Journees du Patrimoine: Chateau de Jehay

So Saturday I headed off to enjoy to visit a stain-glass window factory at Comblain-au-Pont... and got lost! :p
Apparently at one point I turned right when I should have turned left (I have since bought myself a road map) and after 45' with no idea where I was I saw a road sign for a city I did know and decided to give up on the stain glass in exchange for a Chateau...

But hey! Getting lost on back country roads around here means driving through some beautiful roads and through some cute towns with pretty churches:


and since it was a Saturday... well that means wedding parties walking around!


Anyhow, I was glad to find at least one place I had wanted to visit during the weekend: le Chateau de Jehay!


It's a 16th century Renaissance Chateau with some beautiful grounds and a series of sculpture, glass, ceramics, book, and coin collections.



Here I am ready to head in to follow a guided tour and learn all about this place:


If you can read French and are interested in the Chateau's history, you can visit the old website here.

Entrance gallery:


The late Count Guy van den Steen was quite a collector and also dabbled in quite a few hobbies, namely sculpting. Here's his auto-portrait as a "snow storm":


and his wife, Lady Moira Butler:


Apparently one of the Count's masterpieces, done in a new technique he developped to give the scene a better impression of depth, having the elements in the forefront be very detailed and really stick out, while those furthest in the background aren't as precise, as if hard to see in the distance... it's the end of the legend of a poor fellow who challenged the Greek Gods to a music competition (can't remember it right now, perhaps Juliette can remind me?):


Lovely rooms, lovely furnishings, interesting guide... nice visit!


My favourite among the many collections on display... coins! (I wish my collection was as lovely! and this was just one of four cases)


Check it out! The guy had an authentic "shrunken head" from a South American tribe! yikes!


These two "suits" are guarding the main entry and the access to the "off-limits" second floor (was occupied by the late Count until his death in 1999).


Ah, I have many fond memories of High School maths thanks to this fellow: Monsieur Pythagoras, he of the famous theorem!


When the Count returned home with his new wife after WW2 was over, this drum was actually the only thing he found in his house (the house had been emptied to serve as a children's orphanage/hospital during the war)! They had to refurnish it with items from his wife's properties in England...


Dinner anyone?


My favourite room in the place (as in many places I visit), the library! :o)


I thought this was such a cosy little tower room...


and loved the ceramic chandelier!


This was actually the first statue I saw as I walked into the grounds... very freaky preying mantis lady!!!


Walking around the park...


Take a closer look at the branches of that tree in the middle of the avenue, weird! Like 100% pine cone tree! I've never seen anything like it!


This maiden seems a tad bit sad...


The chateau looks even more enchanting cradled in the green:


This was a lovely statue, "Venus in her bath":


Hmm... you can tell it's Saturday, more lovebirds! I can sure understand why they'd want to come to this parc for their wedding photos... ;o)



Tomorrow: an old Abbey being restored.

Farewell to the Man who made me want to dance...

Sigh, not a good piece of news to wake up to!



I have very fond memories of sneaking into the living room one day with my sister to watch Dirty Dancing (my Dad had -unbeknownst to my Mom- taped it for us, they didn't agree on whether we could watch it or not). We absolutely LOVED that film! The time period, the music (specially "She's Like The Wind" and "Hungry Eyes"),



the "bad boy hearthrob" (of course!), but most especially the dancing! :o)

Damn, all this has made me want to watch Dirty Dancing again... and I left the dvd in Spain! :o(

I guess I'll have to make do with what can be found on YouTube:



Argh! For some reason this clip cuts off before the end (so we miss the "lift") and all the more complete clips have the "embedding" disabled! (grumble...) For a more complete version go here.

Oh, and for the record, it took me years to understand what was so "dirty" about the dancing... After we saw it my sister and I couldn't understand why my mom hadn't wanted us to watch it since it was obviously much less "adult" than Excalibur for example which we'd found years ago among the dvds and seen who knows how many times by that date (my King Arthur obsession started very young). ;o)

Welcome to the Journées du Patrimoine!

Hello, hello, HELLO!

Hmmm... didn't work! Was hoping an enthusiastic greeting would help shake this lethargy that has gotten hold of me today... but, nope! Must be the rain. Or the accumulated fatigue from a couple of short nights and very long days!

This (past) weekend is one of my favourites in Belgium: Les Journées du Patrimoine! Basically it's a weekend to celebrate Belgium's cultural and architectural patrimony (is that the right word?). Centuries of human artistic and religious expression, of human ingenuity and history, embodied in structures of wood and brick and stone... It's the chance to visit (usually acompanied by intelligent and amusing guides) some wonderful buildings and monuments for free (some of which are usually closed the rest of the year), to get a better feel for their place in history, for what inspired people to build them in the first place, to understand how they've transitioned into the 21st century.

