In the elevator

I got stuck in an elevator.
I can tell you that in those moments you get lots of thoughts in your mind. Especially if you are a bit claustrophobic like me. Thoughts about life, people and choices for example...
Life is full of choices and we are subject to selection every moment in a lifetime. No mystery in that.


I used to compare it with an elevator ride. Doors opens, doors closes but you are always in charge to choose what floor level you wish to go. Sometimes on your way up you meet people you might like or people you totally dislike. Other times you need a while until you know.


From time to time you might get tired of your ride and you might want to put your feet on the ground and your elevator is just going up and down. Sometimes you might prefer to wait not knowing where to go.


Sometimes is just a matter of time until you definitely know which button you should have pressed. Yeah,people can be wrong. I can be wrong. I can be good at bad choices. You can also choose very wrong. We all learn from mistakes,aren't we? Some faster than others.


Sometimes you just wander up and down,not having a clue which floor you should be. You may know what you wish for when the elevator stops and the doors are opening but the way to the right door can be totally unknown. Some people just take the ride and let other people to choose the buttons. Others prefer to restlessly search.


Anyhow, if you just stop for a moment and take a deep breath you may notice that is all about that ride...and the choices you make. Like in this very moment when I’m suppose to write some other things I chose to give my thoughts away.


Alright now, I cannot run away for other few months without some inspirational short movies. How could I? :)

I must admit I always was fascinated about timelapse technique, the mystery of time, the fascination of big cities but this is another story... and another time:)

Just music!

Do you play?Genial! Try watch it here.-:)

This monday came with lots of thoughts but not so many words so i'll let music once again to do my job. I hope no one minds that. Enjoy my monday music playlist!

I know what I want to watch!

Maybe I should do a regular habit of posting under this title the never ending movie lists I have sometimes in mind. I don’t manage to see all that I usually plan to watch but well maybe it helps other people to get some ideas. Moreover they might come back to me with comments or recommendations. 

Today I would like to point out an interesting combination. It sounds really promising and I know I would love to give 2 hours from my lifetime and watch this: Wim Wenders about Pina Bausch.

Wim Wenders if you remember him with his angels above Berlin that tries to comfort the mortal’s worried thoughts in ‘’Wings of desire’’-which represents for me maybe the best German movie. Pina Bausch, the creator of dance-theater as one can in few words say. She died in 2009. I wrote few words at that point. Now I’m extremely curious how my favorite German director saw her work and pictured it in his newest movie: Pina.

Eclipse-new song, new beginning…

Hello world! I won’t write much today but I will say how alive I feel once I’ve changed everything around me.

Rainy weather/Dreaming time…

Visa fullständigt album

Destin Florida

Pranked or Prankster?

Alright everyone, didn’t you forget what day it is today didn’t you? I didn’t and I didn’t get pranked. Not yet for sure but is never too late isn’t it? Well then, what  are you going to be today, the prankster or the pranked?  I wonder this because nowadays people don’t have time anymore to have a laugh. We forgot even how to make a good joke. [ or shall I call it a practical joke? ..I was thinking to make one right here on the blog but what’s April Fool’s Day then with a written joke instead of a practical one? ].

If I start judging after those lists posted all over the internet with ideas for April Fool’s Day, many of those pranks are old (the glued coin one for instance), childish and some are even cruel I would say. Nevertheless you can find prank ideas that can hurt you by the end of the day, the -prank your boss- kind of tricks for example. Moreover, don’t you wonder like me, where is the creativity when someone does a joke? Especially on April Fool’s Day when everybody expects to laugh at the victim and not to be one. Some people take this day so serious that if official papers lands in their mailbox on 1st of April , might be taken as paper-jokes. Anyway, maybe I am wrong and I landed on the wrong suggestions but I would like to know which side of the prank were you today and if it was a good one just share it in the comments. Would love to read.(and laugh too-:)) )

So far I can say that the worst one that ever happened to me was when i got pranked by a Hidden Camera TV show and my best one that I ever done was when I sms-ed my friends with a ‘’lucky winner’’ sort of message requesting them to phone back the number and choose between the three versions of prize I ‘’gave’’ them. A couple of them did bite this one.

