I seldom make any resolutions. However, for some reason, at the beginning of this passing year, I challenged myself (on Goodreads) to read 128 books. Maybe I thought it would be the way to bring my reading habits up to speed again, after a long period of degeneration...?
Anyway - it worked! And it worked beautifully! It was difficult sometimes, but I have managed.
What surprised me, though, was that the hardest part was not to make time for reading - the challange was to actually find, in a short period of time, so many books I really wanted to read.
What helped:
audiobooks + commuting // I spend plenty of time in buses, but I can only read in trams or trains, unfortunately; listening to books turned out to be a solution;
e-books // sometimes easier to get, more available than a traditional book
comicbooks // provide long series that you can simply follow, instead of figuring out what to read next.
There is this tradition that when dining on the Christmas Eve you should prepare an extra tableware for an unexpected guest.
I had always wished such a guest would come. And this year my wish came true.
A recently discovered short film from Disney, newly restored and tweaked using modern animation techniques. As a result, we get a classic episode tuned-up and twisted in a clever way.
All in all, nice job (I just hate the present-day Mickey version, though).
Frozen
Unbalanced - the first half of the movie seems to be a musical: there is just like one never-ending song.
Daddy, there is only one jellybean left...*
The story lacks logic sometimes. However, it is engaging and really funny.
Slurp, slurp, slurp... (right behind my ear)*
Characters are strong and stand out one from another. The sisters are not at all alike (and, by the way, none of them reminds Rapuntzel from Tangled when you see them live i.e. animated and not just on a poster).
[While the scene fading out] Daddy, it is over!*
As for the animation: wonderful winter wonderland! And that holds for both close-ups and far-away landscapes; wherever the snow is involved in any form - which is pretty much everywhere - it looks amazing.
Main characters look very good, background characters not so much.
Daddy...*
Music score by Christophe Beck is fine, pleasant and fitting, not memorable, though.
All in all, the film is very good at some aspects, but not a masterpiece.
Oh, and I do like the idea that the Frozen teaser trailer contains the scene you actually won't find in the movie:
--- * The only two really small kids in the whole screening room had to sit right behind me, grrr.
It seems that the Poles have recently rediscovered an old Polish tradition of drinking young wine. Turns out that the Wine of Saint Martin's Day has been famous in the region (Czech also, for example). This young wine is traditionally uncorked on St Martin's Day i.e. November 11.
So this year, instead of pursuing a bottle of Bojolais Nouvau on the third Thursday of November, I decided I would be celebrating my personal lost friendships day with a bottle of St Martin's wine from the local (Cracow) Silver Mountain Vineyard.
Once a year or so, I rearrange all the furniture in my room.
About a month ago I felt the usual need for redecoration, since the last one was done shortly after I had moved to Wieliczka, which meant two years before. So I moved everything around.
But I was not really happy with the result, so a week later I tried another rearrangement.
The outcome was even less functional that time - I redecorated again.
And... I did not like the effect a bit. So I decided to shift things around one more time.
And now every piece is back where it was at the very beginning. And I am happily not back where I started.
So far, the only positive way - i.e. unpretentious, not pompous, and devoid of national martyrology - I have found to celebrate Poland's Independence Day is running.
Run an 11-km Independence Day race - checked.
By the way: still hanging around 5min./1km pace. Satisfactory.
I thought I had a lot to do. I thought that finding time for running, dancing, playing the guitar, and for all my other hobbies (e.g. managing to keep up with my book challange), spending time with my loved ones, staying in touch with my friends, visiting my family on regular basis, studying and working simultaneously, trying to improve my English and other skills, catching some decent amount of sleep every night, and struggling to stay sane at the same time - I thought all that was quite enough for one person.
Well, I was wrong. You can do better. You can require more from yourself. You can find more time. You can make more time. Or at least you can try - but try really hard. As long as you believe and feel passionate.
So, I am going to try to be like Ela, my hero(ine) of the day.
The resolution becomes effective immediately.
I have upgraded from an amateur jogger to a running events organiser.
The first Cracow city running tour - along the Industrial Heritage Route - turned out quite well.
This is what I keep hearing from people. From people who have know me for a while and should have known better. Cause lonely, sad or misunderstood would be more accurate to describe what I feel like when they think I am boiling with fury.
The funny thing is they never (with one exception so far) tell me that - I always get to know post factum and from somebody else. And then, each and every time, I ask myself what it is that is so wrong with me; and I promise to myself that I will never, ever let myself believe in people again. Or in myself. Or both.
I'm concealing a lot of things. That's what a lady does.
The Fabulous Miss Phryne Fisher in Queen of the Flowers by Kerry Greenwood
I have not managed to lay my hands on any book of the Phryne Fisher series yet. In fact, I had no idea there was any, until I started watching the tv Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries series based on the books.
