M&M: Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea

Dear reader,

for all of you, who enjoy to drink tea or are interested in tea, I've got this month's documentation:

"Victoria Wood's Nice Cup of Tea" is a BBC production produced in april 2013. In this two part program Victoria Wood follows up the history of tea and why the british love tea so much. The first part is about how tea, which originally came from china, came to great britain. The british eventually wanted to be independant from the chinese. India seemed a good enough substitute, especially since india was a former british colony. But what could the british have to trade with the indian? The answer to that question surprised me a lot and I wasn't expecting it at all.

The second part deals with why tea means so much for the british. Victoria Woods speaks with construction side workers, taxi drivers, the actor Matt Smith (known as the 11th Doctor of "Doctor Who"). Tea helped the british win the war, according to some discussion partners. Towards the end of the second part of this documentary Victoria Wood asks the question, if tea has a future at all, with Starbucks and all the sorts of coffee and coffee mixes. Does tea have a future? What could be the future of tea? By the way also worth a thought why in english they talk about a "nice cup of tea" so often. Why "nice"?

Youtube has got both parts online, at least for now. Here are the links:

part 1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOwWTFh_y9E (59 minutes)
part 2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4I47_vXBtU (58:44 minutes)

Until next blog,
sarah

Better be born in a different time?

Dear reader,

from "Sherlock" to "Elementary". Even though I didn't quite like the ending of the first season of "Elementary" that much - apart from the very last scene (bees!) - I did go on watching the second season, as soon as the internet allowed me to. In the 7th episode Sherlock goes to a sobriety meeting. The leader has a question to close the meeting of the day and surprisingly enough Sherlock is the first to say something. It's about crazy thoughts about their disease. Thoughts they know are crazy, but still come up.

Sherlock: "I often wonder if I should have been born in another time." And he goes on in a striking open way, " My senses are unusually-- well, one could even say unnaturally-- keen. And ours is an era of distraction. It's a punishing drumbeat of constant input. This cacophony which follows us into our homes and into our beds and seeps into our souls, for want of a better word. For a long time there was only one poultice for my raw nerve endings, and that was, copious drug use. So in my less prooductive moments, I'm given to wonder if I'd just been born when it was a little quieter out there, would I have even become an addict in the first place? Might I have been more focused? A more fully realized person?"

Someone asks Sherlock, "What, like Ancient Greece?"

Sherlock: "You any idea what passed for dental care in the Hellenic era? No, I'd want some of the wonders of modernity. Just before everything got amplified."

The discussion is interrupted by Sherlock's brother Mycroft, revealing himself with a question. Sherlock is shocked and leaves. Not only Sherlock with his unusual perception is stressed. We mortals are ever more stressed as well and everything around us gets faster and noisier and bigger and brighter. Type into a google images search the words: earth by night. That's how bright the earth is even by night. Does it all have to be that way?

Until next blog,
sarah

Am I pretty?

Dear reader,

Sherlock Holmes can sometimes get on people's nerves a lot with his analytic ways. Or when he doesn't want to admit that he doesn't have a clue. In "The Sign of Three" (The 2nd episode of the 3rd season of "Sherlock") quite certainly both apply. Sherlock and John are both drunk for John's stag night and play "Who Am I?" For that you get a piece of paper stuck to your forehead and have to guess the name on it. Usually a quite entertaining game. Though probably not with Sherlock. John should have known by now that Sherlock is not the man for trivia and chitchat and doesn't care about what would commonly be considered famous or interesting people.


John: "Am I pretty? This." (John points to the paper on his forehead)
Sherlock: "Beauty is a construct based entirely on childhood impressions, influences and role models."
John: "Yeah, but am I a pretty lady?"
Sherlock: "I don't know who you are, I don't know who you're supposed to be."
John: "You picked the name!"
Sherlock: "But I picked it at random from the papers."
John: "You're not really getting the hang of this game, are you, Sherlock?"


Sherlock is right with his argument though. It's exactly the factors Sherlock lists and more, which make us divide unknown people into nice or unlikeable, intelligent or stupid or any of the other many other pigeon-holes we have. A totally normal reaction. Routine and familiar situations, things and people are what help us making our life easier. We could not constantly react to each situation as if it was totally new to us. Something like real objectivity doesn't exist.

Even Sherlock Holmes' way of thinking is nevertheless not impeccable though. In "The Great Game" (season 1, episode 3 of "Sherlock") John can't believe it at first that Sherlock doesn't know the earth goes around the sun. Detective Inspector Lestrade and other police men also make fun of that. Sherlock doesn't care. His head is important to him and the fact that the earth goes around the sun is not important enough for him to keep it in mind for long. Though at the end of the episode even Sherlock has to admit that a little more knowledge about the solar system would have helped him solve the case faster.


Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: Gun Shy

Dear reader,

in 2000 the actor Liam Neeson had the leading role as the DEA agent Charlie in the film „Gun Shy“. Charlie comes back from an undercover mission, which has gone horribly wrong. It ended in a disastrous shooting, in which Charlie's colleague got killed and almost got him killed as well. Instead Charlie ended up head first in a water melon. Needless to say that he hates melons since then. From that moment on he has severe digestive problems as well as anxiety. There's nothing he wants more than retirement and the view of the ocean.

On his flight back, Charlie meets the therapist Dr. Jeff Bleckner (Michael Mantell). He notices how uncomfortable Charlie is and offers him help. Dr. Bleckner suggests Charlie goes to do some group therapy. During those sessions Charlie finds out that he's far from being the only one unhappy with his (professional) life. As he tells the others about his problems, he falls on sympathetic ears. Charlie has to take on one last job to stop the scary mafia boss Fulvio and his money laundering business. Charlie is so nervous meeting Fulvio the first time, that Dr. Bleckner prescribes him some pills. The therapist makes it very clear to Charlie only to take one pill. But Charlie is so nervous and the effect doesn't come fast enough for Charlie. So he takes a second. That leads to Charlie not only being calm during the meeting, but he very much not to fall asleep. In the end Charlie can't fight it any longer and just falls asleep in his chair as he is. Fulvio is enthusiastic and impressed how Chrlie can go to sleep and just sleep peacefully.

Charlie and Fulvio become friends for real. That's how Charlie realises that the mean mafia boss is just a show. Fulvio's wish for life is to grow tomatos. He only plays the mean mafia boss, because that's what everyone seems to expect him to be like. So Fulvio is just one more person, who is unsatisfied and with totally different dreams for how his own life should be. Charlie decides to help him.

Charlie consults the beautiful Judy Tipp (Sandra Bullock) about his digestive problems, who not only is able to help him with alternative medicine about his bodily problems. He's also infected by her optimism and the to of them come closer.

All in all this film can't be taken too serious and is far from what might happen in real life. But the film has much humour and it's much fun for me to watch all those great actors. The characters were written which much love and care, even the smaller parts and I enjoy it a great deal to see them all with their quirks and their problems they are fighting with and do their best to stick to their dreams and come closer to fulfilling them. At the end of this turbulent adventure especially Charlie and Fulvio clearly learned something for themselves and have been through quite some changes and achieved things for themselves.

Until next blog,
sarah

Everything used to be better in the old days?

Dear reader,

2003 was the year in which our family-computer got an internet connection. We had a world of options!

We created e-mail addresses and suddenly we were writing much cheaper and faster e-mails to long distant family and friends. Do you remember when you wrote your last letter to someone all in handwriting? A letter, not a postcard! My last handwritten letter to someone was last year. More of a sort of accident, because I needed to send something for a new ID card and had no printer. My last letter before that? No idea. How about you?

How did you order presents for last christmas? I bought exactly one present in a shop. Everything else I ordered comfortably online over the internet. Somewhat sad really.

Anyway, what did we do without the internet in the earlier days? Read more, I suppose. In november 2012 the german newspaper “Frankfurter Rundschau” filed an application for bankruptcy at the court in Frankfurt on the Main. The printing costs were too high compared with the number of sales. Why buy a paper anyway, if you can read everything online for free? In february 2013 it was announced that the paper will keep on going still.

Maybe everything was better in the old days. At least many of us didn't spend that much time in front of a screen and went out with others more often. Are computers a bad thing as such though? The world is changing, that's just the way it is and cultures and people are changing. In the old days there were only books in libraries. Now you can get CDs and DVDs there as well. In the old days there were catalogues of libraries in boxes and information on index cards on paper. Now everything is in computers and you can search easily and fast. And you don't even have to go to the library to find they don't have the book you're looking for or you can't currently borrow it. We can check that online at home. Contrary to the online shopping, which makes me somewhat sad, although I do that, too, I quite like the online search in library catalogues. Or maybe not. Because without it, at least I'd be outside once... The computer doesn't, at least not for now, replace humans totally. The work does change a bit with computers though. I also don't yet see the danger of technological changes and inventions endangering our work place as such. Machines taking over the world? I don't think so. Because for that the machines (for now) have too little of a life of their own and in the end it's up to us, the users of the technology to decide if or how much and how to use it. Even though some tv programs by now are thought to be rather low and stupid by many people, I still trust the humans to not be controlled by machines that much in a sense that in the end the machines control the humans.

Or maybe they do? Because, what's left in a time of a black out that disables our devices? Even if in our desperation, we'd turn to our books, we'd need light for that to read them. Although that should cause no problem with the modern eBook-readers, even in a time of a black out. Or if you've got enough lights in the house and a match or fire-lighter.

