Au Cochonnet Marin

“I’m Russian: I’m into men, diamonds, and caviar.” Irina Valeryevna Shaykhlislamova

                                                      ? ????

а ты говоришь по русски? (A ty govorish’ po russki?)

On American TV good movies offerings are rare… They are like mirages. They shimmer on the horizon but they vanish the minute you try to grab them.

To watch fairly decent flicks you have to stay clear of the networks and fish in foreign waters. You have to turn to Netflix, HBO, Hulu, Amazon and the likes.

After a hard day of loafing, I often relax from the stress by gazing at the BoobTube. Well, it is not a tube anymore… but after spending a sizable amount of money on a large flat screen, I want to get my money’s worth.

The last 3 months I survived a pathetic dearth of Yankee entertainment with a steady diet of Hispanic, Indian, Korean, Danish, Swedish and German offerings.

After exhausting my supply of watchable stuff, I turned to my wife for recommendations.

моя жена (my wife) who watches almost exclusively Russian flicks pointed me to YouTube where there are plenty of foreign and Russian movies.

I am somewhat acquainted with the Russian language and I am familiar with a bunch of words; I also understand some snippets of conversation.

Additionally, when watching a Russian movie I sometimes come accross French “loanwords” such as bagage, bigoudis, bouquiniste, café, cauchemar, chance, chanson, concours, costume, couchette, dame, douche, garage, jalousie, mirage, plage, restaurant, trottoir, voyage, etc.

Let’s not forget that before the Bolshevik Revolution, due mainly to Peter the Great (r. 1682–1725) and Catherine II (r. 1762–1796) the nobility spoke almost exclusively in French.

I found Russian movies very interesting. If it would not be for the omnipresent snow and if people didn’t speak Russian, you could easily believe that the action was taking place is some affluent European country.

The living quarters are nice, people are well dressed and everybody seems to drive late model cars.
This is course a fantasy land, like the 1930’s Hollywood productions.

Many Russian movies feature beautiful women who dress exquisitely (shades of Doctor Zhivago) and act very well.
In many Russian comedies (and dramas) women are unmarried or divorced. They are all brazenly looking for marriageable material and they make no bones about it. But not everybody qualifies. The prospective groom has to be rich, filthy rich. Russia seems to be a very materialistic society where money reigns supreme.

Plots are often convoluted, if not very schmaltzy. But I am not against occasional schmaltz. If you must know, I am a softie and I like happy endings.

In Russian melodramas though, there are very few happy endings. Somebody must die before the movie ends. It sometimes reminds me of exasperating French flicks that do not have an explicit ending.

I tried to learn Russian many times but the devilish Cyrillic alphabet always prevented me from getting ahead. With subtitled Russian movies, I have the feeling of gaining ground. Maybe someday I will be able to finally understand моя жена.

до свиданья мужики. Goodbye peasants!

Alain

 

“I’ll come and make love to you at five o’clock. If I’m late start without Me. “ – Tallulah Bankhead

?????

That’s cool… And I like cool people. I think that most of us secretly do.
Paradoxically, guys are always trying to look cool and girls always try to look hot.
Do opposites attract? Apparently so.

But who really qualifies as a “cool” person?
Is it somebody who wears his cap backwards? Somebody slumming with torn jeans? Somebody covered with ink? Nose rings, tinted glasses, hoodies?
I don’t think so.

Is it somebody who talks loudly and makes outrageous statements? Somebody who (like a teenager) tweets impulsively?
Definitely not!

In my book, people qualify as “cool” not by the way they dress or talk, but by the way they conduct themselves. A cool dude to me is somebody who doesn’t get easily rattled and remains composed in a stressful situation.
It is somebody who thrives in adversity. A cool person is like a glowworm; he shines in darkness.

Franklin Roosevelt was such a person. He remained cool when he declared war on Japan and his speech was brief, just seven minutes.

He didn’t bellow like Hitler or bark like Mussolini. He simply stated:

“No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might, will win through to absolute victory.”

I like somebody who rarely uses superlatives . Somebody who is sober in speech and action and who does what he says.

A hero is not automatically cool. A hero often acts before thinking. A cool guy thinks before acting.

Being cool means to be able to make rational decisions while being afraid or under extreme pressure. It is not given to anybody.

Think before you act and follow through calmly but decisively.

Alain

 

“I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”  Friedrich Nietzsche

????? 

As the song says “it’s a sin to tell a lie.”
Since I am an atheist, I am not sure about the “sin” part but lying is definitely not nice… it is demeaning.

In view of the post-election announcements I have been pondering a nagging question: what exactly is a lie?

Wikipedia is formal:

“A lie is a statement made with the intention to deceive. The practice of communicating lies is called lying, and a person who communicates a lie may be termed a liar. “

 In other words, lying is not telling the truth, deceiving.

After an extremely loutish presidential campaign, we are discovering that practically none of the pledges made by our Commander in Chief have been implemented. I am actually glad to hear that, but what does it tell us about the character of our new boss man?
If you lie to me once, chances are that you will lie to me again. And once bitten, twice shy.

Since I have been deceived far too many times in the past, I am less innocent, less gullible. I take everything with at least three grains of salt. And everybody should.

And now this unreal Comey/Trump saga…
Who do I believe? The FBI chap gentleman (yes), without any doubts.

An outright lie by the way is quite different from a “white lie”. A (harmless) white lie is usually told to avoid hurting someone’s feelings and I have probably done that a few times.

But I don’t condone untruths, falsehoods, made-up stories, inventions, fabrications, deceptions or what ever you call it. Few people do.

To be believed is important, especially for a head of state.
Once the trust is gone, the rot sets in.

Alain ?

“If America forgets where she came from, if the people lose sight of what brought them along, if she listens to the deniers and mockers, then will begin the rot and dissolution.” Carl Sandburg