So I'm going to take you on a little tour over 3-4 posts, hope it won't be as exhausting as it was visiting them all!

I had planned on starting yesterday... but got sidetracked by a "welcome back party" here in the University Dorm "Les Hômes du Sart Tilman" where I'm staying these three months. I hear there's another tonight and again tomorrow! Hmmm, more on that another day. IIf start in on Belgian student life now we'll never make it back to the buildings! I could write a thesis on the topic (and I'm already running behind on that other thesis I'm supposed to be writing...)! ;o)

Fishy Fridays ep.1

WELCOME!

To the inaugural episode of Fishy Fridays!

Typically for me, once I plan something I get caught up in so many other things I have trouble finding the time to put it together properly! It might take me some time to come up with an original logo... :p

What to do? What to say? What to show?

Well I figured I'd start out by introducing you to the place that helped develop even further my interest in aquatic critters: the Liège Aquarium! Not only did volunteering here for 8 years (doing well over 200 guided tours) teach me a lot more about fish than I had known before, it also increased my awareness and interest in them (before I was more of a strictly marine mammal and reptile girl). It also helped me a lot in the teaching / speaking in public / improvisation department. When you're speaking to a bunch of noisy kids on a weekly basis you need to learn how to manage your voice, project it, keep the kids under control without stifling them (give them the chance for Q&A but not babbling away) and adapt your story material to your audience's educational level and interests (you don't tell kids the same things as a group of teenagers or adults).

So I'm going to do what I do best... and take you all on a guided tour over the next several weeks! Now a guided tour can be as short or as long as one likes... or so I'm told! I have real trouble keeping mine under the 2h mark, and it's almost impossible for me to do one under 90'! I just can't bear to cut certain fish out of the show! There's nothing worse when starting a tour to have the teacher come up and say "We need to leave in 1h15', is that ok?" aaaaarrrrrgh!!! Then I'm stuck with just the highlights and gut-wrenching feelings when kids keep asking me about aquaria we're not stopping at... So sorry, since I'm running this show you guys ain't gettin' the abridged version! No sirree, you're getting the real McCoy, including a "behind-the-scenes" photo tour if I can get the authorisation! ;o)

Don't worry, I might give you a break one week or another and talk about something else...

Now since I haven't had time to go downtown and start photographing the inmates, I'm going to have to work with stock footage today. I'll be including (whenever possible) short video sequences a friend took a couple of years ago while she followed me around during a guided tour. Fortunately for you it was an English-language group!

Ok, so as I said: Welcome to the Liège Aquarium!

(oops! can't believe the only "complete" photos I have of the building -from my old appartment- are snow-covered ones! It happens so rarely...)

Isn't that a beautiful 19th century building? Well it would be if someone would bother to give it a face-lift!

Let's go in for a closer look...


Unfortunately the Aquarium doesn't own the place, we're just a small A.S.B.L. lodged down in the basement. This is actually the Zoology Institute of the University of Liège, where once upon a time almost all the biology-related classes were taught (except for those related to humans in the Med School and Botany which had their own Institutes). Since the main body of the campus got shifted out of town starting in the '60s this building has seen less and less use. Indeed the only people left are the behavioural scientists. And the Science Museum. And the Zoology Museum. And the Aquarium!

The Institute has hosted scientists interested in the marine environment since its inauguration in the second half of the 19th century. But it wasn't until the late 1950s that talk about creating an aquarium actually started producing results. Results which included the grand opening and inauguration of the Aquarium in 1962 with only 27 tanks. This number has grown to 47 exhibition tanks, with the most recent expansion in 2002. Unfortunately since we're housed in the basement of the building, any true expansion (like that of 2002) requires a massive amount of construction work down and around the exterior of the building, and with the financial crisis further plans have been paralysed... Anyhow, even though it's a very small Aquarium (particularly compared to the behemoths being built across Europe these days... all very flashy and purty, but rarely very educational), it's amazingly complete! There's an incredible diversity of species with freshwater and marine fish from the four corners of the globe. Individuals housed together in a tank will be found together in their natural habitat (no mixing of species from the North Pacific and North Atlantic for example). And it's the perfect size for a guided tour, just right to incite people's curiosity about fish and the aquatic environment, just enough to whet their appetite and make them hungry to learn more.

So how does one start a Guided Tour? After welcoming everyone in and giving them the basic ground rules (no flash photos -fish don't have eyelids-, no monkeying around -only the guides get to be monkeys and climb on the barriers-, no talking all at once, raise your hands etc.), I'll usually start at one of the "bigger" tanks (where everyone can see well) and just ask them what they see. This is where I like to get a feel for the group. See how perceptive they, evaluate their previous knowledge in the field, identify the shy kids, the loudmouths, the perceptive ones etc. That and let them all just go "woah! BIG fish!" like they almost always do!

