At least I can say I’m not a quitter
So, after a buttless chain-gum-chewing week – and setting a personal record of five smoke-free days – I cracked today. After seeing Jitka off to Trutnov, I went to the Blackbridge mall to pick up some grub and Mountain Dew. While shopping I got a strong craving for a Tchibo espresso to go ? and a cigarette to go with it. While in line at Globus, I tried to resist the temptation. I ended up caving in and buying a 10-pack of L&M lights. Well, at least I ran this morning.
I had sort of committed myself to doing away with all vices except for pot and junk food, especially chocolate (Jesus? that sounds like something out of a High Times spoof of Bridget Jones’ Diary, I suppose???). But as I’ve got the place to myself, I’ll probably end up going out tonight, drinking more than I should ??? I haven’t had a drink for a week either, and I’m feeling a little too secluded here in the flat.
Jitka vs. the McKenzie Brothers
I have never been able to understand why The Tragically Hip are not huge outside of Canada. The rest of the world has embraced less deserving contemporary Canuck bands like The Crash Test Dummies (which I kind of understand) and The Barenaked Ladies (which baffles the hell out of me ??? they’re all great musicians, but they’re just so unhip. Fortunately the Czechs don’t seem to know about them either), so why not The Hip? Their rock is far from formulaic and, in my opinion, Gord Downie is the best goddamn lyricist and frontman in rock history. Sure the words to nearly every Hip song demand a lot of their listeners, but the great Canadian (and intercontinental, and intergalactic) highways, off-ramps, detours, roadblocks and all, that Downie sends you along are so breathtaking and full of power and colour that the destination doesn’t matter.
Hm??? maybe the fact that their music inspires such long-winded praise is what turns the rest of the world off. Maybe we Canucks are too hung up on lyrics – and passion (pay attention, Liam). I dunno. But this isn’t supposed to be about The Hip, this is supposed to be about another slice of Canadian pop culture that I tried to turn Jitka onto last night: Strange Brew.
Strange Brew is a movie about brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, two characters who took certain Canadian stereotypes (our fondness for beer, our ?eh??, our accent, our love for hockey and the bench-clearing brawl, etc.) and blew them up to gargantuan proportions. The flick starts off in a wonderfully subversive way, putting a movie within a movie within the movie. Sound confusing? Well, it is, but it’s also effective. The madness is simply more controlled once the McKenzies’ real adventures get rolling.
Jitka simply didn’t dig on it at all. “It’s too loud and too stupid,” she said during the hockey game between the mental hospital patients in which the McKenzies are tending goal.
Ok, so the plot is absurd (as is the aforementioned hockey game – but the way they’ve got the players geared up is way cool), but no more absurd than the plot of your average Zucker brothers film, let alone a number of oddball Czech comedies (the classic masterpiece Limonadovy Joe comes immediately to mind).
Jitka has good taste in movies and music. So what is it about these two great Canadian cultural institutions that she doesn’t get?
I should mention that I borrowed Strange Brew off of John, the American owner of Villa Incognito. It’s nice to know there are people outside the borders of The Great White North who get it.
I vaguely remember watching the movie a few times in Ottawa ? the reason my memory is so vague is because I was watching it with my flatmate Curtis and our mates, stoned on friend Homer’s godawful grass (it always knocked me out, and probably still would if I were to smoke some today). The only thing that I remembered from the movie was the McKenzies? dog, Hosehead, flying to the Superman theme, and Curtis laughing his tits off at this.
Anyway, now that I’ve got the reminiscing out of my system, I put this question out to you, dear readers: what is it about The Tragically Hip and Canadian humour that most of the rest of the world just does not seem to get?
Oh, and if anybody in town has any Wayne & Schuster, Kids in the Hall, and/or This Hour Has 22 Minutes they can lend me, I’ll be their friend for life???
Oct 2, 16:35 (Filed under: Personal, Culture )
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One of my weird Prague experiences was back in 1996 when there was a competing film festival here in Prague. You may remember the Prague Film Festival; booked into a bunch of cinemas around Vaclavak as well as Kulturni Palac and the only place that reliably showed the films was Kulturni Palac to a smattering of viewers. Anyway, a Russian film production of Brecht’s Three Penny Opera was running and I sat down to watch it in a rather cold auditiorium when who should sit down beside me but Max von Sydow. I was stunned and speechless but after a while, his wife was so cold she asked to borrow my jacket.
One of my greater regrets in life was not saying to him, “So, you were really cool in Strange Brew, eh?”
p.s. U zpevacku tonight? I may make it this time as I won’t be in Oktoberfest recovery.
— Mike Oct 4, 11:17 #
Max von Sydow rocks in SB. “I could crush your skull like a nut. But I’m not going to. Because I need you.” He played that role perfectly, and gave it a sinister dignity that a lesser actor would have probably hammed up.
Pity you didn’t take the opportunity to give him props. He probably would have gotten a real kick out of that, as I got the impression that he really enjoyed playing Brewmeister Smith.
As for U Zpevacku, I can’t commit – will let you know later today. We can exchange phone numbers via email, ok?
Cheers,
P.
— Patrick Oct 4, 12:13 #
I was incredulous, given that my memories of the McKenzies were the songs Take Off and their rendition of 12 Days of Christmas.
But, indeed, Strange Brew is based on Hamlet and much richer if you spend the whole thing looking for references.
— Bishop Joey Oct 7, 08:34 #
I tried to point this out to Jitka, but she didn’t believe me….
— Patrick Oct 7, 08:57 #