So the Bulgarian and I both have a love of movies. Lots of movies, weird movies, funny movies, foreign movies. I took him to Scarecrow last week because 1)He had never been in the most awesome video store on the planet and because he was telling me that Serbian films are very good and Scarecrow has a giant (I mean giant) section of foreign films by country.

So he pulls out this Serbian film- No Man’s Land. “It’s very good movie” he said.
“Oh I know, I’ve seen it”. I think he was impressed, though I watch A LOT of foreign films.

We ended up renting Almodovar’s What Have I Done to Deserve This. He sure does like the frustrated wife kills husband plot. Though I think Volver was better.

Anyways, yesterday we were chatting about Eastern Promises. I mentioned that the naked fight scene was weird and hot. And how all I could think of through the whole thing was that he should be protecting his bits. The Bulgarian had the same thought.

At one point he typed “As you wish” to me. Being a good, goofy American girl, that line makes me think of only one thing. But he hasn’t seen it. Shocking, really.

In addition to teaching him about ROUSes and who Inigo Montoya is, I want to make a list of classic American movies that I should recommend to him.

So peeps- what movies do you think I should put on that list. I already own Casablanca. I know some Hitchcock should be in there (Notorious being my favorite- it’s got Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant and they got a long smooch past the censors by having them talk during the kiss). I don’t think I need to recommend things like the Godfather or Rocky, they are popular enough on their own and I really can’t sit through that much misogyny, again. Maybe the Magnificent Seven (Steve McQueen and Yule Brenner, hubba hubba) though I know it’s a remake of The Seven Samurai.

Suggestions?

A few years ago I wrote a paper about Germania by Tacitus, considered to be one of the first ethnographies. My professor was getting his phd in German history, so he was thrilled.

In writing this, Tacitus set up German women as ideal, (idealizing the native, actually) with their blonde hair and strong, buxom bodies. But also because they were monogamous and loyal to their families and husbands in ways he did not think Roman women were. At the same time he denigrated German men as filthy, drunken louts who did nothing but fight.

By doing this Tacitus made several things possible.

1) He set up German women as oppressed creatures who should be “rescued” from their horrible husbands, there by legitimizing rape as noble. Better to be fucked by a Roman soldier than a dirty German.

2)He set up German men as “other” (I know it’s weird for us to think of white people as “other” but it was the Roman empire). This made them less than human and justified war.

3) He put fear into the hearts of Roman wives. They were not buxom blondes, and monogamy was not often practiced in Rome. By creating an ideal such as this, Roman wives would have to submit to

I work really hard at examining my likes and dislikes for negative social conditioning. I want to like what I like because I like it, and not because I feel like I should like it. I want to do what I do because I want to do it, not because I think society will keep me down if I go my own way.

I had this conversation with my brother a few months ago. He was newly single and we were talking about girls. He has a friend who I think is just lovely and sweet and Bro thinks she is just friend material. That’s fine, if he had phrased it as “she’s just not my type”. But he didn’t. He said “She’s just not hot, and I only like hot girls”. His definition (which he firmly believes is the only definition) of hot is tall, thin, big boobs, red hair and completely shaved.

If that were the only definition of hot- I would never have a date. The only thing I have on that list is the boobs. But Bro

Follow the links at BlueLyon’s place to see the happiest thing you will ever see on a Sunday.

I mostly hate kids movies. Sure- I love Miyazaki and the Harry Potter movies, but mostly I think kids movies are dumbed down techno-colored crap. Disney movies mostly make me nauseous. And the Kid has a love for Scooby Doo that knows no bounds. Really, when I was 10 the Scooby Doo plots were cool but now I kinda want to stab my eyes out with a pencil rather than watch Scooby and Shaggy run away from fake ghosts and monsters.

So the Kid begged me to rent The Last Mimsy so we could watch it together. This morning instead of watching cartoons, we made up some cinnamon rolls and ate them curled up on my bed while watching Mimsy in all it’s alien cuteness.

It was……not bad. Sure there were some totally crap moments where suspension of disbelief was impossible. Strangely, the magical mystery bits were believable. It was the real life stuff regarding Homeland Security that I couldn’t buy.

So if you want to watch a movie with your kid that won’t make you wish for a heroin overdose- I think The Last Mimzy could work.

But now that the kid is happily off to his own room, I’m gonna go be all grown up and watch Eastern Promises.

So the Kid and I were riding the bus home today (in the snow- in fucking April) and sitting across from us was a cool punk rock mom and her little baby girl, who could not have been more than 9 months old.

The mom had multi-candy colored hair. The baby had her hair dyed fuschia.

Now the rock and roll side of me was all “fuck yeah- punk rock girl!”

The mom side of me was all “Bad-No chemicals on baby heads!”

I sincerely hope the mom went the least toxic way and used koolaid on the kids head. That would be rad.