(in no specific order)
high heels
telly on a skateboard
buckets of paint
plinths on a load-cart (there is such a word, right?)
a stolen bottle of wine
boxes of beer
cardboard box filled with some extra cardboard
a tripod in a bag
Carlota
actually, nothing out of the extraordinary.
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I know music can hardly get more awesome/perfect than Hardcore Will Never Die, but there’s something extraordinarily appealing to its softer-sounding little brother Earth Division. it’s been a very good decision to take those four songs out of the official album. not that they’re bad – but they’re just different. unexpectedly different. they sound a bit like a film soundtrack – which is not necessarily a bad thing, actually it’s probably a very good thing cause mogwai show some amazing diversity in the music they create. let’s just say that if they’re ever asked to write the original score to a film, I’d watch this film, even if it’s a romcom.
well, actually it depends what romcom.
actually, probably won’t watch it. but I’d definitely buy the album.
thing is, those songs are just superb for a lazy, rainy, cold winter sunday afternoon when you don’t have internet and the only thing you could really do is read a book. which is pretty much what’s happening right now with me. cause while Hardcore… makes you jump out of your seat and go do something with your life, Earth Division makes you… well, look out of the window and stare at the rain.
ok, I just pretty much spent more time writing about the EP than its actual length.
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yeah, ok, I do like the show Sherlock. and I prefer to write a wee post on it rather a very long one on my disappointment with Moffat’s Doctor Who.
I kinda had lost faith in any modern versions of the books after I watched the highly unfortunate film version with Robert Downey Jr so I was reluctant to watch the BBC series. as a matter of fact, the first episode I watched was A Scandal in Belgravia, so the next couple of days I had to run the previous three episodes just to see what I had missed. clever written script doesn’t impress me that easily but the impeccable arrogance of Sherlock won me straight away. but as cool as I find it, I managed to catch a few (just a bit) irritating moments that made me point and shout and the computer screen. so, dear Mr Moffat and Mr Gatiss, if you happen to read this, please take notes for future episodes.
the Vermeer argument (The Great Game)
I’d go and say that Vermeer’s paintings are awesome. however, the whole conspiracy behind a supernova appearing on a painting before its time, it’s just… unconvincing? first, there is no fucking way anyone can convince me that Vermeer or any painter really would sit down and draw every single star on its exact point much like a star map. and even if you bring the argument about him using a camera obscura. at night? is this even possible? (no, but seriously, is it?) furthermore, as Sherlock himself said earlier the same episode, he is not interested in trivia, hence there is no way he could know the whole night sky by heart so he would recognise which yellow dot is the claimed supernova. yes, they were all yellow dots. I honestly expected something… well, noticeable.
so, no.
**improbable pictures (A Scandal in Belgravia)
there was a moment when Irene Adler receives on her phone several pictures of Sherlock and John. while they were in a moving taxi. on a bridge. considering the fact they didn’t notice anyone taking pictures of them (and I’m not even sure if there were any cars of that side of the taxi), I just wish to have a look at the lens they were using. impressive stuff.
trivia, trivia (The Hounds of Baskerville)
the first mentioning of the glowing in the dark rabbit and Sherlock dissing this to be a fairytale story created by a child’s imagination. come on, guys. the news about such experiments on animals, including mutating the genes to try and recreate the glowing effect, they’ve been around for some time now. surely at least someone must’ve read about it on the internet.
and yeah, I know this is me being a general pain in the arse who might be losing the big picture but if you’re making a story about a genius detective, at least try to smooth such details.
ps. gatiss, you’re good.
** this theory of mine got proven to be wrong in about 15 seconds. however, I’ll leave it as a part of the post because it fills up space. hey, it’s my blog after all!
