Aandiebeginwasdaar

"Deep Water" - moving

Deep Water is a film currently showing on DSTV. This documentary covers the true story of how Don Crowhurst, Bernard Moitessier and others attempt to sail around the world on their own.

The first words of the film are “We are all human beings and we all have dreams.” Very apt. This deeply moving film examines Man’s (sometimes tragic) quest for adventure and glory. But it is far more than that; it is about friendship, failure, family, priorities, greed and solitude. I would say it is essentially about men. Real Men; with their strengths AND weaknesses. But it also explores these men’s relationships to their families and how unwittingly destructive these men can be.

I like to think I have exploration in my blood. I think most men, especially Afrikaners, feel the same. I know my father has it in his blood; he has travelled into remote Africa on his own for months on end. This need to explore – in solitude sometimes – is something that fascinates me tremendously.

This film hit my right in the chest; Twice! I give it 8.5/10 – a must see!

Gisteraand op TCM het hulle die uitmuntende The Killing Fields gewys. Die fliek is gebaseer op die ware verhaal van Dith Pran, ‘n Kambodjaanse joernalis, wat na Amerika se ontrekking uit Kambodja gevangene geneem word deur die wreedlustige Khmer Rouge. Al het die fliek ‘n “gelukkige” einde is dit ‘n verskriklike hartseer fliek. Dit wys net weereens hoe Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely.

Hierdie is een van die beter flieks van die laaste 30 jaar. Ek gee hom 4.5 / 5. Niemand kan ooit die musiek van Mike Oldfield (hieronder) hoor en nie aan die merkwaardige storie dink nie.

Quantum of Solace

‘n Goeie vriend van my (lees sy Polities Korrekte blog) het vir ons kaartjies gekry vir die nuwe James Bond fliek. Wat dit nog meer spesiaal gemaak het is dat dit ons 1ste fliek by die nuwe Rosehill Mall flieks in Port Alfred was.

Eerstens die nuwe flieks: Die fliek het net 60 sitplekke. Dis klein, maar glad nie ‘n probleem nie – inteendeel dis nogal cosy. Die skerm is nie baie groot nie, naar dis ook heel oukei. Die klank is nie so watwonders nie. Ek gee die flieks 6/10. Nie vreeslik goed nie, maar hey dis 25 minute weg. Bargain!

Olga Kurylenko. Deksels!

Nou die fliek self: Ek moet sê ek is nie ‘n Daniel Craig aanhanger nie. Hy kom vir my te veel soos ‘n gorilla voor. There is no subtlety about the guy. En sy bolip is net eenvoudig onatuurlik lank. Maar ten spyte daarvan, was Quantum of Solace vir my heel goed. Daar is beslis ‘n neiging om meer “realisme” in te bring sedert Casino Royale en dit werk nogal. Byvoorbeeld daar is nie ‘n stirred-not-shaken Martini in hierdie fliek nie. Ander goed ook, maar ek wil nie te veel weggee nie.

Hulle het goddank darem nie weggedoen met die gorgeous girls nie. In die fliek is dit die Ukreiener Olga Kurylenko en die Brit Gemma Arterton. Die motor voertuie is ook uit die boonste rakke. Veral die Ford Edge waarmee 007 aan die einde gery het het aandag vereis. Ek sou die fliek 6/10 gee, maar met Olga en Gemma skuif dit op na ‘n respektabele 7/10.

I saw Syriana for the first time last night. An outstanding if disturbing movie. I thought the story was superb, although I think there is more truth than fiction in the movie. I don’t want to give away anything so all I will say is that I unreservedly recommend this movie. 4½ stars.

I loved the first 2 books (Wolf Brother & Spirit Walker) in The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series so I was looking forward to the 3rd one – called Soul Eater. Unfortunately it didn’t really rise to my expectations. I can’t really put my finger on it, but the story felt a little thin. Also I loved the forest stuff in the first books – the author described everything so well you could feel it, but Soul Eater is set more in the icy world of the North. And I didn’t get the same atmosphere.

Having said all that, I will certainly read the next one!

