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Cinema DVD

Review: The Last Airbender

There was a time right after the great The Sixth Sense when I thought, and I was not alone, that M. Night Shyamalan was destined to be the next big director for thrillers in Hollywood. Nowadays, Shyamalan is just a bad parody of those times, seeming that every new one of his movies just gets worse and worse than the previous one. And once again I must not be alone in this, when he got a handful of Razzie Awards, the ones given to the worst of cinema industry every year, for this The Last Airbender.

Honestly, how is it possible that directors like Peter Weir need to wait almost a decade between project and project, and Shyamalan still counts with huge budgets and great stars for his movies? They say that sometimes you need luck in this life…

The Last Airbender

All in all, actually The Last Airbender, is not such a bad movie, at least if you compare it to the previous Shyamalan`s movie, The Happening, that must have been one of the most ridiculous and stupid movies I have ever seen in my life.

It is true that special effects and decoration suck, and the movie looks quite childish, but there are a couple of characters like Dev Patel as Prince Zuko and Shaun Toub as Uncle Iroh that make more than a decent role.

It will probably disappoint the followers of the original comics’ series, but it is certainly a movie that you can watch with the family, if you have children.

Rating 2/5

The best: Dev Patel as Zuko creates an interesting character where good and evil mixes perfectly.

The worst: It seems there are 3 more parts of the saga to come…

The detail: Maybe Dev Patel looks familiar, as you may have seen it in the previous Academy Award movie winner Slumdog Millionaire.

The Last Airbender – Trailer

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Articles Misc

Looks matter in Scandinavia too!

Text by Sasha Raduntceva

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening”, – has Coco Chanel once said. And maybe that’s why fashionable clothes and accessories are always urgent. Actually vogue is something like a merry-go-round of life. But we always add to trousers from 70’s earrings from 80’s and so on. That’s why the social network Lookbook.nu, where fellows and ladies from all over the world have an opportunity to post their own looks, has great success.

If you open this site, you’ll see that the most popular partakers of it are Scandinavian youth because of their unique style with a bit snowy notes, cold charisma and smell of cinnamon. Three of them consent to talk about them, fashion and of course Lookbook.nu.

1) Explain your motivation posting on lookbook.nu.
2) Describe your style.
3) What’s your profession?
4) Why fashion is always fashionable?

Gustav

Gustav Marklund from Piteå (Sweden).

http://lookbook.nu/user/206833-Sir-Gustav-M

1) I think that lookbook is a fun and inspiring webpage. I love to see all the looks and I also like being a part of it.

2) I don’t really have a specific style. Sometimes I wear all black, boots and chains, but in some cases I wear a lot of color. I dress in the style I feel like. It also depends if it’s spring, summer, fall or winter. In winter I rarely wear color, but in summer I love wearing color.

3) I’m a student. I study economics and I’m also an aspiring stylist.

4) I don’t believe that fashion is always fashionable. You shouldn’t always count on the new trends. Find your own style but get inspiration from fashion.

Amanda

Amanda Brohman from Umeå (Sweden).

http://lookbook.nu/amandabrohman

http://blogg.veckorevyn.com/amandabrohman

1) Because it’s such an inspiring site for fashion bloggers like me, it’s almost like a working community for us. You can showcase your own looks and promote your own style as well as get inspired by other people; there are so many stylish girls and boys out there!

2) My style consists of a lot of vintage and layers. I guess it’s a combination of big city street style and Scandinavian nature.

3) I’m a high school student, in my freshman year. Right now I’m majoring in subjects such as drama, costume design and social sciences.

4) Because fashion always changes, it’s never the same and it’s endless. Fashion will always be and has always been a big part of our lives, because it’s something you wear. And fashion is not, at least not for me, just about the latest trends – I see fashion as art, the best kind of art because we it’s the only art form we can actually wear.

Jacob

Jacob Julian Antonsson from Stockholm (Sweden).

http://lookbook.nu/user/178083-TWENTY-F

1) Lookbook is a great way to make an expression through a picture showing a sense of style on an individual you actually perhaps never met, to make an impression and inspire, to get inspired and to get feedback of course. Clothing and style are more than just fabrics and hairdos, It says a lot about the human being as an individual.

2) My style’s spontaneous and quite personal, as I only dress up in options – that’s me.

A mix of expensive designer clothing and vintage stuff to get a fun balance between individuality and trends.

3) I work as a store manager on a well known multibrand store in Stockholm, photographer and model.

