Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs Outside Finland Travel

Visiting Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania

Taking advantage of the long Easter weekend (yes, miracle, Friday was a national holiday in Estonia. Not that you have many chances through the year of enjoying long week ends in Estonia…) I decided to visit Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and the only country in the Baltic-Scandinavian region where I had not been yet.

The trip was long, 4 hours by bus to Riga and another 4 from Riga to Vilnius, but worthy. My Finnish friend Ilkka flew from Helsinki to join me, and there we met at Old Town Hostel. I must say that the double room we had was excellent. Actually, one could feel like having a hotel room, because it was separated from the rest of the hostel, and we had our own key to go in and out whenever we wanted withouth disturbing anybody. The price was fair, so I reccommend it.

Vilnius

We wandered during the weekend mostly around the old town, so I cannot say much of the rest of the city. But I liked a lot what I saw there. The city is clean, the buildings are in good shape, and the atmosphere is charming. The nightlife was sadly quite dead, due to many people having escaped from the city for the holidays, but even though, we found a couple of bars where to have fun. We settled our operational base for the night especially at the University Pub. But during those days there, most probably there were more people going to church than to bars. And it is amazing the amount of churches you can find in a few square metres! In every corner there is a church in old Vilnius! Even if you are not a religious person, you cannot less than admire the special atmosphere that this gives to the city.

About Lithuanian people, I must say that in general they were pretty friendly, even better than expected. Girls actually smile you easily at the bars, and are very eager to have a conversation (I would say that maybe more friendly than Estonian girls, who usually give you the look of “do not disturb me foreigner, I prefer to talk with the local guy who looks like a retired boxer” when going out at night. But also Lithuanian guys (ok, those who are not 2 metres high and look like serial killers) were quite friendly, and we had the chance to chat with quite many of them while sharing some beers.

vilnius

As a final remark, do not make the mistake to confuse Lithuanian language with Russian language (It happened to me once, sorry!!!). In Vilnius, only around 9% of the population is Russian speaker, and the local Lithuanians do not take very well the comparisons. In that sense, they are probably less welcoming than in the other Baltic capitals, where Russian speakers are more widely spread among the local population.

If you still have not visited Vilnius and are thinking about a possible weekend destination, do not think it twice. Prices are affordable, the city looks good and pretty safe, the people are friendly… and the women pretty ;)

Categories
Features Interviews Music

Interview with Taka from the Japanese band MONO

MONO has been around for more than one decade, not afraid of wandering around the world outside the Japanese borders to spread their unique musical style. They will be soon visiting Estonia, stopping in the city of Tartu. Taka, their lead guitar, kindly talked to FREE! Magazine about his view on music and the last experiences touring around the world.

Thanks a lot for your attention guys! For a person who would have not had the chance to listen to your band before, how would you describe the musical style of MONO?

The underlying energy in our songs is meant to be positive. The layers of heaviness and melancholy sounds on top are just the same things we endure in life to reach a higher place. We want our songs to mimic this balance of dark and light. As we grow older as a band, I think we want our songs to be more meditative.

MONO

How did you get to know and started to play together in 1999?

Takada and I became friends and we played a show together one time before forming Mono. I knew Yoda from the music store so he joined us shortly after. Then, a mutual friend introduced us to Tamaki because we needed a bassist. I’m lucky to have met each of them. It’s like fate because we all work well together and share the same vision.

After more than 10 years as a band, is there anything different from the beginnings, or the basic spirit remains the same?

We’ve grown tighter as a quartet and we are now more confident in taking risks in our music. Our basic spirit remains the same though.

I have read in previous interviews that you always give a great importance to remain independent, and you are not so happy about how capitalism affects the music business. How do you see the situation with the current economical crisis?

I’m not too familiar with the music business but it seems to me that most areas of mainstream entertainment are still doing well in most countries, especially Japan. The main thing that I enjoy about remaining independent is the freedom to create what we want to. The mainstream music business has a tendency to mold bands into what they view as marketable.

