wanderlust: india

right now, my heart is in india. i crave bright colours, aromatic spices, funky patterns, nine-handed deities, crowded streets, muddy warm rivers and abandoned temples.

all i really want to say today

movie weekend #2

a. and i have just returned from a little vacation in goričko, a national park in the northeast of slovenia. we had ambitious plans that included hiking, swimming and sightseenig, but then we realised all we really wanted to do is to sleep, eat and watch movies. in three days and a half, we managed to watch 11 movies. 11! and it was great. it seems we have developed a passion for movies in which the main character suffers from memory loss or has some sort of split personality - out of 11, 5 had such plot. fascinating. here's the list:

albert nobbs (2011) glenn close embodies a 19th century woman, who tries to make her living pretending she is a man. i enjoyed it very much, it's pretty sad though.

carnage (2011) two couples meet for a talk after their 11-year-olds have been in a fight, and the afternoon gets really dirty. it reminds me of sartre's play behind closed door.

the ward (2010) huh, i hated the cheap-horrormovie beginning, but loved the unexpected end.

knowing (2009) great idea, horrible movie. nicholas cage really isn't my favourite actor.

unknown (2011) liam neeson's world falls apart after a dramatic car accident. determined to prove his identity, he discovers a terrible truth. it reminds me of the bourne series.

snatch (2000) great directing, brad pitt's great accent, great music. a funny gangster movie.

shutter island (2011) this one has been chosen for the best movie of the whole weekend. it includes memory loss and split personality, of course.

the interview (2007) a serious journalist has to make an interview with a popular soap-opera star katja, and the night reveals all their dirty secrets. well, almost all.

the machinist (2004) christian bale is sooooo skinny in this movie! another split personality plot. worth watching, however.

number 23 (2007) jim carry in one of his serious roles. a dog catcher discovers a book that describes his story, and starts to freak out after finding his whole life can be summed up to the number 23.

appaloosa (2008) a western starring viggo mortensen, renee zellweger and jermy irons. not very hard on the brains.

so, you definitely have to watch albert nobbs, shutter island, snatch and number 23. take care xx

from the land of thousand lakes

tapio wirkkala is probably my favourite designer of all time. equally at home in the matropolas of the post-war time an in the wilderness of lapland, he managed to create an unique style theat became the platform for finnish design as we know it now. his work is sophisticated but organic, simple but detailed.
as i have a sort of an obsession with finland and finnish language, even the names of his collections overwhealm me: jää, tunturi, kanttarelli..
i am a proud owner of two ultima thule large glasses myself, but i definitely won't stop here. if i ever win the lottery, wirkkala's designs will be among the first things i buy.

on simple pleasures and old friends

recently, an old friend of mine, who just so happens to be the only devoted reader of this blog, and is currently studying abroad, sent me a book. i haven't recieved ordinary mail in months (apart from annoying bank letters and such), and it was the sweetest surprise. a package from a distant land, weathered from all the hands that touched it, sent with love and care. and there's more! on the first side of the book there was, written in ink, an old fashioned dedication. it really made my day. the book itself is 'the passion' by jeanette winterson, and it sure is an interesting read. as the title says, it's a story of passion, obsession, war and love, but not in the melodramatic kind of way. the two main characters, vilanelle from venice and henri from a small village in france, meet in the midst of russian zero winter. they are both driven there by passion, but ther passions are very different one from another. apart from the captivating and inventive story, i especially love the rich, poetic style, that still manages to be very down-to-earth, in a magically realistic sort of fashion. vilanelle's descriptions of venice are among my favourite parts of the book. and there are also a few quotations that i find worth remembering:

'the cities of the interior are vast and do not lie on any map'

'there's a lot of talk about freedom. it's like the holy grail, we grow up hearing about it, it exists, we're sure of that, and every person has his own idea of where.'

'trust me. i'm telling you stories'

art forms of nature

i'm in love with these inspiring and incredibly detailed drawings from ernst haeckel, a german 19th century biologist, published in his book kunstformen der natur.

easter morning

hey! it's been a bit busy around here lately, and the spring fever is definitely getting in my way. however, there are holidays coming up, and i'm going to take a little break from everyday this weekend.
i always loved this time of the year. easter is very symbolic in the sense of resurrection of nature and return of light. everything is coming back to life. sometimes, really early, when the coming day is nothing more than a thin light at the horizon, and the chill of passing night is still making you shiver, and everything around you is bursting with new hope - i can't describe that feeling other thean with the words 'easter morning', and it doesn't even have to be real easter.

picture: claude lorrain -easter morning