It’s been a great ride for me. I truly hope it was for you too. Goodbye.

Posted on by under Poetry

A police officer, a spaceman singer

And a dark professor all walk through a door.

Each with a smiling face, in their hearts no fear,

Each prepared for the ride that stops nevermore.

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This sounds like the start of quite a dirty joke,

Written some years ago by a funny bloke,

Sadly though, as I wake, it is all too true,

To me, to them, all those left behind by you.

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I will not cry for you, not cry my heart out…

I might cry. I might swear; damn, this is no fair.

But what is done, is done; ha, breathe in some air.

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You’re gone, forever gone; I think I might shout.

No. Be strong, be happy; safe journey, you’re home.

A star, a snake, a cop ; do say hi for me.

Thank you and au revoir.

This is not an homage.

Posted on by under Thoughts and other ideas

bowie_aladin_sane_1000px

So yesterday I learned David Bowie died two days ago.

I don’t really know what to say about this except that he had my respect despite me not knowing much about him. I often heard he was a great musical artist, great singer, great musician and, above all, a great creator, ahead of his time most of the time. Visionary as some might say. I can’t vouch for that as, to me, David Bowie was, or should I say still it to me, the strange, older, older equivalent to Marilyn Manson from the 70s and 80s in terms of style. The singer of Space Oddity, the only song I believe I really know of him (which I sort of rediscovered in Gravity). And the great Nikola Tesla from the movie The Prestige (one of my favorite movies of all time if not the favorite).

bowie-tesla

Davie bowie as Nikola Tesla in the movie The Prestige

I don’t really know him much more than that, I don’t have much idea about whatever else he did, but strangely he is still a great artist in my mind. Perhaps it is because of his appearance in that movie or the fact that I love his song since I saw Gravity (not just because of the movie, though it played a great part in that), but also because it’s a great song in itself. Or perhaps it is because I’ve unconsciously realized how great he was. I don’t really know. He was great, I just feel I don’t have the right or the authority to say this myself. I’m not a fan but I enjoy what he did a lot. Apparently he was fighting against a cancer without ever saying he was sick publicly, that’s why the news of his death came as a shock to me, and perhaps to everybody else. I wasn’t ‘ready’ for him to leave yet.

I didn’t know him well, not personally of course, but not even as a music fan, but I feel very sad about his departure. Perhaps he had a lot of things he still wanted to do… I know his new album debuted on his birthday, two days before his death, so maybe he was ready to go… I don’t know, all I can hope is that he didn’t have too much regrets leaving so soon and that he knew how much of an impact he has made in the world with his music (and everything else he did). I am sad to see him go, even if I didn’t follow him or his artist career a lot, I was always somewhat expectant to see news about him and sort of excited or happy when I heard talk about his music.

But what I am the saddest about is that I realized that I had almost missed the great homage the internet (and more precisely the users on Twitter) had given him earlier this week. I just realized that I had seen a few drawings, images or pictures of the night sky and stars with the words “The Stars Look Very Different Today” without understanding the reference. It somehow clicked when I saw a drawing of Charlie Brown and Snoopy  looking at the night sky and a bubble of text with this small sentence in it, I suddenly thought about David Bowie and his Space Oddity. Not that I remembered it being part of the lyrics of his song but I somehow guessed it had a link. A quick research gave me a positive answer but also a sense of shame. How could I claim to like an artist and not even pick up such an obvious reference?

In the end I did understand, but it took me a few pictures of the sky from NASA, World of Warcraft and drawings of a few artists with these words to realize it was an homage to a great artist who had recently departed. That is why I say this is not an homage and I am not worthy (to use a powerful word) of paying one to him, I don’t know him enough, I can’t appreciate his work to its true value and I haven’t been immersed sufficiently in his universe to be able to do that. So, instead, I will simply say thank you to him for all he did, or at least the little he did that I know of, and for what it has brought/given me. It wasn’t a lot but it was sufficient to have a great impact on me. So, yeah, thank you mister Bowie. I hope the stars will keep shining for you and that someday I will finally learn to appreciate your work to its real value, or at least come to understand it a little better.

Thank you.

