Rembrant: Een jongensdroom

Translating roughly as 'Rembrant: A childhood dream', this was the title of the exhibition I went to see on Sunday at the Frans Hals museum in Haarlem (a beautiful provincial city close to Amsterdam). The Frans Hals is famous for its collection of 17th century masters anyway, but the exhibition was special in that it put an entire private collection (the property of a Dutch couple called the Kremers) on display - something that doesn't happen too often.

There were some very impressive pieces among the collection but my favourite was a small, oddball, portrait that didn't fit in with the rest of the collection (being 16th rather than 17th century). Depicting an unknown young Spanish nobleman, it was thought to be the work of the Antwerp painter Adriaen Key when it was bought. Recently however, research on the painting has show it not to be the work of Key but of some other, unknown artist. A beautiful painting of an unknown man, by an unknown artist - I like that.

Yes, Pet Shop Boys

As a kid in the 80s, I was a huge fan of the Pet Shop Boys. My enthusiasm stayed with me through the 90s and studentdom. At the beginning of the 2000s, my interest waned somewhat - with the treading water excercise that was Nightlife and the not-entirely-succesful sidestep Release. In 2006 however, I was delighted by the return to form that was Fundamental, an album that would have been great even without its finale Integral; a diamond-edged, vitriol-coated switchblade of a pop song that was at once a career-high and perfect example of what the Pet Shop Boys do best.

Three years later and the successor to Fundamental is here: Yes. This is a far more 'pop' album that its darker predecessor, opening with the eminently danceable hit Love etc. and continuing with the same disco sensibility for most of the album. Though I like the Pet Shop Boys best when they're all bitter and twisted, that's no bad thing and Yes still finds room for songs with a little more depth, like the wonderful The way it used to be. Besides, even at their lightest, the Boys still make most modern pop groups look like puddles; as the aforementioned Love etc. notes, they don't have to be beautiful - but it helps.

New boots

Exactly what I was looking for, found immediately - and with a discount in the sale.

Sometimes life smiles on you. :)

Alone in the Dark - the film

Until this evening, I was pretty sure of my opinion that the Nicolas Cage remake of Bangkok Dangerous is the worst film ever made. Having just seen Alone in the Dark, I am no longer so sure.

Quantum of Solace revisited

I enjoyed Quantum of Solace in the cinema and felt it a worthy follow-up to Casino Royale, as commented upon in this blog. I recently bought the film on DVD and, having watched it a couple more times, actually find myself liking it more than I did the first time round. Watching it a second or third time, the visual detail and 'art house' sensibility that Marc Forster brought to the film are more strongly apparent: The 'flashes' of detail in the opening scene, the flight from the opera house to the tune of Tosca, the closing image of the necklace left in the snow - it's still a Hollywood film, but of a superior type.

The film has its weaknesses - it's too frenetic at times and could usefully have paused more often for breath, but this is a fine entry into the Bond series (with a truly classic car chase) and Daniel Craig continues to show he was the right choice to play the new Bond. I hope the makers of the series have the courage of their convinctions and continue down the road they have chosen - a harder, grittier, more realistic Bond; unafraid to portray the broken human that was so apparent in Flemming's books.

C902 - further thoughts

A few further thoughts on my new phone after living with it everyday for a couple of weeks:

Still really love the slim design - and the impression of excellent build quality remains.

Very good call/earpiece quality and comfortable to use when calling (yes, some mobile phones do manage to fail at this).

While I love the way the camera is hidden away inside the case, and the touch controls are cool, I reckon you'd be a bit disappointed if you'd bought it on the strength of the 'Cybershot' camera - picture quality is OK, but hardly a radical improvement on my old Nokia.

Keypad is slightly cramped, though the keys have a good response.

Battery life is so-so, generally seeing me though 2-3 days. To be fair, I use the phone quite alot.

This Vodafone-branded version of the phone comes with a really useful little java 'travel' app. including a configurable currency converter and world clock, weather reports for all countries and a world map showing daylight times.

The phone's operating software really is miles ahead of Nokia's non-smartphone efforts. Task switching is accomplished neatly, it's smooth and pleasant to use and has been very stable so far.

Oh, I almost forgot, this is the phone James Bond uses! ;)

Prix de Rome

Last weekend I finally got round to visting the retrospective of the 200-year history of the Prix de Rome in de Kunsthal in Rotterdam. As you can see from the picture above, it was a beautiful day and the exhibition was definitely worth the trip. The nice thing about the Prix de Rome is that it encompasses such a wide variety of artistic disiplines. There were many highlights, but my personal favourite was the 1970s Renault built into an artwork - you had to get into the car to see the art fully. :)

Smart phone

Mobile contract renewal time again. Handy, since my Nokia 6500 slide was starting to develop odd habits like switching itself off and forgetting the time and date. Silicon senility? Maybe I just dropped it once too often.

I had generally been happy with the Nokia, but wanted to replace it with something sleeker and a little more capable - Nokia's non-smartphone series 40 operating software is showing its age these days. That latter fact disallowed a number of attractive phones and the Nokia N series were all too bulky and/or ugly, leaving two main contenders: The Nokia 5800 'tube' (Nokia's first touchscreen phone running the Symbian series 60 smartphone operating platform) and Sony Ericsson's slimline C902 Cyber-shot camera phone.

On paper, the Nokia looked like the winner, with a much better gadget-score and lots of cool high-tech packed into it. In person, the tables were quickly turned: The Nokia was bigger than I had imagined, felt slightly plasticky and had had unfortunate contrasting red-coloured trim. The Sony Ericsson, on the other hand, was a sleek, black monolith: Very slim, very well made (with a metal back panel and touch-sensitive glass screen) and with that oh-so-cool sliding case hiding the camera mechanism. The decision was quickly made.

So far, I'm very pleased with the C902. It's a lovely design and very pocketable, with excellent call quality, 3G and a good web browser. It's not perfect of course - the camera is actually not that much better than the old Nokia (though the touch controls are cool) and the battery only lasts 2 or 3 days, but it meets the criteria I set very well and the Sony Ericsson operating software is miles ahead of Nokia's Series 40.

The Consequences of Love

A film I forgot to comment upon after first watching it (and a world away from the sci-fi action of the aforementioned Wolverine), this Italian gem is another of those 'guess the genre' films I like so much - and it really keeps you guessing for quite a long time. First intriguing, later exciting, always visually beautiful. Recommended.

Wolverine

Well, it was OK. Not as good as the original X-men films of course, but OK.

The problem is that the origin story of Wolverine isn't really about Wolverine; it's about Colonel Stryker - and what he did to Wolverine. In making this prequel, the film makers obliged themselves to cast a younger actor (Danny Huston) for the part of Stryker and set themselves (and poor Mr Huston) an impossible task; matching up to Brian Cox's magnificent performance as Stryker in X-men 2.

Huston makes a decent fist of the role - but sometimes, the bar is just set too high.