Is now even a better option to remain independent instead of depending on the fluctuations of the music market and the companies? Now for example Internet has opened the door to many bands to spread their music with a very cheap cost, just having a MySpace or Facebook page…

It really depends on what kind of musician you are and what kind of musical career you are going after. There have been several indie bands who have reached a wide audience with networking and touring.

Many European and American bands affirm that their craziest audience is in Japan. For you, as a Japanese band with a broad experience touring abroad, how is the European audience?

“I am a huge fan of Arvo Pärt”

The European audiences have already been wonderful to us. They are always enthusiastic and kind to us whenever we visit. Some of our greatest memories are in Europe.

It seems also that Japanese bands are getting more attention lately in North Europe than years ago, with other rock/metal bans like MUCC or D`Spairs Ray having a great legion of fans, for example in Finland. Have you noticed an increasing interest from Europe to Japanese music in the last years?

Unfortunately, I have not been able to keep up with the music scene lately.

You will be playing at the end of March in Estonia. I think you were here playing 2 years ago. What do you think of Estonia and Tartu? Did you have time to visit the city before?

Yes, we have played before at the Plink Plonk festival. Tartu is a very special for me, especially because I am a huge fan of Arvo Pärt. I am excited to visit to there again.

Plink Plonk club in Tartu is pretty small. Do you feel more comfortable playing in small clubs, or in bigger venues?

Both of them have good things about them. Playing in a small setting is more intimate which is nice. But playing in a large venue or festival is also great because we can reach a wider number of people.

The orchestration of your music could suit pretty well as soundtrack for movies. Have you received offers recently to participate in any movie soundtrack?

Yes, we’ve receive a few offers. We love film and it is a field that we are looking into.

MONO

You have always given a great importance to travelling around the world to promote your music. What is the best country or venue so far where you have stayed? Any place you would really love to visit, but never had a chance yet?

Such a difficult question because each country is so different. We’ve found something positive about every place we’ve visited.

What other hobbies and activities do you enjoy when you are not on stage or touring around the world?

Taking naps, reading, watching films, spending time with friends,

What will be the plans for MONO for the rest of 2010?

We still have a long tour ahead of us and when that is over, we will start to create new material for the next album.

Anything you want to add for the readers and fans?

Thanks for reading and hope to see you in a city near you soon.

MONO Setlist Tartu March 2010

MONO

1. Ashes in the Snow
2. Burial at the Sea
3. Kidnapper Bell
4. Pure as Snow
5. Sabbath
6. Yearning
7. Follow the Map
8. Halcyon (Beautiful Days)
9. Everlasting Light

MONO

Photos of the Tartu gig by Evert Palmets

Categories
Cinema DVD

Surrogates / Gamer

This is the first time I do a double film review in the same article, but well, I saw both movies Surrogates and Gamer one after the other, and at some points I felt like watching the same movie. Gerard Butler could have perfectly suit the role of Bruce Willis, and Willis, maybe a bit younger, could have been on the shoes of Butler with no problem.

Surrogates

It must be a trend in Hollywood that they release movies with similar patterns and topics at the same time. If before they did it with catastrophe movies, this time they play with virtual reality. New technologies have arrived to our everyday lives, and obviously the scriptwriters and directors are aware of that.

Surrogates is a good sci-fi movie, but it falls into a melting pot of all the classics of the genre. It is easy to see too many winks here and there to Blade Runner or I-Robot for just putting a couple of clear examples. The film is nonetheless saved by Willis, against fitting like a glove in a solitary character that goes beyond the borders to clarify the truth of some mysterious murders in a society where the real human beings just stay in bed leading mentally their surrogated robots. It could still have been more fruitful to see more interaction between real men and surrogates, the plot could have developed into much more funnier and interesting dialogues and situations with somebody who could pull the strings there. Director Jonathan Mostow failed in that.

