Your butt is mine ! \o/

I just can't believe I finally found a good reason to put this as a title here. Anyway. Yeah, cause "I'm bad". You'll understand in a minute. But first, a big question, adressed mostly to my sister F: What does Michael Jackson say, in Bad, that sounds like "shamoo, shamoo"? Anyone?

Ok, now for the actual post : Today, my top 5 favourite actors who look perfectly evil without even trying.

1. Rufus Sewell. This whole post is actually just an excuse to write something about Rufus Sewell. He looks evil, he squints a little (or maybe one of his eyes is bigger than the other, I can't decide), and he's got green eyes and curly black hair. I want green eyes and curly black hair on the 7 feet tall and cape-wearing, curry-eating man I ordered for Christmas. Write that down, Santa! Rufus Sewell played in A Knight's Tale, which is one of my favourite comedies ever (featuring Paul Bettany. Crap. Paul Bettany's got no curly black hair, and blue eyes. Whatever, Santa. Take your pick.)

He also played in Dark City, where there is one of those scenes (oooh, I just found the theme of my next post!)... One of those scenes that make you shiver just thinking about it. Oddly enough, it involves another black-haired and green-eyed creature, who is, incidentaly, the wife of aforementionned Paul Bettany. This first paragraph is getting sooooo long... :D Well. Rufus Sewell.

2. Alan Rickman. I saw him first in Robin Hood when I was 8, and he said something to the effect of "I'm going to tear your heart out with a teaspoon ("why with a teaspoon ?") because the less sharp, the more painful". And then I saw him in Sense and Sensibility. Like Rufus Sewell, I saw him both as a nice and as a totally evil character, and loved him in both cases. Wait... Am I talking about Rufus Sewell again ?

3. Gary Oldman. Just for the "disappointed" thing in the 5th Element. Just for the 5th element. I have not seen him in much else, in fact. But just for this, he's got my vote. I really like the 5th element actually. Mostly because of Gary Oldman, I believe.

4. Thomas Gumpert. Yeah, I also did not know the name until 30 seconds ago (thanks, IMDb), and you probably don't know the face. He's the guy who plays the villain in a stupid German telenovela I'm watching at the moment in order not to forget my German during the holidays (Ok, also because I really want to know the ending, and also because I'm slightly addicted. But the actors are actually very good, unlike the scenario which is as lame as they get).

Thomas Gumpert, then, who plays an evil German (how original). He looks very much like the stereotypical Nazi, I must say, with icy-blue eyes and he's kind of freaky (also he speaks German, which sends shivers down my spine). Yet he is so caricatural that he cracks me up. He smiles an evil smile, and you can see that the actor is actually having fun (or at least I like to believe he is). I'd like to meet him in person, I'm sure he's great fun. I can't see his evil smile without smirking too. And now I can't even see his face without smirking.

5. Paul Bettany. Comes 5th because he doesn't actually look evil without even trying, he just plays evil guys very often. But I love him in anything (except of course for Dogville (akh, bakh) and Firewall (ukh bukh) for very different reasons. And some other things were bad too. But I still love him). And he can look absolutely terrifying. Have you seen Gangster Nb 1, Reader ? He laughs and bares his fangs in an elevator, and the picture is burnt in my retinas. Very, very frightening.

Anyway. This is it for today's top 5 (I have no time left, lunch-break is nearly over). I am sorry for the lack of ethnic diversity in this post. I tried thinking of a black or asian evil looking actor whom I really love, and could not find any. The only asian actor I could think about was Takeshi Kaneshiro, and he's not evil at all. In the last movie I saw him in, which was quite good, he was cast as a wise military genius/zen master. About as believable as Orlando Bloom as Yoda. But hell... any role will make me happy... Have a nice day, reader !!

Paper planes

Hello again, reader !

Yeah, two post in two days, I'm just in a crazy mood, don't get used to it...

First of all, let me wish a happy happy birthday to my brother P! Happy birthday P! Hope you have a really nice day!

Now to today's post: I have been to the movies recently to see "The Boat that Rocked" (called "Good Morning England" in the French version, God knows why...) and I liked it a lot, and it made me think about how great soundtracks can be, in movies. A few days before, I had watched Star Wars episode 4 with my mother (4, 5, 6, let me say it once more, the only Star Wars episodes worth watching) and it had reminded me how important soundtracks can be, in movies.

So here you are, my top 5 soundtracks (musicals excluded, because that's cheating, and I've done it already anyway...)

In order to keep me sane, please do refer to the Top 5 rules in the right-hand part of this blog!

