Tonight I went to the cinema to see Juno. I wasn't sure what to expect of it as I only knew two things about it: that it's a teeny movie and that the screenplay was written by a former stripper, Diablo Coby (she won an Oscar for it). Well, yes, it is a teeny movie - but a really nice one. First of all I was really surprised to find out that for this kind of film on a Wednesday evening at 7 the audience's average age was still mid 30s. A good sign I'd say.
I guess that with Hollywood you simply cannot fully escape stereotypes, and with a pregnant 16 year old that is even less the case. But it was good. I like her. She's cool. She knows what she wants and doesn't like to be told what to do. (Maybe this is why I like her...?) Her parents are cool too, nothing more with Madonna's Papa Don't Preach! Pregnant and still very clear about what to do, she analyzes her options rationally as well as emotionally. Finally you get a modern thinking and open minded America! Some exceptions are kind of a must, but there you go, it can't all be roses.
The film is structured in a cycle: it started with a chair and finishes with a chair. I like the armchair and the pipe, the runners and the tic tacs. Some good humor and a somewhat unexpected ending that gets rid of a heep of cliches. Not the best of movies but still pretty impressive!
Wednesday 26 March 2008
Sunday 23 March 2008
Easter & books
During this low key Easter weekend spent with Oliver in London, all our four other housemates off to somewhere nice but equally cold and wet, I have dedicated plenty of time to reading newspapers, and book reviews in particular. There has never been a time with more literature prizes. Now even supermarkets and coffe shops give out prizes. And chocolate companies. Maybe an online travel agency will be the next one to invent a book prize, probably for fiction or biography.
The Guardian has dedicated the front page interview of its magazine to Jordan, or Katie Price if you prefer, whom I now find a whole lot more irritatingly horrible than before. And who at the age of 29 has 3 biographies out. Richard Hammond has co-written with his with Mindy a book on before and after his near-fatal car accident in Semptember 2006 during the shooting of Top Gear. And commedian Russel Brand just brought out his biography too, of course. And then Clarissa Dickson Wright, one half of the duo of Two Fat Ladies. At least she has lived long enough to have plenty to tell us... I look at all these biographies and cannot stop thinking it is a mere business. Yes, it is interesting to read about other's people's life, and the occasional one can be inspiring too. But all these many to me simply read like gossip, and this is when I appreciate people like Stephen King who wrote a short memoir of his life (and it is indeed not very long) as the beginning part of his book On Writing, where his autobiography is actually an integral part of the following and main part of the book. Thoughts and tips on writing. In other words, this is a book for the sake of writing, not merely of money.
Contrary to all my expectations I must admit I really like audiobooks. Yes, it's very nice and important to read books yourself, but I decided to give it a go and went to the local library. Among the rather poor selection on offer I found Andrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend, loaded it on my iPod and went to the gym. Well, I liked that session a lot more than many others!
The Guardian has dedicated the front page interview of its magazine to Jordan, or Katie Price if you prefer, whom I now find a whole lot more irritatingly horrible than before. And who at the age of 29 has 3 biographies out. Richard Hammond has co-written with his with Mindy a book on before and after his near-fatal car accident in Semptember 2006 during the shooting of Top Gear. And commedian Russel Brand just brought out his biography too, of course. And then Clarissa Dickson Wright, one half of the duo of Two Fat Ladies. At least she has lived long enough to have plenty to tell us... I look at all these biographies and cannot stop thinking it is a mere business. Yes, it is interesting to read about other's people's life, and the occasional one can be inspiring too. But all these many to me simply read like gossip, and this is when I appreciate people like Stephen King who wrote a short memoir of his life (and it is indeed not very long) as the beginning part of his book On Writing, where his autobiography is actually an integral part of the following and main part of the book. Thoughts and tips on writing. In other words, this is a book for the sake of writing, not merely of money.
Contrary to all my expectations I must admit I really like audiobooks. Yes, it's very nice and important to read books yourself, but I decided to give it a go and went to the local library. Among the rather poor selection on offer I found Andrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years by Sue Townsend, loaded it on my iPod and went to the gym. Well, I liked that session a lot more than many others!
Sunday 16 March 2008
Big circles
It has been a week end of music, parties and good friends leaving.
Tan Hauser Gate were on on Friday evening at the Clapham Grand in London where they gave another brillian performance. They immediately turned on the crowd with magic music and brilliant lyrics and surprised us all with some laser lights and fireworks. I really like the way James and the others engage among themselves and the audience.
Oliver's brother Philipp and his girlfriend Silvie were over for the week end. They're great fun and easy going. Together we danced and cheared THG, and went on the following day dancing and chearing Amanda, a special friend and good house mate, who is now sitting on a plane taking her back to New Zealand. And Philipp and Silvie too are back in Munich now. I am left in our living room listening to the parrot of our crazy neighbours, Oliver upstairs, music in my mind and my mind with my friends. A big circle that keeps us going. We're sad when friends leave, happy when we meet them again. And it's just this what makes us go on, wanting to improve life and ourselves, keeping the ones we care about around us.
Tan Hauser Gate were on on Friday evening at the Clapham Grand in London where they gave another brillian performance. They immediately turned on the crowd with magic music and brilliant lyrics and surprised us all with some laser lights and fireworks. I really like the way James and the others engage among themselves and the audience.Oliver's brother Philipp and his girlfriend Silvie were over for the week end. They're great fun and easy going. Together we danced and cheared THG, and went on the following day dancing and chearing Amanda, a special friend and good house mate, who is now sitting on a plane taking her back to New Zealand. And Philipp and Silvie too are back in Munich now. I am left in our living room listening to the parrot of our crazy neighbours, Oliver upstairs, music in my mind and my mind with my friends. A big circle that keeps us going. We're sad when friends leave, happy when we meet them again. And it's just this what makes us go on, wanting to improve life and ourselves, keeping the ones we care about around us.
Saturday 8 March 2008
International Women's Day
I must admit I have mixed feelings about International Women's Day (which is supported by the UN): information on how it came to be varies enormously, clearly putting its current commercial value in front of its historical one, which concerns the development of women rights and gender equality.
And, talking of gender equality, International Men's Day (again supported by the UN) was started in 1999 but is celebrated merely in a bunch of far away countries and on different days of the year.
The 1911 fire of the the Triangle Shirts Factory in NYC killing 140 women, although some claim it was the 1909 fire in the Cotton factory in Chicago burning to death 129 women workers, about a century later has turned into a global commercial activity and in Italy into a huge sale of Silver Wattle. Why Silver Wattle, I do not know. What I do know is that on 8th March women tend to be "celebrated" a lot more in those countries where gender equality still has a long way to go. I'll call it a compromise.
So do we really need a day to celebrate women? Yes. And we also need a day to celebrate men. However we do not need flowers, dinners out and what not - just leave equality and respect for both genders.
Did you know...?
Women win the right to vote:
- 1893: New Zealand
- 1902: Australia
- 1920: USA, Austria
- 1929: UK
- 1930: Turkey
- 1946: Italy
- 1971: Switzerland (1990: kanton Appenzell Innerhorden)
- 1984: Liechtenstein
- 2003: Afghanistan
Divorce becomes legal:
- under Henry VIII: England (only if initiated by husbands)
- late 17th cent.: USA (after English laws)
- 1875: Germany (for civil marriages)
- 1954: India
- 1970: Italy (against the Vatican's will)
- 1977: Austria
- 2003/2004: Chile
- not permitted: Malta, Philippines (annulment is permitted), Jordan (men are permitted to divorce their wives)
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