Oh yeah

I went to see Sicko today. It's great. Michael Moore is brilliant. I don't care what you think about him, but then again, if you hate him, you probably voted for Bush and support the Iraq war, which mean I don't care what you think, and you're hopeless. Hey, this is my blog, I can judge whomever I please!

If you think this is the greatest country in the world, you will watch that movie and sink in your seat from shame. My friend Jess wants to change the world and wants to fix this. I'm not as hopeful about the people who run this country, so I want out (see post below).

But if you get touched by people's stories of deaths that could've been prevented, and run the risk of crying in the theatre, like me, then take a couple of tissues with you. Sometimes, they were tears of anger and not just sadness. Anger that people can let people die, people they pretend to care about and protect, when all they really care about is their own well-being, and everyone else is sub-secondary. Every time Bush or Cheney came on screen, I wanted to stand up and say "fuck you for fucking us!" But that really goes for all politicians. No matter what party or what affiliation, they can all be easily bought. Sad, but true. Anyone who is capable of staying in Washington DC and surviving the life of a politician, has been bought off for someone's benefit.

It's a depressing movie, not because there are some sad stories there, but because the truth is raw and hurtful, and it can happen to any of us or our loved ones. It's not just on the screen. It's on every street corner. It's in the bus and train with us. It's because things can be changed, but there are forces that are actually working hard to stop the problems from being fixed. Yes, this is the land of opportunity, people alway tell you that. What no one tells you is that not everyone gets an opportunity. It's not a depressing movie, it's an eye opener. The problem is that when we open our eyes, we see things that somehow we missed. And they're not pretty, really not pretty.

Go see the movie!

It's been a while

If you know anything about me, you know that I am not the biggest fan of mainstream movies. That is not to say that I do not go to the cinema to watch mainstream movies. But I go with very low expectation. For some reason, I also feel less comfortable going to mainstream movies alone. I have no problem going to the indies and foreign ones alone. Odd, no?

When there's a lot of talk about a movie that I haven't seen, I get curious, and NetFlix it to see for myself. Problem is, you usually need time to sit down and dedicate yourself to watching a movie on your couch. Yes, I do enjoy my time on the couch, but the last thing I want to do after a long looooong week of work is sitting down and concentrating on following a story line, and god forbid, one of these complicated multiple story lined movies. The quality of movies is so bad these days is so bad that there are obvious attempts at beefing movies up, and that really REALLY irritates me.

I am sick and tired of boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, insert misunderstanding, cause separation, build story around fixing said inserted misunderstanding, and ta-da, boy and girl get back together and live happily ever after. [INSERT GAGGING NOISE]

Add little variations here and there, and you have 45% of the mainstream movies.

If you do the math, there's a whole 55% left, how could that not be good enough to satisfy my need for a good movie? Well, let's hit the other 45% of mainstream movies that need to be flushed down the toilet: violence and/or scary crap. Jason, Freddy, Mike, Hannibal, guy with gun, girl with thin long heel or ice pick. YAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWN!

There's maybe, and that's a HUGE MAYBE, 10% of the mainstream movies that are worth the time you spent sitting down to watch them. That doesn't necessary mean that they're spectacular, but hey, if a movie doesn't make me feel like I just lost precious time exposing myself to the stupidity from which a lot of talentless people made tons of money I can never dream of even seeing, then it qualifies for that 10%. Every once in a while, a movie actually stirs the emotion in me. Yep, that is one emotion. Ice queen at your service.

Well, to make a long story short, and we all know that's a lost cause, I actually watched a mainstream movie today, after many many months of it sitting in my DVD player, thanks to NetFlix. It was The Departed, and it was worth every second of sitting on that couch.

MOVIE SPOILER ALERT - DO NOT READ FURTHER IF YOU HAVE NOT YET SEEN THE MOVIE

Now here's what I don't get: in what world is the only person that survives in a movie Marky Mark? No matter how much he acts, which is really restricted to the angry Bostonian, possibly the easiest way to make a ton of money playing yourself, he is still to me Donnie's little brother. Not only that, but how dare anyone kill off Leo? Yes, he is my guilty pleasure. Most people's guilty pleasure is chocolate or ice cream. If I had a choice, I'd lick Leo DiCaprio. He's my guilty pleasure. He's single, allegedly, so I convince myself that I still have a chance. He also cares about the environment, as if I needed more reason to love him. But with someone like Gisele on his dating record, my chances are in the negative, if mathematically they could go below zero. Either way, he brings out the drooling ogling obsessive chick in me...

Oh yeah, back to the movie. Umm... it was good. See it. And if you've seen it, do you think that the baby is Leo's?

