Is Borat For You?

I haven’t really felt like writing about much recently, but after seeing the movie, Borat, I felt inspired to get back on the keyboard. For those of you who don’t know, the movie is a mockumentary about Sasha Baron Cohen’s character, Borat, who basically seems to have been created to allow him to pretend to be a foreigner and insult…..well just about everyone. If you are easily offended, or even moderately offended by ‘controversial’ humour, then this probably isn’t the movie for you. I felt the film started off slowly with his initial jokes, such as his introducing the people in his home village in Kazakhstan and pointing out the town rapist while chastising him with “naughty, naughty,” to be not particularly funny, but an insight into the fictional world that Borat lives in. He also has a passionate kiss with a woman who he then introduces as his sister, the number 4 top prostitute in Kazakhstan. I felt all this was a little awkward and wondered where he was going with the whole thing. Strangely enough it was the ‘very’ offensive stuff that was the funniest. Now it should be pointed out that the actor is Jewish himself, before being too disgusted at Borats rather ‘medieval’ attitude that all Jewish people are evil, poisoning monsters. One of the funniest parts of the film was when he and his director accidentally end up at some sort of bed and breakfast run by a friendly, older Jewish couple. Borat and his director are terrified that they will be killed during the night (by this harmless pair) and actually make a run for it. At this point I should explain that probably 85% of the people that he interacts with in this movie, aren’t in on the joke and genuinely seem to think that he is a reporter from another country, who is just experiencing severe culture shock. An example of where this works well is perhaps the most disturbing and disgusting scene of the film where he ends up wrestling nude with his fat director in a nice hotel. The fight continues downstairs (after getting on an elevator filled with some shocked other guests, and into a reception room where there is a dinner for a large group of merchant bankers taking place. The looks on some of the people in that room were priceless!

The whole point of the movie is that Borat is sent to America to learn some good stuff that can be brought back and implemented in Kazakhstan. Once there he begins a quest to find Pamela Anderson and make her his wife. Of course hilarity and numerous disasters ensue. There are some things that seem very odd while watching it, but at the end of the film make sense, eg. The rubber ‘fist’ dildo.

In my opinion as well as having ‘shock’ value, the film also pokes fun at America and people in general. The number of people he attempts to greet by introducing himself and then kissing them on both cheeks, who either swear violently at him, or actually run away, shows how fearfully some people live their lives. There is a whole lot of fun and a reasonable amount of frightening nudity here, but you have to have a broad sense of humour and remember it is all a joke to ‘get’ this film. I liked it overall, but my wife hated it (even though she was laughing a lot!). I give it 7 out of 10.

Bright lights.

We've all seen them. Perhaps you live in one? Those houses that every year around this time make the power companies rich by lighting up brighter than Chernobyl with lighting decorations. You'll be driving at night and suddenly become distracted by some bright lights made up of luminous Santas, reindeer, candy canes, icicles and various other gaudy christmas accoutrements. Chrismas whores I say! Fire hazard I exclaim! Ugly eyesores, I bitch! Why someone would go to the trouble of dressing up the house with electric lights to draw attention to themselves is beyond me. Some spend a small fortune redecorating their front yards to look like a European Christmas scene. If this is how the outside looks, I'd hate to see the inside. It's no wonder they call it the silly season with behaviour like that. What would baby Jesus think, I wonder? Still I suppose the kids must like it. Just call me scrooge. What do others think about extreme Xmas decor?

NB. I am happy to announce that my Blogger commenting problem seems to have been fixed.
Also I did not steal the idea for this post from Halfheartedhack, as it was in draft before I noticed that she had posted a very similar gripe.

You get what you pay for

Ok, now I'm pissed! A couple of weeks back I moved to that Blogger Beta thing and since then I've had nothing but problems. Firstly I can't browser blogs in Firefox like I use to, cause the comments go all crazy. Secondly, instead of just being able to sign in with my username, I have to use an email address. And thirdly I've had some issues with uploading photos, but that is a normal Blogger problem, so I'm not too annoyed about that. I would have put up with all this without comment, but for the last few days when I've tried to comment on some of my favourite blogs (while logged in as myself) I get this message: "Error We apologize for the inconvenience, but we are unable to process your request at this time. Our engineers have been notified of this problem and will work to resolve it."
I get this on 80% of the blogs I have attempted to comment on recently.
Not only is it a crime for the blogging world to be denied of my humorous and witty comments (also modest), but other bloggers might think that I haven't been visiting their sites for a bit! So to anyone who may be thinking this (don't laugh, there might be someone!), I apologies on behalf of Blogger. I have a good mind to write someone an angry email. If anyone has experienced similar issues (and can still send comments), please let me know. I suppose we get what we pay for. Apart from these incidents I really like Blogger and think that in general it's a good web application.

Oh joy, it's nearly christmas

I have mixed feelings about Christmas this year. It'll be good cause our daughter will be nearly 15 months and beginning to appreciate that this is a different time of year with fun stuff going on. Also good as I've bought my wife some perfume and a trumpet (it's ok cause she doesn't read my blog). The trumpet, cause although she already has one, it's pretty old and battered, which affects the sound of it and I don't think she's ever had a new one. Obviously she is also able to play the damn thing quite well, otherwise it would be a complete waste of money and would merely annoy me as she learned how to use it.

I got an Xbox 360 earlier in the year and stated that I didn't really need anything for Christmas cause of that treat. But the wife (bless her) still wanted to get me stuff. Hey, who am I to stop her! We realise that pretty much from next year on all the present money will be spent on the kids, so it's the end of self indulgent presents for us.

The other sucky thing will be the annoying transit between my family and the wife's family for two dinners. As I don't eat a great deal in general, having two huge meals forced upon me kinda makes me feel a bit ill. They both want to see their only grandchild, so it's not much of a choice to try and get out of one of them. As punishment I'm going to subject them to one of my semi annual magic shows. That'll teach em.