Stranger than fiction...

So you dislike Will Ferrel? or.....You love him... think he´s funny..... dumb... or just boring? Well forget all that then, cause this is defienently not the same guy, or atleast thats what this fantastic movie made me realize. Dont judge a book by its cover..... A classic quote to go along the possible fact that this movie , might as well.... could have been... very much ignored for more than one reason. First one being: It looks like a dumb comedy on the poster. Two: It stars Will Ferrel, whos mostly known for ha ha comedies.... or well... only known for that kind of comedy. Three: Queen Latifa is in it, and alot of people (i think) swear to avoid her acting, or atleast her pressence which always brings to mind the tragic ghost of horrible "non-white" 90´s sitcoms like "living single", "Fresh prince of bel air" and more. Well, well, well.... nevermind all those horrific attributes. Cause this movie is absolutely wonderful, and it is a must see if you love quirky drama flicks with a romantic twist. If i had a scale to judge movies on, and the scales went up to 100 seagulls, this movie would get a solid 87 of them. Big thumbs up, you could say. (and Will Ferrel..... is just mindblowingly great.... unbelieveable, but true).



Yes.... watch it!

How big is it?

Well.... i must admit i keep on getting impressed by Korean company Cowon (Iaudio). Not only did they a year ago convince me to buy their A2 portable media player, which is the best electronic device i have ever owned.... But they leave me hanging on tight, giving me hope, that in the future this company will keep pleasing the curious crowds. Well, let me just tell you abit about my experiences with my A2. It keeps battery life, like a weasel holds its bite on predators... Ive transferred loads of unconverted/original sized movies on it, and it has never complained... ive slept with it, dropped it, recorded live music with... run visuals (videoprojections) from it, at liveshows/meeting etc.... yes.... and iver seriously never seen it skip during a movie... can you believe that... (I even use it 1,5 hour a day atleast)... Once again. I mean it when i say that it is the best electronic device ive ever owned. period.

Thats why im very excited about the touchscreen enabled Cowon q5 theyre putting out this upcoming fall. Heres some spec details: 5inch radiant screen (1 inch bigger than A2), video in 800x480, wifi, bluetooth, 40/60gb Harddrive, Fm radio, divx/xvid support (again) well.... even Gps capable. Thats alot of stuff, packed into 13.8cm (width), 8.8cm (height), 2cm (depth), neatly designed fullgrown mediaplayer. Seriously look at it, and think about those specs. Its wonderful, cant wait to see it in the wild




So its kinda big.... but small... but big... if you know what i mean. ;)
PS: By the way see it action here (Cnet) : reviews.cnet.com

Some quiet graphics...

Nothing fancy today, updated a more refreshing the top grahpics for my blog. Dunno if you noticed... nothing much really, just put some circles and colors in there. Also i was bored the other day so started doing some cute things. A very minimalistic crying Jellyfish (not tears from a broken heart, but from biking against the wind.).... and also a whispering black cloud (whispering: Here it comes).

Jellyfish (named Cliff):


Cloud (named Toby):

Street knitting

Swedish Pressbyrån (a national kiosk franchise) ran some tv ads, some months ago that were really great, both musically... and idea wise, very intrigueing, in regards of the "concept" and/or focus. One of the tv ads was about Houston (Texas, Usa) group Knittaplease, a group of very... very cool girls, who took their colorful knitting to the streets, graffiti style. Insanely inspiring, refreshing and brilliant i must say (i was blown away)... and for you who have never seen the Pressbyrån tv ad, or even heard of Knittaplease, here it is, along some follow up stuff about them. Check them out, theyre fantastic.

The Pressbyrån Tv-ad:


Some more youtubed Knittaplease stuff:

Check out them out at www.knittaplease.com , and become friends with them at www.myspace.com/knittaplease

Again... More...

Yeah, once again its been a while since ive blogged my stuff around in here. Anyhow, i should really get my act together. In the meantime, heres yet another quite wonderful ad for nothing less than a nordic (swedish and norwegian atleast) creditcard company. The music and the storyline, are both really amazing. Great job.

Lovely Nissan commercial...