Want to hear what they have to say?



After that I'll probably talk about what fish eat, basically trying to emphasize the point that if there's something living in water, you can be sure there's something else there that's going to eat it! Everyone's got prey and predator.



And then I start on individual fish... but that will be for next week because I have to go and mix up a batch of brownies for a friend's birthday party! I'll have to bake them at his place 'cause the kitchens in this blasted dorm don't have ovens! (but that's a rant for another day...).

Remember: any who are interested are more than welcome to join in on Fishy Fridays! I was going to try and set up a Mister Linky thingy, but turns in I have to pay and upgrade from the free status so that will also wait until I figure it out better. In the meantime if you feel like posting something aquatic related just leave me the link in the comments and I'll add it in and link away! :o)

50 Things killed by the Internet

So there's this article on the website for the British newspaper The Telegraph in which the author lists (and explains) 50 things that have become obsolete (or extinct) thanks to the internet and other new communication technologies (cell phones, GPS systems).

Here are a few points I thought very interesting and heartily agreed/disagreed with:

1) The art of polite disagreement
Oh yeah! No one seems to take the time to think before they "speak" (i.e. write) anymore! No more "count to ten if you're angry"... people just blast away and then without taking the time to re-read their rant, insults, arguments whatever they just click on "send" "post" and off it goes into cyberspace... No matter how you regret it later and wish to retract it, it's still there for any and all to see and discover...

5) Punctuality
The author states:

"Before mobile phones, people actually had to keep their appointments and turn up to the pub on time. Texting friends to warn them of your tardiness five minutes before you are due to meet has become one of throwaway rudenesses of the connected age."

Now I am so guilty of this one that I often wonder how on earth I (and my friends who are just as bad as me, if not worse! at least the Spanish ones) ever managed to meet up with people before I ever gave in and got a cell phone?! Although I must say, the advantage to this is that we no longer have to stand around waiting >1/2h for that one friend who was always that late (if not more). Now we can just send him a text message and say "we're at such and such place so just show up whenever". :p


10) Watches
Um, excuse me?! I can't live without my watch! As an occasional guide and teacher I need to have something easy and quick to glance at to let me know how I'm doing in distributing my time and if I need to pick up the pace or can take a bit longer on a certain point! Pulling out your cellphone to check the time in a middle of class is just rude! To me it sends a message of "bored now!"

12) Letter writing/pen pals
So sad and so true... I miss mail!!! :o(

14) Dead time
Ditto. I don't think I've spent much "alone time" disconnected from my computer since I started this blog!

15) Photo albums and slide shows
Umhmm... but then I think of that massive box with several years of photos still to be organised and put in albums... and I look at the number of digital shots stored on my computer... and I can only be grateful for this one! ;o) (besides, much as I looooove photo albums, sitting through someone else's isn't usually that fun!)

27) Knowing telephone numbers off by heart
Actually I mostly have this problem with my own (cell phone number). I usually end up memorizing my friends' landline numbers (since I call them -dial!!!- from my landline).

29) The mystery of foreign languages
NOT TRUE!!! I am very proud of speaking 3 languages fluently (English, Spanish & French), improvising my way through a 4th (Catalan) by mixing up two of the previous, understanding the basics of a 5th (German) and remembering a few key phrases and numbers in a 6th (Arabic)! I still want to learn the last two properly and tack on Greek... languages are lots of fun!!!

31) Privacy
Well, while I've got nothing to hide... you can bet if I did I wouldn't be dumb enough to post it anywhere online! ;o)

35) Concentration
Oh boy YES! Queen of Procrastination so admits to being GUILTY on this one! :o(


43) Solitaire
And why is this a bad thing again? :p


You can read the rest of the article by clicking here.

Anything in that list that jumps out at you? What else would you add?

I'd add a positive point about Facebook etc.: keeping in touch with old friends even superficially is better than losing track of them altogether when none of us had time to write serious letters! I'm the kind of person that once you've entered my circle of friends (real friends, not just acquaintances or colleagues) you're in there for life (but I must also admit I'm rather picky when it comes to letting someone get that close to me, quality not quantity is what matters!)! We can meet up years later and I will greet you and welcome you home as if we'd seen each other last week even if we have been in touch for years. So I like a device that lets me know how my friends are doing and what they're up to, will make conversations easier when we meet up again! :o)

Oh, and another positive point that has been brought to my attention while writing this: spell check in your web browser! :p

090909

Is it very nerdy if I admit I like numbers that look cool together?

