120 Days

I found out about 12o Days while randomly surfing around for some new indie music. To me they sound very much like a modern mixture of Placebo and Joy Division and are there a must for my shopping list.

The Norwegian band consists of four people (whose names I cannot pronounce properly):

• Jonas Dahl,
  
• Arne Kvalvik,
  
• Kjetil Ovesen, and
  
• Ådne Meisfjord .

The band was formed in 2001 under name "The Beautiful People" - apparently they felt the name was a bit too ambitious so they changed it to 120 Days :). After two EP's they signed up to new record company - Norwegian independent label Smalltown Supersound.

The band is now working on the new material which will be followed by a tour - hopefully somewhere close :hint hint:

120 Days : Get away (nevermind the lame slide show)


120 Days: So this is suicide


120 Days: C-Musik

Liffe

Once again the international film festival Liffe was taking place but this year I was somewhat less impressed with the program than usually. Anyway, I made my selection of movies due to my usual criteria:

• the plot: if it sounds boring then what's the use?
• the nationality: yes i do discriminate in favor of Northern European, Czech and Asian movies and will probably see them even if the plot seems a bit too plain.
  
• the genre: strongly prefer dramas, extravagant movies, science fiction and dark comedies (the darker, the better).
  

Achilles to kame: Interesting and humorous story yet a bit too long for slightly disappointing ending. The text interventions in between different parts of the movie were completely redundant, breaking one of the main rules (text shouldn't repeat what is already said by the picture). Yet the crazy plot and interesting happening still deserves a 7.5.

Boy A - A stunning drama, unbelievably strong and touching story that got me from the very first minute (I cried like a baby). Excellent screenplay supported by skillful directing and outstanding acting of Andrew Garfield uncovers unforgiving side of the society. An absolute 10 and will definitely go to see it again.

Valu: Fresh comedy presenting chase of the supposedly dangerous wild bull in a small Indian village. It was nice to see a non-Bollywood movie with a specific kind of humor that doesn't always travel. Great refreshement that definitely deserves an 8.5.

Deti noci: I didn't like the script and even the good directing couldn't take away the bad taste of insufficient development of the main character. Of course the three "small breaks" we had to have due to the projector breakdown did kinda ruin the feeling but not as much as some girls discussing what might happen next. Could have easily lived without knowing that. I'd give it a 6.

Aruitemo aruitemo: An interesting drama about family ties and it's buried secrets, spiced up with that little touch of Japan. I loved the dialogues and subtle unspoken hints for the audience to wonder about. Solid movie that deserves a 9.

Kunsten å tenke negativt: Absolutely brilliant dark comedy served exactly the way I like them. That northern European humor surely has a very specific appeal and a way to tell the story. Bizarre, funny, entertaining. A definite 10 and a note to myself to get it on DVD.

Liffe is ending today and I'm already looking forward to see the movies I skipped during the festival. Overall impression - quite good =)

Wanted @ Ihanstok

Yes, I'm with the band again and today we are peforming on the Ihanstok festival (a kind of slovenian version of Woodstock, only much smaller and shorter).

So if you have nothing to do today and you're up for some pop, rock, progressive and dark rock, Ihanstok is definitely a place to go.

We will be the first to peform at 20:00, following by some other Slovenian bands: Iscream, NKKR, World:Within and Nikki Louder.


Check it out!

NON Band

Every now and then Myspace turns out to be actually quite useful tool for discovering cool Slovenian bands.

I've never heard about NON before but after listening to music on their Myspace profile it was almost love at first sight.

It is kinda electronic mixture of Depeche mode and Interpol. Their dark synthetic melodies are quite catchy too. Darkish. Naughty. Sexy.

So who are they anyway? According to their webpage NON consists of four guys who already did their share of touring abroad:

• Boštjan Brcar - synt
• Damjan Ćosić - bass
• Gregor Vrečar – drums, percussion
• Matjaž Moraus Zdešar – vocal, guitar, programming
  

When I asked them if they could send me some of their stuff I expected a CD with few songs. Well, I got their debut album: Not everything is made in china which btw has a really good potential to become one of my all favorite albums.

You can check them out live this Saturday @ AKD Izbruh in Kranj.

Naughty Haiku #2

Gloomiest weather.
Motivates to stay in bed.
Work remains undone.

The bag theory

Being more or less a typical woman I own my share of bags. Yes, I know how hard it is to resist buying a new one when you know you don't really need it. But it looks so great! And even though it's very similar to one or two of your other bags, you don't have that exact model yet. Shallow? Yes. Irrational? Very much so. Satisfying? Absolutely!

But I've realized that eventually you get used to a specific type of bags. So even though this new one has more pockets and my stuff should therefore be more organized and easier to find, that is not always the case. In fact my stuff ends up even messier than usually.

The problem of the bags with many pocket is quite similar to the problem with big bags:

• I don't always put things where I predict I would
• in order to find something I need to open all of the goddamn pockets or even repeat that procedure a couple of times
  
• I'm never sure whether I lost my phone or just displaced it in one of the overstuffed pockets
• when I'm looking for my Ipod or a pencil, I would need a flashlight to find it (a phone would do, but to find it...)
  
• whenever I want to take my notebook with me I have to use my other bag.

So what can I do? My rational sense tells me to become more organized and remember which pocket I use for what. But my gut tells me to get the hell to the store and buy a medium size bag with two pockets which has proved to be the most suitable for my needs. Oh well, you just gotta love the trivial dilemmas of the modern world =).