A week of Wows

Despite the job hunting going like wading through ever in thickness increasing mud, I had a week of wows. I witnessed beautiful things that really made me stop and say “Wow”.

Dan and Hugh


The first WOW was Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman, Thursday a week ago exactly. I already wrote about that here, so I will spare you any further remarks. Clearly they have the wow factor. For obvious reasons.

Tim Burton Exhibition – Moma, New York


On Monday I visited the Tim Burton exhibitions in the museum of Modern Art (Moma) in New York. It was great. I am a big fan of Tim Burton’s film work and have seen most of his films. He has a very distinctive style and the exhibition showed a lot of film props from his films, models, drawings and paintings by Tim Burton. It was great to see some of the models used in stop motion productions (The Nightmare of Christmas, The Corpse Bride). Sketches of what the hands of Edward Scissorhands should look like and more. It is amazing what a creative and weird brain this man has. Very enjoyable and wow if you are a fan.

My favourite Tim Burton films: Big Fish and Edward Scissorhands. I also quite liked Sweeney Todd and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and can’t wait for his take on Alice in Wonderland (the trailer with Johnny Depp looks amazing).

You can read more about the Tim Burton exhibition here, and also have a look at some videos. The photo above is the only photo we were allowed to take, a Tim Burton designed inflatable in the entrance area of the museum.

Do you like Tim Burton’s work and what are your favourite Burton films?

Snow Patrol in the Royal Albert Hall

And yesterday there was Snow Patrol in the Royal Albert Hall. I admit that I was quite late in discovering Snow Patrol but better late than never. The Royal Albert Hall is a fantastic place for concerts and Snow Patrol made good use of the hall’s possibilities. They even used the amazingly huge Albert Hall organ in one of their songs. They had a lot of musicians with them on stage (I counted 15 people at some point!), strikers, a horns sections, a harpist, and lots more and also had an amazing light show.

They played most of the songs from their latest Up to Now – The Best Of album. The first half was dedicated to the more quiet numbers (Run played with the violinists made me cry, as did the thousands of people singing along to it, fantastic atmosphere). And the second half was more rock ‘n roll and people got out of their comfy seats. It was an amazing experience.

The concerts are filmed for a later to be published Live DVD.

Some of my favourite Snow Patrol songs:

And some others:
Chasing Cars
Run
Take Back the City

Do you know Snow Patrol and what are your favourites?

Oh and a final Wow !! for all those people who have signed up for the non-xmas-card thingy. You can still signup if you haven’t done so and I better start drawing soon!

Travel plans – version 1 – I need your help!

US trip

It has been a while since I have been on a far (ok further) away trip, so this year I have decided to cross some items of my “would love to see” list.

(Here is a bigger version of the map on Google)

But I need your help dear readers.

But first, the plan. Here are the places I want to visit:

1. Boston
I want to go to Boston to do a Whale watching boat trip. I have long been wanting to see whales from up close and Boston seems to be a perfect place for it.

I also want to do this Lighthouse tour, this area is about an hour north of Boston.

But apart from that, is Boston worth a visit?

2. Niagara Falls
I want to do the Maid of the Mist tour and just see these impressive falls. (Am planning to stay here for one day and then move on)

3. Chicago

I don’t know anything about Chicago, but it is just one of these places that sound so familiar.
Question to you reader: is it worth visiting? And what to see there?

4. San Francisco
I know what I want to see here: the Golden Gate bridge. And it is on the coast, so I am sure there is a beach too. And light houses.
And there is some more whale watching to do here as well. Wait a minute, do I actually need to go to Boston at all?

Has any of you ever been in San Francisco? What area is good to stay? And what to see and do there? How much time would you spend here?

5. Los Angeles
This is a bit the same thing as Chicago. I have heard the name so many times before. I know they have the “HOLLYWOOD” letters on the hill there. But is Los Angeles worth a visit? What to see and do there? How much time would you spend here?

Any tips and hints and comments are highly appreciated!

(I am planning on spending about 2 weeks in the US)

I can hear you think – where is New York on the map! I know, I know, but Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman did not have time to see me before November, so New York is scheduled then. Honestly, I am not even sure I will survive watching both Craig and Jackman on one stage.

X-Men: The Last Stand (8/10)

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

X-Men: The Last Stand

I haven’t seen all X-Men films. I saw the first one when it came out, and wanted to see the last one, because of Ian McKellen. He is cool as the powerful carcrushing Magneto. And I happen to like slightly nerdish high tech films like these. It is not really the depth of the story it is about in X-Men, even though this 3rd one does have some moments of thought. No it’s the special effects, and they are very well done. Pure entertainment, and I haven’t looked at my watch at all during this film.

Tagline: When a cure is found to treat mutations, lines are drawn amongst the X-Men, led by Professor Charles Xavier (Stewart), and the Brotherhood, a band of powerful mutants organized under Xavier’s former ally, Magneto (McKellen).

Directed by Brett Ratner

Cast Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart

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