AJAJAJ

- time go so fast

Documentary film festival in town!

Documentary film festival! Yes! Finally I have the chance to actually go and see some great documentaries here at the festival of RIDM. Also I will attend two master classes given by Fernand Melgar and then one with Stan Neumann. That's going to be quite amazing!
By now I'm able to follow a film in French too, as long as it's subtitled in French that is. And since it's an international festival with many languages involved, it often is the case.
So, today I saw an excellent documentary named Water, People and Yellow Cans. It was a frightening experience to see the global problems connected with the theme of water. Sometimes it's just way to much, sometimes it's all gone and sometimes it's a struggle just to get water to drink every day. I really liked the film, and feel that the environmental issues has in documentaries a great medium. If you get the chance, watch this film. It gives a visual, a voice and a face to the water related catastrophes our world are facing, new and old.

Tomorrow I'm watching this one: Une morte insencée. I have high hopes for that one.

Immigrant life

When you go to the bank in Montreal, they don't ask for an identity card - they ask for TWO! It's normal here. - What?? Passport only? No, how will we be sure it's really you? You could have faked it!
So, today I went there with both my passport and my official Canadian resident card (which shows I have an status as permanent resident). The lady looked at it, very suspicious, then she said she had to verify with someone in the bank, which she did. Then she wanted to verify with immigration of Canada that the check they had sent me was REALLY sent by them. Which she did. Then she spoke to a supervisor about it. Then she came back and looked at me really suspicious and asked if I had any immigration documents to show, which I didn't have. Finally she asked - Where do you come from? Sweden, I squeezed out, trembling by now, feeling like a thief who belonged on Guantanamo! - Aha! Sweden!! Why didn't you just say so, here's your money!
Fuck, we Do have a good reputation here. Next time I'm gonna wrap myself in a Swedish flag with a Viking-helmet with the two horns and all, maybe THAT will satisfy these hopelessly crèpes-eating, plu-plu-pluuuu-speaking, overly suspicious Montrealers. My God! Should I sing the anthem too??

Well, sorry, yes, I know, it's ridiculous... but it's just so funny pictures!
Check out more here.

A big gap is imploding!

I woke up with a smile today... Obama, Obama, OBAMA!
He actually, really, f***ing made it to the White House! Man! As a Swede, do I really, fully realize how smashing, crazy, unbelievably unlikely this election was? I mean, in Sweden, we already have a socio-political and left leaning context to place our prime minister in, but in the USA? Yes, they do have a social agenda, of course, but the American Dream are very excluding for the majority. And from my reading, listening and discussing all the official politics of Obama for months now, and to hear his vibrant election speech yesterday night, there is no doubt that this new president will come with a socio, leftist change big time! I'm so happy for the people of the states - and the rest of the world! - that this overwhelming election of Obama could take place. Me and M was glued to the computer and TV yesterday evening, and when Obama finally entered the stage as an elected president, we were both smiling and listening intensely, it felt somewhat surreal. It's true, they did it! The white population finally showed something graceful about themselves here, that despite the history of racism, they now got together with there fellow Americans and actually elected the first black president of USA, which is not any tiny country among the small ones in the world.
I heard a black guy say, that this means crazy much for the young black community, just the small but oh so important words in the USA to a child - "You too can become the president one day!", now the black community can actually say this to their children and feel that it's possible for real. When I heard this, I started to realize what a gap there is that are now starting to implode. It's mind blowing - and for real!

Citizen.org

New link in my list of links.

For all of you who seeks facts, check it out! Very interesting is the facts about the Bush governments secrecy policies and politics around homeland security after September 11.

www.citizen.org

Word of the day:

"I guess Obama was named after Saddam Hussein."

- John A. Mitten, 64, the inventor of the new McCain-Palin rally-chant: “John McCain! Not Hussein!”, talks with reporter about Obama's middle name, at rally in Florida yesterday.

The Onion - sick humor I love

I just love the sick humor of theOnion.com and their Onion News Network with news broadcasts of highest quality humor.

