Archive for July, 2003

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the definition of humor

Thursday, July 31st, 2003

What occured to me today was how humor is all about acting younger than your actual age. When you’re being funny, you’re being juvenile. Because only a juvenile person would make fun of something instead of being serious. Children will mock the most stupid things because they don’t know better. And people who make jokes sink to a lower level, trying to entertain other people. And that’s why there’s a risk there, if the person doesn’t think you’re funny, he/she automatically sends you a message saying “I am not as childish as you are, this is not funny, I take this seriously”. All the way from the lowest level, like South Park, up to the dizzy heights of Frasier, it holds true. The main difference is what exactly you base the comedy on. As such it’s very easy to understand how South Park would appeal to the masses, the material is hard not to understand. More sophisticated humor, however, is much higher quality but also demands a lot more from the recipient. Watching Frasier, you have to know something about courtesy, about art, culture, language, human relations etc to understand the flow, otherwise you’ll switch back to South Park. (more…)

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terningkast

Friday, July 25th, 2003

Det er på tide å ta opp et grunnleggende irritasjonsmoment fra vår alles hverdag. Det er ikke noe mer vi liker mer enn å bedømme alt mulig rart etter “terningkast”. Opprinnelsen av konseptet er ikke kjent men jeg kan forestille meg at man ønsket å finne en generell platform til å sammenligne ting på. Når vi sier terningkast trenger vi ikke å spesifisere verken skalaen eller inkrementalstørrelsen, en terning er indirekte definert i vår generelle oppfatning som en kube med homogent fordelt vekt. Vi kjenner alle parametrene og konseptet er veldefinert. Man skulle tro det er grunnen til at vi bruker det så ofte.

Men! Her finnes også en uheldig selvmotsigelse… ettersom vi alle kjenner til terningen, vet vi også at utfallet av terningkastet per definisjon er ukjent! Når vi får høre at Matrix Reloaded har fått terningkast 5 i Aftenposten så betyr det egentlig at uansett argumentasjon i teksten så er karakteren helt tilfeldig.

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Le retour

Tuesday, July 22nd, 2003

Due to circumstances outside my control, this year I was forced to get home through Gdansk airport, which represents no form of convenience for travellers from Lodz. My ticket was a round trip proposition, via Copenhagen, so far it doesn’t sound too bad. But it turns out the outward flight was at 7 am and getting to the airport at that hour turned out to be tricky. First of all, the Gdansk airport is tiny, they have about 10-20 flights a day, to 3-4 different destinations. As I was informed, the airport is closed at night, as is the railway station in Gdansk where I would be exiting the train just before midnight. So much for taking the 4 pm train from Lodz, turns out there’s a night train from Warsaw at 11.30 pm.

Getting to the capital should constitute no paramount task, but it would be too good be true had the time tables evened out. Thus at 7.30 I got on the train for Warsaw, there I would be stuck for 2 hours. Meanwhile I had been told countless stories about how insecure the trains are these days and how people who have fallen asleep (and some even conscious) have been mugged. Getting on that first train I was nervous already but the ride is just an hour and a half. Incidentally, I found a 24h net cafe in the Warsaw railway station to kill an hour before my next departure. Strange as it sounds, apparently two trains head for Gdynia/Gdansk at 11.30 pm on a Monday from Warsaw. The one I was about to board turned out to be a sleeper and 5 minutes later my train arrived. (more…)

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Taxi 3: no good from Luc Besson

Wednesday, July 16th, 2003

Unfortuantely, Luc Besson’s third (and final?) installment of “Taxi” is a letdown for the fans of the first two pictures. The storyline starts off in a familiar manner, packed with action but soon enough the plot dies down to be dominated by imbescile dialog and a general lack of direction. The James Bond-like intro would have us believe “Taxi 3″ is special, well it’s not. Little can be done to cover for a very thin plot (somehow it seems the writer ran out of ideas after 30 minutes) and the general standard of actors is by no means impressive. In the forementioned earlier releases, the storyline would eradicate those unpleasant moments to some extent, but this time nothing can save the picture from falling into obscurity, by part thanks to its lousy cast.

Incidentally, one would think this release would be, as it has been no less than 3 years since the sequel hit the movies. A solid Samy Naceri works alone to keep up the tempo put the picture resembles a work in progress rather than a release. Shame, I think more people than just me looked forward to this one.

4/10

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Rob Dougan fuoriclasse

Wednesday, July 2nd, 2003

There is something so captivating about Rob Dougan’s “Furious angels”. The album is packed with quality tracks. I don’t quite know how to account for the phenomenon, his vocals are questionable and if it wasn’t for the magnifique tunes I wouldn’t like it at all. But the clean, melodic tunes make it a big hit. I was first stunned by his blockbuster track from “Matrix reloaded”, entitled “Chateau” and I still think it’s his finest to date. But “Furious angels” carries more of the same, I see a strong influence of classical music (if I was more of a classical buff I would be able to recall the actual pieces) used to good effect. (more…)

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