When i saw this on tv, i was absolutely blown away..... a fantastic commercial, both visually and audio wise. What can i say... I dont really give a **** about cars, but this commercial. Wauv...

What Iphone?

The apple Iphone.

Ok, here i go... What happens when you take one of the biggest and fastest growing (semi intelligent) companies in the world, with a fantastic patented clickwheel which enabled their socalled Ipod to conquer the world..... and you have them remove and forget their fantastic patented clickwheel, let them take a "couple" of years for thinking, and let them "reinvent/re-promote" the phone? Well... good question. Basically you get - Nothing. But... you also get a chinese company called Meizu and their meizu M8. An asian company with a vision and a phone that is, more Iphone (and revolutionairy) than the actual Apple Iphone itself. Hmmmm.... sounds crazy, right? Well basically what Meizu have done with their concepts around the M8 phone was to say... Why not approach (ok ok, borrow/adapt/adopt) what apple claims is so great and new. Clone it! and improve the hell out of it, all... for an even cheaper price. Scary, but none the less plausible. The Meizu M8 delivers 3g capabilities and a front view camera (which the Apple phone does not) which automatically makes it appeal to more customers, a 1mp upgrade on the backside camera compared to the Iphone, twice the resolution on the screen, almost (720x480 pixels), and if that wasnt enough, they even adopted the "white" that apple threw away or prioritized away in the process. Last but not least Meizu reduced the size of their phone a tiny bit.......... Numb yet?

Meizu m8


Ok. Let me just state, i do acknowledge to some extent that Meizu indeed are ripping apple more than a bit (on the material use). But seriously, can apple really expect to present a revolution thats not even a revolution (technologically that is). They threw away their prime values : the clickwheel from the Ipod, and they skipped their signature white. So what do they have left? Squares with round corners? Sorry Mr. jobs, you cant really patent that (yet). So... im intrigued to see the result of all this during a couple of months. A thing to remember in the meanwhile: Consumer products is all about capitalism, and capitalism is all about making money... so did anyone really expect a fair game here?

Meizu M8

To be honest, i really do think that the Meizu M8 is the "real" complete package, the whole hand, the extra milage, or whatever you could say. Facts are: Apple slept on the job (or atleast doze off), and abandoned their typical domain... They didnt create the revolution they promized.... and suddenly there was china.

Waiter! (apple).... I ordered fries with that!

One of those movies

In 2000 (or around that time) i saw Doug liman´s film GO, and loved it. A couple of days ago i saw yet another film entitled "GO" (2002), a japanese film directed by unknown (to me) director Isao Yukisada. I bought the film at sale for something like 3 euros, and it was part of a batch of films i bought solely on the fact i knew i had missed some movies over the years, and these movies i was gonna purchase were some movies i probably wouldnt give a chance when stressing around the videostore. Anyhow, to the film.


Not in a long time, have i been so pleasantly surprised, and convinced that theres more than a truckload of golden moments forgotten out there. GO has totally regained my faith not only in asian movies (that arent horror or anime), but movies in general. A wonderful film, that leaves no genre or style untouched. GO is foremost, as stated several times in the opening scenes of the movie (wink wink): A love story. Though a love story, thru violence, happiness, racial disputes, onto action, drama, comedy, noir and poetry.... hmmm.... its actually quite hard to describe. Let me just point out that this film doesnt leave any emotional or visual nooks undiscovered.

A love story... seen from the perspective of a troubled but quite conscious korean boy, born and raised in a straight thinking "robotic" japan, not only by the means of a strict korean school (in japan) but also thru the violent family ties upon his disciplinary father - an ex-boxing champion constantly trying to physically motivate him to live his life the right way. From here on, tragedy, weirdness and love consistantly weaves a breathtaking 2 hour experience around a sequence of golden moments.



I was entrigued by the title of the film, so i tried google´ing the meaning of the word GO. A japanese wiki page on a boardgame called the same as the film, suggested that the word Go meant something like "game of surrounding" or "enclosing game". Thru another search i discovered that Go-con (japanese slang supposebly) means something like "Hanging out" (in a specific area). Interesting, and quite possibly a very wisely intended chosen title for the film.



Last words.... See this film!!!!

Great video.....

