Happy Anniversary to Leya!

anniversary-1x

Happy Anniversary with WordPress.com!

Today I got this celebration badge sent to me because it is exactly 3 years since I registered on WordPress.com. I didn’t know it was today, but I knew it was about 3 years…

Three interesting, adventurous, exciting years that have brought me new, valuable knowledge and many friends all over the world! (There are things good with the Internet…) So much I have learned from you, so much fun and so many useful things! Hopefully we will have many more discussions, reflections, likes (and dislikes…) to share. And, bits and pieces of our lives will fit together in this great Big Puzzle. Intriguing!

To celebrate this – my way – I have created another blog, because…well, I will put the link under my photo blog faialflores,( created last year, right column) but for now…you can find my New blog Here. What it’s about? Be my guest, click and find out!

I have an issue with smartphones

Try being without this device…then you will know the extent of your own addictiveness…

Profilbild för An Activist AbroadAn Activist Abroad

This is the second in a series of posts in which I express my latest gripe. The debut complaint was about my disdain for selfies. As the title of this post suggests, yet again, modern technology and people’s misuse of smartphones play a central role in my lament. I will keep it short, won’t provide an array of scenic photographs but will hopefully feel a sense of relief after the cathartic exercise of sharing my thoughts with the willing.

Now, I am aware that the smartphone is an essential piece of kit for many people, especially those working fervently, on the move. It eases people’s lives through assisting in swift communication, the sharing of files, documents and all those sensible things that the employed regularly do. However, there are many of you, and I say you, as I don’t own a smartphone, that seem to have completely forgotten the art…

Visa originalinlägg 585 fler ord

My rays of light!

As I suffer severely from the darkness, the loss of daylight and the constant grey drizzle this winter, I decided to make a post of the short rays of light on the latest days’ walks. Maybe there are more of us who need some light – I hope you will enjoy them!

Suddenly there was a short glimpse of sunlight on these beautiful straws, resting by my path in the soft wind.

This broken twig, and its bright lichen, caught my eye inside the forest. Hit by a tiny ray,  it lay glowing on the dark ground.

A dark green candle provides the soft light of my evenings.

This years’ fiery Christmas flower in my home is a colourful Hippeastrum called ”La Paz”.

May the light be with you all!

Ese’s Weekly Shoot & Quote Challenge: Music

Music is an important part of our lives – and Music is also Ese’s challenge this week. Young people today have music plugged in their ears all day it seems…which would be a bit too much for me… I love silence.

I do love silence, but I also love almost all kinds of music, from bird song to heavy metal. I have a sweet tooth for music coming up spontaneously among people, for big voices like Freddie Mercury’s and tenors as Andrea Bocelli’s, for clear and soaring ones like Mireille Mathieu’s and Sara Brightman’s – and  also for odd instruments.

Music is everybody’s possession. It’s only publishers who think that people own it.

John Lennon

The green winter light

As there is no snow this winter in southern Sweden – but rain there is – mosses seem to grow more than ever in the damp environment. Shining green, they light up all the grey and the darkness. So more than ever we have a green winter this year.

According to Wikipedia, mosses are a botanical division of small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm (0.4–4 in) tall, though some species are much larger, like Dawsonia, the tallest moss in the world (found in NZ for example) which can grow to 50 cm in height. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leavescover the thin wiry stems. At certain times mosses produce spore capsules which may appear as beak-like capsules borne aloft on thin stalks.

There are approximately 12,000 species of moss classified in the Bryophyta, a division that formerly included not only mosses, but also liverworts and hornworts. These other two groups of bryophytes are now placed in their own divisions.

Moss covering great parts of the ground under the trees.

They climb the trunks and some trees are totally covered.

Tiny brown spore capsules on their thin stalks.

Every stone is more or less covered in a soft coat of green.

Travel theme: Possibility

There’s always a possibility that we finally will have some snow this winter…

It would slow Totti down a bit…

…so I can outrun him!

For more and other possibilities, go to Ailsa’s place!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Beginning

Last year we saw the beginning of a new building further down our street. A rather dilapidated old house was torn down and a magnificent old garden with a giant apple tree had to go. I still miss that apple tree…There used to lie tons of apples under it in Autumn – for anyone to pick and use.

