50 favorite songs

Maybe it's more informative, if I present a list of some of the 50 songs that I like most.
I'm sure people will tell me about some song, that I will say: oh obviously, How could I forget.
But one thing I'm certain. These are 50 songs that I consider of very high quality and that I love to listen at least in some particular moment.

1) Tempo de nascer – Ornatos Violeta
2) Charlie Big Potato – Skunk Anansie
3) Glory box – Portishead
4) Hell is round the corner – Tricky
5) A little less conversation – Elvis Presley vs JXL
6) Black – Pearl Jam
7) Scam - Jamiroquai
8) The three of us – Ben Harper
9) Indifference – Pearl Jam
10) Há-de encarnar – Ornatos Violeta
11) Atom bride theme – Blasted Mechanism
12) Blow your mind – Jamiroquai
13) Gangster trippin’- Fat Boy Slim
14) Talk show host – Radiohead
15) Moonlight sonata – L. Beethoven
16) 3 am blues – Howard Alden (Sweet and Lowdown soundtrack)
17) Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder
18) Angel – Aretha Franklin
19) Wake up – Rage Against The Machine
20) Groove is in the heart – Deelite
21) Everyday people – Sly and the Family Stone
22) What I’d say – Ray Charles
23) Gente da minha terra – Mariza
24) No surprises – Radiohead
25) Across the universe – The Beatles
26) New Pollution – Beck
27) Lembra-me um sonho lindo – Fausto
28) Porto sentido – Rui Veloso
29) The universal – Blur
30) Air on a G string – J.S. Bach
31) Doidice – Djavan
32) Lacrimosa (Requiem) - W.A. Mozart
33) Souvenir – Morphine
34) Smile – Nat King Cole
35) Voodoo Chile – Jimmi Hendrix
36) Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
37) Caetano Veloso – Sonhos
38) A Banda - Chico Buarque
39) Nah Nah Nah – Vaya con Dios
40) To the teeth - Ani DiFranco
41) Corcovado – Joao Gilberto
42) Imagine – John Lennon
43) In my life – The Beatles
44) Strawberry fields forever – The Beatles
45) Great balls of fire – Jerry Lee Lewis
46) You can’t always get what you want – Rolling Stones
47) Down in the river to pray – Alison Krauss
48) Nothing compares 2 U – Sinead O’Connor
49) Me & Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
50) Lover, you should’ve come over – Jeff Buckley

Favorite artists, composers, bands

In the last few posts, I've always been talking about movies, but that was just because it was Oscars week.
Now I want to talk a bit about music.
As I said, I would like to know new artists, bands, musicians.
And therefore, I would like to have some suggestions from those who read this blog.
To help you come up with suggestions, i think it is useful for you to know what kind of music I listen to.
I have a wide range of music preferences.
So, here are a few names of artists, composers, bands that I really like:


With no particular order:

Radiohead, Ornatos violeta, Jamiroquai, Jeff Buckley, Fat Boy Slim, Rage Against the Machine, Portishead, Cla, Beck, Blasted Mechanism, Beastie Boys, Ben Harper, Blur, Beatles, Belle Chase Hotel (so apparently, I like artists starting with a B), and many more that I don't recall right now. These are just a few that I listened or still listen very often and consistently. There are a lot of other names that I listen just a few particular songs.
I'm waiting for your suggestions

The results are out. I failed almost half of the predictions, which considering the laws of odds, I didn't do very well. In some cases, I'm glad I didn't. I'm really glad that Sean Penn won and I don't mind at all that Danny boyle got the Oscar. I'm sure the following years will bring Oscars for Gus van Sant and David Fincher.

My guesses and my picks

Best Actor

Who will win - Mickey Rourke. Like I said below, Holywood loves a comeback.
Who should win - though it is unfair to talk without having seen Mickey Rourke's performance, I think Sean Penn's performance is Oscar material.

Best Supporting Actor

Who will win - Heath Ledger. And not because he died. In fact, Holywood has not been too keen on phostumous oscars (see Spencer Tracy and James Dean). But this time will be different..
Who should win - Heath Ledger. It is simply an amazingly complex character that Heath Ledger tackles beatifully and comically.

