A shortlist of composers for SGU

Joel Goldsmith was the score composer for Stargate Universe -- a short-lived, but high-quality science fiction tv series. His music for SGU made a lasting impression on me. The son of Jerry Goldsmith, Joel passed away in 2012, and he left very large shoes to fill.

So, here's a shortlist of musicians I would consider to compose music for any future iteration of Stargate Universe (hopefully a continuation).

People who have contributed a lot to science fiction and fantasy, and who are now major composers:
* Brian Tyler -- Best-known for his piece from Frank Herbert's Children of Dune, which featured in the first trailer for Star Trek 2009. Tyler also contributed to Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Regeneration". Track here. Tyler is now known for his work on major action movies.
* Steve Jablonsky -- Desperate Housewives (the theme is best-known), The Island, Ender's Game. Major composer, lots of movies.
* Ramin Djawadi -- Thunderbirds (film), Prison Break, Game of Thrones, The Island (additional music).

Other film and television composers:
* Ty Unwin -- BBC's documentary series: Earth, Space, Journey to the Edge of the Universe, The Incredible Human Journey, and several others.
* Leonard J. Paul -- The Corporation (documentary)
* Peter Golub -- Countdown to Zero (documentary)

Musicians who have written scores for films:
* Trent Reznor / Nine Inch Nails -- The Social Network, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (U.S. version)
* Pärt Uusberg -- In the Crosswind (Risttuules)

Musicians who should and would, given the opportunity:
* Front Line Assembly -- pioneering work in Techno-Industrial, soundtrack for the AirMech game
* Mike Foyle & Signalrunners -- Love Theme Dusk, Shipwrecked.

Composers, who generally don't write for film, but whose works have extensively been used in film and television:
* Arvo Pärt

Tangerines. The turning of tables.

Warning: This blogpost contains major spoilers, and assumes you've already seen the Estonian-Georgian film Tangerines.

In a recent IMDb post, a user wondered, if Ahmed had grown to like Niko a lot, which caused Ahmed to shoot the Russians. Here's my response:

(As was specified in the post's thread, it was only heavily implied that these were Russians, because it's not said so on-screen.)

And so, near the end, Ahmed was playing his part as he did before (covering for Niko), but the Russians were actively provoking Ahmed (who had been fighting as a mercenary on their side), and were very disrespectful towards him, because they didn't believe that he was a Chechen and on their side.

As far as I could see, they were ready to kill Ahmed anyway, but then Niko intervened, and then Ahmed killed the Russians.

So, it wasn't because Ahmed had grown close to Niko, but that in the nick of time, Niko saved Ahmed's life, and they had to protect themselves and their hosts Ivo and Margus.

Before things went downhill, Ivo had thought that he could de-escalate the situation as he did before, but Niko saw from the window, that these weren't mercenaries, so he essentially knew better.

All in all, it didn't end well in the film.

As it is, it's a fairly realistic film about war, because death happens, and usually, both sides lose in one or another way. Or that neither side wins convincingly.

While it's not rare, that one of the parties wins, then recent history has shown, that a definite victory does not happen often. That's why it's called a win, because chances are, that one could lose, too. The victors may realize the subsequent loss only after war ends, and after some time has passed to reflect on the events; especially, if it was not a just war.

Corrida (Estonia, 1982)

Synopsis

Osvald and Rita, a successful academician with his young wife and former secretary go to live away from city sprawl on a small island and enjoy their idyllic marriage.

Suddenly, a young man Tarmo appears from the sea.

Rita suggests from the outset that he's her ex, and the handsome Tarmo begins to capture her fancy, much to Osvald's chagrin.

The ensuing bad seas trap the three on the island, and both Tarmo and Osvald and Rita are aware of the situation between the three.

Constrained in one place, Tarmo and Osvald become in time more acquainted with one another: Tarmo shows that he's familiar with Osvald's work, but also critical; while Osvald realises that Tarmo is intelligent, he does not let Tarmo know this, and chooses to taunt him back.

Still harboring feelings for Rita, and believing that Osvald stole her from him, Tarmo encourages Rita to bring out her youthful streak in order to woo her to his side.

Rita's is only able to interpret Tarmo's encouragement of youthfulness in one way, but begins instead to let out her primal self, which turns for the worse.

