...and yet we have to be very patient. Now, it should come as no great surprise to my two and a half regular readers (hi!) that I am an avid gamer and simply cannot stop mentioning games at every opportunity I get. So here comes yet another rant.

I sometimes hate publishers of games. I love the developers, but the publishers are the money-grabbing bastids who can only see the monetary value of everything (let's face it; they're not doing this for charity), and they decide where the games should be released (first). I would love to have a common release schedule for the whole world, really. That would be Utopia for me (yes, to hell with socialism; hungry African children should fend for themselves, because The Real Utopia is where entertainment flows freely :p ). Imagine films, games and music being released at the same time, all over the world. And none of those ridiculous "regions" on DVDs, Blu-Rays and console games. I think it's brilliant that PS3 games are region free (helped me get one of my current favourites; a baseball game which will probably never be released over here), but I'm still miffed that some of the best RPGs for the Playstation and SNES, for instance, were never released in Europe. Chrono Trigger, anyone? Grr...

Of course, life is more than just gaming.

LOL! Who am I kidding? But it sounded GOOD, right?

Labels: gaming

I have been taking quite a few of those "Travel IQ" tests these past few days and discovered that I suck even worse at cities, states and provinces in North America than I thought I did! So today I spent some time on Wikipedia to brush up a bit. Then I realised that it wasn't actually a "brushing up" of my school days; we never really looked at the map of Canada in any of my classes, and only briefly glanced at the map of the US. This was in my "advanced" English class in high school. How embarrassing. Imagine my surprise when I hit Edmonton almost spot on, haha! Unfortunately it went downhill from there, but I am determined to one day be able to mock all the "stupid Americans" who don't know that Europe isn't just ONE COUNTRY (sigh), with a clear conscience as I, myself, at least know the location of all the US states. Because at the moment I should probably keep my mouth shut.

And speaking of nationalism (we were, just get with the program here); we celebrated "Norway Day" on the 17th by walking a lot, getting lost for bit there and then finally crashing into everyone on our way to our seats, only to sit down literally 30 seconds before the play started. The title of the play? Rosmersholm. The theatre? The Almeida. More remote than you would think. The actors? Well, all great, of course. I was particularly pleased to see Paul Hilton and Peter Sullivan again. The former I first noticed in On the Third Day and then absolutely loved him in True Dare Kiss on telly. The latter was a brilliant scene-stealer in The Pain and the Itch. The production itself was very good; I especially liked the lighting effects used. I know, that's about the most boring review you can give of a play, it would seem, but there, alas, you have it.

We then ran to the Norwegian Seamen's Church in Southwark. Don't know why we ran, because it was only half full when we got there, with plenty of time left. It was nice to hear a few Norwegian songs and chat with some Norwegians our own age and shop for some Norwegian stuff, but half way through the third hour we were getting quite fed up of the Norwegian "entertainment", which wasn't as varied as the previous two years, and left the place. No heavy drinking involved, even!

There must have been some heavy drinking involved the next week, though, because I cannot for the life of me remember what I did then. Was it really that boring? I remember getting a Nintendo Wii and waving the controller around for a bit (before--get this--I went back to my old Playstation 2 to play some game I used to be hooked on around this time last year). I am anticipating Wii Fit to arrive at my doorstep any day now. Like...ermm...next week. Because lo! and behold, I have discovered that the DHL site is even worse to navigate and more customer-unfriendly than the City Link one! I know!!! So I may get hold of them some time, if I can only find the correct phone number and not go bankrupt while trying to call through them all. Wish me luck!

Anyway, time to pack up and leave for the day. We obviously didn't have too much to do today, as I could find the time to do this. These past few weeks have been insane.

By the way, I would recommend you watch Catch-22 (again). I hadn't seen it for years, but had it on my long list of all-time favourites. I had apparently forgotten why, but quickly remembered when I saw it again the other day. Wow, what a brilliant black comedy!

Labels: film, gaming, Norway, personal, theatre

Yeah, I went to see Iron Man yesterday, in a very drafty cinema (I think they call it "air-conditioned"). I want Tony Stark's technology. Now. The film itself was predictable, sentimental and ludicrous, but as a growing Marvel fan and an old Robert Downey, Jr. fan, I liked the film. It has some really cool effects and must be seen on the big screen, then bought on Blu-Ray (until the next-gen next-gen technology comes out, of course).

I got Shallow Hal in the post yesterday and started watching it before going to the cinema (so all in all a day full of Gwyneth Paltrow). It was the fourth time I have seen that film and I think it's really funny. Silly, but funny. Especially funny is VERY Italian-American Joe Viterelli (R.I.P.) as Gwyneth's Irish dad. Interesting casting.

