Our very own Knut

I don’t know if you've heard about the polar bear baby Knut that was raised by humans in one of the zoos of Berlin last year. Got loads of media attention, and not just in Germany, as far as I know.

Now the local zoo here in Nürnberg has a polar bear cub, too. It’s a girl and it doesn’t have a name yet. There were 2 bears who had babies but only one survived and the keepers have to feed it now because the mother bear Vera was a bit confused (She took the cub out of the “den” and dropped it a few times and didn’t take it back into the den.). The cub doesn’t have a name yet, but she is referred to in the press as Flocke (flake). She’s the cutest thing although she doesn’t do much beside sleep and drink yet. She can’t even crawl and only opened her eyes yesterday for the first time. And she makes the cutest noises in her sleep.

If you want to check her out, the zoo and the city of Nürnberg have set up a website that provides an image gallery etc.

I really hope the little bear will be okay. The zoo’s director says she might still get an infection and is not really safe before she’s 3 months old or something like that.

More TV and music babble

Prison Break Season 1 DVD box:
Have now watched discs 1-3 and the specials on disc 6. Am happy with the box, but there are still a few things I wish they had added:
- Audio commentary from Wentworth Miller. He’s the only actor not doing one, I think. Instead, you get the very monosyllabic Dominic Purcell on more than one episode.
- Outtakes. They were always the best thing about the ALIAS DVDs, mainly because Jennifer Garner was so different from her character Sydney (i.e. clumsy and girlish-giggly) and that was so much fun to watch.
- More deleted scenes. What I most would have loved to see is a longer version of the kiss in episode 19 because it’s edited very strangely in the episode itself.

Dinotopia:
Oh yes, I’m still very much obsessed with Wentworth Miller. So although I hate dinosaurs I watched Dinotopia on TV last night (both parts were shown back to back) because he was in it. What really confused me was that his brother (played by Tyron Leitso) had his German Prison Break voice (Gerrit Schmidt-Foss, who also dubs Leonardo DiCaprio) while Wentworth had Lex Luthor’s voice (from Smallville, done by Björn Schalla). So when the brothers were in a scene together I always thought it was Went’s character speaking when I heard the Michael Scofield voice. Anyway … I found the whole thing highly amusing. It was all such a fantasy land … the costumes alone made me laugh quite a bit. Oh boy … poor Wentworth … no chance of looking cool in a light green shirt or a beige pilot’s uniform … hehe. But it was interesting to see him in a different part than the one he plays on Prison Break, just for a change.

New songs stuck in my head at the moment:
Bad one: Leona Lewis - Bleeding love. Argh.
Good one: Michael Bublé – Lost. You are not alone, I am here for you … la la la. Like it.

J.J., you've officially LOST me

Short version: I will from now on (we’re somewhere in season 3) not watch LOST anymore. Another channel will start airing new episodes of Without a Trace in the same timeslot so I’ve decided to watch that instead.

Long version: I’m really the most loyal viewer any TV person could ask for. If I start watching a show and I like it, I’ll hardly ever miss an episode. I’ll even keep watching if the quality of a show deteriorates. The first season of LOST blew me away. As a fan of J.J. Abrams’ show ALIAS I had high expectations and wasn’t disappointed. Loved the combination of the things going on on the island after the plane crash and the focus on the different characters by means of flashbacks to their lives before the crash. Loved most of the actors as well. Bought the DVD box. Then season 2 came along and I didn’t like it as much. Can’t even remember why exactly. Michael getting violent and in general the appearance of guns and the increasing violence on the show were certainly part of the reason.
Then there was a long break on German TV cos the ratings had gone down and the channel LOST is on probably didn’t really know what to do with the show. But eventually season 3 started and it all got even worse.

Here are some of the reasons why I don’t like the show anymore:

- I hate the character Ben (kind of the boss of The Others) or maybe it’s the actor. I just can’t bear to look at this guy. You might argue that he plays the villain or creepy guy very well and I can enjoy villains on other shows, but this one … no way.

- The backstories for the characters have stopped making sense because they don’t fit together with what we learned before about a character. Examples: I didn’t buy Jack being completely jealous of his ex-wife’s new boyfriend. I don’t really see how Kate could have been married to a cop. It’s like the writers are just pulling rabbits out of hats. Look, we’ve got another surprise for you viewers! Hahaha. Not funny. The last thing I saw (I was on the phone at the time so I don’t know all the details) was that Claire is Jack’s half-sister. Great.