1. Pirates of the Caribbean. The soundtrack just makes me happy. Also makes me march down the corridors of the subway with a Xena the Warrior Princess grin on my face, which I know is going to cause problems sooner or later. But there's really nothing quite like the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack, except maybe for...

2. Star Wars. It's mythic and great, and I like that low, humming noise you get when Vador walks in, and I like the main theme, and just listening to the music at the beginning, with the text fading away in the starry sky, makes me feel like I'm 5 all over again. These movies, reader... I don't care what happens with the franchise now. These movies are just great.
3. Pride and Prejudice. This is the one I like to pretend I'm a 19th century English lady to. Especially on the train to Brussels. Going all "my is that couch slow" and batting my eyelids at my reflection in the window, pretending Mr Darcy is sitting in the seat in front of me. Of course, that's just before I fall asleep, start drooling on the seat and can only be woken up by the ticket punching guy after the third time he's called me and tapped on my shoulder. Less ladylike, but very entertaining for all the other people in the wagon.

4. O Brother Where Art Thou. This is not very original, I know, and the movie is actually not that great, but the soundtrack is just brilliant. I don't think I'll ever get sick of these Alison Krauss songs. I don't think I'll ever get sick of any of that soundtrack. Only problem is, I can't listen to it on public transportation, because I can't help but sing along, and there's only so much my dignity can take. Drooling and snoring is OK, singing is a no-no.

5. Slumdog Millionnaire. Not very original either, but really, really, those M.I.A. songs? That great, great one with the gun-noises? And listening to a song that goes "some I murder, some I let go" on the Parisian subway is also quite satisfying, I must say. It is possible that I have a murderous light in my eyes while doing so, but then again, I pretty much always have a murderous light in my eyes in the Parisian subway, so it's not too embarrassing. Pretty much everyone does. Thank you to my sister F, by the way, who both gave me the CD as a present and pointed out to me what the singer was saying. I thought it was "sam sam sama sama mah dah". Now my life has changed.

Anyway, here it was, my top 5 soundtracks. I have to say it. I probably have forgotten some great ones. Elizabethtown, Juno, Shrek, Shrek, Shrek (crap, I've forgotten Shrek...) all kinds of great soundtracks. Don't resent me.

Have a nice day, reader!

Elle est dans ma tête, elle ne m'abandonne jamais

These, readers, are the words of a stoopid French song. They mean "she's in my head and she never forsakes me". It's exactly what happened to me with the stupid song, which is now constantly playing in my head, and driving me crazy. Call me Jukebox-girl.

Anyway, I'm not here to complain about the radio (yet), but to say hi, because I have not been writing in a terribly long time. I've been sitting the Big Oral Exam From Hell, which I passed (yay!), and then going to Cracow in Poland on an internship (yay again!).

The internwhip was great, except we interpreted for a guy for 4 hours, and he then proceeded to tell us that he had actually understood the original version all along, and we needn't have bothered, with the happiest grin I had seen in quite a long time. But it was a nice experience anyway, and we would just have sat there and been bored if he had told us he didn't need us any sooner, so no big deal.

I then moved back to France, and slept for 10 days straight, which was nice indeed, and now I am in Paris, working, which is nice too. It's sunny here, and also I'll get paid at the end of the month (yay!) and I have a little time to blog on my lunchbreak, which is nice too.

Of course, it would be a good idea to work on my thesis and/or on my German (which I'll have to sit again in Spetember... could someone please do something for my grammar?) during my lunchbreak instead of coming here and telling you all about my rivetting life, only you know me... besides, my fingers are all sticky because of the soy sauce that came with the japanese meal we ordered for lunch, so you'll understand that I can't possibly write anything serious with sticky fingers. (Just kidding, IT guy who probably reads my blog like 15 milion other readers at least, of course, I washed my hands thoroughly and never eat anywhere near my keyboard).

Well, I'll have to run, now, I just wanted to say that I was still pretty much alive and give you some news, before writing something more interesting and focused some time soon, I promise. Have a nice day in the meantime !!

Standard de Liège, olé olé olé

Well hello reader ! It's been quite a long time since I last wrote, but I've been very busy (for real, what a nice change...) Indeed, it's exam time again, and I took the first of a long and dreadfuls series of oral exams on monday (I started with German, which is a good thing, insofar as it's... well... not my main strength, let's put it that way so I'm just glad I'm done with it. Till September anyway... -_-'')

The other exams were not that bad, but it's not finished until the Big and Evil Jury of Death which is on Tuesday. I don't know yet if I really am going to go. I consider a lot of alternative careers, nearly all of which involve the words "vodka", "country singer", "under a bridge" or all three... Anyway. Since I am going to leave Brussels soon, whatever the outcome of the exams, I wanted to tell you about another Belgian top 5 : The top 5 things I'll remember about the Place du Luxembourg.

