Coachella is off

Even our local, less celebrated music festival - Sasquatch - has a better line-up this year. I'm going there instead - it's just a few hours away from Seattle, cheaper and got better bands this time.

New Addiction

The Earthsea cycle, by Ursula K. Le Guin. After reading the first volume, the rest of the collection automatically made its way to the top of my reading queue. I'm on the 3rd book already and making fast progress. I'll write a review once I finish the series.

fit lyrics

"Over the hills and far away,
he swears he will return one day.
Far from the mountains and the seas,
back in her arms he swears he'll be."

Two Step

I planned to write something about how life is happening so fast that the whole universe is just a blur right now, but I need to catch my breath first. I'll borrow Dave Matthews' words for the moment:

Hey, my love, you came to me like wine comes to this mouth
Grown tired of water all the time
You quench my heart and you quench my mind

Celebrate we will
Because life is short but sweet for certain
We're climbing two by two
To be sure these days continue
These things we cannot change...

Brazil

I start my journey tonight. I'll be in São Paulo on the 17th, and in Pelotas from the 18th to the 21st. I hope to see some of you there during that time. The rest of my trip is half-planned and highly unpredictable. Yay!

Perl sucks

Seriously. Perl is utterly inelegant.

movies

Atonement was good. Maybe too sad, I haven't decided yet.

Rambo was perfectly cheesy. The 80's are all back in that movie. Excellent!

short movie reviews

I'll try to mention all the movies I watch on the theater this year here in this blog. Let's see how that goes.

Juno was really, really good. I - like a lot of my friends who saw it - wish life was witty like that.

There Will Be Blood was overrated. The acting is impressive and the music was well used, but... It was kinda long and made me feel bad about humanity.

I Am Legend was not nearly as good as it could've been. I have no idea how they managed to make his loneliness in a deserted NYC uninspiring, but it definitely was. I normally love those scenes, but it didn't work this time. Bummer.

Coachella's lineup is out

At a first glance, this year's lineup doesn't look very exciting. However, last year I discovered a number of good bands because of the festival so I'm just downloading everything to my Zune to see what I can find this time around. I'll give them scores and post it here, as follows.

0 - Horrible. Must stay away from their stage. They suck so much that you don't want to risk being photographed nearby.

1- Bad. You should rather go to the beer garden.

2 - Watchable. If it's not too crowded and the sun is not too hot, go sit on the grass around their stage.

3 - Enjoyable. Worth staying up for one hour - and you may find your feet and hands moving to the rhythm of their songs.

4 - Fun! This band is worth elbowing your way to a good spot, maybe even scheduling ahead to be there early enough.

5 - Must see. This takes precedence over all conflicting shows and would even make you watch a bad show before just to reserve your spot. If there are two 5's at the same time, murderous thoughts about the organizers are morally acceptable.

 

Friday (April 25th)

American Bang: 3 (good honest rock n' roll)

Modeselektor: 2 (not terribly exciting techno)

Rogue Wave: 2.5 (average indie band, 0.5 extra for their awesome "Zune ad song" - Lake Michigan)

Porter: 1.5 (I feel I could change my mind on this, but at the moment they annoy me)

The Bees: 2 (these guys remind of Wilco)

Professor Murder: 1 (they try to be different and fail)

Black Lips: 2

Cut Copy: 3 (good slow beat!)

Architecture in Helsinki: 2 (interesting music, bad show)

Dan Deacon: 1 (some could say original, I say annoying!)

Vampire Weekend: 3 (tap tap tap - yay for happy music!)

Jens Lekman: 1 (waaay tooo slooow)

Adam Freeland: 1 (undanceable techno)

Minus the Bear: 2

(I'll keep updating this post as I listen to them)

simplify, simplify!

There's great beauty and wisdom in simplicity.

I hate Sunday nights

heroes is going downhill

ATTENTION! SPOILERS AHEAD!

