Don’t call him ‘Big Mike’
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Get Together, Movies, The Red Carpet on March 8th, 2010
If you have not heard the news yet, then where the heck have you been?
America’s sweetheart, Sandra Bullock, won the Best Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Leigh Anne Tuohy in "The Blind Side" at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.
“The Blind Side" depicts the story of Michael Oher, a homeless African-American youngster from a broken home, taken in by the Touhys, a well-to-do white family who help him fulfill his potential. At the same time, Oher’s presence in the Touhys’ lives leads them to some insightful self-discoveries of their own. Living in his new environment, the teen faces a completely different set of challenges to overcome. As a football player and student, Oher works hard and, with the help of his coaches and adopted family, becomes an All-American offensive left tackle. (IMDB, 2010)
The question is… did she deserve it?
Through the Looking Glass
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Get Together, Movies, The Red Carpet on March 6th, 2010
Have you ever wondered what that Vision Mission pop-up was about, every time you purchased a ticket at a Sterkinekor cinema or online via the Sterkinekor website? Granted I have always been aware that it was for some charitable cause or another, but I never truly understood what it was for. As a result, I can shamefully admit that I would always skip past the ‘donate’ option.
Well, on Wednesday night I was privileged enough to obtain an invitation, courtesy of Sterkinekor and Vision Mission, to celebrate AFDA’s Vision Mission commercial award winners as well as be privy to a ‘secret’ screening of a highly anticipated blockbuster film.
It was at this mystery laden awards event that I came to understand what the Vision Mission was all about and why, from now on, I will choose to donate that minimum R2.50 extra whenever I buy a Sterkinekor movie ticket.
I never thought it would happen to me…
Posted by Hans Haupt in Internet, Life, OMG, Seriously?!, WTF on February 26th, 2010
Last night I received a chilling phone call from Nedbank. Someone had attempted to make an online purchase using my credit card information.
I was, and still am, gob smacked.
I am no novice when it comes to shopping online. I have been doing it for years. I am quite a tech savvy person and I have a vested interest in computers, social media and the Internet. So I know all about the dangers of shopping online. Consequently, I always take the necessary precautions to prevent data theft. Nevertheless, this did not stop some random American douche bag, from stealing my credit card information and attempting to buy… wait for it… R3 000 worth of groceries from Wal-Mart. Huh?!
Why on Earth someone would go through all of the effort to steal someone’s credit card information online, just to buy groceries with, I cannot understand. Either the recession in the states is really still quite bad or Americans, as the stereotype goes, are legitimately stupid. Nevertheless, I hope this person gets persecuted to the full extent of the law and is ripped a new one while in prison.
So how did this all happen? How the heck did this mystery person obtain my information? Well, it was obviously via the internet but not because of some insecure site.
Happy Singles Awareness Day!
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Life, Movies, Personal, The Red Carpet on February 14th, 2010
Today is Valentines day. A solitary day of the year reserved for promoting all things related to ‘love’.
Conventional wisdom, courtesy of intense commercialistation, would have you believe that this day is purely for celebrating with your significant other. You know, the person whose morning breathe, to you, smells like peaches and cream; the individual who will literally bend over backwards to please you; ‘your own personal brand of heroine’… etcetera!
There is no doubt that Valentines is great; if you have a significant other to share it with. Although Valentines is about love and may be celebrated with a sibling or parent, we all know that the end results are just not as rewarding.
What Valentines day succeeds in doing, however, is making everyone who is not in an active relationship, aware of how ‘single’ they are.
Truth be told, it is actually the perfect day for single people to get together and mingle, without much consequence, as most of the ‘relationship’ folk would be ‘occupied’. Consequently, there is no need to spend the day alone. Instead, you can go out and meet new people, all while having fun! Hence, ‘Singles Awareness Day’ (SAD) was born":
On Singles Awareness Day, single people gather to celebrate or to commiserate in their single status. Some want to remind romantic couples that they don’t need to be in a relationship to celebrate life. On this day many people wear green, as it is considered to be the ‘opposite’ of red. (Wikipedia, 2009)
So the next time Valentines Day comes around and you happen to be single, embrace it. Be happy with who you are and make the most of it; and do not forget to get together with a group of single people and party the night away!
I hope you all have an amazing day, filled with love and new experiences.
Until the next time “Milieunairs”!
Bite My Apple
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Festivities, Get Together, Life, Movies on February 10th, 2010
On Friday the 5th of February 2010, I was privileged enough to obtain an illusive invitation to “The Twilight Saga: New Moon Exclusive VIP party”, courtesy of Sterkinekor and MiMoney.
Over the last several months, Sterkinekor Entertainment in association with MiMoney, have been teasing Twihard’s (fans of the Twilight saga movies and books) with the possibility of attending “the most exclusive party in 100 years”. Entering was easy. Simply watch New Moon and text your ticket number to a specified number. Each entry increased your chances of obtaining an invitation to the event.