Alone with Osvald, Tarmo lets slip that Rita has a child from before their marriage, and confides further that he doesn't know if he wants to raise another man's child.

Rita's deteriorating conduct has turned her restless, then uncontrollable, cruel and indifferent.

Tarmo sees that Rita is unable to handle herself in a critical situation, and realizes that she's not intelligent enough to do so in the first place, and therefore not really worthy of his attention.

Having made up his mind, Tarmo leaves the island.

(In the interim, Tarmo and Osvald appear to have resolved their dispute, as Osvald is more willing to put up with the restless Rita than Tarmo, who, as a young man, has more choices before him.)

---

Text in this post is under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License (CC-BY-SA-3.0).

How we remember a movie

In reply to this post on IMDb

I've never seen the original Jurassic Park film at the cinema, so I think I finally saw it on tv once. But then seeing that film turned out to be such a non-event, that I probably forgot that I ever saw it whole, and so mostly remember getting to see it in parts in my old home. It's as if seeing the original did not make any impression on me. Except "It's a UNIX system! I know this!".

I kinda think that this may be related to how one watches films, and whether it's alone or with someone, and then also where and in which setting. When I see a particular film or documentary at home, then I take the time to watch it, and invest the necessary mental resources to think along.

Another interesting point is whether I've consumed any similar [visual] content on the same day: Of the two movies I might have seen in a day, which one of these will I remember seeing? Will I remember one or the other, or the one I saw later?

Recent superhero science fiction movies

This is a comment I wrote on a busy IMDb forum. Posted it first in an IMDb forum, but this is backup, because after a certain threshold, IMDb forum threads get deleted.

Late 1990s was the period of huge disaster movies, starting with "Twister" and "Independence Day" in 1996; then in the one year of 1998 two huge asteroid disaster movies, which were "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon". 1997 gave us "Event Horizon". Of all these, ID4, "Deep Impact" and "Event Horizon" might have aged better, IMO. Though "Armageddon" had a bigger production, more star power (back then), and an awesome theme song.

Now, I think at some point we're going to reach, or have already reached Peak Superhero Movie, aka the point when all recent Superhero movies end up with the one that jumps the shark on them all.

Because Ant-Man is in production.

The current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles release had extensive advertising, but the problem is that I don't like them all that much, even from the trailers. I think I liked the old Turtles movies better, if only because they were more fun and the turtles' prosthetics seemed to have appeared more natural, even if from a production standpoint they might have looked fake. And I was a kid back then.

I have not seen Iron Man movies. I remember I really liked the 1990s cartoons.

This Summer I saw "Transformers: Age of Extinction". Ugh. But it got huge, because it was one of the few Hollywood flicks this year permitted to be screened in China, to which they paid huge lip service in the very movie.

Man of Steel was allowed the previous year. It also gets extra props for awesome eye candy :9

The Turtles and Transformers are basically kiddie movies. Iron Man is teenage material, and Man of Steel for teenagers and young adults. So are "Star Trek 2009" and "Star Trek Into Darkness", both mindless sci-fi action flicks.

Whereas "Lucy" is rated R (haven't seen it yet).

All in all, I'll give Iron Man the benefit of the doubt. Star Trek reboots were rather successful, and Man of Steel is a very nice Superman reboot (I'll forgive camcorder zoom-ins).

The real science fiction goodies were "Prometheus" and "Gravity", of which I haven't seen either.

Stargate Universe, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and 2001: The Space Odyssey—A Perspective

This was published first to make sure that the post lasts longer than in IMDb forums.
I've reminisced a bit since first replying in this [IMDb] thread, so got some new ideas in support for TMP.

"Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (TMP) was released ten years after "2001: A Space Odyssey" (2001), so it's historically placed within the timeframe of a generation that also had first-hand experience of 2001, which there is a huge fanbase of, and which extensively features elements of observation and contemplation. And, so, this is what the creators of TMP probably leaned on, most likely to offer an intelligent and ethereal view of space, in order, perhaps, to unintentionally counteract the "pew-pew-pew" effect of Star Wars.

So, when I think of Stargate Universe (SGU) and TMP having similarities, then a fair amount of all of that was borne out of 2001. Now that I'd thought of it, 2001 must have provided the people over at SGU quite a bit of influence in how SGU was presented.