Like today's date: September 9th, 2009 a.k.a.:

I just love its symmetry! :p

(not too mention its one of those days I don't have to worry if I'm writing the day European or US style, they coincide! lol)

And wouldn't you know, apparently there's a movie called 9 hitting the screens today (well, in the US at least. It comes out next Wednesday in Belgium)!

TV Addiction: too much internet? :p

Hmmm... do you think it's a sign I maybe spend a bit too much time browsing TV news related websites if I just got an e-mail inviting me as a "frequent commenter" to preview a new series online? :p

Or should I just feel honoured?

Or maybe EW was just sending out the invite to anyone who's commented on their website? Dunno... but anyhow I got sent a link and a code to preview the pilot episode for ABC's new comedy Modern Family:



Hmmm... kind of funny but in a contrived way (to me at least) so not very convincing! I was kind of annoyed by the repeated "interruptions" in the form of interviews of the three main couples as if they were in therapy or something... Although it's an interesting idea for the pilot (to introduce the characters to us), I think it could tiresome very quickly so I hope they don't keep it up throughout the series!

So the basic premise for this series is a tale of what it's like to be part of a "modern family" with three cases studies: An older man and his new much younger wife with her 12 year-old son from a previous marriage; a nuclear family of five with a dad who's not as cool as he thinks and a mom who wants to make sure her eldest daughter doesn't do the same crazy mistakes she did; and a gay couple who've just adopted a baby girl in Vietnam. Why these three families in particular? Well it all comes clear at the end of the pilot and it's a fun reveal so I won't spoil it for you. ;o)


I'm not very experienced in the "review field", so I think I'll send you on to a couple of people who do that quite well:

• Jace over at Televisionary was quite taken with this new show, particularly with the casting.

• Michael Ausiello over at The Ausiello Files on EW.com calls it "Easily the best comedy pilot of the new fall season."... um, oh dear! I mean, I giggled a bit, but no outright laughs...

• The TV Addict also really liked this pilot and called it "the Fall's funniest new show" (here).

Hmm... it's beginning to sound like I just don't get it or something! :p I'm not that big on flatout comedies -with a few exceptions- so that might have something to do with it (although I love some shows with comic elements / witty banter à la House, Bones etc.).

Anyhow, if you're interested the show premieres (for those Sateside) on Wednesday Sept 23rd at 9PM ET/PT on ABC. Let me know what you thought of it! ;o)

Buffy vs Edward

Hmm... I don't know if you've already seen this one, came out in June I think:



Kudos to the person who put this together (interviewed by LATimes here)! as a big Buffy fan I was contrasting Twilight to Joss Whedon's creation a lot in my mind when I saw it. The intermix of the two oeuvres kind of shows up some of the kitschy dialogue lines... (disclaimer: I did enjoy Twilight when I saw it and later read it, and am looking forward to New Moon)

But the question that really comes to mind when I watch this (or other video montages from movies/series/music) is: WHERE ON EARTH DO PEOPLE FIND THE TIME TO DO THESE THINGS?!?!?!
I mean, I can't even sit down to put together a couple of video segments I have stored on the computer from a friend's camera... it takes hours to pick the fragments you want, edit them together, add photos or music! But to do something like this where the person has gone through and interlaced clips not only from a movie but from TV episodes covering several seasons? (I counted episodes from seasons 1, 2, 4 and 5 of Buffy there) Yikes!

Oh well, I guess I'd better just thank them for it because it can be very entertaining! :o)

Fishy Fridays: and so it begins...

Hello, hello, HELLOOOOOO!

I'm feeling kind of fishy today (and no not smelly, I promise I have showered recently!)... I went down to the Liège Aquarium this morning (website will be available in English as soon as I finish translating it! oops!) to re-acquaint myself with its aquatic inhabitants, and simultaneously introduce them to a bunch of 5th and 6th graders. FUN! Was one of those groups of kids that makes guiding a real pleasure and their interesting Qs&As brought the visit to the 2h mark! :o)

So, in honour of that, and just because I like the sound of the name (aren't alliterations fun?!), I'm going to try and be organised enough to launch (and maintain) a series of posts called FISHY FRIDAYS. Need I specify the subject of said posts? Well ok, FISH! :p
Hmmm... maybe not just fish... sometimes I might diverge into other marine/freshwater critters or some aquatic ecosystems. Just being back in the city where I'm supposed to be doing my PhD brings my marine biologist side bubbling back to the surface and I need to find a way to release all those bubbles before they burst my English-teaching balloon (I'll be teaching English these 3 months, to science students).