Space Oddity in the movie Gravity

Tragicomic

Posted on by under Poetry

Tragicomic

***

Welcome to your life; there’s no turning back,

I’d never lie to you and that’s a fact,

I find it kinda funny, I find it kinda sad.

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Holding hands while the walls come tumbling down,

I’d run right into hell and back,

Going nowhere, going nowhere.

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It’s my own desire, it’s my own remorse

Some days I pray for silence, some days I pray for soul

I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take

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Nothing ever lasts forever

When people run in circles;

The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had.

***

A little experiment, toying with ideas.

The angel rises despite infinite sorrow

Posted on by under Poetry

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A healer mysterious

…

Royal box from theft gone wrong.

Running water sings her song.

Traveling so far and long

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Comes the man forever strong,

Never twice the same along,

Writing all that may be wrong.

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Who is he, he who travels

The universe and its marvels?

In its beauty to revel,

Its mysteries to unravel.

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To be revealed when all cards fold

The answer more precious than gold,

None know to this question old.

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with that idea when I started working on it but here is what I came up with.

Cruel kindness

Posted on by under Poetry

Of those two none survived. Who would’ve though it would end like this?

*

They were two, longing to be together.

They were but lovers hiding behind masks,

Fated enemies destined to one task:

Each ending the life of one another.

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None had ever thought to even suspect,

Hiding away deep, in hearts that would melt,

Oh for each held their clan’s utmost respect,

The feelings they shared, the passion they felt.

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Destiny’s child is wicked and cruel.

The war-torn clans chose champions to duel,

The two broken souls fought there, brave and true.

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Dying gradually at each other’s coups,

To breathe just once more in each other’s arms.

And thus set the sun, its light bright and warm.

Another idea that just jumped back in my mind. I had been thinkign about something of the sort for some time but I only really got to it today. Not the perfect work, not what I wanted to end up with in an ideal world but here it is anyway. Enjoy!

And there she was.

Posted on by under Poetry

Seconds, minutes, months and years, I had been waiting through joys and tears.

For an angel to fall from heaven, for a woman to love at first sight.

We met on a cold and rainy night, on a platform in a small station,

I approached her -thank you old lady- feeling a bit of anxiety,

She was the bass player at the party, I said ‘hi’ and so did she reply.

For seconds, minutes, months and years, I’ve been missing this love of your mother’s.

How he met their mother

Posted on by under Thoughts and other ideas

I don’t know why but I feel I have to come back to that show and to make a few comments. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been watching a few videos of HIMYM here and there, I don’t know… But I really want to give my opinion, my take, on the ending of the 9th season, the show’s finale.

A lot of people, from what I have been able to see, are upset over how it ended, either completely hating it or disliking parts of it a lot. Many are much more happy with the alternate ending (which I also like a lot, I’ll talk about that a bit later) than with the official one. Some, perhaps, are also unsatisfied with how the ending was sad, or bittersweet, because of How I met your mother being a sitcom, a ‘funny’ show, and all that. But frankly I liked the ending, I loved the show from start to end (despite the feeling that it got stretched a bit too much during the ninth season), I loved all the characters, all the stupid things they did and the laughy I had while watching it. The ending did bring a bittersweet taste but that is what makes it so awesome. Let me explain.

The main character, Ted Mosby, tells his kids the story of how he spends years (nine season in all) searching for his soul mate, the love of his life. His relationships have their ups and downs (mostly downs) but over time he learns that he can’t control everything and sort of lets chance decide, he decides to simply go with it. During all that time we know that the mother is not far but yet out of his reach (via the yellow umbrella, the roommate). Ted is already in love with her but he simply doesn’t know it yet. All this builds up to the final moments when they finally meet and they immediately know something is up and a few things are revealed which makes everything even better.