Just thought i could do a quick post here..... Anyhow just wanted to show you, what is probably one of the best music videos ive ever seen. I have been in love with that video ever since the day it came out. The music and the video itself goes together so great, and the end of the video is so damn beautiful..... tricky, pretty and dead on.

Yourcodenamesis:milo (uk) - Rapt. Dept.

Heroes?

Started watching the show Heroes today, and i must say.... already by the first episode, im pretty impressed....... And in order just to keep blogging (and getting back to the show) i just wanna say: !Hmmmmmm..... This is actually so good, it might end up getting cancelled!" (more about what i meant with that later). Ohhhh and one last thing..... dont you just hate (sorry, "Dislike") people that chew with their mouths open. Oh my god.... i freakin´ hate the noises people can bring on within their heads, rampaging thru their daily meals like semi paralyzed zombie idiots imitating washingmachines without even knowing it. Its mindblowing! Now.. close that damn mouth! You hear!? (its the 21st century dammit... and no! it doesnt taste better just because you have your mouth open). He....

Anyhow, wanna beat the noises? Watch some tv-shows. Check out Heroes: Here. (and for you europeans..... since its not out here yet, torrents is the way to go. Youre gonna end up buying the dvd anyway when it comes out). Peace out.

Gravel.......

Since last year sometime, dear old Commodore have been working on something quite exciting.... Called the Commodore Gravel. A portable media player and wifi enabled "remote"/handheld advanced mediacenter if you must. Not just for the new home, but also for the media craving loonies on the go. The design aspect is great, the technological bar set high...... So look out microsoft, look out iriver and others out there..... this could be a somehow sweeter thing than previously expected, and h*** its freakin´ Commodore.

But..... You know.... they havent been too generous with info on how far they really are......... untill..... guess what? Just a couple of days ago this exciting new video popped up on youtube posted by the commodore bloggers. Hmmm... Check it out!



Keep an eye on the Commodore world blog

The sansa view...

Sandisk, whom had great succes in 2006 with their wonderful Sansa e series dap (digital audio player), launched their new flash memory based video player - sansa view, at Ces last week..... And i must admit.... i really love it... and the fact that its an actual design object, flash based even...... Anyhow for you guys out there who hasnt seen it yet, heres some a previews of it!:


basically its an 8gb device updateable with 4gb cards (perhaps even 8gb cards very soon). So i guess you could assume that Sandisk definently will be in your "grill" in the future (if you understand how great, pretty and cheap their neat stuff is). 299$ for a device like the sansa view, is pretty favourable...... dont you think?..... Anyhow.....im looking forward to seing more from the sandisk dudes. Most definently.

Yup!....... Buy one, right: Here

Cowon Iaudio! whats up?

Like any other semi "tech" geek ive been sitting in front of my comp following CES (Consumer electronics show) in Las vegas last week. Cowon, my favourite company when it comes to media players, showed some really nice stuff, so i am excited to see more from them. Anyhow.... i searched around alot of websites to find pics and news about various CES related things (especially Cowon), when i suddenly stumbled upon this strange Cowon device, which i assume is a mockup (fake) made/posted by a fan. Anyhow i really loved it, since it would be cool to see Cowon aim for the smaller designs aswell. They do have a new touchscreen player out called D2m though they lacked to reveal a real succesor to the popular Iaudio A2. So maybe this new mystical "fake", could inspire them to do a A2 mini. Anyhow heres the stuff:


More pics: here (David_in_asia2006 at Flickr). Interesting.

Children of... Sunshine...

Being a huge "post-apocalyptic" soul myself (???), it rocks my world to see the brits (thru mexican/aussie director Alfonso Cuarón) at it again when it comes to the post-apocalypse. For some reason they seem to have the apocalypse nailed down, to a somewhat way more believeable and not ridicolous level, when they do their films. What is it that makes them just a little bit better at these films..... Why is Terry Gilliams Brazil and 12 monkeys, 2 of the best and most original sci-fi/p.a (post-apocalypse) films out there. What is it exactly that grows from the soil, or flows in the water in the UK that enables them to come up with such outrageous ideas and different storylines. What is it that makes it possible for Danny Boyle to pick up the Zombie genre in 2002 (a somewhat embarrassing and dangerous turf to muster) with his 28 days later, and actually doing, what he did so good. A original piece of film with a delicate "non-zombie but still zombie" twist...... Im having trouble figuring that out. Well i must admit, there is far between the real masterpieces, so hopefully Children of men will make it, and claim its rightfull territory. I definently advise people to go see it, whenever it might arrive to its respectable areas.