Best Actress

Who will win - Kate Winslet. After six nominations the Academy feels the pressure to award her and as Kate Winslet said in an Extras episode a couple years ago: Holocaust movies are always good for the Oscars
Who should win - Kate Winslet is an amazing actress and it is not a shameful choice that's for sure. But I only saw Anne Hathaway's performance (which is her best performance ever but it's not Kate Winslet level) so I don't know enough here

Best Supporting Actress

Who will win - This one is difficult. I'm going to guess Viola Davis (for Doubt)
Who should win - I have no idea. I only saw Taraji Henson (in Benjamin Button) and I don't think it deserves an Oscar. But Penelope Cruz or Marisa Tomei could also win the Oscar.

Best Animated Feature Film

Who will win - Wall-E
Who should win - Wall-E

Best Foreign Language Film

Who will win - Waltz with Bashir
Who should win - I don't know. I did not see any of it though I'd like to.

Best Director

Who will win - this will be very interesting to see. It's going to be tight. I'm going to guess Gus Van Sant.
Who should win - Oscars are a very complicated thing. They should be awarding the best performances in each year. However, the Academy's choices often mirror political issues and past performances. It was definitely because of past performances that Scorcese got the Oscar in the year of The Departed. So, this is a tough Oscar. On the one hand, I think Danny Boyle does a great work with Slumdog. On the other hand Gus van Sant and David Fincher are (for me) two special directors who have deserved an Oscar before and never got it. David Fincher has made three films that are always on my favorites list (Seven, The Game and Fight Club). Gus van Sant did Good Will Hunting (and many other interesting things). Moreover, Gus van Sant does an amazing work in Milk. Considering past and present, I consider that a deserving winner would be Gus van Sant.

Best Picture

Who will win - Slumdog Millionaire. Holywood loves an underdog and inspiring stories.
Who should win - The most enjoyable movie of the 2008 nominees is Slumdog, but considering everything I would say Milk is a better film.

I had more to say about the Best Picture Oscar but the Oscars are going to start in 3 minutes and I want to see if I'm right or not.

On Milk

I just saw Milk today. It is a great movie. Great directing by Gus Van Sant and great acting by Sean Penn and Josh Brolin. However, while I do recognize that Gus Van Sant and Sean Penn could get the Oscar without being unfair, I do think that Heath Ledger has a more deserving performance than Josh Brolin.
I think Mickey Rourke will get the Oscar (I haven't seen it but Holywood loves a comeback) but that is probably because Sean Penn already won an oscar before (Mystic River).

The best thing about Revolutionary Road

A short note on a film I saw yesterday: “Revolutionary Road” (coincidentally, I just saw on the comments are that Sara recommended it yesterday). It will not be a part of the 30 amazing movies of this blog, but is deserves two comments.

a) Leonardo DiCaprio offers a wonderful performance, at least as good as Kate Winslet’s, and all I hear is about Kate Winslet’s performance. Many times I have some difficulty in appreciating Leonardo DiCaprio’s performances, but this was one time that I was just amazed with his acting.

b) The best thing of the movie (for me) is Michael Shannon’s performance that the Academy acknowledged by nominating him for an Oscar for best performance in a supporting role. His character is absolutely delicious and I was always waiting for the character to show up again. The last time I had felt that was with Heath Ledger’s Joker in “The Dark Knight”. But, in any case, Heath Ledger’s performance is superior, and there is a strong chance that he’ll get the Oscar. But I’m still going to see Josh Brolin in Milk before the Oscars…

First movie; Slumdog Millionaire

Yesterday, I saw the first movie that I feel deserves to be mentioned here: "Slumdog Millionaire" by Danny Boyle (the same guy that did Trainspotting, one of my favorite movies).

The movie is about a kid (Jamal) who comes from the slums in Mumbai and we find him a question away from winning 20 million rupees (around 300 000 Euros) in the show “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. Since the show stopped for one night (to be continued the following day), we see him being interrogated by the police who is suspicious of this wonderful performance from an illiterate kid. So, great part of the movie is a depiction of the explanation that Jamal gives to the police as a justification to know all the answers. And basically he describes several episodes of his life that seemed to prepare him for each question of the show, as if everything was written and everything was meant to be.

