Why make a film like "Love in the Time of Cholera"?

Javier Bardem has the leading role in the film.

I just watched the movie "Love in the Time of Cholera", released in 2007, directed by Mike Newell, starring Javier Bardem, Giovanna Mezzogiorno and Benjamin Bratt, and based on Gabriel Garcia Márques bestselling book from 1985.

And though competently told, I see no point whatsoever to the film. After first declaring her love when they are young, Fermina rejects Florentino for no apparent reason, and marries a man she later claims to despise. Well no-one understands women, right? They're not rational, right?


Florentino on his part claims he is saving himself for Fermina, yet keeps a record of the (at least) 622 women he beds while waiting for her. His current mistress when Fermina's husband finally passes away, is so young that no-one suspects them for being lovers, he claims. So officially he's a saint, while at the same time being a Lothario. So who doesn't want to have it both ways, to have the cake and eat it as well? And all the time being able to blame it on the woman who spurned him.


No relationship in the long film (over 2 hrs) looks particularly genuine. Why anyone gets involved with anyone is a mystery, and no, I don't understand why the couple (Florentino and Fermina) gets involved in the first case, but perhaps I'm too crass to believe in love at first sight. The film claims to be about love, but the only love scenes that have any inkling of warmth is toward the end, when the lovers finally gets together in their 70's. Love and sex among septuagenarians are rare on film, indeed!

The pace of the film is slow, the jumps in time are not motivated, the relationships are dull, the acting sincere but pedestrian, the faked spanish accents are hilarious (and excellent actor Liev Schreiber is wasted in a minor part), and the view on male as well as female sexuality is dim, to put it gently. So I just don't get it: WHY make this film?

I suspect it wants to ride on the success of the book, that it for some reason gives someone (the production company?) credits for being "serious" and "artistic"?

The film credits contain a long list of thanks to the government of Colombia, starting with the Vice President, so perhaps it is also sponsored by the Colombian tourist industry? Rightly so, as the film's greatest assets is indeed the excellent photography, including grand views of a great river delta.

But while the so-called production value is immense, I just can't see anyone get excited about the film. It is, as I said, competent, but oh how dull!

A waste of talent, it is.

The same old (cowboy) story in "Undercover Boss"

I just watched the first episode of the CBS "reality-narrative" called "Undercover Boss". (Available here until August 8, but also on CBS' website.) There the Chief Operating Officer Larry O'Donnell (see image right) goes to work "undercover" in his own company with a film crew.

Yes the story is full of touching episodes and wonderful people, but I totally agree with the sceptics at The Washington Post in their rather critical review.

However - even the Post misses what I think is the program's biggest flaw - the underlying assumption that the only person who can fix the problem is a high-ranking boss.

It is the American fable from the old cowboy movies all over again - the only one who can set things right is the town's sheriff. Yes, it is kinda touching when the COO realizes what effects his decisions in the boardroom have on the workers on the floor, but if I was O'Donnell, I would be more concerned with that the information does not travel through the organization. I don't know if the analogy of "trickle-down effect" works upward (percolate?), but there seems to be no real communication through the corporate layers in his organization, it resembles rather thick walls. But perhaps this is more typical of "the American way"? Scandinavian companies purportedly have much "flatter" organizations. (I should add that I don't expect ALL information to reach and be handled by top management - but that's why you have the so-called middle-management for!)

Every service company relies on the quality of it "front line". That the COO is unaware of the actual conditions of said front is remarkable. Is he surrounded only by yea-sayers? Not a good way to run a business. Whatever line of business (or activity) you're in, to make good decisions you need realistic facts to base them on. You need information to flow not only top-down, but also from the bottom-up.

(Read this article, even if it is an unashamed puff-piece for the so-called Scandinavian style of corporate management, it still describes a bit about what I mean.)

You can't rely on the sheriff riding into town every time to save the day.

A cynic is a failed romantic

I tried to explain the expression "a cynic is a failed romantic" to a friend. I don't recall where I first heard it, and could not find a definite source when searching the internet.

