The change-up (2011) - Do not waste your time..

Yeah another cinema day where i did not want to make any effort to understand a difficult story and i only wanted to be entertained. Well, I found the non-complicated story, the problem was that ,it was a mere copy of one of those 80ies movies where personalities were exchanged and one swapped the life of the other keeping the other´s body and then they try to get their lives back and I have seen already many of those. It had some funny moments (such as the scene with Jason B. and his twins in the kitchen) but only a few, the funniest ones came from Jason Bateman (he is by the way, one of my t.v. serie´s "platonic love" , when I was a teenager!) but i did not find it even entertain me, too simple, not a hint of originality. So no, do not waste your time if you wanted to go and see it, if you are one day at home and it´s that day on t.v. and you do not have anythingelse to do then have a go, otherwise it´s one of those American commercial forgettable movies that you can live without seeing it.

Crazy Stupid Love (2011): Good movie to have a laugh!

2 good reasons to see this movie: To see how funny Steve Carell is and to see Ryan Gosling´s Abs (he is just fab lol). The plot is about a married man,Carl (played by Steve) having a crisis in his marriage and having to start over again, in conjuction with 2 other love stories (3 different relationships, of 3 diff generations). Womanizer, Jacob (played by Ryan G.), pities Carl, when he sees him at a night club after his wife breaks up with him and he decides to help him to get a new style and to start dating women again and they actually become mates and at a later stage "almost family" lol (i ain´t telling no more..). Carl´s first attempt will be with Marisa Tomei LOL gee she is funny, too!! My fav moments from the movie are actually the ones in which she comes up LOL "she is an alcoholic " LOL ;the arshole scene at the school LOL or the scene with all fighting in the garden lol. Julianne Moore plays an excellent role as middle-aged woman having a crisis having an affair with Kevin Bacon,playing her work colleague ; the kid playing her son is very good too. So to sum up, if you have one of those days when you don´t want to think much and you only want to be entertained in the cinema with a very easy story to follow, this is the movie to watch, i can guarantee you that you will smile! We liked it! I´m a fan of Steve Carell, he always makes me laugh..so no surprises there!

Chucho Valdez and the Messengers concert (National Concert Hall, Dublin)

No doubt why the Cuban musician Chucho has won 4 grammy awards! To be honest I went to this concert because I got it as a birthday present, I did not have the pleasure to know this genious Cuban Jazz pianist before. So thank you very much to Allan,Francesco,Marta and Albert for this wonderful present! It was just what i needed after a long day at work! Not only Chucho but also the messengers (5 musicians) and his daughter made the night! What a positive energy full of improvisation, instruments with original melodies and rythms that i had not heard before, dance and clean singing. The whole audience was smiling and moving and at the end everybody stood up to dance and sing along, it was impossible to remain seated! What a joy! What an positive energetic Monday evening! Now I understand why this concert was on a Monday, to make a blue Monday special! Thank you Chucho ! I love what a good concert can make you feel!



See this video of what they are capable of doing and if you have the chance of seeing them on tour, don´t miss the opportunity! Even if you are not into Jazz,it´s something different, just art!! trust me!

Humble tirbute to a man I respect: Steve Jobs

It´s amazing how wikipedia gets updated so quickly, isn´t it? When your birth date and death date is in wikipedia, it´s a fact! Only a few people in history make a big impact in other´s people lives such as Steve Jobs did. To give you one example, I´m thinking of him right now that i´m forced to use my old vaio laptop which gets stucks every 10 minutes with this obsolete windows vista and this slow duo processor.Being this my second try of writting this post, first try : Computer froze and guess what? I lost the post! So here I´m again trying, I put the Mac sticker on the vaio to see if it makes it faster or more fashionable lol but it ain´t working arg! It´s simple, once you try Mac you never go back! Steve was the co-founder of Apple inc ,which curiously was created on the year I was born, is this a sign? How many people depend nowadays on iphones, ipads or Macs? I only want to thank Steven for making internet-addicts lives like me much easier! It´s easy to spend hours with an i-phone or mac which works so smoothly and which such a beautiful and light design! Unfortunately for you Steve, Cancer does not discriminate between rich and poor and even famous and rich people like you could not win the tough battle against pancreatic cancer. I wonder if you had time to enjoy life to the fullest, dying only at the age of 56 and working almost to the last minute, only resigning in August 2011! Sure whereever you are now, you will be inventing i-phone 6! Unbeliavable, huh? such original and trendy invetions having as an iconic advertisement campaign a bitten apple! What will be the symbology behind that? Uhm ..i´ll ask you one day if we meet!