Yes, there was a lot of shooting and killing in this movie, but the thing that really gets me is how realistic it all seems. Anything involving corruption in public service is realistic, and a movie about that is on my not-so-bad movie list. The movie was definitely worth all the hype and awards. And Leo, oh my Leo... let me have a moment.... yeah, Leo was great in it, so was Matt Damon. The rest could've not been good with the good story line, but I could've lived without seeing Alec Baldwin grab his junk. In fact, boys, all of you out there, I can really live without seeing any of you grabbing yours. It's there, it's not going anywhere. Crotch check is not necessary.

Just a few thoughts!

More deep thoughts

Well, unlike most people, I love France and I love the French. At least they are predictable. Once you know how to deal with them, and know what to expect from them, you know and that's that. And heck, knowing the language helps a lot. When I say I don't know German, I really DO NOT KNOW GERMAN! To me, people can be completely making up the "German" words they're saying. In French, while I don't understand everything, there are so many familiar words and I am capable of some communication, like when I order something on the menu, I know mostly what will be on my plate, and I won't be surprised with a cow's head. Of course, that's the problem, I enjoy most German food too, but I'd love to know what's in it without asking for the English menu like a dumb tourist.

HOWEVER, despite my love for France and the French, watching French TV movies is like watching a bad porn. You know the porn you're watching is bad when you start concentrating on the plot, i.e., being distracted from the main purpose of the movie. So basically, the nakedness starts annoying you and you find yourself looking forward to the end of a sex scene so that you can get back to the plot. Well, some French TV movies make you sit there and look at the characters talk and interact, and you can mute the movie and still enjoy it the same. In fact, actually listening to the dialogues and the bad acting make you want to pull your nails out from their roots with rusted pliers to ease the pain of the badness of the movie!

I must find a way to move here...

Well, first of all, I made it here in one piece.

I left the U.S. on March 11 around 5:30 PM, I got to Paris on March 12 around 7 AM. So basically I skipped a night of sleeping, because during the flight my body was still on US time, and when I arrived at Paris my internal clock was at sleeping time, i.e. around 1 AM. I wasn't going to sleep and skip my day in Paris, so I stayed up the whole day. Well, almost! I stayed in Paris with relatives, so instead of sitting around their apartment while they were at work, I went out for a walk so that I won't fall asleep. I walked around, ate, and then went to another spot that I haven't been to before: Le jardin du Luxembourg, which is close to the Sorbonne, so it was full of college students. I felt like I was again sitting on the quad like I used to back during my college days. It was really nice, and the French students weren't nearly as freaky looking as today's American college students. Though that may have to do with the fact that they're probably smart, because unlike the US, in Europe not everyone gets to go to college, you really have to do well in high school to go to college. In the US, there's a college for everyone.

Anyway, back to my time in the park. I grabbed lunch, which consisted of what was called the classic American sandwich, and in case you didn't know a classic American sandwich has in it: tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, mayo, ham, and hard-boiled egg. BLINK BLINK... how come I have never had this "classis" sandwich in the US? And you know, nothing says American like putting all of those ingredients in French bread. Wait, I mean, "freedom" bread!

After buying my lunch, I decided to eat it in the park, so I pulled up a chair and sat down and ate my lunch. It was quite fabulous, because you know, what beats eating lunch in a French university quad in the middle of Paris? Not too many things really. It was a little breezy, and the air was crispy, and the sun was shining... Oh, this chair is comfortable... *head falls and I feel myself snore* ... what just happened? OH MY GOD, MY EYES ARE CLOSED! *Must open eyes now* ... but they're so heavy, do I have to? YES, NOW! I open my eyes, and I look at my watch. Hmm, seems like I fell asleep in the park, for at least 2 hours! Well, hell, that was a great nap, it felt really good. I thought to myself: "well, I can walk some more, or I can nap a little bit more in the sun in the park. No one seems to care, and there are other people sleeping. Are French college students better than me? Hell NO!" So, I fell back asleep for another half hour, then the sun started setting, so it got a bit cooler. I got up, and walked a little bit more around the park, and back to the apartment, because there was not enough energy in me to continue with walking around and not falling asleep in less attractive places than the park.

I spent the rest of the day with the relatives, went to bed around 11 PM, and got up really early today and took a train to Brussels. As soon as I got here I went to the charming little room I booked in a hostel before flying here. And it was just as charming and cozy as I expected, in a very cultured neighborhood. TRANSLATION: little room, where I will not put my head on the pillow, in a slightly sketchy neighborhood with foreign poor-ish people in the neighborhood. Eh, it adds to the experience I guess. But I have been to cheap hotels before, and I can't remember the last time where I was in one where the whole thing smelled like an attic. Quite the charm, I tell you. Well, it's just for two nights, no big deal.

Brussels is an OK town. I did all the things a tourist in Brussels is expected to do. I went to the Grand Place, which is the square in the center of the town. Almost every European city has it. That's the place to go in every town, and if you know anything about traveling, the last place to eat is on a place right on the central square, if you're looking for something more authentic and less touristy. Also, I went and had a waffle, which is not eaten for breakfast here, it's a dessert, and you can eat it while you walk, with chocolate, or whipped cream, or whatever, not syrup though. Then for dinner I had moules et frites (mussels and fries), which is as Belgian as a meal gets, and it was delicious! I washed it all down with a glass of Belgian beer. Don't ask me what type, I don't pay attention to such ridiculous details.

