Just a short follow-up to my previous post.
You can read a nice article about Water's chances for an Academy Award and about Hollywood starting to take notice of Indian cinema here.
And I've found something on youtube that makes me even more excited about Shantaram. Below I've embedded an interview with the author of the book. It's in five parts (but I've embedded it as a playlist so it should appear as one with the possibility to switch between the five parts). If they manage to keep that sort of spirit in the film then OMG! I really hope they do!
Also, here's confirmation that Mira Nair is indeed in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a small role in the film.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Is Indian cinema on the verge of making an impact in the USA?
There's many things to write on the topic of why films from outside of the US don't seem to be able to make an impact in the US box office. Someday I hope to write a very long post about why that is (or at least why I think that is), but since I still have to read up a lot about it to properly write it, it won't be soon ;)
But to make a long story short, the most major reason that makes it almost impossible for a non-US (or independant US) film to make an impact in the USA is the system there. A few major studios pretty much own the market and the same companies that produce films also own all the major cinema chains. This means that a film that has not been produced by one of these major studios will probably only get shown in independant cinemas and these are few and far apart. There is no way that a film made outside of "the system" could get shown on a few thousand screens in the US alone as is the case with many major Hollywood productions.
Occasionally a film from outside of the US will do very good business (like Borat did recently), but when you'll check the company credits you'll always find one of the major US studios in them (for Borat it was 20th Century Fox).
India has so far never had a major financial success in the US even though interest in Indian cinema is growing. But there's two films on the horizon which might change this.
The first is Deepa Mehta's Water. In fact already based only on its Canadian box office results it's the biggest Indian box office earner ever in North America. While technically a Canadian film (that's where the financing has come from) it is about Indian issues and by Indian filmmakers (some of them like the director based in Canada and some of them from the Indian film industry like Bollywood star John Abraham).
So far it's enjoyed only a small release in the States (less than 100 screens), but it's being distributed by Fox Searchlight, which is the independant branch of 20th Century Fox and therefore I assume they have the means to give it a wider release if they think it commercially viable. It is Canada's official entry for this year's Academy Awards and has made it into the final five nominated foreign films. While Pan's Labyrinth is probably the favourite to win, Water is most often named as the other film that has a strong shot at winning the award. Ironically, Deepa Mehta has had huge problems with releasing this film in India. It had to be shot in Sri Lanka because the issues raised (it is a film about the treatment of widows in India) were so controversial in India. It has however finally passed the Indian censors and will be released there in March.
Here is a song number from the film:
The trailer is not up on youtube, but you can see it here (I don't have the required plugin, but the downloaded file works for me in vlc). You can read more about the film here.
But perhaps an even more "curious" prospect is Shantaram. It is currently in pre-production and should be released in 2008. Johnny Depp is producing it and is set to play the lead. Warner Bros is involved in the company credits so clearly we're looking at a very wide release. Originally Peter Weir was attached to direct, but it seems he has left the project "over artistic differences" with Johnny Depp and it is now Mira Nair who will direct it. The film is set in Bombay and the Indian cast will probably include some big names. Amitabh Bachchan has recently been attached to the project and is apparently going to star as something of a mentor to Johnny Depp's character. There are rumours (the imdb boards are my source for them so I'm not sure they are reliable) that the producers are in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a smaller role. Certainly there is reason to think that the author of the book is keen on this since he has used Shahrukh's photo on his site as an example of what one of his characters might look like.
Needless to say I'm quite excited about both films ;)
Of course it's quite likely that Water will not win an Academy Award and Shantaram (although I think a wide release is a given) might not spark people's interest in Bollywood stars, but at least what these two films do show is that America is starting to take Indian cinema more seriously than before.
But to make a long story short, the most major reason that makes it almost impossible for a non-US (or independant US) film to make an impact in the USA is the system there. A few major studios pretty much own the market and the same companies that produce films also own all the major cinema chains. This means that a film that has not been produced by one of these major studios will probably only get shown in independant cinemas and these are few and far apart. There is no way that a film made outside of "the system" could get shown on a few thousand screens in the US alone as is the case with many major Hollywood productions.
Occasionally a film from outside of the US will do very good business (like Borat did recently), but when you'll check the company credits you'll always find one of the major US studios in them (for Borat it was 20th Century Fox).
India has so far never had a major financial success in the US even though interest in Indian cinema is growing. But there's two films on the horizon which might change this.
The first is Deepa Mehta's Water. In fact already based only on its Canadian box office results it's the biggest Indian box office earner ever in North America. While technically a Canadian film (that's where the financing has come from) it is about Indian issues and by Indian filmmakers (some of them like the director based in Canada and some of them from the Indian film industry like Bollywood star John Abraham).
So far it's enjoyed only a small release in the States (less than 100 screens), but it's being distributed by Fox Searchlight, which is the independant branch of 20th Century Fox and therefore I assume they have the means to give it a wider release if they think it commercially viable. It is Canada's official entry for this year's Academy Awards and has made it into the final five nominated foreign films. While Pan's Labyrinth is probably the favourite to win, Water is most often named as the other film that has a strong shot at winning the award. Ironically, Deepa Mehta has had huge problems with releasing this film in India. It had to be shot in Sri Lanka because the issues raised (it is a film about the treatment of widows in India) were so controversial in India. It has however finally passed the Indian censors and will be released there in March.
Here is a song number from the film:
The trailer is not up on youtube, but you can see it here (I don't have the required plugin, but the downloaded file works for me in vlc). You can read more about the film here.
But perhaps an even more "curious" prospect is Shantaram. It is currently in pre-production and should be released in 2008. Johnny Depp is producing it and is set to play the lead. Warner Bros is involved in the company credits so clearly we're looking at a very wide release. Originally Peter Weir was attached to direct, but it seems he has left the project "over artistic differences" with Johnny Depp and it is now Mira Nair who will direct it. The film is set in Bombay and the Indian cast will probably include some big names. Amitabh Bachchan has recently been attached to the project and is apparently going to star as something of a mentor to Johnny Depp's character. There are rumours (the imdb boards are my source for them so I'm not sure they are reliable) that the producers are in talks with Shahrukh Khan over a smaller role. Certainly there is reason to think that the author of the book is keen on this since he has used Shahrukh's photo on his site as an example of what one of his characters might look like.
Needless to say I'm quite excited about both films ;)
Of course it's quite likely that Water will not win an Academy Award and Shantaram (although I think a wide release is a given) might not spark people's interest in Bollywood stars, but at least what these two films do show is that America is starting to take Indian cinema more seriously than before.
