I lent my camera and I can’t wait to have it back. More than once in the past week I thought it would have been cool to have it and take a random shot, like I often do. For instance, the weather has been very ‘moody’ in the past two weeks. Light changes so quickly, sometimes you really get to see beautiful light/clouds effects, or the rain, or the red sunset, or the ice storm that has just ended a minute ago. They are gone. For now… I’m sure I’ll have other chances to take nice photos.
In a certain way, this is a new feeling for me. I’ve always liked taking photos, no wonder I’m seldom on them and when I am, I often avert my eyes from the camera, ha! But I got more and more used to carry the camera around even here in my ‘home country’, not only during my travels. So now I’m having withdrawals, I need my camera! Stupid thing, as once I’ll have it back, I probably won’t be taking 2000 photos a day, but knowing that I could, well, it feels sort of reassuring.
I sure am a bit of a cukoo… 
I finally watched Die Hard 4.0. I never really felt the urge to see it, but it was on cable TV here, so… Thing is, I never thought a 4th Die Hard movie was necessary. I really liked the previous ones. I know they had problems with the script for DH 4.0, changed the plot and postponed filming etc… But in the end, I still think ending the saga with Die Hard “3″ wasn’t too bad after all. In a certain way, DH movies created a whole genre of action movies with *real* stunts and cars/stuff blowing up, and a *real* script with good lines and interaction between the main characters: an ordinary person into an extra-ordinary situation.
The action movies once were about the action man/woman/main character(s). Now they seem to be only about special effects and surreal cgi sequences that makes you wonder if the crew/producer/whosincharge actually thought about credibility or simply went for the coolest effect.
Don’t get me wrong, I like special effects and even know someone who works in that business. But I can accept computer graphic and such stuff only on movies like Spiderman, Batman or Independence Day and such. These of course need some computer manipulation.
However, if the plot has no super-hero or sci-fi element in it, I still prefer the ‘old style’ special effects. The movie will thus still be ‘about the characters’, where the actor has to act for real, not just jump here and there before a green screen in a studio and occasionally toss a cheesy line between a punch and a kick.
Makes me think of what I read last week about ‘characters’, regarding the new Law & Order : Criminal Intent cast. Chris Noth out, Jeff Goldblum in. If I understood correctly, Noth thinks the show is not enough about the characters. I have to say, I mostly agree with him. While the L&O series always focused primarily on the potentially real-life cases and their legal aspects, it is true that when you ask fans about their favorite episode, they will most likely pick up one where they find out more about one of the characters and his/her personality, family, past etc etc. I think this is because we are humans and we are more attracted by what makes us humans. That is feelings and emotions, inner demons and different ways to deal with those.
Then, my question is… Why turning a character-based action movie into a special-effects-based action movie? Lack of imagination for a decent plot? Young director with an obviously different point of view than the director who started the DH saga 21 years ago? I don’t know. I just hope they don’t decide to make a Die Hard 5, haha. Or if they do, please, call McTiernan and his old DH crew!
P.S.: The same comments I just made on DH4 are also for Indiana Jones and the wacky skulls. If I hadn’t gone to the movies with a group of friends, I would have probably left the theater after the first half. I have never watched a more stupid plot on screen.
This morning I was reading the New York Times online and found this article about friendships. It made me think that some times we don’t really acknowledge how lucky we can be. Regardless of how far our friends can be, in which continent they live, we can’t live without friends. I know it takes trust and some friends don’t last forever, but one day, years ago, a friend of mine said if we stop trusting we die on the inside.
We can try and shut ourselves away from the world, but it won’t work for too long.
I’m having my second cup of coffee today, or cuppa joe?! Had one this morning and now that I’ve just finished lunch, I’m gonna sip my coffee for a while.
I don’t remember when I started drinking coffee. It wasn’t before my 16-17 anyway. I like it in different ways, depending on mood and/or time of the day. When I’m eating out, I only take the espresso. I mean the *real* espresso, which is 2 sips at the most. And I like it with or without sugar. Most of the times I take it black, so I can taste how good is the brand of coffee they use. My grand father always took it black, but that was because he had diabetes. My father (his son-in-law) started taking black coffee after they met, “it tastes better indeed”. My science professor at high school also used to take it black, “the only way to taste the real taste of coffee”. I suppose she still takes it black now.
Anyway, I basically only put sugar in the “morning coffee” at home, which is brewed the American way: a *lot* more to drink.
So, today I had an idea. Given that I occasionally add just a little milk to my American coffee and I was out of fresh milk *and* there was a bottle of sugar-free spray cream in the fridge (odd thing here), why not trying that?! I spray some cream on the coffee, it melts and it does look yummy. I taste it. Holy skunk, tastes awful! This cream is really sugar-free! I had to add a little sugar, couldn’t help it.
Okay, it *is* silly to even think of trading sugar with (apparently sugar-free) cream, but well, my Italian friends already give me the yer-a-wacko look when I have a “long/large coffee” (how we call the American coffee). So, no big deal…
Then, as the cream was melting, I suddenly had the mental image of that woman who was right before me at Starbucks at the Minneapolis Airport a few years ago. She had ordered a tank of some coconut cream vanilla coffee or something… It was huge and the bare name of it almost gave me a diabetic coma. It all made me feel less guilty for my little coffee pleasure today.
Now, about Starbucks and Minneapolis Airport, that’s another funny story… I do think some of you have already heard of that adventure. Ever seen the film “The Terminal”, with Tom Hanks?
Stay tuned…
I recently stumbled upon an old gift from some vet school mates, a Zippo lighter, Vintage Series 1937 (so the box and guarantee paper say). It was a present from ’97 or ’98. I have no idea how much it costed back then, but I can only find it on eBay now, among James Bond Collectibles, go figure.
I was given as a joke, since one of my nicknames from high school is McGyver (as in the guy from the tv show. That is so nice, I know) because, well… I occasionally had to fix stuff with little or no tools, and a lighter can be useful in a survival kit, right.
So now I’m the proud owner of some semi-useless-to-me 007 memorabilia, woo hoo!
