Land of the shooting stars

So, I’m back. Of course since I didn’t post that I was going away you might have thought I was just being lazy again but in fact I was in the bloody middle of nowhere at a film festival. At the “Anonimul” Film Festival(click here for the official page). First off let me tell you a bit about the location. Remember when I said two sentences ago that this is in the middle of nowhere? I meant it. It’s in the Danube Delta and you can only get there by boat(more about why I fucking hate those boats later). So we arrive there Monday evening(not really evening more around 5PM-ish), walk the approximately 1.5 miles from the pier to the camp site, pay and go set up the tent. All goes well until we get to the stakes part. Apparently the ground hates me and is frozen solid(why yes, I do have Yossarian complex, why do you ask?). We kind of get them in, pray that our backpacks are heavy enough to keep the thing down and then we try to tie the ropes. Well, uh, I’ve only had the tent for 6 years how was I supposed to know that the pegs used for the ropes are supposed to go in at an angle? Yes, I suck at camping. After all this is done we go and look for coffee because gosh, darn it, I’ve been without coffee for a full 6 hours. We find coffee, or what they try to pass as coffee but seeing as the only other place that sells coffee is back near the pier…coffee, good!

Other then that it was boring. We’d wake up at 8-9 in the morning, go drink coffee, wait for the sun to move then go sleep/read under a fence and maybe if we were feeling energetic enough walk to the village or the sea(two different directions and a long walk either way). Then at 6 we’d plunk down at a good table, have more coffee, try to decide what to eat, eat and then watch movies and drink. Oh, yeah an exciting life. Friday we met a couple of guys, one of which really, but really, really looked like Rudolf Martin when he had his sunglasses on, but way less when he took them off(clicky here to see how Rudolf looks with glasses). Sad. They saved me and my friend from killing each other so it was all good in the ed. But dang, why did he have to take the glasses off? Did I mention I have a thing for Rudolf Martin? ‘Cause I do.

The worst part was the boat. We decide to go home Saturday morning. We get up at 6, pack the tent, and hike back to the pier only to be told that there are no more tickets. Cursing, then more cursing and even more cursing. Fine, ok, whatever. We walk back to the camp, set the bloody tent again. Next morning, we wake up a 5, pack the tent, walk tot the tent, hoping to find tickets for any of the boats that day. Guess what? No cigar, or in our case no tickets. They changed the system from the previous year so we had no clue that you could buy tickets in advance. We got bored and the prospect of spending another night sleeping in a tent was too awful so we found some guys with a speedboat and rode in style!

Also have you ever watched fireworks up close? Really, really close? Close as in burning parts falling 2 feet away from you? Oh, yeah…cool. And scary. But really, really cool. Made even cooler by the fact that it was also a moon eclipse at the same time. And that there were a lot of shooting stars(hence the title).

So, now for the movies:
The good: The Wave(Germany) was absolutely brilliant and I’d recommend you watch if you have the chance. I also liked the Lemon Tree(Israel).

The decent: It’s hard to be nice (Bosnia & Herzegovina)was ok-ish but I’m not sure I’d watch it again, Silent Light(Mexico), who also won the prize could have been a good movie but I didn’t make it to the end. It’s artsy and can be boring but I would like to make it to the end someday

The bad: Boogie(Romania) proved once again that we cannot make a decent movie to save our lives. It wasn’t as much bad as it was useless. Trust me, I spent 2 hours looking for the plot.

The ones I don’t have an opinion on: Egg(Turkey) and Help me Eros(Taiwan) were boring and we were tired so I think I watched 15, maybe 20 minutes out of each.

The short films were better. I liked a lot of them, with special mention for Bad habit little rabbit, The Yellow Smiley Face, Strawberries in April, Muli, Test and Cat-man-do(the last one is below…enjoy!).



Sorry, I’m still not exactly coherent right now so you’ll have to try to make sense of all that mumbo-jumbo.

Gods of ice cream, why do you tempt me?

Ok, you can assume that this will have something to with ice cream and you wouldn’t be that far off. You see, this really cool shop opened in my little corner of the world and they sell the most amazing ice cream ever(it almost rivals the one I ate in enormous quantities in Croatia) so of course, now I have 2 boxes of the stuff in my fridge. Actually I had to boxes because I kinda ate a whole one by myself, it’s just so good. I didn’t mean to, I swear I didn’t. I actually paused the movie to return it to its rightful place (and no, I am not conspicuously calling it the movie to deny the fact that I am watching Gilmore Girls for the billionth time). So, as I was saying, I paused the movie three times to go to the kitchen and put the box back in the fridge but every single bloody time I stopped to take just one more bite and after 30 seconds of standing next to the light switch I’d just decide that meh, more ice cream never killed anyone. And so I ate a full box of ice cream. I’m denying all responsibility for this and instead, like any normal person would do, I’m blaming it on the gods of ice cream, those fickle friends who must hate me or something. At least it wasn’t a really big box.

And, ah, I also noticed I like the same type of ice cream Dean likes: chocolate with something green on top: either mint or pistachio. And the green must be on top, I’d explain but then you’d think I’m crazy or something.

I just wrote a blog entry about me eating a full box of ice cream. Life is really boring and there must be something about “the movie” that makes me chatty. Huh, imagine that.

Can I write this off as a reward for getting halfway thru the first module in Chemistry?

*squeaks**hyperventilates**faints*

A friend found for me the unaired pilot for Gilmore Girls.

