We (I travelled with my friend Lucie) came to Gatwick on Monday evening, and was taken to our hotel in Kensington by taxi. Going by train would probably have been cheaper, but it was so late at night and we had so much luggage (which we had managed to lose track of a few times already) that we decided to let us selves have that luxury… Well, except that the cabdriver obviously had a death wish or something, and the ride to the hotel seemed more like a scene from Rush Hour! When we hinted that he might try not to hit the brakes every ten seconds, he responded “Well, if I don’t brake, I will hit the car in front of us”… Oh well.

The next morning we didn’t know what way best to amuse ourselves as London tourist, but somehow we ended up spending a few hours at the Natural History Museum.
It was really interessting to see the animals and all, and it was such a nice building!

The first evening we went to see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre. I’ve heard many people call this the best show they’ve ever seen, and I can understand why. The athmosphere that the dancers and actors on stage manage to create is magic, the costumes are amazing, the songs are so good and put together it all makes a wonderful show. The actors were all amazing (even the little children who portrayed Simba and Nala as cubs), and we especcially liked Scar. Allthough, being “the bad guy” he was booed at during the curtain call…

The next day did some shopping and looked around in central London. We were planning to go to Madame Tusseaud’s, but it just didn’t turn out that way.

The second evening we went to see Wicked, which was my travelling partner’s favourite show. She had already seen it lots of times, but I had no idea what to expect. Wicked is the “other side of the story” about the Wicked Witch of Oz. Sort of, the adult version of the Oz universe. As it turns out, the Wicked Witch wasn’t really all that wicked, she was just misunderstood. The story is presented with a lot of humour, but also a lot of seriousness. The songs are amazing, and the actors were great. Lucie was a bit dissapointed that the usual “Glinda” (that would be the good fairy), Dianne Pilkington, wasn’t on, but her replacement was all right, and the other main character, Alexia Khadime as “Elphaba” (the witch) was really good and had a great voice.

The third day we went to the London Eye. It was very nice, even though we had to wait in line for half an eternity or so.

he last musical we saw was Mamma Mia. I’ve loved that story since the movie came out last year, and I’ve loved the Abba songs since I was little, so it goes without saying that I had a good time that evening. The West End version of the musical can’t measure up to the movie ( I mean, Meryl Streep is in the movie, need I say more?) but it’s still a great fun show. The tickets were actually twice as expensive as the other shows we saw (40 pounds) but it was worth it. After the show we went to stage door and got our programmes signed by all the actors, which was embarrassing (I’m just not the type to do that, I guess) but fun:)

The day after we went back home (once again taken to the airport by the taxidriver of all my nightmares) to boring old Norway. We had a great trip and will definitely go back sometime to see more musicals (I hear Sister Act just opened, that sounds good). Cheers, everyone!

Desperate Housewives

The 5th season finally gave us a lot of long-awaited answers. Finally Dave (Neal McDonough) actually acted on his plan of trying to hurt Susan rather than just talking about it over and over. Now, just let me say this, if I was in charge of casting on this show I would definitely have changed the story so that Dave’s dead child was a boy, played by the boy who plays MJ (His name is Mason Vale Cotton). I mean, come on, they look exactly like each other and the boy looks nothing like Teri Hatcher (Susan) or James Denton (Mike).

So, will the Susan/Mike/MJ family be reunited for the next season or was the woman Mike married actually Katherine (Dana Delany)? A quick googling for spoliers reveals that the actress on the set that day was actually none of the two, in order to keep the secret safe. It is also revealed that while Mike is married to one of the two women the love triangle isn’t over with…

Other spoilers for season 6 reveal that Carlos’ (Ricardo Chavira) niece Ana (Maiara Walsh) will continue to live with him and Gabrielle (Eva Longoria Parker) and will cause problems for their family. Personally I would have expected something worse when we were shown how anxious her grandmother was to get rid of her… And all that was wrong was that she was a bit of a tease? Hm…not that interessting.

As for Bree (Marcia Cross) and Orson(Kyle MacLachlan) I guess they’re not going to be happy together anymore… Shame, really, they used to be one of the few couples on this show that I actually liked, but now they’ve both become these psycopaths. Just as well that Danielle got that baby away from them at the beginning of the season, these two obviously can’t be trusted.

All the news on Tom (Doug Savant) and Lynette (Felicity Huffman) is that they’re having more kids again, twins this time. I don’t get it, when they show flashbacks of the days when those two met, they were not teenagers, to put it that way, they met at some agency where they both work if I recall it correctly, and were probably in their 30s. Now they have kids who are about to go to college, and she gets pregnant again? Sure it’s not impossible, it just bugs me, shouldn’t she be like, 50, now?