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Nishabd - the Indian Lolita
I think it's appropriate to follow up my Valentine's Day post with the trailer for Ram Gopal Varma's new film Nishabd... It is a story of love between a 60 and 18 year old and the 60 year old is played by none other than Mr Amitabh Bachchan *grin* For those of you who don't know much about Mr Bachchan (and I'm putting the Mr in on purpose because he is often referred to that way, well either like that or just simply as Big B), he is perhaps India's biggest ever superstar. His biggest popularity was in the 1970s. Now there are other Indian actors who have better results in the box office, but despite being over 60 he is still immensely popular all over the world. In fact when BBC did a worldwide poll in 1999 for the greatest actor of the millenium, it was Amitabh Bachchan who came first ahead of actors such as Laurence Olivier and Marlon Brando.
But back to Nishabd... Since many people were already quite "er, what?" about Mr Amitabh Bachchan's choice of role in KANK where he plays Sexy Sam (an older man who enjoys the company of beautiful women very much), this part will probably create even more controversy in India.
Here's one of the promos:
For me personally it's interesting, funny and bizarre that he is taking up these sorts of roles now. It is rather against his image (the "Mr" should have clued you in on that one), but it's not just that. Somehow I've always taken him for a traditionalist (in terms of his private life). In fact he is currently under public fire because of a very traditional Hindu practice that was performed in his family recently. His son, Abhishek has gotten engaged to Aishwarya Rai, but for astrological reasons Aishwarya has had to marry two trees and an idol before she can marry Abhishek.
But back to Nishabd... Since many people were already quite "er, what?" about Mr Amitabh Bachchan's choice of role in KANK where he plays Sexy Sam (an older man who enjoys the company of beautiful women very much), this part will probably create even more controversy in India.
Here's one of the promos:
For me personally it's interesting, funny and bizarre that he is taking up these sorts of roles now. It is rather against his image (the "Mr" should have clued you in on that one), but it's not just that. Somehow I've always taken him for a traditionalist (in terms of his private life). In fact he is currently under public fire because of a very traditional Hindu practice that was performed in his family recently. His son, Abhishek has gotten engaged to Aishwarya Rai, but for astrological reasons Aishwarya has had to marry two trees and an idol before she can marry Abhishek.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Valentine's Day in India
This story totally cracked me up. I know it probably shouldn't - the Hindu groups in the article sound rather like some of our Christian groups in Poland which is not good news (not that the Polish groups aren't hilarious sometimes ;-P). But I think the Indian Hindu groups are much more creative in how they want to combat immoral Western behaviour than their equivalents here in Poland:
One Hindu group, the Shiv Sena, said its volunteers would photograph couples caught in "compromising positions".
Overt signs of affection, such as kissing and holding hands, are frowned upon in much of traditional Indian society.
Shiv Sena has warned that its activists will stake out public parks, cinemas and shopping malls in a number of cities, and photographs of couples courting will be handed over to their parents.
But that's not all my Valentine news from India :) (of course this next paragraph is only here because it's a great excuse to write about Shahrukh yet again or rather about something that has been in my drafts since December ;-P) Anyway, in case you're wondering what my favourite Indian actor has prepared for Valentine's Day I have to first fill you in on some news that first appeared in December, but I was too lazy/busy/forgetful (choose the one that you think best applies to me) to put it up on my blog.
So er... Shahrukh was offered the position of host on a very popular TV show called Kaun Banega Crorepati (Kaun I think means who and one of the other words means courage, but that's about all I've managed to pick up of Hindi ;-P). And he accepted. The press loved it because it gave them opportunity to write lots of stories about how tense the relationship between SRK and Amitabh Bachchan is because it was Mr Amitabh Bachchan who used to host KBC. This went well with everything else they had written about the two previously (about which I might also post on my blog very belatedly some day because I think it's rather hilarious).
Anyway, lets get to the show... "Kaun Banega Crorepati" sounds so foreign to me that I made no connection whatsoever as to what this show actually is. All I'm gonna say is that I know it rather well from Polish TV (and I'm pathetic at watching TV, so you'll definitely know it *grin*). It would have never occurred to me that in India being the host of it is so prestigious that stars like Shahrukh and Big B would be offered the position... Of course neither of them host it in the same style as I think it's hosted around Europe but that just makes it all the more amusing. Check out a short totally random fragment with Shahrukh as host (if you want more, all you have to put into the youtube search is "srk kbc"):
My favourite KBC clip however is the hip hop music video promo which I've embedded below. Apparently the video was Shahrukh's idea. But it's just so typical... I don't think any country apart from India could have come up with that sort of promotion for a TV show *grin*
Erm... and the boring bit is that he's invited some celebrities to the show for Valentine's Day (I had to have some excuse for giving you all this KBC news two months after it was due, ok? ;) ).
One Hindu group, the Shiv Sena, said its volunteers would photograph couples caught in "compromising positions".
Overt signs of affection, such as kissing and holding hands, are frowned upon in much of traditional Indian society.
Shiv Sena has warned that its activists will stake out public parks, cinemas and shopping malls in a number of cities, and photographs of couples courting will be handed over to their parents.
But that's not all my Valentine news from India :) (of course this next paragraph is only here because it's a great excuse to write about Shahrukh yet again or rather about something that has been in my drafts since December ;-P) Anyway, in case you're wondering what my favourite Indian actor has prepared for Valentine's Day I have to first fill you in on some news that first appeared in December, but I was too lazy/busy/forgetful (choose the one that you think best applies to me) to put it up on my blog.
So er... Shahrukh was offered the position of host on a very popular TV show called Kaun Banega Crorepati (Kaun I think means who and one of the other words means courage, but that's about all I've managed to pick up of Hindi ;-P). And he accepted. The press loved it because it gave them opportunity to write lots of stories about how tense the relationship between SRK and Amitabh Bachchan is because it was Mr Amitabh Bachchan who used to host KBC. This went well with everything else they had written about the two previously (about which I might also post on my blog very belatedly some day because I think it's rather hilarious).
Anyway, lets get to the show... "Kaun Banega Crorepati" sounds so foreign to me that I made no connection whatsoever as to what this show actually is. All I'm gonna say is that I know it rather well from Polish TV (and I'm pathetic at watching TV, so you'll definitely know it *grin*). It would have never occurred to me that in India being the host of it is so prestigious that stars like Shahrukh and Big B would be offered the position... Of course neither of them host it in the same style as I think it's hosted around Europe but that just makes it all the more amusing. Check out a short totally random fragment with Shahrukh as host (if you want more, all you have to put into the youtube search is "srk kbc"):
My favourite KBC clip however is the hip hop music video promo which I've embedded below. Apparently the video was Shahrukh's idea. But it's just so typical... I don't think any country apart from India could have come up with that sort of promotion for a TV show *grin*
Erm... and the boring bit is that he's invited some celebrities to the show for Valentine's Day (I had to have some excuse for giving you all this KBC news two months after it was due, ok? ;) ).
