Blog

Double-0 Disappointing

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:11:43 -0500

We went to see Quantum of Solace on Saturday, and I have to say that it wasn’t worth the 40 minutes we spent queuing to get in! To begin with, I cringed throughout the entire title song. I thought it might come across better in context and on the big screen, but no! If anything it was worse! It was also so badly produced, that the tinny sound I thought was just bad quality on the internet was amplified to an intolerable level in Dolby digital in a large cinema.
Then, it seems that, in trying to live up to the high expectations after Casino Royale, the film team have made the usual mistake of thinking that more action + more intrigues + more plot twists = good film. Why does this always happen in sequels of popular films? The dialogues weren’t very good, I didn’t see any of the promised ‘character development’ in Bond and the scene stolen directly from Goldfinger annoyed the hell out of me.
Arturo saw himself at the bar at the beginning of the party scene but there was no sign of Panemma - its probably a case of buying the dvd and going through it frame by frame ;-)
Anyway, all in all the film was a disappointment. That said, it was cool to see familiar streets and friends and colleagues appear in the film and it was still a fantastic experience to take part!

Congratulations!

Tue, 4 Nov 2008 23:11:50 -0500

It’s 11 pm and I have just one thing to say:
Congratulations USA - you’ve finally made the right choice.

Cathartes aura

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 20:23:28 -0500

Happy birthday Panama! Nothing much gets done here during November. Not only does it rain all the time, but it’s also time for the ‘fiestas patrias’ (national holidays) , and there are several! Today, the 3rd, is the ‘Separation from Colombia’, on the 5th its ‘Columbus Day’, on the 10th its the ‘Cry for Independence’ and on the 28th its ‘Independence from Spain’.
All of these holidays haven’t stopped the turkey vulture migration. The video shows clouds of turkey vultures circling above our house. It’s quite impressive. Apparently, up to 2000 vultures fly across Panama city per day during the migration. The scientific name Cathartes aura means ‘golden purifier’ or ‘cleansing breeze’ which certainly suits them when they’re flying majestically through the sky, but turkey vulture definitely suits them better when you see their ungainly hopping around on the ground fighting over a dead agouti!

Hundreds of flags on the lawn outside ‘Ciudad del Saber’ for the national holidays

Two cats and a kazoo

Sat, 11 Oct 2008 14:12:04 -0500

The Foo Fighters and Chris Cornell are helping me put a seminar together today. Not everyone’s taste (right, Bo’ster?), but after hearing the title song for the new James Bond film, even Britney Spears would be an improvement!!! Just my luck, I get the once-in-a-lifetime chance to take part in a Bond film and its going to go down in 007 history as the one with the worst EVER title song... Have a listen here - on the BBC website Tris from Indiana describes it as “two cats and a kazoo with distortion”, but I think my two cats can sing better.

Party Time!

Mon, 6 Oct 2008 09:52:58 -0500

It was Arturo’s 30th birthday on Thursday and as he didn’t want a big party for himself, we did one on Saturday for the kids at the karate academy instead. It was great fun and we had about 40 kids in the dojo! There was a game of ‘hot potato’, ‘pin the tail on the donkey (which was adapted to ‘pin the belt on the Samurai’), an obstacle course and a piñata followed by a buffet and a karate cake (see photo above!). Here are some photos and a couple of videos. I was too busy dashing around trying to make things run smoothly, so the photos and videos were mostly taken by Joel and Alejandro - Thanks!
I think everyone really enjoyed themselves, but I was exhausted afterwards. I now have real sympathy for clowns...