This is just so…perfect! I’m speechless and that doesn’t happen too often.

Would a 20-foot gold statue be too flashy?

P.S: Did any of you hover for just a second when you got out of bed this morning?

Oh, no I’m not obsessed

Why do I always keep coming back to my obsessions? Might be cause life is totally and utterly boring lately. Seriously, I’d be excited if I found a patch of recent paint so I can watch it dry. That might explain my recent lack of blog posts. There is absolutely nothing to write about. A bit of a minor freak-out on the uni topic but I’m gonna blame that on PMS or something and be over with. I just want the summer to be over. Anyway less then 2 months left so it’s getting closer. I’ve even started going thru some chemistry notes so I deserve cookies for that effort. And because I actually wanted to brag: I spent 3 hours debating online if evolution a la Heroes is actually possible. Oh, yeah…you can shoot me. I blame it on the solar eclipse tomorrow. Also, I dug up my Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis CD just so I can take some screencaps and prove I’m not insane when I talk about the similarities(I saw Indy and the Kingdom again yesterday and I’m thinking of renting the other 3 this weekend). I’m pathetic.

Tell us about one book that changed your life

Blog roll tour

This is going to sound stupid but the book that changed my life was “The adventures of Sherlock Holmes: 12 short stories”. Bear with me while I explain this one. I first read that book when I was 7 or 8 and was immediately fascinated by this awesome man, who really knew everything. I did find out in “A study in scarlet” that he didn’t know absolutely everything, but that was beside the point. He could identify the type of cigar by looking and touching the ashes. He said outrageous things that always turned up to be true. He could play the violin. He is awesome(I have a bit of a crush on him, can you tell?). Of course, with Sherlock Holmes came the world of murder mysteries and forensics. I won’t start now detailing my obsession with that. Suffice to say that I have an impressing collection of true-crime books and I’ve watched way too many forensic shows(Discovery Channel, I will forever love you). And now I am on my way to university were I’m going to study forensic science. And it all started with that one Sherlock Holmes book.

I'm ubergeek

You know what it means to truly be a movie geek? To buy a magazine, jump up and down because someone really loves and the free DVD is Lars Von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, have a 10 minute internal debate whether you like this one or Europa more and then decide that you need to watch both again to make a decision and that since you’re already watching these you can add Dogville to the list to really make it a party. Open said magazine, see the article about Milos Forman, take 10 minutes to compile a mental top 5 of his movies(from number 5 to number 1: Man on the moon, Hair, Valmont, Amadaeus, One flew over the cuckoo’s nest). After this is done spend another 5 minutes trying to decide if the person who gave Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 5 stars is an idiot and how come no one in the world seems to have notice that the movie is annoyingly similar to the old computer game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis??? I still liked the movie but come on!!! Then debate if it’s possible for a series to rip itself off or if that would cause the world to implode.

And after all that is over find the article that says that M. Night Shaymalan has a new movie out and the reviewer says it’s the worst one yet and decided you mustmustmust see it now!

I have 70 days more of THIS?

The madness is getting worse. Animals are starting to run away scared every time they hear her voice. The dog shivers in the farthest corner of the yard. And I can’t hide so I must deal with the mom-monster. Gawds!, help me survive.

You might have guessed from that paragraph that the insanity is getting a wee-bit out of hand at my house. I have 2 months and a week until I leave for England and already my mother has decided that I need to start buying things because ohmylord I’m moving in the middle of nowhere and how could they possibly have anything there? Of course, this is the same woman who came with me to college the first time around just to buy me pots and pans ‘cause what if pwecious needed them? Well, mom, pwecious could buy her own pots and pans, trust me on that. I get it, it’s the whole empty nest thing(although she’s never shown an interest in my life…can you say dysfunctional family?) but come on! In the past 7 days I have had the following conversations:

Mom: “I saw these beautiful towels at store today.”
Me: “Ok.”
Mom: “I was thinking we could go by next week and you can pick some.”
Me: “For what? I don’t care if they’re neon purple and have elephants on them.”
Mom: “But they’re for university and I thought…”
Me: *chocking on drink** “They’re for what?”
Mom: “For you to take away with you when you leave.”
Me: “Mom, I am not carrying towels with me 3000 kilometers!”

Two days later:

Mom: “I was at *different store** today and I saw these sheets…”
Me: *watching some TV program while half-listening “Uh-huh…”
Mom: “And I thought I could get you some but they had flowers on them and I didn’t know if you’d like them.”
Me: “I already have sheets I like, why would I need more?”
Mom: “Well, not for here, obviously, but for when you leave.”
Me: “Mom, I am not carrying sheets with me 3000 kilometers!”

Another day later:

Mom: “And I was thinking you could take my umbrella, since it’s really nice or maybe we could go look for another one you liked….”
Me: “Mom, I am not carrying an umbrella with me 3000 kilometers!”

You get the point, right? Well, apparently she didn’t because this morning we had this conversation:

Mom: “And next week you should really start looking for things you have to buy.”
Me: “And what exactly do I have to buy?”
Mom: “Well some notebooks, and pens, and maybe some paper clips but no, wait I can get you those from my office and…”
“Me: "MOM, I AM NOT CARRYING OFFICE SUPPLIES WITH ME 3000 KILOMETERS!!!”

And nope, this is not mom trying to spend more time with me. She is convinced that I need all these things(and lord knows what else).

Of course, we now also have the family joke about me taking the giant electric tea kettle with me…and I’m only have sure she’s joking.