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I am hardly a geek. I like my Internet but my use of it would probably look boring for many people who are up to date with all sort of shiny and fancy web tools. After years of resisting, I finally got a cell phone but I mostly use only when I'm travelling or for emergency, and it's an old mobile phone, with buttons to press, not the touch kind. Tumblr, Instagram are just words for me...

Sometimes I heard people mentioning an app for this or that, and I don't always understand what they are talking about (I guess app is short for application?), but I figure it's some sort of tech gadget allowing to do "more stuff" with either their computer or their phone.

But I've just read this, and I don't understand. What the heck is this app? I mean, what does it do exactly? Why would anyone need a app to masturbate? A sex toy? Of course, they are very effective; some pornographic pictures or films?, I get it, even if women are supposed to be less visually oriented than men. But an app????

Is it just some sort of user instructions?

I guess there are already many web pages providing such instructions for masturbation -- the idea that some girls/women wouldn't know how to masturbate kinda puzzles me since even a foetus in the womb can do it but let's imagine that some are indeed clueless -- so what does this app provide that those do not?



And I agree with the journalist, the design is VERY infantilising.

Anyway, if our species now needs app to do something as natural as masturbation, we are really doomed.

Marking is done and I have just finished to prepare the term meetings I have tomorrow.

Also I'm caught up with certain tv shows -- GoT that I continue to be underwhelmed with (still much better than the books and they handled the Red Wedding rather well), unlike most of my flist, Mad Men whose two last episodes were way better than the messy "The Crash", and Rectify whose final two episodes just blew me away (SERIOUSLY!!!!!) -- so I should be able to resume my regular posting soon.

Now I'm going to have a bath so I'm leaving you with this fascinating speculation/parallels about Megan in Mad Men !


* Let's hope I won't be summoned to mark the Baccalauréat. The exam starts on Moday 17 with the 4 hour Philosophy test (History is the next day) so I might still receive a notification to mark History &Geography papers. Can everybody cross fingers and toes for me?

I just re-watched Des Hommes et des Dieux which was showed on French tv tonight. I had not watched that film since I saw it at the cinema in September 2010 (and consequently wrote this review on that old blog of mine I haven't updated for 13 months!).

A beautiful film whose awards were well-deserved. The monks' last supper scene still moved me to tears.

I'm still catching up with my tv shows.

After watching tthe finale of The Good Wife, I was left with the feeling that the show's best days are definitely behind us and I might drop it next season...*sigh*

As for Doctor Who, I'm usually a fan of Moffat's writing but I wasn't as excited by "The Name of the Doctor" as others were, even though I enjoyed the word-based twists it had, from beginning (when the characters misunderstood a certain message) to ending (when the viewers realised that the title of the episode didn't mean what they were led to believe it meant). I don't know, maybe you have to be British and to have grown up with the old DW series and the whole DW mythology to fully enjoy it.

I'm also all caught up with Mad Men. After a few strong episodes, "Crash" looked all over the place and poorly executed. It is as if the show itself has become the epitome of advertising: selling crap or poor quality stuff, either wrapped in an apparently good-looking package or sold thanks to a weird ad that is supposed to be the top of originality. But a good pitch, or good ideas on papers, or mere eccentricity don't necessarily make a good episode.
Besides the show often lacks subtlety, and sometimes the obvious is just so obvious (as Ruppert Giles would say "I believe the subtext here is rapidly becoming, uh, text"!) to the point that it seems that the writers are just lazy and taking the viewers for granted, ready to buy anything they would sell.
Now, writing this, I wonder whether Weiner and Co weren't simply making a meta episode about themselves and the process of writing Mad Men! Of course, Don Draper is Matthew Weiner. BTW I second everything that Alan Sepinwall wrote on the episode.


