Troll, Død Og Trolldom

I was out with Jo on Friday night, trying to drink away the week day blues. We were standing in the street as she was stuffing a Pylsur into her gob and we were talking about how small Reykjavik is and how she sees the same people out all the time. I was arguing the case that I never seem to see anyone I know. Just as I had finished my point the girl who works in the take away over the road from my house walked past and said hello. Nice timing love. Then I saw Una and a bunch of her mates in Kofi Tómasar Frænda. It was further pushed onto me the next night when I was out in Bar 11 and I saw two girls dancing surrounded by about fifteen salivating men. I thought I recognised one of the girls and finally worked out she was the waitress that works in the Diner we sometimes go to for lunch. Small fucking world. That' s the main difference between here and home. I can go out in Rotherham, a town that has the same population size as Reykjavik, and see the same faces and go to the same bars. If that gets boring I can hop in a taxi and go to Sheffield, a place with nearly three times the population of Reykjavik. Here you can't do that. Reykjavik is the largest place you can go to. It also occurred to me that for the same cost in Taxi fares I can get from my home in Rotherham to Sheffield (journey time approximately 25 minutes), or from Downtown Reykjavik to my flat (Journey time approximately 5 minutes). Where's the justice in that?

Reykjavik, it really is as dull as it looks...

OK I'll leave the dullness of Reykjavik behind and move onto this weeks film reviews. I haven't been able to see Watchmen as I was away when it was released and Atli couldn't wait a fucking week for me to come back before going to see it. It is only being shown in cinemas that require your own transport to get to and as my car is locked away in a garage in Rotherham it looks like I will be missing it at the cinema. So instead I have been watching a few DVDs. I watched Zatôichi The Blind Swordsman. I have seen it before, thankfully, as I didn't realise the only subtitles on the film were in Icelandic...

Being blind never stopped Zatôichi fucking up everyone that got in his way...

I also watched The Unforgiven, brilliant film, but I was left wondering why nobody during the entire film mentioned that Morgan Freeman was black. Now, before you start accusing me of racism, please bear in mind this film is set a mere twenty years after the abolition of slavery. It is full of nasty characters who would undoubtedly think nothing of attacking a man for his skin colour, at least verbally. Especially during the scene in the sherriff's office where Freeman is being whipped. I'm not a racist, but I do prefer my historical accuracy to overt Political Correctness. I'm not the only one that thinks this, John Clay commented on a similar thing in his Blog. It's a minor issue in what is an otherwise brilliant film.

The good old non-racist days of the Wild West

The other films I watched this week was The China Syndrome, a very good Nuclear thriller starring Jane Fonda and also Flyboys. Now if you know anything about me, you will know that I am mad on First World War Aeroplanes, so Flyboys seemed like a great choice. How wrong I was; I would rather be trapped in a burning SE5A falling from 20,000 feet than have to sit through those two hours again.

A far preferable fate than having to watch Flyboys again...