Tom Cruise video

As always I am a bit late to the party, but I just watched the infamous Tom Cruise video for the first time after I found a hilarious spoof of it on Pajiba (who would’ve thought Jerry O’Connell could be so funny and so creepy at the same time?).

And while I laughed my ass off about Cruise’s demented ramblings like everybody else on this earth, I couldn’t keep from asking myself: is this guy for real? Is this video for real? Does Scientology really hope any thinking person would join them because of that footage of a maniac rambling on about god knows what in the most incoherent fashion I have seen in public in a long while? Granted, people who are able to think for themselves generally don’t join Scientology anyway, but even so it seems like they should rather be ashamed of this guy than use him as a figurehead for their movement or however they call it.

Ok, from an outsider’s perspective they seem to be pretty crazy, what with all their rules and the things they apparently believe in (then again, not much crazier than the official churches or any other sect from what I can see), but good marketing is something completely different.

And Cruise doesn’t even have the excuse to say he was drunk, or stoned, or whatever. Because this is by far not the first time we have seen him behave like that. This guy seriously has some screws loose.

Why is he allowed to live while a sweet guy like Heath dies, that’s what I would like to know. Talk about the world being unfair…

Subscribe to this blog's RSS feed

I couldn’t believe it when I just read it on a german news site, but apparently it’s true:

Heath Ledger is dead.

No, I was lying: I still can’t believe it. I just can’t get my head around it.

I think it’s incredibly sad that he died. I really hope it was actually an accident and not suicide.

It’s not that I was a big fan of him in particular, but I did enjoy most of his movies. And we shared our birthday (April, 4th). And anybody dying that young (he was younger than me by exactly 4 years!) and leaving behind a little kid is just a tragedy.

Poor guy, may he rest in peace.

I had planned to continue my book review series today, but that will have to wait a couple of days.

You see, I am in a bit of a pickle with this biology course I am attending since last October. You might already have noticed that I am less than happy with it. To put it mildly. I suspected beforehand, and meanwhile came to realize I was right, that it was a bad idea to start this. Rarely in my life have I felt more out of place than in this course. Well, except at university. A fact that I had conveniently forgotten. But in the last 3 months the memory has returned to me, reinforced by this new experience, and I realized again that I just don’t wanna be a molecular biologist. Or any other kind of scientist, for that matter.

But the thing is I can’t just quit now, because then I would have to pay a fine. Well, technically it’s not really a fine, but that’s what it would feel like anyway. Obviously I can’t afford to do that, what with being broke an’ all.

The only legit way to get out of this whole affair is to find a proper job. Which is what I decided to attempt in the next few weeks. Starting now.

Well, actually I started looking on the weekend and I already found a couple job ads that look interesting. Now I have to write applications, get them printed out, and mail them off.

I have given myself 4 weeks to mail out at least 20 applications. Hopefully, a couple of them will get me invitations to job interviews and at least one of them will result in a job offer. If not, I will have to start the whole process all over again. Because I have to get out of this course, pronto.

But hey, at least I am finally motivated again to actually get off my ass and do something. So I guess, apart from driving me nuts with boredom, this damn course was at least good for something then.

And I’m not depressed anymore - a fact that I can’t stop marvelling about and that almost makes me giddy with delight. I am sure, most people I know will be delighted to hear this, too, because I am such a pain in the ass when I am in a bad mood.

Anyway, to make a long story short (god, I’m almost as long-winded as my boring roommate!), what with the job applications and the studying for the next exam that’s looming on the horizon (on Friday) I will be very busy this week and will have to postpone any further posting to next week at the earliest.

Finally! I’m done with it. YAY! And what a struggle it was…

Nah, I’m just kidding of course. I loved it. I finished the book in a mere 2 days - and it only took me that long because I didn’t have all that much time to read on the first one. As soon as I got into the story I was really reluctant to put it down again. Seems like Mrs. Rowling really deserves the big bucks she gets paid. I have to admit that the book is entertaining, I certainly liked it a lot better than #5 and #6. That may have been at least in part due to the fact that it is the last part of the story and things were finally coming to a definitive end, we had a nice big battle, most of the remaining mysteries were revealed and all of the loose ends were tied up.

The way they were tied up is another matter. I mean, honestly: Albus Severus? Jeez, how corny is that?

One thing that struck me over and over was the feeling that this book was clearly written with a movie in mind. I don’t mean that as a criticism, and you could probably just ascribe it to Rowling’s skilled description of stuff or whatever, but I often caught myself visualizing a scene on the big screen or thinking to myself “now this was just put in here to look good in the cinema”. It worked, though. I have no doubt that the last HP movie will be just as successful as the other ones were. (I myself haven’t watched any one all the way through so far. Especially once Quidditch is played I fall asleep immediately.)