The second season was worse than the first. The final episode was disappointing - I can see the director saying "we must end the season NOW, let's DO it". The villain cliche at the end was a bit too much - "I'm back! Mwahahah!". And the use of Clair's or Adam's blood to resurrect people sadly reminds of aunt May's multiple fiascos. And Peter Petrelli is getting closer and closer of being the new Superman - he's ultra powerful and super dumb.

Shame, I really liked that show.

name needed

So it happens that I needed a bit more life in my living room, and for that effect I bought an orchid. She's doing well (yes, I know that a flower should be an it, but it's such a feminine thing that I'll transgress my grammar and call her a she), as you can see here.

I'm hoping for the best in our relationship - she not only survived the first two weeks, but she's also flourishing more - a believable demonstration of happiness.

The next step is to name her, and I could indeed use some suggestions. Can you think of any good names for my orchid?

absurdistan

I didn't finish yet, but I had to mention this scene before I forget. Three Russian men are fighting in front of the American consulate in St. Petersburg. After the two bouncers repeatedly try to beat the fat rich guy and fail at it, they all fall to the curb, where one of the security guys says:

"You remind us of our country's dignity. They can punch Russia over and over again, but she will never fall. Maybe she'll slide down to the pavement as we have... you know, for a drink... But she will never fall."

thiago's 2007 concerts list

I've been to more concerts this year than in the rest of my entire life. Music festivals help a lot to increase the count, friends like Rodrigo too. Here's a list, so I won't forget (and you'll think I'm cooler):

• Seattle, WA
  • Camera Obscura
  • The Shins
  • Bloc Party
  • LCD Soundsystem
  • !!!
  • Menomena
  • Klaxons
  • Stanley Jordan
  • Arcade Fire
  • Arctic Monkeys
  • Magic Numbers
  • Simian Mobile Disco
  • Diplo
  • Digitalism
  • Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
  • Bonde do Role
  • Crystal Method
  • Nightwish
  • The Hives
  • Benny Benassi
• Redmond, WA
  • Wilco
• The Gorge (George, WA)
  • Dave Matthews Band
• Auburn, WA
  • Rush
• Coachella (Indio, CA)
  • Tokyo Police Club
  • Of Montreal
  • Arctic Monkeys
  • Felix da Housecat
  • Benny Benassi
  • Interpol
  • Bjork
  • Fields
  • The Cribs
  • Regina Spektor
  • MSTRKRFT
  • Kings of Leon
  • Arcade Fire
  • Red Hot Chilli Peppers
  • Tiesto
  • Fair to Midland
  • Tapes 'n Tapes
  • Explosions in the Sky
  • Kaiser Chiefs
  • Placebo
  • Paul van Dyk
  • Manu Chao
  • Rage Against the Machine
• Lollapalooza (Chicago, IL)
  • Ted Leo and the Parmacists
  • Jack's Mannequin
  • Against Me!
  • Silversun Pickups
  • The Black Keys
  • LCD Soundsystem
  • Daft Punk
  • Silverchair
  • Motion City Soundtrack
  • Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
  • Regina Spektor
  • Yeah Yeah Yeahs
  • Muse
  • Blue October
  • Iggy and the Stooges
  • My Morning Jacket
  • Pearl Jam
• Bumbershoot (Seattle, WA)
  • Andrew Bird
  • Apples in Stereo
  • Art Brut
  • Gogol Bordello
  • Kings of Leon

Update (answering Moon's question): 55 different bands.

Update 2 (added a few that I forgot on the first post): 60 bands.

distance

Distance is a numerical description of how far apart objects are at any given moment in time. In physics or everyday discussion, distance may refer to a physical length, a period of time, or an estimation based on other criteria (e.g. "two counties over"). In mathematics, distance must meet more rigorous criteria.

Math is hard: 11253km is rigorous indeed.

Then again, navegar é preciso; viver não é preciso.

back

Interesting. Looks like no one really went to the other blog I created. Even for a market as small as 7 readers, the brand appears to make a difference.