Monday, February 12, 2007
Harry Potter nude and some even more exciting Potter news
I keep putting off writing anything because I've not written properly for such a long time and I feel I should write a long, clever post about something. The problem is I'm really not feeling clever or up to writing a long post ;-P
So I'll just be boring and write more of the usual. It's not that I don't have anything to write about - on the contrary, you wouldn't believe how many drafts I have on my blog (I just checked - the number is 80 drafts versus 43 published posts :D), but a lot of it seems just too much effort to write about just now ;-P
Therefore lets continue the topic of nudity (apparently it's the main theme of my blog since January 15th).
Harry Potter himself is appearing nude in a play in London and if you don't believe me I'm sure this article will convince you.
You can see some publicity pics for the play on the play's official site. And if like me you derive a certain amusement out of seeing people offended and acting as if it really is Harry Potter appearing nude rather than Daniel Radcliffe, then I recommend the imdb boards for Daniel Radcliffe. I particularly enjoy the comments in which certain Americans claim this is child pornography because according to American law Dan is not of legal age (no matter how many times they're told that under UK law he is, they still don't change their tone lol). But I think the people who think he's going to have real sex or masturbate on stage are even funnier (the arguments that there are no such scenes in the play don't seem to be getting to them ;) ).
On a more serious note, I do love the play. At least on paper it made a huge impression on me. It's the story of a boy who blinds six horses with a metal pick and gets sent to a mental institution. He is treated by a psychiatrist who has started doubting the point of his job. I really love the way the relationship between them is written out. I'm very excited about seeing it on stage (which I will in late April, wheee!).
But lets get to some more exciting and even more frontline Harry Potter news ;-P There is finally a release date for book7 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!! :D Of course annoyingly it has to be on the 21st of July which is during the film festival in Wroclaw that I want to attend ;-P I'll probably try to force myself to wait until the festival finishes about a week later cause I want to be able to sit down and read it in one go (book 6 took me about 11,5h non-stop reading when it came out ;-P).
So far my favourite news tidbit about book7 coming out is enlikening two characters in the series dieing off to Take That splitting up in 1996 (it appeared in this article). Here's the relevant quote:
British book retailer Waterstone's is hoping to set up a helpline for distressed fans of the popular
Harry Potter series because two characters will be killed off in the final instalment, The Daily Telegraph reported.
"This could be a similar moment to when (pop band) Take That split up -- there could be a lot of upset teenagers out there," said Debbie Williams, a buyer for the book chain.
"We are looking to set up a helpline for them."
(for those of you who don't know - when Take That split up they set up a helpline because they were worried girls might get suicidal!)
But actually everything surrounding the release is absolutely amazing. It has shattered all pre-sale records and even before J.K.Rowling had finished writing the book, the bookies were already taking bets for who would kill Harry. Of course we don't even know if Harry will die! (personally I think he won't ;-P)
Very often when I say I don't feel up to writing anything long I end up doing what I say I won't ;-P (but when I say I'm not feeling up to writing anything clever I do mean it ;-P)
On a final off-topic note - Surya Bonaly chickened out, she was not nude at all.
So I'll just be boring and write more of the usual. It's not that I don't have anything to write about - on the contrary, you wouldn't believe how many drafts I have on my blog (I just checked - the number is 80 drafts versus 43 published posts :D), but a lot of it seems just too much effort to write about just now ;-P
Therefore lets continue the topic of nudity (apparently it's the main theme of my blog since January 15th).
Harry Potter himself is appearing nude in a play in London and if you don't believe me I'm sure this article will convince you.
You can see some publicity pics for the play on the play's official site. And if like me you derive a certain amusement out of seeing people offended and acting as if it really is Harry Potter appearing nude rather than Daniel Radcliffe, then I recommend the imdb boards for Daniel Radcliffe. I particularly enjoy the comments in which certain Americans claim this is child pornography because according to American law Dan is not of legal age (no matter how many times they're told that under UK law he is, they still don't change their tone lol). But I think the people who think he's going to have real sex or masturbate on stage are even funnier (the arguments that there are no such scenes in the play don't seem to be getting to them ;) ).
On a more serious note, I do love the play. At least on paper it made a huge impression on me. It's the story of a boy who blinds six horses with a metal pick and gets sent to a mental institution. He is treated by a psychiatrist who has started doubting the point of his job. I really love the way the relationship between them is written out. I'm very excited about seeing it on stage (which I will in late April, wheee!).
But lets get to some more exciting and even more frontline Harry Potter news ;-P There is finally a release date for book7 "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows!!! :D Of course annoyingly it has to be on the 21st of July which is during the film festival in Wroclaw that I want to attend ;-P I'll probably try to force myself to wait until the festival finishes about a week later cause I want to be able to sit down and read it in one go (book 6 took me about 11,5h non-stop reading when it came out ;-P).
So far my favourite news tidbit about book7 coming out is enlikening two characters in the series dieing off to Take That splitting up in 1996 (it appeared in this article). Here's the relevant quote:
British book retailer Waterstone's is hoping to set up a helpline for distressed fans of the popular
Harry Potter series because two characters will be killed off in the final instalment, The Daily Telegraph reported.
"This could be a similar moment to when (pop band) Take That split up -- there could be a lot of upset teenagers out there," said Debbie Williams, a buyer for the book chain.
"We are looking to set up a helpline for them."
(for those of you who don't know - when Take That split up they set up a helpline because they were worried girls might get suicidal!)
But actually everything surrounding the release is absolutely amazing. It has shattered all pre-sale records and even before J.K.Rowling had finished writing the book, the bookies were already taking bets for who would kill Harry. Of course we don't even know if Harry will die! (personally I think he won't ;-P)
Very often when I say I don't feel up to writing anything long I end up doing what I say I won't ;-P (but when I say I'm not feeling up to writing anything clever I do mean it ;-P)
On a final off-topic note - Surya Bonaly chickened out, she was not nude at all.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Surya Bonaly to skate nude
Hopefully now that my heavy schoolwork period has almost finished I'll get back to regularly updating this blog.
For now, however, I have some fascinating figure skating news for all my readers (and since it's coming right after my celebrity nudity database post, I think I'm either going to lose or gain readers by giving the impression that this blog is about nudity ;) ).
