19 Dec 2013

LA DOLCE VITA


Traveling to Rome has always been a dream of mine. I studied art in high school and at university and wanted to see Michelangelo's Last Judgement and ceiling in the Sistine Chapel in real life.

My friends and I did the typically tourist thing: brought along a camera, wore sneakers and marched from one amazing ruin to the next amazing church. Rome is so full of beauty that your eyes can't take it all in after a few hours. I began thinking, 'Oh another old church...oh another pretty painting...". It's like the city is loaded with history like a budget airplane.

Michelangelo's fresco though was a moment of beauty...I stared at it, my neck aching, for quite some time. It was amazing to be so close to such genius. And for that brief moment I was in wonderland and forgot the stuffy feeling of it all. 

IT'S TIME FOR GERMAN RAP



I've blogged about Casper again. But his version of Coming Home is just so infectious that I am serving it to you like a freshly baked slice of bread with melted butter. Wet your appetite? Check out this odd-looking but sweet-sounding bloke.

WOE IS ME!


Albert Camus once famously said, "In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer".

It is the end of winter in Hamburg. The roads are covered in snow sludge except where car tyres have formed black lines. I wish that Albert Camus' words would resonate within me. But as my boss has so correctly pointed out, "You've got winter on your brain!".

RYAN OH RYAN


I just watched "The Place Beyond the Pines" with Ryan Gosling. Who doesn't love Mister Gosling? With tattoos. Wearing rugged tees. On a motorbike.

What struck me most about the movie is that the beginning features many close-up's of Ryan Gosling: love-struck, pensive, angry, thoughtful, etc. The director, Derek Cianfrance, made sure that the female population got what they came for.

The second thing I noticed was that the film felt like two stories. I usually never have the urge to leave the cinema – and have never done so before in my life – but I was tempted to in the screening of The Place Beyond the Pines. The movie was just that half an hour too long. It felt like he had already added the sequel into the main film.

A little tidbit on the director…his wife also made a movie called “Towheads” about her as a mother. It was filmed in their house and features her hubby (just his legs) and their kids. I watched the trailer and it looks like a funny, sweet little film. I can’t wait to watch it!