I might share some scuba memories, I might laugh over an Aquarium anecdote, I'll probably end up introducing you to most of the inhabitants of the Liège Aquarium (at least while I'm here), and I'll send you along to other pages with interesting fishy tidbits! For example, ever thought about Sea Cucumbers? Despite their name (how on earth did they get it by the way?) they're not actually aquatic plants!!! These critters are related to sea urchins and starfish (all echinoderms) and brittle stars (see photo below),


and the blog Mauka to Makai has a pretty cool and informative post up about them, go check it out here! And for some squishy images and cooking info from Squidoo go here.

If anyone else wants to join me in this latest zaniness please feel free to do so! I can coordinate the posts like with the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon and so send some more people back your way! You can share a favourite fishy story, a food, a phobia, a photo... Join in one week, keep quiet the next, do as you please! In any case I'll try to be here weekly.

And now I'm going to go work on finishing translating that website! :p

TV Addiction: Snakes in a House!

Woah!

Ausiello over at EW has a first look of the new promotional image for House premièring in a few weeks. Can I just say... FREAKY!


I can't wait for the TV season to start up again, settle all those season-finale cliffhangers! ;o)

Movie Madness: BASTERDS!

Now that was FUN!!!


Inglourious Basterds = A fairy tale version of the end of World War II... a rather bloody one I might add! (albeit not as bloody as I feared coming from Tarantino)



My hat's totally off to Daniel Brühl... man can that guy act, and in any language you throw at him! I've now seen him (sans dubbing) in German, English, Catalan, Spanish and French... and none of it has seemed to faze him! He brings his characters realistically to life each time (my favourite so far is still the Spanish film Salvador).

The ladies in this one also do a knock-out job, and manage to look glamorous while doing so (even with some crazy dude poking his finger into her bullet wound, ouch!). I've enjoyed Diane Kruger in other films (Joyeux Noël), but I think it's the first I've seen of Mélanie Laurent.










As for Brad Pitt... well let's just say he kept a big smile on my face whenever he was onscreen! What a crazy-ass character they gave him to play, and he totally pulls it off! And loved the accent! :p


What else? Oh yeah, THANK YOU Tarantino for being linguistically realistic!!! Why would a German SS officer interrogate a Frenchman in English (for the good of the American audience of course, pffft!)? Well here because he has reached the end of his French abilities and has heard the dairy farmer can speak English! So very reasonable! The Germans all speak to each other in German, the French in French, the Anglos in English. And if characters' linguistic abilities don't coincide, bring in the translators! Now that's how I like my films, multi-lingual! :o)

Monthly Reading: August'09

Woah there! This has definitely been a month for books! I think I've pretty much gone through most of the books I got last month in London (some of them were pretty quick reads). That's what happens when I've got a supply of entertaining books to look forward to, I tend to devour them! Having family over helps 'cause it means communal reading after lunch or by the pool, in the evening. When we're together it means less TV for me and more books! ;o)

So here's what went on my night stand this month (I hope you enjoy historical fiction and SciFi/Fantasy!)

Azincourt by Bernard Cornwell
Through the tale of an archer, a longbowman in the army of Henry V of England, Cornwell tells us the tale of two battles that shocked Europe in the early 15th century. The first the pillaging of Soissons by French troupes (fighting against Burgundy), the second the famous battle of Azincourt (I have a French education so I'm sticking to the French name!) where the presence of the famous longbowmen basically saved the English troupes from a French army that massively outnumbered them. By making it a personal story of this archer, Nick Hook, we're made to care about the characters and their fate and so get engrossed in the tales of sieges and battles. The descriptions are very vivid and take you back to another time and place. I got a laugh when the army walks through muddy Picardy, and the soldiers' boots get stuck so many decide to go barefoot. Reminded me of a geology outing to the mouth of the Escaut when I was in Belgium, traipsing through the Slick and the Schorre, and our boots kept sticking in the mud, sometimes so abruptly we'd trip and fall on our faces in the mud! :p
The language works as well (although since he decided to mix some French in there in places I wish he would have done it more uniformely, the French soldiers wouldn't be speaking English to each other!). And the book includes a kind of a post-script, with a short discussion on the importance of the longbowman to the English army during the 100 years war (and why the French didn't have any), on the significance of this battle, on Shakespeare's retelling of this event in his play. Very useful for anyone interested in History.
Oh, and I actually picked this one up at the last minute in WHSmith at the airport 'cause they had a 4 for 3 deal (did I mention I'm a sucker when it comes to book sales?) and although I haven't particularly cared for his previous novels (the ones I've read), the subject matter did interest me (I've read way too little in the period of the 100 years war!) so I figured I'd give it a try. Well, yay me! Good choice! It was a very compelling read and I'm sure I'll be picking it up again sometime in the future. :o)