Anyway, it's true - Surya Bonaly, a five-time European Champion is going to be skating nude to protect baby seals in North Canada. The news is in a couple of places, but the only English article I found is here (albeit it's a Russian site). The FSU forum is having a lot fun picturing exactly what Surya might do in her program. After all, she is the first ever woman to do a back flip on the ice, not to mention a wide repertoire of very bendy moves (she is an ex-gymnast). So enjoy whatever images this has brought to your mind ;)
Edited to add: Apparently Surya is not the first skater to do this. See here
For now, however, I have some fascinating figure skating news for all my readers (and since it's coming right after my celebrity nudity database post, I think I'm either going to lose or gain readers by giving the impression that this blog is about nudity ;) ).
Anyway, it's true - Surya Bonaly, a five-time European Champion is going to be skating nude to protect baby seals in North Canada. The news is in a couple of places, but the only English article I found is here (albeit it's a Russian site). The FSU forum is having a lot fun picturing exactly what Surya might do in her program. After all, she is the first ever woman to do a back flip on the ice, not to mention a wide repertoire of very bendy moves (she is an ex-gymnast). So enjoy whatever images this has brought to your mind ;)
Edited to add: Apparently Surya is not the first skater to do this. See here
Monday, January 15, 2007
Celebrity Nudity Database
I just found out that something like this exists and somehow it seems so absurd that I had to post it ;-P So here it is, the Celebrity Nudity Database.
No pics, videos or anything like that, it's just a database of which films have nude scenes with which actors and lots of people write reviews of the scenes.
No pics, videos or anything like that, it's just a database of which films have nude scenes with which actors and lots of people write reviews of the scenes.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Polish Junior National Figure Skating Championships 2007 (aka my social life take two)
Yep, I actually have another excuse to try and prove I have a social life. If Senior and Novice Nats weren't enough, there's junior Nats too *grin* (results are here).
Anyway, here's one of the pictures that my lovely friends insisted on taking at the end of the day. This one was taken by Bożenka :)
Incidently, the ice behind us will be used for the European Championships very soon, so I'll have even further opportunity to try and convince you that I am not as lonely as I seem ;)
But now I actually *will* post a bit about the skating (only about what I thought was most exciting - "exciting" being a word that many will find inappropriate in Polish figure skating context, but that's their problem ;-P ).
This part of Edwin's program cracks me up, but I just loved it. Very original way of hiding a bad landing - it makes you wonder how much of it was planned and how much of it wasn't:
You can see the complete performance here and it was a fantastic effort :) It was the 2nd best free program of the event (although overall he was 3rd). The junior men's competition was won by Maciej Cieplucha who turned in an amazing performance. It's not that I've never seen him skate like this, it's just that he's never (to my knowledge) done it when it was so important to do it (last year he started his season off like that and everyone thought he was a very strong favourite for the Polish junior Worlds representation and yet at both Polish Nationals and a special test skate he came second to Mateusz Chruscinski). He had already lost to Mateusz at senior Nationals this season, but here he really outclassed everybody and is finally going to make his debut at the Junior World Championships in March, go Maciek! *grin* And here's the performance that earned it:
Finally (but perhaps most importantly as they will represent Poland at the upcoming European Championships in Warsaw!) Joanna Budner and Jan Mościcki put in some rather nervous looking performances and yet I'm still kind of impressed with them. Originally, Aleksandra Kauc / Michal Zych were pretty much the only ice dancers who were being considered for Europeans, but they very unexpectedely split up in October (you'll find a little bit about that in one of my previous posts). This left Poland with no ice dancers in senior competition! So suddenly mid-season Joasia and Janek (who are Poland's strongest junior eligible skaters at current) started working towards making the required changes to their junior programs (amount of elements, length of program, different compulsary dances) to be able to skate in senior competition. Finally in November they performed as seniors for the first ever time at a very small event in the Czech Republic. Then to make things even more hectic Janek had an ankle injury in December. For this reason they were not able to attend Polish Senior Nationals (but since they would have been the only competitors they were allowed to skate their senior programs at junior Nationals). After all this, this is what they managed to produce at their second ever competition as seniors (this is the Original Dance):
Loads of small mistakes on the required elements (but then ever since the new judging system this tends to happen to ice dancers a lot more), but I'm still rather impressed. Ice dance is the discipline where the difference between junior and senior is the biggest. A good junior single skater can make the top10 at senior World championships, a good junior ice dance couple will be very lucky to make the top20. And while clearly Joasia and Janek are going to be fighting for spots rather low in the European ranking, they're definitely not going to be last or look out of place.
Anyway, here's one of the pictures that my lovely friends insisted on taking at the end of the day. This one was taken by Bożenka :)
Incidently, the ice behind us will be used for the European Championships very soon, so I'll have even further opportunity to try and convince you that I am not as lonely as I seem ;)
But now I actually *will* post a bit about the skating (only about what I thought was most exciting - "exciting" being a word that many will find inappropriate in Polish figure skating context, but that's their problem ;-P ).
This part of Edwin's program cracks me up, but I just loved it. Very original way of hiding a bad landing - it makes you wonder how much of it was planned and how much of it wasn't:
You can see the complete performance here and it was a fantastic effort :) It was the 2nd best free program of the event (although overall he was 3rd). The junior men's competition was won by Maciej Cieplucha who turned in an amazing performance. It's not that I've never seen him skate like this, it's just that he's never (to my knowledge) done it when it was so important to do it (last year he started his season off like that and everyone thought he was a very strong favourite for the Polish junior Worlds representation and yet at both Polish Nationals and a special test skate he came second to Mateusz Chruscinski). He had already lost to Mateusz at senior Nationals this season, but here he really outclassed everybody and is finally going to make his debut at the Junior World Championships in March, go Maciek! *grin* And here's the performance that earned it:
Finally (but perhaps most importantly as they will represent Poland at the upcoming European Championships in Warsaw!) Joanna Budner and Jan Mościcki put in some rather nervous looking performances and yet I'm still kind of impressed with them. Originally, Aleksandra Kauc / Michal Zych were pretty much the only ice dancers who were being considered for Europeans, but they very unexpectedely split up in October (you'll find a little bit about that in one of my previous posts). This left Poland with no ice dancers in senior competition! So suddenly mid-season Joasia and Janek (who are Poland's strongest junior eligible skaters at current) started working towards making the required changes to their junior programs (amount of elements, length of program, different compulsary dances) to be able to skate in senior competition. Finally in November they performed as seniors for the first ever time at a very small event in the Czech Republic. Then to make things even more hectic Janek had an ankle injury in December. For this reason they were not able to attend Polish Senior Nationals (but since they would have been the only competitors they were allowed to skate their senior programs at junior Nationals). After all this, this is what they managed to produce at their second ever competition as seniors (this is the Original Dance):
Loads of small mistakes on the required elements (but then ever since the new judging system this tends to happen to ice dancers a lot more), but I'm still rather impressed. Ice dance is the discipline where the difference between junior and senior is the biggest. A good junior single skater can make the top10 at senior World championships, a good junior ice dance couple will be very lucky to make the top20. And while clearly Joasia and Janek are going to be fighting for spots rather low in the European ranking, they're definitely not going to be last or look out of place.