As I have read from a movie critic: “At this point, you are left with a choice. You can let the cynic in you take over and sneer at the sheer contrivance and the crazy coincidences that hold the story together, which should keep you from developing any kind of emotional investment.(…) Or you can try to overlook that and ride along”

Once you take the latter road, you will be able to enjoy the magnificent cinematography, the contagious soundtrack and the great acting.

One thing that amazed me about the movie and pertains to what I felt about the acting (and maybe the filming in general) is that I saw the movie here in the Netherlands with Dutch subtitles and about 20% of the movie is in Hindi and nevertheless I never felt like I wasn’t aware of what was going on.

So, since I was able to suspend a cynical perspective and I ignored the predictability of the ending, I enjoyed a great movie, hopefully the first of many to come during this post doc.

I will try to watch all the movies nominated for Best Picture before the Oscars (Sunday). I already saw this one, "Frost/Nixon" and “The curious case of Benjamin Button. I still have to go see “Milk” and “The reader”.

Though I have enjoyed all three, I must say that Slumdog takes the cake.

living in a country in Northern Europe

As a social psychologist, I like the idea of testing stereotypes.
When I told people that I was going to The Netherlands, most of them would say: now, that is a civilized country! You will be amazed with the differences comparing to Portugal.

Well, after two weeks here, here are a few remarks about this northern Europe country

On the negative side:

- They throw their cigarettes or joints to the floor as much as Portuguese do.
- they step on grass and jaywalk as much as Portuguese do.
- they have as much respect for pedestrians crossings as Portuguese (and that says a lot on why this is on the negative side). However, they do stop on yellow light (which in Portugal means: Show us you can still make it!)
- the names of the streets are even more conspicuous than in Portugal (it's really hard to understand the street that you're in)
- ATM's are very rare. When I asked a collegue where the ATM was he said: well, there is one on Campus (it should be mentioned that this campus is as big as a giant shopping mall). And even in the center, it's not that common to find an ATM

On the positive side:

- people are very nice in general
- the english general level is very good (though some are not very eager to use it, even if you talk to them in english, most keep answering in dutch). Specially in the university, I am very impressed with their english, even at the undergraduate level. It's just amazing. And here, it is not even allowed to write a PhD thesis in other language than english (this is at least true for the Psychology Department).
- the facilities of the university are really good. I saw some of the Chemistry and Biology labs and I was really amazed. And obviously, I saw the Behavioral Science Institute Lab, namely the Virtual Reality Lab andb it's just incredible.

One other curious thing here, that is not positive nor negative, it's just the way it is, is that they don't use a lot of curtains here. You stroll on the street and all the ground floor houses "expose" their living room to the pedestrians and for those who are not used to it (like myself) it really brings up the "voyeur" in you and it's hard not to look. But I'm getting used to it.

All in all, it's a very interesting country and I'm very eager to learn more about dutch society and dutch people

This blog starts with a simple intent.
To talk about five things I want to enjoy during the duration of my postdoc:
Movies, music, books, wines and the postdoc in itself.

Since, a big part of my postdoc will take place in Nijmegen, the oldest city in the Netherlands, I will also take the opportunity to talk about life in the Netherlands.

About the movies, music, books, and wines.
I've always loved movies and music. And I consume a lot of it.
As for books, I've never read that much but I intend to change that.
And concerning wines, it is definitely an acquired taste... and boy, have I acquired it!!
I definitely know more about movies and music than about books and wines. But I'd really like to gather suggestions on all topics.
And this relates to the ulterior goal that led me to write this blog.
Before my postdoc ends, I want to enjoy (at least) 30 amazing movies, 20 great new artists (new to me!), 10 captivating books and 10 unforgettable wines.
And do a professional postdoctoral research in the meantime!

Therefore, for the next few years, I will write about these things and I really hope to have some people send me suggestions... maybe from the 3 readers that will follow this blog (that's what I'm aiming for).