The Police announce world tour. Possibly the worst kept secret in recent times? “I woke up one morning about three months ago, it’s like a light bulb went off in my head.” said Sting. Read that as “My lute album didn’t go down to well, so we’re in this for the money.”
It’s not often something so different comes along and grabs my attention, I mean most of the movies I watch are your typical action/adventure/comedy fares, but Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait is more of an art project than a movie.
It’s so surprisingly simple and amazingly executed, one game, one man and 17 cameras… For 90 minutes you follow Zinedine Zidane, arguably one of the greatest footballers to grace the field, during a game between Real Madrid and Villarreal on April 23rd 2005. Now while for some of you, this might sound boring, but seeing Zidane in action is like poerty in motion. To best describe this is like Sky Sports Interactive PlayerCam on steroids.
During the course of the game you see Zidane stroll around, coming in and out the game with those little touches he’s famous for, setting up a goal by beating three men and guiding a pinpoint cross and the relief that brings not only to Real Madrid, but their supporters too. You also see how little he interacts with his team, in the first half he barely says a word, in the second he loosens up, sharing a joke with Roberto Carlos, talking to David Beckham as opposed to his usual “heys” when calling for the ball. Ultimately you also see his temperamental side, that so famously appeared during last years World Cup final, as he is sent off in the final minutes for lashing out at an opponent during a heated moment, bizarrely he is applauded by the Bernabeu crowd as he exits the field…
Another thing to point out is the soundtrack by Mogwai which complements the action on the pitch, taking over the sounds of the crowd, leaving only the sound of Zidanes beathing and the crunch of the grass under his feet before rising to crescendos drowning out everything else. It just works, that’s all I can say.
If you’re a fan of the beautiful game, this is highly recommended, if not then you best avoid as you will probably be bored within 5 minutes, but if you can last past those first 5 minutes, you’ll be rewarded. It’s just a shame you have to go out and find a movie like this, I have no idea what kind of release it’ll get over here, I had to download a copy of it in order to see it…
So what’s happened in the week since snow day? Well, we unpacked a little bit more, Robyn started her new job, we hung out with Jill and Ryan and their friends on Saturday night after my mum’s cousin and her family drove down from Raleigh to paint a bathroom, I then started my new job and started a wicked chain of events that involves a 6:30am wake up call for us to fight over who uses the shower as we both have to leave at around 7:30, alas in very different directions, we found a vet for the cats in case they fall sick and now we’re in the process of shifting car insurance from Georgia to North Carolina, then we’ll change our licenses over and eventually the car registrations.
So yeah, moving house is damn stressful.
I’m actually enjoying my new job, it’s nothing glamorous as it’s web design/development, but the first few days have been great. I also enjoy the commute, strangely, even though I hit traffic as I roll onto I-77 before it branches out from 2 lanes to 4. It’s really quite tranquil believe it or not, once it’s branched out I’m cruising as a nice 70/75mph (try doing that anywhere in Atlanta during morning commute, if you do ever manage to reach it, you won’t get very far) and as the sunrises I see the Charlotte skyline come over the horizon, pass uptown, swing a left at Bank of America Stadium and I’m there… 25 minutes to go 20 miles, 20 minutes on the way back… I used to do that to go less than 9 miles in Atlanta.
We’ve also been planning the visit of my mum and Helen in late March, unfortunately they booked their flights before we found out about moving to here so they’re still flying to Atlanta, luckily Robyn’s mom has agreed to pick them up and take them to their lake house near Milledgeville and we’ll pick them up the next day. Also it’s unfortunate Robyn and I both have to work, hopefully Birkdale Village, where we live, as well as Charlotte and the surrounding area will keep them occupied for a few days at least, we’re also planning a trip to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, which should be nice…
The only downside is we need to be fully unpacked before they arrive, we haven’t even touched the guest bedroom boxes yet.
Anna Nicole Smith has died near Miami, Florida at the age of 39. The buxom, platinum-blonde Texan former Guess spokeswoman was found unconscious in a room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood, north of Miami, WFOR television reported in the US.
Peyton Manning had a lot of witnesses to his soggy super win, with the estimated 93.2 million viewers representing the second most-watched Super Bowl broadcast ever. Only the 1996 Super Bowl between Dallas and Pittsburgh, which had 94.1 million viewers, had a bigger audience, according to Nielsen Media Research on Monday. Behind that 1996 game and the M-A-S-H series finale, Sunday’s game was the third most-watched program in television history.
Punxsutawney Phil, The Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators and Weather Prophet Extraordinary didn’t saw his shadow today, meaning it’s gonna be an early spring. The last time Phil failed to see his shadow was in 1999.
After spending 3 years in Georgia, the most snow I ever saw was either a very light dusting, a little ice storm or fake. One week after moving to Carolina and it’s a proverbial winter wonderland. And you know what? There was no hoarding of bread and milk like in Atlanta at the slightest hint of cold weather, no proclamations of the impending apocalypse from Glen Burns on channel 2, actually it reminded me of winters back home, a few inches of snow and a day off school, no harm no foul.
Now it’s easing off, the rain is coming in and it’s all turning to slush, but for a few hours it was so pretty, even Sally looked on in wonder…
Originally uploaded by FLC.
At my new job, we have one-to-one meetings every week, and as today was my one week anniversary, it was my turn to have a sit down with a Director at the nearby Caribou Coffee and on the walk there I had to literally step over the remains of a dead cat.
If you ask anyone who knows me, I’m quite the sucker for cats, not only do we have 3 at home, but back in the day my family had a cat for a good number of years. So this sight was quite upsetting for me, I dunno if it was due to the fact it looked like it had been laying there for quite some time, or that it was laying in the cycle lane so a car (I assume) had crossed the line at a narrow pedestrian crossway and hit it, or the thought of someone looking for their cat and eventually finding it there, but I doubt that’s happening as I just went out for some fresh air and some 7 hours after my initial encounter with the dead cat, it’s still laying on the side of a busy road. So yeah, I’m pretty upset about the whole thing.
I’d be devastated if anything happened to one of our cats, I’ve already had one cat die on me during my life, and it’s upsetting to think about that even today some 9 years later. I’m now more watchful about where they go as we have multiple exits in our house as opposed to the single door in the condo, especially since Felix managed to get himself locked in the garage overnight not long after we moved in.
I’m also soft with the cats, I hate to be the bad guy when it comes to punishing them, I just can’t do it. I hate to see them “suffer” even though they sometimes deserve to be scolded. Especially Sally, as he was made the scapegoat for any and all cat related issues back at Phil and Erika’s, not saying he was completely innocent, but he still bore the brunt of everything.
Now I’m trying to contact the relevant people to try and get the cat removed, hopefully in a dignified way, not just scooped up and tossed into a garbage truck, but that’s most likely how it’s going to be… And part of me knows it’s still going to be there tomorrow morning, and this whole cycle will begin again.
EDIT (6:31pm): I called Charlotte/Mecklenburg County about this and they transferred me to the city’s roads dept. who upon hearing my request that the cat be removed said it would be taken care of… But when I left the office at 5 it was still there. So sad…
EDIT (15/02/07 8:10am): Yep, it’s still there, that’s been at least two nights it’s laid there and to be honest, it’s quite a mess…
EDIT (15/02/07 3:22pm): I went for lunch at 12 o’clock and the cat had been removed, it made me feel somewhat better. I just hate to think that if anything happened to one of our cats and we were out of town that it would lay at the side of a road for 3 days.