When 2001 was initially released, it was lambasted by critics and a rather incredulous public, while only later was the film accepted as a classic. I hope for the same trend to happen with SGU, and, to a certain extent, to have happened already with TMP.

James Cromwell

...on mitmekülgne näitleja, kes mängib tihti suuri ninasid:

• poeet Virgilius, treener, doktor (6x), direktor
• äriinimesed: ärimees, meediamogul (2x William Randolf Hearst), pankur;
• vaimulikud: isa (2x), reverend (2x), preester (2x), piiskop (2x), kardinal, paavst;
• jõuametkond: vangivalvur (2x);
• võmmid: politseinik, ohvitser (2x), detektiiv (3x), seersant, deputy (3x), politseišeff;
• kapteniauaste on nii politseinike kui sõjaväelaste seas, seega:
  kapten (3x);
• sõjaväelased: kolonel, major, kindralleitnant, kindralmajor, admiral;
• riigiaparaat: kohtunik (3x), senaator (2x), minister (2x, sh. Andrew W. Mellon ja Hank Paulson), peaminister, suursaadik;
• riigipead jmt: president (4x, s.h. Lyndon B. Johnson (2x) ja George W. Bush), Prints Philip (Edinburgh' hertsog)

[allikas]

A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The need to be loved.

This was in reply to a comment on IMDb. I posted it here first, because forums on IMDb sometimes tend to be cleaned up from threads.

I'd assume the makers of androids managed to gather and digitize some amount of brainwaves from humans, which data were then either constricted, or made free within certain baseline contexts (such as love, as in the case of David, or only a simulation of it, as it was with Gigolo Joe).

What you might be asking for is either the level of self-awareness of androids, or the extent to which their programming was free enough to be unpredictable in their actions to explore that self-awareness.

The movie offers what I see to be a dichotomy between the unique David's apparently self-serving and self-aware purpose of [wanting to be] "a real boy, so Mother can love me", that of needing to be loved; and the other less self-aware androids' selfless purpose of service to others. And how all this correlates with the human condition, which can vacillate around variations of these options: Most (well, nearly all) of us want to be loved, but what is the extent of service we are willing to give to others?

The story reveals that several androids became increasingly self-aware and were through various misshaps (intentional or otherwise) forced to become "free agents", but the hardware and programming of the less fortunate ones was limited; imagine people from the autistic spectrum, where their social skills are to some extent or other known to be less adaptive.

Here, Gigolo Joe was one of the few lucky ones to be not just self-aware but also reasonably adaptive. While David was all those things more by an order of magnitude, then the differentiator between David and Joe were experience, skills (both social and practical), heritage, and purpose. What held Joe back were heritage and somewhat constricted social skills which gave him so easily away; while David was aided by the 'more human' fortune of being in these respects a clean slate, and importantly, having an existential and non-materialistic purpose towards the person he related to.

David's primary uniqueness stood in having a (self-aware) purpose, wherein he was not aware of the fact that his being was there to satisfy a very similar (if not exactly the same) human desire — out of which happiness could ultimately be derived. Whereas Gigolo Joe knew precisely what women wanted, and even what would happen to humanity in the longer term.

The juxtaposition of the two shows the differences in how they sought to derive happiness from others. Incidentally, the happiness that either were wired to seek was also different.

While thinking more of it, the future androids in their evolution seemed to have found that very fine balance of satisfying the needs of one (David) and the many, without putting said needs into conflict with one another. This would follow how the early androids' relation to others, despite their being hardwired for service to others, was more, well, binary.

What was lacking in androids, both past and future, was consciousness, or how we humans understand it. Suppose the evolved androids finally managed to reach a level of primary consciousness, but not the subconsciousness, as some cosmological lore has it that in humans this is connected to upper densities of existence. (Not that real-life academics would take seriously or even corroborate, so you can consider it as crackpot science. I might as well add that religion often falls into that same place.)

That is why human consciousness was envied by future androids, so they needed David.

Revolution OS

Film review

Ahh, the good times :-)

This film was made during the dot-com boom, and, per release information on IMDb, first screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March 2001.

