• Inspired by the new album artwork for the record America by Thirty Seconds to Mars, this is my America and everything that is wrong with it.

    This is my America

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  • Chères lectrices et lecteurs de mon blogue,

    Voici quelques photos de ma longue fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay avec mes amis Charles, Guillaume, Jean-Daniel et Mathieu.

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Souper à la Maison Khmère

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Charles et Guillaume au Bar à Pitons

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Avant-match des séries éliminatoires au Centre Georges-Vézina

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Charles avec le billet et cahier du match

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Hymne national avant le début de la partie

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Fin de la partie et de la série remportée par le Titan d'Acadie-Bathurst contre les Saguenéens de Chicoutimi

    Fin de semaine de Pâques au Saguenay

    Le restaurant Kaiza - un véritable coup de coeur!

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  • Before I Fall (2017)

    Before I Fall is best described as a contemporary feminist take on Groundhog Day. It tells the story of high school student Samantha who seems to have a quite normal life. She lives with her friendly parents and her good-spirited little sister. She has three best friends that stick together through thick and thin but who can also be quite arrogant and mean. The four girls bully a shy and silent girl with a very strange behavior at school. Samantha has a male childhood friend who is depserately in love with her but she also has a good-looking boyfriend who is quite popular among girls. It's Cupid Day and Samantha's clumsy childhood friend throws a part at his house as he hopes to impress his crush. Samantha is though planning on finally losing her virginity to her boyfriend and is morally supported by her excited friends. Things turn sour when the bullied girl unexpectedly comes to the party and gets into a fight with Samantha's best friend. The shy outsider runs away while Samantha and her friends feel frustrated about the ruined party and decide to drive home. On their way on a dark road, their car hits something and Samantha dies just to wake up in the morning of Cupid Day again. She realizes she has to figure out why she must live the same day over and over again. Samantha tries to organize some changes and experiments in her life to break the time loop.

    There are several great elements about the film but also a few downsides. Let's start with the negative points. The story line is rather unoriginal and the plot development quite flat at times. The movie is at times also overtly sentimental. Since the movie is mostly about Samantha, her three best friends and the strange girl, it's a film that might appeal more to female than male audiences. Witnessing the four girls bitching throughout considerable parts of the movie was quite tiring. I must also say that the male characters are all quite one-dimensional. The only two male characters of interest are a superficial womanizer who wants to sleep with the protagonist and the clumsy childhood friend who nearly stalks the protagonist.

    The movie also has many positive elements. I really like the film's gloomy and mysterious atmosphere that isn't just carried by the plot but by the wild landscapes of the American Northwest, the moody light techniques and the fitting alternative pop score. The protagonist's character development is particularly interesting to follow as she becomes very wise, warm and selfless throughout her fateful journey. The acting performances are great and especially lead actress Zoey Deutch convinces as rebellious teenage girl who rediscovers her good-spirited side. The movie obviously makes you think about your everyday life and daily decisions which gives some food for thought for philosophic discussions.

    In the end, you should watch Before I Fall if you like philosophic teenage dramas with a supernatural touch. I guess the movie might rather strike a chord with female than male audiences as well. While I really like this type of story, I must admit that especially the film's middle part was somewhat plodding. I personally prefered the similar but more vivid Happy Death Day as well as the Life Is Strange video games for a more mysterious coming-of-age experience.

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  • Jungle (2017)

    I have been familiar with and fascinated by Yossi Ghinsberg's dramatic survival story for many years and have even occasionally given classes about it at school. When I heard that there was a movie about this intriguing journey, it wasn't even a question whether I would purchase the film or not. The blandly titled Jungle fulfils my expectations on many levels. 

    If you haven't heard about Ghinsberg's true story yet, here is a very brief summary. The young Israelian adventurer traveled to South America after his mandatory military service and met an American photographer, Austrian geologist and Swiss teacher. The geologist convinced the three aquaintances to travel into the heart of the Bolivian jungle to discover unknown tribes and gold. Once they were deep inside the jungle, it became obvious that there was neither gold nor tribes to be discovered and that the geologist was actually a wanted criminal with shady objectives. When the Swiss teacher got injured, the group split up into two teams. The geologist and the teacher walked upstream towards the next village which was supposedly about three days away. The Israelian adventurer and the American photographer moved downstream with a raft but got separated in a canyon. Yossi Ghinsberg fought for survival as he tried to find his partner, travel downstream and make it to the next town while the American photographer got rescued by a tribe and tried to convince skeptic local authorities that Ghinsberg was still alive.