And what a show it is! Fabulous - as its heroine. Brilliant, glamorous, ravishing, dashing, colourful, funny, witty - all that and more.
And, apparently, moving. First time in I-don't-know-how-many-years I actually felt touched.
I seldom hug people on hello/good-bye situation.
And, apparently, you can tell when I don't feel like doing it.
So just a good advice to you: don't force it, unless you want me to act insincere.
I looked at my friend and saw she had the most beautiful wrinkles in the world - result of laughing frequently and only visible when she smiles.
I am envious.
A very serious (and very good) film about a very sad woman. Not the kind of serious like in Woody Allen's Match Point; I would rather compare it to Annie Hall.
Cate Blanchett as Jasmine - brilliant!
A story centred on an eccentric art auctioneer and his obsession with a young, agoraphobic heiress/collector. A not-so-complicated film about complicated people and relations. The suspense level does not climax at any point - it fluctuates, goes up and down, and I am not certain if that is intended or just an unintentional effect. Anyway, it works for me - makes the movie more unpredictable.
Geoffrey Rush at his best. Jim Sturgess and Sylvia Hoeks keep up.
Scored by Ennio Morricone, whom, so far, I mosty associated with westerns.
The fourth Snow White in the last couple of years (after two motion pictures - Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman - and a tv series - Once Upon a Time).
The least faithful to the convention: set in 1920s, Seville, and picturing Snow as a female bullfighter; and to top it all, made as a silent movie. Is it only me or it does sound like a joke? (especially when they wear monteras, which make them look like Mickey Mouse to me...)
So I feared the film would be grotesque, weird; but instead found it the most intense, the most touching, the most real and purposeful. Beautiful.
Due to the Tour de Pologne race, the main (and only reasonable) road from Wieliczka to Kraków was to be closed today. So I figured it would be easier to go to the city by bike. And it was.
It was also much, much funnier! While I was coming back to Wieliczka, the racers were cycling towards Kraków, and riding towards them was already an unusual experience. Some people came out to watch and support them - and some of them started pretending to support me: a man correcting me (you should turn around, it's the other way around!); some guys clapping (respect!); children shouting and cheering. They were all smiling and I was smiling, and it was the most hilarious 10km bike ride in my life.
Photorealism to a degree where you would not be able to notice it was not real if they did not want you to i.e. if the rain gutter did not smile, the mailbox did not clatter by itself, and if the umbrellas did not have their eyes painted and animated. Everything else, well, looked like shot with a camera on a rainy day in a big city. A real eye-candy in terms of animation and details. Oh, and I loved how they played with the depth of field, which increased the illusion of realism all the more.
As for the story, there is hardly any. Or you can summarise it by comparing to the first scene from 101 Dalmatians, where Pongo chases Perdita bringing Roger and Anita together. But that is a good thing here: the content being modest allows you to fully appreciate the form.
Monsters University
Monsters University refers to Monsters Inc. like Cars to Cars 2 - same characters, totally different type of movie.
Quite funny - not for children, I imagine, since they would not get most of the jokes or references.
Fast and full of action and stunts straight from the academia world. Very predictable, though.
Beautiful - the word 'Pixar' says everything, as always.
Visiting a library I got books from almost all departments (good thing they all have separate limits):
adutls'
chldren's
comic books'
foreign languages'
youth's (despite the fact that I am not really allowed to borrow books from there, since I am neither youth nor any pedagogical sciences student)
And a new library card, even though my old one was still in a good shape.
Incidentally, I made at least one person's day better on that occasion - a librarian smiled looking on my 'book lover' pendant and said she should get one too.
The most successful book hunt in ages.
And the best part is I do have time to read all that - Summer is here!
(Btw, is it weird that my dream holidays do not include me laying in a sand fortress on a beach, but me surrounded by a book fortress anywhere...?)
If you have seen Before Sunrise and Before Sunset you know what to expect. And you will not be disappointed - the story of Celine and Jesse continues and lives up to your expectations.
Last year - Red Box, this year - Sting. Waiting for U2 now and then I can die happy.
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I still have some ambivalent feelings towards Brodka. Despite the fact that I did not like her first album, I have always respected her and her work. I only loved her after the release of LAX EP.
At the concert it was the same mixture: I liked general arrangement and most of the songs, but there were some others that did not get to me.
Moreover, I had a feeling that her performance would make it better not as an open-air concert, but in a club.
Ray Wilson & Stiltskin. A true rockman and his rockband - so what is not to like? Although I preferred when they played some sharp tunes, rather than sentimental ballads - too many of them and it started to be getting a bit boring.
And then, in the end, that fragile, slender man came out, dressed in black leather pants, a white t-shirt and an electric guitar... Serene, yet energetic. Hypnotising.
