“Constantinople was an impregnable city …”
— Robert B. Kebric,
Roman People (4th edition), epilogue.
Posts filed in A Moistening of the Eyes
When I first read this, I imagined for a moment that 1204 and 1453 had been nothing but bad dreams. Reality dawing on me felt like a fist in my guts
An English villager’s complaint
Ye friends to truth, ye statesman who survey
The rich man’s joys increase, the poor’s decay,
‘T is yours to judge how wide the limits stand
Between a splendid and an happy land.
Proud swells the tide with loads of freighted ore,
And shouting Folly hails them from her shore;
Hoards e’en beyond the miser’s wish abound,
And rich men flock from [...]
WALL-E
As I went to see WALL-E (from now on Wall-E, as Nature abhors a shout, even though it’s supposed to be an acronym) last a couple of days ago, I was feeling highly ambiguous and thus also a bit scared. You see, my hopes for this movie were nothing short of astronomic, as just about [...]
Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie
2008.
536 pages (Gollancz Fantasy trade paperback).
“Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge.”
— Paul Gaugin.
This being the opening quote of Last Argument of Kings, the concluding volume in Joe Abercrombie’s The First Law series, one can perhaps perceive that this is a bleak affair. As I remarked in my reviews of the first [...]
Amadeus
Had quite the movie-athon yesterday. Here’s part two, Amadeus, with three and four coming as soon as I can find the time to read them.
Amadeus is often portrayed as the lifestory of one of if not the best musical composer in the history of mankind. (Disagree? Go listen to his Requiem while you wait for [...]
Lord of War
It’s been nearly two weeks since I watched Lord of War, so this’ll be a brief review, but better late than never, eh?
First off, what struck me during this second watching of Lord of War was how similar, in many ways, it was to Charlie Wilson’s War. They both dealt with serious subjects, and they [...]
A Message from the Lost Son: Why I Love Heraclius
“The Persians were applying inexorable pressure on what remained of the empire. Heraclius was faced with a stark choice: he could either wait for the Persian grip to tighten, fighting a series of rearguard actions which offered little chance for ultimate success, or he could throw caution to the wind and take battle to the [...]
Veronica Mars, season 3 ep. 9…
Spoilers inside.
‘Tis been a good day, so far…
First, I took my NwN Dwarven monk through a couple of levels. Which is always fun, as they get so many feats and special abilities, it’s a treat to play them. Then, just as I had cleared level 7 and killed Head Gaoler Aelfinn, I was roused by my flatmates who desired my company for [...]
The day I realized how much of a nerd I really am…
… was last weekend, when I and one of my flatmates (who’s a linguistics student) spent a quarter of an hour having fun with the IPA map in general, and the voiced bilabial trill in particular.
But hey, the voiced bilabial trill really is one of the funniest phonems in the world. Alright, the “schwa” and [...]
Angel: After the Fall
This one took me somewhat by surprise. I’d heard that it was scheduled for release on 29 November, and then, last Thursday, Loki exclaims at me that this was some seriously good stuff. I, naturally, become flabbergasted, run home from downtown Trondheim (I was shopping for Christmas and November-Me presents when I got his message), [...]
Love In Rainbows
It’s been over four years. There have been times when I’ve almost given up hope. But on Monday, all my prayers (well, at least some of them) were answered.
Too bad I won’t get my hands on the physical record before some time late in December, but at least the digital version’ll be avaliable in five [...]
My Gods, I feel lucky…
… to be born in this day and age, and in this country.
As an example of the former, I choose the fact that it’s no more than perhaps two hundred years since chimneys became common in Norway.
As an example for the latter, I must say that even though I am baffled, at times, at how [...]
Gudenes Fall
Gudenes Fall, by Cornelius Jakhelln.
2007, 428 pages.
Now, this might be a little weird. Gudenes Fall (The Fall of the Gods) is a book that most likely never will be translated into English, and yet, I choose to review it in English. But hey, my English is still worse than my Norwegian.
In the year 1000 AD, [...]
Issue 5 — The Chain
My immediate reaction to this issue, is that it is the best one this far.
Because while it lacks those “OMIGAWD!1 IT’S HER/HIM/IT/THEM!!!1″ moments, it was a beautiful and sad story, with elegant pathos and an endearing main character whose name we never even learn.
Quite a treat; if all the “short ones” they intend to stick [...]
Romeo + Juliet
For long periods of my life, I’ve nurtured a completely irrational dislike for the actor Leonardo di Caprio, a dislike probably rooted in my background as a male kid in the late 90s, when “Leo” was the dream boy of every girl, and the envy of every boy. And, as is so very often the [...]
Serenity
It’s been over a year and a half since the (first and) last time, but I finally got around to watch “Serenity” again.
And it was a pleasant surprise; before I watched it again, after having watched the series a second time, I feared that the relationship between the characters would be messed up, and that [...]
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
I finished the book five minutes ago, some 18 or 19 hours after I found it in my mailbox. I’ll try to review it, and I’ll do my best to do so without any spoilers, but for those who doesn’t want to know a godsdamned thing, I’ll hide it. Naturally, there will be spoilers for [...]
Noooooooooooooo!
Spoiler, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, page 385:
It’s here!
I just picked Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows out of my post box, and because I am terrified of spoilers and want this to be an unblemished reading experience, I will now commence “radio silence” until the deed is done. No Internet, no newspapers, no TV, no radio — none of anything in which [...]
Posts