partious

I've recently ordered Gonzales - Solo Piano from Amazon, just wanting for the lazy shits to ship it. I've heard Overnight on Erol Alkan's bugged out mix cd which was beautiful so hope the rest of the CD is the same.

I got this the other day. I like it quite a bit. Overnight is definitely my favourite song on the album, it's wonderful.

Also got Einaudi's greatest hits, which seems really good, have only listened to it once though, so I can't really comment yet.

I also feel like mentioning that the Goldmund album someone recommended in this thread is now one of my most listened to albums, I love it. So , thanks to that guy for the recommendation.

Due to my lack of moneys in general at the moment, I'm reading this. It's a classic so it'd better be good...

It's great.

Another vote for Herrman and especially for this. If you haven't yet heard it, I can practically guarantee you'll love it, it's amazing.

Yup, Vertigo has a great soundtrack, especially the opening theme, it's hypnotic.

My favourites are Field Of Dreams and Mishima. After that in no particular order...

Laputa

Koyaanisqatsi

Amelie

Sonatine(the song that plays when they're playing on the beach)

Kikujiro

Actually , most things by Joe Hisaishi are really great.

Cinema Paradiso

The Shawshank Redemption

Beyond the Clouds(anime)

Shawshank Redemption - makes me blub like a bitch every time, one of those films I watch when feeling down, makes me feel better every time. A film which profoundly affects your mood and perspective surely must be among the best ever.

I completely agree with this. My favourite movie would be either this or Field of Dreams, another movie that has the same effect on me. They're the only two movies that make me well up every time I watch them, so I'm going to leave it as a tie. Field of Dreams also has my favourite movie score ever.

I've seen those two movies a good few times each. And at this stage I'd say that for me, they're probably more than the sum of their parts. Maybe Field of Dreams moreso in that respect, I know there are people who don't think much of it, but just thinking about that movie genuinely cheers me up. I've seen a lot of movies, and there are classics like Vertigo or Citizen Kane or whatever, that I did think were really good movies, but they had nowhere near the same effect on me that those two movies did. A "classic movie" like Vertigo or Citizen Kane, I'll watch it and then think "yeah, that was good, good plot, well acted and I liked such and such". Field of Dreams though, for me, is not really about the plot, or the acting or whatever. Sure, I do like those things, but for me, watching that movie is just about getting sucked into the world of the movie, a world where I'd like to live, where everything is going to work out ok in the end and everyone will live happily ever after. This probably sounds mental, but as I said, it's hard to put into words. I guess, for me, those two movies, the only two movies that I really love watching, are more about the emotions they evoke, than specific lines or plot details.

I much prefered the Transporter movies to this.

I've played every game mentioned in this thread so far, and although they were all very atmospheric, none of them have really actually scared me. There is only one game that has genuinely scared me to the point that I really didn't want to play any further: Project Zero. I can highly recommend this game to you all, and I also recommend playing it with the lights turned out.

Hah, definitely! I remember playing that a few years ago alone at night, and just being like "why the hell am I playing this? It's just scaring the shit out of me as opposed to being enjoyable" I kept playing it of course. I have no idea why I paid good money to feel completely unsettled for a few hours. I wonder what the appeal of that is? There's definitely one, but I don't know what it is.

I don't know if it's just a phase or what, but right now I agree with pretty much everything you've said in this thread spore. In fact it reminded me of a post I made a few months ago in one of those "OMG I'm bored of games" threads that pop up every now and then. So ummm, instead of typing all the same opinions out again I'm just going to copy and paste some of that post....

"These topics about people going off games make me think, because I've been getting steadily less interested in them for a good while now, and at this stage, I haven't played a game in a good while, and am not interested in any of the upcoming games/consoles(including the wii).

This is just a stream of consciousness thingy here, so I hope it doesn't look too dumb.There's something about games that just makes them feel a bit too much like switching off your brain or an exercise in killing time or something for me these days. I'm not a particularly busy person, but whenever I go to play a game, I get the feeling I should be doing something more productive, like learning about one of the things I'm interested in, reading a book or watching a good movie. I know it seems silly to call movies productive, but a good movie can help you understand an issue, change your perspective on something, or really make you think about something in a way you never did before. Games just don't do that. It seems to me that games as a medium are just a way to make time go faster, but which ultimately leave you no better off in any way than you were beforehand. When I was a kid and got a NES, I remember my Dad saying about how he didn't like computer games because all you do is "run around jumping on peoples heads". At the time I was all "what!? there are games where you hit people with swords, drive cars, fly a shaceship and blow up other spaceships, you just don't understand games and haven't a clue". I think I've come around to his way of thinking though. I mean, they may not all be about jumping on peoples heads, but they may as well be, because they're all about some useless rubbish. I mean, I could lock myself in a room and play every game ever made, and when I came out(apart from the fact that I would quite possibly have turned insane/feral) I would not have advanced myself in any way. I would not have a piece of knowledge or an opinion that I had not already formed before I played the games. I don't particularly think that everything a person does should be for the sole reason of deep self improvement, but game playing is a pretty time consuming hobby(as I know from the last few years smile.gif ). I know games can be a good form of stress relief or escapism and such, but at the moment I don't really feel like I need that."