All in all I am pretty happy with how the story panned out in the end, although I can’t say was really surprised by anything. Well, except for Harry dying and coming back (mostly it was the coming back part that had me grumbling, because you see I really had hoped he would bite the bullet in the end, but apparently that was a bit too much to hope for). It was certainly good to see Snape get vindicated, even though making him into a sad little man who was carrying a torch for a woman who didn’t love him back wasn’t doing him any favours in my eyes. ^.^ But even so the way he died just made me angry.

Rowling has a huge problem doing believable death-scenes. As if Sirius falling through that damn veil hadn’t been bad enough (what the hell does that even mean?), now she kills off Snape without even giving him the opportunity to defend himself. WTF? I mean, come on, all the time he was built up to be this badass wizard, ruthless and capable of anything and bla bla bla. And then? Just poof. And not only does she let him die drooling some strange substance, which in itself is quite disgusting (Yeah, I know what it was, thank you. It’s still disgusting.), but then afterwards she destroys his whole credibility with this “I did it all for love of Lily Potter”-crap. Really, the least the guy would have deserved was to let him put up a decent fight.

And don’t even let me get started on Hedwig! I get that Rowling probably killed her off for the same reason Joss killed Wash in “Serenity”, but then as now I don’t think it was necessary to prove a point or set up an atmosphere of doom. (And I still plan to have some words with Joss on the matter of Wash if I ever get hold of him.) And again, it was one of the worst written death scenes I have ever read. Come on, Hedwig was an important character in the series, just for the love of little kittens acknowledge that fact and don’t just get rid of her in one paltry half-sentence! Not to speak of blowing her up a minute later…

Same goes for Lupin and Tonks. We don’t even get to know how they die. And, really, I get it that some people had to die, what with it being a great battle an’ all. And I’m ok with Fred. Lupin would have been fine,too. Or Tonks. But both of them? That seems like a bit of overkill to me. And the only one I was really hoping would die (because I can’t stand him), namely Hagrid the annoying git, is allowed to stay alive. Damn. The world really is unfair, even the fictional ones.

Well, but all in all I had a good time with the book and it certainly was a worthy conclusion to a great series. Still I am glad I got to read it (and assuage my curiosity) without having to shell out money for it.

I just finished the first of the two exams I should have been studying for in the last 3 weeks.

Luckily for me it was a multiple choice test, because I was not so much answering the questions according to my knowledge as by random guessing. I only have to have gotten 50% right to pass the test, but right now I feel like that might be a close call.

On the other hand, considering I did actually study for only one day (yesterday), I am pretty ok with the amount of stuff I did remember. Of course, almost nothing of that turned up in the test. But then I didn’t really expect it to.

Actually I am quite curious to see what they will have me do if I should fail. Back at uni, when I was still taking my studies seriously, I would probably have been a bit worried. With this course not so much. The worst they could do is kick me out. But I’m afraid I won’t be that lucky.

The next exam next week will be an oral examination, which I absolutely hate. We will have to go in groups of six, for an hour per group. So, everybody will be questioned for roughly 10 minutes. Doesn’t sound like much, I know. But the thing is, if you don’t know what to answer, 10 minutes can get awfully long. Plus, we got 2 guys in our group, who love to hear themselves talk, and I guess once they get started the rest of us won’t get a word in edgewise. So that’s gonna be really painful again.

Oh, and right now I have to go back. Hopefully they will all be finished with the test by now. This afternoon we will have a class called “communication training”. Needless to say it’s a subject I hate. The instructor apparently told the other ones yesterday (when I skipped classes to study) that today everybody would have to give a speech on a self-chosen topic.

I hate speaking in front of an audience. Now I know, overcoming that fear and loathing is kinda the point of this whole class. But since I’m not exactly afraid, I don’t see why I should. I can talk in front of audiences. Had to do it numerous times at university and as far as I remember it went ok. I just hated every single minute of it. And when I got my diploma I swore to myself I never would give another speech again in front of anybody. And I won’t.

Short Story Collections

Before last year I haven’t read a lot of short stories. I tend to favour longer novels, because I am quite a fast reader and with short pieces of writing I feel it’s hardly worth starting them. I have learned meanwhile, though, that sometimes short stories not only are quite practical (if you only have short periods of reading time), but also sometimes stay with you for longer than some novels with which you have spend way more time.

