Random thoughts on the inauguration

Glued to the TV set ... check. :-) I literally ran off from work to catch the first possible bus, to get home asap and park myself in front of the TV to watch every moment I could of the live broadcast. It's an experience ... one that I wouldn't want to miss. Whereas GWB's inaugurations I didn't even consider watching. There's something special about that Obama guy, there really is ...

Hardly anyone cheered for Georgie, that rocked. :-) They are just so over him. :-D

Why aren't they consistent with the names? The Vice President-Elect Joseph R Biden Jr ... but Vice President Dick Cheney?? Why not either Joseph R and Richard B, or Joe and Dick? I don't get it. I mean, I'd get it if they were consistent either way. But if they're going to say Dick, they might as well say Joe, too. He doesn't go by Joseph any more than Cheney goes by Richard.

Oh, and Tricky Dick II injured himself while packing papers in his office?? Hm. Papers that were going to the shredder, then, I assume. >:-)

Rick Warren can't count. The transition from one president to the other is not happening today for the 44th time, like he said; it's the 43rd time. Just like New Year's Eve 1999 did not see the dawn of a new century (ho-hum); the new century began on January 1st, 2001. When will people get this?? God obviously won't be helping anyone with it ... I guess god can't count either.

WTF was that thing on Aretha Franklin's head?? Doesn't she have mirrors in her house?? Her birthday's in a couple of months, I hope someone will give her one.

zomg he's president!! Barack Obama's president!! :-o And he's still alive. I've got chills. But aww, he was so nervous! :-D Charming IMO - whereas if GWB had done the same, I'd have decried him as a retarded monkey. Isn't that interesting. >:-)

Speech IMO not great, but good. Some incorrect statements of belief (eg 'our workers are as productive as ever, our minds are as inventive as ever' - lol, I highly doubt it!!), some bullshit, some creepy pandering to the warmongering demographic. But what he said about the environment, resources etc - that was very good and very important. I just hope someone will actually listen ... but again, I tend to doubt it. :-(

Overall a good speech, but hardly 'Four score and seven years ago' ... to my ears, at least. It got better towards the end. Inspirational, I guess ...

All this god talk is so annoying. God bless this and that. What's wrong with these people?? Do they not read the papers?? This god of theirs blessed them with GWB, that's how much he loved them, and now look what things are like over there. Yet another example of how those who suffer the most from it are always the ones who most staunchly defend the system ...

Joseph Lowery's speech got really good though. The ending bit about the colors, that rocked. He's funny. :-D

Oh, the Star-Spangled Banner. What an awful, awful song. I'm sorry, Americans ... but your national anthem is a really bad song. It's nothing to do with you or your government's politics or anything else. It's just a very bad song. You poor people who have to force your way through it. Give me the Hymn of the Federation any day. But at least they only sang the first verse.

OK, so it wasn't that the President (woo-hoo!) got nervous, it was that the other guy did it wrong. Ah, of course! Obama obviously can't do anything wrong. I should have known.

Well, that's that. Congrats!! Change has come. (Sorry, but: *rollseyes*) Kinda creepy when someone, before the principals had entered the stage, said the word 'change' in some context, and the crowd cheered just because of that. Umm ... Here's hoping that all the massive amounts of hard work that the American people no doubt have ahead of them won't be off-putting to anyone. Their culture in the 21st century so values struggle and sacrifice, so it shouldn't be a problem. *cough* Well ... good luck, guys. You're gonna need it. But now you at least have a hell of a guy to break the path for you. Please don't shoot him.

Bush is leaving town! Yay!! Me so happy, happy! That's one bad habit you've kicked already right there. ;-)

FINALLY ... !!!

It's felt like this day would never come. It's just dragged on and on and on ... it's taken forever ... it's felt like we would never get rid of that chimp-faced warmongering idiot. And if we, the semi-mythical Rest Of The World, have felt like that, imagine how the Americans must have felt! Imagine how it must have been like for them - if we've been feeling like we couldn't turn on the news or open a paper without seeing his ugly mug, think about those poor saps, who really literally couldn't! At least we've got our own politicians to take the focus off. But the Americans, they've been stuck with their crappy media and their even crappier president. How they must have suffered. I shudder at the thought. But FINALLY, those awful days are behind us. FINALLY, we're leaving that valley of woe. FINALLY, we can all join together in a joyful chorus and say ...

BYE, GEORGE!!



I'm not saying that from here on out we will all be swimming in milk & honey. On the contrary - as always happens in American elections, they're really just trading one right wing nutcase for another right wing nutcase. But intelligence, integrity, respect, humility, a top level education, a varied background and the ability to actually learn from one's experiences ... these are good things. That's all I'm saying. They're good things.

Plus a gorgeous smile, a sexy voice and general hotness never hurt anyone. Just sayin'.

Congratulations, Americans!! For those of you with properly functioning brains (I just ran across a couple of you without them, in the BookCrossing Chit-Chat forum - like, omg lolz!!) it must be a great source of pride to know that the world is watching you today ... and for once, not cringing in embarrassment or shouting in anger. I personally will be glued to my TV set. Today is a historic day, and I'm so grateful to be allowed to experience it. We should all be. It's a small step, but it's progress. Congratulations.

Edgar A. Poe @ 200 today

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19th, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts. A tragic, sad, pathetic life ... but an immortality that few dare to dream of and hardly anyone achieves. The impact of his work on Western literature is immeasurable. Please forgive the following horrible pun: His like shall be seen among us - nevermore!