I still stand by that sentiment. It's a hard one to put into words though,I think. Of course I think there's a place for entertainment in my life, and I wouldn't say that everything a person does should be some intellectual pursuit with some noble goal of self actualisation in mind, but there's just something about games, or at least gaming as a large hobby in one's life, that really makes me feel like they're more of a waste of time than other mediums of entertainment.

That said, I think it's just a matter of perspective. Others have mentioned that they play games when they come in from work and they just want to relax or whatever. I can completely understand that, and I wouldn't begrudge anyone that right. As a means of relaxation games are a really excellent thing. Personally, I'm in Uni and have quite a bit of free time, and for some reason, I seem to feel that at least at the moment, I should be putting my time into more productive avenues, like this is some stage of my life that should be spent in self improvement or preparing myself for the real world or something. Maybe it's a feeling that goes away, maybe not.

Then again, this could just be down to the fact that I don't enjoy games as much as I enjoy reading about certain topics or whatever, but I don't think that's the case. I could go play Sonic 2 on the megadrive for the next 4 hours and enjoy every second of it, but when I turned it off, it'd just be like "well, that was a massive waste of time", which is probably just my problem, as opposed to some intrinsic problem with games. Also, I'm working on the assumption that gaming as a hobby requires several hours a day, so I wouldn't see someone sitting on the bus playing lumines and start shouting "STOP WASTING YOUR LIFE" or something.

Okay "never seen it" is a complete lie for most of those. Most of them I've seen a few times at least - like with Lost: I watched all of the first series and 1/2 the second before getting bored and not watching any more. Star Trek is another one I've seen a lot of, since my father in law is a bit of a trekkie, but I just can't get behind. Soaps and Alias just don't interest me, so I'm not going to bother my arse watching, pretty much the same with CSI and 24. Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld and South Park just aren't funny, so I won't watch. I've never bothered with Battlestar Galactica becuse I don't really like Sci-Fi (and I'm not sure it's on Freeview anyway)

So someone please tell me: why it's worth owning a TV at the mo?

For you, I'd say it isn't. I wouldn't feel too bad about it though. TV is pretty shit.

There's a reason I don't go into the Edge threads until I've bought the mag, I don't want to know the fucking scores!

Sort it out.

I can just imagine him reading the reviews "Ooh man, this is so gonna' be a seven... I can't see any way it can be anything else from this text. Don't look at the end, don't do it, Cheeko! You'll spoil it for yourself. Maybe just a glance - no! No, I'll read the text first. Okay... yeah... this is shaping up to be a seven, I can feel it... Right, I'm in the end paragraph - ooh, nice use of the phrase "sesquipedalien idioms" there EDGE - and it's a... NO WAY! It's an 8! I never saw that coming! Bravo EDGE! Brilliant twist ending. Wow. That was genius! I think I'll have a wank."

Excellent stuff.

Or Mario 64's beautiful "Dire, dire docks" themesong (that's the waterlevel themesong, right?)

This is by far my favourite piece of music from a game. It's just so relaxing. My second favourite is the Dark World theme from A Link To the Past. Third would be Rock Howards stage music from Garou:Mark of the Wolves.

Honourable mentions go to, the entire soundtrack from Streets of Rage, most of the F-Zero soundtrack. Oh, the Shadow of the Colossus music is fantastic too.

He didn't really 'hop it', though. He apparently just wanted more time with his family. He'd been the lead in the show for frigging ages, so it's understandable.

It's been a great ten seasons, ain't it? Apart from the first two, of course...

Ha, the first two seasons were great, full of really good episodes. It probably took itself a bit more seriously than the later seasons, but I wouldn't hold that against it.

This weeks Sg-1 was decent, but the last line of the show, spoken by Daniel Jackson, justified the cancellation if you ask me.

I really enjoyed both Transporter movies, so I'm looking forward to this. From the trailer, it looks like it'll deliver, I hope it does. Not every movie has to be an intelligent work of art to be enjoyable.

Film Noir is a genre (or a style or whatever), that I've never really gotten into. But I really want to.

Where to start? What are the classics? The hidden gems?

Fire away.

If a mod wants to, it may be worthwhile editing this post and making this part of the 'Classic Cinema' threads.

I have to admit, I don't even really know just what films can be classed as "film noir". Makes me think of Bogart movies though, in which case my favourite Bogart movie is The Tresure of the Sierra Madre, which as far as I know, isn't Film Noir! So umm, one's which may be Film Noir(I'm not sure) The Big Sleep, The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo are excellent. The Hitchcock movie Shadow of a Doubt is also great and may be film noir. Chinatown is also great. The Third Man too. Hmm, I should go find out what Film Noir is.... Whatever, even if I'm wrong about the genre, you should watch the movies I mentioned anyway.

One question. Didn't Martin leave in episode 100? He got in the ship and flew away didn't he? Why was he back?