Alright, enough talking about jokes. Let’s get to action. Here is some inspiration, my all times favorite:

Flying penguins

Vanilla Twilight

Hi everyone! I simply couldn't resist and had to post here this video because I'm in love with this voice. Listen, you won't regret it-:)

Dance dance dance

A little update for today: training and choreography. Let's see what it becomes when I am done if i ever get done..

So far here is the song I am currently working on doing this solo. 

Once...

I miss some old times and playing with a movie making program (quit limited to be honest) I just made a short photo movie about that. 

This is the result...hope you like it.

A new year, a new decade...

Hi everybody!  It's been a while since I was here. I know I didn't write on the blog from last year but now I'm back. Again. Ready for the new challenges of a new year, new ideas and who knows, a new me perhaps...

Today, early in the morning I woke up with my mind on the winter time with all the beauty, purity and the cold lights and I had this thought of everything melting down. Yeah, it will go away soon!.. so I grabbed quickly the camera and got some new pictures from my window.

Well now,even if it's still lovely winter and snow outside, one can dream away so I am thinking to bring some colour here today and present the ultimate symphony for eyes and ears. ''For senses'':


Enjoy!

Stockholm reads Herta Müller

Since Nobel Prize in literature was given recently away to Herta Müller, everyone seems to be on the hunt after her books. 
Herta Müller is a Romanian-born German author who moved to western Berlin in 1987 running away from the oppression of the dictatorial regime in Romania at that time, which censored her work. All her work seems to be rooted in the totalitarianism experience where I come from as well. Behind this experience that gave birth to a writing desire there is a universal author and the Nobel Prize was awarded to Herta Müller for "the concentration of poetry and the frankness of prose".
She was dismissed from her job after she refused to be an informant for the police and from then on she was harassed by the state until she managed to leave Romania for West Berlin. 
In 1987 I was a little kid, who maybe saw what’s going on under communism but who accepted as normal in the lack of a comparison term. Moreover, at that childhood age-when I wasn’t raising up yet existential questions like *who am I*- and, under a 'quiet' dictatorship (when they will tell us only what’s good for them not what’s against them), it was almost impossible for me to find out who is Herta Müller.
I found out later about her, few years after ’89 when the revolution has dragged down the Iron Curtain and when I was tired already of everything that reminds me of those communism times. Those years, right after Romanian revolution, everyone was speaking about what was kept under silence for more than 25 years. At the revolution I was just a kid which became few years later a young student willing to learn and experience, willing to understand but not focusing only on the past. At that time, when the young student went home for school vacation I remember I saw Herta Müller in a documentary at TV. She was speaking about the Romanian revolution as she could return and visit again her home town. She was speaking about experiences before she left Romania but in a very nice language without abusing terms which already became too much, like: totalitarianism, communism, dictator, censored, revolution, heroes. 
Unfortunately I do not remember the name of that TV documentary I saw but I remember clearly that it kept me fascinated from start to end, watching an unknown to me Romanian-German writer speaking in Romanian about life from her point of view; and that captivated me. That memory, a similar experience, and now the fact that Herta Müller was brought to attention makes me want to read her work. 
The first place I turned to search for her work was Stockholm’s public library but surprise! - Stockholm reads Herta Müller; everything is borrowed out, not to speak only about her books in Romanian or German or any language other than Swedish (because it is normal to not be available so many exemplars) but also translations in Swedish ...They are all gone. 
So I will continue my searches within book stores next days and I hope I’ll be lucky to read Herta Müller soon.

The boy who never...

This is what I have listened all evening: my new discovery, Landon Pigg!

It seems to me an amazing young musician with such a peaceful voice; I simply can't stop listening to him.

His new album The boy who never is not yet available in Sweden so I made a playlist with some songs I could find and I think are all wonderful:

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

''Nordic Light''

The Light Drop

This is the way I see we have it here in Sweden these days. In the winter season, when sunrise is around 7:40 and the sunset at around 15:26 there is not much daylight left. And if the weather looks like this:

...Then we have just grey dark light until it's completely dark outside.

