Babel - the movie

Finally, I founded two hours and 16 minutes to watch this one.Worthwhile..and definitely Oscar material, this powerful drama has all the current basic emotions of our society included (terrorism, murder, sex and drugs) plus the classical fear of unknown clearly showed there through the biased views of a US citizen against the people from rural isolated Morocco or the Mexicans coming illegally in the US. (There is a funny episode in South Park with "They steal our jobs" all over it, and the funny twist is that they are using people from the future to round up the analogy)
Sure to watch it.
PS Brad Pitt has nothing to do with the quality of the movie (camera, music and scenario) but it sure fits in well:)

How I Celebrated the End of the World

How I Celebrated the End of the WorldThis movie reminded me a lot of my long lost childhood in a communist dictatorship Romania with rationalized food, electricity and water.
All the good and bad that were and still make a vivid memory.
Getting back to the movie here,well...my impression is MEDIOCRE. Everything is kind of shabby: the plot, the acting and the scenary. I think, a usual Romanian-cinema style based too much on "shocking" stuff rather than making it "deeper". Surprisingly, they didn't employ gypsies in this one.:)
Overall, it's recommended for all Romanians!
Let us remember!
But if you want to see a far better communist nostalgia check out this one:
Good BYe Lenin!

Cheers!

Beauty is Everywhere

Took some lovely pictures in a very plain like place.
You just have to look...
(see the link above in the title;
or copy paste it from here)

One of my Favorites Videos (UNKLE)

UNKLE - "Eye for an eye" is one of my favorite videos.
Abstract, dark and with a subtle parallel towards the gloom outlook for the human race.

See it! (if you haven't already)

Do you know about TOSCA?

Not the Italian Toscana or the opera but the downtempo project going now for some time. Tosca is an electronic music project of Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber. After the start of Kruder & Dorfmeister in 1994, Tosca became the second project in which Richard Dorfmeister took part where his first single publication, Opera, was published fairly briefly in 1997. Opera was the first album that Tosca released with G-Stone Recordings. Further publications followed up with the latest being Souvenirs. The chronological order: Opera (1997); F**k Dub Remixes (1997; Chocolate Elvis Dubs (1999); Suzuki (2000); Suzuki in Dub (2000); Different Tastes of Honey (2001); Dehli 9 (2003); J.A.C. (2005); Souvenirs (2006)
Just got my hands on this one which brings my Tosca collection to its fullest..interested to see how good it is. (JAC -2005- was pretty good!)

Less usual (African) cinema

In collaboration with The Sactuary for Independent Media, iEAR Presents is pleased to announce The African Film Festival, which started at Wednesday, May 2 -- and runs again on May 9, 16, and 23 at The Sanctuary.
This festival, which features work from South Africa, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco, showcases a neglected part of international film culture and supports African films overlooked by distributors but which are deserving of larger audiences.
Schedule:
* May 2 -- "Don't F*** with Me, I have 51 Brothers and Sisters" w/ "Ousmane"
* May 9 -- "A Child's Love Story / Un Amour D'Enfant" w/Toi, Waguih"
* May 16 -- "The Night of Truth / La Nuit de La Vérité" w/ "My Lost Home" / "Ma Maison Perdue"
* May 23 -- "Daughter of Keltoum" w/"Whole: A Trinity of Being"

1 Day Getaway in Adirondacks and Vermont

Adirondacks National State Park occupiying most of the north-east of NY state and the border with vermont.Created in 1892 by the State of New York due to concerns for the water and timber resources of the region, today the Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States (!!), greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Park combined

encompassing approximately 6 million acres, nearly half of which belongs to all the people of New York State and is constitutionally protected to remain “forever wild” forest preserve. The remaining half of the Park is private land which includes settlements, farms, timber lands, businesses, homes, and camps.

On this one day getaway, I had the chance to visit Saratoga Springs, Glen Falls, Lake George, see the home of 1980s Winter Olympics (lake Placid) and Lake Champlain before crossing into Vermont by ferry and being amazed by the overall dominance of green (and cows:)) in the neighboring state (VT).
SIMPLY AMAZING!


For more pictorials check out my photoblog postings at:
http://www.photoblog.com/user/skrammer/

The melodic sounds of De-Phazz

Finally got my hands on this LP...pretty good in the same downtempo tradition but "Detunized garvity" seems even better..

No new territory for De Phazz, but proof that these guys are still one of the best at coming up with playfully poppy grooves! The record moves in the same space as their previous sets -- bits of jazz, bits of Latin, bits of soul -- all filtered together with a style that often moves at the speed of downtempo, but which is a lot more focused and song-based. Most numbers have some sort of vocals -- by frequent De Phazz vocalist Barbara Lahr, as well as Angel Jones, Karl Frierson, Billy Edgeware, and Pat Appleton -- and although the styles change as the tunes roll on, there's enough of a unified feel to most of the record -- thanks to a recurrent sense of guitar "twang", as referenced in the title. (DustyGroove)

I love this game!

The playoffs are the most exciting part of the whole NBA action thing and this year they were especially quite spectacular. After the champions en-titre (Miami Heat) got swept in a 0-4 series with the new Chicago Bulls team, yesterday the big favorites to get the title this year (Dallas Mavericks no.1 in the Western conference and the overall NBA rankings) led by Dirk Nowitzki were eliminated by the no.8 seat (Golden State Warriors) which is a big surprise. The Mavs have had a great season and they seemed to be on their way to an NBA title, having 25 more victories in the regular season than the Warriors. However, these guys played incredible and managed to provide such nice surprises that make the game more interesting. Hope they will get far enough...

A short Maryland getaway

I took a couple of days off and visited my girlfriend in Southern Maryland. Was a beautiful weather, good for visiting DC and contingent area. More details on another post