Gamer

Gamer is more a shoot`em up movie which ending can certainly be foreseen miles away. But Butler is always good as a tough guy, although the script falls into too simplistic, and does not develop much the secondary characters. A pity, because it could have had more potential if it was not focused about the typical story of good guy meeting at the end the bad guy for the final duel and recovering the chick…
All in all, both are good entertaining for a couple of hours, but I still think that virtual reality and new technologies can deserve a much better sci-fi product in the future. Let´s see if any director out there is able to bring it (ah ok, for one second I forgot about Avatar… ;) )

Surrogates – Rating 3/5

The best: Bruce Willis

The worst: A cocktail of sci-fi stereotypes that leaves the film with not much to create a self impression on the audience.

The detail: I just wonder if there would be enough room in a big city or in the world for double size of citizens, the real human beings and the surrogates in the streets…

Gamer – Rating 3/5

The best: John Leguizamo as Freek

The worst: At some point, it reminded me too much of Death Race…

The detail: Milo Ventimiglia from the TV series Heroes makes a short but funny appearance in the virtual world.

Categories
Albums Music

Frida Andersson – Busy Missing You

If just in our previous album review we talked about a great female singer, here comes another one from Finland. Frida Andersson is a 22 years old Finnish singer and songwriter who lives in Helsinki, although having spent time in the past living in Sweden (and having Swedish surname).

Together with her guitar, and a great orchestration (her producer Hannu Korkeamäki has done a great job here), she features her debut album, released at the end of 2009. A collection of 10 tracks that exhale a classy aroma of good music.

Frida Andersson

Although the melancholia is a predominant feeling in Finnish songwriters, Frida’s album has a great cheerful general tone, even when talking about sad things. The songs could be perfectly used more like the soundtrack of an entertaining musical in Broadway than for crying alone in the darkness of your room. Tracks like the first Love Candle, Busy Missing You, Indian Summer (my favorite) or October Blue are just some highlights of this well-balanced album, mastered perfectly by Frida’s candid and beautiful voice.

If you like artists like Katie Melua, you are going to enjoy this one pretty much. The CD shows good taste even in the art design, measured but with a touch of romanticism and class; an excellent debut album for a very promising and young talented Finnish musician.

Rating 4/5

Categories
Albums Music

Sarah June – In Black Robes

Sarah June is an American musician that will certainly leave an impression on you. It is not easy nowadays, with the tones of new albums released every month, to find something fresh or shocking in music bussiness, but certainly her sophomore album In Black Robes, it is something surprising the first thing you hear it.

Just with an acoustic guitar and her voice, Sarah is able to create a kind of oniric musical experience. She sounds like a mischiveous teenager about to whisper a dirty secret to the microphone, but at the same time the lyrics can be really dark and deep. Goth folk? Certainly the style is not easy to catalogue, and that makes this album even more interesting.

Sarah June

Maybe the best parts of the album is when the rythm turns to be more bluesy, as a perfect example you can listen to the sixth track Bluesy Melody, where June`s vocal skills just shine or in Fencepost. Some other highlights of the album are the introductory Cowboy or the tenderly beautiful Paper Lantern, my favorite of the whole album.

However, if I have to put a “but”, I would say that the album could fall into sounding a bit monotonous after listening to it a few times. Sarah is skilled enough to show a wide enough palette of registers in the 13 tracks, but still, it would be interesting to see her beautiful voice going more experimental in the future (for example with a electric guitar…). In any case, if you like good songwriting and a female voice with a delightful twist, this album can be a great discovery for your collection!

Rating 4/5

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

Tartu in Spanish

For those of you who are Spanish speakers, here I send you a link from a Spanish website called “El Blog del Becario” that has a section where they feature Spanish people living around the world. It was my turn some weeks ago, so you can see some pictures of Tartu, the city where I live at the present moment, and get to know a bit more about Estonia and my life there. Enjoy it!

http://blogs.20minutos.es/becario/post/2010/01/11/un-espaaaol-perdido-en-tartu

Tartu

Categories
Concerts Music

Rammstein concert in Riga. Review.