Stills from Children of men



Later this year (soon i hope) we will also witness the without a doubt far most ambitious work of Danny boyle, thru his socalled "Sunshine". Just like Children of men, a definite p.a theme is haunting the depths of this project, and just like 28 days later, with a far more experimental touch of advanced science and human hopelessness . I cannot wait to see this film....... And would dare bet my right arm, it will shake the very foundation of mainstream pre-determination.

stills from Sunshine by Danny Boyle:

Danny Boyle at the set.

Looks to be a great year for people with dark eyes on our socalled fantastic future. Check out the respectible sites of each movie: children of men and Sunshine. There.... and there........ok.

Nice new Iriver s10...

Wauv im posting something...... Ehhh anyhoo. Im a huge fan of french designer philippe starck, and i used to be the proud owner of one his beautiful minimalist wristwatches (unfortunantly it got nicked). Anyhow..... It pleases my sad soul to see Korean company Iriver present yet another fantastic design item of theirs. This time presenting an updated version of their s10 player, available sometime soon. A wearable "dock"....bluetooth enabled (for headphones). Wauv, indeed.... nice.

The first s10 model.


The new one (and new accessory)


A phillippe Starck watch (thought you might wanna see that too)

I dont think its a ripp off. But its definently the kind of minimalism i would wanna throw my consumptive spirit straight into. Iriver does it again..... fantastic little thing.

Where do you wanna go today?

Time to get this blog running again, been sick for a while, havent had the chance to go online that much. Anyhow, good news.....

The market within portable music and media players keep exploding, evolving and luckely growing for the better. Doesnt really come as a surprise, but new times are ahead.

First of all Apple held their Showtime event last month and presented the new ipod nano, some updated ipod videos, some tv related stuff etc. Whats really interesting about that, is..... In my personal opinion? For the first time ever Apple have missed their window.... their new nanos are hidious minitaure clones of their previous mediocre semi scandal: the apple mini. The new nanos arent that fantastic (in my opinion), least of all pretty. Their Ipod video updates dont do much more either (not that they have to), the most exicting thing beeing gapless playback that lets you slide from one track right into the next without any annoying pauses..... pretty nice.... anyhow.... i guess it must be logical to assume that all the apple people are working hard on their Iphone and the "real" ipod video, so they dont have that much time impressing us too much just yet. Well to summ it all up: As in independence day (the movie, will smit etc.): these are the seconds in the movie where the shields are out on the motherships, and it is time for competitors/enemies to strike and move on in.

So who can really go in and turn the tables? Well...... within the next few blog posts im gonna show you some stuff that can create some stirr, and hopefully put some sort of damper on the current horrifying ipod regime.

The obvious suggestion, challenger no.1........ the player that quite possibly could ruin/begin it all.... the player that everyone is talking about..... The Microsoft Zune:






What really gives the Zune the extra edge is that it comes with wifi that enables you wirelessly share songs between users, and connects you to the zune market place. It has a huge blazing sharp screen...... and it looks freaking hot. Especially in brown. It comes in 30 and 60gb to begin with, and opening prices are suggested to be between 200-250$, probably closer to 200 than 250$. So if microsoft can pull of the same quality stunt as with the xbox..... well then you know whats gonna happen, right? The zune is set to launch november 14th.

Heres some neat video aswell:
A commercial teaser, with some nice emotional music:


The zune while networking:

Hard Candy, anyone?

As proven before thru the beautiful works of directors such as Todd Solondz (Happines, Palindromes amongst others), Miranda July (You and me and everyone we know) and even Darren aronofosky (Requiem for a dream), writers and directors today arent affraid of leaning towards the more sensitive and worst case scenario - the tabooish.