    The movie is quite faithful to the true story even though a few anecdotes had to be cut and details had to be shortened. This was a good choice because the movie is quite fluid and neither too short nor too long. It takes about twenty minutes to introduce the four main characters and about another twenty minutes for them to start their journey. The last eighty minutes are dedicated to an intense and solitary survival story.

    The locations are gorgeous yet terrifying as they show the thin line between beauty and horror. What looks like a peaceful river can turn into a deadly canyon within seconds. The seemingly solid ground becomes a treacherous bog. The scary animal becomes a tasty meal that helps you survive. Jungle is an intense experience for all your senses.

    One element that needs to be pointed out is the superb acting. Daniel Radcliffe was obviously very dedicated to his role. He was guided by Yossi Ghinsberg himself and obviously very familiar with the source material as well. You can see a young and naive adventurer from a severe and traditional family who wants to break free but soon realizes that freedom can come with a price as he has to face impossible challenges that will exhaust him mentally and physically. Daniel Radcliffe's progressive transformation is absolutely stunning. When a human being finds itself in the middle of nature, there aren't many human features that remain. Survival knows no rules.

    When the movie came to its conclusion, I was shivering all over my body. This is how bleak, dramatic and intense this film was. You could put me on an isolated arctic island for a year but not in such a jungle for even just a week.

    If you like adventurous survival stories, you can't get around this movie. Jungle is an intense journey to the essence of humanity and nature. The wilderness shows us who we really are.

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  • Loudness - Samsara Flight (2016)

    Samsara Flight ~輪廻飛翔~ was released in two different versions. The first one was a package of three discs, including reworked classics, a selection of simply compiled greatest hits plus a live show honoring the legendary Thunder in the East album which was released exclusively for the Japanese market. The second version only consists of the thirteen reworked tracks which were released in Japan but also as a bonus disc on Loudness' regular studio album Rise to Glory. This strategy is similar to the release of the studio album Racing more than a decade ago which was combined with a compilation of reworked songs entitled Rockshocks for the international market. While Rockshocks focuses on the band's greatest hits, Samsara Flight offers a more balanced mixture of popular songs like the band's very first single Burning Love, more obscure material like the often overlooked melodic rocker Angel Dust and rarities like Road Racer which was never included on a regular studio album. Especially the band's first three studio albums are represented on Samsara Flight and the old classics received a dynamic revamp.

    Aside of offering more than sixty-eight minutes of energetic, juvenile and melodic heavy metal as well as a balanced track list, Samsara Flight also convinces with great flow. The album sounds homogeneous as it offers mid- to fast-paced heavy metal that has aged very well. A few songs stick out like the slightly progressive opener ''Street Woman'' with its ambitious Rush references, the melodic ''Angel Dust'' that could also come from a Western glam rock band like Kiss or the closing power ballad ''To Be Demon'' that reminds of Iron Maiden's intellectual songwriting but overall Samsara Flight sounds much more like a coherent regular studio album than a compilation of reworked classics which makes it very enjoyable to listen to from start to finish. The sound effects of the versatile album closer even hearken back to the progressive opener which is very unusual for this type of release and rather common for conceptual albums. Everything sounds perfectly rounded out on this fluid offering.

    If you call yourself a heavy metal fan, you should really grab this dynamic collection of reworked Japanese heavy metal anthems of the eighties released in combination with the very good new studio album Rise to Glory. Loudness finds the right balance between preserving its unique trademark sound centered around Takasaki Akira's creative guitar skills, Niihara Minoru's uniquely rough yet melodic vocals and the precise rhythm section of bassist Yamashita Masayoshi and drummer Suzuki Masayuki on one side and sounding energetic, energizing, fresh, hungry and timeless on the other side. The Japanese quartet seems to have found the Fountain of Youth and is still very relevant these days which can't be said about several colleagues that sound old, stale and uninspired. If you like classic heavy metal with some fresh vibes, support these heavy metal emperors.

    Final rating: 91%

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