Only in its end titles does the film show the first casualties of the dot.com crash (a second release of the film was in 2002), so this documentary really well reflects the spirit of the times, just as the original series of "Star Trek" was the best science fiction in 1960's.

Despite its shortcomings of appearing propaganda-like (see some of the more balanced IMDb reviews) and not the most stellar music editing, I still kinda like the documentary, as it was filmed during a time when life seemed really nice: The dot com crash had yet to happen, and 9/11 hadn't happened yet... And so the times were quite a bit more hopeful than in the years that followed.

Alas, many of the companies mentioned aren't there anymore: VA Linux, Cygnus, Netscape, and many-many others. Not long after, Corel stopped making Linux. Sun Microsystems was purchased by Oracle. Red Hat is still here, but it's not exactly in the desktop business. Netscape itself was purchased by AOL, and subsumed into it, and then not much is left of it. Netscape's move to open-source its Communicator suite (which included the Navigator browser) was indeed pivotal, as it laid the ground for Mozilla and eventually Firefox.

Nobody at the time saw the emergence of Google. Or that the principles of this freedom would lead to Lawrence Lessing to found the Creative Commons movement, which gave additional impetus to found Wikipedia. Incredible.

I somehow failed to notice at the time how even the modern men's haircuts and hair styles were different back then, short of being less astute. I guess since these styles were ubiquitous, then nobody really noticed S:)

The Eavesdropper is only hearing thoughts

This post is in reply to a post on IMDb.

A typical misconception in entertainment industries — perhaps carried over from older mediums (print and radio), where text and speech was important to communicate ideas — is that people only think in speech, while I prefer to think that there are people who rely on text to think and that there are people who use mental images in their thought processes.

This makes catching someone's thoughts more difficult, if a person observed uses the kind of mental imagery that necessarily does not use that person's own (inner) voice, but that of someone s/he thinks about. The trick, then, is to be able to detect what the person's underpinning thought process is in relation to the image and the activity in that image that is working in their primary consciousness. The difference here is in getting to observe what the person perceives in their thought processes, and actually eavesdrop on what he or she really thinks about. Overlap isn't always guaranteed.

Since I haven't seen the film, I guess the experiment was in getting people (or just the protagonist; see below) to only 'hear' someone's thoughts, but not necessarily see them. This would mean that the ability of perception was probably limited to receiving just one type of sensing faculty.

Given the film's premise of 14 people (out of 15) becoming crazy as a result, then I guess the failed method did not include a filter on these people, and so their minds vere overwhelmed. I remember this issue was once handled in an episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", where Buffy's mind-reading sensitivity to read others' minds and sensing radius progressively expanded to the point that it became almost impossible to have a sane mind.

See the Mental image article on Wikipedia for more.

Another point is that even despite filmmakers, of all people, realizing that people also think in images, then it's probably just easier to use the "hearing of thoughts" method than "seeing the thoughts" method, as the former is cheaper, while the latter may sometimes require expensive means of post-production to visualise 'seeing' someone's thoughts. Think "Minority Report" and "Brainstorm" (1983).

P.S.
Saw a poster and that George Takei was in it, so got here.

Going All the Way

Film review that was first a comment; in reply to a thread on IMDb.

I waited, too, to see if they'd discover one another further than what's in the movie, though New York's Greenwich Village alluded to as much.

The film felt open-ended and probably stayed true to the very letter of the novel it was based on, which, I assume, was just as vague, suggesting several possible outcomes, depending on the eye of the beholder.

I would have ended it differently and sweetly. Even if such a happy-end situation were there, then after they guys would meet in NYC, the most possible outcome would have by then been known in advance to any viewer with a brain.

Fortunately, the ending was not as tragic as the one in "The Locusts"...
Would I (have) cast a different actor to play Sonny, just for the sake of seeing Sonny and Gunner (as played by Affleck) discover one another and consummate a possible guy/guy relationship brewing underneath?

Well, I don't know if I would — Davies is just too unique an actor, and the original story shows an environment so devoid of substance that it would not want to suggest anything that would be gay; For example, sodomy laws in the U.S. were not repealed before 1970's, neither was homosexuality an acceptable topic in the kind of polite society shown in this film. The novel by the same title was published in 1970, which is when attitudes towards homosexuality in the U.S. somehow started to thaw, and then only really slowly.

