today i decided to finally do a trip to the fish creek provincial park, conveniently located in southern calgary, whence reachable by c-train. well. as long as you use the canyon meadows stop and not the fish creek-lacombe stop, even though the latter name sounds like it is closer. here are some impressions.
i guess i should have went there during fall. with colored leafs this probably looks more interesting. but it’s still nice, though many trails are currently closed.
yesterday i attended a concert by the seattle based power metal band nevermore. (i’m not going to concerts that often anymore… the last one was opeth‘s 20th anniversary on april 1st in bochum, which i never mentioned in this blog so far it seems, and the one by moonsorrow in helsinki in march.) this one was in calgary, on a thursday evening, a concert with four bands, doors opening at 8 pm. not a good idea, in my opinion. in fact, the first band started somewhen after nine, and nevermore didn’t start until short before midnight. so much for getting up early today (my alarm clock was set to 7 in the morning for cake preparations…).
the bands playing before nevermore were (melodic death/thrash) from denmark, blackguard (folk/melodic death) from montreal and (thrash) from the u.s.
warbringer is not making exactly the kind of music i like, and neither is hatesphere, though i liked the latter more. opposed to that, blackguard was really good. (i have to listen to more of their stuff…) but i didn’t go there for the other bands, but because i finally wanted to see nevermore.
eventually, nevermore entered the stage. once again i got reminded that live versions of song sound often different than the studio versions. the show was very nice, but i would have preferred another selection of songs. i should have made more notes yesterday, then i might be able to recover the setlist they played, but i think now it’s too late to get it correct.
one very nice thing about this concert was that i didn’t notice anyone smoking on the inside. that’s really nice. (and it’s a shame that i have to note this, which means that this is not the case by defaut.)
today i went shopping, and bought quark. haven’d had that for a long time. i turned parts of it into stippmilch, a dish popular in the münsterland in germany. mix quark with milk, add some sugar, and done it is. i also added brown sugar and cocoa nibs (unfortunately it’s not the right time for strawberries).
i just love this dish. it’s simple, refreshing, you can make it as sweet (or non-sweet) as you want. just perfect. if it just wouldn’t be such a hassle to get quark here…
i usually don’t really care about actors, directors etc. of films. but from time to time, a name recurrs often and impressively enough that i remember it. one such name is johnny depp. after some movies with him, i noticed that all movies i can remember him from were good. which is a good sign. so far, i saw
(the order is hopefully the order in which i saw them.) and as far as i remember, all of them are very good. movies i wouldn’t mind to watch again. (and again.) in fact, some of them i watched several times, in particular dead man, one of my most favorite movies. (i’m somewhat surprised i never wrote something about it. i guess i have to do that as soon as i see it again, which will be hopefully around christmas.) i first saw dead man somewhen late on tv, i’m not sure anymore why. maybe because i read that it had an interesting improvised soundtrack by neil young. anyway, this movie just blew me away.
two of the above movies, namely corpse bride and alice in wonderland, i saw on planes (air canada probably), somewhere between calgary and frankfurt.
the first pirates of the caribbean also has a special place in my memories. when watching it the first time, we had someone in the audience who, at a very few occasions, shouted something into the movie theater. i usually hate that, but this time, it made everything even more hilarious. it was just great.
after some silence, bad religion released another album this year, called the dissent of man. the fifteenth in their thirtyone years long career. and a good one, i think.
here’s one rather catchy track:
i just learned about the complaints choirs project: choirs from all over the world create a song complaining about annoying things in their life. here’s the recording from helsinki, which i like best from the few i saw. its sung in finnish, but there are english subtitles:
the last week, i was in bellevue, attending the 14th workshop on elliptic curves and computation, held at microsoft research. during that time, we also visited seattle a bit. unfortunately, i left my good camera at home, but i took my powershot. which is good when there’s enough light. most of the photos had not enough light. but some are still quite ok, i think. and yes, i was really missing my ultra-wide angle lenses. enjoy.
the strange tower is the space needle, and the troll is the fremont troll.
around 2 o’clock in the morning, i was suddenly startled by a very intense beeping. BEEP. BEEP. BEEP. so i checked the fire alarm, muted the one inside the apartment and heard more from outside. there was a strange smell on the corridor, so i put on minimalistic clothing (it was -3 degree celsius outside), grabbed my mobile phone, my laptop and my camera bag (unfortunately, i forgot my passport, i have to think of that the next time), a jacket, some socks (no time to put them on), jumped into my shoes, ran downstairs, and joined a bunch of neighbors waiting outside. after some time, sirens approached, three fire trucks showed up. some firemen, armed with hoses, got into the building. we were waiting. i walked up the street a bit, nothing unusual to see from the other side of the house. eventually, the beeping stopped. two of the trucks left. and finally, someone came out of the third truck, and told us that we can go back in. the strange smell was still there, but apparently everything was fine. gladly.
well. i also learned a thing: its impossible to overhear the alarms. in fact, when i walked to the stairs on the corridor, while passing a buzzer, it feld like i’d become deaf if i stop there for just a few seconds. oh well. its time to go back to sleep ;-)
while eating dinner, i watched a movie called babel. i somehow got the feeling that i already saw parts of it, or at least somehow know the story. don’t ask me why… nonetheless, the movie is really good, and centered about the theme of death. (nonetheless, nobody actually dies. at least not during the movie.)
the movie consists of a stream of intertwining stories, playing in morocco, japan, the us and mexico. on the first glance, there’s no relation, but eventually the jigsaw puzzle is completed enough to get an idea of the global picture. the movie is very emotional. love. envy. disputes. panic. fear. pain. desperation. happiness. suicidal.
there’s blood. hopeless situations. overreaction. triggered by two boys, herding goats in morocco, playing around with a rifle, a rifle they were supposed to use to protect the goats against wild animals. not understanding consequences until it is too late. an american tourist gets shot. local police searches for terrorists. one of the brothers almost dies. meanwhile, a girl, frustrated, bitter, seeks love. seeks sexual encounters. unsuccessful. haunted by her mother’s suicide, eventually appearing suicidal. her father, a hobby hunter, left his rifle in morocco. another scene, far away, two american kids taken to a mexican wedding by their nanny, as their parents did not come back in time. the parents are in morocco. returning from the wedding, the kids and their nanny end up in the desert. eventually rescued, the nanny is deported to mexico, despite living for sixteen years in the us. meanwhile, in morocco, a husband is trying to get help, for his wounded wife. stranded in a small village, far away from everywhere, the only doctor at hand being a veterinarian. almost bleeding to death. endless pain, finally ended by a helicopter ride, after a long wait.
somewhat, a happy end? maybe.
life is cruel.
…came, and went a few hours later. nice try, winter.
