Find of the Week

Presenting: Derren Brown's Cold Reading [sorry for not having been able to embed the video, it's just not an option; but do bear with it till the end for maximum effects]
and: Derren Brown's use of Hypnotism [incredibly funny, btw]

Thank you, sister! ;)

[a] Cool New Way

This is not a review of Mr. Satriani's tune going by the same title, but the sharing of a funny new find of my own: it's on the intricately delicate film-choosing matter.
So now that the Disclaimer's all set, here's the how: I've now chosen whether or not to see a particular film based on the said film's soundtrack. Possibly a funny way to do it and perhaps not the most reasonable but definitely new and how about cool?!
I've made the decision after Watchmen's impressive [sound] record, and that led me to seeing.. Bronson. And, well, did I like Bronson!

Bronson is based on the life of Charles Bronson—not the (popular) movie star, but the famous English inmate, who took the actor’s moniker as his nom de combat: he’s the most violent prisoner in Britain, who has spent decades behind bars thanks to the years added to his sentences for his bloody outbursts. Bronson, in a manic performance by Tom Hardy that exudes a Jack Napier-level of playful insanity, narrates the film from a dark stage, often in costume, chronicling his childhood and young manhood—marked by robbery and disproportionate violence—through his stays in various jails, psych wards, and disco-era England. [...]
The director posits violence as art, as performance, as a talent, as a calling, as a cause for fame; think of [...] the brutishness placed back into the real world, which asks the audience to confront the cultural fetishization of barbarity. That is, Refn avoids the pitfall of adapting a real life story—getting mired in conforming the complexities of a life into the blueprint of a familiar narrative—by artfully addressing a larger, compelling theme. [...]

Highly recommended, imho. Above review may be fully read on the Cinepinion blog. And this is just this saga's start.

Getting the kicks out of Postcrossing

It's as easy as this to get me smiling:

[Postcrossing User] wrote you a message:
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Hello [to me],

Thank you so much for your postcard. I love, love, love it! I went to a Degas exhibition in Rome when I first came over from Australia. I studied art for three years and he was one of my favourite artists. You read my mind.
Thanks again & Happy Postcrossing!

[Signature of receiver]
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