Lifesign...

A long time since last update and will probably take a similar amount of time until the next... I've got some ideas for a novel or three but don't seem able to get started. I recently got side-tracked into a chesspub discussion on the Hanstein gambit with 8.Qa4, and at the moment Shirov is in town at the Sigeman tournament...

A Movie Tip

At the moment I've more or less taken a sabbatical from chess. But the other day I found a recent movie I really liked, so it will have to do as topic for a blog entry...

The film in question is Crazy Heart starring Jeff Bridges as an ageing country singer driving around Texas and New Mexico for small gigs at pubs and bowling alleys. It sounds like something we've seen before, but this one does have something special in the 'down to earthness' of the story, marvellous soundtrack and very believable actors. Besides, we get to see and hear the Dude sing!

Some might get turned off by hearing that it's about country music (maybe this was why it wasn't shown in the Swedish cinemas - at least not the bigger ones). In fact, the difference between good country music and just singer-songwriters like Bob Dylan is that the former category has a cowboy hat on when they sing.

And country singers are often better at finding phrases that sticks to your mind. Who could resist a line like: 'funny how falling feels like flying - for a little while'.

Here's the trailer:

And here's the theme song of the film, The Weary Kind, written especially for it by Ryan Bingham - who might turn out to become a new star of the magnitude of a Cash or Kristofferson. Time will tell, of course...