Dinner and a Movie

Hello, my faithful readers (all two of you):


Although I am now settled in my dorm in Cheltenham, I will talk about an evening at the B&B I stayed at. 
     
Sue and Collin are the owners of the B&B I went to, and they have a twenty-year-old daughter named Kate. That weekend, Kate and two of her University friends were home for something-or-other, and Sue invited me to have dinner with them all at 6:30 pm. So at 6:25, I came tentatively down the stairs and followed a delicious smell and lively voices. Once I wandered into the kitchen, I was motioned courteously to a seat and introduced to Kate, Nisha, and Ana, who were roommates at Manchester.  
     
After tucking in to some spaghetti, a discussion began.


Nisha discussed a friend of theirs at Manchester who had a strange way of identifying herself: by her unfortunate birth date. "...and she always introduced herself by, 'My birthday is on nine eleven.' She's so odd!" This caught my attention. The events of September 11th are notable for those outside of the US?


Sue looks over at me. "Of course, Emily would know all about that." I nod. Yes, I know all about September 11th. I zoned out a bit. "...and now they think there will be copycats, so it's a very difficult situation." Wait, what? Copycats?


Collin says, "It was just a terrible idea to begin with, really." Oh. I realize they are not only talking about September 11th: they are also talking about the recent plans to build a mosque relatively near Ground Zero, and about all the hullabaloo it has caused. But I don't know what they're talking about with the 'copycats' thing, so I figure I'll Google it later. (Which I did do. Apparently more had happened since I left for the UK. Details here, if you don't know about it.)


I realize that the group of non-Americans know more about current issues in the United States than I do, and I have only been gone for two weeks. 


The conversation turns to Nisha's homeland, Ireland. Sue asks, "There was still a lot of violence as you were growing up, yeah?" Nisha nods. "Yes, since I'm from Belfast, there were some bombs that went off not too far from where I lived."  


"Do people generally know what you're talking about?"


"No, most people don't and I get annoyed when I have to explain it."


I just shut my mouth and listen, planning on Googling Ireland's entire history later. From a Reuters article: 


"Northern Ireland was torn apart during three decades of violent “Troubles” between loyalists, mostly Protestants, who want it to remain part of the United Kingdom and Republicans, mostly Catholics, who want it to form part of a united Ireland. A 1998 peace agreement ended the worst of the Troubles and paved he way for a power-sharing government of loyalists and Republicans. Violence has subsided over the years, but there are still dissident groups who occasionally plant bombs."  Link to the full article.


What I want to know is: if everyone knows in the UK knows about 9/11, why don't Americans know about all the bombings in Ireland? True, the amounts of casualties were different, but these political problems in Ireland have been going on for a long time, apparently. 


Sue serves us all dessert: bread and butter pudding, which is basically this dessert bread and each person pours a bit of cream on it. The topic changes again. "We're thinking of going to the cinema, if you want to join us, Emily." Kate sits back in her chair and looks up the listing on her phone. "There's Piranha in 3D." (Nisha says: "It's basically a porn under water in 3D." And that is that.) Kate continues, "Salt, but I don't want to see that. It's the one with Angelina Jolie." This initiates a ten minute discussion about how fake and awful and superficial Angelina Jolie is, and how natural and beautiful Jennifer Aniston is. Ana, quiet thus far, interjects, "Everyone says that the Brangelina kids would be the most beautiful Hollywood kids, but that's not true! Brad Pitt's and Jennifer Aniston's children would be so much cuter!" Kate comments on Angelina's plastic-surgified facial features. There is a general, forceful consensus about the superiority of Jennifer Aniston.


In the end, Kate drives the four of us to the cinema, which is located in "the Brewery" next to a few pubs. We buy tickets to see Tamara Drew, and settle in for our movie. Watching it reminds me that the desire for a first person narrative or a protagonist is really an American obsession, and that British films do not necessarily adhere to this mantra. (Watching it also reminds me that ratings are different in other countries, and nudity and graphic sex scenes are more acceptable in film and other pop culture stuff than in the States.)


About the film:


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I sit there trying to decide who the protagonist is. Who am I supposed to like? I assume it is Tamara Drew, but no. 


Plot #1: Tamara Drew, who is often featured in ill-fitting clothes or no clothes at all, has sex with various men in the movie after getting a nose job. Andy, her first and only love pre-nose job, has meaningless sex with a local bar woman. Suddenly Andy wants Tamara (could it be the cute nose?). Tamara is too busy writing for an important newspaper and shagging a famous rockstar to notice. 


Plot #2: Two middle-school aged girls read magazines at a bus stop. They are obsessed with the rockstar that Tamara is shagging. One fifth of the movie features them running around throwing things at cars and generally wreaking havoc in the neighborhood because they are bored.


Plot #3: A husband and wife run a farm for writers who are on sabbatical. The husband is a famous writer who is gross and creepy, and cheats on his wife. His wife does all the work of running the farm, plus all the work for her husband's career. She ignores his cheating, confronts him, then takes him back, then suspects him again, then has it confirmed, then tries to deny it, then confronts him...


In a nutshell: Tamara Drew, prancing about in skimpy shorts, tempts and then sleeps with the husband (along with almost every other male character in the movie). Andy sees that Tamara is shagging all these men, and he is disgusted, although he continues to have (graphic) sex with the bar maid. After the husband is suddenly killed by a stampede of COWS, Tamara and Andy immediately get together and are happy. There is no mention of inner beauty, and the viewers must assume that nose jobs and random sex lead to happiness. The end.
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Side note: the next day I was reading the newspaper and it contained an article about how Gemma Arterton, the actress who played Tamara Drew, did not want to be a "piece of ass." We applaud her stand, but question her timing. Full article here.




As the four of us walk around after the movie, two of the girls light up their cigarettes and they all ask me about sororities. I go to Houghton, obviously, so I try to answer as well as I can. They ask me about many "American" things, and assume that if I live in New York then I must live in New York City (common misconception). Kate asks, "Are Universities in America really like they are in movies?" Um. I don't know how to answer that. Kate: "And where can we get some of those red caps?" Ana: "Yes, I'd like some of those!" I looked up redcaps on Urban Dictionary later. 


We trudge out of the Brewery, serenaded by a large group of drunk ("pissed," as the English would say) men who are meandering around the pubs and singing "la la la" to some ridiculous, previously agreed upon tune. As we walk, I think about how smoking is more common in the UK, about British conceptions of Americans, about American conceptions of Americans, and about how little I know about my own culture - or about any other culture, for that matter.


Clearly, I have a lot to learn this semester.