The new realism genre (if thats what it even is) within movies today are becoming a somewhat exciting "new" territory to explore, and luckely for everyone watching, reality, no matter how brutal it may be, always brings a bit more edge to the screen, and Hard candy is no exception.

I definently recommend basically anyone to atleast watch (and become intrigued by) these first8,5 minutes of the movie or..... "best case scenario", track this movie down and check it out... you will not regret it. Fans os movies like Se7en, Happines, Saw, and even Requiem for a dream, will love this dark and almost documentary-like quite rough very head on movie. It certainly wont deliver the plot you expect it to..... thats for sure. Obs: (sensitive people, should probably watch it with a nice partner).

PS: i will post a detailed review (incl. spoilers and everything) of the movie later on this month. Enjoy.

Lady in the water

M. night shyamalan, writer/director of beautiful "blockbusters" Sixth sense, unbreakable, signs and the village, recently premiered with his latest: Lady in the water. The movie (or bedtime story as shyamalan states) opened july 21st in the U.S grossing 18 million $ on the first weekend (struggling to achive 50), creating quite a numb stir with horrible and at times insulting reviews. Once again Bryce dallas Howard (daughter of director Ron Howard) is in the lead as seen previous in shyamalans: The village. the movie opens in most of Europe the end of august and thru september.

Heres a trailer:

The science of sleep and videos...

One of the worlds most finest and innovative musicvideo directors: Michel Gondry, Have since the very beginning of his career, been an utter fantastically different experience within what we perceive as mearly filmmaking. Michel Gondry, is not just a ground breaking musicvideo/filmdirector but an extraordinary dreamer fighting to deliver what we dare to feel and fail to think up. La Science des rêves (The Science Of Sleep) is his 3rd cinematic film as a director. (Charlie kaufman´s "Human nature" and "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind" being his first and second).


The Sciene Of Sleep, is Michel Gondry´s first cinematic film, where he is responsible for both the writing and the directing. Those of us who know the work of Michel Gondry, instantly recognize his unique style and sense of more visual expressions. Are you not familiar with Michel Gondry? Here´s a bunch of typical "Gondryesque" youtubed musicvideos, topped of with my favourite scene in "Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind", and finally the trailer for "The Science Of Sleep". Enjoy!

Bjork - Hyperballad (by M.Gondry)


Michael Andrews/Gary jules - Mad World (by M.Gondry)


Chemical Brothers - Star guitar (by M.Gondry)


Radiohead - Knives out (by M.Gondry)


Massive Attack - Protection (by M.Gondry)


Kylie minoque - Come into my world (by M.Gondry)


The White Stripes - Hardest button to button (by M.Gondry)




My absolute favourite scene in "Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind". (notice the books around them as they walk around.... So beautiful, breathtaking and typical Michel Gondry. The wonderful music of Jon Brion, makes this scene unforgettable.)



The Science Of Sleep - Official Trailer.

"The Science Of Sleep" Premieres pretty much in every good cinema everywhere in September/October. Everybody deserves a little Michel Gondry in their life..... Dont you agree?

New hope for movies on the go!

Yep, your movies on the go....along your life online...... After carefully observing the development within digital devices that supposebly should encourage you more to bring your video (and more) files with you, better things are finally comin around the mountain. This is the new Sony MYLO.

A full scale mediaplayer that pulls of an amazing 30 frames pr. second video on a 2,4 inch qvga screen, an online messenging device working via wifi using either googletalk, yahoo messenger or skype..... In one...... no phone.... just pure media and networking. A sleek and wonderfully designed travel partner perfect for internet addicts and moviefreaks.

So are you into cool trendy gadgets, but far less game or jevelery orientated. Then the Sony MYLO is a perfect partner for you who simple got tired of incapable devices such as the nice but oversized "teenage" flavoured PSP, the "the cute japanese, hackable DS LITE" or either troublesome devices such as the Ipod video (which noone uses for video anyway) and creatives zen vision:m.................... Yes..... No...... MYLO could be your friend any day now, And yeah i could see myself summing up Lost or Alias on this sucker, absolutely. The rumour is that the lovely MYLO will enter the market with a price between 300-350 us-dollars/ 240/280 euros.