I will celebrate the bicentenary by releasing this book in downtown Oslo today. I have a place all figured out. :-)

'Sandra and Keanu Tell All'

I promised James that this week's Keanupicture would be something even he could enjoy. It exists!! Not a picture, though, but a video. Even you Keanuhaters out there have got to watch this ... in fact maybe especially you, but I have to say that Keanufans who take offense at this (of which there are some) need to grow up and get a sense of humor.

This video is so fucking funny ... ! I laughed my head off the first time I saw it and I still laugh now every time I watch it. (Yes, I am immature ... you got a problem with that?? :-) Make sure you watch it with the sound on, and read the subtitles. The subtitles are the whole point. It's so simple and so funny.

The clip is from an interview that Keanu did with Sandra Bullock to promote The Lake House back in ... 2006. But the subtitles, it's the subtitles ... !! :-D

Oslo Cinematheque program Jan/Feb 2009

In 2008, I had a resolution that I'd decided on that I totally failed to live up to. It was to go to the Cinematheque more (ie more than I'd done in 2007). I failed utterly & completely. Findabair got me to go to one screening during the OGLFF in June, and since then I haven't set foot there. Shame on me! In my defense, I have to say that at least during the second half of -08 they didn't have a lot on their programs that interested me. But I probably could have found a movie or two during what, six months ... so it's no real excuse. But I've just gotten totally out of the habit of going there. Which is seriously weird, because when I used to live at Slependen and then in Sandvika, which are both outside the city, I went to lots of screenings - I used to go there way more often back then than what I've done since I've actually been living in the city. So it's really weird.

I hope to do better this year. Didn't include it in my New Year's resolutions, cause obviously that didn't work. ;-) But here's hoping. On Thursday last week I was at the movies with KAS and trilltrall, the screening was at Saga and they had the Cinematheque program available there ... we all took copies and while we were waiting for the movie to start (review coming up :-) we discovered that this time, they've actually got a lot of good stuff up their sleeves. We're going to go really often now. Totally. Watch this space *cough* ...

Anyway ... I thought I'd blog about this, in an effort to get people to nag me to actually do this. KAS, trilltrall, I hope you're paying attention here - I'm doing this to help us. ;-) This is what I'm interested in seeing from this current program. If anyone's in Oslo and thinks any of this looks interesting too, let me know! I'm there! :-)

January

Saturday 24th, 6pm, Tancred
(Yes, they're doing Saturday screenings now!)
Benjamin Christensen: Häxan
This is a silent and this will be a concert screening! How cool is that! :-D

Sunday 25th, 4pm, Tancred
Victor Fleming: Gone with the Wind

Friday 30th, 8:30pm, Lillebil
Victor Fleming: Gone with the Wind

Saturday 31st, 3pm, Lillebil
Hayao Miyazaki: Porco Rosso

February

Wednesday 4th, 7pm, Tancred
Billy Wilder: The Front Page

Thursday 5th, 6pm, Tancred
Rikli/Buhre: Kampf um Norwegen

Saturday 7th, 1pm, Lillebil
Clements/Musker: The Little Mermaid
Saturday 7th, 3pm, Lillebil
Stephen Daldry: Billy Elliot

Sunday 8th, 4pm, Tancred
Gunnar Sommerfeldt: Markens grøde
Sunday 8th, 8:30pm, Lillebil
Billy Wilder: Some Like It Hot

Tuesday 10th, 8:3opm, Lillebil
Billy Wilder: Some Like It Hot

Wednesday 11th, 7pm, Tancred
Rikli/Buhre: Kampf um Norwegen

Saturday 14th, 3pm, Lillebil
Rob Reiner: The Princess Bride

Wednesday 18th, 7pm, Tancred
Ivan Pyrjev: The Brothers Karamazov

Thursday 19th, 6:30pm, Lillebil
Billy Wilder: The Seven Year Itch

The 70mm Festival 2009 opens on February 20th!! Don't miss it!!

Friday 20th, 7pm, Tancred
Robert Wise: West Side Story
Friday 20th, 10:15pm, Tancred
Ron Fricke: Baraka

Saturday 21st, 7:30pm, Tancred
Basil Dearden: Khartoum

Sunday 22nd, 12pm, Tancred
David Lean: Doctor Zhivago
Sunday 22nd, 3:30pm, Tancred
Aleksander Zarkhi: Anna Karenina

Monday 23rd, 8pm, Tancred
Richard Brooks: Lord Jim

Wednesday 25th, 6pm, Tancred
Aleksander Zarkhi: Anna Karenina
Wednesday 25th, 8:30pm, Tancred
Basil Dearden: Khartoum
Wednesday 25th, 8:30pm, Lillebil
Tian-Ming Wu: The King of Masks

Thursday 26th, 6pm, Tancred
Tim Burton: Batman
Thursday 26th, 8:30pm, Tancred
Robert Wise: The Sound of Music
Thursday 26th, 8:30pm, Lillebil
Tian-Ming Wu: The King of Masks

Friday 27th, 6pm, Tancred
Ron Fricke: Baraka

Saturday 28th, 2:30pm, Tancred
Robert Wise: The Sound of Music

So ... pick one of each, obviously :-D ... most movies are screened twice when they're on the program here. Tancred is much the better screen, it seats almost 200 to Lillebil's about 65. All the 70mm screenings will be in Tancred, of course. Full Cinematheque program here, full 70mm program included. Some good stuff. Hope I'll see you there. :-)

Quote of the Week

Belief in the supernatural reflects a failure of the imagination.
Edward Abbey

Winter Wonderland

OK, time for something more pleasant. I said a while back that I was going to post some shots of a real Norwegian winter landscape - pictures I took when I was in Nannestad for New Year's. (From which I haven't posted anything either. Sheesh, me.) Well, no time like the present. A collection of wintry landscapes, not in order, for your viewing pleasure, offered here. :-)