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 novl 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.

M&M: A Hidden Life

A while ago I watched the movie “A Hidden Life” from the year 2019 for the first time. It was on my imdb.com list of movies that I wanted to see and tells the story of the farmer Franz Jägerstätter from the small town St. Radegund in Austria, who refused to fight for the Nazis during the second world war.

Franz Jägerstätter really lived. Which was one of the reasons, why I decided to watch this movie. Normally I'm not at a point where I'm skeptical about watching “Nazi movies” or movies set around that time and avoid them. It should be noted that this movie is almost 3 hours long. One of the reasons why I hesitated watching it.

Franz Jägerstätter is played, convincingly, I think, by August Diehl. Valerie Pachner took the role of his wife Fani and I thought of her as equally fitting. As for the other actors, I didn't know anyone other than the one playing the priest Fr. Fürthauer, namely Tobias Moretti. Jägerstätter is conscripted to fight for the Nazis once, but is send home to his wife and three daughters. When a second letter for conscription arrives, he talks to Fr. Fürthauer, but quickly notices that he won't get much support from him for the resistance to fight in the war. So he has to go to war. When he refuses to swear on Hitler, he gets arrested. Fani and Fr. Fürthauer as well as others try to talk him into swearing on Hitler. The Nazis won't care what he really feels and thinks and his death because conscious objection will basically be inconsequential and therefore unnecessary. It's suggested he can go do medical service instead of being a soldier and fight. He refuses all of that. That's how important it is for him to truthfully and openly defend his point of view. First his wife and children at home get support, but then they all feel the hate from the other town people and they become outsiders, who have to work hard to keep doing their farm work without a husband and father to keep the farm going. In August 1943 Franz Jägerstätter is finally executed.

The movie starts by showing the calm and peaceful family life. Although set in a war time and being an exceptionally long movie, the viewer doesn't see a single shot fired. On the internet I read reviews that Fani should have fought harder and should have convinced her husband more to do what's necessary to stay alive. Watching the movie I did get the feeling that she tried for him to keep on living. His point of view and showing it openly was more important to him than his own life.

During my school time our religion teacher was enthusiastic about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who also resisted the Nazis and paid with his life for that. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a Protestant priest, so it's not surprising my religion teacher liked him. I personally was more impressed by the simple farmer Jägerstätter and how he stood his ground and wasn't even going to pretend something else, if he didn't want those things. I don't want to badmouth Bonhoeffer or belittle him. I do believe however that for a priest the belief in god and acting according to his will is in the end a logical decision. The decision of farmer Jägerstätter to abandon his wife and children to defend his own view is rather impressive to me.

It's easy for outsiders to look back on this terrible time period and say, “I would have refused, too.” or “I would have been one of the good ones.” It's easy for us to say as our life right here and right now is not threatened. I believe that whoever makes those statements or similar ones recklessly, doesn't really have an idea about the general atmosphere of the people and the pressure people were under at that time.

The movie is long and takes its time. This seems fitting for me though in the depiction of the country life in contrast to the hectic city life and later also during the time in prison where just not much was happening. Although I was aware of the unusually length of the movie from the beginning, I didn't feel bored and it didn't seem long winded to me. I'm sure one could have cut an almost three hour movie somewhere. I wouldn't know where I would have cut it though. I didn't know Jägerstätter before the movie. Then again, he was Austrian and we didn't talk about people, especially people in the reistance movement, in other countries in school. According to the trivia comment section on imdb.com to this movie Jägerstätter and his fate wasn't known outside St. Radegund for a long time anyway and he was discoved by accident. The American Gordon Zahn came to St. Radegund in the 1970's and uncovered Jägerstätter's history and made it known. Now there are several movies about him.

The irony...

Found this sign at the bus stop today. I thought of getting it when I came back from work, but it wasn't there anymore then. I thought it was very ironic that whatever happened before the sign was left there, all that was left was this sign and it says:

I guess it was somewhat effective advertisement, because of course everything has hashtags these days and people may look up that one as well. https://lnob.net/en/

In the tram on the way to work today

 

M&M: Bastille Day

Bastille Day is a movie from the year 2016. Bastille Day is referring to July, 14^th, the national holiday in France. On July, 14^th 1789 the Bastille was stormed. The movie is set in contemporary Paris a few days before this national holiday. Michael Mason (played by Richard Madden) picks pockets and is unwillingly involved in a bomb attack, when he steals a woman's bag, in which she hid a bomb. Mason checks the bag quickly and decides that there's nothing interesting in it for him and leaves it. As he walks away, the bomb explodes. The CIA hears of the incident and starts looking for Mason, who they believe to be a terrorist after identifying him through cameras around the buildings where the explosion took place. Sean Briar (played by Idris Elba) is ordered to look for Mason. Briar is from the CIA, but not necessarily a guy playing by the rules himself. Initially both men naturally don't trust each other, but then Briar is willing to work with Mason to find the woman, who had the bag first so they can find out more about the reason for the bomb attack.