But I really like this saying, so I'll try to explain what it means in my view:

A cynic is a "non-believer" according to the online dictionary Thesaurus.com. I see a cynic as wearing a protective armour of doubt and pessimism, clad (sometimes, hopefully) in witticisms, but nevertheless with an exaggerated negative outlook on life.

Now a romantic is his (or her) opposite: this person has an overly optimistic view of persons or events. Everything is seen through rose-tinted glasses, as they say.

My point is - both of them are wrong. The metaphor of wearing tinted glasses (whether in pink or black) is appropriate: it distorts the view into a predisposed, favoured, interpretation. But nothing is so simple in real life. Nothing is all bad or all wonderful.

This thing we call life is a giant mesh of the terrible, the

wonderful, the boring and everything in between. Resorting to simplified templates and trying to squeeze them onto our experiences distances us further from the world rather than brings us into it. It judges the world into a dichotomy of good or bad. All nuances go out the window.

And yes, I think it is quite likely that a disappointed romantic will easily swing to the other end of the emotional spectrum and become a cynic.

This is why I have found Buddhism such a relief: it teaches mindfulness over judging and sorting; presence over distancing; and equanimity over emotional upheavals.

"What IS this?" asks one of my favourite buddhist writers Ezra Bayda when he meditates. What IS this life when we manage to remove our tinted glasses?

There is no "sick" art

I just came across a sentence in a book that I got completely stuck on - so I have to sort it out a bit before I continue reading it:

"We are sometimes tired, too, of the arts within our [Western] civilization when they express the sick mind and the diseased imagination."*

Can art really be sick? NO: it can be provoking, irritating, annoying, and so on: but no, not sick.

Can an artist have a sick mind or a diseased imagination?

An artist may have a mental illness, sure. I think I heard somewhere that mental illness is overrepresented in artists, compared to the general population. But most people suffering mental illnesses are not able to create at all, so I still think it must be a sign of something healthy when you can transform inner agony into an exterior expression.

One example: I once saw a documentary of Terence Koh, also known as "Kohbunny" or "asianpunkboy". He didn't look like a happy, well-adjusted individual (whatever THAT is!), but there is no doubt that he is very creative! Many are provoked by his goldplated turds. And while I personally would NOT cough up the money required to purchase one of these items, I am intrigued by the antithesis of putting what we value most (pure gold) with what we value least (shit!).

Another contemporary artist that has caused a lot of upset is Damien Hirst. He got a lot of publicity - and angry public reactions - for displaying dead animals in formaldehyde, and for decorating a skull with billions worth of diamonds and platinum ("For the love of God", see photo above). He also created a stir when Sotheby's sold a collection of his art directly from the artist to the public -becoming the highest paid artist today. (And curiously, this took place in September 2008, when the financial markets seemed to be in freefall!)

Perhaps what people find most upsetting is that he is able to charge such incredible amounts of money for his art! There seem to be a strong remnance of the 18th century romantic movement, where the view of the solitary genius artist was elevated to new heights. I guess we still have a notion of this lonely genius, only interested in his oevre, not bothered about material matters like money... Preferrably a misunderstood loner, who dies before his talent is acknowledged. (OK, I'm exaggerating, but you get the picture! ;-)

I guess each age has it's own preoccupations: today - especially in the current global recession - it seems to be MONEY. So it is rather amusing how upset people get when Damien Hirst rakes it in...

But no, I don't get upset at the artists for holding up these mirrors to our society. Our reactions to their art shows us who we are, what we believe. Suddenly we define ourselves, we see the outlines of our own beliefs in clear relief.

So when a piece of art upsets us - how about taking a deep breath and ponder for a while: what in me triggers this reaction? Where lie my borders?

And no, I don't like ALL art - but I am thrilled to find someone who challenges me to react, and thus to learn more about myself!

