-jokes, and having Denise Richards as Sheen’s wife – nice! And then there was “Underworld”. I’ve never been a fan of either the warewolf or vampire genre, and this was all about that. But I enjoyed it alot anyway, pretty good action flic. And Kate as Selena is probably the sexiest thing on film since Elisabeth as the Devil in “Bedazzled”. And she did it all without smiling – once. Then there was “Duplex”. Nothing special really, “neighbor from hell” concept without any real surprises. No, I take that back. It was an unexpected use of music! But still pretty disappointing.
It almost slipped my mind. But only almost. Yesterday was pretty hectic so I didn’t have much time to stop and think. But when I finally went to bed at 11 and did my “think about the day” I realised what day it was. 2 years… 2 years ago that I lost my best friend. 2 years ago that I was taught the real meaning of “you don’t know what you’ve got until you lose it”. 2 years ago that my world was turned upside down. 2 years… it feels like an eternity.
Have you heard all the fuzz about Gibson’s latest movie, “The Suffering”? If you haven’t – it’s a long movie about the last days of Jesus Christ as told by four gospels in the new testament. And I’ve been laughing quite hard at the reaction from both the christian and jewish camps! I haven’t seen the movie, and neither have most of them, so I can’t really say if it’s good or not, but I have read the Bible so I know a little about the story behind it. But that’s not what I’m laughing about. The christians are all jolly about this movie since it will englighten millions of people and everyone will start streaming back to the good old Churches looking for salvation and forgiveness. The jews are all worried about how the jews are portrayed as bad guys in the movie. And I’m not one to take religion that very seriously so I hope all christians and jews will forgive this ; havn’t they been saying the same thing for the past thousand years? Christians have gone all over the planet looking to christianify (I love making up words!) people, even with guns and cannons. And the jews have gone “feel sorry for us, it’s us against the world” for as far as I’ve known it. But with Schindler’s List (which btw is one of my all time favorite movies) coming to DVD next week they’ll get some payback, ’cause those people I really felt sorry for.
Personally I’ll just quote the Guru Kevin Smith:
“Tell a person that you’re the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everybody is a theology scholar.”
– The Metatron in “Dogma“.
… or how about “Stigmata“:
“Jesus said…the Kingdom of God is inside you, and all around you, not in mansions of wood and stone. Split a piece of wood…and I am there, lift a stone…and you will find me.”
I could go on all day…
And today the ever so enlightened, wise and open minded president of the land of the free decided to make same sex marriages unconstitutional. Why? Well, it seems the marital bond between a man and a woman is sacred and a basis for society to function. Meaning that if you’d allow people of the same sex to marry each other everyone else will feel their marriage means less and that would pose a threat to society.
Two words : Britney Spears. She wasn’t even married for 100 hours, but what she did should pose more of a threat to “normal” marriages meaning less than two people who actually love eachother. But their short “getting married while drunk”-marriage seems to be worth more than the thousands of gay people who’s gotten married in San Fransisco over the past week. I’m not married, so I can’t really say what that bond would be like. And I’m not gay, so I don’t know what that bond is like. So I can’t really say which one Shouldn’t the 50% (or whatever the number is nowadays!) divorce rate pose more of a threat? I’m pretty sure gay’s would divorce as well, but I guess we won’t find out. And besides, saying “gay people can’t get married because it would make my marriage feel less important to me” is to me like saying “women can’t vote since that would make me feel less important”, which they were saying hundred years ago. And that changed, so hopefully this will as well.
And I wish I could say Sweden was better, but we’re not. Here, gay’s can become a so called “registered couple”, which is as close to marriage you can get and offers some of the same benefits and assuarances, without actually being married.
Think what you want about the gay marriage thing happening over in San Fransisco, but this mayor is my new favorite politician. I was hoping that Arnie might make a good politician, most of all because he’s suppose to be financially independant (not even Bush can say that) and coming from Hollywood one would hope he had a more open liberal mind. But I guess I was wrong.
As I said, I’ve spent a few days in Finland (which is so close to Sweden it doesn’t even count as being abroad!). Anyway, I can really recommend this place called “Storyville”. If you just wanna hang around in a nice quiet bar and play some BJ, it’s perfect. But if you wanna hang around in an overcrowded bar with live blues & jazz music you just go downstairs and you’ve got that too. Really nice place and atmosphere, and the band on the night we were there was damn good as well. And it’s the only bar I’ve been able to order a “jägermesiter in red bull” without argument!
Did you hear Colin Powell’s speach at Princeton? I particularly liked how he used what happened to Iraq as an example to what would happen to any other countries (Iran, North Korea and Libya that is) that tried to acquire WMD and how this event has made some countries reconsider. Wait.. did Iraq really have any WMD… nope, bad intelligence. And I don’t only mean Bush’s intelligence, or lack there of. Then he also mentioned how allies of the US needn’t worry about going into an arms race with anyone or trying to buil any WMD since US would protect them. So I guess Blair can just start dismantling their nukes? And “they” are still downplaying the importance of the fact that they were totally wrong about Iraq having any WMD when one year ago it was the reason to invade another country and overrule the UN, go against their oldest ally and getting the world opinion against them. But I guess it wasn’t that important.