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here’s a bit of a nonsense of a post for you. I thought, and correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like in Bulgaria currently there is a certain amount of people (too much) who really enjoy listening to a certain Bulgarian politician, who recently won the award for best football player of 2011. and since he’s a complete moron and won’t talking nonsense 24/7, I thought – why not? maybe this is the way to attract attention, gain new followers and make people like me. so, here I go…
first, I would like to thank God for the cool sunny weather we had in Glasgow today. I think the weather-people should go to church this Sunday and personally light a candle. weather miracles happen, you know? even in Glasgow.
second, today I got chased by a gang of crazy mother fucking ninjas down Crow Road. they were throwing bowls of spaghetti bolognese and melon ice cream at me while a group of German tourists were taking photos of the helicopters that fly over Partick. I managed to escape from the ninjas but when I had a look around, I realised I had no idea where I am but there was that sheep that was staring at me and making me feel really uncomfortable. I needed to find my back to Sainsbury’s before 4pm because I had to take the lift to my flat and let Tom Smith go before my flatmate was back. however, I totally forgot the subway was closed today because of the strike of the mice against the noise levels in the tunnels, so I had to take the bus to High Street and then transfer on the ferry service on the Clyde, stop at the new transport museum, and ask a flock of pigeons to carry me back to Rosevale Street.
and you know what? it nearly worked if it wasn’t for the desert storm that went straight through the pigeons so they dropped me on the street. luckily, I fell on top of the Rosevale tavern so just ran across the roofs until I reached my block. and you know what else? I actually made it.
fucking pigeons.
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not long ago I had a conversation with a friend about Jackass. she was pretty harsh on the series, which is fair enough cause they are idiots, and you basically need to switch off your brain completely when watching them (alternatively, watching them lowers your IQ with about 30%, as someone once said). however, she started arguing about the pointlessness of ever watching the show by mentioning the recent death of Ryan Dunn. in her own words, “one of the idiots that died in a car crash cause he was a complete moron and speeded, and he also killed one of his friend”.
I’ve heard that argument at least a dozen times now. ok, yeah, he was definitely a cunt for killing his friend, not that it was on purpose, but it was his fault nonetheless. also, connecting his death to his involvement in Jackass is the same as saying that playing violent video games makes you go on a killing spree. being an idiot doesn’t know occupation. there are hundreds of people dying on the road every day, and none of them has ever been involved with, watched or even just heard of Jackass. those are people of all ages, races, sexes, jobs; people who fell asleep behind the wheel and people who were late for work so didn’t notice the red lights.
and here’s the other thing. I personally don’t know what happened to Dunn after the cancellation of the show. I think he got married, he probably kept on doing stuff connected to skating, or maybe he didn’t. It doesn’t matter anymore. what matters is that the rest of the crew are safe and sound (to my knowledge). Knoxville and several others tried as actors (he kind of succeeded, but not really, though he actually starred in several films with potential); Steve-O and Chris Pontius went to make Wild Boyz, and explored the fucking world; Tremaine kept producing shows; Margera and the CKY crew went on doing whatever they did before Jackass, being full-time annoying dickhead neighbours of hell, etc. Spike Jonze is Spike fucking Jonze (and was also fucking Sofia Coppola in the mean time, this is however over now, also none of our concern).
my point is that you can’t blame the failure of one individual on the whole group. this is ignorant.
I just wish people could leave him fucking alone to rest in peace. he is not coming back to apologise, and of course what he did is beyond any apology. don’t get me wrong, I do not advocate for driving like an asshole and endangering other people’s lives. but what he did or didn’t do in his free time outside his engagements with Jackass, has nothing to do with the show or anyone of the crew.
PS. dear BBC, Michael Jackson’s doctor on front page of your website? who actually gives a shit about this story, really?
PS2. this post was created a couple of months ago when the verdict of MJ’s doctor was on front page. probably of some importance, I don’t care, really.
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as some of you already know (cause I wouldn’t stop fucking complaining about it), the second half of my 2011 was marked by the rather unpleasant experience of dealing with the Home Office.
now that this is done with and I have the yellow piece of paper with my image and information on it, I am ready to roll. meaning, I am ready to consult with an European lawyer (those who engage with cases of discrimination, political correctness and such in the European union) about the legality of the whole process of getting the work permit issued (call it the way you want it, it’s still a fucking work permit).
