Movie review - The King's Speech.

I'll admit, I'm not entirely sure how to rate this biopic about how The Duke of York/George VI overcame his stutter and to become a wartime monarch because I was unable to give it my complete attention in the last third of the film. On the other hand, my tipping it to win the 2011 Oscars for Best Picture and Best Actor has won me some cocktails so I've got to rate it well!


It's the closing of the Empire Games in 1925 and the Albert, Duke of York (Colin Firth), must deliver the closing speech on behalf of his father, George V. An ordeal for both the speaker and the audience, the Duchess of York (Helena Bonham Carter) seeks out the best speech therapist in London, the unconventional Australian Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). Together, they seek to cure the Duke of his stammer through a variety of exercises as well as getting to the cause of his stammer. Over time, we see the friendship develop between the Prince and the Commoner against the backdrop of social-changing events of the first half of the 20th century.


Although it sounds like a really stuffy film, what I did watch was really good! We see that this is a story about a man who seemingly has everything (he's a Prince, ffs!) but whose natural shyness and lack of confidence make public life unbearable, especially when living in the shadow of his more charismatic and scandalous brother Edward (Guy Pearce). Despite the disparity in station, we also see that both Lionel and the Duke (or Bertie, as Lionel calls him) are affectionate doting fathers and husbands who are equally loved by their wives and families. It's nice to see that despite his relationship with his parents and siblings as rather dysfunctional, Bertie himself is a great father and it's really sad to see how being a King instills a wariness in his previously boisterous daughters.


Everyone gives a great performance but watching Colin Firth as Bertie dealing alternately with his own disabilities while trying to deal with his recognition that the world is changing through advances in technology, when Edward does the unthinkable, and the isolation of being a figurehead. Unfortunately I was unable to watch the last third where Bertie, now George VI has to rise to the occasion as a wartime monarch but I'm sure that was also well handled.  


If I had to sum up The Kings Speech it would be *nice*. It's a nice gentle story that manages to humanise people who are so far beyond the average person. It however did not manage to make me cry the way Toy Story 3 did. Robbed!
7-8/10 for what I did watch. 

Movie review - 127 Hours

Based on the true story of Aron Ralston who cut off his own arm with a blunt pocketknife after having it trapped by a falling rock while hiking/canyoneering, 127 Hours is an interesting movie from Danny Boyle, director of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire. This is a relatively short 94 minute movie, but gosh, they sure do fit a lot in that time!


Early in the morning, Aron (James Franco) packs his bag with various items and drives alone to a National Park in Utah for some canyoneering. While there, he runs into a pair of lost female hikers and together he brings them to a site where they have to take a blind drop into a underground lake. The girls extend an invitation to Aron to come to a party they're attending but as they  part ways, the girls express to each other the expectation that he will not come. Later as Aron makes his fateful fall, he realises that he will likely die trapped in the canyon as other than the girls, no one knows where he is. And from here, we go into Aron's mind through the events that led him to his current predicament, his hallucinations while trapped, and how he manages to work up the will to cut off his own arm (which we see in somewhat graphic detail).


While this movie can definitely be called the James Franco show, as he is alone for about 80-90% of the film and acting against himself, I'm beginning to think that it's more a great display from Danny Boyle. I'm not sure how closely this matches the source material (Ralston's autobiography) but we are with Aron every step of the way as he painstakingly contemplates his solitary personality and the arrogance that brought him to his current state  (quote, "You had to be a fucking hero!"). As more time passes and we see his increasing mental disintegration as food and water deprivation gets to him, his hallucinations take on a bizarre edge that deliver us to how a person can work up the nerve to do what many would consider unthinkable. The presentation of how these changes in mindset occur and the tricks his head was playing on him are amazing. Actually, in hindsight it actually reminds me of another great hallucination scene by Boyle - The Toilet Dive in Trainspotting!


Now, of The Scene itself, it is conducted in an entirely realistic and downright painful way (the sound!!!) but definitely how we get to the scene itself was definitely more interesting to me than actually watching it. That's not to say I cringed away! I watched every moment and was impressed that it wasn't just skimmed over to make it more palatable for the general populace! But don't let what you see overshadow everything that came before it.


As commented after watching this movie, this is a situation only a guy could find himself in because a woman would never ignore a phone call from their mother and we're also less likely to go somewhere isolated without telling anyone first! 
8-9/10

A Night at the (Bayerische Staats)oper(a)

During the Xmas break while most of the lab were doing their Xmasy things, a bunch of us loners decided that we would go see the production of Carmen by the Bayerische Staatsoper. When asked if I would like to go, I was all HELLZ YEAH!!! and so standing room tickets (€15) were purchased.

