New updtate on the lists

What I've enjoyed since the beginning of this blog:

Movies:

1) Slumdog Millionaire
2) 2001 Space Odissey
3) Dr Strangelove
4) It's a wonderful life
5) JFK
6) In the Valley of Elah
7) In Bruges
8) The graduate
9) Inglorious Basterds
10) Garden State

Books:

1) The lady with the dragon tatoo
2) The Road

Artists:

1) Tim Christensen
2) Elbow
3) Orquestra Imperial

Wines:

1) 3 Bagos Lavradores de Feitoria (Douro - White)
2) Cortes de Cima 2006 (Alentejo - Red)
3) Dolium (Alentejo - Red)
4) Callabriga 2007 (Douro - Red)
5) Passadouro Reserva 2004 (Douro - Red)
6) S de Soberanas (Terras do Sado - Red)

Movie #11 - Garden State (2004)

Garden State is simply the best OK movie I've seen in a long time. It was suggested to me by a friend (Dank je wel Martijn) who presented it as an OK movie. And he was right in the sense that the movie is not one bit pretentious and if I think about it there is nothing really spectacular about it. But within the kind of movie it aimed to, is just perfect. Nothing is wrong with it.
So, the movie is Zack Braff (the guy from Scrubs) 's directorial debut. It was critically acclaimed and tells a story of a guy who seems not to feel anything and numbly goes to their parents home to be in his mother's funeral. The people he knows and the transformation he undergoes there make the film wortwhile. For me, a big part of the reason I liked the movie so much was Natalie Portman. That girl can act and she's pleasant to watch. Also, the songs that populate each scene in a perfect way were personally chosen by Zack Braff and he got an award for that.
Not a masterpiece, but a great movie.

Please recommend a book

Since I've arrived in Nijmegen, I've read The Road (Cormac McCarthy), The Human Stain (Philip Roth) and The Lost Symbol (Dan Brown). This last one, by the way, I didn't like.
I don't have any book now. Could you please recommend something? Either in english or Portuguese.
thanks

Not all classics are good

In the vein of my thirst for classics that started a couple of years ago, I saw West Side Story last night. And it was important, because I realized that not all classics are good. I actually did not like the film. And it's not that I don't like musicals, because The Sound of Music is one of my personal favorites and it is by the same director (Robert Wise). So, it's not that. It's just that the film is boring, the plot is a very loose, very weak adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The choreographs are poor, with the exception of the musical number: Cool. The acting is pitiful. The lyrics are not inspiring (except for Gee, Officer Krupke). Some of the musics are catchy like I Feel Pretty, and some are beautiful and classic like Maria (I just met a girl named Maria...), but all in all, most of the times I felt bored by the movie. I do not recommend it but I can totally understand those who may like it. It just didn't feel right.

Book #2 - The Road (Cormac McCarthy)

And finally, I have a second book for the list.
I've just finished reading it and I read in less than a week. It's a less than 200 page-tale about a post-apocaliptical journey taken by a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unnamed cataclysm that destroyed all civilization and, apparently, most life on earth.
It amazed me by how the book completely stands on great writing. the plot is ridiculously simple, yet so powerful. The writing to support this kind of plot is necessarily rich. However, what I liked it most was how parsimonious was some of the writing. With just a few words, I could imagine the whole situation and how I would feel in such a situation. It is definitely intense and made me question very much about I would react in a situation like that. And in this sense, i agree with one review (By George Monbiot) that goes like this
"A few weeks ago I read what I believe is the most important environmental book ever written. It is not Silent Spring, Small Is Beautiful or even Walden. It contains no graphs, no tables, no facts, figures, warnings, predictions or even arguments. Nor does it carry a single dreary sentence, which, sadly, distinguishes it from most environmental literature. It is a novel, first published a year ago, and it will change the way you see the world". I agree.
Enjoy!

And now for something completely different

This post is not about books, or films, or music, or wines. It's about how far we've gone in terms of technology and tools to help us in our everyday life.
Yesterday, I got a call from my wife who's in Paris for a conference. She left the airport and took the subway to go to the hotel. And after half an hour looking for the hotel she called me and asked for directions. Never having been to that part of Paris was not an obstacle to the way in which I could help her. I turned on the computer, went to google maps and all she had to tell me was the street she was in. And there I was, 1000 kms from Paris giving directions about what she should be seeing and where she should turn without ever having been in that place. This is amazing. And the most amazing thing: it is completely natural to us and we don't even talk about it anymore. I just wanted to remind us about it.

Back in Nijmegen

And I'm back in the Netherlands. I haven't written here for a long time, mostly because of all the work of moving to a different country and get settled in.
Since I've arrived (more than two weeks ago), I still haven't had the chance to go to the movies, listen to new artists, read good books and try different wines.
But I can tell you this: yesterday, I saw What's eating Gilbert Grape (1993) and there was something about it worth writing about in here. In this film with Johhny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio and Juliette Lewis, DiCaprio plays an unforgettable role as Arnie Grape, a seventeen years old boy with a severe mental condition. His performance is absolutely flawless. I was really amazed. Though I've always been able to appreciate his acting skills in other movies like The Departed and others, the fact is that I always have trouble to take him serious because of his babyface. Now, in this character he lands it perfectly not because of that young appearance but it sure doesn't harm him.

I'm sure I'll see a lot of movies in the following months. I'm going to enjoy more and more to be indoors while I'm in Nijmegen. I leave you with a picture of the view from my house in one of these mornings so you can understand my passion for indoors right now.