Friday, January 05, 2007
Sacha Baron Cohen
There's been quite a lot of talk about him and his Borat, but I'm really behind and only now have taken notice (I guess my head turned when I heard that a mocumentary by a British comedian is no. 1 at the US box office).
Since I'm now spending my time laughing my head off watching him on youtube, here are two clips...
Here's Borat interviewed by Jonathan Ross:
And here he is as Ali G interviewing the Beckhams:
Since I'm now spending my time laughing my head off watching him on youtube, here are two clips...
Here's Borat interviewed by Jonathan Ross:
And here he is as Ali G interviewing the Beckhams:
Sunday, December 31, 2006
New Year Post
Just a totally random post as usual ;-P (By the way, I might be updating my blog a little less in January... we'll see...)
Anyway, firstly something that should have been in my Christmas post, but I was sent this link a bit late, so I'm including it in my New Year post instead:
Secondly, there's lots of end of the year articles, statistics, polls etc. few of which I find interesting ;-P (even the Bollywood ones don't seem to be holding my attention) But here are two exceptions to the rule...
This is a ranking of 100 strange facts compiled from BBC news stories in 2006.
And here's something for movie buffs - the IMDb Starmeter. Every year IMDb (the biggest movie database on-line) compiles a ranking of the most visited star pages, which may well be one of the best ways of determining who are the most popular film stars in the world...
Anyway, firstly something that should have been in my Christmas post, but I was sent this link a bit late, so I'm including it in my New Year post instead:
Secondly, there's lots of end of the year articles, statistics, polls etc. few of which I find interesting ;-P (even the Bollywood ones don't seem to be holding my attention) But here are two exceptions to the rule...
This is a ranking of 100 strange facts compiled from BBC news stories in 2006.
And here's something for movie buffs - the IMDb Starmeter. Every year IMDb (the biggest movie database on-line) compiles a ranking of the most visited star pages, which may well be one of the best ways of determining who are the most popular film stars in the world...
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Virgin births
Because I think virgin births are a very appropriate subject matter at this time of year, here is a BBC story concerning some. Flora's eight babies will be due around Christmas which makes this story even more appropriate ;-P And in case you're wondering Flora is a komodo dragon :D
A Christmas post
So, er, Merry Christmas everyone :D
Here's a Christmas card from Greenpeace (it's rather indoctrinating, but I still think it's nice ;-P).
This on the other hand is a rather amazing (and ridiculous) show of Christmas lights which my mum sent me a link to:
You can read more about it here.
And finally I wanted to link to PotterCast #68 (right-click on the link to download the mp3) which has some absolutely amazing Christmas Carols with Harry Potter lyrics (they start at about 0:33:30 on the file). My personal favourites are the one to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer about Moaning Myrtle (about 0:35:30) and the one which is supposed to be Snape singing (about 0:42:30). Of course they'll probably only be funny to those who read Harry Potter obsessively, but I still thought I'd pass the link on ;-P
Here's a Christmas card from Greenpeace (it's rather indoctrinating, but I still think it's nice ;-P).
This on the other hand is a rather amazing (and ridiculous) show of Christmas lights which my mum sent me a link to:
You can read more about it here.
And finally I wanted to link to PotterCast #68 (right-click on the link to download the mp3) which has some absolutely amazing Christmas Carols with Harry Potter lyrics (they start at about 0:33:30 on the file). My personal favourites are the one to Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer about Moaning Myrtle (about 0:35:30) and the one which is supposed to be Snape singing (about 0:42:30). Of course they'll probably only be funny to those who read Harry Potter obsessively, but I still thought I'd pass the link on ;-P
Friday, December 22, 2006
Polish National Figure Skating Championships 2007 (Senior and Novice)
My more detailed skating impressions are in Polish on the walley forum where they belong. This is just a random post which pretends to be about skating, but is actually a very bad attempt at proving that I do have something that you might call a social life and that isn't confined to the internet (something that everyone including me seem to notoriously doubt). Just to keep up appearances though, here are the results of this event.
Anyway, back to my social life - here is the proof I have for its existance:
See, I am sitting with as many as four people (and a fifth is taking the picture), don't you think that's impressive? ;)
Ok, ok - I know I've not convinced anyone ;-P I am a sad, lonely person who doesn't have a social life and nobody likes me, so I keep writing a blog instead ;-P
I do however have a peculiar passion for watching figure skating and it can get so extreme that I go to watch skating events that no more than 5 other people (who aren't skaters, coaches, skating officials or families of a skater) want to watch and then I torment innocent people by putting up video clips of these performances on-line.
If you think you're up for the challenge, here are two clips from Nats (do you like my camerawork? ;-P). I uploaded them to google because youtube doesn't like me (either me or my firewall). There will be more vids on the walley forum, but this is all I'm putting on my blog from this event.
This is Ania Jurkiewicz who has made a comeback this season. She was once 5th at junior Worlds, but has not competed for the last 4 years or so. Me and the 4 people you can see on the photo above tried to remember when was the last time that a lady in Poland landed a triple flip at Polish Nationals and we had to go back to about 1999 or 2000... Therefore please enjoy the first triple flip performed by a lady at Polish Nats in the last 7 years or so ;-P (and the program is pretty good too, she won the senior ladies by a mile)
And this is the short program of Przemek Domański. I'm a huge fan of his. And while probably a major reason for my fandom is that he likes to tell us about how he keeps wiping his nose on his trousers during sit spins and what happens during a jump if he doesn't find a moment in the performance where he can wipe it (which apparently was particularly problematic at these Nats because the rink was very cold), he is also a very ambitious skater and I think this season he's skating at a truly international level. Proof of that is that he was not satisfied with this short program which he said was his worst this season (he had meant to start with a triple-triple combination, not a triple-double). He still won both parts of the senior men competition and ended up with a 20 point margin over everyone else.