I think I did notice some lines in the movie from which I could infer that there could have been guy/guy relationships, I think in the very inconspicous way Gunner formed words in his sentences. Oh well.

Yet, in conclusion, "Going All the Way" did suggest possible ways of how the Beat Generation sprung up.

"Super 8" movie review

Well, I hope this will be short enough
Warning: Here be spoilers

Ten, maybe fifteen years ago I would have liked this flick very much and just as much would have been very tempted to retell the story of the movie.
What a difference doubling my years of life then actually makes.

Over many years, I actually went to watch a movie in a movie theathre, over many years with a friend, and over many years with a friend whom I haven't been to pictures with since 2003.

Turned out that instead of a sci-fi action-drama which had kids in it, it was a kiddie-movie with sci-fi action and some drama, too. A very good kiddie-movie. If I were a kid, I am sure I would have really loved this film.

Cinematically, JJ Abrams has done very good work on "Super 8", echoing both of Spielberg's "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "E.T." After all, Spielberg's name was plastered all over the posters of "Super 8". Michael Giacchino does well with the score and his musical style is recognisable (see "Star Trek" (2009)).

The great stuff

• The train crash is the best train crash I've ever seen.
• SFX concepts of the alien ship are really out of this world. I mean, I've never had any idea a ship could be built like that.
• The late 1970's now refer to a time that eventually might be long forgotten well into our own future, but the film somehow manages to document a way of life and an America that back then was still a dreamable place to be in.

(One omission of the Summer 1979 events is the re-entry of Skylab, news of which was huge in America.)

The interesting and thought-provoking stuff

The most intriguing parts I found appeared to be the most insignificant ones.

• The Three Mile Island nuclear accident lent me to belive that the young protagonist Joe's mother died in that accident, and not in the steel mill, and Joe's young lady-friend Alice's (Elle Fanning) father was the one who failed to attend the shift at the time, which proved fatal to Joe's mother.
  
  The release of the movie in Summer of 2011 is somehow coincidental, after the Fukushima nuclear accidents in Japan, which began on March 11, 2011. Coincidentally, March 11 is a very loaded date for me since 2004 (the Madrid train bombings) and now even more since this year (2011). In 1979, the Chernobyl nuclear accident hadn't happened yet.
• Of course, 1979 wasn't exactly a crisis year in terms of the economy, despite the 1979 oil crisis, for example. It's also before the Savings and Loan crisis of early 1980's really came to be about. Maybe when one progresses into adulthood and reaches news-reading age, then in some ways, crises are always there, around the world; some are closer to home, some are less. So 1979 had its crises, but they weren't of the scale of now.
  
  In light of which is today (as of July 2011) regarded as the Great Recession, the film reminds well into its start for people to be compassionate, generous, and giving; sort of attempting to show that it's still a good thing™ to have these qualities, ways and means permitting. "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" also touches up on the recession.
  
  Breakdown (intentional or not) of the Nuclear Family and single parenting are referred to at least twice; My half-educated guess is that most actual series and films from around the era (1975-1985) wouldn't ever have any of that in the main cast line-up and storylines.
• The movie is good in tackling other difficult subjects, like imprisonment, maltreatment and mistreatment of foreigners (the alien being a substitute for the purposes of storytelling) who are regarded as low-lives, despite their sentience or even intelligence. Think Guantánamo. How would someone have to cope with the after-effects of gross mistreatment upon eventual release, what is the subsequent reaction and what should it ideally be (? — in the mind of a moviemaker and viewers who mostly tend to agree), or what can be the motives for aggressive behaviour and how to reduce chances of vengeance or any reoccurrence of it?
  
  This JJ Abrams film is the one where he very well manages in picture terms to explain all of the above to a young mind. Star Trek now seems like an 85% attempt at this, being a very engaging sci-fi action movie and all.
• The solution presented is not forgiveness, but departure and detachment. Current policy in world politics seems to desire this to be preferred behaviour, given that sincere forgiveness cannot be easy in the first place. The film suggests that perhaps it's expressions of compassion and dignity in the act of release that might prevent vengeance, or reoccurrence of it. Who knows. Has it been tested and proven already?
  
  Any political power wishes, and, in various degrees usually gets departure and separation of its prisoners from said power upon release, physically at least. Yet mental departure and detachment (letting go) is never easy. Most action flicks have not delved into this.
  