Death's Daughter by Amber Benson
A very quirky and original take on the role of the Grim Reaper! Consider Death as a business man, big CEO of this company that was created in agreement by God and the Devil. Now imagine you're his daughter! Even better, imagine Death and the whole board of executives has been kidnapped and you have to take over his job after passing 3 teensy-weeny little tests (such as collecting one of Cerberus' - the 3 headed dog that guards Hell - puppies... Oops! Well one thing's for sure, hijinks ensue!
Can you tell I enjoyed it? ;o) First person narrative so very dynamic. Entertaining, the story just takes you along for the ride. Although I must admit to not being partial to some of the inner dialogue (parts of it sound influenced by the whole Sex and the City inspired fascination with shoes and clothes that seems to have taken over the pop culture world, what's with that anyway?!) I really liked this original story of a girl who really doesn't want to get involved in the family business, and who can blame her?

The Lady Elizabeth by Alison Weir
Alison Weir takes us into the Virgin Queen's childhood and youth. When she's a king's daughter and a princess, when she's a bastard child daughter of a traitor, when she's a king's sister and later a queen's sister until finally the throne is hers. We get to see what's going on during Henry VIII's reign from the point of view of his young daughter, how she begins to understand what's going on around her, how she later tries to avoid being caught up in plots and just survive. We see how Mary's affection for her sister as a child grows cold as they both grow older and Mary starts seeing more of Anne Boleyn in Elisabeth.
I picked this one up on a mistaken conception that I had read a biography of Alienor of Aquitaine by the same author and had found it very well written and entertaining so I thought I'd give her historical fiction a chance. Well I mixed up my authors (I had read Amy Kelly's), need to pay more attention next time! Because although the story was entertaining and I enjoyed the tale of the life of young Elisabeth (Tudor), it wasn't as compelling as I had expected. The writing was a bit too simplistic, bland. The dialogue left a lot to be desired. Nevertheless it does a good job of bringing history to life. So even though I was highly interested by the subject matter (I've always been fascinated by strong Queens such as Elisabeth or even more Alienor), it would have been a better book to check out of a library, not one to buy with the idea of reading it again in the future (as I do most my books). Still, if the story of a young Elisabeth interests you, and you prefer a fictional rendering to a straight biography (which Weir has also written), then you'll probably enjoy this!

Outlaw by Angus Donald
A new take on the Robin Hood legend?! How could I resist!!! :p
One of the books I picked up in London, I read it on my road trip north... even while driving! (no I'm not suicidal, it's just that at some points the traffic on the highway was at a standstill, so I actually had enough time to read 2 chapters! lol!)
This is a much bloodier telling of the legend than any I'd read before. It positions Robin as a rogue warlord in Sherwood, bent on taking down the Sheriff of Nottingham and obtaining a pardon from the king so he can marry his love the Countess of Locksley Mary-Anne. It takes place a decade earlier than other stories (so at the end of King Henry's reign instead of during King Richard's), and is told from the point of view (first person narrative and all) of a young Alan Dale, pickpocket and troubadour in training.
Very thrilling, exciting etc. Very real. Hard to put down. Only bad thing about it is that it's going to be continued (5-part series) and I'll have to wait to see what happens next! On the other hand is written well enough that it's a self-contained novel.

Paul of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson
I don't even remember when or how I fell into the amazing world of Dune created by Frank Herbert, all I know is I was totally absorbed by the intricate details and characters he had created for this world. The underlying philosophies (ecology, anti-technology, "civilisation", what it means to be human) challenged my intellect, while the fabulous adventure of it all just fired up my imagination. 7 books was definitely not enough! And while I was wary at first of Brian Herbert's continuing to develop his father's universe with the help of Kevin J. Anderson (and I'll admit they're not up to his level), I'm still very glad they did because it's allowed me to plunge myself back in that world periodically. It's been like becoming reacquainted with old friends, getting to know more about them each time.
This time the authors delve into the life of Paul Muad'dib in the period between Dune and Dune Messiah and between House Corrine and Dune (so we're simultaneously watching the legend of Muad'dib and his Jihad grow and become unstoppable, and we're getting a glimpse into a story of his youth that helps us understand how he became who he is). Although the narrative was very interesting as a whole, I kept getting a bit tired at the constant flipping back and forth between time zones... that's a narration technique that seems to have flourished since Katherine Neville's The Eight and while I enjoyed it at the time (and still do for certain stories), I'm getting pretty fed up with it! It was risky of the authors to write an episode that takes place between the original volumes because it does pale in comparison to those (their other stories are further apart in the History and so don't suffer as much). Because even though they do an excellent job, they're still not Brian Herbert!