So here are the ones I read last year:

6. Stephen Fry “Paperweight”

Ok, these are not exactly short stories in the proper sense of the word. It’s just a collection of articles and essays for newspapers, magazines and radio. Nothing exactly earth-shattering, but quite entertaining and funny. I especially liked the Donald Trefusius essays.

It’s not a book to be read in one sitting, though, because not only does all of it kind of swim together in your head after a while, but it tends to get a tad repetitive as well. Considering the fact that these pieces were written over a long period of time and where never intented to be grouped together in one book, that is forgiveable, though.
.

5. Margaret Atwood “Good Bones”

This was the first of Margaret Atwood’s books I have read and actually enjoyed for the most part. I think she is a truly terrific writer, but for me she is an aquired taste. Her style is so sparse and dry that it takes a while to get used to it and develop a liking. At least it does for me.

On the other hand, I am impressed enough by her writing to not give up on her and I aim to give all her books a try at least once. This collection of short stories was surprisingly accessible and funny. Her re-telling of old and well-known fairytales certainly makes you look at them in a whole new way.
.

4. Joanne Harris “Jigs and Reels”

Those scrumptious, delicious, fabulous covers of Harris’ books never fail to capture me. And so far I didn’t get disappointed by her novels (well, except for “Sleep, Pale Sister”, that one wasn’t too thrilling). So I guess it was inevitable that sooner or later I would get my hands on this collection of short stories as well.

And again, I wasn’t disappointed. Suburban witches, defiant old ladies, ageing monsters, suicidal Lottery winners, wolf men, dolphin women and middle-aged manufacturers of erotic leatherwear - how she comes up with some of that stuff is beyond me, but it definitely makes for compelling reading. Some of the stories are outright disturbing, others are funny or touching. It was not what I was expecting from Joanne Harris. The tone of these stories is very different from her novels, but they are all highly readable.
.

3. Connie Willis “Impossible Things” and “Fire Watch”

Yep, there are 2 books by Connie Willis in this list. I couldn’t decide which one I liked better, so they both get third place.

Connie Willis popped up on my radar when I read “To say nothing of the dog”, which might just be the funniest book I have ever read. She is an amazing writer and has a secured place on my all-time top ten list.

These two collections have only cemented my opinion of her talent. She can do strange and disturbing just as easily as laugh-out-loud funny. One of the stories, “The Last of the Winnebagos”, had me in tears for hours. Just thinking about it makes my eyes go all misty again. Others like “At the Rialto” or “Spice Pogrom” were hilarious and thinking about them makes me start giggling. I especially like the fact that each story has a short foreword explaining how Willis got the idea to write it, which is interesting all of its own.
.

2. Saki “Tobermory and other stories”

When I started to read this book I had no great expectations, because as I said I am usually not a big fan of short stories. But it turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I liked almost all of the stories and many of them made me laugh out loud (especially “Louise”, “The Sheep”, “The Schwartz-Metterklume Method” and some others).

But Saki is not only funny, or satiric, but really quite mean sometimes. And this is exactly what I liked most about him. The obvious comparison with Oscar Wilde is therefore not quite fitting, because Wilde, even though he could be very sarcastic, was never quite as bitingly honest as Saki. It is a pity that he died so young.
.

1. Michael Marshall Smith “What you make it”

Did I already mention that I love, love, love Michael Marshall Smith? So much so that I want to crawl inside his brain and take up permanent residence there. This guy has a seriously strange and twisted kind of imagination. His mind would certainly not be a very comfortable place to live in, full of monsters and frightening things shortly glimpsed in dark corners, but I can’t help but love the way he thinks. He just draws you into his world.

These stories take a look at seemingly familiar things, but seen through his eyes everything becomes surreal, frighteningly off kilter and just plain strange. Nothing ever turns out like you’d expect it t, instead your expectations get turned around and thrown in your face.

Some of these stories are hard to stomach - definitely not for the faint of heart - some of them actually made me a bit sick, but I couldn’t stop reading anyway. Every time I told myself I would only finish this story and then put the book down, but in the end I always started to the next one right away, because I just couldn’t wait to see what he would come up with next.

I can’t wait to read the rest of his books. Some of them are not easy to come by, though. His other short story collection, called “More Tomorrow & Other Stories” seems to be out of print and is available on Amazon only used - priced between 255 - 300 Pounds! That’s so ridiculous that it’s not even funny anymore. Needless to say I will keep trying to get my hands on a copy anyway.

I have mentioned before that I have a thing for dystopian fiction and of course I have heard of Richard Matheson’s book by the same name that inspired this movie. I haven’t got my hands on a copy so far, though, which is an oversight I plan to remedy soon.

