M&M: Little Children

In a small suburban town Brad (Patrick Wilson) is on the playing ground with his son Aaron (Ty Simpkins) as they meet Sarah (Kate Winslet) and her daughter Lucy (Sadie Goldstein). Being the only man amongst women on the playing ground, Brad is idolised a lot. Brad and Sarah decide to play a trick on th other women. They both start to like each other soon. Brad is married, but his wife is very controlling and he wishes himself back to earlier times. Sarah is married, too, but her life as a housewife and her daughter go on her nerves.

The idyllic times of the suburb comes to a hold when Ronald „Ronnie“ McGorvey (Jackie Earle Haley), who was convicted to two years in prison is released and moves in with his mother May (Phyllis Somerville). Especially the ex-cop Larry Hedges (Noah Emmerich) is not at all pleased with this and starts a hate campaign against Ronnie McGorvey. Larry Hedges quit the police job after he misjudged a situation and a teenager got killed in the process.

So effectively every adult in this town is insecure, unhappy and burdened by their fate, each in their own way. Only the little children are confident and innocent. If and how the adults work on a (better) future for themselves, you'll have to find out yourself.

The movie came out in 2006. Todd Field was the director and also wrote the script together with Tom Perrotta. It is based on the novel by the same name by Tom Perrotta. The movie shows the daily life and struggles of suburbanites. Still the relationships of each individual person and their fears and difficulties are complex and well played by the actors. Kate Winslet got an Oscar nomination as leading actress and so did Jackie Earle Haley for supporting actor. Todd Field and Tom Perrotta got a nomination for best writing for adapted screenplay. “Little Children” is by no means a cheap suburban daily life movie.

I haven't read the novel yet, so I can't draw any parallels. I do think the movie is worth watching. Ronnie McGorvey's sexual offence and his moving in with his mother may give this movie an uneasy sexual aspect. Apart from the fact that I like Jackie Earle Haley as an actor, I did have the feeling that Ronnie McGorvey wanted to start a better life for himself. I thought that Larry Hedges with his aggressive ways was more disrupting for this place and for way to live together peacefully. But he, too, had his very own problems and at th end of the movie he shows that he can overcome his anger and disgust to help.

Sunny way home

 

"EGAL" (Whatever) - A point of view that would do us good from time to time. And me close to my home:

Two years later...

To the best of my memory a person from work had a book from me for over 2 years... and didn't even start reading it. Because I wanted to read the book again for certain reasons, I asked her to give it back to me. Which she did today. My desk had enough free space for the things to be put there, but instead that person decided to put them in the cupboard behind my back and in the lower bottom part of it. I wanted one book back from her. I had forgotten over the time that she had two books and a DVD as well.

I pretended that I hadn't seen them, although I saw them almost immediately when I came into the room. Since that person's work day ended earlier than mine, she told me before she left that she had put the things in the cupboard behind me. I turned around and only said something like, "Ah, ok. Thanks."

I don't have to understand everything from other people and as of now I don't need to have anything to do with this person. Apart from the fact that we still share the same office.

Only partly visible in the photo, these are the things I got back (all well worth watching/reading in my opinion):

Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

The Wave by Morton Rhue

The DVD of the movie Little Children

Carrot head

Today I found this carrot among others in the store. I cut the holes for the eyes and mouth. But the nose was as is.

M&M: Spirited Away (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi)

Chihiro is 10 years old and together with her parents she moves to a new city. On their way to the new home they get lost. During a break they find an abandoned funfair. At first Chihiro does not want to be there, but then goes alone to explore the area as her parents illegally help themselves to some food and start eating like pigs at a sort of restaurant. As Chihiro is walking around, she meets a boy by the name of Haku. Haku warns Chihiro to leave this place before the night, but when Chihiro is back with her parents, they turned into pigs. To protect Chihiro from the creatures of the night, Haku brings her to the bathhouse to the witch Yubaba. In the bathhouse Haku asks the young woman Lin to request work for Chihiro. But the witch controlls her workers by erasing their memory of their name and whoever doesn't know their name has to stay in this magic world. Haku himself can't remember his full name and makes it clear to Chihiro that it's important for her to remember her full name whatever else happens. Chihiro has to do many tasks and wor hard until she can go back to her parents in the end. You'll have to watch for yourself to find out, if Haku will remember his full name.

The bathouse of the witch Yubaba was build for the Shinto gods an spirits and I found it exciting to learn a bit about the shinto belief through this animated movie of the year 2001 (directed by Hayao Miyazaki). For someone like me from Europe this belief is foreign and less known. Although I did read a bit about shinto (and voodoo) some years ago, because I'm interested in different belief systems and wanted to learn about them. So it wasn't totally new for me. I like this idea that gods and spirits are on earth, in the wind, in the water, on the earth, in the animals and not somewhere up in the sky far away from us on earth.

I felt a bit drawn to this movie not just because I found the plot description exciting, but also because of the name Haku. I knew the name because it's the name of one of the currently 4 cats of the American-Japanese Youtuber couple Rachel and Jun. If you like cats and are interested in the Japanese culture, check out Rachel and Jun's YouTube channel!

Nina Hagen did the German voice for the witch Yubaba. Lin was spoken by her daughter Cosma Shiva Hagen. I didn't know any of the other speakers in German or English.

My beloved toilet paper

 Actually I already took that picture in March to show an online friend what kind of toilet paper I have. I like it so much because it's so literal:

I just like how it fits to use a toilet paper that is called "Happy End" to finish your business on the toilet. Little did I know that shortly after taking this picture it would take months until I would have that specific one back. So just in case: I won't tell anyone where I got it from.

Rorschach was here...

  ... this morning on the tram I saw this blot:

Not only was it literally "mirrored" because of the window like a pattern of a Rorschach test. It also reminded me of a mix between two of them:

Card1 (Source: https://www.rorschach.org/):

for the top part, something like off-standing ears and dots and card 4 (Source: https://www.rorschach.org/):

for the bottom part, what looks like feet or boots.

Write me, what do you see in the blot from the tram.