I watched Akira almost 20 years ago (geez, has it been that long already?). This year they released an anniversary edition of this Japanese animation in April and I decided to buy it for me and as a gift for the birthday of a dear friend of mine, Leo. Well, I watched it again at his house last weekend and it is incredible how it blew me away ONCE MORE. After 20 years, after all the advance in technology movie industry has achieved, after all I've seen, it still blew me away. Now imagine how it must have been to see Akira 20 years ago? It was like seeing Trinity frozen in space for the first time!! Groundbreaking!! For someone who was used to see animations like those produced by Hannah&Barbera, coming upon Akira was like meeting God and acknowledging his/her existence.

While I was watching Akira again, I remembered which of its particularities caught my attention when I was a kid. First, the characters, the the clothes, the bike's engines... Everything MOVED. From Kaneda's hair to Akira's intriguing body. There was no more Fred and Barney's nearly frozen characters. Those in Akira were real people, who bled, got hurt and acted like humans, not some insipid animation characters. And that soundtrack, gods, that soundtrack... That near mantra that I couldn't get out of my mind then, and that I can't get out of my mind now. Dragged on the back of Kaneda's and Tetsuo's bikes, I felt this sense of urgency, of now, of chaos, of freedom! I was thrown on the streets of Neo Tokyo and its rotten magnificence, went inside dreams and nightmares where children were old and there was no good or evil.

Now that I'm older, I could realize other things. I noticed that 90% of Sci-fi movies that  tried to portrait  cyberculture  were inspired in Akira. From Blade Runner to Matrix, none of them escape. Unbelievable. And I realized another important thing: it is no good trying to understand Akira's story. In order to really appreciate this anime, you can't try  to understand it. You must go along with it. Kaneda's is offering you a ride on his bike, so, all you have to do is accept it and enjoy this almost suicidal ride. Akira is a visual experience, something primal,  to be savored, to be felt. It is a dream that hurts, cathartic, amazing. It changed the way animations were made and if you watch now something like Wall.E, thank to Akira.

This year Warner Bros. studios announced that they are going to transform Akira into a live action movie. The story will be divided in two parts, the first to be released in 2009, and Leonardo DiCaprio is going to produce it. Are they going to Westernize this anime? If they do, it would really REALLY REAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLY piss me off. Neo New York instead of Neo Tokyo? No fucking way. I'm scared they are going to kill what made Akira, well, Akira... Typical...

So, before this tragedy occurs, watch Akira if you haven't done so already. It won't be a waste of your time.

I don't know if any of you have listened to Coldplay's song "Violet Hill", their single for their new album Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends inspired in the French Revolution. Actually, they are sounding more like Oasis than Coldplay, but whatever... The point is: they released today a controversial video for this song. Of course I loved it. Let's say that there are Bushes, Clintons, Chávez, Fidels, Obamas etc in very compromising situations. Enjoy!




*The download of the song is available on Coldplay's website for free.

Last wednesday, April 30th, I got older =D I celebrated my birthday with friends at a new bar that has become the new flick in town. I didn't like it much, though...

And my sister got engaged last Thursday! I'm really happy for her, Rômulo is a great guy and I'm sure they'll be very happy together.

ok ok I managed to put the robot thing correctly in the index of that terrible site and it is not accessible anymore when you try to click on it. Yes, the page still appears on Google's search results page, though. But when I tried to open it in cache, I could still see it, DAMN IT!!! The cache's dated from April 11th, so I think after my request and after installing the robot thing, Google might finally remove it from its list. Damn it damn it! I'm so stupid! And this stupid page was on the web all these years, putting my professional life at risk!!

Gaaaaaaaaaaahhhh

*head desk*

Tonight, for some weird reason, I decided to google my name. Well, what is my surprise to see that the first result that I got was this oooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllllllld page, part of an oooooooooooooooold website about Russell Crowe I created like 10 years ago, with a description of myself! A very VERY outdated and stupid and badly written bio =P With a very VERY silly picture of me!!! I became desperate trying to find a way to remove the page from the web and Google's page results! I finally managed to access my old account and delete the page. But when I researched my name, the page was still there on Google! At the top of the list! So, I tried to remove it through Google. I sent a request where I said the page no longer existed. I hope it works. The request is still pending. There is also an option to put some robots' code in the index, but I'm not sure about how to do it. If somebody could help me with this, I mean, with removing the damned page, I would be very grateful!

Geez, and I thought I was going to sleep early tonight... I spent one hour trying to get the page out of Google!! And it is past midnight! I'm doomed, dooomed...

