Archive for April, 2010

Another way to know it is spring.

Thursday, April 29th, 2010

You replace your daily check of the snow report provided by Skiforeningen (the Association for the Promotion of Skiing, based in Oslo) with the pollen forecast.

Change is in the air water.

Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

photograph of melting ice on a lakeYesterday, we took some time off for a short hike through the Nordmarka. There is still a bit of snow remaining between 200m and 300m, but the air was rich and warm, and the frozen surface of the lakes is slowly starting to split open again. I will have to wait a bit before taking a dive below the surface, but the days are getting longer and longer: summer awaits!

A single man – A day of drift.

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Thanks to Lars M.’s special sponsoring, I was recently able to go to the movies in spite of a really tight budget. (I was even able to get some nice treats for consumption during the show!) We chose to see A single man because I really like Colin Firth, who was nominated for an Oscar for this role. The rest of the setting sounded nice too: a single day in the life of a man, stylish early sixties design, a movie that takes its time. All of these promises were kept and I was not disappointed. The work on the colors (desaturated for the moments when Colin Firth was doubtful if the world was actually still worth living in, strongly saturated in moments of aesthetic and emotional fulfillment) might be a bit too obvious, but not too a degree that would make me uncomfortable. The worst thing that I can say about this movie is that I somehow found myself – though sympathetic to the protagonist’s pain – not really moved or emotionally involved. I kept a distance. In a way, the distance might be similar to the distance that the protagonist had to the world around him, to life that had lost its deeper meaning… but I would be surprised if achieving such an effect was intended.
IMDb entry | Trailer