I went to see visit some old big church in Brussels: St. Michael's Cathedral, and it was relly beautiful inside and I took a lot of pictures. Then as I stepped outside, I remembered that I had to take my birth control pills. As I was taking my pill, I thought to myself: "there is something hysterical about taking my birth control pill in front of the biggest Catholic church in the city!" Hey, it amused me. For some reason this reminds me of the episode of Scrubs where Turk found out that Carla was pregnant before she did (because she tossed the pregnancy test too soon), and he was preparing to tell her that she's pregnant by having people hoding balloons shaped like babies to tell her, and she told him on the phone that all she would want to do when she gets pregnant is tell the people in her life that she is expecting, so JD was going around telling the people to stop the plan and pop the baby balloons, and he was yelling: "abort the babies, abort the babies!" And one of the people was a priest. It was really funny. I guess you just had to be there.

Now, so far there's been one event that's stuck in my head more than any other: a girl was posing for a picture in the Grand Place in the middle of Brussels, and she did some pose and yelled: "YAY! This is me in Paris!" Thing is, she didn't look drunk or high, so I'm not sure why she had not only the city wrong, but she wasn't even in the right country. Crazy tourists!

The French guy I was talking to in the airport before I left was not kidding when he said that there are WAY TOO MANY Asina tourists in Europe. He also said, that maybe it's part of their culture or something, but they love bragging about having material things and showing off that they travel a lot, so whenever they go to Europe, they go to one city a day, which is in no way enough for any city in Europe no matter how small. I feel bad that in most of the cities I'm going to, I will spending 2 days. But I think I will use that to find out which of these I will re-visit. I am staying 4 days in Vienna, so that's good.

Tomorrow, I am heading to Bruges, another Belgian city, not too far away. Brussels does not need more than one day. If I had more time I'd go to the country side, which is what I will do next time I come here. As for Bruges, there's one famous person who's from there: Dr. Evil. I think it was in the second Austin Powers movie where he says to his son Scott: "here, have some chocolate, it's from Bruges, it's where daddy is from." He did reveal in the first Austin Powers movie that he is from Belgium, but I don't think he mentioned then what city. Or maybe it was in the third movie... I don't remember. Also, when he was singing "hard knock life" he says: "this is for all my homies in Bruges." I'll let you know after tomorrow if I run into anyone related to the Evil family!

Movie notes

Considering my new found freedom, I have been catching up on movies. After all, paying Netflix dues month after month and not using it should be a crime.

I find myself more and more into independent and foreign films. I do live very close to a movie theatre that plays only independent and foreign films, but I have liked what I have seen so far, and I am just tired of the same old plots with different actors and actresses who are overpaid and under-talented. Most mainstream movies do not interest me, unless there's more to it, more oomph!

Well, here are a few movies I was finally able to see, and here's what I think about them:

Pan's Labyrinth (El Laberinto del Fauno): This film comes from Spain, but the director, Guillermo del Toro is Mexican. I am not usually interested in movies with fantastic beings and weird creatures, but in this movie, it did not bother me as much. The little girl, Ofelia, was great, the music at the end still gives me the chills and makes me want to cry, and the actress playing Mercedes was very empowering. I was truly shocked that it did not win Best Foreign Film, that is, until I saw the film that did win...

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen): the film that did win. This film comes from Germany. It's about a writer in East Berlin in the mid 80s, a few years before the wall came down. You cannot help but fall in love with the idealistic writer, the true artist committed to his art and his ideals and beliefs. On the other hand, the other main character is despised in the beginning, and slowly he evolves throughout the movie. Suddenly, at the end, you find yourself liking him and slightly feeling sorry for him. This movie is a must see.

The Syrian Bride: Obviously, this one has a little special place in my heart. My guess is that you would not like it if you have no idea what the history is behind the Golan Heights. But I would say, give it a chance. I have been to the Syrian-Israeli border by the Golan Heights, and it just makes a world of difference to have grown up there and known the country.

Syriana: Fast-paced and confusing, so make sure if you watch it to be capable of paying attention. No alcohol with this movie, please. It's quite an eye-opener, and I am sure not too different from the truth of what really goes on. If you are bothered by how much oil controls what our government does, this will be a good movie to watch. George Clooney did a great job, and the Oscar he took home last year for this movie was definitely well-deserved.

Good Night, and Good Luck: Good movie, and well acted. However, having already known most of the events of this movie, I did not get much more out of it. But, if you don't know too much about Ed Murrow and the McCarthy Era, that's OK, the movie will show you all you need to know. Still, the movie was So-So.