So, instead of reading one of the classic science fiction books, I watched the movie a couple of days ago, not least because I loved the posters that hang all over town. Moreover, a movie starring Will Smith is never a hard sell on me. And did I mention the german shepherd?

Smith plays Robert Neville, the last man alive and sane in New York City after a man-made virus wiped out most of humankind. The people that weren’t killed by the virus have turned into very strange-looking, crazily aggressive creatures that only come out at night, because they are allergic to light. Neville used to be a military scientist and was in some way involved in the development of the allegedly cancer-curing virus. Well, I suppose killing everybody is one way to cure cancer. Now that everybody is dead or infected he is still trying to figure out what went wrong and trying to develop a cure for the cure. He lives with his dog Sam in a heavily fortified house, venturing out only during the day and hiding at night from the Dark Seekers, who are apparently out to kill everything that moves.

So what did I think of the movie?

To put it short: I liked big parts of it, especially the first hour or so. After that, when the woman and her son arrived, it went kinda downhill. The ending was not only way too cheesy for my taste, and as far as I gather from this book review it was also considerably altered from the book. Why do they always have to do that? But if you can live with the typically sweet Hollywood ending, I guess the movie is not too bad in many respects. It definitely is worth watching for the visuals of a deserted New York City. There is only one scene in the film that was decidedly hard for me to watch. If you see it you will probably know which one I mean.

Well, to get into a bit more detail, let me start with the good stuff:

1. As I said, Will Smith can hardly do anything wrong in my eyes. I loved him even in silly films, but here he was impressively intense. For the longest time he had to carry that movie all by himself, and he managed it admirably. During the first half of the movie we watch him battle with his lonely existence and his survivor’s guilt, trying to hold on to his sanity (with more or less success). The way he is hunting deer in the deserted city streets, or having a chat with some mannequins at a video store, not to mention the sight of him sitting at a desk on a pier, waiting for other survivors to show up, is just heartbreaking.

2. Always at Neville’s side is the beautiful german shepherd Sam. I loved that dog, not least because she can act better than a lot of human actors in Hollywood. (The downside to her part is that they go down the road each and every Hollywood movie takes when dogs are involved. I don’t have to actually spell it out, do I?)

3. Seeing New York City deserted was one of the most visually stunning images I have ever seen in any movie. Especially at the beginning it is really amazing to watch Neville drive through a completely people-free New York, with half overgrown streets, empty, sad buildings and destroyed bridges.

Unfortunately, as much as I loved these aspects of the movie, there were other parts that were just plain crap, namely almost all of the CGI effects. Holy cow, how could they botch that stuff so frickin’ completely? It looks like they gave those CGI-rendering programs to some high-school kid and let him run wild with it. They really should have asked somebody who actually knows what he is doing there.

It started with the CGI deer, which were actually not too bad. If you are not a biologist, that is. But then came the lions - Oh. My. God. Whoever CGIed those lions can only ever have heard of them by rough description. They were so bad I was starting to ask myself if this whole movie would turn into some cartoony spoof-fest or something. Completely spoiled the mood for a while. But luckily the things were on screen for only about 20 seconds or so.

Much, much worse were the CGIed Dark Seekers. They were truly craptastic. You would think CGI was invented only yesterday and nobody had really got the hang of it yet. What the fuck did they think? I haven’t read the book, but those things didn’t look like virus-infected people and they didn’t look like vampires either. Even for a respectable zombie they looked way too weird (and not in a good way). Can you remember the Borg Queen from the Star Trek movies? That’s the look they were going for, god knows why. Moreover they all kinda looked the same. Ridiculous, that is. And certainly not scary in the least. Which would have been not so bad, if they would have looked at least halfway believable.

Then there is the problem I always have with stories about crazy, excessively aggressive creatures like the Dark Seekers and that I call the “Reaver problem”. Reaver refers to one of my favorite movies, “Serenity”, but the basic problem here is exactly the same: How can these crazed creatures survive several years in that state? Supposedly in the three years since the deadly virus spread they must have killed every healthy survivor that was left (except Neville, of course) - so what do they eat? If they would turn against others of their own kind there probably wouldn’t be many of them left after such a long time. And somehow I can’t see them hunt deer, they don’t seem to have the skill for that. Plus, if they would do that on a regular basis, there probably wouldn’t be any deer left in Manhattan either. But if they do not turn against each other: why not? Considering their extremely aggressive behaviour towards everyone else that doesn’t make any sense.

But these are by far not the only questions this film raised for me. I will put the other ones below the cut, though, because if you haven’t seen the movie yet they contain spoilers.

Read the rest of this entry »