Insane at Two

Movie Appreciation

2006-08-07T12:43:00.000+02:00

Ok, I’ll admit it.
I love movies.
But who doesn’t?
Anyway, In the last week and a bit, I’ve seen 3 flicks. (I know I should be studying!!)

Pirates 2 – I really, really, really liked it! A Great Follow-up to the first movie.
The Lake House - A chick-flick. It was ok, but the girlfriend enjoyed it more….
Ultraviolet – I liked this. Entertaining and fun. No matter what the crits say.

I don’t understand it. Am I so gullible and naïve that I enjoy most movies that Hollywood and co throw at me?

Normally, I’m a very sceptical person that analyse something and looks for the faults therein. (Hey, It’s my job – I have to do it – I get paid for it!). But when it comes to movies, I’m a much more accepting and forgiving person.

Take Ultraviolet for instance:
The story is nothing new.
The acting isn’t fantastic (Although I’ve always digged Milla!)
A lot of the stuff was clearly and obviously CGI.
It gets bad reviews left right and centre.
And about 80% of the people I know, will hate it.

But I enjoyed it. Why?
I could see that the creators of the film didn’t take themselves too seriously.
I believe they did the best they could do - and didn’t slack off or anything, but the way they did certain things just illustrated : “Hey this is a kick-ass entertaining movie. Don’t over-analyse. Don’t look for the purpose of life. Just sit back and enjoy!”

I just think I look at things different than most people.

I believe the rating system is stupid. Scoring all movies on the same scale of 1-5 stars just doesn’t make sense. There are SOOO many factors that contribute to someone enjoying a movie or not.

A great story.
Fantastic characters.
Entertainment factor.
Exciting way of telling the story – production
Your own state of mind and personal history.
Hype around the movie beforehand.

And even “Who you watch it with” – sometime you’ll enjoy a movie more watching it with person than another. I’m sure you all can think of even more things contributing to your enjoyment of a film.

Bottom line: 2 things.

1) If I say a movie is good – don’t take my word for it.
I say that for about 70% of movies I see.

2) Don’t just dismiss a movie as a bad flick, because the story sucked or the actors were bad. Yes sometimes these elements are so overpoweringly bad, that the entire movie suffers – but sometimes you fixate so much on the bad story, that you miss out on the fun the directors and actors are trying to have with you....

Sorry...

2006-08-03T10:28:00.000+02:00

I got scolded last night for not blogging enough.... Sorry Lexi!
It's not that I don't wanto blog, its 2 things:

1) I only have internet at work.... so I have to do it here.
And I've been away on study leave and when I'm here I'm really busy...blah blah blah (excuses).

2) My life is really boring at the moment.
If I were to tell what I did at work for 8 hours - it would bore you (besides it being secret!).
If I told you that after that I went home and studied for a while - it would bore you.
If I told what I studied - you'd be so bored, you'd gnaw at wrists just enough to slowly bleed to death - just to get some excitement.

So I won't! (Tell you about it I mean)

So for my return - The Dewey Color System says about me:

You're a Pioneer You think about why people do what they do. By understanding the motivation of others, you seek to create a better world. Changing the world around you through personal achievements is your everyday challenge.

The passionate you generates creative ideas. You are an imaginative dreamer. Your preoccupation with the future gives you the mental discipline to stay on track and direct others to do the same.

Hmm - I don't know if I agree.
Can they really say all this because I just REALLY like the color blue?

Iterating Irritations

2006-07-04T17:30:00.000+02:00

Ok, We all hate certain things…
Cruelty to animals, Child-Abuse, Terrorism, George Bush…
I’m not talking about that. I’m talking things that bug me personally so much, it makes me want to scream and curse and throw all me toys out of the cot:

1) Stupid and Extremely bad adverts on TV/Radio.
You know what ads I’m thinking about…
The ads that make you change the Radio-station or TV-channel.
The ads you can’t believe that someone thought up and went :
”Geez! This will be a GREAT idea for an ad!”

The ads you can’t believe that someone else heard of the idea and thought :
“Geez! That’s a great idea for an ad! Let me pay you lots and lots of
money for coming up with the idea and lots and lots of more money to
actually make the ad!”

I’m talking Harpic Toilet Cleaner here!