So after having failed to convince anyone that I have a social life or that Polish skating is interesting (which it really is to me although sometimes even I'm surprised by this), I convey my Christmas wishes to all who are reading my blog :) I hope the one or two people reading it spend it very enjoyably!
NOTE (29.XII.2006): I would like to give credit for the wonderful photo I used to Magda :D (see the comments to this post). I have also been instructed to say that she is not in fact a blackmailer contrary to what I've written about her in the comments (but I'm not sure if you're better off believing her or me about it ;-P)
Anyway, back to my social life - here is the proof I have for its existance:
See, I am sitting with as many as four people (and a fifth is taking the picture), don't you think that's impressive? ;)
Ok, ok - I know I've not convinced anyone ;-P I am a sad, lonely person who doesn't have a social life and nobody likes me, so I keep writing a blog instead ;-P
I do however have a peculiar passion for watching figure skating and it can get so extreme that I go to watch skating events that no more than 5 other people (who aren't skaters, coaches, skating officials or families of a skater) want to watch and then I torment innocent people by putting up video clips of these performances on-line.
If you think you're up for the challenge, here are two clips from Nats (do you like my camerawork? ;-P). I uploaded them to google because youtube doesn't like me (either me or my firewall). There will be more vids on the walley forum, but this is all I'm putting on my blog from this event.
This is Ania Jurkiewicz who has made a comeback this season. She was once 5th at junior Worlds, but has not competed for the last 4 years or so. Me and the 4 people you can see on the photo above tried to remember when was the last time that a lady in Poland landed a triple flip at Polish Nationals and we had to go back to about 1999 or 2000... Therefore please enjoy the first triple flip performed by a lady at Polish Nats in the last 7 years or so ;-P (and the program is pretty good too, she won the senior ladies by a mile)
And this is the short program of Przemek Domański. I'm a huge fan of his. And while probably a major reason for my fandom is that he likes to tell us about how he keeps wiping his nose on his trousers during sit spins and what happens during a jump if he doesn't find a moment in the performance where he can wipe it (which apparently was particularly problematic at these Nats because the rink was very cold), he is also a very ambitious skater and I think this season he's skating at a truly international level. Proof of that is that he was not satisfied with this short program which he said was his worst this season (he had meant to start with a triple-triple combination, not a triple-double). He still won both parts of the senior men competition and ended up with a 20 point margin over everyone else.
So after having failed to convince anyone that I have a social life or that Polish skating is interesting (which it really is to me although sometimes even I'm surprised by this), I convey my Christmas wishes to all who are reading my blog :) I hope the one or two people reading it spend it very enjoyably!
NOTE (29.XII.2006): I would like to give credit for the wonderful photo I used to Magda :D (see the comments to this post). I have also been instructed to say that she is not in fact a blackmailer contrary to what I've written about her in the comments (but I'm not sure if you're better off believing her or me about it ;-P)
Sunday, December 10, 2006
Very geeky article about how google works
A bit of a follow-up to my previous post. You can read a very geeky article about how google's search engine works here. I didn't read the whole thing (too mathematical), but even reading just the beginning where they explain about page rank I thought was very interesting.
My favourite part of the article is the opening:
Imagine a library containing 25 billion documents but with no centralized organization and no librarians. In addition, anyone may add a document at any time without telling anyone. You may feel sure that one of the documents contained in the collection has a piece of information that is vitally important to you, and, being impatient like most of us, you'd like to find it in a matter of seconds. How would you go about doing it?
Posed in this way, the problem seems impossible. Yet this description is not too different from the World Wide Web, a huge, highly-disorganized collection of documents in many different formats.
Something (from the article) that I found particularly cool to play around with is this page rank checker. It's only an estimate, but it's fun to play around with. Can you find any pages with rank 10? :D The only one I tried that got 10 was google itself ;-P But I found a couple of 9s (wikipedia, IMDb,yahoo).
My favourite part of the article is the opening:
Imagine a library containing 25 billion documents but with no centralized organization and no librarians. In addition, anyone may add a document at any time without telling anyone. You may feel sure that one of the documents contained in the collection has a piece of information that is vitally important to you, and, being impatient like most of us, you'd like to find it in a matter of seconds. How would you go about doing it?
Posed in this way, the problem seems impossible. Yet this description is not too different from the World Wide Web, a huge, highly-disorganized collection of documents in many different formats.
Something (from the article) that I found particularly cool to play around with is this page rank checker. It's only an estimate, but it's fun to play around with. Can you find any pages with rank 10? :D The only one I tried that got 10 was google itself ;-P But I found a couple of 9s (wikipedia, IMDb,yahoo).
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Search Mash - the new Google (literally)
Google is always changing and developping (and it has to if it's to stay the biggest in its field). But of course whilst it's testing new things out, it can't afford anything to break. This is where Search Mash comes in. It's the bleeding edge version of google.
It's already quite cool, so you might want to try it out. If you want to find out more, check out this article.
It's already quite cool, so you might want to try it out. If you want to find out more, check out this article.
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
The Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves (1991)
I just watched "Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves" and had a really good laugh. It is a very Hollywoodish film (as in Robin Hood is your classic unflawed action hero), but I was surprised at some of the themes in it to the point of wondering how it's possible that censors and Hollywood producers (in the early 1990s no less) let that through. And then I visited IMDb's trivia page for this film and found out that actually they didn't let these things through ;-P
Don't get me wrong, it's not as if there's anything that shocking in it, but it's not what you'd expect of a light-hearted movie like this - particularly one which is aiming at rather low age certificates (PG in the UK, PG-13 in the US).
From what I can make out (based on the IMDb boards for this film), I was watching the extended British DVD version which has less cuts than the original theatrical release, but is still cut more than some of the DVD releases elsewhere in the world. The reason for this is that the British distributor wanted to retain a PG certificate for the film.
What does the Sheriff of Nottingham have to do with all these censorship musings? Well, that was the character that they cut the most of (this film is quite a different take on him). The cuts not relating to him were done purely because of excessive gore, although why they were excessive I cannot say because the version I saw didn't have them in ;-P (Although to give you an inkling - even in what I saw, this film is pretty heavy on medieval torture)
Most of the scenes relating to the Sheriff were thankfully (because I thought they were the best part of the film) left in my version, although I'm rather disapointed at not having seen him scheduling his whores with words such as "you! my room...10:30. and you! 10:45. and bring a friend." .
One of the most baffling cuts that were made to the version of the film that I watched is the removal of part of the famous spoon dialogue (it's so famous that WikiQuote has it on its spoon page). They kept the first line, but removed the other two. I don't quite understand this cut (why would those lines make a difference between a PG or higher certificate?), but see what you think for yourself - here is the quote:
"Locksley! I'm gonna cut your heart out with a spoon."