This review should have had the title “Rammstein concert in Tallinn”. 2 weeks ago, I had everything planned and arranged to go to the Estonian capital when suddenly a stomach flu left me spilling my guts out, and totally destroyed the chances to go anywhere (and not only me, the virus affected to half of my job mates at the office).

Luckily, the Germans were playing 1 week later in Riga, relatively close from Tartu, and I convinced my Finnish friend Ilkka to come from Helsinki and drive to our destination of glory and rock.

Rammstein

Rammstein must have been on the top 3 of the bands that I still had never had the chance to check live and really wanted, so it was worth the effort; although I cannot really thank the promoters from BDG-FBI. They procrastinated in answering my emails, and gently denied me any press ticket, apart from not answering anything when I proposed farther collaboration for reviewing their events. How many publications do you have in English focused on culture and entertainment in the Baltics? I suppose that it must be more rewarding to sit all day at the office checking Facebook and Orkut than trying to do a good work. But well… if I start to talk about incompetent people in promoting and events management positions in Finland or Estonia, I would never reach to the point of talking about the concert….

Arriving in Riga became a little odyssey due to the heavy snow falling. After 3 hours of driving from Tartu, we encountered traffic jams everywhere, a lot of police and ambulances running from one place to another, and 4 or 5 small car accidents around the Latvian capital. The city seemed to be receiving a summit from the World Bank instead of a rock concert. Some of my Estonian job mates mentioned later that the car accidents were due to them being 6-toed Latvians, but I will remain impartial about the sticky subject ;)

But what it is true is that the organization of the concert in Latvia was awful. We encountered another more annoying queue for accessing the parking or Riga Arena, which turned to be full. Luckily, driving a few hundred meters away, a friendly Russian guy left us parked in his parking for just 2 Lats. We did not have Latvian cash, so gave him 5 euro. The E-Tickets that I had pursued in Internet worked (thanks god) and then I encountered the longest queue for a male toilet that I have ever seen in my life. So I decided my kidneys should have to wait until the end of the gig. With the traffic jams, we missed the first band, so accessed directly to see Rammstein show in an ultra packed standing up area of the arena. And when I say packed, I mean packed. Organizers again fucked it big time. There should have been easily at least 200 tickets less sold out there. We were at the bottom, very far from the stage, and we already could hardly move, a situation that I had experienced before just when being near the first row close to the stage. It is a miracle that not more people got into fights there or fainted. Chaotic!

Rammstein Till

The concert started with Rammlied, but being honest, the first 4-5 songs were closer to a nightmare than being a joyful event. I was literally feeling like a sardine in a box and very far from the stage with no chance to advance or move. Not helping that the old Murphy´s Law about taller guys always standing in front of you in a concert, and me being not the tallest in the world, made me literally almost break my neck to try to see something of what was going on stage. Latvian guys for your information are not the shortest of the world, so it does not help when you have a fucking basketball team in front of you.

The cherry on top of the cake is that there were no screens on the sides of the stage. For a band with the category that Rammstein has, and with tickets whose price started at 50 euro, a small fortune in Estonia or Latvia, I did not understand this either. What is the point to create amazing pyrotechnic effects on stage when half of the audience is not going to be able to see a shit if they are not in the first rows or in the seating places?

Luckily and wisely, we moved to one side that was a little less packed, and enjoyed some of my favorite tunes like Keine Lust! or Weisses Fleisch. The middle part of the concert was a bit boring from my point of view, it always happens the same when a band I like releases a new album, I always think that they should not play so many of the new songs. For example, Frühling in Paris could have perfectly been erased from the setlist, while it was an absolute pity than songs like Spielt Mein Klavier, Du Riechst so Gut or Azche zu Azche were missed.