I could talk about the production - great sets, Don Jose (Massimo Giordano) was much better than the last guy I saw playing the role, I got reminded  how Carmen (the character) is a bitch and Don Jose is a spineless loser - but instead I will speak about the opera house! The Nationaltheatre was destroyed in WWII but rebuit using the plans from 1820-something, although it is slightly larger than originally. And what a glorious building!

The portico to the main entrance.

The entrance hall

The interior!

The giant chandelier.

Up in the standing areas, I was able to admire the velvet covered seats and the velvet covered resting bar. I was also able to touch the silky patterned wallpaper behind us! It was a great show and a great building but....standing for 3.5 hours might was a bit of a push, even for me. 

London catch ups

I caught up with a number of friends and family while in Ol' Blighty. The first slot was taken by Sue, Tony & Roman who I thankfully caught before they attempt to resettle in Sydney after over a decade in London. Good luck! Secondly I met up with Soph who told me the happy news that she has been accepted into an internship and will no longer be sitting in her cupboard under the stairs looking for an internship - hurrah! Next was Amandine with whom I shared a cheesy teppanyaki dinner at Benihana followed by drinks at the Mayfair Club. It was an interesting experience. Then I met up with Liz for a day of shopping and general chatting. I appear to have only take photos of these catch ups on my phone so I'll just skip to the things I know people would rather see. 

The things I bought!

The Pillow + Suitcase that were the victims of attempted theft.

Cute skirt from Primmy! I wasn't going to buy it until I saw a girl wearing it and thought how cute it was!

Another handbag for Munich and some pillowcases for the pillow.

I somehow failed to pack some black heels into my boxes. I know, I can't believe it either. But it's okay, I got these shoes from Office/Selfridges! 

A Morning On The Tube.

One always hears stories about criminals  in London - from relatively benign pickpockets to the streetfights and stabbings. I figure part of the way to make sure you not be a victim of crime is to never keep anything precious in your pockets and limit hanging around dodgy areas. Despite these cautious rules, I was nearly a victim of crime in London!


Another reason why I went to London this past weekend was to purchase various things I have since discovered I can not purchase in Munich. Things like The Original Source Mint and Tea-Tree shampoo and firm pillows. I will concede I probably could purchase these things in Munich (particularly the pillows) but knowing that I was going back to London, I figured I could just get them there.


The night after arriving, I used a pillow that Smee told me came from Primmy. It was a nice, firm, memory foam pillow and I figured that since I was going to Primmy anyway, I may as well purchase one. One of my Primmy purchases was a suitcase that I was going to use to transport my bottles of shampoo and pillow back to Munich, and I put the pillow inside the suitcase to wheel back to Poo and Smee's place. 


Because I had adhered to Pooey's Rules of Primmy Shopping, it was still quite early when I left and there was plenty of space on the Tube. I put my suitcase + pillow by the carriage doors and sat myself next to it on the other side of the glass partition, with my hand in between the pole and glass grasping the suitcase bars. As I travelled away from Marble Arch, more people naturally boarded the tube and didn't sit down but it never reached the levels of true crowdedness.  And then suddenly as we pulled into a stop and the doors opened, I felt a jerk on my suitcase! I naturally grasped it back and looked up at the person standing next to my suitcase. It was an ordinary looking woman of uncertain age. We momentarily looked at each other and she proceeded to exit the carriage. It took me a while to process exactly what had happened. 

BITCH TRIED TO STEAL MY SUITCASE!!!

London again!

I'm back in London and I'm back online! This has been achieved in two ways. 

One, I purchased an English-language laptop. I am now the proud owner of a shiny shiny new Vaio. Mmmm, sexy.

My sexy, sexy Vaio

But secondly, Smee was met with the challenge of Toshi. Toshi appeared to contain perfectly normal functioning RAM but it wouldn't boot through various methods and a number of German people had tried. But Smee said he beats computers, they don't defeat him, and sure enough, Toshi is now up and running! Okay, I lost all my files and the software I had on it but I am now the owner of TWO functioning machines. One that will be primary (Lappy), and my faithful backup (Toshi). 

Toshi and Vaio get acquainted with each other.

I forsee good computery times to come!

A visit from Boodle

I received my second Melb visitor but the first one to stay with me! Boodle War is on the traditional Aussie backpacker tour and swung by München to check it out. 

Drinks had been planned with my labmates to respect of the abilities of our two Asian families and the nation. We ended up going to The Martini Club on Theresienstr. where we classed it up by drinking, you got it, martinis.

 

Boodle with her Dirty Al Capone. It was like inhaling ethanol.

Sipping the rest of my Bellini Martini (fun to say!)

 

Patri enjoys those Chocolate Martinis

 

My giant head with Caro. 