Je parle française!!!!

J'ai fini mon deuxième cours de français, et je suis très, très content! J'ai fait 3 essais finals (écriture, compréhension et oral), et j'ai eu 100% sur tous!
Whoooohooo! Finallèment, je peux parler française!
Maintenant, j'ai un semaine de vacances, et mercredi le 4 novembre, le troisième cours de français commence! The final 3 months! Puh!

If the world could vote

...they would vote like this. Cast your vote here.

Trust me - I'm a maverick

I just watched the beautiful 30 minutes infomercial of Obama - and YES, He Rocks! For some reason I actually start believing in the USA again, kinda. I mean, they do have all this gun-shooting, oil-drilling, money-making, trucker-sports-beer-drinking-hunting-humorfree-honk-honk-dudes, hockey-mom-money-digging-no-sex-until-the-brah-comes-of-women, with a love for wars and God, at the same time. But, surprise, they do have a cool and obviously intelligent dude like Obama. Maybe it's his African heritage that makes him different? But, don't forget the words of the nice old lady I shared earlier in this blog; - he's been raised by a white family, so he's probably white deep inside. Well, anyway, I can't tell you enough of how much I agree with this hopefully coming president. It's what the world needs right now, and yes, Canada to, being their closest neighbor with a scary Harper-the-knife-sharpener (he cuts in the cultural budget faster than Zorro can swing his machete). And if you don't like Obama-my-Man, check out the McCain's new ad on John the Truthtwisters homepage. It has some moments in it of Obamas more unprepared photos. You know the ones when you are caught looking like you just swallowed the whole Thanks giving turkey and are about to burp it back up.
I actually don't know what I will do when this election is over? I've spent sooooo much time engaging myself in the stories around it, that I will probably have some kind of project-coma afterwards. Did I mention that I even dreamed about Obama? Yes, it was a shower scene in it, but it's not what you think. Honestly! No, I mean it, it's true, Joe the Plumber wasn't there, NO, I mean, Obama the President was, I mean...
Really.
It's true.
You have to believe me.

Sarah the Lapdancer

Haha! The 25+ something potential voter answered on the journalists question about what he thought about Govenor Sarah Parlin;
She's just talking about Joe the Plumber and Average Joe all the time. I don't want an Average Me as the president, I want someone smarter than me!

Doesn't that just sum up the whole rhetoric of the Republicans so nicely?!
(Photo: Charlie Riedel)

Unpaid filmjob = happy PluPlu!!

Got a un-paid research job within the documentary film industry here! Tjoho!!! With some luck, the well known filmmaker will like me enough to actually engage me in the filming-part as well, but that will take place about 2010, IF she will get the money. Can't tell much more until the project is official. But I'm just so super happy to be able to work for such an well established and amazing filmmaker in Quebec. It's flattering - and exciting!

Whatch this!

YouTube rocks! Don't miss out on this super spin-off from the Budweiser commercial some years ago, remember the screaming dudes: Whaaaaaaasssssssuuuuup????!!!!
Well, here they are in a new shape, and it's not a commercial for Budweiser anymore..

Check it out here.

Fantastic day again of filmmaking

I came along with Magnus Isacsson and Martin Duckworth for a shooting they made in Montreal. It was a celebration of the famous montrealian Norman Bethune, who is a medical hero in China and Spain, and very much a respected man in Canada, but dead since many years ago. He made blood transfusion possible during the Spanish war and in China too he worked against tuberculosis and with blood transfusion etc. A very much interesting man! So they had a sculpture of him restored and put back in place in the heart of Montreal, with people like the representative of China in Canada, the mayor of Montreal and other known people. And me, but I'm not so known, just yet that is :)
So I "worked" as Magnus and Martins assistant for the day, seeing them in close-up work on the floor so naturally demanding their space between national TV-stations big cameras and photographers, and then later at a museum filming another session with prominent people. I mean, maybe not the biggest shooting, but wow, I'm just soooo thrilled and happy to have the opportunity to be with, learn from these guys and hopefully one day do it myself with more knowledge and confidence in my luggage. It's so inspiring and joyful to see somebody do the job they love! And I think they liked me, so who knows, maybe I will be asked to continue a bit more with them. I will at least join Magnus for a 2 days intensive course of documentary film making in late November, it's really expensive, but worth every penny, I hope!
Whoooohoooooooo!!! Happy happy PuPlu!!