This company sets up a new house in a couple of days only – now there are people living in all of its apartments. Lights in every window this grey winter.

Find more beginnings here.

Dame Judi Dench in ”Philomena” – based on a true story

Efter storslagen fantasy kände jag att jag behövde en mer verklighetsförankrad film – det blev den verklighetsbaserade Philomena, med en av mina favoritskådespelare, Dame Judy Dench.

Filmen är baserad på Martin Sixsmiths The Lost Child of Philomena Lee från 2009. Philomena blir gravid som väldigt ung och därmed hårt straffad av det katolska Irland. Hon placeras i kloster tillsammans med andra ensamstående,  olyckliga unga mödrar och nunnorna säljer hennes son till ett amerikanskt par. Hon tvingas skriva på att aldrig göra efterforskningar för att finna sitt barn. Som pensionerad sjuksköterska börjar hon, efter 50 år, med hjälp av den sparkade BBC- reportern Martin Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), att söka efter sonen.

Regissören Stephen Frears (”The Queen”) fokuserar mycket på Philomenas och Martins humoristiskt retsamma smågrälande under resan tillsammans och trots att de är så olika – de kommer från olika samhällsklasser och har helt olika intressen – så kommer de närmre varandra allteftersom vidden av Philomenas livsöde rullas upp.

Storyn väver skickligt samman allt från sexuella begär och religiös fanatik till dagens pressetik och ger oss en både spännande och informativ resa. Gammalreligiösa katoliker och vänner av äldre republikansk politik kan kanske stöta sig på hur historien utvecklas, men innehållet hålls historiskt och faktamässigt riktigt, samtidigt som det presenteras mycket väl balanserat. Martin reagerar starkt på nunnornas fruktansvärda synder i det förflutna medan Philomena trots allt som hänt henne är förlåtande ända till slutet.

Det här är en mycket berikande film. Judy Dench är som alltid fantastisk och tillsammans med Steve Coogan är de det perfekta smågrälande, humoristiska paret som trots grundberättelsens tragik gör att du lämnar biosalongen med både ett leende och en tår. Se den. Njut av skådespelarnas skicklighet, det lugna tempot och en fantastisk livshistoria. Du kommer inte att ångra dig.

Movies, movies, after the fantasy of Smaug, Hobbits and Dwarves I needed some reality – so I went to see Philomena with Dame Judi Dench, who is one of my favourite actresses.

From Imdb: In short, based on the 2009 investigative book by BBC correspondent Martin Sixsmith, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, Philomena focuses on the efforts of a retired Irish nurse, Philomena Lee (Dench), mother to a boy conceived out of wedlock – something her Irish-Catholic community punished her severly for – and given away for adoption in the United States. In following church doctrine, she was forced to sign a contract that wouldn’t allow for any sort of inquiry into the son’s whereabouts. After starting a family years later in England and, for the most part, moving on with her life, Lee meets Sixsmith (Steve Coogan), a BBC reporter with whom she decides to discover her long-lost son.

This image released by The Weinstein Company shows Judi Dench, left, and Steve Coogan in a scene from ”Philomena.”

Director Stephen Frears (”The Queen”) keeps the focus on Philomena and Martin’s sweet-and-sour banter, making “Philomena” a marvelous movie, a heartwarming drama with plenty of comedic pathos that features Judi Dench playing a simple Irish woman who doesn’t get the jokes of her traveling companion.

This odd-couple road trip tale is based on an incredible true story. Philomena has kept a secret for 50 years — when she was a teen, nuns sold her baby and those of other “shamed” young women to wealthy American couples. Now Philomena Lee is ready to find her son, and her own peace of mind, but she’s going to need some help on this journey. That’s when her daughter finds Sixsmith (Steve Coogan) at a party.

Coogan is co-star, screenwriter and producer — plays just-sacked government press secretary Martin Sixsmith, who takes on Philomena’s human-interest story as a journalistic assignment, despite it being the kind of article that he says only “weak-minded, vulnerable” people appreciate. He’s crass, and the two of them are divided by class – but on their journey together, they bond.