4) Fashion is always fashionable because it gets old and unfashionable in just a matter of weeks, months or hours. There will always be a chase for the latest item, fabric or color and that’s why it never tends to get boring,

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Antonio's blog Blogs

A walk in Helsinki – Photo series 2

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Albums Music

L.R. PHOENIX & MR. MO’ HELL: JUMPER ON THE LINE – REVIEW

British L.R. Phoenix on the vocals/harmonica/guitar and his partner Mo’ Hell are not born in some neighborhood near Missisippi where rednecks would carry guns like children would carry lollipops, but in England, and what is even more weird for blues musicians, they are settled in Finland.

Let`s be honest, blues is not the mainstream style of music in Finland, a country where when you kick a stone, they appear magically three or four new hard rock and metal bands. Even that applies to me, in my personal taste; I listen to mostly rock and metal bands. But nevertheless, quality does not know of styles. And the follow up album to their debut Wrecked, released a couple of years ago, is a great blues album that will catch your attention from the first riffs of the opening Shake Them Down, one of my favorite tracks together with 90 Days in Jail.

Jumper on the line

The style of the band is quite straightforward, and can sound raw for some moments, but in any case, that seems to be the spirit behind them: a direct shot of blues to your stomach. You can like it or not, but this is what they like playing, and they deliver it without the need to be subtle.

Their musician friend Honey Lake collaborates with the duo in three of the tracks playing violin and with vocals in an album that pays openly homage to their hero L.R. Burnside; nevertheless, the album is named Jumper on the Line as a tribute to him, with a more than decent cover song as the 7th track.

Phoenix & Hell shows to Finnish rockers a little lesson about the origins of hard rock in blues music. If you do not remember about them, try to listen to that little Australian band called AC&DC, for starters…

Resuming, Jumper on the Line is a very good blues album that is enjoyed fast and furiously, like a cold beer in your hand on a hot summer night. If you like blues with roots and guts, and you are open minded enough to admit that blues can come from more places than USA, this album is for you.

Rating 4/5

Jumper on the Line – Tracklist

1. Shake Them Down
2. Don´t Want No Skinny Woman
3. I Swapped My Wife For A Used Coat
4. Boggy Pine
5. Freight Train
6. Keep Your Hand Off My Woman
7. Jumper On The Line
8. We Got A Thing Going On
9. Going To Memphis
10. 90 Days In Jail
11. Truely
12. Watermelon Skies

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Antonio's blog Blogs FREE! Blog

Toni & Mickey in Suomiland – Nightclub queue

Toni & Mickey

Toni & Mickey

Toni & Mickey

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Antonio's blog Blogs

A-Team of Finland – The Simpsons

It must be one representative of the Swedish speaking population in Finland…

A-Team of Finland – The Simpsons

Categories
Cinema DVD

DVD Review: Buried

Spanish director Rodrigo Cortés has been able to show in his first long length movie that you can achieve great results without having to count with a great budget or stunning special effects.

Buries is original from many points of view, starting from the fact that opening credits appear at the beginning, a wink to suspense classic films, and continuing for having the first minute of the movie just in total darkness, only hearing the breating of the main character, portrayed in a very plausible way by Ryan Reynolds, who shows that apart from being voted as the sexiest man in the world, can only deliver a consistent performance while being trapped in a casket.

Carlos

Some people can argue that the plot has many holes and the actions of the character are not really consequent, but all in all, the film achieves his objective: to feel the claustrophobic tension and the nerves of being buried alive. Although not having a perfect script, the movie is good enough to keep your eyes fixed on what is going to happen next, And once again, this is not easy to achieve when all the action just happened in a reduced dark space with only one actor in front of the camera for one hour and a half.

Not a perfect movie, but a promising first step for Cortés. After the heat he has been able to obtain with his opera prima, let´s see what he could be able to achieve in future projects with a bigger budget.

Rating: 4/5

The best: The claustrophobic environment of the movie that keeps you in tension.

The worst: Some holes in the script that makes you feel a lack of connection and empathy with the character.

The detail: The whole movie was shot in a studio in Barcelona in only 17 days.

Buried – Trailer

Categories
Art Exhibitions

Finnish artist Hanna Westerberg will exhibit in New York

Chelsea’s Agora Gallery will feature a Helsinki native artist, Hanna Westerberg, in Passages. The exhibition is scheduled to run from March 25, 2011 through April 15, 2011 (opening reception: Thursday, March 31, 2011).