Obaaaamaaaaa

I wanna quote a great thing said by an 60-something year old Florida former Republican voter, who now will vote for Obama. This is what she wrote on a New York Time's debateforum after the third debate between Obama/McCain:

"I am an independent who has voted Republican. I’m a pollster’s dream. I’m 60-year-old white woman in Tampa, Florida. I was a HIllary supporter.

I am going wtih Obama. I had decided this before the debate, but his performance tonight solidified my choice. I think that he demonstrated that he’s thoughtful, and can see shades of gray in the issues. These are the qualties that I want in a president.

McCain was kind of angry, that like Palin, he relied on talking points. He seemed hopelessly out of touch on the issues. I could not believe the school vouchers answer. His attacks felt sort of desperate and weirdly rehearsed; they often felt out-of-context.

The Joe the Plumber thing was comical. My younger brother is a plumber and he makes more than $100k a year. If the guy was going to make more money by buying the business, then he should pay more in taxes. I don’t think McCain’s argument here made much sense.

I own a small business. Yes, if you file as a sole proprietor, you could have income of more than $250k. But I also get a lot of tax breaks for my business — and would have more under Obama’s plan.

What McCain is glossing over is that if your business income gets that high, it frequently makes more sense for you to pay yourself a salary and file a separate return as a business/corporation. That’s why so few would be affected under Obama’s plan. (It’s something like 3%)

McCain looked angry, made snarky comments and said things that I know are simply not true. Obama needed to show that he’s steady and trustworthy, and I think that he did that.

What really struck me, particularly after sleeping on it, was that Obama would explain a point, often correcting McCain, who would then go on and make the same false statement again. I found this disturbing. My dad did that when he had early Alzheimer’s.

I thought that Obama’s comments on abortion were well thought out, too. I haven’t seen this issue discussed in a national forum.

I agree that Obama missed some opportunities. But I can understand why he played it a bit safe.

I don’t think that Obama needed to harsh on Palin. Watching McCain defend her was enough. Biden - great foreign policy experience. McCain said Palin was “refreshing” twice. What is she, an air freshener? Polls show that 35% of Americans think she is qualified to be president, and that number keeps going down.

Three weeks ago, I was on the fence. McCain’s “suspension” of his campaign woke me up. His negative campaign truly put me off. His people have called me saying he’s a Muslim and a terrorist. I’m not stupid, for crying out loud!

After the debate, I can’t wait to cast my vote for Obama!!
-Florida voter"

Fantastic day of filmmaking!

I had a fantastic day yesterday! I woke up by a phone call from one of my favorite documentary filmmakers in Canada, the Swedish born Magnus Isacsson. We meet at an outdoors opening event the night before, for the interesting art-"terrorist"-organization ATSA's new store CHANGE, and he now phoned to ask if I wanted to come with him to a sound studio at the national film board, for sound-mix of his new documentary. If I wanted to?? YES!
So, of we went, and I spent a whole afternoon in this spectacular mixing studio (which was big as a full cinema theater with the movie screen as the monitor!), watching and learning by the big guys. What a privilege! It was so inspiring to get to see how the high professionals work, and boy, it's very different from anything I have experienced so far in my own non-funded work. It goes fast, smooth, and nothing is too complicated when you have all these experts doing the job. For the sound mix, there was one sound designer who has been designing the films whole sound scape, one head sound technician and his sound assistant, the two directors (Magnus Isacsson and Martin Duckworth) - and me.
We later followed up the evening by attending an opening of a documentary film at Cinéma du Parc - Mirages d'un Eldorado by Montreal-based Martin Frigon.
This day has definitely been a turning point - or a more pin-pointed start, of my future. I'm overly happy! Thank you Magnus, for giving me this day!