Undobutedly, the end of the concert was the best, with amazing tunes like Links 1-2-3, the unavoidable and always awesome Du Hast and the catchy Pussy. A great end that was followed up by an encore with Sonne, the surprising Haifisch (I was not expecting the keyboardist “Flake” surfing the audience on the inflatable boat with this one, but with the classic Seamann, which I think would have been still much better, and Ich Will for closing the first encore.

While it seemed that everything would be over, and more than 1 person in the audience started to exit, the band still gave an amazing present performing a second mini-encore with Engel, with a huge and beautiful white angel on flames displayed on the stage, that finished the show; a great end for a concert that left me a bitter sweet taste due to the chaotic organization.

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

Der Schlangemann

My Finnish friend Ilkka visited me last week to drive to Riga to see Rammstein concert, and when we were back in Tartu, he showed me the most hilarious German video I have ever seen! (Ok, actually it is made by Swedish).

I introduce you the almighty Schlangemann!!!

Advisory: It contains explicit sexual content.

Categories
Cinema DVD

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

If you want to be the best, you have to play with the best. That is exactly what Duke does joining forces with the most elite command on earth.

Gijoe

Well, I belong to a generation that grew up as children playing with G.I Joes in their living rooms. I still remember the arcade videogame after many years. So for me, this is not just another action movie. And actually, I must say that although I was expecting another disappointment as big or even bigger than the one I suffered the other day after watching Transformers 2, I kind of liked this movie.

Sure, the script is not made for receiving an Academy award, and people seem to find whatever minimum excuse to turn evil and try to destroy the world, but nevertheless, as a product of entertainment, the film works. The characters are what you expect them to be, no more, no less. Both female lead roles incarnated by Siena Miller and Rachel Nichols have a great presence on screen and a notable sexual charge, Ray Park (do you remember him in, among others, Star Wars I?) as Snake Eyes is once again amazing in the fighting choreographies and Channing Tatum And Marlon Wayans are pretty convincing as the “good guys” couple.

Gijoe

The bad guys look like bad guys, and just the presence of Dennis Quaid appears not to have much sense. The action is good, the special effects, although sometimes they are not at top level, work reasonably ok, and in this case, opposite to the second part of Transformers, I do not feel like being part of just a shallow propaganda for the American Army, but as of the fun of watching a notable action movie.

Imbd site´s users can say whatever the fuck they want, rating the movie under 6 out of 10, but for me, this is a more than a decent result, compared to all the crap that invades the DVD stands of any shop nowadays. Resuming, a movie worthy to watch if you like action movies without having to analyze the philosophical reasons of the human being´s existence.

Rating 3/5

The best: Marlon Wayans trying to get into the pants of Rachel Nichols.

The worst: some holes in the script. There are twists and “twists”.

The detail: G.I.J.O.E. stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity

G.I. Joe The Rise of Cobra Trailer

Categories
Antonio's blog Blogs

Clubbing night in Tartu

I went out yesterday night with an English friend in Tartu. We started the night at Club Tallinn, which brings me good memories of my student years in the city, when we used to go there pretty often on Wednesdays with the other students from the dormitory.

Club girls

Some thoughts came to my mind after last night: first of all that I should try to go to other clubs where people are older. I was feeling like in a kindergarten there, and it is not that cool when everybody around looks like 6-7 years younger that you. Luckily, my English friend is even older than me…

Secondly, that I do not like that stupid rule that most of the clubs have that many nights (like yesterday) men have to pay the entrance fee while is free for the women. It is a much extended practice in Estonia, and for me, it is plain discrimination. I understand the reasons of the managers to do that: so pretty girls would go to the club, and then guys are attracted by them so they will come too and spend more money on drinks. But if we want an equalitarian society, that should apply to everything. I have not read any single voice that has been raised against these kinds of things in the media, and I think it is intolerable, but nobody seems to care. What would happen if next week, in the cafeteria down my work the meals would be free for men but women had to pay? A bunch of feminist associations would come immediately in rage… but well, this seems to be the way it is here, and we can take it or leave it…