I was already asked by several people wasn’t I overreacting since obviously all Bulgarians and Romanians who want to work in the UK have gone through this process, and the short answer is ‘no’. the long answer is as following:
yes, of course all Bulgarians and Romanians have to get this yellow piece of shit certificate done but here’s the thing, this applies only for citizens of the said two countries. and would be perfectly fine since the governments of both signed the safeguard clauses before joining the EU that could be applied until 2013, including such over working freely in other EU countries. good.
now let me tell you some of the documents I was asked to send over the post to Sheffield. my original passport (or ID) and my original European health insurance card. basically, the two things I sort of might need at any given point. and to make things even better, I sent them away mid-August. do you know when I got them back? December 19th. At some point in November I gave them a call and they told me my case went in on September 27th. more than a month after I sent my documents. I was further told they could hold my documents for up to 6 months. six. fucking. months. they had mine for five, and I’m a student. does this make me more suspicious than the rest of the Bulgarians and Romanians who apply for such a certificate?
(wait, here’s more) by the time I went back to Bulgaria for the holidays I hadn’t had my documents back meaning I didn’t have my passport and had to fly with my ID instead. here’s my question to all British officials out there: let’s just presume I didn’t have a passport. I don’t actually need one to enter the UK. so, I send away my ID and become a prisoner of this country. literally. I wouldn’t be able to go anywhere abroad as I wouldn’t have the documents required to leave. this is in a direct violation of my right of free movement in the borders of the EU. and I wouldn’t be able to go back home which would’ve pissed me off a lot. and even I did have an ID, I wouldn’t be able to travel overseas.
and by the way, according to probably several European laws, holding anyone’s original passport by anyone is quite illegal anyway.
(just hold on) on the certificate itself it says it was issued on December 5th. so what the fuck were you doing with it for two weeks before you decided to send it back? and how exactly are those “many” Bulgarians and Romanians who apply for this certificate that it takes fucking ages to get issued?
so, to sum it all up, I will get a legal advice on this matter and decide what to do about it next, cause the past few months have been fucking ridiculous. sometimes I really am the worst person you could decide to piss off.
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as much as I would usually find such an event entertaining, family dinners in the house of Zhechevi of all sorts (mostly related to christmas, and thank god for that)could be quite tiring. not to mention pretty close to annoying.
but I suppose it’s something usual. I’ve heard way too many similar stories from families from all over the world to believe ours is something unique. nevertheless, the sheer thought of having to spend hours with some of those people on the same table, listening to their ridiculous, often racist and ignorant point of view to the world, it just makes me want to hide under the duvet till it’s time to go to Sofia for my flight, thank you very much.
thing is, travelling around the world doesn’t always mean you actually understand anything about how the world goes, neither that you learn to appreciate foreign cultures. what is even worse, I’ve personally heard my uncle saying how he doesn’t think any of the people who’s graduated abroad are as qualified as those graduated in Bulgaria. and he was referring to my mother’s Czech education (and how 30 years ago she studied things that have just become part of the Bulgarian educational system).
before some of you asks, yeah, he’s a supporter of our current prime minister. the guy who became Bulgarian footballer of the year. and the person who introduced GGP to politics. those GGP. you all know them, bitchez.
there are other issues as well. those family matters have spanned throughout decades and countries, as they usually do. but I just wished that just this year, for a change, my gran would’ve been spared the loud arguments and angry faces. she just doesn’t need that, as much as I don’t really give a shit about my uncle and his wife (as rude as this may sound), I do love my gran to bits and right now she needs us all to morally support her and cheer her up.
and don’t even get me started on the morality of things when you make both of your parents cry because of the fucking arsehole you have been to them. and you’re in your fucking 50s. you should be seriously stoned to death. by homosexuals. while listening to dubstep. (the gay part is another long story but quite easy to guess.)
PS. merry christmas, everybody! hope santa’s been good to you all, and you’ve received the gifts you wanted. I personally don’t want anything specific but I’m still quite curious to see what has my sister bought me. also, eager to see her reactions to my gift.
coming up next: resolutions and good intentions (but probably just in my head).
PS2. most of the people are not with the surname Zhechev. in fact, it’s just me and my sister who are known by it. but it’s in our flat, so I don’t care about formalities.
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I have to admit something. When I was younger, I used to like American Pie. The first film, the rest I found complete shite even then. Well, maybe except of the second one. But just because of the beach house. I’ve never been a vivid fan of the franchise, quite sure I haven’t become one years later, but I still laugh at the jokes every now and then. And this is because, for once, I get them.