Furthermore, upon entering the competition, fans would receive a text message notification with a specific code. This code could then be redeemed at the viral marketing inspired ‘Bite My Apple’ website; in order to unlock exclusive content from the movie in the form of wallpapers and screensavers.
After being psyched about the event for months, I was obviously excited to be able to attend. The anticipation factor was intoxicatingly high!
Music Monday: ‘Broken Open’
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Life, Music Monday on February 8th, 2010
Hey Milieunairs,
It is Music Monday and thus time for another Vivaciously Varietal Vibe! 
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Flavour: Pop
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Artist: Adam Lambert
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Album: For Your Entertainment
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Song: Broken Open
Rationale: I have, on many an occasion, written about songs which I have labelled as ‘hauntingly beautiful’. As it so happens, ‘Broken Open’ by Adam Lambert, is another song which fits into this category.
At first listen, one could be forgiven for thinking that ‘Broken Open’ is simply a mock rendition of ‘Mad World’ by Gary Jules; another of my favourite songs. Both songs share an eerily similar melodic pattern, one which is a pleasure to listen to. On a purely basic auditory level, Lambert’s ‘Broken Open’ is quite different to ‘Mad World’, offering more of an upbeat pop synth loop with spacey techno buzzes and pings added for good measure. Even so, the song has a beautiful sound made even better with Lambert’s sultry voice. Surprisingly, Adam co-wrote ‘Broken Open’ as well.
I must say, Adam Lambert has created a stellar debut album. He has managed to cater for almost every genre, proving his versatility as an artist. Even more impressive, is the amount of talent that was wired behind the scenes into helping him create his first album, from the likes of MUSE, Pink, Lady Gaga, Ryan Tedder (OneRepublic) and Sam Sparro, among others; all adding their own personal touches to each of Lambert’s songs. ‘For Your Entertainment’ is a brilliant pop album and is definitely worth listening to.
As always, whenever I post about Vivaciously Varietal Vibes on Music Monday’s, simply click on the name of the song to be taken to a web page that displays the songs lyrics.
New Years Resolutions for 2010
Posted by Hans Haupt in Hans' Milieu, Life, Personal on January 10th, 2010
Can you believe that it is 2010? We are already a decade into the ‘new’ millennium.
To mark this special year, which also happens to be divisible by 5 and you all know how much I love numbers, I have committed myself to 10 resolutions for this new year.
I actually had a grand plan of revealing each resolution on each new day of the first 10 days of the new year via Twitter. Unfortunately, this did not work out as planned. Nevertheless, this is the long awaited and eventual blog post to sum everything up. Without further ado, I present to you, my new years resolutions for 2010:
Music Monday: ‘Hearing Damage’
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Internet, Music Monday on December 14th, 2009
Hey Milieunairs,
It is Music Monday and thus time for another Vivaciously Varietal Vibe! 
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Flavour: Pop/Rock
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Artist: Thom Yorke
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Album: Twilight Saga: New Moon OST
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Song: Hearing Damage
Rationale: For quite some time I have spoken about songs which I have labelled as ‘hauntingly beautiful’. A majority of songs by MUSE, such as ‘Sing for Absolution’, fall into this category. ‘Hearing Damage’ by Thom Yorke, in my opinion, is another song which can be described as such.
I am not sure if it is Yorke’s surreal voice or the constant electronic and hypnotic pop synth buzz, but this is one of those rare songs that I can listen to over and over again without fail. The song is simply addictive. As it stands, I think that Hearing Damage is by far one of the most listened to songs in my entire music collection. I am actually listening to the song, and have it on a loop, as I write this post.
‘Hearing damage’ was written and recorded by Radiohead front man Thom Yorke, who specifically wrote and recorded the song for the New Moon soundtrack. Fans of the Twilight Saga will recognise ‘Hearing Damage’ from the scene in New Moon when Victoria pursues Charlie before being chased by Jacob. As a matter of fact the New Moon soundtrack, in its entirety, is actually very good and, oddly enough, was even given the ‘thumbs up’ by my father – a good thing because it means that the old folks will enjoy listening to the music no matter how loud you play the album. Consequently, regardless of whether you like the Twilight Saga or not, listen to the album for New Moon because you may be pleasantly surprised by the experience.
As always, whenever I post about Vivaciously Varietal Vibes on Music Monday’s, simply click on the name of the song to be taken to a web page that displays the songs lyrics.
Until the next time “Milieunairs”!
Battle of the Bricks
Posted by Hans Haupt in Games, Humourous, Internet, OMG, Parody, Seriously?! on December 3rd, 2009
Any self respecting person has owned and built a Lego creation of some kind. Goodness knows that I own my fair share of Lego products, probably more than I would care to admit. Even now, at the tender age of 24, I still find myself browsing through the isles of Lego products available at any and all Toys R Us stores. In all honesty, and I am sure you will agree, Lego has no age limit.