His current tour is called Back to Bass, and you could truly feel it. And that voice, mmm... Magical.
Of all the superheroes, Superman has been the least lucky when it came to movies... And he still is.
The film seems undecided: not enough pompous to enjoy camp-watching, too pompous to take it seriously.
A few nice characters: Russell Crowe as Jor-El; or Michael Shannon as general Zod; plus Amy Adams playing Lois Lane (big character's potential but squandered). However, the Man of Seel himself seems bland - nothing intriguing about him.
In details, the movie reminds me of Star Trek or even Matrix (terraforming?? seriously?! now that Into Darkness has just premiered...?)
All in all: neat, but tiring. Too many special effects and too sentimental in the retrospective parts.
Music by Hans Zimmer, which suggests it should be good, but, frankly, it did not catch my ear.
- What are his powers?
- He reads. He reads everything.
Fables by Bill Willingham
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I have started reading James Joyce's Ulysses, but not finished yet.
I managed to get a copy - barely, since there are lots of them in the library, but most of them constantly borrowed...
Also, this is too busy a time for me.
So I have not kept the resolution I made last year.
But I have not abandoned the task - just need some prolongation on the deadline.
---
At the beginning of this year I challenged myself to read 128 books. And, surprisingly enough, this whole challenge idea works for me. Most of all, it gives me motivation to look for new titles and check out new series.
In Oświęcim, my home town, there is a runner's club Zadyszka. They have become quite active in popularising jogging, nordic walking and sports generally in the nearby region. They organise various events on regular basis, one of them being the 10-km race I participated in today.
Time: 49:15 - my absolute personal record; score: 3rd place (women, open).
My first competition where I have actually won something, has been given a cup (because everybody always gets a medal, and so I have a few of those already), some prize etc... Not that there was some huge number of female competitors, so it was not that difficult - but still.
I liked it - the phantom, the police inspector (and, especially, his growing obsession with the thief), the storyline.
I did not love it - the heroine character, or some blatant plot inconsistencies.
Technically quite similar to Nosferatu - lighting, colours, transitions, setting arrangement etc.
The first film where the perfect gentleman thief appears.
Probably the first ever movie series - there were sequels.
Home alone for at least a couple months.
Not that big a change, though - sharing a flat with two other mates, we happened to miss each other like five days in a row.
Still, first time in my life, it is not my own decision, but someone else's.
Cheers to changes.
---
Volume Three by She & Him immediately makes it to the top of this couple's albums.
Physical stamina tests - lung capacity, muscle strength - passed. Never got out of breath, never felt totally exhausted.
Jogging, Irish dancing, cycling seem all to work out well and keep me in good condition.
Living in the most flat of all countries is a plus when a bike is your main means of transportation.
And you do not really notice - until you get back to normal and suddenly long forgotten bike gears start being useful again.
And you start missing slopes, hills, mountains...
Two early works of Luis Buñuel. (In Agrafka, with life music accompaniment, as always.)
My first thought was that the whole story was somebody's dream. And I was right - in a manner of speaking: turns out none of the characters wakes up at the end; the movie is still a dream, though - only it's the director's dream, put down in motion pictures.
The problem is that it is not entirely absurd. There are moments when you think it finally starts making sense. And then a plush giraffe gets thrown out of a window...
The look of sheer joy on your friend's face - priceless.
I remember exactly the last time someone told me I had that look on my face. I just got out of a metro station and was heading for the beach at the Amager Island (just a few stops from the Copenhagen city centre).
I had been there already and knew what to expect: a beach - a real, sandy, windy-as-hell beach, with dunes - in a city!! And the sea... I remember thinking that the Baltic Sea was bluer on the other side. I'd never thought I would fall in love with a sea - I had always been into the mountains - but somehow it got me.
So I decided to take my friends there. And while we were walking from the station - already smelling, hearing and feeling the sea - they said I looked like a child who had just been told that all the presents at the Christmas tree are for them.
I do enjoy being busy all days - getting up early, working, studying and exercising (back to Irish dancing, started Scottish Highland dancing, still jogging from time to time or playing volleyball etc. and, of course, looking forward to the beginning of cycling season).
But, once in a while, one needs a day off from all that fun. Even if resting means catching up with tidying up, doing the washing-up and ironing, sewing, and other silly stuff you did not have time to take care of for a month. On the plus side: sleeping in, reading books, watching tons of favourite tv series episodes.
It would be a masterpiece, were it not for the two main characters... Russell Crowe (here as inspector Javert) cannot both sing and act at the same time. Hugh Jackman (playing Jean Valjean, a runaway convict) does both, let's say, satisfactorily. (Actually, the only male character that, in my opinion, does sing well is the priest, who only appears for something like 5 minutes). However, the supporting actors - wow! Anne Heathaway's performance is stunning! And all the others are great as well. In fact, the average impression of Valjean and Javert's conflict lets the other, smaller threads shine.
