Beach season 2004 is officially open

BeachToday Olga, Lev, Hazard, and I officially opened this year’s beach season. We’ve went to a sandy Governor’s beach. All of us got burned by the sun. And all of us touched the water. Olga had the smallest swimming will, I – had the greatest. I think I’ve spent about 30 minutes in total in the water. Both Hazard and Lev were in the middle of the “I want to go swimming and nothing will stop me” scale.

Anyway, from now on it’s OK to wear wet clothes, beach stuff, and look totally touristic. :)

Just to make it clear – there are a lot of changes since our research on the subject last Saturday.

The Ninth Configuration

After few pints of beer I’ve watched “The Ninth Configuration” on DVD at hazard’s place.

It’s a nice film, but a bit too long to my taste. There are few rather obvious points running through out the movie and I think they were focused on at too much. This film is no sci-fi as it claimed by IMDB, but more of a drama and quite a few of comedy in.

The story is interesting and somewhat original. Shooting is good too – there is style through out the film, and there is lots of it.

Bottomline: it’s a good one to see, but I doubt I’ll want to see it a second time.

Casino

Just watched “Casino” on the DVD. It’s not the first time I see this movie, and it’s not the first time I like. It is rather long running 3 hours, but overall it is a very fine piece of cinematography. The story is somewhat typical. It’s about a street gang getting cooler and more powerful and then screwing it all up. Both Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci have a few films that go over similar lines. The acting, on the other hand, is good and the movie holds a certain suspense. Sharon Stone was good too and the way she changed over the cause of the movie is unbelievable, but predictable. :)

Bottomline – it’s a good crime movie to have in the home collection and watch it once in a few years.

Yet more pictures to enjoy

<%image(20040527-rainbow_spectrum.jpg" alt="">
An excellent collection of images titled “Best Pictures of 2003” (sample on the left) is here. Few images, but very spectacular.

Earth Science Picture of the Day – daily updated web site with high quality images devoted to Earth’s nature wonders (sample on the right). Archives are available upto year 2000. Much to see.

And in order to desaturate some of those excellent colors, here is a website devoted to black and white photography of New York and London.

Enjoy.