This entry is focussed on stop-motion Lego filmography. A hobby which no doubt exists for people who really have nothing better to do with their time. Regardless, it really is very cool, especially when done properly.
Alex Kobbs is one of these stop-motion Lego fanatics. He has spent the last six years creating a Halo themed 25-minute short, based on Halo’s Zanzibar map, completely out of Lego. How awesomely insane is that?!
The short film is called The Battle of the Brick and features ‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ battling it out *Halo fan high five*. The completed video is expected to hit the Web in early 2010, but for now you can have a look at the tantalising trailer:
If Lego stop-motion filmography is your thing, you can follow the progress of Kobbs’ work at the Kooberz Studio Blog.
That’s not all folks. I have one more fantastic piece of Lego filmography to share with you.
Every gamer and geek who has watched The Matrix will agree that it is one of the best science fiction and action movies of all time. However, you have not seen anything until you see The Matrix lovingly created in Lego stop-motion!
In honour of the 10th anniversary of The Matrix, a group of fans recreated nearly 900 frames of the film. The entire sequence is animated without any additional effects. What this means, is that the short was filmed ‘in camera’ without the aid of wire removal, Photoshop or any additional special effects; other than what can be created with the Lego blocks themselves. Very impressive stuff! The entire project is said to have taken around 440 hours to complete. For more information and additional videos detailing the projects immensity, check out www.LegoMatrix.com.
How cool would a Lego Matrix game be?! *Waits patiently for Travellers Tales to scoop the rights to create the game*
Until the next ‘blocky’ post “Milieunairs”!
It’s Britney, Bitch!
Posted by Hans Haupt in Entertainment, Holidays, Life, Music Monday on November 28th, 2009
Even before we arrived in Australia, I knew that Britney Spears would be bringing her ‘The Circus’ tour to the land down under. However, I never thought I would actually get a chance to attend the concert.
For starters, Britney’s last show in Melbourne was on the 13th November and we were only set to arrive in Melbourne on the 16th. Furthermore, tickets to the event were not exactly cheap, ranging from stadium seating at $250 (R1700) per person to the insanely priced ‘Love Seats’ for $1500 (for two tickets –> R10 000 ). Consequently, chances of me attending Miss Spears’ performance were pretty thin.
Or so I thought.
Through a fortunate turn of events, Britney had actually extended her tour due to popular demand, adding three extra shows to her repertoire. One of those shows, as luck would have it, was in Melbourne.
I would be lying if I said that I was not excited at the possibility of watching the princess of pop perform in the flesh. After all, like the Queen (Madonna), it is not as if Britney would be making her way to South Africa. So it was pretty much a ‘This Is It’ kind of scenario.
Amazingly, my parents ascertained that this would be a fantastic experience and wholeheartedly agreed to buy tickets to the show. Not only that, but they even allowed me to opt for the ‘stool’ seating, which is directly behind the ‘Love Seats’ and, as it turned out, was literally a meter and a half away from the stage.
Without a doubt, ‘The Circus presenting Britney Spears’ was the best concert I have ever been to. I am unable to truly relay how awesome the experience was. The circus elements to the show, alone, were worth the price of admission; from acrobats, to martial artists, clowns, mimes, weapon artists, magicians… you name it and it was there (animals excluded). In addition to the circus element, I have never before been privy to a live performance with as much pyrotechnics and stage theatrics as this. The ‘wow’ factor was simply phenomenal. I do think that the experience was made just that much better courtesy of our seats which, as I have mentioned before, allowed us to be almost within two arm lengths of the pop princess.
Contrary to the controversy surrounding Britney’s performance in the land down under, I can honestly admit that I would watch it again. So what if she lip-synchs? Anyone who has heard of Britney Spears knows that she is infamous for lip-synching (along with many other famous artists). So this was really of no surprise. In my opinion, if you want to hear an artist sing, buy the album. If you want to watch them perform, go to a concert. Whether they sing ‘live’ or not is irrelevant. With that said, it is worth noting that Britney did sing at least one song live, the ballad ‘everytime’. To all the naysayers who think Britney Spears cannot sing, let me tell you, this chick has a good voice. As a matter of fact, she actually sounds better live than through her recordings. So it is a shame that she does not perform ‘live’ more often.
Considering how close I was able to get, I was quite surprised to realise how small Britney Spears actually is. She is tiny. Then again, I am 6’4”, so a lot of people are smaller than I am. After two kids, she does look very good. While I’m on the topic of her body, it is worth noting that she is rather fit. She has good muscle tone; most definitely what could be described as a dancers body. So she is not petit and does appear to have some extra junk in her trunk. I think the biggest surprise to me was how small her boobs were. For those who know we, I’m a boob man. Britney has a good handful, but not what one would expect after all of the boob job debates. Have a look for yourself, in the album below.
I am truly so thankful that I could have this opportunity and would like to send a huge ‘I love you’ and ‘thank you’ to my loving parents who made it all possible.
Until the next time “Milieunairs”!
Say What?