Also it bugged me when the doctor had tested her for cancer and told her “You’re six weeks pregnant”, just like that. Since when can you tell how far along you are from a blood or urin test? (Ok, maybe you can, I’m no expert, but I didn’t think you could).

Other news is that there might be a spin-off of the series, starring Mrs.McClusky (Kathryn Joosten) and her friend Roberta (Lily Tomlin). Apparently they’ll be solving mysteries in a neighbourhood similar to Wisteria Lane. Might be good. I’ve always liked Mrs.McClusky. And since the Desperate Housewives’ creators have decided that the first show will run for 7 seasons, no more no less, we’ll need something else to fill those tuesday nights with over here, won’t we?

So I was pleasantly surprised the other day when a relative had purchased three seasons of the series on dvd and told me I could borrow them. Since I started watching the first episode about a week ago I’ve been in a sort of trance… Oh my gosh, what a ridiculously happy family these Larkins are! The whole series is mainly sunshine, beautiful scenery shots from Kent (the garden of England) happy farm animals, children playing, babies laughing…well, you get the picture. The whole thing is on the limit to overdone, but it’s not! That’s what’s so wonderful about it!

The Larkins

If you have the opprtunity I’d strongly reccommend joining the Larkins at Home Farm and enjoying their company for the 15 hours of runtime that the dvd-set offers. Among the wonderful characters you’ll meet are Pop Sid Larkin,played by David Jason, also known as detective Jack Frost, and Ma Flo Parker, played by Pam Ferris. She later went on to play the evil Ms. Truchbull in the film based on Roald Dahl’s Matilda, a character that is the complete opposite of the loving Ma in this series. You’ll also meet Ma and Pop’s children, the oldest being Mariette, portrayed by a young Catherine Zeta Jones.

So… finally my uni exams (or exam, to be exact) is over for this year. I’ve been reading about the great fathers and mothers of media research such as Lazarsfeld, Merton, Adorno, Hertzog and Fiske for a loooong time now, and it’s great to finally be able to put those books away and instead pull out some good old-fashion chick-lit!

I have just started re-reading Jean M. Auel’s Earth’s Children novels. These novels are about a young girl, Ayla who lived during the stone age. Sounds like a bore, you say? Well, it’s not. The stories of Ayla begins when she’s a litte girl, who’s family has been killed. The Cro-Magnon girl is adopted by a group of neanderthals, and is raised by them. It’s a story about feeling different and left out, but still being able to see the similarities between the different creatures on this earth. The author of the books has done a lot of research on the era in which the books take place, and describes aspects of Ayla’s life such as hunting, craftsmanship, clothing, family relations and so on in great detail, which makes the story come to life in a very entertaining way.

The Mammoth Hunters, 3rd book of the series

There are some things I do not apprechiate very much about this series, though. For one there’s a loooooot of romance, especcially in the later books, when Ayla starts hanging out with men of her own kind. This takes up to much space in the plot, and becomes a bit dreary after a while.

Also, it is a bit annoying to read over and over what a bright and brilliant person Ayla is and how everyone loves her, and, not to forget, how many things she has invented. Ayla tames horses and wolves before anyone else thought of doing so, she thinks of new ways to hunt, new ways to make clothes, new weapons, new kinds of medicine…yeah yeah, she’s smart, we got it!

Even so, I do recommend these books, they’re a fun read and you learn a lot of stuff about an era long before our own.

You are number

to visit this site since April 26. 2009.

Keillor, Tomlin, Streep and Lohan on stage.

A Praerie Home Companion is a story about a radio variety show by that same name. The show has been airing live from a small theatre in Minnesota for more than 30 years, featuring live country music, jokes and stories. We get to experience the last airing of the show, as the theatre is about to be closed down. Backstage, the artists and the crew are dealing with the news as best they can, remembering how it all started and thinking about the strange things they’ve experienced along the way.

Suddenly a woman in a white trenchcoat appears in the theatre. Some can see her, some can’t. It turns out that she’s a former listener who was killed in a car crash because she laughed so hard from listening to a joke on the show that she lost control of the car. She has now come to take one of them with her to the afterlife. But as it turns out, she doesn’t stop at one…

When I saw bits of this movie in school, we skipped the parts containing this “angel of death”. This was probably a reason why I liked the film better back then than I did upon watching it a second time. The story of the show itself and the people in it is enough to make this film worth watching, it doesn’t need all this death-mystery stuff, in my opinion. Watching the show’s host (played by Garrison Keillor), the Johnson sisters Rhonda (Lily Tomlin) and Yolanda (Meryl Streep), and Yolanda’s teenaged daugther (Lindsay Lohan), and the singing cowboys Dusty and Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly) looking back at the years they’ve had together and planning what they’ll do next makes a great story, while the absurdness and mystery put into it all, in my opinion, is a huge drawback.

