Pirated TV shows are very popular in Sweden

The report also said that Swedish youngsters and adults watch over an hour of pirated TV every week with Prison Break being the most popular show. 35 percent of the people who watched an episode of Prison Break in the last month indicated that they did not watch it on TV but rather on their computers after downloading the episodes via P2P.

Especially this quote is very true:

The main reason was the fact that people like the liberty to watch a show whenever they please and without commercials. Another prominent reason was many downloaders did not like the delay between a US showing and the Swedish showing. They would rather download it hours after the US showing then wait days for it to be shown on Swedish TV.

Article on afterdawn.com and Torrentfreak.

BSG: Crossroads

The Final Five Minus One

Just watched the final BSG episode of season 3 and it’s ending sure surprised me ;). And I am sure I am not an exception. It was suggested that the person you’d least expect to be a Cylon, col. Tigh, was in fact one of the final five. Also didn’t expect Baltar to be found not guilty. The testimony by Felix was very odd. Apparently he still had an axe to grind with Baltar.

And why didnt we expect Tigh to be a Cylon ? Because it goes against everything previously stated in the show and in interviews with Ronald D. Moore. In the interview (link below) RDM states that the writers just came up with this ‘plot twist’ halfway through this season. This just hints at very sloppy writing and makes one of the fundamental plots in the show seem like an afterthought. In the interview it is simply explained away with ‘Oh but they’re fundamentally different Cylons‘. Yeah right 🙄 . I guess they came up with this concept halfway through the season as well. Found a good blogpost here and Alan Light’s rant in his latest podcast is pretty clear about it ;).

My take on the whole thing, how it will end up, is that the ‘final 5’ cylons are a whole different type of breed from the regular ones we have seen so far and have a different agenda and want to live with what’s left of the human race. Somewhere in time they split from the cylons we know and these other cylons are very different in character than our regular cylons. I assume Starbuck to be no. 5, who will lead our gang of ships to earth. Unfortunately we’ll have to wait until january to see what happens next :(. How cruel !

Interesting links:

Interview with Ronald D. Moore

Alan Light, Combat information center, very nice podcast and forum

Starbuck is back !

Screenshots taken from bsgmedia.com.

Tim Hildebrandt

For millions of fans around the world, the Star Wars poster that Tim and Greg Hildebrandt created in 1977 became the definitive illustration of that galaxy far, far away. It’s an exciting, vibrant and unforgettable image that is even more astonishing when you realize that it was created in just 36 hours. While it’s only one of countless beautiful pieces of art that Tim created in his life — including hundreds of other inspired Star Wars illustrations — the Star Wars poster is truly iconic and will always loom large in the imagination. We will miss Tim’s artistry and talents tremendously.

— George Lucas
http://starwars.com/community/news/family/f20060629/index.html

Walk The Line

Walk the line poster
To be honest, I was a little reluctant to see this movie at first. I am big Cash fan, especially his American Recordings stuff, and also read some books about the man, so I already have an image of him inside my head. But decided to give it a go anyway, mostly due to my curiosity.

Well I am glad I did, because I liked the movie a lot. Basically it tells his life story from childhood up to the late sixties where he finally got off drugs, married June and rediscovered his christian faith.

Both Joaquim Phoenix and Reese Weatherspoon play excellent. Even though they arent exactly lookalikes of Cash and Carter they manage to portray a believable image of them. The music is nicely done as well. The story might be a bit superficial at times, as you mainly see Cash in trouble, especially focusing on his outbursts, but I guess they had a lot of ground to cover and picked up the most interesting bits. Cash’s relationship with his father plays a big role as well.
Continue reading Walk The Line

The Constant Gardener

The Constant Gardener
Saw this movie this weekend and thought it was very impressive. It’s about a diplomat (Justin Quayle played by Ralph Fiennes), who, right before he leaves on a business trip to Africa meets Tessa, an activist and they start a romance that soon leads to a marriage, because Tessa wants to join Justin on his trip to Africa. The movie starts rather dramatically when Justin receives the news that Tessa might have been killed by local bandits. The first 45mins or so of the movie are all flashbacks and there are more of them in the rest of the movie. A plot then unwraps that her killing might have been more than just a coincidence. I wont go into that for the people that didnt see it yet.
Continue reading The Constant Gardener

The Grizzly Man

Lord I do not want to be hurt by a bear

Grizzly Man
No this site is not turning into animal planet. It’s just coincidence I watched two animal related movies this week :). The Grizly Man is a documentary on Timoty Treadwell. For 13 years Treadwell lived amongst the Grizzly bears in Alaska during the summer. The movie is a collection of Treadwell’s own footage he shot during the last few years of his life and interviews by the director of the movie Warner Herzog.

In the fall of 2003 Treadwell and his girlfriend were killed by a bear, which made the news all over the world at the time. Overall the documentary is well done, you see TT talking with the bears (he even gave them names) and the interviews with people he knew are nice and informative, though some are a bit too emotional for my taste. This documentary isnt perfect but it’s very enjoyable nevertheless. I love the endearing moments, like chasing his pet fox who stole his cap or the one where he talks to Chocolate, one of his favorite bears.

Timothy Treadwell and his bears Continue reading The Grizzly Man