About the Artist
Hanna Westerberg’s latest works are monolithic in their stature. These large format pieces on canvas and okoume plywood stand as memory aids, documenting the artist’s perceptions of spaces such as the Finnish National Theater, a prison, an old hospital and an airplane factory. Created on site, the works are richly developed gestural creations that communicate the broadest and most detailed of spatial nuances. Westerberg uses charcoal, tempera, ink, and oil paints to layer thin washes of coloration and grayscale tones in combination with scrawling line work. The effect is that of a line drawing, yet the prodigious scale gives the complex relationship between foreground and background an effect almost of vertigo. Westerberg controls space in her works, pushing and pulling the image from the viewer. Her intense use of drawing materials creates a strong sense of movement and action, even though these typically busy spaces are vacant of their occupants.

Hanna Westerberg lives and works in Helsinki, Finland.

Hanna Westerberg

About the Exhibition:
Celebrate the spring with Agora Gallery’s new series of exhibitions. Through Contemporary German Art: The New York Experience you can get in touch with the energetic talent of some of the best of German art today. Full of personal insight, yet containing universal understanding and appreciation, these artists use their cultural heritage to create unique and innovative pieces of art. In Degrees of Abstraction you can view the works of artists who get to the heart of the complex mysteries of the world as they treat everything they meet with gentle but creative respect. Delightful but thought-provoking, these images will resonate with something deep within. Passages presents artworks which speak of the life-changing and perception-altering power of journeys both personal and physical. Reflective of the artists’ experience, they will also help viewers themselves to gain a new perspective on everyday life and humanity.

Exhibition Dates: March 25, 2011 – April 15, 2011
Reception: Thursday, March 31, 2011, 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
Gallery Location: 530 West 25th St, New York City
Gallery Hours: Tues – Sat, 11a.m. – 6 p.m.

Event URL: http://www.agora-gallery.com/artistpage/Hanna_Westerberg.aspx

Categories
Cinema Features

Jussi Awards winners 2011

The best local films of the year 2010 were awarded in Jussi Gala in the 6th of February. The awards were given by Filmiaura, the association of Finnish film professionals. Jalmari Helander´s Rare Exports collected a total of six awards for its ambitious technical solutions (Best Costume Design, Best Set Design, Best Editing, Best Sound Design, Best Music, Best Cinematography). Lapland Odyssey collected four awards (Best Film, Best Direction, Best Script, Public Favorite). The legendary director Matti Kassila, 87, was awarded with Concrete Jussi for his life-time work in the service of the Finnish cinema.

Rare Exports

The winners in categorical order:

Best film:
Lapland Odyssey – producer Aleksi Bardy

Best direction:
Lapland Odyssey – Dome Karukoski

Best actor in a leading role:
Bad Family – Ville Virtanen

Best actress in a leading role:
Princess – Katja Küttner

Best actor in a supporting role:
Heartbeats – Sampo Sarkola

Best actress in a supporting role:
Run Sister Run – Sara Melleri

Best Script:
Lapland Odyssey – Pekko Pesonen

Best cinematography:
Rare Exports – Mika Orasmaa

Best music:
Rare Exports – Juri Seppä and Miska Seppä

Best sound design:
Rare Exports – Tuomas Seppänen, Timo Anttila and Jussi Honka

Best editing:
Rare Exports – Kimmo Taavila

Best set design:
Rare Exports – Jalmari Helander

Best costume design:
Rare Exports – Saija Siekkinen

Best documentary film:
Steam of Life – Joonas Berghäll and Mika Hotakainen

Public Favorite:
Lapland Odyssey – Dome Karukoski

Jussi Awards have been given since 1944 and they are considered as the oldest European film awards. The gala was broadcast live via Finnish TV channel Nelonen.


For more information:
www.jussit.fi

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Antonio's blog Blogs

A walk in Helsinki – Photo series 1

Being just the proud owner of a new Canon Powershot SX210 camera, I have decided that I will start a new series of posts showing my random shoots during my walks all over the capital area (I hope to expand later to other places I will visit). So here are the first ones, taken today during this wonderful sunny sunday:

And I saw a silver ball in the snow

Sneaky cat

The Estonian connection

Where the sea freezes

Finnish ducks like beer

Keep your shoes clean

Aliens are here!

Base!

Metro stop at Ruoholahti

Stay golden!

