Movie: Street Kings

Yesterday, I watched Street Kings, mainly because, I have to admit, it has all these awesome names in it: Keanu Reeves, Chris Evans, Forest Whitaker, Hugh "House" Laurie, Amaury "Sexiest Man Alive" Nolasco, and all the "rapper-turned-into-good-actors" they could get to sign: Cedric the Entertainer, The Game and the lovely Common. And of course the super sweet Naomie Harris.
So yeah, I guess when you look at it like that, Street Kings sounds a little like some ridiculous, pretentious bellybutton-show.
But it was a really frikkin' good movie.

First of, the plot is much more thought through and moving than that of most "cop-movies": Detective Tom Ludlow (K. Reeves) is the guy in the force who'll "go where the law won't": he takes out kidnappers and says they shot first, he plants evidence and makes some money off it as well. But all in all, he's not the least sympathetic guy you can imagine.
Enter Washington (Terry Crews), Ludlow's former partner - who is not ratting him out to Internal Affairs.
So Ludlow, who really knows how to hold a grudge, dude, takes it on himself to have a little "fist-talk" (yup, I made that word up. I should get paid!) with Washington. But then, out of nowhere, two gang members appear, kill Washington and leave Ludlow as the prime suspect - at least until his fellow team partners, all under the protection of the all-forgiving Wander (F. Whitaker), fiddle with the evidence to make sure Ludlow was "only" the first cop at the scene.
Still, Ludlow can't rest there, and tries to find Washington's killer, and has to find out that not only he was being betrayed - but almost every cop in the city.

I always loved these sort of movies. You know, morality issues are always fun, but enter police officers, who are supposed to be so incorruptible, and it gets really interesting.
If you can stand a good deal of violence and a lot of naughty, naughty words (although it gets better as the movie progresses - talk about character development!) you should definitely watch this movie. It's super exciting and interesting, funny at time, and it even brought a tear to my eye.
Good stuff.

Konichiwa.

Book: Eve Green by Susan Fletcher

I have just finished Susan Fletcher's first book, Eve Green, and it just blew me away.
I read her second book, Oystercatchers, last summer, and it sort of became my favourite book, I fell in love with it.
So I was sort of nervous when I started reading Eve Green, because I was so "spoiler" by the other book.
But Eve is amazing.
Susan Fletcher just has an amazing power with words. The story takes place in Wales, and, even though I've never been to Wales, I feel like I've lived there.
The book is so rich in beautiful detail that I really felt present in the story - more than in any other book I've ever read.

The story is, like it was in Oystercatchers, a very quiet, very dark one:
When Evie's mother dies, she moves, aged 8, to her grandparents in Wales.
She tells the story of the following summer 21 years later, and it mainly covers two important events or secrets in Evie's life: the abduction of a local girl, and the mystery around her father's identity.

I recommend this book to absolutely everyone. It's sad, there's no doubt about that, but most of all, it's beautiful, in a very rare and wild way. And what is especially great about Susan Fletcher's books are her, well, I guess you could call them heroines. They're strong and stubborn and silent, but never ever weak.

Boh3m3: An Open Letter To Eminem

Watch it here.

This is the new boh3m3 video, and I think that it is really moving.
It's good to see someone you admire (or have once admired or whatever) getting better and finding their way, and it's especially nice to see that boh3m3 shared this with youtube - after all, this is where it all started, and it has a sort of poetry to it.

But the reason people are going to be pretty POed about this (I'd guess)?

"I have finally worked out what the hell is wrong with me. Or what the hell is right with me, that I just didn't understand for a long time. [...] I realized that I have ADHD [attention deficit hyperactive disorder]. Like, I really do, it finally clicked, it makes sense."

Now, of course I don't know the whole story behind this, and of course I don't know how well educated he is when it comes to neurobehavioral disorders, or any sort of border-psychological disorder for that matter.
But assuming he doesn't know much about it, and assuming he diagnosed himself, then there is something immensley wrong with that video.
For me, self-diagnostics are sort of like blasphemy.
Because it's just too easyto go out there and say, "listen, this and this is wrong with me. Go figure."
And I really hope that he has had a proper diagnosis, or this is another step towards making serious disorders look like random words that you can use to describe the bad, stinging feeling inside your chest that keeps your mind from working.

Extract

The roof was made of red clouds, or so it looked to me.
In the middle of the high room, all the clouds were rising up, up, up, into a tornado, sucked away by wind and weather.
I hurt my neck, that’s how long I stared up at the red clouds that looked as solid as my own body.

- by me

All I Want

I am on a lonely road
/and I am traveling
/traveling traveling traveling
/looking for something
/what can it be
/oh I hate you some
/I hate you some
/I love you some
/oh I love you
/when I forget about me
/I want to be strong
/I want to laugh along
/I want to belong to the living
/alive
/alive
/I want to get up and jive
/I want to wreck my stockings
/in some juke box dive
/do you want
/do you want
/do you want
/to dance
/with me baby

All I Want by Joni Mitchell

Yee-ha!

I just wrote almost two pages of stuff I like.
In one sitting.
Like, just sat down and wrote it.

Ee-he, here I come. (:
Thanks for supporting!

What I am currently listening to:

Y'All Want A Single - Korn (this song is just fun)

Your Woman - White Town (cute)

Just A Girl - No Doubt (a No Doubt classic)

Don't Give It Up - Siobhan Donaghy (beautiful and spiritual)

Sister - She Wants Revenge (a little dark)

Mouthwash - Kate Nash (cute, wonderful and uplifting)

N 2Gether Now - Limp Bizkit (funky!)

Breath Me - Sia (an Olden Goldie :))

Hummer - The Foals (my favorite song right now)

Colorblind - The Counting Crows (quite possible the most beautiful song of all times)

Everything's Just Wonderful - Lily Allen (explicit but honest Brit Pop)

Down Another Day - Limp Bizkit (very melancholical)

All Around Me - Flyleaf (it makes you feel that everything's okay)

Over The Line - Revelation Theory (absolutely apocalyptical; always makes me think of a desert. Hm...)

Passive - Perfect Circle (coolest song EVER)