The story neatly weaves in themes such as sexual desires, religious beliefs, regrets of a lifetime and journalistic ethics, making for an intriguing as well as informative experience. Those of the Catholic faith and old American Republican politics will find matters to dislike here. The story is tough on these points and historically accurate, but neatly balanced as well: Martin is furious with the long-ago sins of the nuns, yet Philomena is the one with forgiveness in her heart to the end.

The journey of “Philomena” is an enriching one. It’s pure joy seeing Judy Dench – as always – and Dench and Coogan provides just the right touch of friction as well as humor. “Weak-minded, vulnerable” people as well as those more sophisticated will not regret they took this trip. At least I don’t.

See the trailer here:


Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Free and Easy

Den här dagen är nog en av de mera lyckliga och sköna i livet. Du har gått din sista dag i skolan – nu är du helt fri och framtiden är ett oskrivet blad. Du bestämmer själv vart du vill gå och om du vill jobba eller plugga eller kanske resa och se världen. Även om framtiden är osäker så är känslan den här dagen obetalbar – du är fri! Jag minns fortfarande när jag själv sprang ut på gården viftande med den vita mössan – världen låg öppen!

This day – I think belongs to the happiest free-and easy-days in your life. The last day in school, the world is an open book with unwritten pages and you are free to do whatever you want. You feel grown up and from now on you make your own decisions about what steps to take from here. I can still remember my day…there is no comparison to that feeling. Even if the future seems uncertain, this day is totally – your own!

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

”Hobbit: Smaugs ödemark”

Richard Armitage som Thorin Ekensköld i ”Hobbit. Smaugs ödemark”.

Bild ur SvD

Del två av trilogin gör Tolkien rättvisa

Hobbit: Smaugs ödemark är fortsättningen på Bilbo Baggers äventyr då han färdas tillsammans med Gandalf och de tretton dvärgarna som leds av Thorin Ekensköld för att återkräva dvärgarnas förlorade rike Erebor.

Regi: Peter Jackson I rollerna: Martin Freeman, Ian McKellen, Richard Armitage, Orlando Bloom m fl 2 tim 41 min. Från 11 år

Precis som många andra unga blev jag på 70-talet helt förtrollad av Tolkiens värld. Mest trilogin om Ringen, men också Bilbo och de underbara kartor som fanns tryckta på böckernas innerpärmar. Kartor över det okända gjorde fantasin mer verklig, för genom dem föddes känslan av att det fanns mer att upptäcka och möjligheten att dessutom skapa något helt nytt och eget.

Som alla bra attraktioner i den rörliga bildens historia introducerar Jackson hela tiden nya filmiska uppfinningar, och det slutgiltiga slaget i Sagan om konungens återkomst var nog det häftigaste som gjorts för bio när den kom. Men effekter och filmteknik åldras snabbt och science fiction- och fantasyfilmer som rider på de senaste datoreffekterna drabbas hårt.

Jag tror att det var denna fixering vid ny filmteknik och nya effekter som gjorde att Hobbit: en oväntad resa blev så svårtillgänglig.  Den blev till ett enda sammelsurium av oborstade dvärgar som myllrade fram i gruvgångar över hela duken och stundtals skötte sina kroppsliga funktioner med all (o)önskvärd tydlighet.

Men i uppföljaren Smaugs ödemark (som börjar in medias res och slutar i en snygg cliffhanger) ser vi äntligen ett mål och en mening i storyn. Bilbo är inte lika framträdande utan vi får istället följa dvärgarnas ledare, Thorin (Armitage), på närmare håll. Och ju närmare Thorin kommer skatten under berget och sitt förlorade hemland, desto mer tycks vittringen av makt få ett obehagligt grepp om honom. Storyns nerv sätts i dallring av att både han och Bilbo – som ju bär på den upphittade härskarringen – blir märkbart och påtagligt påverkade. En påverkan som följer 3D-versionen som en rysning rakt ut i biosoffan. Filmen introducerar också den kvinnliga alven Tauriel (Evangeline Lily från bl.a Lost), ett nytillskott som uppfunnits av Jackson och manusförfattaren Fran Walsh för att inte Smaugs ödemark ska bli totalt mansdominerad. Vi får se hur detta utvecklar sig i den sista delen av trilogin.