PS. I have to add, that in a way you could call it "sick art" when an artists mental illness manifests in the work itself. I've heard fascinating accounts of art created by the Swedish artists Ernst Josephson (schizophrenic) and Carl Fredrik Hill (hallucinations, paranoia - also schizophrenic?). As I mentioned, I think creating art must have been some form of outlet for them, and thus a sign of health in the middle of their madness, but for us viewers, it offers a remarkable insight into a diseased mind. And why should we condemn these artists for their illness?

PPS. Even though I like Damien Hirst, I also like graffiti artist Cartrain, who made his own comments on Hirst's work! It's kind of like having a set of pins around to prick inflated egos, however creative :-)

Now you may ask - but what about beauty? But that is too big a question for this blog entry...

Long live art!

/KrisC

Post-post-whatever: Is Damien Hirst doing it again? I recently heard the news that he is currently - painting. Regular, square canvas paintings. He considered that would REALLY be controversial in today's modern art world! Go Damien!

*I am not going to name the title of the book, as I don't think this sentence is true to the actual message of it. Just a phrase I wish could have been more carefully formulated.

What pain has taught me

In a freak accident on 15 december 2005, I slipped on a piece of paper while passing through the central station area in Stockholm, and dropped straight down on my right knee so that the hipbone banged into the hipjoint with a terrible jolt. While the knee was swollen and sore it healed quickly, but after the accident I developed sciatica in my right hip.

This caused a pain that has been more or less incapacitating since then. At times, I couldn't even walk! I've seen orthopedists, been x-rayed, worked over by a physiotherapist, and met with doctors, but no-one could do anything but prescribe anti-inflammatory medication.

The consequences were that I could not practice yoga any more - certainly not the quite taxing Ashtanga Yoga. I tried Anusara Yoga, but it just triggered a really bad attack instead.

You could say that I hated the pain - sincerely! However, last autumn I bought four sessions with a personal trainer, the hip behaving fairly well for a change, and eager to get ideas on how to exercise withouth triggering further pain. And lo! My super PT Conny Andersson somehow fixed the hip! The exercises and the super-stretches (where he added his full weight on the stretch!) somehow fixed what the physiotherapist could not!

Anyway, my point is, I realized I am after all grateful for the pain! It got me started experimenting with different types of yoga, and even though Anusara didn't work for me, I discovered variations of "gentle yoga" through a book by Louise Grime, and through YogaJournal's magazine and web site. I discovered the therapeutic side of yoga, with for instance the passive restorative yoga, where you lie down in specific positions and let gravity and breathing do the work, like "legs up the wall-pose", one of my favourites.

Even though the sciatica is gone, my back still hurts sometimes, mostly the lower back, but recently I have added other sources for help: Anusara teacher Desirée Rumbaugh's dvd "Yoga to the rescue for back pain", (a bit more vigourous) and Gary Kraftsow's "Viniyogatherapy for the low back, sacrum and hips" (more gentle, when the pain is more acute).

Conclusion: no matter what your condition is, there is a form of yoga that is right for you! Keep experimenting, while listening carefully to your own body!

Of course, I would prefer to be completely free of pain, but still, the pain opened up a whole new world of yoga that I don't think I would have discovered otherwise - thus making my life richer. I know now that I can practice yoga for the rest of my life!

Om mani padme hum -

KrisC

To blog, or not to blog...

I started this blog with two goals: to keep up my English, and of course to reach friends. But the response from my friends was weak, and I got really depressed when one friend claimed that she couldn't be bothered to get another password (you need a password to comment on the blog - however, not to read it. And she could always comment in some other way: e-mail, Facebook...)

Anyway. I lost the impetus, and thus have not written since May.

But now I promise this: to keep up the writing even to an audience of one (me)!

SO here are some good reasons to keep up a blog (even if your friends ignore it):

1. Regular writing improves your writing skills
   


2. Writing in your second language will keep up your skills in that language
   


3. To learn to write regularly is a good way to develop discipline (not my best skill!)



4. Even though there are millions of bloggers out there, sending your thoughts out into cyberspace will still invite the surprise external contact!



5. Making your texts public forces you to strive for a certain quality, something you might not be bothered about when just scribbling in a notebook.



