Who Knows Why ?

Who knows why males are such big sports fans ?

I mean, they don't actually PRACTICE anything except attempting to ruin their eyes by watching too much TV.  Or eating potato chips and drinking beer.  Or ruining the couch because their asses are getting bigger and bigger every season.  A sport for every season ?



I happen to mention this because I caught this tragic spectacle a few times in the last few weeks.  I do not normally put myself at risk of crossing a sportsfan's path, but since I have to work to pay the bills, I sometimes have to do things I don't enjoy doing, such as coming to work every day.

And in the simple man's agenda these days lies one word, sometimes misspelled, sometimes excited : football.

People of different geographical origins root for their home country.  People from various educational backgrounds root for whoever they think can win.  Gamblers get out of their shameful dens to show their gold teethed smiles and place their bets; overweight guys have a chance to shine and show the world how many useless statistics they like to learn during their free time; chicks have an occasion to see how moronic their men are and love them even more for that - and finally, the rest of the world is just plain and simple fuckin' annoyed.



What's more startling than entering a cafeteria full of screaming jocks sitting in front of a TV ?  Was I hungry ?  Not anymore.  Not after I've seen this.  Going back to our simiesque ancestors, boy ?  Darwin would have been glad to see this.  It would have spared him lots of research to find a specimen to prove his point.

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Who knows why nobody in this fucking office cares to recycle ?

In every trash bin : the Metro & 24 Heures.  Our supervisors print ten copies of our schedules every week and most of my colleagues just put them in the trash.  They have something to tell us ?  Instead of just saying it, or sending us an email, they print the damn thing and give it to us.  Isn't there some kind of office conscensus to give up doing such environmentally harmful things ?



A couple of years ago here, some employees were trying to educate others about "living in a paperless environment".  I guess they gave up, because everything around here is still done with paper.  Recycling bins are harder to find on our floor than pope shit.

I didn't think I'd have to do this, ever, but here I am : every night, I go around and try to "save" as much paper I can by picking it up from waste baskets and walking the extra distance, next to the printers, to throw all this in a recycling bin.  It's as angering as it is unsurprising that our whole planet is about to blow, or burn, or drown, and nobody gives a shit about anything.

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WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS ?  Seriously ?

I have seen my share of Pedro Almodovar movies, most of them from the 90's and 2000's, but yesterday was the first time I saw a movie he shot in the eighties.  And believe me, Pedro was meaner when younger !



Carmen Maura plays Paula, a busy housewife who cleans a martial arts gym part time and takes care of her family full time.  Her husband is a distant and illiterate slacker who drives a cab by day and watches TV at night.  His mother lives with them and their two boys - one of them is a drug dealer and the other sleeps with older men.  Their next door neighbor is a funny hooker.  You get the idea...

This is a dark comedy with marvelous characters and so much rythm you almost cannot stand it.  The jokes and situations never let go, and things always go further than you thought they'd ever go.  I don't want to reveal too much for those of you who might be tempted to see it, but you have to be warned that Almodovar knows no limits.

Oddly, even though the situation themselves are as vulgar as the characters that perpetrate them, the movie remains visually flawless, and if there is some nudity, it is always male.  The ladies remain clothed.  Pedro's orientation is no secret, and it's a good thing he objectifies the male body like he does, in a way.  It gives his work a distinct, sweaty and hairy flavour.  And the visual design of the sets are wonderfully colored, adding a certain emphasis to the overall soft madness going on.

Now that I have seen how flamboyant this "old school" Almodovar can be, it makes me want to see his other movies of the same era.