Steve JObs 1955-2011 descanse en paz! R.i.p.

I leave you with this video of the beginning of Mac

´thriller Live , The Musical 2011- Yes we were there!(Docklands ,theatre dublin)

Many things have been said about Michael Jackson but one thing no-one can deny is that he was the biggest icon of pop and there is and there will not be anyone so talented like him. I have always admired him as an artist since my oldest sister played over and over again the vinilo record of "thriller" when i was a kid. Unfortunately I could not see Michael live in concert , so i took the chance to go and see the musical which gives tribute to Michael´s life " Thriller Live". We attended the 2.30 pm show because it was the one where i found the better seat. Paradoxically, the audience from the show was full of kids dressed like Michael Jackson. The show started with small Michael singing. There were 3 men and one female singer singing Michael´s songs and one talented little kid playing little Michael in the Jackson five. In general i have to say that i had very high expectations and although I had a very good time and I enjoyed specially the second part of the show, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of originality of the plot of the musical, they were reading stages of Michael´s life and then singing his songs. I could not avoid compare this musical to the one i saw a couple of years ago "we will rock you", where the originality of the plot ,the vocals of the singers and the effects blew us away. Well, the musical thriller was very simple, dancers were very good and out of the 5 singers that portraied Michael, only 1 was not good enough and none of them could dance and sing at the same time like Michael did, fair enough ,Michael is not easy to imitate and you can see this in this show where the dancers do the moves and the singers sing! There was one dancer who did very well the moonwalk! We were all so excited!! As I explained above i enjoyed more the second part ,maybe because i knew better Michael Jackson´s song that Jackson´s five ones. Some of the best moments where we could not sit down and stood up at the theater: Thriller; Moonwalk; Boogie; Billy Jean;beat it; we are the world and bad and form the Jackson five: a,b,c and i´ll be there! Last but not least, i´d like to mention that the female singer was the best imitating Michael´s voice, she was amazing and she looked fab. So no big effects, no big changes of stages and lights, just Michael´s music and dance! i felt Michael´s alive again and i´m sure he´ll always be alive in his songs. So if you are a Michael fan, go and see this musical!

Video promotion of the musical:

http://youtu.be/sHfZu0kRyGQ

¿Dónde está mi MAc matarile,rile,rile? Where is my MAC arg,arg,arg?

I Don´t need to add any comments..Below you can see what happened .. don´t miss my face it says it all..(worried about missing our flight, about getting a police report on time and about my other set of keys.) Yeah if your computer is stolen never leave without a police report, it´s the only proof you will have if criminals use it and your name is registered with the computer to commit any crime. We were lucky to have our Polish friends helping us ,translating all the time to them (you also need that report to claim something back from your travel insurance, never travel without one!), in addition thanx to Andrés charm we got the written report because the police explained to us that in Poland for this type of crime you are not entitled to take a written report with you (they keep records of it but you don´t take any evdence with you). There was also a nice witness (also in the photo) who stayed with us to testify, she was parking her car when she saw the 2 thieves breaking into the cars. As my husband always says " this was also part of the trip (todo hace parte del paseo!)". Lessons that we learned from this: Don´t take your computer anywhere (this is going to be tough for me..); even if you travel with people from the country your are visiting, don´t do what you would never do in your own country e.g. leave any bags in a car and last but not least keep back-up copies of anything you do on your computer and print at least a couple of pictures of your favourite trips!