6. It's fun!

At least, this is what I'm trying to convince myself of... So welcome to the re-launch of my blog "Advanced Banter"!!

All the best,

Kris

Guruji Sri K. Pattabhi Jois died today

It was announced today on the official website of the Ashtanga Yoga Reasearch Institute, http://www.ayri.org/ that Guruji died today, on May 18. My deepest condolences to his family, but also to all of us, his students, who lost an inspiring teacher today.

I have tried different types of yoga, and even though I find it physically challenging and I am far from a stellar student, Ashtanga yoga remains my favourite. I had the honour and joy to participate in a week-long work shop in Helsinki, 2006, held by Guruji and assisted by his daughter Saraswati and her son, Guruji's grandson Sharat, who now runs the institute in Mysore, India.

It was a challenging but very inspiring week, I worked better than ever under their guidance! We must have been at least 100 persons in the large hall, but great concentration and energy filled the room - amazing!

And I will of course always be grateful for making two new great friends that week, Tanja from Finland, and Yvonne, who had come all the way from Beijing to practice for Guruji!

Let me finish with one of my favourite sayings of Guruji:

"Do your practice, and all will follow."

Thank you, Guruji, for your inspiration!

/Kris C.

The Bay at the Back of the Ocean

The most beautiful place in the world is called The Bay at the Back of the Ocean, Camas Cuil an t-Saimh in gaelic. It is a bay on the west coast of Iona, with white sandy beaches and a view that goes on forever - on the other side of all that water lies Canada.

Iona is a small island in the Inner Hebrides, on Scotland's west coast. "Inner" isn't really correct, as the ocean is, as mentioned, unbroken from this point all the way to North America. To the north of Iona, the Outer Hebrides start, so here Inner here means southern, and Outer northern.

You need to be a poet to describe it well. I'll just try to add some facts: the white sandy sea bottom makes the water shift into all shades of emerald and blue when the sun's out. When the weather is poor, the colour of the sea changes to a metallic grey-blue.

Before you reach the white beach, you will walk across the "machair", the communal grazing grounds that the sheep keep cropped short and peppered with black poop pebbles, that tiny daisies seem to love. (The machair is also a golf course. I don't know who to feel most sorry for - the sheep who risk getting hit by golf balls, or the golfers trying to play such a rough course.)

The rolling hills that change from green grass to white sand are intermittently interrupted by brownish-black cliffs. "The Spouting Cave" is a natural cliff hollow that, when the waves reach a certain size and direction, throws up geiser-like showers at set intervals.

Facing west, the sunsets here are spectacular, if you are lucky to be here on a sunny day (the west coast of Scotland gets a LOT of rain!). Plenty of sea birds keep the sheep company. I once was chased by an upset oystercatcher (strandskata) - quite unfairly, I assure you, I had not even seen his/her nest! We'd like to think we saw whale fins far out to sea one evening (but the dolphins I once had the luck to see up close was on a boat trip to the north of Iona).

The sky here must be bigger than anywhere else. The clouds travel at varying speeds, you can see rain falling way out to sea while the sun still shines on you, and usually you get good warning and can head home before it hits the island, as you can see it coming from far away.

The light, finally, is incredible. Especially in the summer, when the sun sets quite late. You can find yourself just sitting and staring out to sea for hours (until it gets too cold). But don't stay too late - there are no street lights to see you back on the road to the village...

No wonder Iona inspires so many painters and poets! (I especially recommend "Iona: poems" by Kenneth C. Steven)

I always long to go back to The Bay at the Back of the Ocean.

/Kris C.

OK, I admit it: I love Totoro too!

My friend Yvonne introduced me to Totoro when I was visiting her and her husband in Beijing. I thought I was well passed cute cuddly friendly cartoon characters, but there is no resisting Totoro!