2) Stupid and extremely bad drivers on the road
Ok, I confess – I’m not the world’s best driver. Hell, I’m probably not even in
the top 50%. But some people….
And forget drivers talking on the cellphone, while eating a Quarter-Pounder-With-Cheese,
while driving on the N1 at 135 k’s an hour. (I saw this for real – I kid you not!)

I’m talking about those people that just don’t think about what their doing.
Sure, everyone knows you’re about to change lanes or turn left;
these indicator thingies are for decorative purposes only.
And lets slow traffic down to 40 k’s an hour just so I can look at the accident
at the side of the road.

3) People that complain about Stupid things
And I include myself here – what does help to complain about it, or complaining about anything actually. You don’t achieve much…

Actually, as I near the end of this ranting post… I feel a lot better. Like a metaphorical weight has been lifted of my metaphorical shoulders, metaphorically speaking off course. Sometimes it’s good to vent.

Whoosa….

The Return...

2006-07-03T16:33:00.000+02:00

Hi y’all! (silence)
I’m back! (some more silence)
Did ya miss me? (deafening silence)

Anyway, I took a week’s leave.
Didn’t go anywhere special – I just took a few days break from work and stayed at home, and made myself feel young again. (Sleep late, Lots of movies, Games…)

But now it’s back to the real world again….

On Friday, I went to see Mama Mia in the Artscape (That’s the old Nico Malan Theatre in Cape Town for those of you who are Cape-Townian-Cultural disinclined).
The reason being – It’s my birthday gift too my mom, who is a HUGE and very big ABBA fan.

Now, If anyone out there is a ABBA fan – You absolutely must go and watch this.
I am not a ABBA fan. I don’t have a problem with (most of) their music – but I’d rather listen to something else. And I really enjoyed it.

The story is fun (and funny) and the cast is quite spectacular. The story was entertaining – and if I didn’t know for a fact that the story was written around the songs, and not that the songs were written for the story – I wouldn’t have believed you.

Ok, It’s not Phantom of the Opera, but you really can’t compare them.
That would be like comparing “Pirates of the Caribbean” with “The Shawshank redemption”.

So even if you’re not an ABBA fan – go and watch this if you want to see a very entertaining show – performed by some of the best English/Irish stage actors around.

Silly humans...

2006-06-12T13:41:00.000+02:00

So I finally watched The DaVinci Code yesterday. I still intend to read the book at some point in the future, though. And it wasn’t that bad!

Obviously I’ve experienced all the whoopla and hype surrounding the book and movie, and have made up my mind ages ago concerning its credibility. So I went in expecting to see a nice entertaining solve-the-mystery-movie.

And it was quite enjoyable. No more than other movies, like National Treasure or Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Are people really so silly that they believe the story to be 100% factually correct?
(Come on people, history is never THAT exciting….)

Maybe it was because the author of the book (Dan Brown) claimed that everything was based on fact, and someone somewhere believed him? (Super-silly people…)

I would just like to say: Great marketing ploy!
I mean, do you really think he would have sold so many copies of the book, if he didn’t say everything was true?

Yeah! Yeah! It's Friday!

2006-06-09T16:06:00.000+02:00

And what a busy week it was.... but I'm not gonna talk about work.

Last weekend, I went to a farewell party of a very good friend of mine that I went to school with. She and her boyfriend are going to England for 2 years. So it was sad to see them go...
And I realised... If I like count the number of really good friends I have, almost half of them are in the UK!
This is concerning on the one hand - Do I have the kind of personality that forces all that are close and dear to me to flee the country and find refuge in old, cold, smoggy England?

(Chrisna doesn't count - she can't escape me - even if she wanted too ;) )

On the other hand Darren, If I go to England any time soon in the next year or two- I'll have lots of people to freeload off!

Monday: Went to the Independant Armchair in Observatory.
(Monday nights, R30 for pizza and a old movie - Sweet!)
Don't quite know what I expected, but I was a bit disappointed.

The movie was Groundhogday - Bill Murray, Andie McDowall - a movie we both REALLY like a lot, and haven't seen in a while. But the venue was... strange.
Taking into account that it's usually a club during every other day of the week - I guess I shouldn't have expected a lot of comfy chairs and clean restrooms....
It was kinda like the bad parts of Bohemia and De lapa combined....
(At least the movie and pizza were good - and the bar cheap!)