Well, to be honest, I don’t remember much of the subtitles when I first watched the film, and of course, there is just that many of the sex jokes that a ten-year-old can get. I do remember though laughing at the embarrassment of being caught or nearly caught for doing something out of the ordinary. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out losing your virginity to a tray of pastry or coming into someone’s pint (and that pint later being drunk by said someone) easily falls into the category for “out of the ordinary”. (Well, probably not if you’re American high school senior.) Not to mention the coining of the term MILF.
These are the sex jokes I got.
Years on, and I got to watch the film again, this time with the privilege of speaking English fluently. And suddenly, there was a whole new layer or jokes I couldn’t have understood. Wordplays, mainly. Wordplays are a complete nightmare to translate into a foreign language, I know. This is what makes such films not quite so appealing to people who don’t get those jokes. (E.g., there is a scene in which one of the main characters receives oral by her boyfriend and in the climax she shouts, “I’m coming, I’m coming”, which coincides with her father just reaching for the door handle, ready to walk into her bedroom and invite her (and her boyfriend) to dinner. It’s actually a simple and clever way of using double meaning of words, yet nearly impossible to translate.)
The reason why I’m writing this post is actually something different.
In the past year we got to see several actually successful comebacks of once famous TV shows and films. American Pie, which I already mentioned, Futurama, and a personal favourite – Beavis and Butt-head (the Futurama revival is good, but lacks something that the original series had. I’m still yet to figure out what exactly, but it’s probably something to do with taking the series way too serious, something that clearly doesn’t exist in the Beavis and Butt-head-verse, which made me cry of laughter. Twice.)
However, those films and series are very specific in their target groups. I grew up with the images of those two animated dickheads, and of Daria; or of films like 10 Things I Hate About You and Friends. But I’m fairly sure kids now won’t see their appeal and probably won’t like them. Let’s face it; people who watched the original series are watching most of these revivals. I’m surely not saying that they should be stopped, merely thinking out loud of the weirdness of watching B&B just after Jersey Shore, Teen Moms, etc on MTV. They seem so out of place and time, and yet just perfectly fit into the new pop culture with their retarded commentaries on modern television.
(Fucking. Awesome.)
Yet, I can’t help the feeling that most of them will be box office flops. The new American Pie will be surely watched by people between 20 and 30, because those who watched it first in their thirties, probably thought it was shit, and the rest were just too young to remember it. These are not new characters, cause then this will surely not be watched by absolutely anyone, but the old ones will carry their in-jokes into the new film, and I’m just curious to see how the writers have managed with the issue with introducing the characters ten years later.
The series based on 10 Things I Hate About You faced nearly the same problem, and to be honest, although some of the changes in the story were delightful and most of the cast was entertainingly (and/or painfully) inexperienced, there are more than 10 things that I hate about it. And apparently this wasn’t only my notice, cause it got benched in the middle of the season. It’s somewhat interesting to see familiar faces, but now grown and (maybe) with new (interesting) stories to tell.
Or it will be a complete disaster.
I bet on the latter. And even if I ever decide to see it, I definitely won’t give my money for it. Curiosity could be easily dealt with by online streaming etc.
Inevitably I keep getting back on Beavis and Butt-head just because it seems like it’s the most successful attempt of them all. Knowing that Mike Judge seemed to have lost part of his appeal in the last couple of years, I was pleasantly surprised with the renewed never-ending idiocy of them both.
Futurama, which I will always hold in my heart as a very dear piece of television to me, was, as I said, unconvincing
Also, I’m really really REALLY glad that Jersey Shore is actually over, so I won’t get to hear of it ever again.
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#1
Logging out of Facebook is easy. I’ve done this for a week and more, when I’ve been pressured by time and meeting deadlines for projects. There’s not much fuss about Facebook anyway. I barely use it, and mostly to leave someone a long message, or to chat to people. And not to that many people anyway. I still use Skype, you know, it never lost its magic to me. As a matter of fact, I often think that if it weren’t for some events in 2010, I might have altogether stopped using it.
