Aeterna's Blog

I went out this weekend to join a friend going to an open day to look if it was something she’d be interested in later after having decided that while talking on skype pretty much half of the night. So we met up and due to a gasleak we had to take another train to get to where we needed to go, but eventually we got there. It was an arts school which was really interesting for me having gone to a rather exact opposite kind of school as an IT guy. I’m not generally a big arts guy, but there are definitely things that I appreciate, but when it gets too artsy I’m simply not getting it. I’m too logical a person so abstract things don’t really do much for me.

That school as it turns out was very much an art school, as we checked out the photography section there were a bunch of examples of photo’s made by students for projects. These showed for example some walls, some chimneys on top of houses and other really random pictures including some blurry ones that just looked like you accidentally pressed the “photo” button while waving the camera around. This being art… well, I guess you have to be really into abstract art to get any of it.

That school also really reminded me of highschool (not too great a memory for me) with it’s structure and small rooms. There was also a certain smell to it because of all the materials that were around that I simply haven’t smelled since then. Unlike this building, my school had many big rooms full with spacious desks and patchpoints to set up your laptop at and have your books and stuff laid out. As such all the rooms were really big to allow this and were really clean as you took everything with you in your bag as you came and went.

Afterwards we went to a metalbar and enjoyed a pretty good band that was performing there and then as we got to her home we decided we’d watch Bambi on VCR. That’s still totally a good movie despite it’s age and it being aimed at children. There’s something about it that makes it enjoyable for all ages, the only downside to that would be that it is really quite short with a runtime of 70 minutes. But the sheer cuteness factor and unadulterated fun make up for that.

On saturday we went to another art school’s open day to see if that was more her thing, as we had heard that they took a less “artsy” approach to especially photography, which she’s interested in. And that indeed was the case, there were a lot more realistic photo’s that were simply gorgeous and projects that were really interesting and had a message. Hell, I really liked some of that stuff and after talking and getting some more information, it sounds like a pretty cool study all in all and not overly artsy. But she still wasn’t sure if it’s her thing or not, but atleast she’s properly informed of it now and has seen that it doesn’t have to be as artsy (which she didn’t like).

After that was over we decided to go to a movie as we walked near a cinema and ended up viewing The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was a really good movie, better than I expected it to be honestly. It’s a pretty lengthy movie and it has you guessing what’s going to happen next, or how the plot sticks together pretty much throughout the whole movie. The characters of Mikael and Lisbeth were all both played excellently, though I also have to mention Henrik. The good acting, interesting characters (mainly Lisbeth), the plot that keeps moving at a good(pretty rapid) pace and the twists make it a movie you really ought to see. Be warned though that it does get pretty shocking in some of the scenes, I have to admit that I wasn’t sitting entirely comfortably in some of them.

After that we checked out some rock bars, sat down and talked briefly and then decided to go home as I still had a 2 hour trip back, I arrived roughly around 1.30am which isn’t all that bad considering. I slept a  long time that night to catch up on some sleep as I had some really black spots under my eyes that saturday. Waking up refreshed I did some chores, started reading my next book (Swords and Swordsmen by Mike Loades) while listening to some music and caught up on some of the content giantbomb had put out the past couple of days. Then I finished the day by going out for exercise and watched a movie based on one of my favorite manga/animes: Gantz.

Gantz is a live-action movie which means that it’s played by real people and as such that means that it’s going to take a lot to live up to the original. After watching the first movie (I haven’t watched the second one yet), I have to say that it did a pretty good job. It’s of course very Japanese but it still captures the spirit of the series as the main characters try to deal with the bizarre fights they have to go through and the people that end up in the room with them. It deals with some really unique situations because of it and that’s also where 1 of the flaws lie; it’s hard to portray the struggle of the humanizing process within the characters.

The ending of the movie especially wasn’t as powerful as the end of the manga was for me, but it still shows camaraderie and dealing with loss. If you have any interest in a Japanese action movie that plays with emotions, give Gantz a shot, or go read the manga or watch the anime.

All in all, this was a pretty great weekend, although I didn’t get around to recording, but that’s why I’m so glad I have a backlog that’s already uploaded and scheduled to go online. I hope you all had a similarly good weekend.