Richard Madden is initially shown picking pockets. According to the trivia section on imdb.com for this movie, he actually trained to do this for real.

The movie was released in cinemas on July, 13^th 2016 and on July, 14^th the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nizza followed. StudioCanal removed all digital advertisements of this movie in Paris and let theatres decide for themselves, if they wanted to keep the movie in their program or not.

The story of the movie, as described above, may at first read like a simple movie at most described as “action movie“. Yes, it is a movie with lots of action, starting with the pursuit when Briar finds Mason, who runs up to the rooftop and on to other rooftops of Paris. To me however the movie is more than just an action movie. When I saw it the first time, it was on tv at around 10 at night and I was fairly tired already. I wanted to just have a quick look into it, to see what this movie was like, that had the French national holiday as a title. That night I didn't just have a quick look into it, I watched the whole movie to the end, because the story was captivating enough for me to make me curious what the reasons for the attack were and how the story would end for both Briar and Mason. I liked the characters. It's not just about the attack. With Mason we have someone innocent, picking pockets, who suddenly has to prove his innocence when everyone else is looking for him, thinking he wanted to execute the attack. The fact that I'm somewhat interested in magic may have helped making Mason more sympathetic for me.

As I watched the movie, I did however ask myself one question repeatedly: The CIA is not a French organisation, Briar is not a Frenchmen, neither is Mason, but the movie is set in Paris, the capital of France, around the French national holiday. Couldn't they have made the movie “fully” French, instead of just using the date of the French national holiday and making the story take place in Paris? That's not at all critisising the acting abilities of Richard Madden, Idris Elba or anyone else in this movie. I'm just thinking that as much as the frame work of the movie is French, why not use French actors for the main characters and some French organisation instead of the CIA? That's a bit sad all in all, nevertheless I liked the characters of Mason and Briar enough to be interested in a “Bastille Day 2” kind of sequel with the two. The movie does have a good and reasonable ending, but especially the future for Mason after all the events of the movie are questionable and I'd have liked to see how things went on for him specifically. I'm not aware that any sequel is even planned though and I doubt that a sequel with those characters will ever come.

Sunset today

Pandemic and lockdown may suck, but not everything is bad. This sunset wasn't bad at all. Enjoy the little pleasures in life, everyone!

Tell me in the comments what nice things you experienced lately.

Out at a restaurant with a very special guest at the table next to us

 

vu

I had a proverbial screw loose (and lost it)

 

3 ingredient cookies variations

In 2017 I wrote a blog post with a cookie recipe I called 3 ingredients cookies, although the internet knows it more under the name of "Nutella cookies". I myself made them with Nutella only once, but did them many times with all sorts of spreads.

The following pictures were not taking this January, they are older. I wanted to share some variations I made with you anyway.

In May 2019 I found pistaccio spread:

That same day I also made my favourite cookies with friends with caramell sea salt spread (the brown ones). I did announce that there is "Bounty cream" to those friends to get a variation of coconut cookies. I blieve those versions of spreads like Bounty/coconut, Mars, Mily Way and the like are just temporarily available, I haven't seen them a lot lately, only the occassional Mars one maybe. I didn't find "Bounty Cream" that day, but a similar suitable coconut spread (the white cookies):

Another posibility for cookies are with M&Ms, but they are big and large (make sure to stick the M&Ms well into the cookies, otherwise they may drop out and away from the cookies during the cooking time in the oven:

I found that smarties are more practical, because they are smaller:

There's a brand available here called "Chocolate Symphony". A dark chocolate version can be seen here:

They have all sorts of variations, mostly in 200 g jars, which is just what you need for the cookies. The spread is easy to get out of the jar, the labels can be taken off the jars very easily with no traces of the glue left, which I think makes them great to reuse. Check those out and get them, if you can. I always do.

Here's the webite of the company: https://brinkers.com/brands/chocolate-symphony/

Leave me a comment what kind of variation you'd like to try or have tried already.