The ending of the movie will not be described here, but I can say that it’s rather bitter-sweet and seems open to interpretation. It has been described as genius by some film critics, allthough I’d have preferred a more one-way-street happy ending. But that’s just me…

I’d recommend to see this movie on an evening when you’re up for something more than just pure entertainment. This movie offers great music, strange but funny humour, and also a bit of mindwork. And one can always fastforward  through the angel parts (which is what I’ll do the next time I see it).

Isla Fisher as Rebecca Bloomwood

The Shopaholic movie is based on a series of books written by Sophie Kinsella. I’ve been a fan of these books since the first of the five (The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic) came out in the year 2000. Luckily I knew before going to see this film that it was only loosely based on the novels, and that fans of the books all over the world do not think very highly of the film in comparison with the books. My expectations were pretty low, to say the least.

Perhaps that is why I was so positively surprised by this movie. Ok, it was nothing like the books. In fact one can wonder if the person adapting this into a movie has even read the books or simply skimmed them, noted a few character names and build up an entirely new story – but still, the movie itself isn’t bad. Isla Fisher is a sweet and funny Rebecca Blomwood, and John Goodman and Joan Cusack are hillarious as her parents (allthough, Joan Cusack as the mother of a twenty-something-year old? What’s that about?). The story is nothing special, but it’s funny enough to keep you entertained for the nealy two hours that the film lasts. Also, it gives me a good feeling to see someone who’s even less careful with her money than I am;)

Aniston and Wilson in "Marley and Me"

I didn’t have high expectations as I went to see Marley & Me either. The trailer makes this seem like a typical Hollywood-let’s-make-some-money-by-putting-famous-actors-into-a-romantic-comedy-and-have-them-do-crazy-stuff kind of film, kinda like What Happens In Vegas and Along Came Polly. You see Marley the dog hanging out a car window, his owners (played by Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston) holding him by his back feet trying to keep him from running away, you see Marley pulling a restaurant table after him by his leash while people are chasing him down the street, and you see Marley trying to hump his teacher in Obediance School…

This movie is more than that. It’s the story of a family, two people trying to make things work with jobs and houses and kids and a crazy dog who keeps eating pieces of their couch but who has a heart of gold. The story is actually based on an autobiography by the american journalist John Grogan,who  wrote a book about his dog and how it changed his and his family’s life.

This story is told in a much more down-to-earth, eventless way than most Hollywood comedies. It tells us what happened to a family over a period of about 15 years, and that’s it. This is the story’s strenght, but also it’s drawback. Sure, it’s all very nice and cozy and touching at times, but at other times it’s actually not that interessting, I mean, who cares if Marley is spilling dogfood all over the floor for the umpteenth time,  we’ve seen that already! Also it seems that we’re supposed to be very touched by how cute the children are and how strong  their devotion to their dog is, but they’re not on screen that much before all the sad stuff occurs, so it’s a bit hard to relate to them. Even so I’m glad I went to see the movie, it was a perfectly ok way to spend an otherwise dull thursday evening.

My conclusion is that the lower the expectations one has when going to see a movie, the more pleasantly surprised one is likely to be.

Have a nice easter, everyone!

How do I know all this? Because of all the online test-yourself-tests people send me on Facebook!

I know it’s stupid, really, I do. I know I should be doing other things, like studying for my exams, or writing papers, or applying for summer jobs or something else useful. In fact pretty much anything is more useful than “finding out” what kind of color I am, or what country I should live in.

But according to the last test I took, “What kind of student are you?” I’m the kind that has trouble concentrating, but who somehow lands on her feet anyway. There might be something to that;)

- Watching an episode of Medium on dvd (the one where Allison’s captured in an asylum and given an electroshock…freakishly scary!)

- Eating a yougurt with peanuts (It’s a lot better than it sounds, trust me)

- Checking out Facebook about 1000 times (not that there’s much new going on there…)

- And now I’m going to go watch a rerun of Fraiser… At this point Niles and Daphne are finally together, I need to know what’s going on there. Also we learned at uni the other day that watching shows like Fraiser means one has a high standard of cultural capital, so I guess it’s a good thing…

Hopefully I’ll have something more interesting to post later… Stay tuned and don’t give up on me yet;)

- I have a good camera

- I have a decent film camera

- I like writing

- …and I’m pretty sure I have some interessting stuff to write about, too.

So I figured – hey, I’ll try blogging, and see what happens:)

Let’s see if anyone will actually read it. That way we’re talking one-way-communication, sender-message-reciever and all that jazz, and from what I’ve learned in the many media lectures I’ve attended at uni lately, that’s a good thing!