The Light Drop is the work of Brazilian designer Rafael Morgan and it represents a product designed by him. The thought behind this product is supposed to point out attention to how we deal with our natural resources. The actual product has an incorporated LED (which sip less energy and last forever) implemented in the faucets and controlled by the tap.
The picture is just brilliant I think, and serve so well my idea of light here in Swedish winter time. Rafael Morgan's work is simply clever; you can't just walk away and not love his ideas. It's one of my favorite designers and I will definitely come back to you and present some more of his work.

Dancing to freedom

It has been a while since last time I wrote something here and now I'm back with a new idea.

This week I will keep the silence and talk with anything else than words.
Let's see if I can stay quiet!-:)

Der mauerfall-Memories:

a short photo movie I made myself

Norway is best place to live, Niger worst- the UN development index for this year it's released

The annual United Nations human development index was released today . Here is an article taken from France-Press (AFP):

''Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released Monday but China has made the biggest strides in improving the well-being of its citizens.

The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom, just below Afghanistan.

China moved up seven places on the list to rank as the 92nd most developed country due to improvements in education as well as income levels and life expectancy.

The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.''

I noticed Romania on a 63 place (still in the high level development countries though) and Denmark on 16th while The United States ranks 13th, down one spot from last year.

Somewhere at the buttom of the article I discover that ''This year's index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.'' ....So I wonder what tops the UN index list after or during the global economical crisis?Easy guess?

What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?

Alright, so everyone is interested in knowing more about how to live longer and healthier. Maybe not everyone admits it but trust me, all of us wants to live forever and if not, then just as long as possible.
I watched recently an interesting health and life-style Australian Tv-show that investigates myths and fables concerning health and well being.
Think about Myth Busters from Discovery just with health questions. Well, and in this show a small fragment was dedicated to how really healthy can laughter be. So they did some tests on a small group of people, measuring their blood pressure, signals in brain, and so on, while watching a comedy and then a serious war movie. As a result of the tests they confirmed that while laughing, the body gets relaxed, the blood veins become bigger and blood pressure is reduced and brain gets out from a stress condition by producing some hormones such as endorphins and serotonin known as happiness and good feeling hormones. With a little research I’m sure you will find out many more benefits, I just pointed out few.
Well and back to this show, they went even further by presenting a laughter therapist and few moments from a laughter therapy session. Quite interesting with the thought in mind that all these are healthy but I don’t say I really laughed watching it.
Ok, I’m convinced, laughter should be prescribed on medical receipt, and it really helps!
But now, the questions in my mind…what makes us laugh? We experience laughing by the age of 3-4 months. I read on BBC News webpage: "New research has given credence to the idea that laughter evolved in a common ancestor of the great apes and humans.’’
Our fellow great apes — orangutans, chimps, bonobos and gorillas — also squeal in response to tickling, and new research shows this behaviour may be the evolutionary root of human laughter. Ok, so we have it in our blood so to speak but, what makes us really laugh?
We humans, such sophisticated beings we really need something more than just tickling as we progress and more sophisticated triggers for laughter as we develop ourselves and grow up. The sense of humour depends on individual experiences and it begins to develop in early childhood.
Now it depends how you look upon life and how seriously you take it. I can imagine that someone with a social predisposition to criticism, a person with a deep sense of ridiculous or someone with a nihilistic way of thinking won’t succeed seeing much fun out there.
In an article from NY Times I read that ‘’ occasionally we’re surprised into laughing at something funny, but most laughter has little to do with humour. It’s an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. It’s not about getting the joke. It’s about getting along.’’ Alright, I know out there lots that laugh just for the laugh’s sake or just as a social tool when there is a lack in self-confidence but now I’m interested more into laughter as a health purpose.
I don’t remember since I last time laughed so hard that I had belly muscles pain but I go further with my little experiment and I try search for something funny.
Alright, here are my few findings on how to create opportunities to laugh:
A good funny book
A good comedy movie
A good comedy theatre play
A good comedian
A funny song…
Well nothing made me really laugh as I was looking to laugh. It’s a fact that the key to laying down humour patterns in the brain is the element of surprise. So I decided to stop looking for something funny and let the fun come out to surprise me.