The film "My Neighbour Totoro", almost 1,5 hours long, is a simple, well-crafted story of two children, who move to a house in the country with their father while their mother is in the hospital. They discover different natural creatures, like the "soot sprites" ("sotspridarna") the tiny black creatures that take over old houses unless you scare them away with smiles and laughter, and then of course this mysterious creature Totoro himself. What IS he? He's not a cat, not a troll, not a bear. He's just a HUGE furry, friendly thing. The girls' father thinks he is the guardian of the forrest.

OK, sounds very cuddly so far doesn't it, but what I like so much about the film is that it leaves so much unexplained. One moment they all sit up in a tree and play flutes, the paths in the forrest appear and disappear, the plants grow - or do they? It is just full of fun ideas! The best of all: the Cat Bus! Where did they get the idea???

I don't really want to explain too much - just watch it - you'll enjoy it!

And yes, I still have the Totoro-song as ring tone on my mobile that Yvonne downloaded for me...

/Kris C.

Are you a dog person or a cat person?

As a kid I always wanted a dog, but now I have two cats instead. I have always heard the saying that you are either a dog person OR a cat person, but I can vouch for that that is not correct, as I am both.

I would love to have a dog, and do things together with it, like learning agility for instance. On the other hand, caring for a dog is like having a child in the house - they are so dependent upon you. Cats on the other hand are like other adults - even though they share your living quarters, they sort of lead their own lives. That is why it works out better for me, right now, having cats, as they can take care of themselves better than a dog would.

So I would love to have a dog - if I had enough time to care for it well. But in the meantime I really enjoy the company of my cats (even when their stubborness sometimes drives me nuts!)

So you CAN be both a dog and a cat person - so there...

BTW - the dogs portrayed here are of my absolute favourite breed: the border collie... So cute, and the smartest of them all!

/Kris C.

Commercial touch

Another fun project from the college course in post-production I'm currently taking: putting together a "commercial" using Adobe After Effects.

We used Adobe After Effects for both editing and effects, but realised Premiere Pro is much better for editing. But I suppose it is good to know you can still do all the post-production in AE if you set your mind to it...

The task was to put together a commercial for a health care centre, based on given footage: min 30 seconds, max 1 minute long, and it should include animated and motion tracked text.

We were particularly pleased that the words "hold on" in the song matched the images of the comforting hands so well. But frankly, it was pure luck... ;-)

We did miss, however, making a nice fade-out of the soundtrack, it is too abrupt now. Oh well, next time...

Thank God for "Goodness Gracious Me"!

Time for celebration! The dvd-box "The Ultimate Goodness Gracious Me" arrived today! I have a few things to do this weekend, but otherwise I plan to lock myself in and laugh the days away!

"Goodness Gracious Me" (called for some peculiar reason "Curry nam nam" when it was broadcast in Sweden) is one of my absolute favourite comedy series (up there with The Office, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Little Britain). It originally ran in the UK 1998-2001 (3 seasons).

Some of my favourite returning characters:

* The noveau riche Kapoors ("pronounced Cooper" - see picture!) who tries to be more British than the Brits themselves: one favourite episode is when they apply for membership at a golf club, and when the (white) club secretary after trying in vain to politely explain that they cannot join the club finally loses patience and exclaims that "pakis" are not welcome, and the Kapoors fully agree - they are Indian and don't like pakis either! So there is a double form of racism going on - brits who can't bother to tell different asian apart and label them all "pakis", and between Indians and Pakistanis. But most of all - it is always funny when people try to be posh...

* The buddhist exterminator: when called to a private home infested with mice in the kitchen, the woman asks the exterminator how he intends to get rid of the mice - his answer: he will sit and meditate, and make the mice reflect upon their actions until they reach Nirvana! And in another episode, his research assistance runs up to him and explains "we have found how to kill cancer cells!" he answers his usual catchphrase "Kill?! No, we mustn't kill"". Which of course I find extra funny being a buddhist myself, but also because it points to the eternal dilemma: are there things you "must" kill?

* Then we have the two bragging mothers, each claiming their own son is the best at whatever the topic is (even being the best criminal!) and the "loosing" mother always end up with the ultimate repartee "- yes, but how big is his danda?!?". (Danda means "stick" or "staff", so I leave it up to your own imagination to guess what they refer to. And I can't help but smile in yoga class when we are supposed to do dandasana - the staff pose...)

