Saturday, April 28, 2012

Estoril Jazz - Origens / Cartaz 2012

Festival toma lugar no Auditório do Casino Estoril, entre 11 a 13 de Maio e 18 a 20 de Maio.
Preços entre os 20 e 25 euros.

Assinatura para 6 concertos - 60 euros (+ de 50% de desconto)!!
- Assinatura é transmissível -

Origens


Cartaz 2012




Friday, April 27, 2012

CNN - Human To Hero - Garett Hickling


After watching the great documentary that is Murderball (2005), producing this piece became a highlight of my short career.

It gave me great pleasure meeting Garett Hickling and doing this H2H around him... For the sport itself but also its back story.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Zeus - Busting Visions (2012)




Don't even remember how I got to listen to these guys... Doesn't really matter...
Just glad I've found them!

 

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Try, Try, Try





Pop tart
What's our mission
Do we know
But never listen
For too long
They held me under
But I hear
It's almost over
In Detroit
On a Memphis train
Like you said it's
Down in the heat and the summer rain of
The automatic gauze of your memories
Down in the sleep at the airplane races
Try to hold on
To this heart
A little bit longer
Try to hold on
To this love aloud
Try to hold on
For this heart's
A little bit colder
Try to hold on
To this love
Paperback scrawl your hidden poems
Written around the dried out flowers
Here we are still trading places
To try to hold on
Pop tart
Can you envision
A free world
Of clear division
For too long
They held us under
But I know
We're getting over
In Detroit
With the Nashville tears
Like you said it's
Down in the heat with the broken numbers
Down in the gaze of solemnity
Down in the way you've held together
To try to hold on
To this heart
A little bit closer
Try to hold on
To this love aloud
Try to hold on
For this heart's
A little bit older
Try to hold on
To this love aloud
And we are still alive
Try to hold on
And we have survived
Try to hold on
And no one should deny
We tried to hold onto the pulse of the feedback current
Into the flow of encrypted movement
Slapback kills the ancient remnants
That try to hold on
Try to hold on
To this heart alive
Try to hold on
To this love aloud
Try to hold on
And we are still alive
Try to hold on
And we have survived
Try to hold on
Pop tart
You never listen
Skinned knees
Try to hold on
Stop start
What's our mission
Skinned knees
Try to hold on

Sunday, April 22, 2012

L.A


This was how I started my Sunday!

And yes... I know I've said this many times before... but he's just one of my favorite artists ever. 
Great musician and lyricist!

Friday, April 20, 2012

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011)



Since the day Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) was announced, I became eagerly excited to watch it. It had Tom Hanks - my favourite actor - and that alone was enough. But there was more...

Sandra Bullock, with her "market quote" bigger than ever, after her Oscar winning performance in The Blind Side (2009), was another major attraction. Here, we had two leads with the "golden statue" in their CV. 
Add to the mix a supporting cast with the likes of Viola Davis, John Goodman, Jeffrey Wright and Max von Sydow, a veteran that seems to improve his brilliance in every film he takes part on.

We could just have leaved it at that, but this is just the cast...

Stephen Daldry, renown English director took helm of the project based in the best-selling book (with the same name as its movie adaptation) with Scott Rudin backing him up, with the producer role. Two men with great background in terms of cinema success, working together in what it seemed to be a moving and powerful film. The trailer also left that impression...

To my big surprise, it didn't took me long to realize it was going to be a struggle to go through little more than two hours. The reason: Thomas Horn.

I couldn't see eye to eye with the young actor, who the story revolved around (well, his character, but you get the idea). Everything seemed forced... his dialogues, his body language, his over-dramatic scenes and even his voice-over narrative. But if you exclude that, everything almost seemed good...

Enjoyed Tom Hanks in his little time on-screen, saw the qualities that made Miss Bullock an Academy award winning actress and Max von Sydow, the best performance of the film, justifying entirely his nomination for Best Secondary Actor.

