Thursday, January 31, 2008

Waste management consultant


Managing his family life, two children growing up, a horrible mother, is one thing. Being at the head of the Mafia in New Jersey, is another one. When we add to this mysterious fainting, we can represent the complete daily life's picture of Tony Soprano, the main character of the series "The Sopranos" created by David Chase and broadcasted on HBO from 1999 to 2007. Nobody can deny the success of this luxurious TV show that has won lots of awards, including two Emmy Awards in 2004 and 2007 (unique for a series). The Sopranos certainly has something in common with his illustrious predecessors (the Godfather, Goodfellas, ...). Beyond the obvious quality of the script and dialogues, Chase has surrounded itself with particularly brilliant actors. James Gandolfini, wears a costume of Tony Soprano, the Boss around who the whole story evolves. He can be alternately player, sad, engaging and ruthless, delivering a formidable acting skills, which some have compared to Marlon Brando's acting skills. His wife Carmela is interpreted by Edie Falco, and represents the other pillar of the house. A woman ordered, capable and literally preventing the house to collapse. Their two children, Meadow (Jamie-Lynn Sigler) and Anthony Jr. (Robert Iler), will cause even more worried events that their father's associate from the "Mob". There are still Livia Soprano (Nancy Marchand), Tony's mother with a very special personnality (she try to kill her son), or Corrado "Junior" Soprano, the uncle played by Dominic Chianese. It should be noted that many actors of the Sopranos were subscribers to gangster films, as well as Tony's nephew, Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli seen in The Goodfellas), not ever missing an opportunity to make a mistake. During the years, other actors will fill the cast (that replace the industrial quantities of killed characters): Aida Turturro, Joe Pantoliano, or Steve Buscemi the cousin and prisoner ...


This is the final departure of a ducks family, installed in the pool of the Sopranos since few weeks, which mark the beginning of trouble for Tony Soprano. He will sink into a serious depression and see a skrink, Dr. Melfi (Lorraine Bracco also in the seen in the Goodfellas), to find a solution to this. The confrontational relationship between the two characters is a really important thing in the Sopranos, a way to confront the mafia in its actions and to confess Tony's concerns rather than dismiss them. The Chase approach of Mafia is illustrated by the fact that the story takes place in New Jersey and that it shows a current situation, unlike The Godfather, that dealing with a gone period. Members of the "Mob" aren't just shown in suits but also in bathrobe, wearing ridiculous sportswears, cooking sausages and reading the newspaper. The series is made with a strong symbolism, like the many dreams that makes Tony Soprano that he tries to decode with his shrink, not without yelling about this "Freudian Shit." It's also believed that David Chase had few friends linked with the Mafia because both situations and gangsters speak are really truthfull. This realism is certainly one of the strengths of this series. The legend about the series is that American criminals leave their business on Sunday evening, when The Sopranos is broadcasted on HBO... The choice of soundtrackis is excellent too: you can hear a lot of old rock songs, the most truly integrated in the scenes (loudspeakers, car radio).




The family, as well as death and responsibility, represents the central element of The Sopranos, much more than the shootings or business. The Sopranos family but also the Famiglia, synonymous of big punch in the back, Italian expressions (focused on the food) and really bad jokes. Its code of honor, its hierarchy and its regulations. Its attitude with other people, FBI indics and the need to preserve its closest friends or family without their involvement, but also shoot anyone who dared betray it, even if he was our best friend. Six seasons, each composed of 13 episodes (except the sixth and last, counting 21) with a duration of about 50 minutes to an hour, with a great sense of unity. Because despite the many intrigues and twists, it might be considered each episode as a movie in its own right, thanks to the brilliant dialogues and without concessions, actors game and scenario that avoids effects of style and cheap suspense, showing the real faces "of Mobsters", not cheap superhero. Each picture of The Sopranos is another example of this Italian/American Way of Life, with its contradictions, its machismo, gold chain, hair (not on the head) and the big belly, but also this awesome sense of friendship that only the "Mob" can generate.


Monday, January 28, 2008

I choose to live ...

Today I decided to present an album, exceptional by its quality and virtuosity, it's the album "Thirteenth Step" from the alternative rock band "A Perfect Circle". There are some albums sometimes regularly remind you how much music can touch you by its genius, its perfect composition, that it transcends your mind and soul... Thirteenth Step is one of those discs. The universe deployed here is undoubtedly less aggressive than the first songs of the band, but it's much more intense. There are several influences, including Tool for the dark and brutal aspect or Pink Floyd for the experimental rock side that marks each track. The band, composed with Maynard James Keenan of Tool, Billy Howerdel (worked with NIN, Smashing Pumpkins, Faith No More, David Bowie) which is the brain of the band, Josh Freese (ex NIN, Guns' n Roses), Danny Lohner (also ex NIN), James Iha (ex Smashing Pumpkins) and Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez, bass guitar player for Marilyn Manson), have succeeded to create an album that touch perfection.