Third, that the drinks are too expensive. We are talking about a club located in the same building that a student dormitory, with very young audience. Come on guys, having to pay 65 crowns for a small glass of rum with coke is not cool, even more now in crisis times. But take also into account that in Estonia there seem to be a big culture of “showing off”. Estonian guys will pay the drinks in the club, and dress like if they would live in Melrose Place, and for the rest of the week they will be eating pasta at home with no money to do shopping. That happens when MTV culture collides with low wages…

Beer and coins in Zavood

And in general, I realized that I do not like much the social dynamics of nightclubs in Estonia. True, for a man like me, it is very nice to watch 100 hot young girls dressed to kill around. But after a while, you realize that it is not really that fun. People are not very accessible to talk to, everybody is looking at everybody, but nobody interacts with others than the old friends. Girls just walk around showing their latest acquired mini dress, but they have a sign that seems to say “look but not touch”, with a very cold attitude, and boys are not really very friendly either for a conversation, and not very subtle when hitting on girls. Actually, the few times I could have a nice conversation in a club in Estonia usually take place in the smoking room. So if you want to have a bit of social interaction, you will have to sacrifice the health of your lungs.

I bet that at the end of the night, 95% of the people who went to the club left with the same group of friends, and without having made any new acquaintances. At least, I remember in my younger years when visiting a club in Spain that at the end of the night you could see many new couples around the corner kissing. I am a defender of “make love, not war”, so I find that much better than fighting in the streets. But in the club, you could hardly see anybody making out or having real fun in a conversation. Everybody dressed up, everybody expecting somebody else to make a move…nothing happening, boring. And because of the price of drinks being so high, most of them, being just young students, could not even allow themselves to have a glass in their hands.

On a more positive side of the night, I have to say that after that, I visited Genialistide Club for first time in my life, and I liked the atmosphere there very much. I actually do not know why I have not gone there before. I ended the night in Zavood, another mythical bar in Tartu, and I can say that in both bars I have in a few minutes many more interesting conversations with new people I was introduced that in all the previous hours at the nightclub. The usual crowd in those bars are much more relaxed and open minded, and although of course there can be some asshole like in everywhere, it is usually easy to have a nice talk while playing a fuzzball game or just ordering a beer on the desk. Not mentioning that prices are really much cheaper there.

http://www.clubtallinn.ee
http://www.genklubi.ee
http://www.zavood.ee

Categories
DVD FREE! Blog

Ponyo on the Cliff competition

FREE! Magazine and Panvision invite you to see one of the most amazing Japanese animation movies! Just send the correct answer to the question below to antonio.diaz@freemagazine.fi, writing in the subject field “Ponyo on the Cliff competition”, and you can be the lucky winner of one of the 5 DVDs of Ponyo on the Cliff we have to give away!*

What is the name of the director of Ponyo on the Cliff?

  • John Lasseter
  • Aki Kaurismäki
  • Hayao Miyazaki
  • Osamu Tezuka

Ponyo on the cliff DVD cover

* Prices will be delivered by post only for winners located inside Finland’s borders.

Categories
Cinema DVD

Lesbian Vampire Killers

For the fans of horror movies with good doses of comedy and pretty girls, this is not going to disappoint you!

Lesbian Vampire Killers

I must say that actually I enjoyed this movie more than I expected. I knew that I was not going to find any “deep meaning” behind it, more like a film perfect to see in hangover days while lying on the sofa, but certainly, I think that different movies are made for different purposes, and this one accomplishes its own one.

The dialogues and the characters are funny and work, especially James Corden as Fletch, the best friend of the “hero”, horny and ready to party and make smart comments all the time.