Ah! In a situation like this remain calm, there is not much you can do and what you can actually do , needs to be done in a calm way!

¿Dónde está mi MAC matarile,rilerile ..? Where is my MAC arg,arg,arg?

I Don´t need to add any comments..Below you can see what happened .. don´t miss my face it says it all..(worried about missing our flight, about getting a police report on time and about my other set of keys.) Yeah if your computer is stolen never leave without a police report, it´s the only proof you will have if criminals use it and your name is registered with the computer to commit any crime. We were lucky to have our Polish friends helping us ,translating all the time to them (you also need that report to claim something back from your travel insurance, never travel without one!), in addition thanx to Andrés charm we got the written report because the police explained to us that in Poland for this type of crime you are not entitled to take a written report with you (they keep records of it but you don´t take any evdence with you). There was also a nice witness (also in the photo) who stayed with us to testify, she was parking her car when she saw the 2 thieves breaking into the cars. As my husband always says " this was also part of the trip (todo hace parte del paseo!)". Lessons that we learned from this: Don´t take your computer anywhere (this is going to be tough for me..); even if you travel with people from the country your are visiting, don´t do what you would never do in your own country e.g. leave any bags in a car and last but not least keep back-up copies of anything you do on your computer and print at least a couple of pictures of your favourite trips!

Friends with Benefits (2011) -

Uhm, you know that kind of movie that when you have seen the trailer you have seen it all? Yeah, the best moments were all in the trailer!! Predictable dialogues with lack of originality and wit and of course a cheesy ending! One guy in the audience even made as if he was vomiting loud as a protest of the cheesiness LOL and of course we laughed in agreement with him. O.k. I'm going to be honest with you, i didnt' expect it to be , the movie of my life, i actually wanted to see Justin Timberlake and Andres wanted to see Mila Kunis and yeah this is what you get,no more. Both of them semi-naked (even their arses are shown in the film)playing to be sex pals. They have good chemistry in camera and look great together. The cinema was full, full of couples like us, most of the guys probably forced to go but made the effort to see Mila. To sum up, this film is a promotion of both actors , of New York and Los Angeles, nothing else and of course when it ends you feel ugly and old (at least me lol). Let's say that it was an o.k. afternoon film that you can see while doing somethingelse without paying much attention. Sorry I'm not much help here but if i were you, i'd not pay a penny to see this film, just watch it on t.v. whenever is released!

September Volume: Humble Guide to help you find things to do apart from going to a pub in Dublin & surroundings !

As promised I was going to tell you in advanced what Dublin has to offer on a monthly basis! And guess what? September is full of cultural events! I'll start with the Dublin culture night on the 23rd of September - where all events are free! (only some venues you need to book in advanced, due to capacity). You can download the programme for free on their webpage and decide what is more of interest to you: music, art, literature, history. They also have a facebook page that you can follow you can get there from their webpage which is:

http://www.culturenight.ie/

If you are into musicals, there is the hit "Thriller live" musical at the Grandcanal Theatre from the 19th of September to the 24th and tickets are running fast! I have mine already! Of course you have to be a Michael Jackson fan to enjoy this musical since most of his hits will be sang there!

http://www.grandcanaltheatre.ie/listView.aspx?mid=2

For the ones who enjoy having some German Oktoberfest atmosphere at the Dublin Docklands area, there is a small representation of pure Bayern Beer tent with a genuine band from Bayern, sausages, Brezzel etc from the 22th of September to the 9th of October ! Entrance is free ,it can get very busy at weekends so i'd advise to go one day in the middle of the week after work.

More info here:

http://www.discoverireland.ie/Oktoberfest?gclid=CJnpgLiykqsCFQRJ3godvS9aBw

Again more beer events , this time Irish pure Guiness, with Guiness Arthur's day on the 22nd of September, good black beer mixed with good music! There will be some big gigs such as Stereophonics , Scissor Sisters or Calvin Harris, I'm actually now thinking whether i can go to one of them or not uhm.

