Le Cinema

It seems to me that the entirety of Europe is raining simultaneously.

Okay, that may be a little far fetched, but at the very least the whole of Holland is. Having spent the past four nights in Holland (split evenly between Amsterdam and Den Haag - aka The Hague), it has been raining for nearly the entirety of it.

That of course does not mean that I have been having a bad time at all. Amsterdam is a beautiful and remarkably interesting place. And I don't just mean that in a "holy crap, marijuana is legalized here AND you can window shop prostitutes?!" sort of way. I mean it is a place that is the home of Van Gogh, of canals that out-distance Venice's acclaimed offerings, of delicious South American fusion food, and of unique and surprising artistic offerings (from street art to architecture to music). It is an amazing place. Plus, it has awesome shops! I got a cool new t-shirt! Yeah!

Den Haag is maybe not as interesting on the surface, but it is a great place to lie low during the rain. Mostly because they have absurdly great movie theaters put on by Pathe! Pathe! is a diverse company, but I knew them as a film production outfit who put out a slew of movies that include Slumdog Millionaire and The Illusionist. They also apparently have made movie theaters in Holland, and they are phenomenal. Comfy seating, top class food, fantastic sound and screen, and a great blend of commercial and critical hits.

With the rain, I decided to do back-to-back nights and movies and to quote Eminem, it feels so good to be back. I missed movies.

Here is a good analogy for you about my return to movies that of course involves food. You know how if you do not eat for a long time and then have anything at all, even if it is Jack in the Box tacos, it tastes like gourmet cuisine? Well, going to the movie theater didn't feel like that, it felt like CINEMA!!! (note: cinema must be said loudly while wildly gesturing with one - and only one - arm)

The first night watching X-Men: First Class (a movie I am going to obviously enjoy given my hardcore X love) felt like I was watching The Goonies again for the first time. If someone came in and told me that Natalie Portman was outside waiting for me with a billion dollars and a ring to propose to me, I would calmly turn and shush them, as if to simply say "I am trying to get my cinema on here!" To say I enjoyed it is understating it entirely.

I watch a lot of movies at home, and I had only seen one first-run movie in theaters in the past 3.5 months of my trip (Thor in London when I was half asleep). At first I didn't want to, and then I pretty much couldn't. Very few places offer OV (original voice) showings, but The Netherlands are (is?) all about it (thank you Dutch folk for speaking a language minor enough that Hollywood doesn't offer dubs for you!!!). And I intended to take advantage of it with the rain.

Mission accomplished.

Note: the other movie I saw was Bad Teacher. Not a great movie by any means. Not even a good movie. But a passable one that still felt nice to sit in, and I will support anything with Jason Segel.

Music of the day: Royskopp's "Junior"