Alright then guys, you win. I'll keep posting here for now. I'm still using Windows Live Writer - which integrates surprisingly well (ok, maybe not that surprisingly) with Blogger. I guess to ask to transfer the posts from one blog to another would be a bit too much. Alright. Cool. The dude abides.

Stay tuned. Upcoming: the new Zune, my life with a plant and more of the same usual random s*it.

Crappy movies

First, Beowulf. What a disappointment. I'm going to let Gaiman off the hook for this one, and assume he had diarrhea or something when he spewed out this piece of crap. It's hard to believe the same guy who wrote Sandman would come up with such crappy dialog (yeah, I know this is based on the book, but it diverges enough, and the crappiest dialog is exactly at those points). And, also, please can the "entire movie in 3d idea" for another five years, when you (hopefully) might have decent skeletal animations. At least it had some moments bad enough for people to laugh at (like the Austinpowerism on the nude scenes). Well, I didn't have too high expectations for this one. I went to the theater knowing I was wasting 10 bucks.

Then we come to "No Country for Old Men". Overrated, overhyped, overacted crawling-pace piece of shit. Typical Oscar movie, with characters whose sole purpose is to show off how oscar-worthy the actor is, entire scenes that are completely pointless except to show "crazy face #12", or "sad face #17". Dialog that, in an effort to pass naturality, just sounds like something noone would ever say in real life. Stereotypes and cliches abound (just because they're dramatic cliches, doesn't mean they're any better than action movie cliches). I sat through this one until the end, just because I didn't walk out of Mystic River, and I really couldn't decide which one is worse. If you're gonna do Oscar-whoring, have some dignity and at least do a good movie. Darjeeling Limited does its fair share of statuet prostitution, but in the end is still a fairly watchable (perhaps good) movie. "No Country For Old Men" just made me go home with $10 less on my account, and 2 hours less on my life.

yet another internet experiment

I decided to ride the new live services wave that is giving away @live.com accounts and created one account for me. It comes with a bunch of stuff, including a blog. So I created a new personal blog to experiment with. Check out Thiago's space.

This is what video games are all about

I'm not going to link anything on this post. If you want to know what I'm talking about, do yourself a favor and just play the games.

First, a post that is a few years late. Katamari is simply great. Graphics are for suckers, you don't need anything more than a few polygons and brick-like objects to make a great game -- just raw creativity, and the balls to release a game that's "just fun" in an age of "ultra-graphic epic adventures with twisting storylines". Somehow, Katamari brings back the early 80's arcade philosophy of concept games -- you come up with some innovative game mechanics, and develop your game around it. Everything -- graphics, storyline, controls, objectives -- is simplistic and fun. Slap on some completely insane dialog, a J-pop soundtrack that's as weird as possible, and you get the most innovative game since the first videogame crisis...

UNTIL NOW. Which leads us to...

Forget about the other games on the Orange Box. Portal alone is worth your 60 bucks. There will be cake at the end. It is quite similar to Katamari -- it's a concept game, simplistic, fun, and has a completely insane character giving you missions. But... the concept in which it's based is much more filled with possibility. By playing the game, you're really "thinking in portals". The physics engine is perfect, gives you almost absolute freedom, and every experiment you do with portals and gravity comes out as a whole new way to beat the levels. The physics insanity comes packed with dialog (or rather monologue) insanity. Your only interaction during the game is with an increasingly insane passive-aggressive UI. Imagine 343 Guilty Spark + HAL9000, and add lots and lots of passive-aggressiveness, and you're getting close to it. Four hours of increasing insanity, physics-bending action and humor, and then, at the end, the cake: the credits song. Best credits song ever. All in all, this game is the best at everything it does: the physics engine is fantastic, the gameplay is fun, every line of monologue is comedy gold, and you get cake at the end.

I really hope these two gems are a sign of a new golden age of video games. I love the visuals on Gears of War, the action in Halo, or the art in Bioshock -- but it's nice to see new life in an area that was almost forgotten -- Pure unadulterated FUN.

Oh, did I mention the cake?