In the same time, Lily and Marshall have their times of love and their times of crisis (going as far as to break up at some point) but they slowly and (mostly) steadily make their way towards becoming a real couple (engagement, getting married, moving in to a better apartment, getting pregnant) and by the end they are the rock solid couple that unconditionally love each other (despite their few disagreements, like their children’s names for example). Their relationship isn’t really that interesting to follow on a dramatic point of view but they are still so awesome and likable that without them it wouldn’t just be the same. Plus they’re really funny! (“You sonnavabich!“)

Now, last but not least, Barney and Robin also slowly start circling around each other and finally end up falling in love and getting married (which the last season is all about actually). I won’t get into much details about this but let’s just say it isn’t easy, however they both love each other and it’s evident by the efforts they make to stay together and how well they end up being together. This is an awesome development for both their characters (Robin being afraid of commitment because of her inability to have kids and Barney being a ladies’ man) and it’s just so fun to see them struggle with couple issues throughout the latest seasons.

All this, in people’s head (I think) seemed to build up to a happy ending where everyone deserves to be happy forever. But unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) the ending isn’t anything like one could’ve expected. Or is it? I have to agree that the revelation of the mother’s death was quite a shock, it saddened everyone I believe (angered some too surely) however, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve watched almost all the seasons in a row that I feel that way, but I was sort of expecting this outcome. It is crystal clear (at least to me) that in the last season something has happened to the mother. And from Ted’s reactions and from what he says, it isn’t just a breakup, no, something much sadder happened.

What most people hoped didn’t happen and the mother is revealed to have fallen very ill and have died at a young age. This makes everything a lot less cheerful but I think that it’s what make the show awesome: it felt better that way, more realistic. Now, I’m not saying that everything was realistic, it’s a sitcom guys. But this sadness that taints the last episodes, the melancholy, is something that gives it a much more powerful vibe and I loved this. I, who is mostly a robot with no feeling before such things, actually felt sad and almost started crying when I watched it. Only to be surprised by the little twist at the very end, in which the kids allow Ted to go back to his old ways of courting Robin. Yes, because Barney and Robin broke up you see.

Wait. I didn’t say I was mad at this decision. Once again, and probably against everybody else’s preference, I really liked the fact that the Robin/Barney pairing didn’t end up working. I was sad and disappointed at first, of course, but life is life and things don’t always end up well. They remain friends though, which sort of makes things okay. Barney and Robin, however in love they were, were perhaps not destined to be together. It’s sad but it is so. No, I like this ending.

The only thing that made me tick was the fact that Ted went running back to Robin at the end. This, despite being acceptably fun to watch at the end, is not really something I liked. (And this is really what I wanted to talk about here) Ted has lost his wife a long time ago at that point (six years before I believe) but in the point of view of the viewer it’s only been a few minutes. And I think that is what made me (and many others) tick. I love Tracy as the mother and her death makes the show even better, but it should have ended with the scene where Ted finishes his story by saying  “And kids, this is how I met your mother…”. This is an awesome point to end everything.

Of course it’s sad, but why not mixing the ending with its alternate twin and add the “meeting your mother wasn’t that hard” sequence. That would have brought a smile back to our lips I think. The mother has to die for the show to be that awesome. Barney and Robin can break up, they are still both awesome and I love them. But Ted simply cannot go running back to Robin… at least not so soon. And I think that this is what I didn’t like about this, it all happened much too quickly! They should have shown Ted and Robin yet even older, say ten or twenty years older, and then do the ‘I still love you’ thingy. Or at least just making the damn thing a bit longer (by adding the “meeting your mother wasn’t that hard” sequence from the alternate ending) so that it would have seemed that a bit more time had happened. I don’t know, many things could’ve been done. The ending was a tiny-weeny too rushed in my mind, and it’s that fact that bugs me, not that Ted goes back to Robin, that feels strangely… okay.

Well, anyways, that is how I would’ve loved to see it end. But, sadly, in life you can’t have everything you want. HIMYM is still and awesome show and I enjoyed it from beginning to end. I still enjoy it a lot and I hope that I will continue to love it ’til the end of times, all the while reflecting on its finale and trying to come to terms with the fact that Ted and Robin do, in the end, fulfill their 40-year-old-unmarried pact that they had. (Because yes, they had such a pact and this is what makes all of it okay.) It was one of the best show I have ever watched and I hope that one day I will get to watch an equally amazing piece of entertainment. Yup, I love How I Met Your Mother, that I do.

Thank you for reading this and, as a certain someone would say: Daddy’s home. *dundun dun dun dun dundun dun dun dun dundun*

The unforgivable

Posted on by under Shorts

“Damian stop. Don’t do this…”

“Or what? What will happen if I do? What will you do?”