In 2012 an australian film came out called Underground: The Julian Assange Story telling the story of the youth of Julian Assange, the founder and chief editor of WikiLeaks. There's a scene where the young Julian sits in his room with his girlfriend. It's already dark outside. She tells him of a place where she'd like to go and asks him, if he likes to travel. He tells her that he already has. When he's hacking computers, he travels all the time. Sitting here in his bedroom and at the same time being at the other side of the world. Then he asks her to look outside the window and pick a suburb. She does. Julian types in a few lines on the computer and suddenly all the lights to out in the suburb she told him. “Did you just do that?”, she asks him. He doesn't reply, just tells her to pick another suburb. “No”, she says. “All those poor people are in the dark.” “They are happy”, he says. “Did you know that nine months after a black out, there's always a rise in the number of child births?”

Finally the vision of the “Factory of the Future” as Warren G. Bennis saw it:

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.

Until next blog,
sarah

Three Questions

Dear reader,

I don't know, who came up with those questions originally. If someones can prove it, please leave a comment, I'd be grateful.

In any case, Craig Ferguson once said in a Comedy Central performance, that three questions are important before you speak... even more so before you write something on the internet, where it essencially stays there forever:

1. Does it have to be said?
2. Does it have to be said by me?
3. Does it have to be said by me now?

Here's a video clip of Craig Verguson's performance, or rather a preview of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIdox3zpv-w

Until next blog,
sarah

M&M: Nightmare Before Christmas

Dear reader,

did you ever thought about the holidays we celebrate? Easter, Valentines Day, Halloween, Christmas? The animated film “Nightmare Before Christmas” by Tim Burton is just about that!

Jack Skellington is a skinny skeleton in a black-and-white striped suit and the head of Halloween Town, who's people are responsible for Halloween. Jack is sad. For a while now he didn't have fun scaring others and he wants something else. Only he doesn't know what that might be. During a walk he comes to another town: Christmas Town. Everything there is snowy and has a wonderful scent and everybody has fun and is happy. Also there's supposedly somebody huge and red and he brings presents. Jack finds out that this somebody is called “Sandy Claws”. Wonderful!

Jack wants this Christmas, too. He'll be preparing for the next one himself. Three kids, usually out to collect sweets are send by Jack to kidnap Sandy Claws so that Jack can do his job. Although Jack specifically tells the kids not to bring Sandy Claws to Oogie Boogie, that's exactly what they do. Oogie Boogie is the only really mean and scary person in Halloween Town and ready to kill somebody just to be entertained, that's especially true for this oh so great Sandy Claws.

Jack doesn't see any of that coming and everybody is excited. Only Sally is very worried. She's a bit like the Frankenstein monster stitched together and is held captive by her creator, Doctor Finkelstein in his castle. She likes Jack. Jack doesn't quite see that. In a vision she sees Christmas go completely and utterly wrong, so she does everything she can, to stop Jack's plan. Jack doesn't listen to her at all. Christmas goes totally wrong and ends in Jack being shot down with his flying sleigh. Only then does he realise how wrong he was, although he had meant well. Sandy Claws has to come back! Will Jack rescue him and with that Christmas in time? You've got to find out for yourself!

Like many animated films by Tim Burton, “Nightmare Before Christmas" has many songs and it's a kind of musical. The music was written by his permanent partner, the composer Danny Elfman. The latter also was the singing voice for Jack Skellington. Although Danny Elfman does the singing for demos of his songs, his voice is not heard in the films. That's what makes “Nightmare Before Christmas” something special for fans. When I saw the film for the first time, I didn't know Tim Burton as such, I have to admit. I knew his films – in hindsight – but the name got familiar for me only after “Nightmare Before Christmas”. I was lucky to see that film when a professor at uni offered to show it to those willing to come one afternoon before Christmas holidays. Being handicapped myself, I was fascinated with Sally and her body parts stitched together. One scene especially is just brilliant, when she runs away from the castle of the doctor to see Jack. She jumps out of the window. For a moment you almost believe she died from the jump. She's lying there motionless on the ground. But then she moves and stitches one of her arms tight to the rest again in a very resolute way. It's gone loose from the jump.

Jack was a very special character for Danny Elfman at the time the movie was made in 1993. His music career started in about 1972 when he started in the music group formed by his brother Richard Elfman. When Richard wanted to quit, Danny took over the group and it was cut from 20 to just 8 people and went on to be a New Wave/Ska/Punk/Rock Band: Oingo Boingo. They recorded their first album “Only A Lad” in 1980. According to Danny Elfman he still doesn't get it why the young director Tim Burton wanted him of all people to write the music for his first big film “Pee Wee's Big Adventure” in 1985. That's how Danny Elfman got into the film business. He got more and more famous as a film music composer and then it became obvious to him that he couldn't go on with Oingo Boing and composing for film at the same time. Both together were just taking too much time and energy. But how to choose? How should he go on? A very uncertain future for Jack Skellington in the movie as well as Danny Elfman in real life. It was this connection with Jack, not only through writing the lyrics and music, but also on a personal level, which made Danny Elfman want to sing the part of Jack Skellington himself – which he did in the end.

Until next blog,

sarah