1) The European MP's walking around in their nice charcoal suits and shiny shoes. They are all very serious and elegant, and they always have their name tag hanging around their necks, which oddly reminds me of the "Unaccompanied Minor" things that they make you wear when you are taking the plane alone. Like "If lost, please return to seat 234, European Parliament, Brussels"...
And also I love how they all have backpacks with teeeeeny tiny straps and then their backpack is stuck just under their heads and their suits are all crumpled up. It looks a bit like their backpack is holding their arms up. I whish I worked at the European Parliament, then I'd get to see them wriggle and writhe to try and extract their arms from said straps. But don't mind me and my evil mockery, I'm just jealous is all. One day I'll work at the EP too, and I'll be wearing the shortest backpack straps of them all... Just wait and see.

2) The Liege Football team winning the Belgian football cup. I was "working" on my Big and Evil Paper from Hell, and then I heard quite a lot of noise downstairs, so I decided I'd go and have a look (I had been working for 5 minutes straight, and thought I deserved a break.) Never seen that many people peeing on such a small surface at once before. Amazing. All the supporters in a line, peeing on the wall of the sport's bar. I wish I'd had my camera...

3) The homeless guy who asks for money downstairs. He always says he accepts checks and credit cards, and he cracks me up. He looks a little like crocodile dundee, and once told me I had saved his dog, because he would have had to eat it if I had not been there to help him out with his lunch money. I then said "well, it would have been nice with a little ketchup and stuff" and he looked at me like I was weird. Anyway.

4) The unbearable crazy drunk who wanders under our windows screaming rubbish all the time. I don't mean screaming "RUBBISH" all the time, I mean screaming rubbish as in... well, you know. He's rude.

5) The Delhaize downstairs where I spend 85% of my money buying a lot of very unhealthy stuff. Especially now that it's exam time. I pretty much feed on sugar and fat now. I am always afraid that the students who work at the Delhaize downstairs think I am some sort of alien creature who eats only broccoli and mars bars. I do have the complexion of a broccoli eating alien right now, so I don't blame them, I just hope they won't call the FBI or anything. But then again, I might get a Dana Scully autograph for my brother...

Anyway. I'm going to get back to work now (trying to find some interesting speech in German...) I hope you aree doing fine. Oh, and if you've got a little time, go see Craig Ferguson singing on Malinky's blog. She's got the greatest YouTube channel ever, and uploads Craig Ferguson's show every night. I'll be forever thankful, Malinky!

Have a nice day!

Seems like everywhere I go...

The more I see, the less I know...



Ok, granted, it's not too original. But hell. That's a good song. In fact I was on the verge of a terrible panick attack tonight, and then I went and saw a Craig Ferguson video on YouTube (I've been doing that a lot when I was on the verge of a giant panick attack, which has happened often this week. I love it. And then I make stupid private jokes with myself all the time...) Anyway.

I was looking at Craig Ferguson videos on YouTube (because I don't have CBS here at my flat) and then I saw that video of Michael Franti & Spearhead, and suddenly I felt much better. I do hope it will have the same effect on you. Especially if your back is stuck. But I'm just saying.

Spread love, reader ! Weee heeeheehee...

PS: Here's the non-live version if you like those better. I know I often do.

Space cowboy

Hi reader!!

I have a question to put to you. What do you do, when you learn that the thesis you have to wirte, due in 7 days, must be 100 pages instead of 40?

You get to work, stop sleeping, replace meals by Red Bull and coffee and consider brewing your own vodka with old potatoes in a plastic bottle under your mattress?

Ooooor, maybe... you pretend nothing happened, work little by little, hide the panick under a thick layer of sugar and go to the movies? That's what I did. I liked it.

I went to see Star Trek, since I am planning to become a geek in order to understand all the jokes and references in The Big Bang Theory. I liked it. I like all these recent movies that are very first degree and could have been shot 30 years ago. Star Trek perfectly qualifies, and it was really great. Only it's still shows that it's a modern movie, since the special effects are very, very pretty and I think the costumes have been slightly updated.

There were some things that I did not like though. For example, the guy cast as Jim Kirk. You can only be so ridiculously caricatural and not lose me (Not true at all. I am very, very hard to lose. But that guy? With the blue eyes and the squint?) And the music too. The music was a little weird. Though I loved the title music which was basically just TAM TAM TAM TATAM. Got me in the mood for the rest of the movie.