"Why a spoon cousin? Why not an axe?"
"Because it's dull, you twit, it'll hurt more."
I cannot continue writing without mentioning how good Alan Rickman is as the Sheriff and prewarn you that there might be quite a lot of gushing about him in the rest of this post ;-P I would have put in a video link here, but I haven't found anything suitable (the trailer is awful and has hardly any of Rickman in it anyway), so I'll content myself with a link to a picture of him as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
So first of all, one of the reasons to love the Sheriff of Nottingham in this film is that he has all the best lines ;-P There's some very black humour there (something that I think doesn't usually feature in American action films) and the way Alan Rickman delivers it is absolutely hilarious.
While the darkness of the character is maybe not portrayed that graphically, it is certainly one of the most perverse Hollywood villains I've seen in a while. Right at the start we're introduced not just to the atrocities he inflicts on people and his lack of anykind of fair play (quite classic elements to any Hollywood villain ;-P), but also to his total lack of sexual inhibition and perhaps most perversely (at least I was very surprised to see this and it didn't make the theatrical release) the film also shows him worshipping the devil.
But apparently, Alan Rickman wasn't playing a villain *grin* Here is something he says in the DVD extras:
I'm not playing a villain. I'm just playing somebody who has a certain checklist of things that he wants in life and he goes after them. And other people say, like Robin Hood decides, that's appalling and it must be stopped.
While the quote totally cracks me up, this is actually what I most loved about Alan Rickman's portrayal. Despite playing some things which are quite perverse when you start thinking about them, the way it's done there's just no judgement of whether the Sheriff is doing right or wrong, it's played as if whatever Nottingham is doing is the most natural thing in the world to do. This, as you might imagine, has a rather bizzarre effect in scenes such as a bishop performing a marriage ceremony while the Sheriff is holding his bride down on the floor and preparing to rape her in front of the bishop the moment the marriage is proclaimed (this was probably my favourite scene, although hardly the only one I loved).
On a final note, here's a thread on the IMDb boards that amused me a lot. I'm very obviously not alone in adoring Alan Rickman as Nottingham (the thread is titled "Did anyone else want the Sheriff of Nottingham to win?"). I doubt anyone will want to wade through the whole thing because it's very long. It's basically lots of people gushing about Alan Rickman and many of them saying he was much better than Kevin Costner (who played Robin Hood) and then there's people who think these people who like Nottingham so much are mad and saying Costner was way better and how can anybody find such an evil character sexy anyway. There are two quotes that particularly cracked me up. The first is by somebody who like me clearly enjoyed Nottingham a lot, but I find her wording rather amusing:
Its very impolite to want to cut someones heart out with a spoon but he makes it sound so funny!
And then there's a post by somebody who thinks all these people gushing over such an evil character are completely mad:
Lets's see...you guys are all rooting for a man who is a: murderer (of his own cousin and no doubt thousands of others); a would-be rapist; a devil worshipper; a contract killer (hiring Celts to do his dirty work); a pervert (with dozens of whores at his beck and call). Yeah, you picked a real upstanding criminal to admire and drool over. WELL NOT ME!
Don't get me wrong, it's not as if there's anything that shocking in it, but it's not what you'd expect of a light-hearted movie like this - particularly one which is aiming at rather low age certificates (PG in the UK, PG-13 in the US).
From what I can make out (based on the IMDb boards for this film), I was watching the extended British DVD version which has less cuts than the original theatrical release, but is still cut more than some of the DVD releases elsewhere in the world. The reason for this is that the British distributor wanted to retain a PG certificate for the film.
What does the Sheriff of Nottingham have to do with all these censorship musings? Well, that was the character that they cut the most of (this film is quite a different take on him). The cuts not relating to him were done purely because of excessive gore, although why they were excessive I cannot say because the version I saw didn't have them in ;-P (Although to give you an inkling - even in what I saw, this film is pretty heavy on medieval torture)
Most of the scenes relating to the Sheriff were thankfully (because I thought they were the best part of the film) left in my version, although I'm rather disapointed at not having seen him scheduling his whores with words such as "you! my room...10:30. and you! 10:45. and bring a friend." .
One of the most baffling cuts that were made to the version of the film that I watched is the removal of part of the famous spoon dialogue (it's so famous that WikiQuote has it on its spoon page). They kept the first line, but removed the other two. I don't quite understand this cut (why would those lines make a difference between a PG or higher certificate?), but see what you think for yourself - here is the quote:
"Locksley! I'm gonna cut your heart out with a spoon."
"Why a spoon cousin? Why not an axe?"
"Because it's dull, you twit, it'll hurt more."
I cannot continue writing without mentioning how good Alan Rickman is as the Sheriff and prewarn you that there might be quite a lot of gushing about him in the rest of this post ;-P I would have put in a video link here, but I haven't found anything suitable (the trailer is awful and has hardly any of Rickman in it anyway), so I'll content myself with a link to a picture of him as the Sheriff of Nottingham.
So first of all, one of the reasons to love the Sheriff of Nottingham in this film is that he has all the best lines ;-P There's some very black humour there (something that I think doesn't usually feature in American action films) and the way Alan Rickman delivers it is absolutely hilarious.
While the darkness of the character is maybe not portrayed that graphically, it is certainly one of the most perverse Hollywood villains I've seen in a while. Right at the start we're introduced not just to the atrocities he inflicts on people and his lack of anykind of fair play (quite classic elements to any Hollywood villain ;-P), but also to his total lack of sexual inhibition and perhaps most perversely (at least I was very surprised to see this and it didn't make the theatrical release) the film also shows him worshipping the devil.
But apparently, Alan Rickman wasn't playing a villain *grin* Here is something he says in the DVD extras:
I'm not playing a villain. I'm just playing somebody who has a certain checklist of things that he wants in life and he goes after them. And other people say, like Robin Hood decides, that's appalling and it must be stopped.
While the quote totally cracks me up, this is actually what I most loved about Alan Rickman's portrayal. Despite playing some things which are quite perverse when you start thinking about them, the way it's done there's just no judgement of whether the Sheriff is doing right or wrong, it's played as if whatever Nottingham is doing is the most natural thing in the world to do. This, as you might imagine, has a rather bizzarre effect in scenes such as a bishop performing a marriage ceremony while the Sheriff is holding his bride down on the floor and preparing to rape her in front of the bishop the moment the marriage is proclaimed (this was probably my favourite scene, although hardly the only one I loved).
