Paul Goscicki

Just like last year and the year before – here are my favourite music tunes of 2007:

1. Monrose – Strictly Physical
2. Mika – Relax (Take It Easy)
3. Monrose – Hot Summer
4. Strata – Cocaine (We’re All Going To Hell)
5. Nelly Furtado – Say It Right
6. Randy Crawford – When I Get Over You
7. Sharam – Patt (Party All The Time)
8. The Jet Set – Just Call Me
9. Therapy – Diane
10. Good Charlotte – Keep Your Hands Off My Girl
11. Marc O’Tool – Let It Go
12. iio – Is It Love?
13. Tom Helsen – Sun In Her Eyes
14. Timbaland ft. Keri Hilson & Doe – The Way I Are
15. The Disco Boys – For You
16. Christina Aguilera – Get Mine Get Yours
17. Rihanna ft. Jay-Z - Umbrella
18. Mustafa Sandal ft. Gentleman – Isyankar
19. D-Jon by way of KL – It Skips But It’s Awesome
20. Sandra – All You Zombies
21. Sunrise Avenue – Forever Yours
22. Dead Can Dance – The Host of Seraphim
23. Omarion – Ice Box
24. Meck ft. Dino – Feels Like Home
25. Owal ft. Marta Florek – Szukam (The Nuclear Headz Remix)

Dance and house occupy 80% of this list. As usual.

TylkoZyczenia.pl - my new Rails website is now live. It’s Polish language only and it will probably stay this way. Basically, it’s a site with collections of wishes for various occasions, like Christmas, New Year, birthdays and so on. At the moment it’s not very different from other, similar websites (and there are lots of them in Poland) apart from the fact that my design, in my humble opinion, is leaner and much more clearer/simple than the others (aka simplicity all the way). I have some ideas to make this site different (read: better) from the others, though. Stay tuned.

It took me about 2 months of intensive, after-hours work. It’s the first version, which is usable to be online (meaning that basic stuff, like registering and adding new wishes work. The TODO list is quite big…). Enjoy!

32. Polish Film Festival. 5 days of screenings. 18 movies seen. I had the chance to experience some of the best Polish cinema ever. I’m a big movie fan and as I’m from Poland I try to watch every possible Polish movie I can (and no, I’m not that patriotic, I was thinking about emigration many times…). Each year it’s different. There were better years, there were worse years. But this year the festival has surpassed my expectations by a very large margin. Most movies were outstanding. This was one of the best if not the best Polish Film Festival ever. Every Polish movie I have seen was either very good or great. There was only one bad movie in the whole main competition, namely Braciszek, so there is no usual Top 5 of the worst festival movies. Here are the best ones:

The best movies of the festival (TOP 5):

1. Katyń (2007)
2. Korowód (2007)
3. Sztuczki (2007)
4. Aleja gówniarzy (2007)
5. Pora umierać (2007)

I miss those festival days so much…

During the festival I was also a photographer (or rather a photo reporter). Here are the links to my work:

• Gallery from the festival
• Gallery from the awards ceremony

And since I could not decide which pictures to put up here, I’m presenting you the best three of the many I took:

Agnieszka Warchulska

Julia Pietrucha

Damian Ul

The three pictures above are Copyright © 2007 Onet.pl

It’s been over a week since the 7th Era New Horizons Film Festival has ended. Same as last year, I’ve spent 11 days in the cinema. As always, the time has passed quicker that I could imagine. And as always, it was worth every second of it! Although I must say that the movies selection was not as good as that in 2006.

I’ve watched 51 movies. It was as much as one could watch as there were 10 regular festival days with 5 screenings a day plus the opening day with only one screening. I’ve spent about 1150 zł (circa 420$) on the whole festival (accreditation, accommodation, meals, etc.).

