Category Archives: culture

robo-restaurant

09 Wednesday Apr 2008

Posted by in culture, food & drink, weird

≈ 3 Comments

Fast food, German style

Germany likes to call itself the “Land of Ideas” – and over the centuries it has certainly had plenty of them. It was Germans who invented the aspirin, the airship, the printing press and the diesel engine.

But Germany has surely never produced anything quite as weird as the automated restaurant.

Weird is right. Would you eat here?

(watch the video to see the place ‘in action’)

it was 20 years ago …

25 Monday Feb 2008

Posted by in culture, films, health & happiness, life stuff, rants

≈ 13 Comments

mystic_pizza.jpg

. . . that I first saw this film.

A very charming ‘coming of age’ film about three teenaged girls (played by Julia Roberts, Annabeth Gish & Lili Taylor) in the small town of Mystic, Connecticut. And I had vague memories of really loving this film a lot.

Got to watch it again yesterday as it was being shown on tv on Sunday afternoon . . . and I loved it all over again.

But something really niggled. which I know is one of my pet niggles . . . and that is about how women portrayed in films twenty years ago actually got away with having real women’s bodies. I mean, okay, Mystic Pizza was a small indie low-budget film and not a big-time Hollywood film, otherwise this may not have been the case. But man, there was ole Julia (I think it was her first film role) showing a lot of big sexy butt and voluptuous curves, and Annabeth and Lily also looked like … well, like normal women do when wearing trousers. Like, no three inch gap between their thighs. And all scenes showing any of them in a sleeveless top or dress also showed quite attractive and normal looking upper arms, not pencil-thin sticks protruding out of bony shoulders… it was really refreshing to see this for a change.

Well, refreshing and also sad to think of how things are now. Ah well…

An excellent film – does anyone else remember it?

25 signs that you have grown up

20 Wednesday Feb 2008

Posted by in culture, humour, miscellany, silly

≈ 16 Comments

grown-up.jpg

Apparently you are grown and responsible gentlemen/women when :

  1. Your houseplants are alive, and you can’t smoke any of them.
  2. Having sex in a twin bed is out of the question.
  3. You keep more food than beer in the fridge.
  4. 6:00 AM is when you get up, not when you go to bed.
  5. You hear your favorite song in an elevator.
  6. You watch the Weather Channel.
  7. Your friends marry and divorce instead of “hook up” and “break up”.
  8. You go from 130 days of vacation time to 14.
  9. Jeans and a sweater no longer qualify as “dressed up”.
  10. You’re the one calling the police because those %&@# kids next door won’t turn down the stereo.
  11. Older relatives feel comfortable telling sex jokes around you.
  12. You don’t know what time Taco Bell closes anymore.
  13. Your car insurance goes down and your car payments go up.
  14. You feed your dog Science Diet instead of McDonald’s leftovers.
  15. Sleeping on the couch makes your back hurt.
  16. You take naps.
  17. Dinner and a movie is the whole date instead of the beginning of one.
  18. Eating a basket of chicken wings at 3 AM would severely upset, rather than settle, your stomach.
  19. You go to the drug store for ibuprofen and antacid, not condoms and pregnancy tests.
  20. A $4.00 bottle of wine is no longer “pretty good shit”.
  21. You actually eat breakfast food at breakfast time.
  22. “I just can’t drink the way I used to” replaces “I’m never going to drink that much again”.
  23. 90% of the time you spend in front of a computer is for real work.
  24. You drink at home to save money before going to a bar.
  25. When you find out your friend is pregnant you congratulate them instead of asking, “Oh shit, what the hell happened?”
Something sent in an email awhile ago … it’s a bit hard to tell whether I’m not totally ‘grown up’ yet or if I was just never that young. How about you?

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