Hello!

I'm still nursing my ankle. There are 7 more sessions of body therapy to go. Going up and down stairs is still a bitch... Besides, I'm completely and absolutely stressed at work. I don't even have time to check my personal e-mails anymore! In the meanwhile, I decided to spend some money in new clothes... Hope you like them!

Promising, very promising... Pay attention to the choice of music for the trailer. Beethoven's Symphony nº 5, 3rd Movement. Me loves it, loves it =D

I was surfing on the net the other day and a musician friend of mine asked me if I had heard of Mallu Magalhães. I asked him "Mallu Who?". So he sent me the link to her page at My Space and said "listen to her music". And so I did.

Fuckin' hell, the girl is a genius!!

She is only 15, plays guitar, harmonica and acoustic guitar, writes her own folk songs in English (yes, ENGLISH!! She is shy, so she says this way Brazilian audiences don't pay attention to her lyrics and she can sing about anything without feeling uncomfortable) and Portuguese. Her influences are Bob Dylan, Beatles, Johnny Cash, Belle & Sebastian, Brazilian Tropicália and Bossa Nova. Blame her good tastes on her parents. She used to dig in their drawers for fun and found their LPs lol She loves Pop-art. She knows Andy Warhol!! She is a full artist, Mallu also paints and is a photographer.

After she created her page on My Space, Mallu turned into a huge success in virtual life. She became such a huge hit, that she captured the attention of the media specialized in music. She already made apparitions in famous Brazilian tv shows and channels, including MTV. And I needed to share her work with all of my friends because she is too good to be restricted to Brazilian audiences.

This is the link to her page: Mallu Magalhães - My Space. There you're going to find four of her songs available for download and some videos. Her songs are: Get to Denmark, Town of Rock 'n' Roll, Tchubaruba, J1, Don't you Leave Me, Xylophones,  Letrinhas and Vanguart. These last ones are her first songs in Portuguese.

Here are some vids:

Interview - Rolling Stone (Mallu sings that AWESOME song from Juno's soundtrack)



Tchubaruba - Mallu Magalhães


After all the weekend
In a supposed calm sunday afternoon
At the moment she could see the moon
When I saw her she was just crying
Under my favorite tree

I talked to her and I was trying
To show her what she couldn't see
Behind the flowers in a light she found the sun
Behind the sad I showed her that life is really fun

With some nature together we admire the birds
Collected some different leaves
We realized how amazing the world is

If you come over I'll say tchubaruba
If you are down I'll say tchubaruba
If you don't know where I am, I'll be tchubirubing
If you don't know who you are
You can tchubada, you can tchubaduba

Hey, ha, ho
There's no reason to hide
I could be kind a guide
I could be by her side

Yeah, yeah, yeah
She could be just with me
I would be grateful
I would feel, yes, I would feel really...

If you come over I'll say tchubaruba
If you are down I'll say tchubaruba
If you don't know where I am, I'll be tchubirubing
If you don't know who you are
You can tchubada, you can tchubadubada.




Town of Rock 'n' Roll (wait a couple of minutes before the song starts and it ends at 2:40)






Vanguart

Ah, se eu fizesse tudo que eu sonho.
Se eu não fosse assim tão tristonho
Não seria assim tão normal

Ah, se eu fizesse o que eu sempre quis,
Se eu fosse um pouco mais feliz
Levantasse o meu astral

7 dias vão e eu nem fui ver
7 dias tão fáceis de se envolver

Ah, se eu tivesse fotografado
Se eu tivesse integrado
Num mundo sobrenatural

Ah, eu seguiria o realejo
Desenharia o que eu vejo
No meu cereal

30 dias do mês que ficou pra trás
E eu só mais um desses meros tão mortais

Ah, se eu fizesse alguma diferença
Se eu curasse uma doença
Com uma força genial

Ah, eu cantaria pra fazer sorriso
Eu perderia o meu juízo
Só pra ser especial

7 dias vão e eu nem fui ver
São 7 dias tão fáceis de se envolver

30 dias do mês que ficou pra trás
E eu sou só mais um desses meros tão mortais

Ah, se eu fizesse tudo que eu sonho.
Se eu não fosse assim tão tristonho
Não seria assim tão normal

Ah, se eu fizesse o que eu sempre quis,
Se eu fosse um pouco mais feliz
Se eu levantasse o meu astral

Some moments are memorable. I happened to come upon this version of the song "Your House" by Alanis Morissette and it is so brilliant that it almost reduced me to tears. I needed to share it with you guys!