It is however useful sometimes, and I need to point this out
#2
A month and counting involuntarily left without Internet though could be a bit frustrating. Actually, it is. My course is one of the (not so few) courses nowadays that require Internet research pretty much all the time. The problem comes when I can always work from my studio but can never be concentrated enough to do so, or even when I do – I’ve never been quite the day person. I work by night, and this is how it always has been and forever shall be.
There is something else. I have too many friends abroad that I can’t afford or simply can’t contact by any other way but Internet. My mother calls me every now and then but those few minutes a week are nearly not enough. And what if I didn’t have a smartphone? I don’t even want to think about this. Communication with people over the weekends and at night would’ve been simply unthinkable. Internet is one of those things we all rely so much to and are so used to having a constant access to, that we are close to breaking down every time when we have to face the world by ourselves.
Don’t get me wrong; I fucking hate every minute when I don’t have a working broadband, I’m not going to sit here and preach you how addicted to Internet we all are and how terribly dangerous that is, cause it’s not. In Finland broadband is now officially a human right. That’s all.
And don’t get me with the whole “our parents managed to graduate without ever even touching a computer”, cause frankly this is even more shit. Clearly their courses were structured in a way that they could’ve and had to do their research in the library and actually going out there and doing things. Our courses are not, at least not mine. I can easily imagine how someone from P&P wouldn’t need to use a computer that often beyond some basic google library research. My briefs however usually quote at least two Internet sources. The fucking Vectorworks doesn’t work without Internet (don’t ask me how is this possible – I don’t know, and I know how fucking ridiculous that is); I can’t research textures, people, images; I can’t talk to anyone when I get stuck (as I am right now). It just doesn’t work.
#3
I have honestly never spent so much time in my studio before. I have spent days there, of course, I’ve been the last one left rendering, I’ve been the first one to go and work on my portfolio, and I’ve been even locked inside the Mac building. But this is something new. Too many weeks, and I started off by locating myself on a computer very close to the second-year-boxes hanging from the ceiling to being a regular in late-afternoon talks with the fourth-years. They’re cool, by the way. Not all of them, and not all of the time, but in general they’re cool. They just tend to listen to shit radio music but this is why I keep my iPod always handy. Having said that, sometimes they play unexpectedly good/ funny songs that make us all burst into singing simultaneously. Last time it was What is Love, and a couple of hours later Prince. Which was kinda awesome, actually.
Studio time can be fun if you’re not pressured by time and if you know that you can always continue working after 9 pm when you get kicked out by the janitors.*
And, of course, you get to talk to tutors more often than the rest of those who stay home
*Just a wee update, it’s till 11pm now, and that makes me a bit happy.
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Usually I’m just a bit reluctant to discuss Bulgarian films because fuck you.
No, actually there is a valuable reason.
Bulgarian films, and most notably new ones, are shit. With few exceptions, of course – A Letter to America (that’s much about it, I really can’t really think of any others). And the one I want to talk briefly about now: The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Everywhere (this being the original translation but honestly it sounds too literal even for my taste). For a period of one day I was trying to remember another Bulgarian road movie, and if we don’t count the aforementioned A Letter to America (though I’m open for debate on this), this is pretty much the first one.
It hasn’t quite reached the Wim Wenders levels yet, and my strongest suggestion is that it will never do, but it’s definitely worth spending an hour and a half of your time.
The acting of Miki Manolovich and Karlo Lubek is pretty amazing considering the fact that the one is Croatian, and the other – Serbian, but they both speak in Bulgarian throughout the better part of the film. Actually, for once I’m quite happy the directors never actually went for a Bulgarians-only casting; it just wouldn’t have worked. And to be honest – yeah, sure we have some pretty good new Bulgaria actors, but who exactly would’ve played the role of Alex?
So I thought.
The trouble with Bulgarian films is that they never get distributed properly, not even in Bulgaria. If the directors are lucky and pushy enough, they could get to some festivals, which of course is pretty cool, too, but why don’t sell the DVDs? (I got my copy of the film by buying a newspaper that I don’t particularly enjoy.)
While on the theme of Bulgarian films, I really need to find and watch Yesterday, haven’t seen it in years.
By the way, I watched the film back-to-back with Wenders’ first of his trilogy of road movies Alice in the Cities, and some people just know how to do films.
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