I used to think swedish women were the most beautiful in the world. Well, after spending some time here in Finland I think I’m ready to extend that to “scandinavian women” ’cause they are pretty beautiful here too! And you know me, I like to be proven incorrect and have my believes questioned a little now and then.
I saw a little clip on CNN from some european Jewish convention and heard this big speach about anti-semitism and how it’s a growing problem in Europe and it’s a big monster that must be defeated. Maybe it’s just because of the fact that I’m not jewish or maybe it’s because Sweden is a very tolerant country, but this was news to me! I’d like to think of myself as a pretty up-to-date kinda guy, the kind that watches the news daily, doesn’t mind having CNN or Sky News on for hours, checks out news websites daily. And I’ve never heard that this was a big problem. Atleast no bigger problem than your average short sighted racism and anti-“everything that’s not us” mentality. But apparently it is.
Don’t you just love “Evanescense” latest song, “My Immortal”? I’m loving it, and the video is freaking awesome as well! Thinking about adding it to my “songs to play at my funeral”-list.
Is it just me or has the weather this year been very schitzo, especially here in Sweden. Going from warm-cold, winter-spring all the time. I’ve been thinking about changing the tyres on my car but everytime it’s started snowing or something.
Another weekend, anoter bunch of movies. I finally saw “Run Lola”, a german movie that’s been cult-labelled. And after seeing it I gotta agree with that assesment. Damn good flick. But like “Groundhog Day” and some Star Trek episodes, a little bit weird. I personally liked the little small things that changed between the different versions and how they affected things in a big way. Kinda like “if I hadn’t ordered that chicken sandwhich I wouldn’t have gotten sick and I would have been able to go to Jordan as I was suppose to and make tons of money”. Those things. Also saw “The Last Samuraj”. Didn’t expect much but it was pretty damn good and interesting flic. And beautiful too! Not that historically correct though, but they never make that claim either. Then there was “Paycheck”. I expected a very good story and not that much action in that movie, but it was pretty much the other way around. Story was ok, although no big brainer and the action was pretty good. But what would you expect from John Woo.
Do you know I suck at confrontation? Doesn’t matter if it’s normal lovers quarrel, negotiating my salary or telling a waitress she messed up somehow, I suck at it. Don’t know if it’s because of my upbringing, if it’s my reluctance to have people disliking me, lack of confidence or whatever, but it’s a fact. But it has led to some good things. Not many people do dislike me, as far as I know. I’ve had to try different dishes from what I’m used to when a waiter/waitress serves up the wrong thing. But I’m below average when it comes to my salary 🙁
I was hyped yesterday to see the NHL all star game. I’ve tried to see that annual thing since I like hockey and there are always swedes playing, but this year I really couldn’t do it… it was suppose to start at 9 but for 30 minutes of bringing out the stars and stripes and showing off and still no hockey they bring out Kurt Russell, who just happens to play the lead in the upcoming movie about the so called miracle (the movie is actually titled “Miracle”!) when the US college hockey team won the olympic gold, to talk about the glory of… I really don’t know cause I got fed up with the bullshit and switched over to the Osbournes. I was ok with american patriotism before, but after september 11th they’ve just gone overboard. But with a law like the Patriot Act, I guess you don’t have a choice.
Another weekend, another bunch of movies consumed. With all the hype about Lost in Translation, as well as being a Coppola and a Murray fan, I just had to see it. And it turned out to be the most boring movie I had ever seen. Visually it was really great, some shots were just amazingly filmed and Sofia should get all credit for that, but it was just sooooo slow. And in the end, I never really got it. Call me shallow or whatever, but I just didn’t get it. And then I saw Elephant. I don’t really know how to describe what that movie is suppose to be about, but it turned out to be even MORE boring than Lost in Translation. This one had no humor in it what so ever. I guess I didn’t get that movie either. But I finished with a movie I did get – Runaway Jury. Big Cusack fan, I was expecting alot and it delivered and then some. Not that many twists that I was expecting but I still didn’t see the end coming. And a pretty good reminder of how flawed the american justice system is. But then again, so is the swedish sometimes. Then I finally saw “Matchstick Men”, when both Ridley Scott and Robert Zemicks involved it had to be good. And it pretty good, only one twist and a depressing one at that, but a nice ending made up for that. And another big surprise was “Pieces of April” which I wouldn’t have seen had it not been for Katy Holmes, but it was pretty damn good! I’d recommend it to a friend! All in all, a pretty good weekend!
And speaking of of setting new records, the Jackass crew set an all time “furthest anyone will go for a laugh” record – a guy convinced his parents to go to Las Vegas and renew their vows, Elvis style, and also imported a russian mail-order bride that one of the guys married the same day they met for the first time. That episode was just hilarious. It might have triggered the “oh what an awful state the world is in when you can mail-order a wife”-vibe in me, but it was all done in a funny way and the babe seemed happy about the situation…