Anyway, I thought it was really nice, and I secretly believe it dealt with nuclear weapons and why they are not good for you. I like making up my own secret meanings for movies as much as I hate reading those of other people. I have a great secret meaning for Joss Whedon's new series Dollhouse. Probably completely obvious secret meaning. Interested in knowing?

If you hate reading the secret meanings other people discover in movies (like ""Singing in the Rain" is a metaphore for McCain's campaign and why it failed" or whatever weird stuff you sometimes read on the Internet) then do not proceed with the reading. (Is that English, or do I just sound like a douche?)

Well, the Dollhouse is a series where people are emptied of their own personalities and kept in a super-secret underground base. They are then imprinted with a new personality and sent on missions. I thought at first it was about whether you are a body or a soul and, if you are a soul then where is it exactly, in your body, or in your memories and stuff. But I think, in the end, what I get from it is more a story about what we do with ourselves.

It's like we were all our own little Dollhouses. We go on missions and we want to have new personnalities in order to be able to face the challenges, so we make room for the new character to step in. Only sometimes it's a little complicated not to forget who we were in the first place, and if you do a bit, which is a compulsory part of growing up, then when one of your "mission" personnality is outdated or falls, like a mask, maybe because you are a little tired or because there's no one here at the moment to remind you of what you are exactly, then you feel like you're empty and meaningless, like the empty Dolls of the series.

I'm not saying we all are empty deep inside or anything that pessimistic and depressing, just that you may feel this way once in a while because you realise that you can't remember who you are exactly. I feel that it's because I am not exactly the same person depending on the context and on who I'm with. In real life, though, I like the fact that you make your own imprints. People around you may change the mission. But you make your own imprints. I like it.

Anyway. This is starting to sound half-Gollum, half-Dr Phil, so I guess I am just going to go to bed now. Yes. That will be nice... HIT THE PILLOW !!

Live long and prosper ! (I bet you did not expect that one...)

Explosions in the sky

Hey reader !

I bet you don't know the song, because it's not very famous at all, but it is still a song, and most appropriate for tonight's post. As you probably know, Brussels, Belgium, is the capital city of Europe (Kind of. I believe it's Strasbourg, people in Luxemburg believe it's Luxemburg (har har) and I guess people in Germany believe it's Berlin, because of the symbol and all.) But Brussels, I think, is the real capital city of Europe. It's the most European place I've ever been to, whatever that may mean.

So tonight, they had a great European celebration (the Festival of Europe, it's called) and there were fireworks tonight, which I saw from my window. And here's tonight top 5, therefore, the "Top 5 random things that went through my mind while watching the Festival of Europe's fireworks" (that's one top five I bet you did not expect. I thought about doing the "Top 5 actresses I'd most like to look like", but then I changed my mind. Maybe later)

Anyway.

1) I don't know why I hated firworks so much as a kid (apart from their being noisy and loud and terrifying, and the fact that I'm afraid of big crowds, especially the ones that drink stale beer from plastic cups on the 14th of July (and I do mean 14th, it's not a typo, I'm French, goooo team baguettes, I heart frog legs and snails, give me my beret, I need to go on strike and march down the streets singing the Marseillaise)

2) If I hear someone tomorrow saying "I wish they would not use up all our taxpayer's money to blast stupid gunpowder in the sky for 15 minutes, we're in a recession and all going to die, they should save it to subsidise baby seals' feeds", I might get a tiny little bit agressive. I'm glad we can do something pretty and light and poetic with the taxpayer's money for a change. Without that, it would all just be business, and I do hope Europe's more than that.

3) I'm very glad I chose to become an interpreter. It's because of Europe and all, international community and stuff. I'm glad I chose to become an interpreter. I do hope I'll manage to get my diploma. WRITE THE DAMN THESIS, CLAIRE ! (I read my own blog, so why should I not leave a little message to myself, huh?)

4) At some time during the fireworks, however, I decided that I did not have a good enough view from my window, so I joined my roommates who were watching it from the roof. The next thing that went through my mind, as I was climbing the fire-escape ladder barefoot, was how important it is, in life, to have the appropriate shoes. One should always take time to consider footwear before coming out of their room (especially in their pyjamas at midnight in Belgium). Might help one not freeze to death and enjoy the fireworks without one's feet turning blue. Also they looked like they had been barbecued, since the floor up there was an iron grid. Things are better now. I added a hot water bottle to the comforter I was wrapped up in before, and things are going great.

5) Even if you don't feel like you belong and you don't know what to tell them and they look a little puzzled everytime you open your mouth, it's nice to have roommates.

So there you are, reader, tonight's Festival of Europe fireworks. Hope you had a nice saturday and will have a nice sunday too. Any random thoughts you'd like to share with me?