Doriano Carta

Hoppípolla by Sigur Rós is a beautiful work of art. I first heard it today as the soundtrack to an amazing short film by Carlos Lascano called "A Short Love Story in Stop Motion". I did some searching and discovered that the title translates into “My Winter” and the lyrics describe the joys of youth.

Here’s the official music video which is also quite delightful as it depicts a group of elderly people up to no good. They run around doing mischievous pranks which reminds me of Cocoon (1985). It also smacked of one of my favorite Twilight Zones called “Kick the Can” which was about a bunch of old folks in a retirement home who want to be young again.

The music and the message is wonderful. I love when everything comes together in a symbiotic masterpiece of bliss and joy. Please enjoy the original music as well as the amazing work by Carlos in his memorable short film set to this music.

Hoppípolla (My Winter)

Jumpin’ Puddles
Smiling
Spinning ’round and ’round
Holding hands
The whole world a blur
But you are standing
Soaked
Completely drenched
No rubber boots
Running in us
Want to erupt from a shell
Wind in
And outdoor smell of your hair
I hit as fast as I could
With my nose
Hopping into puddles
Completely drenched
Soaked
With no boots on
And I get nosebleed
But I always get up
And I get nosebleed
But I always get up

I really enjoy the movies that the Farrelly Brothers make. Yes, I know that some of them (OK all of them) have juvenile, sophomoric humor but over all I love them. There is always something special at the heart of their movies, something tender and moving. I don’t know how they do it. Amidst all the whacky, zany and sometimes even rude funny business they will unleash something moving and sweet. For example, in “There’s something about Mary”, most people remember the franks and beans scene when Ben Stiller got his thing caught in his zipper but the thing I loved best about the movie was the wonderful love story of how much his character loved Mary. The ending was excellent.

Another great example is in “Shallow Hal” where they did their best to offend over-weight people everywhere with offensive jokes like the diving board scene. However, the scene that sticks with me to this day was when Hal (Jack Black) visited the hospital and sees the little girl with severe burns on her face. It’s one of the most unforgettable movie moments I’ve ever experienced. Special moments like that make all the crass jokes digestible.

Here is a fantastic commencement speech that the Farrelly brothers gave at RWU.
They share some wonderful insights on how they made their dreams come true and how they can do likewise. I think it reveals a lot about these guys. It clearly shows how funny they are but also how much passion they have for what they do.

The long-running unspoken office romance between Jim and Pam on The Office has been one of the best of its kind in TV history. I think their relationship more than anything else (yes, even more than Steve Carell’s amazing antics) has been one of the most important ingredients to the show’s success.

Here are some of their best moments on the show

The proposal

The Perfect Ending with hilarious wedding dance entrance spoof

Oprah had the new Journey on her show where she shared the story of how they found their amazing new singer Arnel Pineda. The little guy has a big voice and sounds a lot like Steve Perry. I’ve been a fan forever so I still prefer to see/hear Steve Perry singing but these things happen. What can you do? I watched Styx and Foreigner in concert not long ago and despite my same negative attitude towards their new singers, I still managed to enjoy their sets.

The last TV show that I loved as much as I love Mad Men was Ally McBeal which was on 1997 to 2002. Calista Flockhart was wonderul in the lead as the cute but quirky attorney along with a fantastic cast of characters from David E. Kelly. He went on to become the first person ever to win the Emmy award for best drama (The Practice) and best comedy (Ally McBeal).

Here are some of my favorite clips from the show, including with the great opening theme “Searching my Soul” for all five seasons.

I finally got all caught up to date with the Mad Men TV series. I bought the first two seasons and proceeded to watch all 26 episodes in no time at all! So now I’m like all of the other Mad Men maniacs anxiously waiting for the 7th episode of season three on Sunday at 10 PM EST. SIGHS….

Here’s a wonderful example of why I love MAD MEN. Yes, there are many other reasons why people love the show such as the attention to detail about that period of time, the style and fashion of the time, the drama, etc. But for me, it’s about the power and love of family. The lead character, Don Draper, had a horrific childhood and struggles to deal with his demons as a father and husband. This scene is a breakthrough for him as he starts to realize what’s most important to him in life… not his incredibly successful career or the allure of beautiful women…but the beauty and magic of family.

Mad Men – The Carousel

Here’s my MAD MEN playlist with some more video clips about the show. Some make fun of the fanaticism and others are just fun informative stuff.

They say bad news comes in threes but here’s some good news in a Happy Birthday three pack. Coincidentally, it’s the anniversary for three techie things that are pretty popular these days. Here are some good pieces about all three birthday babies.

Google Chrome is ONE! (born 9/2/2008, announced 9/1/2008)

Blogger turns 10! (Aug 1999)

The Internet’s 40th Birthday (born 9/2/1969)

Here’s a toast to all things old and new.

I love motion picture soundtracks so this new site called MOMUPI caught my eye. It’s sports a back to basic interface with merely a search field at the center of the page. All you do is start entering the name of the movie soundtrack you want to find and it starts showing you what’s available. Despite being so new, it did an excellent job finding old and new movies.

For example, here’s the soundtrack for the delightful 500 Days of Summer starring the lovely Zooey Deschanel.

Like I said, it’s simple but it seems to work well if you just want to hear your favorite movie soundtrack or see a list of the songs from a movie you love. You can then proceed to get the songs or entire CD if you want elsewhere.

Criticisms

The only gripe I had was the fact that in this day and age of Web 3.0 and the Semantic Web, this site should have included some other bells and whistles. Checkout what the wonderful MusicMesh.net does and you’ll see what I mean. One search should provide many different types of results and data. I’m thinking since this is a service for movie and music lovers, then mashing up results with IMDB, Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon would have been very cool.

The other criticism? When I did a search for Grease it only displayed the dreadful Grease 2 soundtrack! Yuck! OK, I added that to poke fun at a friend who LOVES Grease 2 for some unknown reason!