  In a "fish out of sea" situation, departure and detachment might be the first reactions anyway, especially if survival is the primary consideration. Sometimes, compassion and dignity are the first and best steps into repairing very bad relations, methinks, or at least help in stopping violence. A cease-fire, then: "...But you can live!". Well, the movie gets that right.
  
  Remembrance, on the other hand, is special:
  Would it be too difficult to explain all of that to adolescents?

• Kid acting kudos go to Joel Courtney (Joe) and Riley Griffiths ("Production value!!11!!!").
• Special kudos to Kyle Chandler and Elle Fanning.
• You won't notice David Gallagher from Seventh Heaven.

If you want to see what the times were back were then 30 years ago, or just reminisce of the times back then, then see all of this for yourself in the movie or from an optical disk once that comes out.

Yet, if a young mind might wish to ruminate over above topics in the bulleted list, I'd suggest watching a documentary or reading the Geneva conventions...

More Ideas for SGU's Future

What I hope and pray for, is to see the continuation of Stargate Universe both as a TV show and a franchise.

My ideas (which I am sure I have written about before) for The Powers That Be:

• Before and until anything is clear about which television network is to pick up the show, MGM should make and promote a full-feature theatrical movie with the same actors and the same creative cast. The motion picture, if production is quick enough, could be released after Season II concludes on SyFy.
• Crazy idea: Why not market episodes as movies shown in pictures theatres? You could extend them to be at least 60 minutes long, for example, and the movie market is worldwide and not dependent on revenue from television advertisers (I don't mind product placement that is smart). Make sure to release in different countries near-simultaneously.
• Some forum posters have talked budget cuts, which I think are wrong. If cuts still happen, then it's best to reduce the number of episodes and not compromise on actors, the creative cast and production values, all of which affect series quality to a good degree.
• I much appreciate musical montages, so do keep these.
• If you haven't done that yet, publish an SGU soundtrack compilation both in CD and digital formats and maybe as an add-on in DVD sets (they're not cheap anyway, so value has to be added).
• In addition to current and very good musical selections, I'd like to hear music in SGU by some of the following acts: One EskimO/Kristian Leontiou, Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor, Frontline Assembly/Delerium (who are in Vancouver, btw), Linkin Park, Sarah McLachlan, maybe even 30 Seconds to Mars and Kanye West. All these musical acts and projects have large and/or dedicated fanbases: having a never-before-released song in some episodes of the show is likely to bring in new viewers (make sure to create positive buzz/tweet beforehand).

What the years do to people

Here's an edited and complemented posting, which I first wrote as a reply to a forum posting I originally made on an IMDb forum:

Only that he was about 25 while playing an 18-year-old (the film was released on 15.03.1991 and Grieco was born 23.03.1965), but this might have been a running gag about how much older actors play teens. The movie was funny, but not necessarily because of Richard Grieco.

To provide some context, then I am gay, too.

I should say that I kinda fail to see anything hot in him, despite his above-average looks at that time (I had to Google to see what he was like back then :-).

When watching the movie, I only passingly noticed him as the lead there, where the best-performing actor was actually Linda Hunt. Thereafter, I often confused Hunt with Mindy Sterling, who played Frau Fabrissina, a cohort of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers movies. Granted, Hunt's Ilsa Grunt and Sterling's Frau Fabrissina were both very similar characters and I think that Fabrissina may have in part been modelled after Ilsa Grunt: both characters are evil, diminutive, authoritarian and murderous women who are not in their first youth anymore and who have or have had an affair with the main antagonist.

In Estonia, "If Looks Could Kill" (will be referenced below as ILCK) was never seen in cinemas, with the reason being that the film was released in 1991, which was the year when Estonia regained its independence from the Soviet Union (the first widely seen and distributed Hollywood flicks were "Home Alone" and "Hot Shots" or "Hot Shots 2").

Instead, ILCK had a few airings on TV many-many years after 1991 (2000-ish and later), when I wasn't young enough anymore to see what was it in Grieco that charmed the generation before me.