More info here:

http://www.guinness.com/en-ie/arthursday/bandinfo.html

Wait ,wait there is more, 2 of my favourite festivals of the year also take place in September!

The first one " The fringe festival" full of alternative theater, performances and dance. More info to be found on their web page, tickets can be bought online, loads of events so take your time to go through the programme! It actually starts today (the 10th.09) and lasts until the 25.09.2011

http://www.fringefest.com/2011-programme?gclid=CLuzuse0kqsCFRJX4QodZ3m0wg

Last but not least the Ulster Bank theater festival where you can find more contemporay, classic and alternative theater plays,it starts just at the end of September on the 29th and lasts until the 16th of October

http://www.dublintheatrefestival.com/?gclid=CL_vkOS0kqsCFdRc4QodmVXCWA

If you are a theater lover like me you have to attend both of the festivals I have just mentioned above, there are plays from different price ranges and for every pocket! Don't forget my tips from the first post on how to organize your events, do some research and put them on your calendar to remember them!

Sure there are more events but i think you have enough of them on your list now, don't you think?? So who is still thinking that there is not much to do in Dublin??huh??

Good to have a laugh: The Inbetweeners (2011)

British comedy movie based on the Channel 4 tv series of the same name created in 2008 " The Inbetweeners". I did not know the series and after seeing the film i really feel like watching it lol (you can see some chapters on youtube) Yeah, i admit, i like this type of high-school comedy like American Pie, so what? I'm very open-minded!. Although they are all British and I'm not usually into British humour, they really connect with the audience (It wasn't only us the ones laughing!), at least with the Irish audience. No wonder why the tv series got so many awards, among them a British Academy Television Award voted by the public in 2010. I'm not going to tell you the plot, just that it's about 4 nerdy friends that go to Creta for holidays and all their adventures trying to flirt and enjoy their time there. I didn't have high expectations and i knew it was only going to be entertaining but i actually got fond of the movie characters and i laughed more than expected! The best moments: When actor Blake Harrison ,playing Neil, starts dancing "papapapa Americano" at the disco and the rest follow LOL! Priceless! / When they see the apartments were they have to stay /When Simon breaks up with his girlfriend../ when Will ends up having a white pennis marked on his back (lol) and many more that i'm not going to tell you!! Once is clear the image they show from Creta is not very good, a very touristy place full of drunken youths.

If you want to have a look at the series web page is located here::

http://www.e4.com/inbetweeners/cast.html

And don't miss the trailer of the movie, yeah it looks very stupid because it's a stupid movie but entertaining! I specially found funny too they way they talk, since i'm not used to the posh British accent anymore lol

Definitely Recommended :Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

I have been gladly surprised by this film! Being honest I only knew it was a film about chimpanzees doing a type of revolution in the XXIth century, well it had some of that but the story behind it is a bit more, it will touch your heart. I thought it was a remake of the 70'ies movie but i didn't see much of that either, which was also suprising! Not sure now who i liked it better either little scissors (the protagonist chimpanzee) or gorgeous looking James Franco who plays the role of a scientist doing research on chimpanzees to be able to cure Alzheimer. Both of them are so lovable and cute!! Actor John Lithgow plays Wills' father , my respects to him, he really shows the lows and downs of such a horrible degenerative disease such as Alzheimer. You really get into the chimpanzees way of thinking and behaving and in the end you just want them to win! I ain't telling you more details if you promise me that you are going to see it! If you watch it and you don't like it you can come and kick my arse, i allow you but i'm sure this will not happen! Just to give you an overview of what the critics think: IT was scored with a 7.9 on the internet movie data base web page and 88% (audience and 82% critics )on the rotten tomatoes web page, my personal score would be : 90%! Can't wait to see the second part!

I leave you with the trailer: