Kulturzeit 2010

[gothikmaus]

Kulturzeit post, to keep track of what I read, watch, do this year. Hopefully I'll do a little better than last year, especially in the book department, but I'm such a lazy reader. The first book I finished was "The Vampire Diaries - The Struggle", a Christmas present from my dad. It's the second book of a series and it was like watching only the second episode of a 4-episode TV series. It's not like the Harry Potter books: sure, there are seven different books, but each one of them has its own main plot with a beginning, a development and an end, while having a bigger plot in the background. This novel started right in the middle of an action and ended right in the middle of another one. But I'm not blaming my father, he knows I love vampires and just wanted to get me a present I'd like.

On a meta level, it's nice to notice that the novels were written at the beginning of the '90s and the setting is pretty much the same as in the Twilight series: American high school, girl falls in love with "good" vampire and so on. But the vampires here are closer to the classic vampire image: they drink human blood, and they love it. There's also an erotic subtext that's completely missing in Twilight (I can only talk about the first book, as I refuse to read the others). There's also the eternal triangle between the human girl, the good vampire and the bad vampire (the vampires are also brothers).

So, it seems to me that Stephenie Meyer took the idea behind this series, changed a few details, made everything tamer et voilà, she got her best seller. If I was an American teenager I would probably love the Vampire Diaries series, or, at least, I'd like it much more than Twilight (sparkling vampires, for Heaven's sake!), but as a European adult, I'm not so enthusiastic. I'll stick to Anne Rice, thank you very much.


Kulturzeit 2010
FILMS
- La finestra di fronte
- Reservoir Dogs
- E se domani...
- Alice in Wonderland 3D
- A single man
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (*rewatched)
- Basilicata coast to coast
- Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Yes, I hadn't watched it yet, shut up)
- The ghostwriter
- Inception
- I, robot
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
- Trading places (*rewatched for the umpteenth time)
- Enchanted


BOOKS
- "The Vampire Diaries - The Struggle", L.J. Smith
- "Il caratteraccio - Come (non) si diventa italiani", Vittorio Zucconi
- "Foundation", Isaac Asimov
- "Foundation and Empire", Isaac Asimov
- "Second Foundation" Isaac Asimov
- "Foundation's Edge" Isaac Asimov
- "The caves of steel", Isaac Asimov
- "Dead until dawn", Charlaine Harris
- "Wie Kater Zorbas der kleinen Möwe das Fliegen beibrachte", Luis Sepulveda
- "Living dead in Dallas", Charlaine Harris
- "Club Dead", Charlaine Harris
- "Dead to the world", Charlaine Harris
- "Un indovino mi disse", Tiziano Terzani
- "A Study in Scarlet", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- "The Sign of Four", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- "The Unbearable Lightness of Being", Milan Kundera
- "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes", Sir Arthur Conan Doyle


CONCERTS
- Punkreas @ SO36, Berlin, 21/01/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians @ ZOE Club, Milano, 06/02/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians @ Legend 54, Milano, 08/02/2010
- Wayne Jackson @ Magnet Club, Berlin, 27/02/2010
- Ministri @ White Trash, Berlin, 13/03/2010
- NR3@Night (Smokestack Lightning, Bela B + HR3 Big Band, Wayne Jackson), Frankfurt, 27/03/2010
- Portico Quartet, A-Trane, Berlin, 20/04/2010
- Wayne Jackson + Train, Frannz, Berlin, 13/05/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians + Serpenti, Spazio Aurora, Rozzano, 05/06/2010
- Parola Cantata, Villa Fiorita, Brugherio, 11-12/06/2010
- Baustelle, Spazio Carroponte, Sesto S. Giovanni, 24/06/2010
- Melissa auf der Maur, Circolo Magnolia, Milano, 26/08/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians, Circolo Magnolia, Milano, 03/09/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians, Milano Film Festival @ Teatro Strehler, 16/09/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians, Think Tank Festival 2010, Assago, 29/10/2010
- Deluded by Lesbians, East End Studios, Milano, 20/11/2010


CDs
- "Undercover Psycho", Wayne Jackson
- "The revolution of species", Deluded by Lesbians


EXHIBITIONS
- Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, 21/01/2010
- Berliner Mauer Dokumentationszentrum, 22/05/2010
- Museo e Tesoro del Duomo di Monza, Monza, 26/09/2010


THEATRE
- "La Passione secondo Luca e Paolo", Milano, 28/01/2010


OTHERS
- Attac Bankentribunal, Volksbühne Berlin, 9-10-11/03/2010
- Zoologischer Garten, Berlin, 21/05/2010

Comments

[angrylogic.livejournal.com]

Twilight is good for only one thing: a laugh. I still can't get past about page 60 of the first book. I got very angry at it threw it out of the tent XD

I actually find it really difficult to read any fiction now D:

[gothikmaus.livejournal.com]

One of my best friends totally fell in love with Twilight. D:

I'm currently reading a non-fictional book and, while the topic is interesting, the way it's written is sleep-inducing. It's about Italian stereotypes and history, as in, what episodes in Italian history may have caused some of the most common Italian character traits. I thought it would be interesting, as I'm really into this kind of books (I read a book about German character traits and language, and it was brilliant), but it's so tedious. I mean, the introduction alone was 30 pages long. 30 pages! And at one point the author even complains about writers who use big words and make things more complicated than they are. Well, hello? You just used 30 pages to write stuff that could've been written in 10!

[angrylogic.livejournal.com]

Thankfully none of mine fell for Twilight. Relief! I did try to read "The Historian" a couple of years ago but I got too pissed at the "woe is me" main character.

I read a lot of history books now too (although I barely read the introductions as it's usually the authors opinion on the subject, which I don't care about, just give me the facts!). I also like how you can dive into a factual book at any point. I managed to pick up a book in Edinburgh at the weekend that I've been after for a couple of years but it's been out of print and is a fortune online. I got it for £2 X3 Joy!