When searching for pictures of Grieco in Google Images (using "Richard Grieco" with quotes for the exact phrase search), I stumbled upon a blog called "My New Plaid Pants" with a post ("The Hall of Hubba-Bubba", dated April 5, 2007) praising the various famous male physiques of the era (mostly 1980's and very-very early 1990's). There, one of the images near the top was the Diet Coke Guy, or Lucky Vanous (who I think was much hotter than Grieco). Since I had then just seen from my Google image search what Grieco looks nowadays, I was intrigued to see what Lucky Vanous looks now...

Despite both having had different fates (Grieco evidently continued acting; yet while Vanous (born 1961) became instantly famous, he struggled as an actor, so a few years back he opened a successful healthy fast food restaurant in L.A.), it is my judgment that Vanous now looks much-much cuter than Grieco:

• 1996 look
• Hottest Restaurant in LA
  The page links to a large large image with a long URL, so I only referred to a blog article: Find the image with this description next to it: "Gordon Naccarato, Lucky Vanous, Mariel Schneider", then click on it for a 1600x1200-res original.
  
• http://luckydevils-la.com/news
  The page features a more-or-less viewport-wide image of Vanous.


• Some images on flickr

Other Lucky Vanous information:
• People Magazine: Lucky Vanous
• Canyon News 11.2009 article
• Getting Lucky in the New Year - Lucky Vanous a pop culture icon
• Lucky Vanous: career pursuits and life lessons.
• Blogger posting (just one)

From then-and-now comparisons of Grieco, I thought that his face does not look as natural than it did in his youth or in 12-year-old basketball images on his IMDb profile's gallery page, when his face appeared more natural.

Other film and media material on Estonia

As it happened again, I wanted a more permanent fixture off a forum post on IMDb.

A list is available titles @amazon.com with the search string Estonian film.

From Amazon's two-page list, I can also recommend the following:

• "Broidit" (2003, IMDb score 3.8/10 (I don't know why such a low rating while the film picked up a few accolades), roughly titled "Brothers" and is an Estonian/Finnish co-production), which I haven't seen, but the synopsis of which I am familiar with and which I know was featured in the 2003 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival (Pimedate Ööde Filmifestival/PÖFF). The plot itself revolves around the title subject, love and loss.
• "Sigade revolutsioon" (2004, IMDb score 6.3/10, "Revolution of Pigs"), which is is a comedy/coming of age movie set in a Soviet pioneer camp during the perestroika era. It has quite a historical/nostalgic flare to it and it picked up the Special Jury Prize at the Moscow International Film Festival.
• "Klass" (2007, IMDb score 8.2/10, "The Class", Wikipedia article) is about what a bad school environment may lead to. This is typically a staple for students in Estonia and the film has won four awards, two each from Karlovy Vary and Warsaw international film festivals. The plot slightly resembles that of "Heart of America".
• "Sügisball" (2007, IMDb score 7.6/10, "Autumn Ball"). I haven't seen this film, but it's contemplative and is about life and love in tower blocks that were built during the Soviet era. "Sügisball" has won numerous awards from around Europe.

Eesti Rahvusringhääling (ERR), the national TV and radio broadcaster in Estonia, has its own e-shop (in Estonian, though):

• Main page
  
• Film and documentary features:
  
  
  
  • "Mehed unustatud armeest" ("Men from a forgotten army") is about Estonian soldiers in the Estonian Guard Company (Eesti Vahikompanii) 4221, who fought on the German side during WWII and then guarded German prisoners during the Nuremburg trials (not always at the trials but near the court house) after the war as part of occupying forces of the U.S.
  • "August 1991" is also available.
• History series and music suggestions from the catalogue:
  
  
  
  • "Eesti aja lood" (Vol. I) is a history series that concentrates on life during the First Republic. Has English-language subtitles and is currently the best multimedia resource about what life during the Old Estonian Republic was like (includes both politics, economy, and ordinary life and how people lived).
  • Estonian song and dance festivals — These are recordings of national song and dance festivals, which take place every 4–5 years. This is if you are interested in classical and choir music.
  • "Öölaulupidu Märkamisaeg" is the 2008 song festival "Märkamisaeg" ([i]märkama[/i] is to notice, so "A Time To Notice"), which is a very large nighttime festival that lasted for like six hours and features all kinds of music throughout the history of Estonia (not just choir music).
  • "Laulupidu 2009" is about this year's song and dance festival
• Order information:
  You can order by e-mail and there's a mail-in charge: 1 item is 40 EEK and then it's progressively less the more you order.

Truth be told, I am not much into Estonian film, despite some interesting material available. What I really like are Estonian documentaries about history and nature.

Estonian films on the history of Estonia

I just saw the "Names in Marble" movie on DVD, so when looking on IMDb for Estonian films about Estonia's and Estonians' history, I felt compelled to write a primer, a list of Estonian movies to those interested in Estonian history. The list is by no means complete.

• "Noored kotkad" (1927, IMDb score 8.2/10, roughly titled "Young Eagles", Wikipedia article) is one of only very few Estonian films made before 1940 that wholly remained intact. It depicts the War of Independence.
• "Inimesed sõdurisinelis" (1968, IMDb score 7.1/10, roughly "Humans in Soldier's Uniform" — inimesed means both 'people' and 'humans' in plural form) is a film made during Soviet times about Estonian Shooting Corps, formed by the Red Army and so these men fought for that side during WWII.
• "Tants aurukatla ümber" (1987, IMDb score 8.6/10, roughly "The Dance Around a Steam Boiler"). This one chronicles peasant life throughout much of the century until about 1986/1987.
• "Äratus" (1989, IMDb score 6.8/10, roughly "Wakeup"). This one is about the March-deportations of Estonians to Siberia. That one was made under the Soviet reign, but at the time of glasnost. I recently saw that on TV.
• Then there is "Need vanad armastuskirjad" (1992, IMDb score 6.8/10, "Those Old Love Letters"), about the adult life of Raimond Valgre, an Estonian composer. Throughout the film one will also see some of the history of Estonia throughout approximately 1930–1949.
• "August 1991" (2005, IMDb score 6.9/10), a TV drama production on video made by Ilmar Raag chronicles the events of the month in 1991 when Estonia regained independence.
• "Georg" (2007, IMDb score 7.2/10) is about the life and times of Georg Ots, an all famous (both in Estonia and all of the Soviet bloc) opera singer and baritone. The film also dwells around war-time, WWII, more specifically.

I don't know if "Tants aurukatla ümber" is a staple on local TV, but it's the one movie that I liked the most and it's also one of those in this list that has the highest overall rating.

Fame (1980 film)

To those not in the know, here's a link to the Wikipedia article about the film.
I submitted a very similar comment at the film's IMDb discussion board.

Saw it on Turner Classic Movies, I think since the part of the musical rumble in the cantina.

What I found to be so incredible, or perhaps really interesting, is that this is the kind of film that might mark an era in many, mostly positive ways. Not a Christmas movie, but perhaps something to be aired once school is (finally) out. Maybe it is aired at that time.

What had me interested were the hairdos, the clothes, the music, kids' attitudes and all of them listening to that music and wearing some of what was to become the mainstream fashion well into the 1980's. The cars of the period, too.

As I kept watching (while missing some parts for the snacks, because TCM doesn't play ads inside the movies), the things that made the film interesting were the trends in diversity that we now seem to take for granted almost everywhere throughout the nowadays' TV- and movie-land.

The film stays faithful to the title subject and the adage of how there are people who are artists and those that want to be artists (or someone at all).

And then, the movie is still about the youth of that time. Being 27 myself, it was a year before I was born (behind the iron curtain, no less). So for me it served as something of a revelation about how the ostensibly average young people of 29 years ago lived and interacted, what were their thoughts and dreams and what did they do to realize their dreams.

PÖFF: Films to Watch

I looked around the PÖFF schedule and found some very interesting stuff to take a look at and watch, too:

Canada: "Ce qu'il faut pour vivre" (French and Inuit languages)
"Winner of the Grand Prix des Ameriques as Best Film at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival and Canada's official entry in the Best Foreign Language Oscar race..."

There are actually six films from Canada, but the site's search function is not designed to be very gracious and does not let the user copy the search results.

Estonia:
• "The Kings of the Time" centers on Estonia's puppet animation, Estonia's film animation in general and the people who laid the base for it
• "I was here" — Keywords: Drugs, sex, violence and loud music

Latvia: "The Soviet Story"
Lithuania: "When I Was A Partizan"
Germany: "The Wave"