The first thing about this album is the cover, a strange mixture of pure beauty through the face of a girl, of disgust with a slug which has a hidden meaning and of mystery with the famous "perfect circles". Regarding to the title of the album, he seems to be a link with the 12 steps from the alcoholics program and it's especially around this concept of dependencies that turns the album.



And it's precisely by the spectacular The Package that the album begins. A minimalist melody hit by a guitar and a voice almost plaintive and a rising power along the way until a selfish rage vibrates, through the tone of Maynard. The general atmosphere is deliberately heavy (not the guitar) in the felt, in the diction of singing, before slowly remain silent in a redemptive whisper.

free music


Weak and Powerless speak about alcohol addiction and this song is embroidered with a sublime musical arrangement drowned in the guitar and bass creating melodies sound that literaly print the music in your head. And what to say about these clever suspensions arranged in the song, the global beauty of the track. It's perfect, pure, carrying emotions as ever.

free music


The noose, or perhaps one of the most beautiful song ever written in the world. The noose start with a distant melody, which is slowly absorbed in the minds of the listener, and reveal its charms where arrangements of piano, distant guitars, the battery, touching the heart just right where it's good until this sudden rise of power, fabulous and really awesome

free music


Blue speak about the addiction of a person that refuses to let go the loved being and continues to keep him "blue" (so death) near her. The track has an atmosphere almost "Lateralus" of Tool and its hallucinatory projections.

free music


Vanishing is based on a melody in the background played by a ghostly guitar and drums playing something very light and sending you dancing in the depths of a quiet ocean.

free music


A Stranger, creation accoustique a guitar and flying effects, almost ambient, prolongs the Thirteenth Step experience in multiplying the voice of Maynard in a zen ambience with an enveloping sound almost mystical.

free music


After this very vaporous track, we go back to something more direct, more heavy, The Outsider remain Tool with the striking guitars and their arrogant sound precision. The video clip of this song is really very funny.

free music


Crimes track quite atypical of the album and even of the band is based almost completely on a battery mono rhythmic and essential. Behind it, far away, stand strange guitars and sounds emerging from the darkness with a taste of weird stuff. Short but truly mesmerizing.

free music


The Nurse Who Loved Me is one of these songs very calm and beautiful but not so interesting. The live version, which is much more rock, restores the power of this song which is then, devastating.

free music


Pet with its oppressive rhythmic, and his freaky words "Counting bodies like sheeps to the rhythm of the war drums" denounces the war and the USA's dependance about it. This track is also a model of perfect sound heard all along the album, everything sounds great in this title. The breaks, voices, guitars, experiments, to be short, a unique piece, one more.

free music


Lullaby or after having a gentle nurse, brings us back to a dark ligh, trying to bewitch us to better control us. It's a strange interlude, but not devoid of curious sensation.

free music


And finally, a fantastic song, Gravity brings the entire album in these few minutes with dementia, sometimes flying, sometimes desperate and reflecting the general atmosphere of these thirteen step, the thirteenth is perhaps a personal approach still to be done.

free music


With a beautiful musical dimension, through perfect sounds and thanks to a production having the good sense to implement a lot of small things that make each song totally unique, Thirteenth Step let's us, for a few moments, to forget everything, just to be projected in this world sometimes in melancholy, sometimes in a desperate rage, sometimes in a total immersion of the senses as isolated from the outside world.

The speeches are not enough to reflect the piece of art that this album represents .. only one listening can reveal the edge… many will be needed to see forms.Twelve steps are done, but the thirteenth need to be crossed, perhaps by ourselves. One thing seems acquired: if musical awesomeness has a representation, that would certainly be a perfect circle…



Friday, January 25, 2008

Lacking ideas?

Nowadays everybody knows the web site ebay for its selling/buying services. Becoming more and more popular, the website is diversifying its announces and created the category "Weird stuff". This one is itself splitted in 3 categories which are "Slightly Unusual", "Really Weird" and finally "Totally Bizarre".
Link : Weird Stuff

If you visit the site, be careful! Preview images are not always in relation with the object sold. There is a lot of announces which contains female photos to attract male customers...

There you could buy a domain name, dehydrated water (true story!), a huge collection of books supposed to help learning making money easily...
Moreover the seller Lombracremisi offers one of his used lucky running shoes for only 10 dollars. (Click on the photo if you are interested)


Here is a list of some unusual objects sold on ebay :
1. Gulf Jet Stream - $4.9 million (the most expensive item sold on the site)
2. Lady Thatcher's Handbag - £103,000
3. Max the Mammoth (prehistoric skeleton) - £61,000
4. Joanna Lumley's Ferrari - £35,000
5. Decommissioned Nuclear Bunker - £14,000
6. A date with Penny Smith (GMTV presenter) - £9,000
7. David Beckham's Range Rover - £24,000
8. Ronan Keating's Leather Trousers - £5,000
9. FA Cup Final Football Medal Bradford City 1911 - £26,201
10. Jamie Oliver's scooter - £ 7,600
11. Wedding dress (modelled by ex-husband - the highest viewed item in the history of eBay - over 17 million) ) - £2,125


PS : Moreover, for the french version of the website, there is the equivalent : "ebay insolite" (link) which is, according to me, more amazing and funny than the english version.

Monday, January 21, 2008

This is a fantasy based on reality …

To inaugurate the anime section, we want to talk about an animation film, Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children.


This film, created by Square-Enix in 2005, is based on the Final Fantasy 7 universe. Square-Enix, formerly Squaresoft at the game release, is a Japan game developer, specialized in the Role Playing Game (RPG). The famous Square-Enix license is Final Fantasy, a saga where every opus is independent with another. Final Fantasy 7 is the seventh occurrence and tells the story of a young soldier, Cloud, whose trying to escape his condition and find his forget past.

Firstly, Cloud was employed by the Shinra (a multinational corporation which exploits the Mako: the Earth vital substance) but he joined the ecologic group “Avalanche” as a mercenary.
This opposition led to an epic confrontation between Cloud and the best Shinra’s soldier, Sephiroth, to save Earth.




This game, released in 1997 on PsOne, is considered as a gaming masterpiece. This motivated Square-Enix to create in 2004 the Final Fantasy 7 Collection, composed with different projects around Final Fantasy 7, as the Wachowski Brothers done with Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions. This collection contains a video game, an anime and an animation film, Final Fantasy 7 Advent Children.

The story of the film begins 2 years after the Nibelheim city facts and the Sephiroth’s Earth destruction attempt, during which he became mad after knowing he was, as Cloud, a Shinra’s genetic experiment. These experiments used Jenova’s genes, a calamity fallen from the sky. At this period, a mysterious illness spreads among the population, children in particular, premise of the Jenova’s return. Cloud will fight against the Kadaj’s trio who considers itself as Jenova’s children and want to get back the Jenova’s remains. Cloud is the main character but we can see all the others characters of the famous video game.




Currently, this movie is the most beautiful animation film, Square-Enix having a solid reputation in graphics and music compositions. This film is a very good entertainment, spectacular, and a jewel for Final Fantasy 7 fans.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

There is something in the air ...

Hi everybody. I may be a little late compared to the announcement at the keynote of the Macworld 2008, but I cannot resist to share it with you. As every year, the Macworld makes meet all the companies working in the Macintosh universe to show their new products. This meeting, that during a week, always starts with a great show presented by the Apple's CEO himself, Steve Jobs. Last tuesday, at 7:00 PM (French times), he presented the all new Macbook Air.

Since two years, this chimera was fed by different websites specialised in the rumors about the Macintosh world. Since Tuesday, the dream finally became reality, Apple has released the world thinnest laptop. This machine is an ultra-nomad computer from the Apple's professional range. This computer is the direct successor of the deceased Powerbook G4 12-inch, the last ultra-nomad designed by Apple since the transition to Intel processors.




In its seductive dress of anodized aluminum, the Macbook Air announce measurements that just came out from a dream. A 13.3-inch glossy screen with a resolution of 1280 x 800 and a LED energy-efficient backlighting, a weight just above the kilogram (1.36 kg) and a thickness between 0.4 and 1.94 cm. This is the first real development of the laptop's design since the Powerbook G4 released in 2001 and really this machine is so cute. You can also notice that the keyboard becomes black and adopts the Macbook Pro's backlighting system.


The Macbook Air is equipped with an Intel core 2 duo low voltage processor (merom) clocked a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz in option, which has been 60% miniaturized to be more easily integrated into the compact dimensions of the machine. To support this, the Air has a 2GB SDRAM memory, which is quite generous for an ultra-nomad. For the storage, it's a classical 1.8-inch hard drive of 80GB which is used but you can also choose a SSD drive (FLASH energy efficient memory) of 64Go with 900€ more. The Macbook Air is also equipped with an iSight webcam with a microphone for video conferencing and a new revolutionary type of trackpad. This trackpad provide the multi-touch technology used in the iPhone which allows to use zoom function, rotation and anything else very easily directly with your fingers.



