The Man Without a Past

My girlfriend Johanna suggested I watch a movie called The Man Without a Past. No particular reason besides the fact that it's a Finnish movie and she's from Finland. She's a good ambassador to all things Finnish :) A few impressions on this movie:

Very atmospheric, I mean ambiances and tones are felt, almost brushed. Very slow paced, mostly about character development. Something very sad, a longing, in the music at the end. Is that the Finnish blues? If you lose your memory you can - in fact must - start afresh. Your character isn't knowledge, rather it defines how you act and react to things... e.g. the man in the mustache who steals the bank to pay the employees he owed to. Most things are implicit knowledge, things one doesn't un-learn, e.g. his talent for welding, knows how to walk, drive a car, etc. I get the sense that if his wife still loved him, even though he doesn't know her anymore, he would have stayed for her. But it turns out she doesn't, so his new love can take root. Optimistic ending. The character of the "landlord" and his dog "Hannibal" are quite funny, serving as the lighter side to an anotherwise introspective breed of characters. Even with subtitles, you also get a feel for sharp Finnish humor. Not a movie you just stumble on by any means, but it diversifies the repertoire a bit.

Next few DVDs in my {god damn, so little time, so many movies to see} queue: Danny Deckchair, Thin Red Line, Cellular , and Clerks - First Cut. Not doubt this last one should be a gem.

United States of Canada

Looking back at it, I'm still baffled as to how the Democrats managed to lose the election. Against such an apparently weak incumbent. Not so weak after all. But it's obvious that the country is polarized, party lines mean something again after being blurred for a number of years. Reconciliation isn't on the horizon, even on a clear day. Donnie Fowler, a candidate for the DNC chair:

Democrats always want to put together a list of issues -- Medicaid, Medicare, education, environment, Social Security lockbox, (...) Republicans put together a series of broad principles. You can call them values if you want to -- smaller government, you should keep more of your own money, we're going to go kick the terrorists.

We know who won that battle. How about if the Dems actually accepted how the game is played and stopped crying about issues? I'm not suggestion they should, but it'd be interesting to see if they could win a cult of personality game. Wouldn't be as much fun though with W gone.

I clipped a map drawn by a cartoonist in my hometown's paper (our infamous tabloid, Le Journal de Montréal). Canada and the Democratic states form a continuous, connected territory referred to as the United States of Canada (USC). The Republican states are dubbed Jesusland. Mmm, not that far off. Pinned it onto the outside of my room door, for my roommates to see where their allies are, and as a reminder that they just barely qualify for USC membership - Bush got 48% in MN, 49% in WI. Should we annex them, for they fear the pull of Jesusland? Why not, us Canadians be generous! Wisconsinites, keep your cheese, we only want the Packers.

About the not-so-friendly presidential inauguration, AP reports that it will be the most intense security operation in inaugural history. No doubt a nice start to the new year! I think Georgie should commission GM to build him a Bushmobile, kinda like the Popemobile. Hey the Pope is still around. Happy trails in '05 W ... remember how Easy Rider ends?

kelvins

According to the U.S. Metric Association (talk about about being misunderstood!), the kelvin (K) temperature scale is an extension of the degree Celsius (°C) scale -- itself devised by dividing the range of temperature between the freezing and boiling temperatures of pure water at standard atmospheric conditions (sea level pressure) into 100 equal parts -- down to absolute zero, a hypothetical temperature characterized by a complete absence of heat energy.

Maybe us common folk should start using it: windchill is now -22°F , so -30°C , i.e. it now feels like 243 kelvins . Cé ti assez frette a ton goût ?? Anything below 250 kelvins is frigid! Stuck inside all day. Not that big a deal for me, I'm still recovering from a cold. Opened the front door this morning to get the mail. My nuts protested, my hand almost got glued to our red tin mailbox, and I nearly smashed our storm door window into pieces... the hydraulic stopper apparently isn't custom made for this weather.

Back safely inside, I think I'll watch a NYT/PBS-Frontline series called "The Secret History of the Credit Card". You can view the whole thing online.

A tragic loss

Rude début pour un Weblog. Il y a quelques jours, j'ai recu un email, tout court mais tout lourd, d'un très proche ami:

Je vous annonce le décès de ma femme, Lori, morte hier suite à des complications reliées au foi...

Lori. In Memoriam ma chère. Comme dit Alexandre: trop triste, trop injuste. Mon cher Mathieu, on n'a pas de mots, puis on ne saurait imaginer telle épreuve; saches seulement qu'on est avec toi, de coeur et d'esprit.