Friday Night's Alright.....

No hang over here, attended a classical concert at my loal theatre Friday night (Brahms' 2nd symphony and a piano concert by Dvorak. Great!)
So, Thor, I understand, you are in the teaching business, too? I am teaching 10 to 19 year olds (German literature and Philosophy) and I'm loving it (well, mostly).

Best wishes!

Drunk again. Spent a fortune on specialty beers throughout the evening. Enough to finance a trip abroad. Geez, don't know why I bother.

Tonight Thomas and some friends and myself go to a Matrix concert in Lille, just over the French border. Don Davis will not be present though. But I hope it's an explosive concert!

I was not disappointed!

The movie was played with sound and dialogues, but without music. That was performed live by the National Orchestra of Lille. I had never attended something like that and I was positively surprised. Perhaps we were a bit far away to get the orchestra in "your face" enough, but even then, the performance was rather fantastic. It doesn't sound like easy music (to me!) and the action sequences were all very well done. Nothing beats the first ten minutes of Don Davis' score: the Main Titles. It contains the sound of the whole series. Even though the dialogue in the movie is sometimes a little laughable, the music trilogy is certainly one of my favourite scores. I also noticed again how many themes this score contains, and especially the love theme that is used rarely in the first movie but gets its full rendition in the other two movies. Great music and this event was certainly worth it!

But Lille. What a terrible drive to and from. Thomas can attest to this. My GPS didn't work with me, causing us to drive several miles wrong, resulting in an empty gasoline tank and problems to find a gasoline station. We were able to drive just over the border in Belgium to find a gas station that accepted cards at night. I think that a few km later I would've been empty and stranded in the middle of nowhere. France, for all what it has meant before, is still an old-fashioned and often disappointing country.

Yes, I also prefer more visual interaction with the orchestra (on a screen with close-ups of some musicians for example). But I was impressed nonetheless by the very smooth blending of both.

I've always thought that film music concerts would benefit from some kind of montage of the film they're playing the score to. It just strikes me as an obvious thing to do; not only will you hear the music on its own, but also see how the music works along side the film.

I'm sure lots will disagree and say it should be a celebration of the music and the music alone, but I'd disagree. Personally I feel film music concerts should, while keeping the focus on the music, also include the film part of the experience too. One particularly good example would be the bike chase from ET. Seeing those images with just the music in a live concert setting would be heaven!

luckily, the guy who made us find a gas station that accepted credit cards will be forever in our debt. Man, what an experience.

But yes, the concert was great. Very, very good performance by the Lille orchestra. Thumbs up.

Thumbs down to the GPS

Well, I know where we had to be and what area of the city, but it's always difficult when you're new and Lille is rather difficult, a bit like Brussels. I knew the GPS was wrong, but it was only after a few kms that I just couldn't take it anymore and we decided to use common sense and logic!

But I agree about the GPS. I never use it on holidays, always bring a good map. And that was what helped in the end yesterday, a cached Google Maps on my phone.

I just felt very stupid afterwards but it's a hilarious story now. So all is good.

Drunk.

Been enjoying an evening on the rooftop of a building with total overview of Oslo, BBQing (strangely, no other people on the roof). Staropramen, Samuel Adams, Leffe, Chimay....bliss!

I'm supposed to have a party tomorrow -- for the Eurovision Song Contest -- but I'm suspecting massive hangover in a few hours. Damn it.

Imagine.


They all sound like Scandinavian alternative jazz or indy goth artists! *)


Usually the best state in which to partake of the incomprehensible, pointless, creatively bankrupt, overly expensive and overindulging madness called the Eurovision Song Contest.



*) Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know they're not!

he, he....fake or not, that's a good one. I remember those public hangovers from when I was a 'russ' myself.

Ah....

Exams are over, the sun is shining, Celluloid Tunes is ALMOST up and running and I'm now entering the nice days between one worry and the next (exam results, job search etc.) -- gotta enjoy them!

I've invited over a few friends, and we'll be BBQ'ing in our garden. And a few specialty beers, of course.

Very unuasualy i'm pretty drunk at an early hour, an old friend turned up and we went drinking and were going out again later as well

...and just about to go out again