The Reward

Hello lovely people, I hope the past days have treated you well - personally I have had a lot of stress because of an assigment overload in high school, luckily there is a cure for stress (or just temporary) and that is - ANIMATIONS FILMS!

In the last week I came across an awesome animated film called'' the reward.'' The animation are made ​​by the two danes Mikkel Mainz and Kenneth ladekjær as their graduation project at the animation school in Viborg. They both dream of Reward becoming an animated series - and work hard to achieve that goal together with a little crew.

 

 

If there is something I love about animation is it when you can feel the creatores ethusiame and big dreams shine through the animation - this is quite evident in'' The Reward'' where you can see, and at the same time feel how much work that has been put into both the characters and the universe - and its monsters.

 

 

 

The film is about two guys, Wilheim og Vito, whose paths crosses in a small town. At some point a hero comes riding on a horse and dropes af treasure map. Both Wilheaim and Vito wants the treasure map, which lead to a fight and a map torn in half. With their piece of the map they are now forced to Work together which doesn't pleases Wilheim.

Through their journey toward the treasure they experience both ups and downs, which is to strengthen their friendship that has slowly taken shape - and ends with an almost brother-like relationship

The journey lasts many years and you can see how both men age - but age doens't affect them in a negative way on the contrary - old age in the film is rather shown as a measure of masculinity and epicness that both of them as young boys were fascinated by.

 

 

One of my favorite parts of the film is when Wilheim and Vito finally reach the treasures location - and find that the treasure is far from what they expected. However both men come to realize that the treasure weren't that great of importance but rather the journey to find it. This insight shows simultaneously that both of them - besides their incredible friendship, strength, masculinity and epicness also been clarified with life and themselves - they have found the deeper meaning.

 

 

The Reward is by far one of the greatest short animation film from Denmark - and luckily many people has realised it's potential and are now supporting the crew behind it and their goal to make The Reward an animated series.

 

 Personally I really hope that The Reard gets it's own series - because I just can't get enough of the amount of epicness that film contains!

Here is a link for the short animation - enjoy 9:02 minutes of epicness!

 

 

See you Guys Next Thursday!

Bioshock Infinite

Hello out there!

For more than a week, school hasn’t been very generous, not at all actually. So how come I can still sit in front of my computer with a smile on my face?  Let me tell you: Games! And not just any kind of game, but the newly released and long-awaited game: Bioshock Infinite!

 

[No spoilers]

Bioshock Infinite

 

Bioshock Infinite was released on March 26 in 2013, about a month ago, but it was already announced to be made on August 12 in 2010 – long-awaited I said! Bioshock Infinite is the third game in the Bioshock series, but isn’t much like the two other games regarding setting and theme.

I haven’t played the two other Bioshock games, since I have judged them to be too scary and dark – even though I usually like scary stuff. The difference in the new game is that it’s so – bright! It’s so colorful and has actual people in it – monsters, mutants etc scares me to death!

As I don’t want to spoil anything about the game, I can’t really tell you much – But it’s basically about the handsome man Booker Dewitt (voiced by Troy Baker) who has a debt to pay, but was told that the debt would be erased if he got them the girl Elizabeth (voiced by Courtnee Draper) who is imprisoned in a tower in the city in the sky, Columbia.

From what I know Bioshock Infinite has got a similar concept and gameplay as the other two games, but since I haven’t played them, I can’t know for sure. What I do know is, that the game is utterly amazing! It has one of the best storylines I have seen in a long time, the characters’ personalities, looks and actions are so original and when the characters interact with each other, it makes your heart flutter, and what surprised me most about the game – is how incredibly beautiful the sceneries are in the game.

All in all, Bioshock Infinite was a fantastic experience, and this will not be my last time playing it at all! -  And to all of you out there, who haven’t played it yet: Buy it, play it and enjoy it! Because it’s one hell of a good time you’ll have!

 

Here's a video of me singing the song "Will the Circle be Unbroken" by Courtnee Draper from the game Bioshock Infinite - Enjoy!
 

 

 

I hope you enjoyed today’s feature – I’ll see you next Wednesday.