 

All watched over by the patron saint of the venue, Dita Von Teese 

Maybe it says something but Boodle and I somehow polished off three martinis each in the space of 2.5 hours while everyone else stuck to one or two. Not that it seemed to actually affect us in anyway.

Because shops are closed on Sunday, we kicked off the day with brunch at my local (So. Much. Cheese.) followed by a mega walk around the various districts and then along the river where we saw many happy sproggies (dogs) and this giant pair of swans.

On Monday, Boodle continued on her adventure to Frankfurt and Berlin. Happy travels, Boodle!

Valentinstag

I was walking around the department doing some random stuff when a guy with a vase of tulips came up to me and said to take one. Being the naturally suspicious person I am, I fired of a number of questions.
"Why?"
"Who are you?"
"What's the catch?"
Once he'd stopped cowering with fear, I managed to get that he was a representative from Eppendorf and they were taking advantage of the fact that the majority of people in biomedical research are now young females. 


Thanks for the flower!

More random photos

 Some more photos from lazing around Munich.

 My "backyard"

 

Looking out at the backyards of other buildings on my street

 

De plane! De plane!

The Duktig Obstkorb (fruit basket) that I got from Ikea. 

(Totoro not included)

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

Christine visited me while I was imprisoned, and wonderful person that she is, she brought me a few things to alleviate the boredom. One of them was a copy of Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex. To be honest, I didn't like his debut novel The Virgin Suicides so I didn't read this one. That is both a great shame and a great decision because I was enthralled reading it in hospital and continuing post-release!

Narrated by Cal Stephanides, birth name Calliope, it recounts the story of how he started life as a girl and ended up an adult male through a genetic mutation (5-alpha-reductase deficiency) starting at his grandparent's village in Turkey, their migration to the US following the Great Fire of Smyrna, his parents' lives, and finally his own youth and adulthood. 

I'm not sure how interesting that summary sounds, but trust me on this, Eugenides starts Middlesex off in a way that made both Christine and I wonder *Where the hell can you go from this?!* But trust us, it's a book that's funny, appalling, sarcastic, and sympathetic all at the same time. I really don't think I can say much more without spoiling (although we all know from the start that Cal is a hermaphrodite), but I think it's an interesting take on how the things that define you, are often things outside your control. 

I respect that this might not appeal to a lot of people, especially once you reach the big shocker, but I recommend this nonetheless!

Things You Buy When You're Not Alone - Munich Edition

Caro told me she had been invited to a special designer discount sale this past weekend and Patri very strongly  recommended that we attend the sale instead of going to Ikea which was the original shopping plan. Given that I appear to not have packed myself any handbags (how the hell did I overlook that?!) and wanted some heeled boots to wear around, I decided that this would be a prime opportunity.


Being the disciplined person I am (haha snort), I decided to set myself an item budget of a handbag and/or boots, and to keep it all below €200. And believe it or not, I kept to it!

 White leather clutch. As Patri said - you better buy this!

 

Wedge ankle boots. 

The photos aren't great because they were taken on my phone and the sun still sets by 5pm hence the dodgy lighting. I'm not sure how much the *shopper* and *fashion* tags are going to be used while I'm here. As a sign, when I asked Patri where I could buy nice shoes, her first reply was, "Spain", and apparently German sizes are a bit larger because Germans are a bit larger. We'll see how it goes.

21 by Adele

A few years ago post-Amy Winehouse there was a boom in the British girl with a unique voice thing going on. I wasn't sure if I preferred the cute girl doing the 50s thing (Duffy) or the not as attractive and slightly crankier girl (Adele). I have decided I prefer Adele. Her debut album 19 was written when she was 19 and you got to hear what a great soul voice she has, as featured on this cover of Bob Dylan's To Make You Feel My Love. People who go to that link will see I despaired as to when her next album was arriving. Well I finally have had it playing in my ears for the last two days and it was worth waiting for!

21, naturally written when she was 21, features more of a country/gospel sound and appears to be mostly breakup songs, starting with the angry Rolling in the Deep

Moving onto the power ballad Dont You Remember 

Okay, I'll admit I mostly included this vid for how the piano guy is really into it. LOL

And ending with the resigned 'I'm gonna move on' song, Someone Like You. 

You can hear the pain being wrenched out!

I think this is a great album showcasing a great voice. Not that I condone this kind of behaviour but it's also especially good for wallowing in, if you need to do that kind of stuff. Listen to it!

Things I say that my workmates find amusing

(while discussing differences about various countries)

 "I had to wear a uniform when I was in high school."

"That is amazing! Can I see a photo? Did you have to wear a tie?"

"I had to wear a tie in the winter. Oh, and my school only had girls there."

 "THAT IS HORRIBLE!!!"