Category: Fourre-tout

 

“Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!”

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When I was a young boy, I loved going to a movie theater to watch a Hollywood flick. And in those innocent days, I would go at least once a week.

Not anymore. Is it age or hypersensitivity? I don’t know.
But what I know and what is a terrible annoyance to me nowadays is the incredibly high decibel level of the theaters’ sound system.
Teenyboppers and teenagers probably love shaking in their seats, but my eardrums are not accustomed to such brutish treatment anymore and I find this extremely unpleasant.

Confidentially, I prefer to watch a movie at home on my large high definition TV screen.
At home, in the coziness of your boudoir, you can watch it in your jammies or au naturel, and if you feel so inclined you can also indulge in a few puffs of locoweed.
At home, you can also mercifully control the sound level or stop the movie altogether any time for a spot of tea or a pipi break.
And in order to catch every bit of a sometimes-mumbled dialogue you can also turn on the subtitles. Last but not least, I cannot stand the sight and the sound of popcorn chompers.
Why then would I go to a stinkin’ noisy, uncomfortable auditorium to watch a talkie?

Last night though, coerced by my main squeeze who wanted to see “La La Land” I went to such a place…

The movie was not perfect and a bit long (2h 8m) but generally speaking we liked it. The two main characters (Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone) were very good but above all, I was amazed by the sheer versatility of Ryan Gosling.
He sang, he danced and above all he played a mean keyboard. Yes, it was really him who banged convincingly on the piano during the entire movie, and he was amazingly good.

The soundtrack of La La Land is catchy and pleasurable at the same time. Unlike some soundtracks, it has appealing melodies (City of Stars for instance) and as soon as I came home I went online and bought a few tracks from Apple iTunes.

I feel confident that this movie along with Canadian-born Gosling and Stone will reap quite a few trophies, if not the best movie award at the Oscars ceremony on February 26, 2017.

See you on the Red Carpet!

Alain ?

Everything you see I owe to spaghetti. – Sophia Loren

He who hugs too much, hugs badly! Jeanne Calment

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She ought to know. She lived to be 122 years and 164 days, the longest confirmed human lifespan on record and she must have known quite a bit (more than any of us) about hugs.

And yes, I totally agree with the late Madame Calment. Everybody should know that the minute an item is mass-produced it immediately loses its exclusivity and its worth.

Imagine for a minute that De Beers and all the diamond-mining companies in the world suddenly flooded the market with all the diamonds they hold in reserve.
The price of the (no more precious) stones would tumble and all the “rocks” would become as worthless as common pebbles.
Overabundance my friends, is often synonymous to depreciation, to decrease in value.

The same goes for hugs.
A hug is special. It is reserved for lovers, family, pets or very close friends. You don’t hug any Tom, Dick or Harry because it has suddenly become fashionable.
If you do so, your hug is fake.

In a way, this sudden popularity of the bro-hug in America is not really surprising.
Young Americans are a mixture of copycats and lemmings. When they see something that looks cool, they will duplicate it; and they will do it to excess because in America, excess is the norm.
My theory is that the kids picked up this routine from hombres across the border. A well- executed abrazo is macho and supercool. A bad one is pathetic at best.
Old farts by the way don’t hug, they cross canes.

An honest hug should be spontaneous, not calculated. You don’t hug because it is “à la mode du jour”, but because you really mean it.
Some people are good huggers and some are extremely awkward huggers. The best huggers are women. It comes fairly naturally to them and most of the time they do it right.

For men, it is an acquired taste. Like a tennis backhand a hug needs to be worked on, otherwise you could get entangled in a ridiculous embrace.

One additional reason to distrust would-be huggers is that it is much easier for them to plant a dagger in your back while they are holding you tight.
Especially at the end of a tournament, beware of losers who want to embrace you. There is no reason for them to do so other than testing your defenses. In my opinion a handshake is much less dangerous and definitely more sanitary than a phony hug.

So, to sum up it up, I am not fond of bro-hugging a bunch of guys. I would rather hug a tree  than making body contact with a guy I barely know.

I will make an exception for a comely lass though, and submit to a voluptuous hug if I have to. Noblesse oblige!

Alain ??

“Because a man plays a king superbly well does not mean that he would make a good king.” 
Louis L’Amour

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Once upon a time (all fairy tales start like this), a little boy was born into an affluent family. He was of course well taken care of and grew up to be a tall, pleasant looking young man.
But with wealth comes privilege and sadly the young man became accustomed to having the right to anything he desired.

With the help of his father he grew richer but also with an exaggerated feeling of self-importance.
He soon became the GMNL/CEO (Give Me No Lip/Chief Executive Officer) of a large conglomerate, and like a conquering warlord he took to affix his coat of arms on everything he acquired.

After a long series of ups and downs, spurred by ego and driven by machismo he managed the unlikely feat of becoming the leader of a large country. This surprised many people and probably the man himself who during his scorched earth campaign constantly raged that the whole thing was “rigged”.

But once on the throne, he soon learned that the job of a CEO is quite a bit different from the job of a president.
A CEO very seldom hears the word “no”. It is even doubtful that he knows the meaning of it. He is is usually surrounded by sycophants who know better than giving this answer to their boss. They know from experience that this two-letter word is far more offensive than a four-letter word.

For a GMNL/CEO, a refusal to agree with him is synonymous to treason, and treason has to be punished. Underlings know that such a man holds them in servitude and they will stoop to anything to avoid hearing “you are fired!”

A wise president on the other hand, surrounds himself with advisers who are not afraid to disagree with him and won’t be punished for dissenting.

Wise kings generally have wise counselors; and he must be a wise man himself who is capable of distinguishing one. Diogenes

A CEO’s decisions might affect a few thousands people whereas a president’s resolve has an impact on the entire nation and the stability of the entire world.

The new king proved to be an impulsive man prone to send angry courier-pigeons messages to those who disagreed with him. Many people thought that it was not very kingly, but it proved very difficult to recall a pigeon once in flight.

One day a wandering soothsayer approached the King and whispered: Beware the Ides of March, Caesar!
The king who had no idea what that meant brushed him off and walked away surrounded by his minions.

With March fast approaching, a prudent man should always keep in mind that the Tarpeian Rock  is close to the Capitol.

Alain ??