Lately I have also read through a few books. Eats, Shoots & Leaves was particularly educational, and just proves that I may calm down; I have to follow my instincts when it comes to punctuation and not let the grammatically challenged emails I get at work every day fool me. The quality is decreasing every day, and as a foreigner I keep telling myself "these people should know better than I do; it's their language, after all". But then I realise they haven't actually learnt much grammar in school for decades now. In fact, I have probably been taught more English grammar than most of these people ever will. Sad, but true.

Other books I've been reading lately, include The World According to Humphrey, which I actually got as an audio book, so technically I haven't read it. So much better listening to Greg Proops reading it, though. Cool use of voices. And now I want a hamster again.

Anyway, I'm going to watch Gamespot's On the Spot live now.

Labels: film, gaming, greg proops, literature

It's about time I commented on The Event of the Year. Well, perhaps it isn't going to be, but so far it is.

After having had the ticket in my possession for ten months--yes, I have realised I probably need to stop obsessing, but that's the problem with obsessions; you simply can't--it was time to go to the Barbican (for the first time in my life, I might add) to witness the world premiere of Dominic Muldowney/James Fenton's Tsunami. Oh yeah, they'd thrown in some other stuff as well, like R. Vaughan Williams's sixth and Gustav Holst's Hymn to Jesus (which reminded me I need to get hold of his Planets,) only with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, but who cares, right?

Well, I did. Wow. I love those large-scale productions. The music sounds better that way. Goosebumps. Tears in my eyes. That sort of thing.

The minute the conductor came on, I felt ashamed of myself. I honestly didn't know who Sir Andrew Davis was (look, I know a lot of things, but have yet so much to learn. Just bear with me here.) Of course I have seen him what seems like a million times conducting the last night of the Proms. He only happens to be one of the best conductors out there. Duh.

Anyway, I was there first and foremost in order to see/hear Philip Quast (few other people make me buy tickets a year in advance, after all) perform the new piece Tsunami. I was somewhat distracted by the enormous responsibility of having to handle a camera at the end of the performance because I had a great seat and the others didn't, ahem (LOL,) but I managed to take it all in and even laugh in a few places (hopefully where there should be laughs--I was also carried away by the enthusiastic guy in front of me.) Speaking of people around me...my god, why do I seem to always end up in looneyville when I go somewhere? It must be me. The guy to the right of me had a wheezy nose and apparently no handkerchief. The guy to the left had ants in his pants. They were both in their fifties and should have learnt to behave properly by now, but no luck there.

Luckily the whole thing was recorded and will be transmitted this Tuesday on BBC Radio 3--available online (I'm not sure if they leave this online for another week after transmission, like they do with most other shows, so take no chances!) This way I can enjoy it as it was meant to be enjoyed: Without some stranger breathing heavily into my ear. Unless, of course, I have started my own phone sex service by then and just happen to be on a call at that moment.

It could happen.

Anyway, Mr. Quast (around my house just called "Philip", but that is a bit too informal here) seemed very at ease and like he was thoroughly enjoying himself, captivating the audience and harvesting a well-deserved roaring applause at the end, finally joined by the composer and lyricist on stage.

The piece itself was an insight into a relationship, at times parallelled by the tsunami and aftermath in 2004/2005, ups and downs, and all beautifully put together to a five-parter of 25 minutes in total. It was certainly made more powerful and real by casting a trained actor instead of "merely" a trained singer, as it brought more depth to the lyrics than probably would have been the case otherwise.

Well, that was my meagre attempt at a sort-of review of the thing. The main thing is I truly enjoyed the whole evening and am already looking forward to the transmission and also the next symphony I go to (whatever that will be.)

Labels: concert, music, philip quast, radio

...or whatever.

GTA IV's publishers sue the Chicago Transit Authority. Quelle fun. Meanwhile, I will be spending the next two days in front of my Playstation. Hopefully. And on Friday I will be going to the Barbican for a concert I've been looking forward to for ages. Hopefully.

Labels: concert, gaming, philip quast

OK, first of all, I may have seen a man die outside my window yesterday. He was hit by something at a pedestrian crossing and five police cars and two ambulances came to the rescue, but it seemed they eventually gave up trying to resuscitate him, and after they put him in the ambulance it took at least ten minutes before they left for what I presume was the hospital.

Just thought I'd get that out of the way. And then I went back to running over a few pedestrians of my own, in Grand Theft Auto IV. More on that later.