There are other great returning characters, and I get to see them all soon! Hooray! It will be a fun weekend!

/Kris C

Our daily poem, give us today

On Swedish radio, every day at noon (except for Sundays) a bell will strike the hour, followed by a poetry reading and a short piece of music. It's a popular program, it has been running since 1937 (72 years)!

On 10 February, actor Gösta Bredefeldt read the poem "Lektioner om ting: Fjärde lektionen- Våra hus" by the American poet Ron Padgett. I don't have the original language version, but the title means something like "Lessons on things: Fourth lesson - Our houses". I just loved it, so I rushed off to the library and found a collection of three New York-poets ("3 x New York" translated into Swedish by Gunnar Harding). Here is the poem in Swedish (and if you can help me find the title in the original, please let me know!)


Lektioner om ting

Fjärde lektionen

VÅRA HUS

1. Huset skyddar oss från solen, regnet, vinden: sådant vi älskar. Huset är den plats där vi församlas med familjen. Fadern är solen, modern är regnet, barnen far omkring i huset som långsam vind, en stilla bris strömmar in genom fönstret.
2. Huset bör vara solitt, hälsosamt, rymligt, rent, torrt, öppet mot ljuset, luftigt, med dörrar och fönster som släpper in utsidan. Träd och växter utanför bör placeras så att insidan känner sig välkommen ut.
3. Husets olika delar är: taket och så vidare.
4. För att bo bekvämt i ett hus fordras inte så mycket: en ambulans, ett pussel, en flaska med moln.
5. Vi står i stor tacksamhetsskuld till den man som uppfann den korrugerade plåten, eftersom den gör våra tak starka och rytmiska.

Frågor:

1. Trivs du där du bor?
2. På vilket sätt har historien placerat dig där du är?
3. Kan du bygga ett hus? Varför inte?

Ron Padgett

Memories of evil

On 27 January 1945 the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp was liberated, and this day is now commemorated by the international Holocaust Memorial Day.

I visited Auschwitz some years ago: I had arranged a guided tour out of Kraków for a group of friends. Upon arrival an authorized guide, a kind of businesslike, middle-aged lady, joined our group and took us through the grounds and the museum.

The day was suitably overcast with rain just waiting to be released.

And this is what I remember most:

- That the famous gate with the "Arbeit macht frei"-sign is much smaller than you expect. It has become such an icon over the years that you think it must be much bigger. And I never understood the meaning of the sign. No-one was freed no matter how much they worked!

- From the museum, the saddest images I recall are the piles and piles of personal goods sorted - one pile for shoes, one for bags and suitcases, and one for eye-glasses and so on. What petty, sick minds will cause people to invent such a sick bureaucracy? It was also very moving to look at all the photographs of the former prisoners, and try to imagine their lives and feelings. I had to mentally pinch myself - this is for real! These people were real! I'm not watching a movie or a TV documentary!

- The crematorium was loaded with such a negative aura that it was almost tangible. I remember it as completely black in colour, but the photographs reminds me that that was just my mental concept of the place. It held such an amount of concentrated evil that I half expected some shadowy monster to materialize out of the walls and out of the ovens! (I have probably watched too many monster movies.) The small bouquet of fresh flowers on the slab in front of the oven openings looked so out of place. But maybe hopeful? That evil can be transformed?

- From Birkenau, the extension of Auschwitz, I remember best the "shelves" inside one of the barracks that actually served as beds... Unimaginable to "store" people in this way! And of course the iconic tower at the end of the rails. We went up in the tower and I could help wondering what the soldiers in the guard tower were thinking when a new train of prisoners arrived.

But the strongest memory of all was an incident right as we were about to leave - we were heading back to our bus when we met a small group of elderly people that just entered the gate. And just a few steps inside the gate the small group stopped and huddled together and cried and cried. And they wore the blue-and-white striped scarves that indicated that they were former camp prisoners...

