food poisoning, movie news, carnaval and more essentials reads

First note to myself: never EVER eat expired food in the US!
Two weekends ago I ate some eggs which were 2 days over their expiration date. Have done that before in the Netherlands and never caused any problems.
Well, I guess I found out the hard way that the expiration date really is the expiration date in the US. Ate the eggs on a Friday evening so soon after I got sick and subsequently I had some serious throwing up and diarrhea to deal with during the entire weekend. Fun times!
It had been almost exactly 4 years since the last time I had to throw up so I guess I'm doing fine with serious short term illnesses :-)

As everyone knows Heath Ledger died last week which for some reason was more shocking than the average celebrity death. I did like his acting, especially in the not so mainstream movie "Monster's ball".
Whatever the cause of death, accidental OD on prescribed drugs seems likely, it is a shame that he had to go at the age of 28.

To end this post on a more positive note: there will be another carnaval party at my place!
It will take place in exactly one week from now so it's going to lots of fun and I will be drunk. Hopefully I'll be able to have such a perfect after drinking experience like the few times I actually drank alcohol last year.
And who knows, maybe drinking booze will finally make the swelling in my left nostril go away? Sure enough the septum is still not healed, much to my (and the doctor's) surprise. But the doc assured there's nothing to worry about since it's still clearly healing. It's just healing rather slowly. Oh well.

Gonna see "Rambo" later on tonight! That's going to be AWESOME as hell!!!

movies that didn't make my top 10 of all time faves

When I was making the top 10 of all time fave movies I didn't spend that much time on finding those 10. It was only after having picked those movies that two other movies quickly came to mind that easily could have ended up in the top 10. If only my memory had brought them back to my working memory faster.

To give these two masterpieces their dues which they more than fully deserve, I decided to make this post.

Breaking the waves

My first acquaintance with Lars von Trier was his amazing TV series "Kingdom/Riget" and I was hooked from the get go. "Breaking the waves" must be his first full length feature that I saw and my amazement only grew exponentially.

I think the term "relentless" describes this gut wrenching movie perfectly. The drama is pure, heartfelt and enthralling. The lengths to which Bess will go to fullfil Jan's wishes is as shocking as it is moving. The short interludes and use of great songs give the viewers some time to catch their breath before the hammer comes crushing down again.

The way in which von Trier shows every self imposed humiliation and determination is breath taking. I honestly can't find any words to describe how much "Breaking the waves" impressed and continues to impress me. The entire cast is superb but Emily Watson takes the deserved first spot with her wonderful performance as Bess.

Interestingly, had this movie ended up in my top 10 it would have been the 3rd movie (in addition to "Naked" and "Before the rain") to feature the amazing Katrin Cartlidge who unfortunately passed away infinitely way ahead of her time.

Bone chilling, goose bump and tears inducing; this movie has it all and then some. Watch it with a box of tissues and let yourself by carried away by this extremely moving movie!

Eternity and a day

This movie was my first acquaintance with the visionary film maker Theo Angelopoulis and my god, what an immensely breathtaking first acquaintance it was!

It was once again the Dutch TV channel who gave me the opportunity to see this film, several times actually. It is one of those movies that every time it was broadcasted (3, maybe even 4 times) I simply had to shut down everything else and watch it in complete silence and darkness.

The pace is slow but hypnotizing, the story is simple but very touching and the way in which Angelopoulis breathes life into his vision is pure poetry.

There are people who say Angelopoulis is pretentious, boring and self indulging. But with all 4 of his movies that I have seen so far I have been truly touched and impressed by this man's vision. As he himself has said numerous times, he does not make movies for the masses. If you don't like "Eternity and a day" then you're simply not a huge art house movie lover. Nothing to be ashamed of really.

Yet a real loss for you I'd say. How can you not love the photography? How can you not be mesmerized by the frequent transitions between past and present filled with a human's innermost memories?

Bruno Ganz' performance as Alexander is spellbinding and I've only become to realize in recent years how good this actor really is. I shall find out more of his movies to watch a true artist show me how well an actor's splendid performance can feed the soul.

I rcently found out that a Greek company called New Star has been releasing Angelopoulis' work on DVD under the supervision of the director himself. As such these DVD versions are of the best quality one will find. Additionally, Angelopoulis prefers his movies to be seen by audiences at the cinema so very few of his movies were available on DVD until now. I bought the Greek import version of "Eternity and a day" for $40 and will most likely buy all the other titles New Star has released and will release.

I can't wait to watch the tram riding scene again, even just thinking about it sends goose bumps all over my body. God, how much I love brilliant movies!

deviated septum aftermath

Here's a few pics from the surgery aftermath. They are bloody so if you can't stomach blood then don't look.


















This one was shot by Silvia just after I got home from the hospital.














This is one of the arm tags. Interestingly they give patients two tags, one for each arms. As if they're afraid they might perform the wrong surgery on you.


















This is about a week after the surgery, nose still swollen and blood crusts all over.


















I shot this pic tonight, 3 weeks and 1 day after the surgery. I still have a big bump on the septum in my left nostril. I do hope that bump will disappear in time. Have my last doctor's appointment tomorrow at 11:30am.