Hockey-mom Palin

Oh my dear... It was time for the fight between the politic dinosaur and the Alaskan hockey-mom; Biden vs Palin. She made it through, squeezed herself painfully with a rapid tongue of jidderish and had the voice of a correcting mama. She did the same thing as her fellow friend McNoBrain, trying to persuasive the voters in a very, very patronizing way. It's funny, but to me Palin and her lapdog McCain come across as smearing aliens in their way of speaking and sometimes just as barking dogs. They have non what so ever credibility in my eyes, and it stuns me that anyone at all are even willing to be connected to their believes.

Palin hade it on her agenda tonight to not answer any question she could possibly avoid, with the result that not much clever came across her lipstick. She seemed well instructed and cleverly filled up with facts and dirty words on the Obama/Biden part, but no real statements. She did say though that she doesn't support gay marriage (nor does Biden, but he want's equal citizen rights within laws and society), she want more domestic drilling of oil, she wants to implement the now famous "surge-technique" that went on in Iraq to Afghanistan, even though the States own military general in Afghanistan have stated that that wouldn't work there, she also supports the idea of selling out the health care system to the private market, leaving the people unprotected to the market prices... bla, bla, etc.

Biden on the other hand, he's experienced enough to see when a kiddo has entered the game. He didn't fall for her tactic of trying to anger him and start pointing the finger against her. He kept himself cool, attacked McNoBrain hard, talked all about in favor of Obama and came across as intelligent, experienced and with an actual agenda of wanting good in this world. He was sharp and harsh in his critique of McCain, but I think he struggles a lot with his accessibility for the younger voters and the not so well introduced voters, in his way of rambling numbers and figures and long talks of complex politics. But the content that came through is that he knows what he's talking about and that he's trustworthy with a strong politic, plenty of great changes on the agenda and a mind set on peace. Which I guess is what the people wants to know.
Well, I say if you haven't already, watch it yourself, it's quite a show.

McNoBrain makes me giggle

I just saw the first debate between Obama and McCain, and I mean - HEEEELLOOOOOO???!!! How on earth can anyone even consider voting for Mc NoBrain? I agree with my M at home, when he said that he wouldn't even let McCain take care of our cat! Just by looking at his face, you KNOW he can't be trusted.

McCain made me giggle over and over, but also scared me with his nonsense. He spoke with this low, conspiracy voice, like "Liiiisten to meeeee, my dear old (read rich republican) friends. I'm the ONE to trust in all this. Trrruuuuust meeee..." Urk!
He repeatedly used Obamas words in his own answers, but it all came out fake. He tried to tell lies about Obama, but it kinda back-fired. And he had a sloppy and disgusting ending; on Obamas remarks that he wouldn't let the war veterans end up without economic help when they return sick and devastated, like many have been experiencing during Bush-time, McCain looked into the camera and said in a sad voice that HE LOVES the American veterans and they know he will take care of them. Bläääsch! Sooooo smootshy disgusting.

Anyway, happy to say that Obama did good, maybe not perfect, but really, really good, and McNoBrain wasn't much to have at all. He mostly looked like an ashamed and lost old dude. Now it's gonna be fun to see Palin facing Biden in their debate soon. But he better watch out, she's really a vicious character.

It's new, it's sassy, it's hot - iiiiiit's Madame PluPlu v.2.0!!!!!

Yes sir, I can boogie!, like ABBA sang during the happy years of my parents generation.
I'm back after a, hmm.. let's just call it an emotional vacation, or "djävla sommarlov", and suddenly it hit me, my dear Madame PluPlu with ALL it's enormous amount of steady readers (hello you few and blipping aliens in my space), you are all missed soooo much by me! So, here I am, in a new and never seen before hot comeback, that will forever clear your dubious mind on the topic of this side of the Atlantic called l'Amérique du nord!
It's new, it's sassy, it's hot - iiiiiit's Madame PluPlu v.2.0!!!!!
Stay tuned!