Miss Funnybunny made that beautiful Easter birdie card, with her palm. Miss Funnybunny is at her grandparents' with Mr HP, and I miss them terribly. (But I could not go, had just too much to do. And I will be travelling soon, too, in London, and Milan...)
Pasha on the table was made by a friend and neighbour MT. Thanks! What a lovely Easter surprise.
The pumpkins around the pasha are marsmallows. Not self-made, no.
And yesterday I went downtown, to the Southern part of Helsinki, Ullanlinna.
LH and I celebrated Easter (a bit in advance), and ate blinys with caviar (roe, actually), mushrooms, onions, pickled cucumber (Russian style! the best in the world), smetana and honey. And drank Siberian beer.
*******
Easter is about dying. And yes yes, about resurrection, but I do not understand what that means. I have thought a lot about dying recently. Last year my friends and I lost some significant people, significant to us: friends, members of our families, people we wished we had known better.
But we all will die. Do I understand it? I am not sure, but I am perhaps getting closer to understanding that, since I get older and older. No healthy 25-year-old can really understand dying. But closer to 40's one starts thinking about health and good food and exercising and buying anti-wrinkle creams and all that horrible stuff the markets are cheating us with.
*******
To shake and stir the theological thoughts I went to see an excellent movie. Wow, that was something!
300.
It was so good. My friend VT and I had to choose out of many films: the newest Bond, Pan's Labyrinth (still would like to see that one), Goya's Ghosts (a new Milos Forman, can you believe that?) and Quelques jours en septembre (my being a huge fan of la Binoche).
Luckily there was a bunch of films I would never go and see, like The Queen (WHY on earth would anyone want to see a film about one of the most boring women on earth?????! And don't give me that crap about Helen Mirren being so good. Yes, she certainly is, but in Finland we get to watch Tennyson series on TV, and she is so good in there, too), Music And Lyrics (Usch.), and so on.
But 300 was so good.
Frank Miller is a genius. He is a wizard of graphic arts. He is a master of storytelling. It was so beautiful. It was pure, wonderful visual pleasure.
About the body count... You can start with 300. But the film was not just about war and killing. It was about the long threads of people. I am not interested in ancestors or family histories, but I am very interested in major historical turning points and the ugly start of our so-called civilisation.
300 is about intrigue and passion. About immortality that does exist on earth. About rough life so hard that dying is not scary but a gate to the free world. About moral stronger than the words of useless gods, and stronger than the words of the sinful and corrupt priests. About loyalty to the pricelessly valuable person by your side.
About stories larger than life.
(I must get a rental 300 DVD once it's out. Or actually, I may have to buy the film. Oh, what the h***. I will go and see it in a theater again.)
5 comments:
Hi from California I.S. I really enjoyed your blog
comments about the movie 300. I have seen it many times here in the states and even attended the Premiere Event in Los Angeles.
I have been to your beautiful country IS - in 05 on
my way home from visiting St. Petersburg. I was only in Helsinki but had a wonderful day there and those pictures are some of the most beautiful of my trip.
Though your country is so peaceful and green... I am glad that you can still appreciate a dramatic war story like 300. The movie has been very successful here in the states and I am so glad that it is being well received in Europe, Scandinavia and Finlandia as well. As a fan of the Scottish Actor who played King Leonidas I am glad that a European Man has been so successful in this American film. Well - it was filmed in Canada but I think it would be called "American" (Warner Bros.)
I loved your comments on THE QUEEN - did see that one too and it is well done - but really - do we need to put a microscope into that life - are we more enlightened by studying Leonidas or QE2??? Duh ***wink***
Well I'm off to share Easter with my family - enjoyed your blog. I dont' have one but you can e-mail me at Suzell@comcast.net if you want to comment to me.
Warm greetings from California - Suzanne
Queen is a good movie, and as long as there are royal families in the world why not check what they are like ... there are reasons for everything!
Thanks for comments. Ok, I should understand why someone really wants to see the Queen. They, the Royal family, do sell papers, even though I am not quite sure of what their other profession is. - Yeah, I should see the film and learn, shouldn't I? But I would fall asleep, most likely.
My next movie - in theater, not DVD - will be the new Milos Forman. (Or 300 again...)
Suzanne, greetings from Helsinki to California! I don't understand how you could have taken the most beautiful holiday photos in Helsinki, if you had just visited St Petersburg, the most beautiful city after Paris!
I like 300 because I think, after all, that it is somehow a very honest film. Or honesty, it reavered very well what I am thinking: That dying is not worse than slavery, and the only honprable death I could thik of is dying so that someone else is being saved. (Seldom happens, in real world.) And, it made me think of Chechnya, actually...
Of course I love to live in a peaceful country.
Best wishes,
IStori
SORRY, I'm writing this with my laptop on my lap, with only one hand and three fingers, so here is the last paragraph again, corrected:
I like 300 because I think, after all, that it is somehow a very honest film.
Honestly, it revealed very well what I am thinking: That dying is not worse than slavery, and the only kind of honorable death I could think of is dying so that someone else is being saved. (Seldom happens, in real world.) And, it made me think of Chechnya, actually...
Of course I love to live in a peaceful country.
Best wishes,
IStori
Dear IStori,
I couldn't help to see that you went for blinys at some Russian restaurant in Helsinki, which makes me wonder, whatever happened to the Russian restaurant down by Pohjoisranta. I would appreciate to learn what happened, as I used to go there every once in a while back in the old days, and enjoyed it very much.
Yours,
Vilhelm
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