The blond man looked at the one who had been his friend for so long. He wasn’t expecting a reply, he knew it would not come, and when silence engulfed the room for a whole minute he smiled. It seemed as if the world had momentarily stopped, holding its breath as it waited for an answer.

“That’s what I thought.” He finally said. “You can’t do anything to stop me, you have never been able to.”

He turned around, his coat floating airily behind him, and walked to the huge screen under which stood a control panel before placing both his hands on it and leaning forward.

“This is it. This is my victory, your defeat. And even your lord can’t do anything about it Michael. I will finally repay what I owe them.” He said in a low voice as he looked at the screen.

Michael couldn’t see his face, only the large shape of his back, but he could feel the fire burning in his eyes, he could feel the hate consuming his soul. He had been fighting to prevent this from happening for so long, he had tried to help, done his best to save him, but nothing had worked. Damian had gone down the dark and lonely path he had locked himself into and now it was too late. Still, he found the strength to hope, to continue trying.

“Damian.” He called, trying to free his hand to get his long dark hair out of his face, but the guards didn’t let him move, he was completely restrained in their iron grip.

The blond half-turned his head as he heard his name.

“You can’t do this… For the love of god, please stop this madness. They can still forgive you…”

They had been friends for so long, he refused to simply abandon him like this. He refused to give up, no matter how many times he was told it was useless, that it was a lost cause. There was still a way to save him he knew it, if only he could find out how… As soon as he said that the blond turned back to the screen and started laughing.

“They will forgive me… They will forgive me?!” He shouted, turning back quickly to face his old friend. “No Michael, I will not stop this. I don’t want their forgiveness. I want them to suffer, I want them to writhe in agony just as I have. I want to destroy every single one of them! I want them all to die!”

His eyes had completely lost their usual cool blue color and now seemed as red as blood, as the inferno that was consuming his soul burned through them.

“Please…” Said Michael, his voice strained by the pain he felt, not being able to do anything to save him. Dont make me do this…

“No. I will not have pity. I will not let remorse rob me of my rightful vengeance. This is what I have been working towards all this time and I will have what is mine!” He turned towards the monitor and pressed a single button before speaking into a microphone. “Activate phase three.”

“Damian…” Michael started, but as he was about to try one last time his old friend gave the order.

“Now.”

At the same time as he spoke, the dark-haired man heard a deep sound that resonated in his mind for what seemed like an eternity. Then, he knew. It was over. Damian had done what could never be undone, nor forgiven. He had doomed himself. He saw the dark shape, standing before the huge monitor, become smaller and smaller as the guards dragged him ever farther away from the gigantic room. The man he had once known as a brother was now a stranger, a dark and twisted existence who had been consumed by his desire for revenge.

As the archway leading in and out of the huge space grew ever smaller he felt something break inside him, the minuscule silhouette was still standing, so far away, unmoving. He desperately wanted to free himself of the strong grasp they had on him, to run back there and try once more. Surely this time he could convince him, surely he could put a stop to all this. But he knew this fantasy would never come true. Damian had made his choice and he had lost himself by doing so. A lone tear ran down his face as he felt the searing wave start to spread through his body.

It was over. Whatever he had felt towards that existence, whatever bonds they had shared, none of this mattered anymore. Michael closed his eyes. It was his burden, his mission. It was what defined him, the sole reason to his existence. And it was the only thing he couldn’t fight. I’m sorry… I haven’t been strong enough. I wish I could’ve saved you… I wish I could’ve saved all of you. That was what destroyed him a little more each time, knowing he was powerless, the knowledge that whatever his thoughts were he could never go against his nature.

You who have been touched by his light,

Have committed the unforgivable,

The hand of justice shall punish you.

Come walk into the night of end.

As he opened his eyes again the two guards were nowhere to be seen, as if they had vanished into oblivion. He noticed the white flames that had engulfed his body and the bright light that gently caressed the stone walls around him as the power surged inside him. He stood up straight and looked at the faraway arch that glowed in a faint blue light. He took a single tentative step before slowly starting to walk towards it. I’m sorry.