Percy Jackson and the Olympians series by Rick Riordan:
Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief; and The Sea of Monsters; and The Titan's Curse; and The Battle of the Labyrinth
This is a young adult series that posits that the ancient Greek Gods are alive and kicking, and still up to their old tricks i.e. falling for mortal men and women resulting in the birth of half-bloods (not to be confused with a mudblood in the Potter world). Half-bloods as in half gods / half mortal and therefore "heroes" like those from the Greek Legends (Perseus, Achilles, Odyseus, Jason, Theseus etc.). Since the Greek Gods are responsible for the birth of Western Civilisation they move around to stay located at the epicentre of Western Civilisation in its present form, so nowadays that would be the U.S.A. And guess where Mount Olympus is? On top of the Empire State building! :p
So, I normally wouldn't be wandering around the young adult / children's section of a bookstore anymore (unless I'm shopping for my students), but I read about these novels over at NeoLibrarium. One of that blog's contributors -Gambit- was very vocal about these books, about how much fun they are, about how they bridge the (reader's) age gap like Harry Potter did etc. And since I'm still a sucker for anything related to Greek mythology (a subject I used to know to perfection in Junior High, I was obsessed with it!) I decided to give them a try! And guess what, he was right! They are a lot of fun! Very entertaining, hard to put down (which makes them a quick read, easily done in a day) and quite original! Although they don't cross over to an adult audience as well as Harry Potter did (I think the stories are a bit to light-hearted for that, unless there were some hidden depths I missed), they still make for a good read, with some fun characters you want to root for (while you wish they were a bit more developed) and some good laughs whenever our heroes run into some brooding Greek Gods taking on "mortal" guise.
Oh, and the chapter titles are brilliant! "I Accidentally Vaporize My Maths Teacher" "I Become Supreme Lord Of The Bathroom" "I Play Dodgeball With Cannibals" "The Vice-principal Gets A Missile Launcher" "I Wrestle Santa's Evil Twin" and so on and so forth! :p
The books are published by Penguin (at least the UK edition I've got) and say for ages 9+. Well I think 9 might be pushing it a bit, unless your kid is a very good reader (I know the students I had this year wouldn't be able to read them yet), but I'd say they should be very popular with any kid who likes adventure stories, and if from there you can guide towards some of the original Greek Mythology then even better!
Now I hope the fifth book "Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian" hits paperback soon, I'd kind of like to read it and see how that prophecy wraps up! ;o)

Touch Not The Cat by Mary Stewart
I picked this one up out of my bookshelves the other day when I was pondering what to read (not wanting to start any of the ones I had set aside to take to Belgium). It's a dusty, very old volume (book was written in the mid-70s) and I have no idea where it came from as its definitely not my parents' style of novel! I had read it before (was intrigued when I first came upon because I looooove Mary Stewart's Merlin trilogy) but only remembered it as an intriguing mystery. Unfortunately I remembered all the other details about 1/2 way through the book so there were no surprises. It's not as good as the Merlin trilogy but it still is a thrilling read, kept me reading so I could see the story wrapped up!

Am I in the right country?!

So after 2 more days of lengthy hours on the French highways (plenty of traffic, closed exit to Luxemburg due to an accident), I made it to Liège... exhausted and with a fuzzy brain but in one piece. Or so I though until I wandered around downtown yesterday and ran into this:


HUH?! A GUARDIA CIVIL in Liège?! What, is the King of Spain visiting? (The Guardia Civil are a type of spanish national police)

Nope, turns out this is going on:


Ummm... I must have my geography mixed up, 'cause I could have sworn that by driving 2000+ km I would have LEFT Spain! But I must still be in the Peninsula 'cause otherwise how could I have run into the Vuelta Ciclista de España (the final of the three "Grand Tour" cycling races -El Giro de Italia + Le Tour de France + La Vuelta de España)?!

Well a little research (i.e. asking people in the streets + a helpful e-mail from my mom) informed me that for some reason the Vuelta started this year in Holland (?!?!?!) and had an "etapa" ending in Liège yesterday! (aparently today was a day off so they could skip France by flying directly to Girona to continue the race in Spain) Were the organisers trying to recapture the 16th century glory days of the Spanish Empire when the Low Countries were Spanish? No idea! Seems kind of crazy to me... but hey, these cycling races have been trying to up their international publicity for years! The Tour de France actually started in Liège several years ago (and the against-the-clock portion raced under my window when I lived downtown! Nothing so boring as having a cyclist zip under your window, one a minute for 4h!). I think the Giro did a few years back as well. And hey, apparently I missed out on one hell of a good party they had going this weekend to celebrate the Vuelta being in Liège: concerts, dancing, horses, and of course lots of food and drink! I did catch the tail end of the celebrations yesterday:


I love the horses!!!

