Author Archives: Tigr

The Grand Budapest Hotel

I watched another movie just before I watched “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” but it was really so silly that I nearly forgot to mention it. It’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, another hotel movie, so to say. Technically, the movie isn’t really all that bad, although it is shot in the theater style, more like if you are watching a show at a theater with a story being told in the background, rather than a first-hand experience typical for a movie. That particular way of filming isn’t new and it is not a problem, it is even curious and entertaining. The problem is the story itself.

Typically, you would expect a story to teach you something, to tell you something new or entertaining, expand your horizons or reinforce your moral values. A movie is just a way to tell a story. Now, this particular movie does not really have a story to tell. It tells you that being stupid can actually work, it tells you that you can count on large inheritances from old ladies if you entertain them, and it tells you how important it is to have protection from the powers above you. Huh? And all of that in that weird theatrical way.

Frankly, if this was a farce, I could understand. The problem is it seems to pretend to be a serious movie while remaining a farce. And it fails miserably at both. Even more, I think this is one of those movies that actually actively destroy the human culture. I think censorship isn’t a bad idea after all…… -->

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The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

I finally got around to watching “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and am I happy I did! This is one of the best movies I watched ever. My friends recommended me to watch it for a while but it really did not look so exciting “from the outside”. Once on the inside of the movie though, it is a wonderful story, great acting and an overall soul-touching experience.

I only wish they did skip the popular gay theme all together, it does not bring any good to the movie, only makes it worse. If those lovers were but a normal old couple separated through the wishes of the parents, the movie would have been a star. As it is, that particular part rasps against the rest and provides a dissonant note that fortunately does not quite ruin the experience.

All the rest is brilliant though. Being in India, we get the Indian love plot mixed up with several foreigners all breaking up and falling together, finding their way around and getting themselves a new meaning of life. The action is well paced and entertaining, the movie gets a couple of unexpected twists and never gets boring. Totally recommended to watch.… -->

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Government debt on the world map

A very interesting map illustrating the amount of governmental debt in relation to the GDP of the country. Is it just me, or is it really so that all of the “highly developed democratic countries” are living on debt, consuming what’s produced by the green-colored part of the world and paying for it with promises?

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What is a country famous for? No big surprises there, apparently…

The most important export product of each country of the world were assessed by experts of the popular science magazine Mental Floss using autocomplete results of the major search engine Google. These results were then illustrated by the artists of the Federal News Agency (FAN).

It turned out that the first suggestion to the word “Germany” is BMW, the word “Britain” – permanent residence, in France people are looking up croissants, Sweden and Norway – study options, in Algeria – gas, in Egypt – camels, etc. In general, experts say the popular search queries meet the expectations of users and no one thought to challenge the suggestions… except Ukraine. The fact that the word “Ukraine” causes a prompt for prostitutes has caused anger and indignation of the Ukrainian “patriots”, who are now busy accusing Google and the American Journal of Mental Floss of “pro-Kremlin propaganda” and “separatism” in social networks and even the media.… -->

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What is the point of public transport?

What is the point of having public transport? What’s it for? That’s what I was thinking about driving around Frankfurt-am-Main. You see, in my mind, the point of public transport was always to provide a means of transport that is cheaper than driving cars. This includes providing transport for those who cannot afford cars, that’s the same thing. Interestingly, it does not seem to be the case in Germany.

The public fare from Darmstadt to Frankfurt-am-Main with the S-Bahn (suburban train) is 8 euro one way. The distance is only 35 kilometres center to center, so by car you would spend less than 4 Euro including maintenance costs and depreciation. Even if you were to drive alone, it would make perfect sense to go by car instead of public transport.

So it turns out that the public transport in Germany is twice as expensive as driving cars. What is it for then?… -->

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German TV pours cheap anti-Russian propaganda

State television in Germany continues to brainwash their fellow citizens, despite a growing resentment on the part of ordinary Germans. After all, they are the ones that have to pay for this circus from their taxes.

This time Günther Jauch and his talk show took cheap anti-Russian propaganda to new heights on March 8. The theme of the talk show – “Putin’s Russia on the road to dictatorship?” – already did not bode any meaningful discussion. The portal Propagandaschau (“Propaganda Review”) made an apt remark that one could ask any number of questions that would be equally meaningful, like: “Obama’s Presidency – on the way to the Apartheid?”, meaning, of course, the hundreds of American citizens of African descent killed by US soldiers recently in protests around the country.

One could expect that, after the popular German host Günther Jauch publicly expressed regret that “Putin will not die soon” in November last year, anything goes. And he stands up to the expectations, making new produce in the best tradition of Goebbels’s propaganda.

To create the proper atmosphere at his talk show on March 8, Jauch invited the daughter of the late Nemtsov and corresponded with Garry Kasparov in New York, who, however, did not say anything new, repeating the mantra of “the hope of internal destabilization of Russia and the Putin regime lies in falling oil prices and the collapse of the ruble.”

Fortunately, there were some guests with a mind unclouded by propaganda in the studio. To the question of whether things would get better if Putin was displaced, Chairman of the German-Russian Forum Matthias Platzeck reasonably noticed: “Let’s do some theoretical reflection and ask ourselves a  practical question – who will replace him? What will happen then? Will it be someone who meets our expectations? The answer is – no! ”

Platzeck also stressed that, with the current level of support for the opposition in Russia, the hopes for a quick displacement of Putin should be abandoned. Then, in defiance of Kasparov’s critique of the policies of the Federal Chancellor Merkel, he praised the Chancellor for leading negotiations on the settlement of the crisis in the Donbass area of Ukraine. His words were met with a thunderous applause… -->

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