So far, The Borgias is actually the tv show that is giving me the most satisfaction, especially "The Banquet of Chestnuts" that I have just watched and which was excellent. Jeremy Irons is simply magnificent, the supporting cast is good with memorable characters (Caterina Sforza!), the photography is often fabulous, the writing is clever, and I totally want to steal Lucrezia's earrings!

The series is, in my opinion, much better than Game of Thrones, no matter some historical inaccuracies (or rather the liberties it takes when it comes to historical accuracy and that I tolerate in the name of poetical licence!).

I find the latter entertaining at times, for sure,  -- and definitely better than the books it is based on (I read the first four books on kindle and the writing turned me off)--, mostly thanks to a few characters and the actors who play them (Tyron, Jaime, Brienne, Margaery, Stannis...), but there's a problem of structure, focus and pace that has been there from the beginning and has not been fixed. Besides I often find the Wall/Jon Snow stuff boring while it's obviously there for the long run...It's probably the most overrated tv show of the moment, along with Homeland.

I miss Justified, its terrific dialogues, unforgettable characters and handsome hero.

Now bring me Copper and Longmire! While waiting for the best of all to come, for its final and most-expected eight episodes....

Exactly 8 weeks after Bastet, Loukoum passed away.

This time it happened peacefully, at the vet's, in my arms. I couldn't let him go on like that, with his face all distorted (he didn't look like himself anymore, the vet said that she didn't recognize him) and the difficult breathing. I didn't sleep last night because I was worried, and the vet told me that he would have suffocated one night soon or later indeed, so I couldn't let that happen. But it was tough because he was moving and miaowing still a lot. Talkative to the end, my poor baby.

I'm waiting for my sister so we'll bury him next to Bastet.

My place is just too empty and too quiet. I spent so many weeks worrying myself sick. I can mourn them both now.

 

- First off, the A.V/ T.V Club is paying a much deserved tribute to one Jim Beaver: From Deadwood to Justified...

- ...and the above link led le to this study on a piece of the Deadwood language: "Deadwood and To Whom Its Dialogue Is Beholden"

The blogged parsed there a famous line spoken by Jim Beaver as Mr Ellsworth:

“I may have fucked my life up flatter than hammered shit, but I stand here before you today beholden to no human cocksucker.”

It is a must read for any Deadwood fan!

"Peace of Mind" was again a very good episode with a chilling ending scene...

( Read more... )

Or should I say, that it gives me a tv stiffy?

I love love love Justified!!!

Of course I could watch Timothy Olyphant carry that great body of his and walk around for hours, but, above all, the writing is just so bloody marvellous. I still consider Breaking Bad to be the best tv show, but in the dialogues and characters department no show can compete with Justified.

This season is probably my favourite one so far which is quite remarkable given the lack of Dewey Crowe. Season 2 had the best villain, but this season is simply fantastic.

I had doubts, at first, about Constable Bob but it turned out that he's a great new character; I love Raylan to bits; Tim and Art continue to be awesome; Rachel sounds right at last; Boyd and Ava are great; I feel for Johnny; Colt was an interesting addition to the Crowder clan and his scenes with Tim are priceless; and Ellen May has grown on me so much (to the point that I wanted to slap Ava several times).

Needless to say that I'm completely in love with Jim Beaver's character. By the way I never realised, watching Deadwood, how tall he was.

"Decoy" was a stellar episode in a terrific season. Two to go!

Larmes d' Albâtre (Albaster Tears) is an exhibition that just started at Le Musée de Cluny, on the occasion of the return of Les Pleurants (The Mourners) in France after a long world tour. They aren't home yet but Paris is their last stop, after Bruges, and before going back to Dijon.






The world tour was successful and if you haven't seen them in The U.S or in Europe, you can find a report from The New Yord Times here about the exhibition that happened at The Met, and the conference that followed that exhibition is on youtube.

Also here is another video that will allow you to see them pretty well (with explanations in English):


And this one (from the exhibition in Belgium) only shows them with religious chant:

Someone had to post it!