Smaugs ödemark bjuder alltså på en mer tydlig, genomarbetad och rak story med bättre stridsscener än The Hobbit. En central sådan är forsränningen i tunnor (se bilden ovan) och den bjuder på både häftig akrobatik och action som gör 3D-djupet befogat. Här gör alverna Legolas och Tauriel oförglömliga tricks som inget annat folkslag skulle kunna utföra. I en helt annan miljö går hjältarna vilse i en mardrömslik skog fylld av jättespindlar – en sekvens som riskerar konvertera spindelvänner  till spindelfobiker med eviga mardrömmar…Själv hukade jag i soffan och kunde inte titta när det var som värst. En helt ny miljö är den dimhöljda staden på vattnet, vilken byggdes i verkligheten med stor detaljrikedom.

Mikael Persbrandt gör en övertygande – om än kort – version av björnmannen Beorn. En karaktär som säkerligen återkommer i den sista delen av trilogin. Och alla vi som älskar Sherlock Holmes älskar också att den slipade Smaug lånat röst av Benedict Cumberbatch  – eller tvärtom…mycket passande!





”The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

From Imdb:

The dwarves, along with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, continue their quest to reclaim Erebor, their homeland, from Smaug. Bilbo Baggins is in possession of a mysterious and magical ring.

Watch Trailer

In The Desolation of Smaug, the dwarves march to take back their homeland, Erebor, and to accomplish this Bilbo (Freeman) and the dwarves must pick their way through a phantasmal forest, navigate raging rapids and escape Lake-town’s corrupt Master (Fry). After that, they must face the dragon…

The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
Browse more images »

The dwarves and Bilbo get tangled with hissing spiders, a giant bear-man (Swedish Michael Persbrandt)and other perils. The heroes hide in wooden casks and are lobbed into what’s not so much an action sequence as an ”unrelenting pile-up of lunatic, barrel-based gags.” On their bumpy way down-river, they are pursued by elves and orcs (who are simultaneously at war in the branches above), and this is where the 3D-version works at its best: when oak cylinders fly at the camera, the barrels bounce off rocks and the agile Legolas and Tauriel perform stunts no other nation of people could even think of.

While An Unexpected Journey felt oddly inconsequential,  The Desolation Of Smaug is a much more satisfying film. The effects are not that central, and some events are even left somewhat ”unfinished”. For example Beorn (Mikael Persbrandt), the aforementioned bear-man, is left behind before we’ve really had a chance to get to know him (though no doubt he’ll be back in the last part of the trilogy).

One problem with the former film was that it moved too much in the same area as the Fellowship of The Ring: we had already been there, so it was, for example, difficult to identify with Bilbo’s awe at entering the beauty of Rivendell. Here, Jackson has entirely new worlds to work with. The forest domain of the Silvan Elves has beauty edged with menace, and Lake-town and Erebor, contrasting but equally stunning showcases of production design. The former, ”a fog-shrouded, Dickensian burg” that we’re informed “stinks of fish oil and tar”, represents a new, earthy flavour for Middle-earth. Like Edoras in The Two Towers, it was largely built for real, which is visible in every detail. Kingdom-under-the-mountain Erebor, on the other hand, is a location weird enough to exist only on a Weta mega-computer.

The group splits in two and Gandalf (Ian McKellen), is off trying to fight the evil resident of Dol Guldur. Of the dwarves, besides Thorin (Richard Armitage), whose facade of nobility is beginning to crumble – the only one who gets much attention is Kili (Aidan Turner), an elf-like dwarf who (together with Legolas) fights for the attention of Tauriel (Evangeline Lilly). Tauriel, an elf ninja character created for the film solely to bring something female into it…, fights bravely by Legolas’ side and gets to do magical stunts only 3D elfs could manage.

The standout new character is, of course, Smaug himself. Benedict Cumberbatch (much loved here in Sweden as ”Sherlock”) has lent his voice successfully to the ” blazing-eyed, honey-voiced, spike-helmed ‘serpent of the north’”. Never have we seen a dragon with this much personality: Smaug is such a well-executed creation, ”toggling between arrogance, indolence and rage”. After the last rough half-hour finale we cannot imagine what Jackson has in store for the last part of the Hobbit trilogy…