36 Hours After...

Greetings, gentle readers.

So, after 29+ hours of travel, including delays at both John Foster Dulles International in Washington, D.C. and Dakar International Airport, Senegal, and a 10 hour time-shift forward, I find myself in Cape Town, South Africa. It's after midnight here, so my impression of the city thus far can be summarized by one word: dark.

Only one notable observation during the drive to Liesl's place in the 'burbs. Along one street, there was a boarded-up and abandoned petrol station. Two fellas were camped out under the gas bar roof-bit to get some shelter from the rain in raggedy old green blankets. The station was boarded up and in some state of disrepair and age. A sad, very third-world-y sort of sight. Not 500 metres down the same stretch of road was a gaudy, neon-soaked festival of capitalist excess. It was a strip mall filled with steakhouse-pubs, a Nando's chicken franchise outlet, a brand spanking new 24-hour petrol station with convenience store attachment, and various other late-night sources of pizza, beer, Blockbuster blu-ray discs, etc. It was as though someone thought that a couple of hundreds of yards west was GHETTO, and that they obviously had to let it fester and die while they erected a newer, shiner temple to Mammon down the way, where it would be more aesthetically appropriate.

But how were the flights getting here? Well, I watched a lot of in-flight movies. A LOT. Some I'd seen before, some I'd heard about, and some were just impulse viewings. Some quick summaries:

• The Book of Eli. A highly derivative work in which Gary Oldman basically plays the same villain as he did in "Fifth Element," Denzel Washington reprises his character (and the director of photography rips off the visual effects) from "Man on Fire," and Meg Griffin plays the female character from that crap Jean-Claude Van Damme film. ("Cyborg?") Nary an original thought to be found in the entire thing.
• Alice in Wonderland. Mainly harmless. Fun picking out the voice actors, though. Alan Rickman was a dead giveaway, but it took me a while to get Stephen Fry.
• Goal 2. Not sure if it was worth the years that I waited to see this sequel, but it had some very endearing bits. Anna Friel is spectacular as an emotional nexus of the film, and the Réal Madrid Galacticos idiocy is treated very gently and ironically. Ostensibly, Madrid are praised to the heavens. In the background, though, one may note Steve McManaman making cameo appearances at key points of the film.
• Sherlock Holmes. If one buys into this premise, then it's a bit of fluffy fun. The chemistry is utter gibberish, except for the bits that do not require criminal masterminds to understand. (e.g., cyanide is bad for you.) There's just enough Arthur Conan Doyle floating about in it that it can almost be considered a literary adaptation. But not enough.
• Kicking and Screaming. Great film except for that idiot from Saturday Night Live that basically renders the lead character so mind-numbingly myopic that he certainly loses my sympathy. Ditka and Duvall make the show. And the kids with the awesome footy skills.
• Invictus. Fantastic film. Great adaptation of "Playing with the Enemy." Couple of scenes I would have added. Will wait for the Director's Cut to see if Eastwood agrees with me.
• The 2006 World Cup. Hours of footy overdose because I couldn't watch the games live mid-flight, drat it all. Was heart-warmed to hear the French fans booing Cristiano Ronaldo during the Semi-Final. Reminded me that I don't hate French fans... it's the team that are worthy of disdain. After Thierry Henry's ghastly and uncalled double-handball that knocked the Irish out of the World Cup this year and cemented their tickets, I found this quotation from the newspaper"Le Parisién":

"The handball of Henry has brought a decisive contribution to the theme 'being French is being ashamed of one's national team.'"

Also started watching "Percy Sledge and When a Man..." erm... "Percy Jackson and the Olympians," or some such. Then they shut down the entertainment thingy. Intriguing enough that I'll have to give it a watch on the way back. Sean Bean, Pierce Brosnan, and Lucius Vorenus were cool enough that I thought this might be an interesting vehicle to get kids interested in ancient mythology again through modern cultural relevance. Kevin McKidd. That's Vorenus' actor's name.

Anyway, I've started rambling, and I need some sleep. Will try and do a footy roundup to date later. Am trying to meet up with my old pal Brendan to try and catch the Denmark-Holland match that I reckon should turn the footy community upside-down.

Oh, and "Greece will be the surprise package of the tournament"? Alexi Lalas is a muppet who should get stuffed. What a ginger prat.

Cheers,

—mARKUS