On Sunday I went to a concert at the Royal Festival Hall; it was Mahler's first (symphony, not concert--that would have been weird.) The first part was...uhmm...something else than Mahler, and the four Italians in front of me left during the interval, leaving me with all the space I could wish for so that I could take in every movement from the orchestra. Fabulous. I realised it's been too long since I last went to something like that. We ended up applauding for at least five minutes (or, it just felt that way; when the conductor came out for the fourth time I thought "enough, already! My arms are really starting to hurt now!")

On Monday I went to see Fram at the National. I have to recommend it. Everyone should really go see this play. I felt elevated and inspired afterwards (and a little bit sleepy, but that's because it lasted for three hours.) The best thing about the National Theatre is that they don't necessarily have to be focused on the commercial value of everything showing there. This way they may experiment a bit, and Fram makes for some good theatre indeed. It has humour and wit, it discusses social issues and points fingers in both subtle and frank ways, it uses film, music and sound effects, and freshest of all, it is written in verse, features ballet and has a simple, but amazing set design. I was captivated, although the last scene of the first act was too long and complex after having already been sitting there for ninety minutes. Great performance by Sian Thomas in that scene, though, well worth it in the end. Fun to see Jeff Rawle on stage, too. I couldn't help but thinking Dennis Storhøi would have been perfect for the part of Nansen, though, but I am biased.

Then, on Tuesday, the postman arrived with my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV at 9:35. At 9:36 I took a picture of it (please note that I pre-ordered this 14 months ago), and at 9:37 I popped the BD into the PS3 and made myself a cup of tea and went to the loo while waiting for the game to install. At 9:42 "Starting a new game" showed up on my screen and I screamed a little "wheee!" to myself as I grabbed hold of the controller and became Niko Bellic. Great graphics (people still look "squary", but just imagine how far computer graphics have come in the past 30 years (or even just the past five--consider the water in Finding Nemo and fur effects in Monsters, Inc.) and I'm sure we'll soon be unable to distinguish computer-generated characters from live action film.) Great sound effects. Great music (although I do miss the opportunity of halting my modified Lowrider at a red light and rocking away to Killing in the Name, which I used to do in GTA: San Andreas after a long stint of defending my territory from rival gangs.) Great story (and not too bad voice acting, either.) I think it truly deserves the top marks it gets everywhere. This has really lived up to all the expectations and MORE! For me, I am amazed at the fact that I have played through about 20% of the game already without any major problems passing the missions so far, but then they have made it easier than its predecessors and the police aren't as annoyingly stubborn this time around.

Of course, a game like this stirs up some controversy (usually from the Bible Belt in America and other ultra-conservative areas of the Western world.) The newest is some mums against drink driving wanting to change the game's rating. The case is this: In the game you may drive after having been drinking all night. Let me just say I don't think the mums in question have even looked at the game. First of all, when you get drunk in this game, it is REALLY difficult to control the character. He really feels drunk and it is almost impossible to focus on anything. There is a CLEAR warning on the screen saying that since you have been drinking quite heavily, it would be better if you got a cab or wore it off. If you can manage to even get the guy into the car, I would imagine it would be even more difficult to drive the thing. I was sat at the back of a taxi, trying to point to the driver where we wanted to go, and it was so blurry I couldn't see a thing. People would most probably give up trying to drive altogether. This is actually a GREAT way of showing people how drink driving affects you, without your having to figure out for yourself (if you really are that stupid you haven't believed everyone telling you why drink driving is dangerous.)

The negative thing about GTA IV is that many users have had problems with the game freezing after a short period of time. When I read about this yesterday morning, I started biting my nails and sweating, but then remembered that hey, I had already managed to play the game for eight hours without any glitches, so I wouldn't need to worry so much! (Touch wood.)

I took some time off from the game last night to watch Blade Runner, though. I had bought the five-disc version (might as well) and got it in the post earlier in the day. I had seen it before at some point, but it must have been at least ten years ago. I am looking forward to watching the other four versions included now.

And for some bizarre reason I started watching this French time travel comedy on Monday, Les visiteurs, and I just couldn't turn the damn thing off. That was proper vegetating, that was. It was very well written (although the story was silly and the acting therefore over the top) and the plot was constantly driven forwards, not really leaving any room to breathe. It had Christian Clavier and Jean Reno (once again sporting the most horrible underwear--remember to watch the 2006 version of The Pink Panther) in it, and a perfectly cast Valérie Lemercier.

Well, about time I got myself some lunch. They gave me a new computer here today (I feel lucky,) 19" widescreen monitor and a lightning-fast processor is a great change from the 15" standard screen and seven-minute-startup-process I was used to on my old one. I am going to celebrate by eating a cookie and watching the second episode of Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts. If you are a Facebook user, please pay attention to this report about security there.

Labels: concert, dennis storhøi, film, gaming, music, personal, technology, theatre