If anyone hasn't seen groundhogday... find it and watch it.
If you have... find it and watch it again.
(That will be your homework assignment for next week class)

I wish I could take a Film Study class - but only I decide what Films to study........

If you could live forever, would you and why?

2006-06-01T10:34:00.000+02:00

Answer: "I would not live forever, because we should not live
forever, because if we were supposed to live forever, then we would live
forever, but we cannot live forever, which is why I would not live forever."
--Miss America, 1995.

No, I would not like to live forever.
The fear of death or time passing you by,
is what makes life exciting.

You'll get bored!

What would you do with yourself? Learn how to play all the instruments in the world?
Read all the books ever written, twice (all the good ones anyway).
The reason you do things now, is because you're not going to have enough time to do them tommorrow along with all the things you have to do tommorrow.

You'll get lonely!

Wouldn't you want to share forever with someone? Or do want to see all your partners die?
(I'm stealing from the Highlander movies here...)

Queen said it best:

Who wants to live forever,
Who dares to love forever,
Who dare who dare,
Who wants to live forever,
When love must die

I am unfit

2006-06-01T10:06:00.000+02:00

So I played a lot of touch rugby recently...
(For those of you who don't know me, this is where you start laughing)
(For those of you who know me, stop laughing!)

Last week, we had this whole diversity-day interdepartmental touch rugby game,
where both teams had to consist of 5 men and 5 women.

Obviously we had to train for the prior 2 weeks,
seeing as most of us were really inexperienced in the finer nuances of touch rugby.
But it was fun [We won, so that was fun :) ],
but the ladies enjoyed it so much, they want to to do it on a weekly basis now.
I'm just not sure if my fragile unfit body can handle that.

And then yesterday afternoon-evening, was the annual Touch Rugby Tournament.
5 in each side... 5 minutes a side. It was fast, it was furious, we won, but I'm SOOO stiff today...

Introduction...

2006-05-30T15:33:00.000+02:00

I was looking for a way to introduce myself, so I stole this from j's blog.
(Hey, I can't start a blog and be original in the same week you know - Balance...)

What is your Full name:
Tiaan George Towsen

What are you most afraid of?
Anyone trying to insert a sharp pointy thing into me. This includes Needles, Syringes, IV drips... Seriusly, rather give it to me, I’ll do it myself! Or knock me unconscious!

Favorite New food?
Roast Beef and Cheese Submarine Sandwiches!

Ever been to Alaska:
Not to my knowledge.

Ever been rolling:
Down a grassy hill, yes!

Loved someone so much it made you cry?
Yes. Still do.

Been in a car accident:
I was like 2 years old, my foot slipped, and I freed the handbrake. The car moved like 5 metres… into a low wall. Does that count?

Favorite day of the week:
Friday. Except when Friday is a holiday, then Thursday.

Favorite Restaurant :
The Chinese place in Tygervalley – their set-lunches are fantastic!

Favorite sport to watch:
Formula 1 Grand Prix racing, Cricket

Favorite Drink:
Brandy and Coke – How very Stellenbosch of me.

How many times you failed your driver's test?
Wrote 4 times, failed twice.

Favorite fast food restaurant:
McDonalds. I just love me them Horse burgers. Seriously – Chicken Nuggets!

Favorite TV - best programme?:
Stargate SG-1 (and Alias)

What are your favorite colours?
Black and blue.

How many pets do you have?
1. His name is Wollie. Neither I, nor he knows exactly what breed he is.

Which came first the chicken or the egg?
The dinosaur egg!

What would you like to accomplish before you die?
Write a best-selling novel leading to blockbuster movie starring Natalie Portman and Kevin Spacy; then refuse to write a sequel!

I'll leave you with something to think about until next time....
If you could live forever, would you and why?

I guess I'm blogging....

2006-05-29T16:17:00.000+02:00

I have finally submitted. I have a blog.
I am so weak.

I guess I just started one, because I'm never gonna get paid to write anything...
So I might as well just write.

Why not keep a diary?
I'm saving ink and Amazonian rainforests - thus making sure you breath easier.
(See, you should be thanking me)

Why a blog?
Why not?

Do I care that people are reading my innermost thoughts,
that I choose to put on paper... eh, screen?
Probably, but if nobody reads it - at least it's there!

I promise to start writing substance soon..
First I got to check out what features there are on this here blogsite...