The incredible sorrow that surrounded them like a thick cloud was overwhelming. It was compelling, and we got caught in a strange dilemma of not being able to stop staring and at the same time not wanting to intrude on their very personal sorrow. Oh the memories they must carry!

To deny the holocaust is both silly and pointless. And Auschiwtz is the logical end point of any racist argument. So why do the neo-nazis deny it?

There sure is a lot of things I don't understand.

/Kris C

New Age obscures that which it claims to enlighten

I have a deep distrust of the phenomenon called “New Age”. I see it as a large market place where people try to get a quick fix for their existential anxieties, from hucksters mining religious traditions for saleable trinkets that demean their origins.

The main problem with New Age, in my view, is that it is used as an ego-booster rather than reducing the power of the ego, which is necessary if you want to live a "real" life: read this text from Wikipedia and you will see that the ego - more specifically its defense mechanisms - has a vast array of strategies that keeps you living in denial:

"To overcome this the ego employs defense mechanisms. The defense mechanisms are not done so directly or consciously. They lessen the tension by covering up our impulses that are threatening.

Denial, displacement, intellectualisation, fantasy, compensation, projection, rationalisation, reaction formation, regression, repression and sublimation were the defense mechanisms Freud identified. However, his daughter Anna Freud clarified and identified the concepts of undoing, suppression, dissociation, idealisation, identification, introjection, inversion, somatisation, splitting and substitution. " (link to source)

Paul Heelas, Professor in Religion and Modernity at Lancaster University, has written a book aptly called "New Age Movement. The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity" (1996) . The key words being "the celebration of self"... So you go to this market, look around at all the stalls and pick and choose the bits that suit you, your wallet - and your ego. Some chanting? Crystal healing? Reading books that confirms that you are the centre of the universe? That you are indeed a god?

In my view, true religion or philosophy, involves taking a good look at yourself, and acknowledge even the ugly parts, not trying to gloss them over as the ego will have yo do. And then you search for a method to dissolve the ego - to eventually remove the very reasons for its existence.

This is why I have become a Buddhist, because I find it to be the best way to work with the ego. But I am sure that the other major religions offer similar help: they all have an element of surrendering - which is the last thing the ego wants us to do.

Buddhism has also become a source for "new-age thieving": the increasing popularity of "secular mindfulness" is one example. It is sad to see mindfulness reduced to a servant of the ego... But if it can inspire people to eventually discover true Buddhism, maybe it can bring something good anyway!

(Link to more reading on Wikipedia)

/Kris C

This is how to complain!

Got this tip from The Economist's newsletter, and I just had to pass it on! The best way to learn to write well is to read your betters, as I have mentioned before, so here is how to complain well...

The letter, sent to Virgin, reportedly earned its writer an apologetic phone call from Richard Branson himself.

But funny as it is, I think the best part is the comment added by The Telegraph: Paul Charles, Virgin’s Director of Corporate Communications, said the in-flight meals was “award-winning food which is very popular on our Indian routes.” !!

Read the full letter (with photographic evidence!) as published in the Telegraph by using this link.

/Kris C

Bubble sorting (Lessons learned from surprising places 1)

Sometimes we can apply lessons learned in one place in completely different circumstances - for me, "bubble sorting" is one example.

It was ages ago, when I was learning the programming language Turbo Pascal (which is no longer in use, that's how ancient I am!) "Bubble sorting" is a way to sort data in a certain order by comparing them in pairs until all data has been compared and arranged into a list. The method is very simple - only two items are compared at one time - but since computers are so fast, the program will repeat the algorithm and run through the data very quickly.

When I have several options to choose from and I can't make up my mind, I try this method! I pick two of the options - any two - and compare them: should I buy this or do that? One option will almost automatically "weigh" heavier than the other.

If I'm still not sure I pick up another "item" to compare the first "winner" with. I'm not as fast as a computer, but on the other hand, I usually don't have to compare very many options. So it speeds up my decisionmaking! I know it sounds silly, but try it - it can help in surprising circumstances!