Ok, now I have to go back to getting settled in... not easy in a dark dorm room associated with a communal kitchen (which when everyone arrives will be used by a whopping 32 people! and we each have to have our own stuff... the place doesn't even have an oven?! argh!!!). Also have to start getting some work done. I just wish the Belgian summer hadn't decided to disappear on September 1st... :p

Monthly Movies: August'09

August = Summer movies winding down... quality winding down as well. Sigh! This time last year I was all bubbly over the fun I had with Mamma Mia!. No such luck this time.

G.I. Joe: I can't believe I'm even admitting to having seen this one! Curiosity and nostalgia (used to watch the cartoon after school as a kid, I loved there was a tough redhead out there kicking ass! lol! there just aren't enough redheads out there!) got the better of me one afternoon when I really wanted to lose myself in a movie theatre and I'd already seen the other mildly interesting options... The end of summer is usually a very difficult time movie (quality) wise!
So, what to say about this film? Well, it goes boom! a lot. :p But there's really no developed characters, they're all caricatures. Doesn't seem to be much of a plot either. It's just there to be pretty and go boom! I also thought it was pretty lame of them to turn one of the bad guys into a reluctant, coerced bad guy... As a marine biologist I did get a kick out of the new evolution of critter-cams! Cool mechanical spy-bot tunas! That and the underwater battle ships modelled after sharks and rays? Kudos to recognising the value in Nature's designs! ;o)
Hmmm... I just realised what the biggest problem with this film is: it's an origins story, that apparently is rather successful (at the box office)... which means sequels! argh!

My Life In Ruins: OUCH! As my sister (we made a family outing of it) says "that was physically painful!" It was so bad I felt guilty laughing at some parts. I mean, how many stereotypes and contrived situations can you put in a single movie?! The friendly and polite Canadians, the rude Americans, the unhappily married couple, the man-crazy divorcées, the angry teenager, the wise-ass who thinks he's funny, the guy who works on holiday and never lets go of his cell phone... The trailers showed so much promise! But that's 'cause they just showed the little bit of good stuff. We expected more from the team behind "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". Sigh! Will be my reference point for "lousy movie comparisons" for a while now.

Public Ennemies: At last!!! I of course went (with my dad) to see this on opening day, after waiting a month and a half I wasn't waiting another day! lol! And I can't say I was disappointed, I really enjoyed it! :o) My dad though seems to be graduating from the need to see dark films to which we already know the end, "what's the point?" he asks. Well the point is the same as in life: it's not the destination that counts, it's the journey! Sure we know how it will all end, but seeing it happen... seeing that world come to life on the screen with such great actors, well, it makes it all worth it! Johnny Depp was fabulous as usual (the day that man disappoints me is the day I quit movies), Christian Bale did real good, and Marion Cotillard was waaaay better than I expected (and much prettier than in "La Môme" aka "La Vie en Rose"). I loved the snappy dialogue (and I'm pretty sure it's even better in English), I loved the pacing (until the end), I loved the music... and I loved seeing a "darker" film in the summer (as opposed to all the popcorn)! I'm writing this a week later (why didn't I do it when I got home?! damn!), and I'm still feeling good about it. In fact I plan on seeing it again in a couple of weeks when I get to Belgium as the local "arts" theatre in town (Liège) will be playing it in V.O.S. (I already checked their schedule, lol!). My only negative point about the film was towards the end it did kind of feel a bit longish, as if it were dragging its feet somewhere, but I just couldn't figure out where. Oh, and there was this one scene I remembered from the previews, a press conference (I think) when Dillinger escaped the first time, with Feds saying "John Dillinger has given us another chance to capture John Dillinger", a scene I quite enjoyed... and it wasn't in the film! grrrr I hate it when scenes I like from trailers are ultimately cut for the film. Will have to look out for the dvd, a director's cut or something. ;o)




The Boat That Rocked: A BLAST FROM THE PAST!!! I saw trailers for this one all Spring... and then the movie never showed up in the Alicante cinemas! So very frustrating, until it popped up as one of those selected to be shown in VO in the single cinema that does one VO a week. So a bad thing made wonderful! ('cause this wouldn't have nearly been as good dubbed in Spanish...). New Richard Curtis (Love, Actually; Bridget Jones; Notting Hill) movie about a Pirate Radio station based on a ship in the North Sea of the coast of Britain. Led by Bill Nighy and fabulous DJs Philip Seymore Hoffman and Rhys Ifans, the operation is threatened by Kenneth Branagh (a minister) who wants to shut them down and stop them from "polluting" Britain's ariwaves with their foul language and perverse music (i.e. ROCK!). I'm not exactly sure there's much of a plot there, but I don't care! Some wonderful characters, great acting, and a soundtrack I absolutely have to get my hands on! Fun, fun, FUN!