On a final note, here's a thread on the IMDb boards that amused me a lot. I'm very obviously not alone in adoring Alan Rickman as Nottingham (the thread is titled "Did anyone else want the Sheriff of Nottingham to win?"). I doubt anyone will want to wade through the whole thing because it's very long. It's basically lots of people gushing about Alan Rickman and many of them saying he was much better than Kevin Costner (who played Robin Hood) and then there's people who think these people who like Nottingham so much are mad and saying Costner was way better and how can anybody find such an evil character sexy anyway. There are two quotes that particularly cracked me up. The first is by somebody who like me clearly enjoyed Nottingham a lot, but I find her wording rather amusing:
Its very impolite to want to cut someones heart out with a spoon but he makes it sound so funny!
And then there's a post by somebody who thinks all these people gushing over such an evil character are completely mad:
Lets's see...you guys are all rooting for a man who is a: murderer (of his own cousin and no doubt thousands of others); a would-be rapist; a devil worshipper; a contract killer (hiring Celts to do his dirty work); a pervert (with dozens of whores at his beck and call). Yeah, you picked a real upstanding criminal to admire and drool over. WELL NOT ME!
Sunday, December 03, 2006
Freaky deaths
The BBC somehow managed to report three deaths that rather freaked me out in very short succession of each other.
Here's the story of Mariesa Weber, who was missing and then finally found dead by her family wedged upside down behind a bookcase in her room.
This is about a baby murdered in a microwave.
And this is about a boy who was eaten alive by a herd of pigs.
At first I read these stories in the way I would read a fictional horror story (I even once saw a film in which one of the characters was eaten alive by pigs). But then after a moment of reading and thinking about it I totally freak out - it's real! People really do die like that!
Here's the story of Mariesa Weber, who was missing and then finally found dead by her family wedged upside down behind a bookcase in her room.
This is about a baby murdered in a microwave.
And this is about a boy who was eaten alive by a herd of pigs.
At first I read these stories in the way I would read a fictional horror story (I even once saw a film in which one of the characters was eaten alive by pigs). But then after a moment of reading and thinking about it I totally freak out - it's real! People really do die like that!
Wednesday, November 29, 2006
Random health issues
For some reason when I browse the BBC news site I end up reading a lot about developments in medicine (while I don't usually think much about this while I'm doing it, admitting to this now makes me feel as if I'm behaving like some old, grumbly lady - who else would be reading up on these things? ;-P).
Anyway, here's two articles that caught my eye (who knows, maybe there are more people like me who are grumbly, old ladies at heart and are reading my blog?).
The first is about smoking. According to statistics if you're a heavy smoker, cutting down does little to help your health, you just have to completely stop for it to have a significant impact.
Now while I do not smoke myself, the other article is one that veeeery much applies to me. It's about sitting in front of computers and the impact it has on your back. For some reason everyone always tells you to sit up straight - well apparently that's bullshit. Maybe I should bully my parents into getting myself a different chair for the computer - one which would allow my back a different angle ;-P
Anyway, here's two articles that caught my eye (who knows, maybe there are more people like me who are grumbly, old ladies at heart and are reading my blog?).
The first is about smoking. According to statistics if you're a heavy smoker, cutting down does little to help your health, you just have to completely stop for it to have a significant impact.
Now while I do not smoke myself, the other article is one that veeeery much applies to me. It's about sitting in front of computers and the impact it has on your back. For some reason everyone always tells you to sit up straight - well apparently that's bullshit. Maybe I should bully my parents into getting myself a different chair for the computer - one which would allow my back a different angle ;-P
Gronkiewicz wins the local elections in Warsaw
Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz is now president of Warsaw with many saying this is because of the public support she received from Marek Borowski and Aleksander Kwaśniewski (before their support, it was Marcinkiewicz who was leading the polls).
I would have probably not bothered with putting this news up onto my blog (I can't say I'm particularly excited about it even if I'm happier that she's president rather than Marcinkiewicz), but I figured that since I had been following the elections and the left-centre developments in particular on my blog, it was worth noting the outcome. However, there is also another reason - I'm getting more and more of a kick out of news such as this being reported internationally. Yep, honestly! The BBC actually thinks news such as this is worth reporting, see here if you don't believe me ;-P And it's not just them either. See here for what a search on Google News comes up with, apart from Polish news outlets there are media reports about this from outlets based in places like Pakistan, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Romania... I like this, I like the feeling that the world and particularly Europe cares about what's happening in Polish politics. Not because it makes me feel Poland is important, but because it makes me feel that there's certain things (like for example re-introducing the death penalty which PiS would very much like to do) that Polish politicians cannot get away with.
I would have probably not bothered with putting this news up onto my blog (I can't say I'm particularly excited about it even if I'm happier that she's president rather than Marcinkiewicz), but I figured that since I had been following the elections and the left-centre developments in particular on my blog, it was worth noting the outcome. However, there is also another reason - I'm getting more and more of a kick out of news such as this being reported internationally. Yep, honestly! The BBC actually thinks news such as this is worth reporting, see here if you don't believe me ;-P And it's not just them either. See here for what a search on Google News comes up with, apart from Polish news outlets there are media reports about this from outlets based in places like Pakistan, Turkey, France, Bulgaria, Romania... I like this, I like the feeling that the world and particularly Europe cares about what's happening in Polish politics. Not because it makes me feel Poland is important, but because it makes me feel that there's certain things (like for example re-introducing the death penalty which PiS would very much like to do) that Polish politicians cannot get away with.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Dhoom 2
So because Bollywood trailers are the best (and besides - I must keep promoting Bollywood on this blog ;-P), here's the latest high tech offering from India. No Shahrukh in this one, but hey, Bollywood can be fun even without him (shocking, but true ;) ).
The biggest selling points of the film (and the first box office results in India seem to indicate that they have worked well) are Hrithik, Abishek, Aishwarya, dazzling action scenes (most of which Hrithik did himself after extensive training) and a shocking kissing controversy (Aishwarya is Abishek's girlfriend, but she has a kissing scene with Hrithik in this film).
Below are three trailers for Dhoom 2:
As usual *sniff sniff* because I doubt this is going to be released in Poland.
The biggest selling points of the film (and the first box office results in India seem to indicate that they have worked well) are Hrithik, Abishek, Aishwarya, dazzling action scenes (most of which Hrithik did himself after extensive training) and a shocking kissing controversy (Aishwarya is Abishek's girlfriend, but she has a kissing scene with Hrithik in this film).
Below are three trailers for Dhoom 2:
As usual *sniff sniff* because I doubt this is going to be released in Poland.
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