/Kris C.

Worst movies 1: "Eyes Wide Shut"

Stanley Kubrick's last film is a total enigma: how can such an experienced director make such a bad movie as "Eyes Wide Shut"? What an incredible waste of resources and time!

There are no characters to care about and no story to tell. The actors try SO hard to make us think this is an important film, but they're not really "method", are they? It all stays on the surface, they grimace and cry and try to make us feel something, but I find it all quite ludicrous. Tom Cruise's appeal totally eludes me.

And the "orgy" at the mansion? Titillating? Stirring? Nah, anything BUT! It tries so hard to meld sex with a sense of threat and forbidden realms, but it is more like HC Andersen's story "The Emperor's New Clothes": the images try to cover the empty hole where a story should be... (If you want to see a truly interesting portrait of sexuality in a 'mainstream' movie, see "Secretary" from 2002 with Maggie Gyllenhaal and James Spader instead.)

And the soundtrack?!?! Playing a Romanian religious service backwards? My how exciting (NOT!). And that annoying piano tinkle that tries to imply a threat that is never realised, and is played over and over way too many times? (Only redeeming musical feature: Shostakovich "Waltz No. 2" from "Jazz Suite".)

So why did I watch it again? Well it has some of the best colour photography I've ever seen! The cinematography has a kind of super-realism to it; take for instance the scene in Sydney Pollack's den - the pool table, covered in red rather than the usual green felt, and the green lights over it, and the blue light coming through the windows in the panelled room... (According to Imdb.com, this scene, only 13.5 minutes long, took three weeks to shoot.) The N.Y.C. street scenes were actually shot on sets in the UK, and the film was 'pushed' two steps, which is why the signs "glow" in such a super-real way: absolutely gorgeous!

But with no content, it is like putting stunnning wrapping paper around an empty box.

Well there is one actor I like - Alan Cumming as the hotel desk clerk. Probably because he puts a twist of humour in this movie that takes itself way too seriously...

Unless you want to admire the cinematography, don't waste your time on this film - picking navel-lint would be more rewarding.

/Kris C

Under the weather

Didn't feel well today, had to cancel my appointments and lunch with Mom, and crept back to bed after breakfast.

Scary how much you can sleep when you are ill! I slept all morning; on the cats' insistence I fixed lunch for them and myself (different food in different bowls though, I'm not that ill!). But still tired after lunch I laid down again - and fell promptly asleep... Well, it doesn't seem possible, but I slept through the rest of the day as well. It is now evening, and I'm feeling better!

Why do we sleep? How come just sleeping can cure? Strange that!

(And will I be able to sleep tonight?)

/Kris C

Smile, all you four-eyes and brace-faces out there!

I picked out some photos from a visit to a friend and e-mailed them to her, but it turned out she didn't like the picture of herself, even though it was my favourite. I thought it was great, she looked very happy and carefree! So I had to ask her why she didn't like it - and her answer surprised me: she thought she smiled too widely and it showed too much of her teeth, and from what I understand it reminded her too much of the painful time she had when wearing braces as a kid.

I chose to wear glasses and got braces as an adult: it was my own decision, which makes me forget how difficult it is for children who has to wear glasses and braces as very young. Even though parents take these decisions thinking only of what will be best for their children, it is easy to forget how cruel children can be to anyone who deviates even the slightest from the "norm"! You hear stories of kids being called "four-eyes" or "brace-face" or worse...

But all of you who suffered as kids but now has left the braces behind, or wear contacts or glasses of your own choosing now when your an adult - remember to leave the childhood pains behind and to enjoy your pretty smiles, your good vision, and opportunity to show off with smart-looking eyewear! You paid a price, but please remember to enjoy the profits!

May your smiles today be as toothy and big as possible!

May you find nifty, bold frames for your eye-glasses that fearlessly compliment your features and display your face to the world!

And if you do wear contacts, celebrate their convenience!

Bury the past, and embrace the future.

/Kris C