Stuck in stop motion

Here is another example of what still photos can do to a video. Enormous but great work that goes along so well with the music. I will post the lyrics too as I think they are just right for a new week start-:)

It’s amazing

Do it, now, you know who you are
You feel it in your heart and you're burning with ambition
But first, wait, won't get it on a plate
You're gonna have to work for it harder an’ harder

And I know, ‘cause I've been there before
Knocking on the doors with rejection [rejection]
And you'll see, ‘cause if it's meant to be
Nothing can compare to deserving your dreams

It's amazing, it's amazing
All that you can do
It's amazing, makes my heart sing
Now it's up to you

Patience, now, frustration’s in the air
And people who don't care well it's gonna get you down
And you'll, fall, yes you will hit a wall
But get back on your feet an’ you'll be stronger and smarter

And I know, ‘cause I've been there before
Knocking down the doors won't take no for an answer
And you'll see, ‘cause if it's meant to be
Nothing can compare to deserving your dreams

It's amazing, it's amazing
All that you can do
It's amazing, makes my heart sing
Now it's up to you

Don't be embarrassed
Don't be afraid
Don't let your dreams slip away
It's determination and using your gift
And everybody has a gift
Never give up
Never believe the hype
Trust your instincts and most importantly
You've got nothing to lose
So just go for it

It's amazing, it's amazing
All that you can do
It's amazing, makes my heart sing
Now it's up to you [repeat]

Stop motion

It’s quite frightening to say that in my world of dancing but even old already this is an amazing technique for animation and video making. I will add here a video to see what I’m talking about. Here the lyrics and music are home and I totally love it:

Home alone?Nah...

Maybe video killed the radio star in early ‘80s but nowadays the internet took over and ''killed'' the television. Be honest! How much time do you spend in front of the TV anymore? What are your first three things that come up in your mind when you want home entertainment? I can tell you mine: music, movies and books. Of course the list is longer than that but if I’m thinking about the source they almost all are provided by internet. What we’d do nowadays without it?

Let’s see... Early in the morning I wake up and after a fast shower and a very fast breakfast (more likely none with coffee) first thing that cross my mind is to sit down and turn the computer on. I’ll spend there at least one hour unless it’s a busy day and I’m on the run. Starting with checking mails, the webby, the blog, the comments I eventually left somewhere to see if any replies until I get to newspapers, and if I have the time then it’s reading in English , Swedish and of course Romanian. When I listen to music I just make my choice regarding my mood so why should I listen to radio when it’s all full of spoilers and a lot of noise? If I want to watch a movie it goes the same, I take my pick and watch it whenever I got the time and mood for it. Why should I follow a TV schedule that doesn’t fits me anyway and maybe not even offers me the new movie I would like to see? I’m sure there are lots of interesting things when you switch on the telly but I rarely get to it because I’m too busy over the internet.

When you are home with a burning question in your mind, where do you look for answers? I definitely turn first to Google it or just look over the internet.

I wonder what would the time look like without YouTube, MySpace, Vimeo, Flickr, Google, Facebook, Msn, Skype,Yahoo Messenger , Lastfm, Spotify, iTunes, Blogger, Vlogger, Twitter and maybe for some of us computer games? (and please make your add in the comments because the list is enormously longer)

From the public library I have been told to download Adobe Digital Edition to read my e-books from library and I can even borrow music or audio books over the internet if I like. My DVD post delivery service offers me newly a free feature where I can see streamed movies over the internet. Even shopping became a lot easier thanks to internet. It’s all about ''log in''…

Recently I got back to my old love and transformed it into a current hobby. Despite that I’m so much into it I even decided to get some more space between me and my computer and guess what? Making videos requires internet too and none of the less a computer.

I’ll try to stick with my decision and be more digitally reclusive. My advice, whenever you want to avoid spoilers and time killed over the internet: just switch your mobile phone off, keep the radio away, don’t turn your TV on (because it will send you over the internet in the end to find out some more), log off from pages you are on and shut down your computer. Just log on to the world outside the computer or simply sign in for a bit of silence.

Old times

Here it comes some moments from an old rehearsal with my first home made movie ever. Don't judge too hard, I'm still learning. Enjoy!