Shia

Life is a bitch

Hey there everyone! I’ve been super busy with little to no time on my hands, therefore this feature is very short (very, very, very short), because I simply did not have the time, nor the energy to think of something clever and eloquent to talk about since a lot of stuff is going on in my family right now and school is kicking my ass. I’m sorry but real life is more important than this blog after all J.

I really am empty for ideas and I have no idea what to talk about in this feature, so I’m just going to leave you with this video and the wish of being just as flexible. Seriously, this video is beyond awesome and cool and magnificent, so just … watch the fabulousness, you won’t regret it (also, I want to be able to do that with my legs)! Again, sorry for the shitty feature but hopefully I’ll be up with something much better next week.

Now I'm gonna go and wallow in self-pity because I hate my life. 

Courage,

Laura

Next to Normal

Hello all you lovely people out there!

It's Monday, school is kind of busy and I feel dragged down by fatigue and the fact that the weather can't decide whether it'll be winter-y or summer-y.
Why am I telling you this? Well, today I want to show you a musical that NEVER FAILS TO CHEER ME UP (yes, that needed to be in capslock) despite the serious topics it discusses. I never mentioned it on my list over my favorite musicals, but it should've been on it.

Original Broadway cast of Next to Normal

I'm talking about ... Next to Normal; a clever, clever musical with books and lyrics written by Brian Yorkey and music by Tom Kitt. Through 37 extremely well-written and catchy song it tells the story of a dysfunctional family. The parents Diana and Dan lost their son 16 years ago and it has taken a great toll on both of them, and especially Diana who now suffers from bipolar disorder. Trying to fix what's left they get the daughter Natalie, but she is suffering from the fact that the son, Gabriel, never left. The ghost of him is always there in the house making sure that they, and especially Diana, will never forget him.

Next to Normal speaks up about a lot of different and serious topics that I haven't stumbled upon in a musical before. Bipolar disorders, how you deal with loss and grief, drug abuse and how you should approach modern psychiatry and the ethics concerning that; these are all part of our society and it's great having a musical that can convey these to the audience and make them question it but also educate them.

Alice Ripley as Diana Goodman

The gallery of persons in the musical consist of the Goodman family; Dan, Diana, Nathalie and Gabriel, the psychiatrists Dr. Fine and Dr. Madden and Nathalies boyfriend Henry, and while a lot of musicals have a huge cast, I don't think the story of Next to Normal would be the same without the simplicity it consists of. It is the raw emotions that drives the story and whether it's a rock-song, a soft ballad or a simply melody waving through the audience it moves you and there's always a song that fits your mood, thus bringing me full circle. It never fails to cheer me up.

Also, can we take a moment and appreciate the fantastic set-design? Simply and yet so expressive the three niveaus complete with staircases serve as house, school, psychiatry etc. Such a clever choice that fits the musical!

Set of Next to Normal

Eventhough there's 37 songs on the soundtrack and the story are told pretty much through song throughout the whole thing you never get bored. The songs are so nuanced that you will always notice new things when listening and it's just wonderful.

So yes, this is definitely one of my favorites as well and if you want, you can watch Aaron Tveit (Gabriel), Alice Ripley (Diana) and J. Robert Spencer (Dan) perform one of the most popular songs from the show at the Tony awards. It's definitely worth a watch! Just saying!

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend and see you all next Monday. 

I'll go back to listening to my soundtrack and crying a bit over how perfect everything is! ;)

The love story about me and rowing

Okay, so I thought I might tell you a bit about how and why I started rowing today. You know, the lovestory about me and rowing.

Once upon a time (last summer) there was a young princess (yes, me) going on a canoe trip with her faithful esquire (one of my very good friends), not knowing how her life would change drastically once she got home. It was a very exciting canoe trip where the princess and the esquire had to fight their way past frightful weather and horrible monsters (some very VERY aggressive swans) and more than once they thought they would never get home alive (honestly, there wasn't a single second where we thought that). But eventually they returned safely to the castle where they lived, having had a very good canoe trip.

The princess was so excited about the trip that she started to follow the rowing tournament (the Olympic Games) because rowing is as close to canoeing as you can get. The princess found that rowing was much better than canoeing and one day when the queen (my sweet mother) got tired of the princess watching the tournament all the time, she said the following to the princess: "My dear, if you enjoyed your canoe trip so much, and if you like watching the rowing tournament so much now, why do you not start rowing yourself?" And the princess thought to herself, well, why not?