I thought it was just the other guys from his planet that went off on the ship. Now that you've mentioned it, I'm not 100% sure...

Murakami is one of those authors where I'll read the book thinking 'oh yes, this is wonderful, wonderful writing. So quiet and restrained, all these tangles of storyline lying about just waiting for me to gather without a cliche in sight'... for about 5 minutes. Then I won't like any of the characters and I'll realise that I'm not having any fun with it. I know I should like him, which is why I shall try again; I think this will be the third time. It will happen.

I read three of his books before I admitted to myself that I just didn't like his style. Out of those three the Wind Up Bird Chronicle was the best though, it has some really good sections, but it does have a really boring 100 or so pages that I had to force myself through, and it's mostly all over the place, mostly.

After I read Norwegian Wood I just said to myself "that's it, no more of his books for you". When I was reading that it felt like I was reading some el cheapo Mills and Boon romance novel. Couldn't go 5 pages without some ridiculous "sex scene" and the book just felt so...empty. I think I posted about it in this very thread. Shame though, I wanted to like him, I really did.

I just finished "Influence" by Robert Cialdini, interesting stuff. I think I'll go into town tomorrow and buy "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan, I'm in the mood for some Sagan, and I'm pretty sure there are only one or two of his books that I haven't read now. I wouldn't mind reading a novel, but I'll have to think about which one to get. I don't read many so it'll have to be something great. What's a really good, intelligent Sci-Fi novel?

Not that I think that it has anything to do with the cancellation, but I really hate the character of Vala. Really hate. I'm not really bothered about this. SG-1 has moved from "entertaining sci-fi with the odd humourous moment" to some sort of parody of itself where nothing at all about the show can be taken seriously. Season 10 so far has been pretty rubbish. I won't miss it. I don't think Atlantis will last long on its own.

As for the 200th episode. I thought it was complete crap, just like I thought the 100th was. I laughed in some places, but for a show that's supposed to be a sci-fi, there really seem to be a lot of people who write it who'd rather be writing comedy.

I liked Kung Fu Hustle, it was fun and the first fight was really good, good enough for me to put in the dvd every now and then just to watch that scene. That said the "baby elephant getting thrown though a window" scene in Tom Yum Goong made me laugh more than anything in Kung Fu Hustle, and I definitely laughed far more during Shaolin Soccer.

I finished "The Blank Slate" by Stephen Pinker the other day, which I thought was a really great book. I'm not sure I'd agree with everything he says but it definitely made me think about things, which is always nice.

Now I'm reading some book called "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman, which is basically some guy moaning about what TV has apparently done to American society. It's pretty interesting I suppose, not telling me anything i didn't already agree with, it's short though, so I don't mind.

I'll finish that one today, and will start reading "Influence" by Robert Cialdini.

Someone will probably take issue with this, but the ending of Easy Rider just left me thinking "what the fuck".

Also, to a lesser extent, I thought the ending of the movie Sonatine(which i watched tonight) was quite abrupt and unexpected, it made sense and all, but it was still abrupt.

Aw, it's not a sad one is it? There's something about anime that makes sad films even more heart wrenching

I suggest you watch it, don't read up on it first, just watch it.

Keyboard and mouse?

Pah. Don't give me that . Quake 3 is a game that was only fun in multiplayer, and I don't think many people had 4 keyboard and mouse combos with their dreamcast. If they did, well then fair enough, that was probably a better way to control the game than the PS2 pad, but if they didn't, the PS2 pad was far better than the DC pad for that game.

Come on kiddo, if you want to play a limited version of Q3A, you at least play the DC version. I have never really have been able to get my head around the point of PS2 Quake. A multiplayer title on a distinctly multiplayer unfriendly console. Silly.

The DC version was pure shit. Mainly due to the controller. I thought the PS2 version was decent, and got some fun out of it in multiplayer at the time. The load times were atrocious though.

A 70's horror movie I like quite a bit, that imdb doesn't seem to rate very highly is Audrey Rose with Anthony Hopkins. That movie freaked me out when I saw it a few years ago.

are they showing grave of the fireflies? or whisper of the heart?

ghibli bothers me because its so changable, some of their films move me and i consider masterworks, some i find to be fucking bilge. mononoke, grave of the fireflies,cagliostro, tottoro, nausicca, whisper of the heart and cat returns were all wicked but the others just bore me.

in the film4 ad which is the one with the two kids and one says something like "ill never see you again". i reconised that but its one i havent seen for ages, and have never seen dubbed

Yeah compared to The Cat Returns , Laputa and Kiki's Delivery Service are just awful. That's an odd list of favourites. I can't see how anyone would like Totoro but not Kiki's Delivery Service, or Nausicaa but not Laputa. But to each his own, heh. Personally, I find the newer movies(Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, I haven't seen Howl's Moving Castle) to be a bit overblown and lacking direction, and I found them pretty boring. Apart from those though, I wouldn't consider any Ghibli movie boring. Something like Ocean Waves or Only Yesterday is a different type of movie from one of the Miyazaki ones, and slower paced, but I still think they're great.