There is a particularly thriving cinema scene here in the Netherlands. The town I live in has a cozy but slightly expensive bar/lounge/cafe/movie theater which shows primarily select release movies, and had a really interesting John Cassavetes retrospective. The odd thing is that it seems to cater to an older audience and I don't speak any Dutch so I can't converse with people about the films. They also had a french film festival and a film club which showed primarily french films. It was interesting to see The 400 blows in french with Dutch subtitles. I'd seen The 400 blows three times previously with english subtitles. I knew the plot already and was able to disassociate myself from the dialogue and focus on the images. I enjoy the feelings that Truffaut evokes in me in his films from his perspective as a film maker. Kafka on the Shores mentions francios truffaut, "...you've hit the nail on the head. you find the same spirit animating Truffaut. a persistent, inward-moving spirit that's filled with a pliant, youthful sort of curiosity." I walked home whistling the theme, which was used for The Dreamers soundtrack and footage for some of the film's clips.

I hope that you all are well. Just wanted to talk about the film scene as a kind of reminder.

Herow!

New posts like old jokes something something something.

So I lurked my families blogs.
So I lurked the Hoffman's blogs (sorry about the slogging).
And I don't know if y'arel (you are all) lurking mine.

I'm in the Netherlands for a few brief days until Annie's arrival!
I'm interested to use the interaction as a seeming benchmark between me pre and me post my experiences in Europe. It has been snowing for the past five days and, "It doesn't show signs of stopping." (Am I quoting a song or dialogue from a movie?) It usually doesn't snow often here from what I hear and I've witnessed some warm country dwellers experience snow for the first time.



I like to watch the way that the Dutch do things. For instance everyone here bikes and no one wears a helmet. This becomes especially dangerous when people pile themselves and sometimes up to three children on their bicycles. While it has been snowing here they have set up rope tows in the major markets. I watched a woman and her child as they were pulled across the market on a tiny sled and thought about how easily something could go wrong.







Another thing that seems interesting is that in this snow storm the town is going crazy. Rumor has it that this is the largest snow storm for the past five years. It is obvious that the town is totally unprepared, but funny to see people inches away from passing trucks on streets covered in snow 30cm thick.

I'm just going to post some videos and photos for now with a quick update.
More to come.