Meep’s Musings

Archive for March, 2006

Since I was a bit disappointed in Emma Donoghue’s “Life Mask”, I turned my attention to another book, called “Loreley” and written by Kai Meyer. He’s a German author of mystery / fantasy / thriller novels, a little bit more rooted in reality than Philip Pullman and far better than anything Dan Brown writes :P.

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10m down the road:

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I’m on page 146 of Emma Donoghue’s “Life Mask” and so far it’s not really that thrilling. Maybe I had the wrong expectations, because it was recommended to me after I had looked for books by Sarah Waters… At the moment there is far too much talk about Foxies and other 18th century politics stuff I’m not interested in and too little development in that promised “love triangle” :P.

The Corrs have announced there will be no new album or anything at all from the group in quite a while since they are almost all busy having a family. Andrea at least doesn’t disappear completely from the face of the earth since she concentrates on her acting. Still, I’m a bit sad to hear that even if it was to be expected :(.

Yesterday there were regional elections here and I’m shocked at how little people voted - only roughly 54% :o! Not that it would have helped the SPD (socialist party) anything - we’re in the South here and that comes with conservative party hegemony - but still. The one chance you have to be part of politics as a simple citizen, why let it go to waste?

I bought “Life of Brian” on DVD and had a very nice time watching it again, hehe :D. The stoning scene alone was worth it *g*.

Again, the Twelf has made my day (among other things, but she came first ;)). She has sent me a nice parcel with lots of Cadbury’s and Maltesers drinking chocolate powder plus two books: Janet Evanovich’s “Ten Big Ones” and Emma Donoghue’s “Life Mask”. I’m already reading the latter one, and I’ll be lounging on my bed with a cup of Maltesers (better than Ovomaltine :)!) and some biscuits and be one happy Meep :D. Don’t say nothing good comes from ordering soap opera magazines, movie stills and obscure B-movies on eBay :P…

That’s the number of kilometers I’ve been going by bike today. This afternoon I was thinking “Why not make a trip to Romanshorn, it’s not too far away and the exercise will do you good?”. Said and done, except I had slightly underestimated the distance to Romanshorn, which is roughly 23km to the east of me, in Switzerland. The route isn’t that exciting because mainly you’re going beside the railway tracks (then again, they help to find the way when you’re lost like I was on my way back ;)) but you can catch a glimpse of the lake once in a while. And the weather was really well-behaved today, sunny and not too cold or windy. Romanshorn it has to be said has almost nothing to warrant the exercise, though :P. There’s the promenade, and then there’s the Old Church (really old, like over 1200 years and rather dire), then there’s the New Church (built in the 1910s, and heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture = bordering on kitsch but not without charm), and then there’s the train station. That’s pretty much it, and since all the other Swiss villages I came through, and there were a lot of them on 23km :P, seem to exist mostly of some houses scattered around the main road plus a church, I’ve come to the overly generalizing conclusion that Swiss may be good at making cheese and chocolate, but not at building nice places. At least I can’t recall anyone going “Oh, Switzerland has the pretties cities” but mostly “Oh, Switzerland has the prettiest mountains / best cheese / yummiest chocolate”, so there’s my reasoning ;).

Anyway, have I mentioned my legs don’t work so well any more after this monster trip ;)? Photos from Switzerland as usual in my photolog.

Movie of the week: “Brokeback Mountain” SPOILERS!

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Weil wir eksperte auf unserem gebiet sind (wir wissen was wir tun)

I seriously doubt that :P. At least, get a spell checker next time ;).

While looking for a free webhosting service, I’ve stumbled upon some sites which offered 24/7 service during the following hours: 7 to 9AM and 10 to 12PM :grin:.

Late as usual ;), I’ve just discovered videocasting (or, as some hip people call it, vodcasting). So far, I’m overwhelmed by the sheer amount of available podcasts, but I’ve found some goodies already. I’m completely in love with Vintage ToonCast, which aims at presenting really old (as in from the 30s and 40s) cartoons and other short movies. When it comes to “normal” podcasts, I’ve taken a liking to the Mercedes-Benz Mix Tape podcast. At the moment I’m using iTunes but I’m pretty sure there are other (better?) programs out there, at least for audio podcasts. But I’m too lazy to install another program right now because I’m waiting for my new computer - ain’t I predictable :P?

• Brokeback Mountain didn’t win best film
• Felicity Huffman didn’t win for Transamerica :(( - I so wanted her to
• But Flicka looked fab nevertheless
• At least Ang Lee won best director - and yay for his acceptance speech
• Wallace & Gromit won best animation of the year
• Oh my God, Jane Russell is still alive :o!
• Dolly Parton is kind of scary, don’t you think? I mean those boobs… they look like they’re inflatable canon balls or something.
• Charlize Theron’s dress: what’s with the bow :huh:?
• Yellow is not Michelle Williams’ color
• I’m normally not a fan of Salma Hayek, but she looked radiant in that blue dress
• Does Tim Burton always looked this tousled? And is Helena Bonham Carter always adjoined to his hip?
• A word of warning to Keira Knightley: easy with the panda eye make-up :P!
• More sun for Nicole Kidman because she literally looked like the death walking the earth
• Sandra Bullock looked all grown-up :thumbsup:
• As opposed to Ryan Philippe, not even with a full beard

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I bought season 1 of The X-Files on DVD - because it was just 20€ and I figured it won’t get a lot cheaper in the near future. I’ve already watched a couple of episodes (among them the one with a rather young Felicity Huffman, he :cool:) and at first I was afraid I might not like it as much as I did way back when I was an X-Phile. Concern unnecessary, though: “Ice” gripped me just like it did 12 years ago, this series is simply a classic!