About the connections, that's where the Macbook Air might have sins. Indeed the connections seem minimal, but it's enough for a small ultra-nomad. We can find a headphone jack, a micro-DVI port (including VGA, DVI and S-Video, adaptators provided) and only one USB 2.0 port (it's designed to deliver more electricity than a basic USB port to be able to plug in a USB HUB without problems). But you will have no additional port for ExpressCard 3/4, or Ethernet port (adapter sold separately) and no Firewire port 400 MBps. Beside this, wireless interfaces of the Macbook Air are really great, we can find WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR. A simplified connectivity for the benefit of communication through the air. There is also no optical drive, but you can buy one external at the purchase of the machine or use the remote system disc (wireless sharing of a DVD drive) from another computer (Mac or PC).



I think this machine is really cool, very beautiful and very efficient given its dimensions, and of course has a really comfortable battery performance (5 hour of wireless performance and a illuminated screen without being plugged, while a standard Macbook has between 5 and 6 hours with Wifi turned off and the screen luminosity very low). I really want this Mac, but it's too expensive for me (1700 € and count 1900€ with all optional accessories, which is not so expensive for an ultra-nomad). But I think this laptop will delight nomads people that want be able to work quietly in the train, to watch a video during a trip or that always need to have their computer on them. If you intend to use this machine as a main computer (laptop + desktop), I think that the minimal connections and the use of multiple USB peripheral quickly become tedious. Use only as a nomad computer. Doubtless a very good laptop for students to work at college on our own environment, but only if it's cheaper.





Links:

RC models

Hi to anyone, I'd like to say that, I've created my own blog (here), where I'll publish a serial about principles and constructions of RC models. Also I try to explain, how doest it work and where you can find a practical using.
Good luck !!!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The Spiral

Today, I have chosen to present a really awesome album, it's "The Downward Spiral" from the metal-indus band Nine Inch Nails. Issued in 1994, after two years of writing and intensive work on every sound, every second of music, The Downward Spiral is a haunting journey into the tormented mind of Trent Reznor (the frontman, and the only studio member of Nine Inch Nails), a Reznor slaves of his own machines, keyboards and guitars.




The main topic, the punishment and pain, are recurring ideas all along the  fourteen tracks really successful and original. The atmosphere of destruction, dirty and desperate that appears is also due to the recording studio, because it was the house where Sharon Tate and her friends were murdered by disciples of Charles Manson. The result is a CD particularly disturbing opened by the appropriately named song "Mr. Self-Destruct", with its intro made with screams of a man beated, followed by a sort of schizophrenic devastating dialogue. In the others tracks, we can find some of the best-known titles of NIN. To begin with the singles March Of The Pigs, surprising song where the most classical piano is played beside abrasive guitars, and the very smashed up disco Closer (which will appear in the form of a remix in the movie "Seven" of David Fincher), where the main sentence  "I want to f**k you like an animal" speak about a brutal sexuality to forget and silencing the monster inside you. 




There is also a lot of despair in "Piggy" and "Ruining" through words such as "nothing can stop me now because i don't care anymore". The excellent track "Heresy", rough and furious, let see what will be soon the "antichrist superstar" Marilyn Manson with lyrics about of the death of god. The instrumental "A Warm Place" provides a break in the ambient self-destruction, the title evokes the original Placenta sometimes we want never have left. In fact, in this disc, every word, every sound of every song is one step closer to the deprivation, to "The Downward Spiral", track full of despair and pain. This emotional phase culminates with the sublime "Hurt", the most beautiful ballad ever, speaking about self harm as well as the abuse of drugs, routinely performed in lives and obviously fans favourite song. 




The Downward Spiral is an album of violence, organic and really brutal. The satured sound, painful lyrics, the total involvement of Trent Reznor make this album a pearl in the industrial metal and a rare album, full of emotions and truth.





Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Hi everybody !

Hi everybody !

This blog represents our communication project for the second half year. The aim is to tell about our student's life and other topic which you can find interesting.

Here is a short summary of all the topic you can post in :
- cinema

- music

- geek

- other
- computer

- party

- sport

- games
- TV
- RC Models
- Unusual

Don't hesitate to post a lot of message (In english of course :) ) !

This blog must be alive but must also be interesting !

To your keyboard !