Peter Murmann

Music, Pop

Cute: U2 first ever TV appearance

6 November 2020

This is cute. U2’s first TV appearance when they were young boys and did not sound professional yet.

Movies, Drama, Music, The Rest

Get on Up

6 September 2020

The premature death of Chadwick Boseman due to colon cancer led to an international outpouring of grief. I had never seen a film with Boseman but I remembered how sad I was when Heath Ledger died much too young. People who knew Boseman gave eulogies that I would have given about Ledger, whose talent I admired deeply. So I wanted to see a film with Boseman. I chose the film about the musician James Brown.

Diary, Must Know, Movies, Drama

Joker

16 August 2020

When I think about the Joker I always see the painted face of Heath Ledger who gave an amazing performance in the Batman movie Dark Knight that unfortunately became his last chance to act. I decided to watch the film with the Joker now simply called Joker because Joaquin Phoenix won the Oscar for his performance. Make no mistake, his acting is an amazing feat. His portrayal of a mentally deranged person scarily convincing. But my heart was tied to Heath Ledger and I always thought about him while seeing the painted face of the new joker. There is a sense of violence at the center of the film that left me deeply unsettled, especially now that in many parts of the Western world right-wing nationalists seem to be ready to embrace violence to attack democratic institutions.

Diary, Politics

Biden win is 70%

14 August 2020

Nate Silver put Trump’s chances only at 30%.

Diary, Politics

The nightmare might end

27 June 2020

Movies, Drama

The Squid and the Whale

8 April 2020

Noah Baumbach recently came out with a new film, The Mariage Story. It seemed to have received good reviews and I wanted to see it. But I thought I should first see his earlier film, The Squid and the Whale, which also covered the topic of divorce. The Squid and the Whale is intense.

Movies, Drama

The Farewell

30 January 2020

The farewell is very simple yet it is able to trigger deep emotions in the viewer’s heart. As the title suggests,  a family that immigrated from China returns to the homeland to say farewell to their mother who is diagnosed with an illness and will not allow her to live very long. One branch of the family returns from the USA and the 2nd one from Japan.  The film does a wonderful job portraying the challenges of any immigrant family anywhere.