So she started to look into the business and discovered that: a) there was a rowing club in her kingdom (my town) and that b)  the rowing club was having a rowing week for novices (kids between 11 and 17) just like her where they would introduce new people to rowing. The princess immediately sign up for it and for weeks  she looked forward to it. She convinced one of her maids (yet another of my very good friends) to go to the event with her.The week finally came and for five days from 10 am to 3 pm the princess and her maid went down to the local rowing club and learned how to row.

How I felt after summer rowing school

When the week had come to an end the princess had to choose weather to continue at the rowing club or resign and never row again, there was no doubt in her heart. She had found her knight in shining armour and from that day on the princess and Rowing lived happily ever after.



So as you can see, it was love at first sight with me and rowing. If you understood nothing from my little fairy tale (I wouldn't blame you), here is a short summery: I went on a canoe trip and liked it a lot. I started watching rowing in the Olympic Games and liked it even more. I started at a summer rowing school in the local rowing club where I was introduced to rowing and the people down there. I loved it and joined the club. End of story.

Now one of you guys asked how the people in the rowing sport are, if they are reserved and very closed, and yes, to some amount they are. Rowers like their safe and comfortable community, where they know everybody and everybody knows who you are. So perhaps yes, a little reserved. At least reserved until you show just the tiniest interest in rowing. Then they come at you like hungry wolves and try to recruit you at all cost. That is what happened to me. When I went to the summer rowing school I met a girl who needed a partner for a double sculler, and she took good care of me (and still does). She showed me the do's and don'ts in the rowing world and I think meeting her and her unconquerable enthusiasm about rowing is part of the reason why I kept rowing after the summer rowing school. Of course apart from the total awesomeness of rowing, obviously...

I think I could keep blabbering on and on about the joys of rowing and why I started, but I suspect it might start boring you guys, so I better stop now while the going is still good. So, see you next week guys!

Love Christine    

Alt to the J ∆

As funky as my title may sound, as funky the subject! Or almost.. Because it is not quite funk I want to talk about today, but instead my favorite band at the moment: Alt-J (∆).
If you do not know Alt-J, you may wonder what their name means. It’s actually kind of cool!

If you know your Macs, you would know that when you push the “Alt” and then the “J” key, it is a shortcut for the ∆ sign. (I must say I did not know before I got interested in Alt-J, since I don’t own a Mac). Also; if you know your mathematics, you will know that the ∆ sign is called “delta” and means change or difference, which can be either positive or negative.

Photo from AOTY

To say a little more informative about the band, I can tell it consists of 4 English men, who play guitar, bass, keyboard, drums and of course sing.  

The first time I heard them was on the radio (of course, too much radio). Their song “Tessellate” was played a lot for a period, and I fell totally in love! Their sound are kind of indie meets rock meets alternative… ish. They are such an artistic band, with a great talent of timing, experimenting with sounds and the singing is nothing but amazing!

Where the wild things are

But the thing I love the most (besides the amazing sounds) is their lyrics. Every piece of lyric contains so much emotion, history and feeling. They make their own universes, sometimes by lending a piece of others. For example Breezeblocks, where they are referring to the children’s book Where the wild things are by singing "I’ll eat you whole", or in Matilda, where they refer to the movie Léon throughout the song.

Matilda from Léon

They have gotten a lot of critique for their song Fitzpleasure though, because the song is about a gang-rape scene from a rather harsh book called Last exit to Brooklyn. I think the critique is absolutely unfair. Such a subject as taboo as rape should definitely be discussed! I think it is very noble of them to make a spotlight on the very serious subject, and I do not believe that they praise the horrible subject; they rather make it a subject for discussion, which is the way forwards.

But since I could talk about and analyze all of their songs to death, I think I’d rather stop that talk here.

To end with some positive energy and good karma, here’s a picture of me with a necklace I got from one of my best friends at my birthday. She bought it in Alt-J’s merchandise, and it is of course their ∆ sign. To top it, I have made their hand-sign, which I believe they have invented themselves! (That just confirms how well thought through the band is, doesn't it?). 

I hope you enjoyed my post, and if you thought that at least some of this sounded interesting, you should check out their debut album An Awesome Wave – it is definitely worth it!!

Loads of love!

Freja