Dogs not welcome

Facilities ready for emergencies

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Antonio's blog Blogs

Ronald McDonald kidnapped from Ruoholahti

Sometimes reality is able to overcome fiction. This happened again at McDonalds restaurant in Ruoholahti a few days ago, where some people stole the statue of Ronald McDonald. I happen to know this McDonalds very well, becasue my office is just located in front of it, and often I stop by to grab something to eat (yes, I like fast food, and I am not ashamed to recognize it).

Some hours later, the kidnappers uploaded this video in Youtube. What do you think that will be the destiny of the poor Ronald?:

Ronald kidnapped from McDonalds at Ruoholahti

Categories
Art Exhibitions

The Gang of Kathmandu – Photo exhibition in Helsinki

A very interesting photo exhibition is currently running in the Finnish capital:

The author, Helsinki based photographer Filippo Zambon, tells us about this project:

In the fall 2010 I worked on a photo-documentary about the daily life of the street children of Kathmandu, Nepal. Those children allowed me to follow them during their peregrinations around the city. I followed them during the day when they work collecting cardboards in the dirty and busy streets of Kathmandu. I photographed their struggles, their addictions and the poverty that they are facing everyday. But mostly, this is a story of solidarity and brotherhood. The work is my homage to those children and their freedom.

Gang of Kathmandu

The exhibition will be open every day from 11.00 to 18.00 until the 30th of January

The Gang of Kathmandu
Kuvataideakatemian Galleria
Kasarmikatu 44
Helsinki, Finland

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Antonio's blog Blogs

Cool video if you like videogames: Pixels

Very nice video that I discovered today if you like videogames history. By the way, it will open in Berlin during this month a museum dedicated just to videogames, a must see if you visit the nice German city!

Pixels by Patrick Jean”

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Antonio's blog Blogs

Guitar hero “Russian style”

Because not everybody can be Slash…

Guitar hero “Russian style”

Categories
Concerts Music

Review Gogol Bordello concert in Helsinki at Kulttuuritalo. 12/06/2010

There is no doubt that Gogol Bordello has been able to gather a good legion of fans during last years, due in great part to the charisma of their vocalist Eugene Hütz. This fact is also noticeable in Helsinki, where the venue, being the concert originally projected to happen at Tavastia, had to be moved to Kulttuuritalo to hold a bigger audience.

Actually, it would have been much better in a smaller venue with a more “underground” tone, like Tavastia or Nosturi. Kultturitalo looks very cold to hold concert that are not about classical music, and besides, the acoustic there usually sucks.

Gogol Bordello

We arrived on time to see the opening band Devotchka, and I have to say that although I enjoyed their music, it is not the kind of band that suits for opening a Gogol Bordello gig. Their music turned to be too slow and “intellectual”, but the audience was receiving it quite coldly.

After going for a couple of beers, during the start of Gogol Bordello concert, one could have imagined that had been magically moved to a different venue. The place was crowded, and the audience got totally crazy during the opening song Tribal Connection. Hürtz is a magician when about connecting with the public, and Gogol Bordello, with his catchy mix of ska, punk and gypsy riffs and their multicultural and multilingual messages, turned this cold venue into a big party, with the people singing and jumping like there is no tomorrow, enjoying especially in classics like Wonderlust King or American Wedding. I don’t know about the people sitting behind on the seat rows, but it is almost a crime to go to a Gogol Bordello show and not to be in front of stage jumping like crazy, although a few teenagers took that to the extreme of thinking that every riff was worthy of acting like being in the middle of a mosh pit in a death metal concert, and turned to be a bit annoying for the people close to them.

tarot

Hürtz invited some fellow Finnish musicians to join him on stage, and all together ended a very long encore, that resumed the concert in more than 2 hours of great music and fun. Audience really got back the price of the ticket, with Eugene having no problem in staying a few more minutes on stage greeting people and shaking hands.

Gogol Bordello gave a very consistent show, transmitting the message of a band that has fun on stage, and make people have fun with them. You cannot ask for more than that when assisting to a gig!

GOGOL BORDELLO SETLIST HELSINKI 6 DECEMBER 2010

1. Tribal Connection
2. Not A Crime
3. Wonderlust King
4. My Companjera
5. Last One Goes the Hope
6. Trans-Continental Hustle
7. Immigraniada (We Comin’ Rougher)
8. Break the Spell
9. Raise the Knowledge
10. When Universes Collide
11. American Wedding
12. Lela Pala Tute
13. Start Wearing Purple
Encore:
14. Sun Is On My Side
15. Ghost Riders in the Sky
16. Mishto
17. Baro Foro / Undestructable

Photos: Andriy Kozyura