corollary

Entry #51

Listening to:

Haydn, string quartet in E flat major, Op. 50, No. 3. The opus 50 quartets are known as the Prussian quartets because they were dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. King Frederick played the cello, and Mozart and Beethoven also sought his favour: Mozart through string quartets that gave the cello part a "certain prominence"; and Beethoven through his first cello sonatas.

The music is beautiful, and intimate.

Computer viruses are a hot topic these days; this one is a little different though. Rather than a virus that replicates across real-world computers, it's a virus that replicates across simulated world people. Of course, it's all a game so that's alright. The article writer runs out of things to say towards the end, but it's an amusing read.

I went to see Gladiator on Wednesday night. It's a good film, and very well made, but I do have a number of reservations about it. I guess the most important of these is the fact that it is not nuanced at all. It's very black and white in its presentation of the characters, and they don't develop at all. The plot is fairly predictable, but that doesn't stop it from zinging along and keeping the viewer enthralled.

The characters are really larger-than-life archetypes. As such the actors all do a great job, and the pain inflicted on the heroes is very affecting. Ultimately, the film is dark; the ending isn't really that happy, and you leave the cinema impressed at how brutal and grim Ancient Rome was. (I'm sure this is quite accurate.)