Night(s) at the Movies

Another lovely day in the books here in Denmark. Heavy rain, whipping winds and temperatures in the low teens (Celsius) were today's conditions. Most Danes really like to discuss the weather (almost more so than native New Englanders) and they are also very quick to point out that "the weather is never like this around this time of year." This is usually the first thing they bring up when speaking on the subject. I'm starting to think these lines are more rehearsed than just part of typical conversation. Perhaps I've fallen into some sort of strange ''Truman Show" fantasy world, one that happens to be perennially stuck in the path of a lousy jet stream.

Rainy day aside, I went to the gym and did a few errands downtown this afternoon. Biking in the rain was actually pretty fun. The winds were really strong today; at one point I found myself pedalling against them with all my might, white knuckles on the handlebars, eyes barely open and teeth clenched. This must have been a sight for anyone present because I couldn't have been going more than five miles per hour. To add to the excitement, the mountain bike I'm currently using doesn't have a guard over the back tire so all the water and dirt underneath just kicks up on to my backside. My sweatpants got pretty waterlogged, too and I had to roll the legs up to keep from getting caught in the chain (which happened twice before I wised up). Never a dull moment here (rarely a dry one, either).

When I returned home, I felt inspired to do what anyone else would given the less than desirable conditions outside: be lazy and watch movies. Actually, I've been doing this the past few days thanks to a very special new edition to my apartment:


Yes, indeed. Forty inches of Peyton Manning-endorsed Sony Bravia found its way into my lonely little apartment last week. Peter purchased this for my use while I'm living here and after my stay is up, it will reside in the Tigers Clubhouse that we looked at the other day. This will be a handy tool for watching game film with others, or just watching Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and Ricky Gervais on some British morning show. Note the Danish subtitles; this is actually how many Danes hone their English skills from an early age. I actually went to my first movie here last week (''Iron Man 2" - GO SEE IT) and that's how they are here. I thought it would be distracting, but it really wasn't. It was helpful to see printed text of words that I hear all the time alongside the actors' spoken dialouge. I'm going to make the effort to watch some TV here from time to time to see if I can develop my Danish in this way. Tough gig, no?

Anyways, back to the TV. This particular model is of the "picture looks better than anything in real life possibly could" series, espeically when it comes to DVDs. In fact, many images no longer look like they were shot with motion picture footage, but rather they look more like live television. You sort of lose the sense of theatrics when this happens. For example, I was watching ''Jurassic Park III" the other night and those dinosaurs didn't look enough like those in a Hollywood spectacle should; they just looked like regular dinosaurs you'd find out in the wild! Where's the fun in that? Either way, it's nice to have this sort of entertainment at my disposal now. Thanks to the library's respectable catalogue of titles, I anticipate I'll be able to eliminate many titles off my ever-expanding list of 'films that I probably should see at some point' (I've already crossed off Boris Karloff's classics, ''Frankenstein" and "The Mummy" in the last day alone). Among the titles I picked up today were "Dirty Harry," "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (and I just watched "Million Dollar Baby" yesterday ... I'm not sure but I think Clint Eastwood himself might be sleeping on my couch as we speak) and "Iron Maiden: Flight 666," a rockumentary about Iron Maiden and their ability to tour rapidly, thanks to 'Ed Force One,' their own private Boeing 757.

Outside of my recent movie-hoarding, I found something pretty funny when I was doing laundry the other day. I put up one of my short socks as a comparison here:


I guess I picked up a hitch-hiker the other day when I removed my wash from the machine. My powers of deduction lead me to believe this shirt belongs to either a person who is very, very small or a pet who is very, very miserable.

I have one more image to share before signing off for the night. One can always tell when you put the helmet on again after being off for a while:


Scary stuff there, sorry I had to subject all twelve of you out there to that. More to follow about the upcoming game in tomorrow's post; that mark up there actually starts to glow when I think about football. So long for now, be back soon.