weird words

Title may seem like hyperbole, but like we say in German: "Es fällt mir wie Schuppen von den Augen":

You may know that I live close to the border to a country that does not butcher films by dubbing them. I have only just realized that they have got cinemas over there that I could visit to watch movies in their original version. (I plead having a small kid and only rarely a babysitter available and being busy and all that as my excuse.)

Yes, The Hunger Games is on today at the convenient time of a quarter to eight. Guess what else I stumbled upon? Tomorrow on Friday 13th there's a pre-premiere showing of The Cabin in the Woods and another one on Saturday and Sunday. Sadly it's the late show at 11 - which is a little late for me...

Edited because I mangled CitW's title.

Well, not all of it, because I missed a couple of minutes of the beginning, but it's been forever since I managed to catch more than a 50 minute episode of television.

Twelve and Holding was a depressing movie though, about growing up in dysfunctional families in the United States.

( Vaguest spoilers )

Last night's visit to the cinema was enjoyable - we saw Burn After Reading. Lots of flawed human beings, lots of over-the-top plot developments, lots of laughs. Overall it worked for me, but I'm wondering whether Brad Pitt overdid the brainless fitness freak though I suspect a person just like that exists somewhere.

Tina Fey's Sarah Palin is so convincing that it fooled someone working for Swiss television - I saw a trailer for a news magazine today and it featured a short clip of Tina Fey's version of the Katie Couric interview - and the voice-over implied that we were seeing the real deal.

On a Sunday walk through the park I spotted this creature.

( Insect )

We watched Bend It Like Beckham in class.

When asked what they liked and didn't like about the film, one boy said that he didn't like that Tony turned out be gay. "Why?", I asked. "Gay is not good", he said. "It's disgusting. They should all be burned", interjected S getting all excited. She likes to say shocking things and her fervour seemed a bit put on. D had an explanation for all this: "You're only saying this because it's what your religion says." S, born in Bagdad nearly 18 years ago, retaliated: "You should know that I'm not a Muslim. And you say Foreigners go home because that's what your dad thinks."

Sometimes it's hard to tell how much of this is an act. They listen to their favourite rap artists and they know that most teachers get all flustery that there's sexism and homophobia in the lyrics. They know how to shock us. They like the power they feel when they say: "Bushido and his crew can gangbang me anytime."

Underlying all this is a lot of insecurity about (gender) identity mixed in with all the prejudices and stereotypes they're confronted with every day.

Last night I watched a television documentary about homosexuality in professional football in Germany. The interviews with fans and football officials contained among two or three sane voices an awful amount of crap.

There was the "But the kids need to be protected from a homosexual coach" outcry, but I'm guessing that Mr D has taken up his cocaine habit again and doesn't know what he's saying. Or the guy who wouldn't want to shower with a homosexual team-mate, presumably because he's afraid that he'd like what he sees. Then there was the opposite approach: "Some of my best friends are gay. You can have so much fun with them. And anyway, football isn't just brute force anymore, you need creativity and elegance and that's what they're good at, right?"

edited to add a NOT that had disappeared after I rephrased a sentence and again because that sentence was truly messed up

ETA: Here is a link to an article in English about the documentary and you can watch it on youtube here.