The best movies of the festival (TOP 10):

1. Ostrov (2006)
2. Gwoemul (2006)
3. Niwemang (2006)
4. Beneath Clouds (2002)
5. Persepolis (2007)
6. Sutra ujutru (2006)
7. Look Both Ways (2005)
8. Nuovomondo (2006)
9. Walking on Water (2002)
10. Obsluhoval jsem anglického krále (2006)

The worst movies of the festival (TOP 5):

1. Nue propriété (2006)
2. Kurz davor ist es passiert (2006)
3. Hamlet (2007/III)
4. Hei yan quan (2006)
5. Extranjera (2007)

See you next year? Oh, and say no to French cinema!

Express Kaszubski, a local Kaszubian (that’s in Poland) newspaper has just recently decided to stop releasing its printed edition and move entirely to the web. It was my honour to accompany during this move. The online edition took about a month to create. It’s just a basic website at the moment. No comments, no RSS feeds, although the CMS behind the scenes is quite powerful. All in Rails, of course.

Here is the snippet:

And if you haven’t noticed by now, it’s all in Polish.

To be honest, I’ve been a Rails programmer/enthusiast for quite a while now (something along 1.5 years; I think I’ve first downloaded it in July, 2005) but it’s only now that I can show you my first public project using this awesome framework. So without further ado, here it is, the Kania Lodge:

The Rails part on this website is the custom CMS that is backing it all up (based on RedCloth). Most of the hard work was with the design, though (Photoshop, etc.). I know it is a hardly original design as I’m not a full-time designer, yet I’ve done my best for it to look good. I’ve aimed for simplicity, cleanliness and good overall feel/aesthetics. Did I miss or am I right on the spot?

The team that creates the Wordpress Podcasts decided that my WP Movie Ratings plugin is good enough to be featured in the newest episode, the 17th. I feel so honored I’m almost blushing. Go, listen to it. Now. There’s also a local copy you can download. The part about my plugin starts at 23:11.

Now as for my surname, I was aware it’s hard to pronounce it right but the way he read it… man, you’ve made my day!

Continuing from Top 25 music of 2006 and doing exactly the same for movies. Just like before. Here are the pictures that moved me deeply in 2006. They’ve shattered my mind, they’ve crushed my heart, they’ve made me laugh and they’ve made me cry my eyes out. They are all more than highly recommended.

1. Bezmiar sprawiedliwosci (2006)
2. Renaissance (2006)
3. Plac Zbawiciela (2006)
4. Syriana (2005)
5. V for Vendetta (2005)
6. Leben der Anderen, Das (2006)
7. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
8. Brick (2005)
9. Inside Man (2006)
10. United 93 (2006)

While I do highly enjoy watching foreign movies (see the TOP 3 aka the cream), my top 10 list consist of 6 USA-made productions. It’s just something that makes Hollywood movies so damn good. Is it money? Maybe the craftsmanship? Who knows. Point is they make them like no one other. And they are usually the best. Period. Although you are free to disagree

Just like last year – here are my favourite tunes of 2006!

1. Largo – Tango Passion
2. Randy Crawford – When I Get Over You
3. Métisse – Boom Boom Ba
4. Sharam – Patt (Party All The Time)
5. Nelly Furtado – Say It Right
6. The Jet Set – Just Call Me
7. Ferry Corsten – Holding On
8. Morandi – Love Me
9. Bob Sinclair – World, Hold On
10. Andru Donalds & Eugenia Vlasova – Wind Of Hope
11. Therapy – Diane
12. Pussycat Dolls ft. Snoop Dogg – Buttons
13. Mory Kante – Yeke Yeke
14. Kasia Cerekwicka – Na Kolana
15. Arash ft. Aneela – Bombay Dreams
16. Pati Yang – Reverse The Day.
17. K-Maro – Les Frcres Existent Encore
18. U2 & Green Day – The Saints Are Coming
19. Chicane ft. Tom Jones – Stoned In Love
20. Ivan i Delfin – Jej Czarne Oczy
21. Ласковый Май – Белые Розы (Biełyje Rozy)
22. Akcent – Kylie
23. Malu – Fotonovela
24. Shamur – Gonna Make it
25. Long & Junior feat. DJ Wiesłaff – Bo Ja Tańczyc Chcę (Style Mix 2004)

It should be no surprise that half of those tunes come straight from my dance class.