Welcome back Pixar, I missed you guys.
I suppose technically that’s not correct, since I did love Toy Story 3 a lot. But if I had to think of an original Pixar movie I loved without reservations, I’d have to think back as far as The Incredibles* in… 2004? (I say that a lot lately but man does time run fast). Since then, even the universally acclaimed Pixar movies had been hit and miss for me. Ratatouille was just ok with one great scene near the end. Wall-E was half of a brilliant film until it got to the fatties in space. Up was a quarter of a great movie – I honestly cannot remember anything that happens after the old man and the boy land in South America. So while Inside Out gathered all those great reviews, I still went into the movie rather cautiously.
Funny Girl by Nick Hornby
Caught the encore session for this movie today at Palace Cinema Como. I’m not usually a fan of westerns, but this one looked more offbeat and interesting plus I’m very partial to Michael Fassbender. Because I’m not into westerns I probably missed out on tons of references and tributes that the genre enthusiasts would pick up on and appreciate, but I really enjoyed it nonetheless.
I was very eager to check this book out. It got a lot of attention and praise, and the premise seemed interesting: it’s based on the real-life story of Agnes Magnusdottir, the last person to be executed in Iceland. She was beheaded in 1830 for her part in the gruesome murders of two men, one of them her employer, and the attempted cover-up by arson. Before the execution, she spent her last months at the rural home of Jon Jonsson, a middle-ranking official, and his family, a wife and two daughters. Iceland is a place that has always fascinated me, and I can’t say I’ve read many stories with it as a setting, so that made this book even more intriguing. Did it live up to the hype? Not really. I found it solid reading, but not that special, at least not consistently so.
Watched The Wolverine yesterday on regular TV; I really forgot how annoying the ad breaks are. Luckily a mute button was there for me to make things a little bit better.
I had a day off work today, so I decided to check out this movie, especially since it’s ending its run soon. Day sessions are weird; there were only three other people in the cinema and one of them, a guy with crazy hippy hair and a beard, seemed to be something of a mutterer – he mostly kept quiet though, thank god. There were also scuffling noises coming from the roof throughout the session, as if a bunch of possums decided to throw a party.
I should have had this blog years ago, when I was buying up to five albums a week sometimes and my CD collection ballooned over 900. Since then, I cut down my collection by about a third, and got much more selective about my purchases. By a coincidence, the last two I got are both by Australian artists.
yggdrasille.com 