Add to that: wonderful decorations, costumes, make-up.
Everything beautifully shot and edited.
Btw, I have a confession to make: I did not read the book before watching the movie. Shame on me, I know. In my defence, I can only say that I had only heard about the adaptation shortly before it premièred and I really did not have enough time to get the book and read the whole five volumes, if I wanted to see the show still on the big screen...
On the other hand it is not a film adaptation of the book, but of a stage musical (which, of course, is based on that book); so maybe I should rather have regrets about not having watched the musical...? Or - by the right of transitivity - both...?!
A girl and a boy, students from Poland on their working holidays, meet in Spain. They fell in love. And then one terrible event breaks the romance. Back in Poland they struggle to deal with what happened.
I always find it difficult to watch this kind of stories. When you you are certain it is not going to end well, and just wait for the inevitable catastrophe. And as for that aspect, the film is an open-ended surprise.
Visually perfect. Long, trembling shots - bright colourful and dull grey, alternately... The Sundance Festival Cinematography Award well deserved, I believe.
Beautiful music by Daniel Bloom. Some piano tunes and some ambient electro pieces. (Btw, a little secret I have found out: his real name is Daniel Borcuch; and, yes, that is the reason why he often works with this movie's director Jacek Borcuch - they are brothers).
Whether it makes sense as a whole or not, is, I think, entirely up to the viewer. You can either perceive the film as a loose collection of scenes from one couple's strange relationship. However, if you keep in mind the initial event and try imagining how it may affect them in every second of their lives - then it becomes much more than just a pretty kaleidoscope.
I don't know why I was so convinced that it was another film by Pixar. Which would be weird, since Brave came out not so long ago.
Whereas it is just a Disney movie - only it's not a hand-drawn but computer-generated animation. Which is not surprising, since we have already seen it in Tangled.
Ralph is trully funny. Sometimes sophisticated-funny and sometimes plain-funny - and somehow I enjoyed both; yes, even the simplest and close-to-bad-taste jokes, which were always on but never over the edge.
It's imaginative. The story is simple and predictable - but that doesn't spoil the film a bit, because it's more of an excuse to show you various worlds, their logic and dynamics.
Retro and modern at the same time. Funny when you realise the creators used sophisticated techniques in order to make an illusion of worse graphics. But only an illusion, not actual simulation - I mean the quality of the animation is very good.
Polish dubbing is quite decent - sometimes a bit worse, but sometimes better than the original.
Music by Henry Jackman (whom I love for X-Men: First Class, mostly). I have been listening to the score for quite some time now and I like it very much. It does capture varying game styles, moods, sets of characters.
However, little things are what really makes this film big: konami code (!!); angular splashes, which are supposed to imitate pixelised world; discrete movement mode of some arcade game characters; psychonaut-like Vanellope herself - for me she steals the whole show (now that I think of it, she does steal the movie: 90% of action takes place in her, not Ralph's game, and she seems to become more and more important throughout the film); her candy Wonderland-like world, which makes you look for the Cheshire Cat at every corner; Bad Guys Anonymous support group... So many tasty details!
Adorable, isn't she?
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I have already commented on Paperman, but having seen it on a big screen, I can now truly appreciate the genius behind the technique. More on the subject:
A new Disney Pixar short animated film. See for yourselves:
In my opinion: technically correct and pretty; its style (computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques merged) matches the story. But, all in all - bland.
Buster Keaton revisited.
Different musical setting this time i.e. only one musician and she played keyboard - despite a real piano standing across the room. But, hey, she managed to imitate e.g. organs. Actually, she managed something greater: she upgraded the whole movie from fine to very good.
The story is simple, definitely less complicated or meaningful than that of The Three Ages. Yet, somehow she made it more entertaining - mostly by incorporating various well-known musical themes into the soundtrack. Some that I recognised and remembered: Love Story, Conquest of Paradise, Koziołek Matołek, Abba's Money Money, W małym kinie; she even put Charlie Chaplin's classic tunes [into Buster Keaton's film] - that is perverse! And I loved it.
I remember that once, when I was a little girl, I was playing with two friends. Suddenly, one of them told me to go away, she told me I had behaved impolitely to the other one so I would not be allowed to play with them any more.
I was totally confused, not aware what my crime was. I headed home and when I got back my Mom saw me and instantly asked what was wrong. I burst into tears and mumbled that nobody liked me.
Today, I have experienced a replay of that situation.
I got up in the morning and headed for the bathroom. In there I heard music - not surprising, since bathroom is always the place where you get to know what is going at your neighbours'. At first, I thought the music was disco polo... Only after a while I figured it out - they were Christmas carols!