- The “love triangle” has been drawn out for way too long. Sawyer is hot. Kate fancies him. But she still can’t leave Jack alone because she thinks he’s the better guy and she should be with a good guy and not bad boy Sawyer. Or whatever. Who cares. But unfortunately the show focuses too much on these 3 characters. Yes, they were in the center of it all from the beginning, but before (season 1) it all seemed much more balanced and I really cared for most characters. But when you just see them in the background somewhere it’s hard to keep an interest in them.

- Everything keeps getting weirder. Okay, there was a polar bear in the middle of the jungle in season 1 and I thought it was cool. On one of the last eps I saw, there was a cow and some kind of farm. in the middle of the jungle. I don't know. I'm not saying I want "monster of the week" episodes. I don't mind story arcs that go on for several eps, but on LOST it has simply become too much. You just never get any proper answers and it's frustrating.

Okay, enough reasons. Bottom line: I’ve stopped caring and I won’t spend another Monday night watching that crap.

P.S.: Damn you, Hollywood!

Last week I was in a bookshop and saw Cecelia Ahern’s novel PS, I love you with a film poster cover showing Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler. I had heard of Ahern before – all her novels have been translated into German and are quite successful here, I think – but had never read anything by her. I had mainly stayed away from PS, I love you because I thought I’d be crying the whole time if I read it. (The story is that a young man dies of a brain tumor and has left his widow a letter and notes for the months to come.) I had no idea they had made a film adaptation and I like Swank and Butler but didn’t buy the book that day.

Then on New Year’s Eve I had dinner with a friend. When I was about to leave we went into her bedroom to the bookshelf for some reason and she showed me some of her books and PS, I love you (in the German translation) was one them. So I told her about the film version coming up and asked if I could borrow it. She said yes and I basically spent all of January 1 reading it. I really liked it and it wasn’t as sad as I’d expected. It’s set in Dublin, which I loved cos I’ve been there twice (and loved it) so some of the street names sounded familiar. While reading it, I tried to picture Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler as Holly and Gerry. Didn’t quite work. And I kept wondering who’d play Holly’s friends and family (who all play important parts in the story).

Anyway, I started to look forward to the film especially because of the location. Haven’t seen a film set in Dublin in a while. But what did I have to find out today when I picked up Filmtips (a free magazine that lists the local movie theatre programmes and has short texts about all the films in it)? The film is set in New York (City)!! Are they crazy or what?! It says ‘autumn in New York’ in the blurb about the film. Even better. The book starts in February or March. Not exactly autumn, I’d say. F***ing Hollywood. Why do they have to Americanize everything? As I mentioned before, Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler do not quite fit how I see Holly and Gerry. Holly sounds more like a petite blonde, not tough girl Hilary Swank. But maybe it could have worked. They do speak English in Dublin, you know. And I’m sure there are Irish or English or Scottish actors who could have played all the other parts (Gerard Butler is Scottish anyway). But transferring everything to New York? Totally different story. Not that I don’t like New York, but shooting this there with a mostly American cast just destroys every connection to the book except for the basic storyline. So guess who does not want to see this movie? Right. Still, I don’t regret reading the book, and I might buy the English version – but only if I find it with a ‘normal’ (i.e. not movie-related) cover.

New Year's Resolutions

Obvious topic for this new post ... okay, so here they are:

1. Stay in touch with the girls formerly known as the "Eurochat girls". We've known each other for years from a Christian Bale mailing list/Yahoo! Group and used to chat regularly Sundays at 5 p.m. But for some time now we haven't been in touch much for various reasons. I e-mailed the girls (well, 3 of them - 2 from Spain and 1 from Denmark who I've actually met in real life) for Christmas and got sweet replies. Loved that. So I really really want to keep this up and not just feel guilty for losing touch every Christmas. And there are also a few people from Germany who I need to write to again.

2. Work on the things that my bosses mentioned in the talk we had in December. I was pretty shocked that they know me that well and have noticed most of the little things I thought I could get away with. Such as the fact that I don't like talking on the phone too much and try to avoid it by writing an e-mail instead. *Sigh* Must work on that and other things. Won't be too easy cos the things are not just "things" you can learn but they are part of my personality. Does that make sense? Hm. Also, I must try to figure out where I want to be in 1-5 years. As far as I'm concerned, work could just go on like that. I don't have a goal in mind that I want to reach within a certain period of time. I don't really know where my strenghts lie. I'm pretty clueless and don't have a plan or some grand ambition. Dammit. Wow, this is getting pretty deep and depressing. Anyway ... NYR no. 2 basically is to get better at my job.

It's 11 p.m. and I'm tired. So that's the end of my short list ... for now, anyway.

P.S. Dear Blogger, please don't screw up the line breaks again!!