Awesome Freebie: I don’t know how they managed to swing this, but they got Sir Ian McKellen to read Wolf Brother, the first book, and best of all you can listen to it for FREE! Just go to The Gaurdian’s Wolf Brother site and download. Good job Gaurdian!

I’ve used Adobe Photoshop Elements until now, but Elements don’t work as well with RAW so I need to upgrade. The 2 obvious choices (I use Nikon) are Nikon Capture NX and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. They both allow you to non-destructively improve your photos. This is what I’ve found:

In my opinion Lightroom’s organisation and workflow capabilities are fantastic. They have used and improved on much of their already good product, Photoshop Elements. Lightroom also is very good when it comes to improving RAW photos. The vibrancy and saturation sliders are very quick to use.

Nikon Capture’s organisation and workflow capabilities are quite limited. But Nikon Capture is astounding when it comes to improving RAW (.NEF files) images. And it is so quick to do. Half-a-minute with Nikon Capture is enough time to optimise white-balance and improve your tones.

Both these products can improve your photos so much that it positively makes YOU feel great. The improvements really are astonishing. If I could afford both products I would have them both, but I can only afford one so a winner must be named! I choose Adobe Lightroom. Nikon Capture’s RAW conversion is just slightly better, but Lightroom’s workflow and other goodies are much better than Nikon Capture.

Update: As I’ve already mentioned, Lightroom is a great product, but the one gripe I have is its speed. On my Dell with 1GB of RAM Lightroom is sluggish. Crawling the web suggests this is an issue. If I look at how crisp Photoshop Elements is I am disappointed that Lightroom is so slow.

Another update: Lightroom addressed this issue in subsequent releases. The sluggishness is gone gone gone.

Another update: It is now 1 year later (April 2008) and now I am a die-hard Lightroom fan. The product has now matured nicely to version 1.4.1 with Beta 2.0 already released. This product is unbeatable despite its hefty price tag (especially for South-Africans).

I host my photos at Adam Heunis Photography.

What I love about this movie is that (in the same way as Crash did the year before) Blood Diamond takes care not to have Hollywood goodies & baddies.

Say what you like, but white Southern African white males are always portrayed in the Western media as violent racist thugs, but it is just not that simple. I thought Leonardo’s multi-layered character was extremely realistic. So much so that I was really taken in by him.

On the big question: Leonardo does the South African accent well enough for me to think of him as a South-African throughout the movie. So I think he succeeds.

Djimon Hounsou also puts in a very powerful performance. He portrays the absolute hopelessness (its the best word I can use) of the horrific wars in Central and West Africa in a way that suggests he’s had first hand experience.

Jennifer Connelly (more stunning than ever with no make-up) is also very good and honest as Maddie, but I have to say that if there were journalists as gorgeous as Jennifer Connelly running around in The Horn of Africa, then maybe there is a reason to go and check it out after all

The one negative is that some scenes / events aren’t entirely believable.

Blood Diamond is a thought provoking gem (excuse the pun) of a movie and it gets 4 out of 5 from me.

Lené suggested this book to me. Her previous recommendation (Life of Pi) was outstanding so I had hopes for this one.

I was however disappointed. It just wasn’t a story I could get into. I know its good how the autistic boy figures things out etc. But to me there’s not enough of a story.

I have just finished Life of Pi by Canadian Yann Martel.

There were bits at the start of the book that made me doubt whether I was going to enjoy this book, but I’m glad I kept on reading because Pi dragged me into his world without much trouble after that.

There are some hilarious moments in the book, but also some profound ones. I daren’t say anything further!

This is an outstanding book and I can highly recommend it.

Someone else who loved this book was Charles Joubert.

Finished reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman today.

This book can be classified as Americana with a mix of mythology, but I prefer Urban Fantasy. It has won the 2002 Hugo, Nebula and Bram Stoker awards, all for Best Novel. It was also nominated for Best Novel in the 2002 BSFA Award.

This is not my typical kind of book, but I was very pleasantly surprised. It is entirely readable and it will make a very good movie.