So you may wonder... "How come you didn't enjoy the film, when the only thing you disliked was the kid's performance?". 
Well... If you take into consideration that 85% (if not more) of the action taken in the movie has Thomas Horn in the centre of attention, than it might make it clear to you. 

I'm probably being very harsh - after all, this is his début on-screen and he's still quite young - but I can't ignore or deny that his role was a total downer. I even wanted to think it was the character's fault and there was nothing any child actor could to, under any circumstances. 

That would be a lie!

There is some to blame on who wrote the script, however, there would be some salvage to Oskar Schell if the casting was different.

Having said this, I would still encourage you to see it as other people's perception is a lot different than mine. Thomas Horn got a lot of compliments over his performance and this feature was nominated for Best Motion Picture of The Year!

Be it as it may, this is my take on it! It's not great, but not bad. Having good moments and very average ones, it might worth your while, especially because of the efforts of the ever so brilliant, Mr. von Sydow.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

ENUI MAG - Aiiii MIUDA




O meu artigo mais recente na Enui Mag sobre os MIUDA - aqui!


Sunday, April 08, 2012

Destroyer - Kaputt (2011)



I got to hear the album Kaputt (2011) through a friend of mine, without having the slightest idea of what to expect. 

As I went from track to track, I felt more and more in tune with their music and by the end of it, I was impressed. I needed to share my experience in the blog and for that the research started to flow in order to provide a bit more details about the Canadian band, Destroyer. After scrolling very quickly through their wikipedia page, I was shocked to find out they have been together for the last 16 years and here I was thinking this was their début album. Felt like a fool... like I was missing out...

I'm yet to hear their other projects, but hopefully I'll find the same 80's groove with Summer flavour to it.
The beat made of a pacey bass and guitar, plus the addition horn instruments seem to bring back the heat from a time where Hawaiian shirts, Aviator Ray-ban's and the movie Top-Gun (1986) were trendy as hell. Not the best of descriptions, but serves the purpose.

Vintage Summer time...not something that I lived, but would wish to experience.
Kaputt allows me just that...



Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Fly



Had to make a solo post for this track...
Taken from the movie Intouchables

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Intouchables (2011)


Intouchables (2011) is a French movie - based on true events -  written and directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano.

In both these fields (writing and directing), Olivier and Eric performed gracefully with great taste, not only aesthetically - with their fine direction - but also with the narrative which never seems to cross the border into cliche territory. Quite a task considering the nature of the script and how now a days film makers try hard to fabric tearjerkers.
You can say this feature almost fits that "genre", depending of one's sensibility... but being an over sensitive person myself, I can tell you that Intouchables while being able to move you, doesn't bring the saddest emotions from you. It offers a balance between comedy - in a smart and genuine way - with the finest of human nature, one where love, respect and compassion are big assets.

As the movie starts, the opening scene gives away a mysterious beginning with two men (Philipe and Driss) with a great piano track serving as soundtrack. Immediately I was drawn... not only because I was curious about the relationship between the two men in the car, but the music was gripping and very familiar. I remember watching various NBA Playoff commercials (ex: 1) with the same song. Soon after, this piano theme gives room to a more funky upbeat, September by Earth, Wind and Fire. 

Come to think about it, the French film is exactly that... a mix of the piano theme with September. While  intense and beautiful, it's also fun and cheerful. Having a lot of qualities that define and describe Intouchables, one that becomes obvious is the relationship between both main characters. In their individual aspects they are great, having a lot of depth and interest, but together they provide a brilliant chemistry, one that alone makes the movie worth it. It's beautiful to see such a comrade between two men, outside the typical male environment. A love between two man, resembling in many aspects the friendship between Andy Dufrane and Red (Shawshank Redemption) with the settings being completely different, but equal in terms of principal. For those who saw the "DVD extras" of Shawshank, the way most of the cast describes their relationship, can easily match what is seen on-screen with François Cluzet and Omar Sy (Philipe and Driss).

From start to finish, what you see - and hear (try and listen to this soundtrack with mix of classic and funk music) - is excellent, making justice to the hype created around this movie. One more successful European venture, reminding us that French cinema is alive and well!