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Friday, June 19, 2009

Five favorite things, or playing along

Seaside Girl tagged me the other day with a five random favorite things meme, and since I have never done a meme before, I decided to play along. Without much ado:

Five favorite songs:

  1. Space Oddity--David Bowie
  2. Ring of Fire--Johnny Cash
  3. Help--Beatles
  4. Umbrella--Rihanna
  5. Ha Uma Musica Do Povo--Mariza
Five favorite films:

  1. Burnt by the Sun (Utomlenie solncem) by Nikita Mihalkov--I've seen it about a dozen times and I think it's a masterpiece. It manages to be both a historical film (the story takes place in the late 1930s in the Soviet Union) and a drama of complicated personal relationships.
  2. Before the Rain (Predi dazhdot) by Milcho Manchevski--another one I've seen many times, and my stomach ties into a knot every time I do. It's a story about love, about the Balkans and therefore about vicious circles of hatred and violence, but it isn't a war movie. Acting is fantastic, the shots of harsh Macedonian landscapes stunning, and the soundtrack is very mystic and powerful.
  3. Casablanca by Michael Curtiz--great dialogues, meticulous crafting. Of course, some things look a bit naivistic (the movie was shot in 1943) but it is still a fantastic movie after all that time. So many punchlines and witty exchanges--by now I know most of them by heart.
  4. Il Gattopardo by Lucino Visconti--film based on the novel of the same name by Giovani Lampedusa, about an aristocratic family in Sicily trying to come to terms with the tumultuous times in Italy in 1860s. It has an incredible cast: Claudia Cardinale, Alain Delon, Burt Lancaster.
  5. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Peter Weir--this one I have seen only once, as a child, and never heard of it again until someone mentioned it recently (in a blog post, I think) and the memories came back. I remember that it was very thrilling and mysterious, or maybe I was just young and impressionable.
Five favorite books:

  1. "Speak, Memory" by Vladimir Nabokov
  2. "The Tomb for Boris Davidovich" by Danilo Kis
  3. "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" by Milan Kundera
  4. "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
  5. "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachet
Five favorite crushes:

  1. Toni Kukoc--probably the best Yugoslav (then Croatian) basketball player of the early 199s and very cute at the time.
  2. Roger Moore--the best James Bond ever.
  3. Michael Johnston--an online communications guru. I attended one of his workshops a few years back here in Budapest and fell in love with the whole new media thing as a result. So this is more a new media crush than Michael Johston crush, although he's a pretty smart and fun guy in his own right.
  4. Theodosii Spassov--a Bulgarian musician, plays caval (an instrument similar to flute). Saw him live once at a concert in Budapest and was stunned--he's one of those men who oozes sex apppeal without coming accross as macho or pretentious.
  5. Sherlock Holmes--I just happen to like clever guys.
Five random favorite things:
  1. Haribo jelly bears
  2. The Adriatic Sea
  3. Smell of fresh print
  4. Beautiful notebooks
  5. watching my kids asleep




OK, now I'm supposed to tag another 5 people. They are:

Delwyn from A Hazy Moon
Tulsa from The Art of Living in Japan
Polly from Sotto Voce
Squirrel from The Realm of the Lone Gray Squirrel
B from Cuttings on a Blog

10 comments:

Merisi said...

I know and love four out of each of your favorite movies and books, so I shall look for "Before the Rain" and "The Tomb for Boris Davidovich" - I am really looking forward to getting to know each of them!

I like the film version of "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" too, even though somehow I experienced reading the book differently from watching the movie (I also liked Kundera's "L'Ignorance" because the question of emigration - migration occopies a place in my life too).

Delwyn said...

Hi Jelica

I recently re-read "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and was sorely disappointed - sometimes it doesn't pay to read a book again out of its context and far from the impressionable age I was when I first read it and thought it incredible...

Picnic at Hanging Rock is an old Au movie based on a supposedly true story. I haven't seen any of you others...

I will put the meme on my 'to do' list...

Happy Days

Jelica said...

Merisi, I also like Ignorance (the emigration theme resonates with me as well) and Slowness--it's an excellent little book.

Delwyn, I really loved that movie as a child, although by now I don't remember the details very well. But something that I read brought it back to memory so I researched it and, apparently, Wikipedia says it wasn't really based on a true story but the author of the novel (from which the film was adapted) deliberately created such an impression. Regardless, it was breathtaking and totally weird :)

Polly said...

Thanks, Jelica! I'll be happy to play along!

I must say I've only seen two of your favourite films, but I know all of those books, well done me!

I better start thinking about my favourite things... at the moment I could fit blog camp into every cathegory so I better wait a day or two.

Seaside Girl said...

Your movies are so interesting. I am going to have to look up the four I haven't heard of (Casablanca being the only one I have heard of!) Totally agree on the notebooks thing and wish I had thought of children sleeping. But you get to keep Roger Moore....no no no :-)

I_am_Tulsa said...

Jelica, I am working on the answers now. Thank you for tagging me, this is really making me look inside of myself!
I love your answers...Now I have more books that I need to read, and movies that I need to see!

Jelica said...

What do you mean, Seaside Girl--isn't he the best Bond ever ;)

Sean Connery is a close second, and after that it's really tragic (I'm not sure who I find worse, Brosnan or Craig, who looks like a thug and not a refined English spy :)))

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

I came by earlier today and was surprised to see I was tagged but I have gone off and done the deed. I read your answers with interest. I recognised just a few in each list but so many more that i did not know. As for Bond, I prefer Sean Connery.

julochka said...

Burnt by the Sun YES!! i could not for the life of me remember the name of that film, but i could remember the entire feel of it and the light. i love that film too!

oh, and Before the Rain is marvelous as well. i forgot about that.

what about Angelopoulos' Ulysses Gaze you must like that one as well--

how did i not put these films on my list?!

now i really can't wait to see you at blog camp 2.0! it will be fun to talk about these in person!!

Jelica said...

You know, I heard so much about that film by Angelopulous (it was released the same year as Before the Rain) but somehow it never crossed my path. I will have to search for it.

And definitely looking forward to blog camp 2.0, tickets in hand.