WFC Botswana: March of the Gods: Botswana Metalheads

I bought this documentary from this site, which turns out to be a Vimeo thing: You pay some money and then you can stream the film or download it, DRM-free. I did the latter, and the video quality is more than adequate: Better than DVD quality, I’d say. Some banding and artifacting, but not too distracting.

Anyway! This is a documentary about the Botswana metal scene. The selling point is obviously “Whaaa? Botswana? Metal? It cannot be!”, but it turns out that it can. The scenes with the fans reminded me a lot of documentaries about the New Romantic scene in London: Punters outdoing each other in outrageous dress. Fun!

The other half of the film is a basic band documentary about the band Wrust, and that was really frustrating. We finally get to hear them play live properly in the very final scene, but for the rest of the film we’re in “well, are they any good?” limbo. The film should have started with a fifteen minute excerpt from their show. I mean, if you’re doing a metal documentary, play some music, for fucks sake.

The final third half of this film consists of interview with various bands on the scene, and we sometimes get to hear snippets of their music in between all the talking.

PLAY MORE MUSIC.

So very unsatisfactory, even if the subject is interesting.

March of the Gods: Botswana Metalheads. Raffaele Mosca. 2014. Botswana.

Rooibos Tea Punch

  • 3 parts strong cold rooibos tea
  • 3 parts peach juice
  • 1 part vodka
  • lemon slices
  • peach slices
  • mint leaves

Combine all ingredients and stir. Pour into an ice-filled glass.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Comoros: جزر القمر

This is an episode of the Duroob documentary series found on Youtube.

I don’t know what country the TV series is from, really. It could be Saudi Arabia, I guess. It starts off oddly, with the presenter giving a speech about Allah’s Infinite Earth; sort of coaxing the audience to care about the documentary.

And then we’re off to Comoros, that tiny island nation between Madagascar and mainland Africa.

It’s a very professional documentary: Nicely filmed and edited and not annoying at all.

But it’s so weird! Normally in documentaries like this you get to see all the sights and the beaches and everything. The majority of this is filmed indoors and we get what seems to be a folk etymology lesson in the Comori (that’s a word) language, and then we learn a bit about grinding make-up.

It’s like they didn’t have permission to film in public or something.

So odd.

But I liked it. It’s interesting and amusing and the presenter is very engaging.

Duroob Season 2 Episode 1: Comoros. Unknown. 2016. Comoros.

Vanilla Margarita

  • 3 parts vanilla liqueur
  • 4 parts silver tequila
  • 2 parts lime juice

Shake with ice. Strain into a Martini glass.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Montenegro: Killer Mermaids

This film is probably more Serbian than Montenegran (that’s a word), but

It’s one of those retro horror films, which is something I am totally in the mood for now. You’ve got all the usual slasher elements, and it’s fine. The cinematographer (and editor) sometimes go overboard in their enthusiasm: The fake shakycam is rather distracting at times.

It’s just not that engaging. I like that they try to make the characters real: They have personalities and backstories and everything.

I was expecting something like Sharknado, but it’s not like that at all: It’s a proper film. But, unfortunately, not that exciting.

Killer Mermaids. Milan Todorovic. 2014. Montenegro.

Montenegro Non Troppo

  • 2 parts rum
  • 2 parts brandy
  • 2 parts simple syrup
  • 3 parts lemon juice

Shake with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with a lemon wedge and a maraschino cherry.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

WFC Papua New Guinea: Mr. Pip

I guess this is more of an Australian and or New Zealandish (that’s a word) movie than a Papau New Guinean (that’s definitely a word) movie.

“Isn’t that… isn’t that…” “Yes, it is.”

Anyway, I found the scoring of this film to be really annoying. Hardly a moment of import goes by without them trucking in a full lachrymose orchestra.

It’s a film that seems like it should be more interesting than it is, but it ends up more like a British straight-to-TV film. Only more condescending.

It’s a definitely a two pillow film.

Still, there are enjoyable moments. The actors are good, and the cinematography is solid. This could have been fine if only the director had shown any faith in the audience’s intelligence.

Mr. Pip. Andrew Adamson. 2012. Papua New Guinea.

Lychee martini

  • 3 parts vodka
  • 2 parts peach schnapps
  • 2 parts cranberry juice
  • 2 parts lychee juice (from a can of lychees)

Shake vigorously with ice. Strain into a Martini glass and garnish with a lychee.

This post is part of the World of Films and Cocktails series. Explore the map.

“Concerts in Oslo” App Updated

I took a short holiday to sit in the garden and update the Concerts in Oslo app.  I mainly wanted to make navigation more intuitive by having the “back” button do what you’d expect it to do, but I also wanted to play with the Google Map API and see whether that’s any fun.
And it is.  Results to the right.  I’ve also added a method to list concerts in descending proximity.  You know.  For those days when you’re thinking “I want to go to a concert; I don’t care which one, but it has to be close.  Because I’m too tired to walk far.”
THIS MAKES SENSE!
The Android version is out now; the IOS version will follow once I’ve tested it on the phone I forgot to bring with me.  So a couple of days plus the nine weeks Apple will use to approve the update.
But one can’t post a blog post like this without bitching about Google, can one?  I don’t think so.  First of all, the Google Play Console defaults to the dominant language of the IP address you’re connecting from, which relegates all developers from non-English-speaking countries to third class status: We’re presented with awkwardly translated tech speak that barely made sense in English in the first place.  And it’s impossible to google for any of these messages and errors you’re inevitably presented with to find out what they mean, because all those questions and answers are in English.
And there’s no way to switch to English…  until you notice that the URL itself has a parameter that says “hl=no”, and you can edit that to “hl=en”, and then the interface will behave and become marginally more understandable.
Not very, though: I seem to have pushed an API version of 23, which excludes all pre-version-5 Android users from using the app.  And there seems to be no way to go back to API version 14, SDK 23, which I was using.  Play Console gives me errors, at least, when I try.
*sigh*
I’ll just leave you all with this unrelated screen that Android displays when I plug my phone into the laptop:
If you press “Cancel” here…  is it going to cancel the charging?  Or not?  I’ll leave that as an exercise for the class.