Actually, opposite to what the title could imply, the amount of sex and erotic scenes is very light, hardly will you see one breast here and there, and the violence scenes are always wrapped with good humor, so it is a movie perfect to see with your girlfriend or with children around (whatever war movie they usually watch will have more shocking scenes there).

Lesbian Vampire Killers

For those of you who need a different perspective of the vampire world than what Twilight can offer, give a try to this one!

Rating 3/5

The best: Fletch killing the daughter of the priest and acting like nothing happened.

The worst: more physical contact between Jimmy and Lotte would have been welcome!

The detail: I watched the same day this one and “Two Lovers”, and enjoyed this much more by far!

Lesbian Vampire Killers Trailer

Categories
Cinema DVD

The boat that rocked

An intelligent and funny history that tells about the period in Great Britain in the 60´s where pirate rock stations delighted the youngsters.

boat

For any musical lover, this film is a must see. It is entertaining, well written, and enjoys a great cast with Bill Nighy, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Kenneth Branagh or Emma Thompson among many other great names. I also enjoyed the presence of Chris O´Dowd and Sinead Matthews from my favorite British TV comedy, The IT Crowd.

boatthatrocked

The story tells the life of a crazy gang of Djs on a boat during the 60´s, period where rock stations were illegal in England. Fun, good jokes and overall, a great soundtrack that makes you appreciate the value of music in life, as well as friendship and how bad and hypocrite the stupid rules of governments can be sometimes. Totally recommended!

Rating 4/5

The best: The soundtrack of the movie is fantastic

The worst: The final with the shrinking boat was a bit weak.

The detail: You can see back after a long time in the same movie to Branagh and Thompson, although they do not share scenes.

The Boat that Rocked Trailer

Categories
Cinema DVD

Two lovers

Joaquin Phoenix incarnates a charming bipolar Jewish guy splits between two loves.

two lovers

I knew that this probably would be another romantic movie with lack of spicy action, but actually I was really disappointed while watching it. I had the feeling of that “something good is about to happen” that never get to materialize, if you know what I mean. So here you have in the end another good example of a great cast and a big production (meaning a lot of money) wasted in a boring film.

Joaquin Phoenix is a great actor, and here shows once again, but the role could have had more to squeeze with a more intelligent script. Gwyneth Paltrow is as adorable and sexy as always, or even more, but actually her role of family breaker blondie could have been perfectly filled by other thousand of actresses. Not her best movie.

two lovers

In addition, the end is quite pessimistic, I am not sure what was the message they wanted to transmit, but for me, it seems like in the end you have to renounce to your dreams and set back into the harsh reality, being moderately happy. But is not Hollywood about following dreams?

Quite disappointing in the end. If you are a fan of the main actors, you can give it a try, but personally, I found it boring and forgettable.

Rating 2/5

The best: Vinessa Shaw acts and looks adorable as the Jewish girlfriend

The worst: when two bipolar people get together, you know the story is not going to end well.

The detail: It is set in Brooklyn (what a novelty for a romantic comedy…)

Two Lovers Trailer

Categories
Albums Music

For Selena and Sin – Primrose Path

Follow up album for the Finnish gothic band after their debut in 2007.

Selena

Primrose Path is a good album for those of you who like gothic melodic metal with female singers on the front, in the same line than bands like Nightwish, Lacuna Coil or Evanescence, for putting a few examples. The voice of Annika Jalkanen is crystalline and clear, straight to your heart, but sometimes I miss a bit more of risk trying to get higher notes.

As most of the Finnish metal bands, their style and musical skills are excellent, and the album sounds very mature for a band not so well known internationally. However, the saturation of bands in the same genre during the last years puts some doubts in my head if they will be able to breakthrough, although it seems things are going well so far for the Finnish guys, touring around Europe.

Selena

Listen to tracks like Countdown to the Starts, the initial one, or Rusty Rails of Yesterday, and get immersed in a surrealistic atmosphere of musical pleasure (and a little bit of sorrow).

Rating 3/5