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Overheard on the 80 bus:
"I hear a lot of people talking about Dickens's Tale of Two Cities and I hated that book. I couldn't read it. I got through like one page. 'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,' and that was it. I was like, this book sucks! And then I was like, Oh no! I don't like Dickens's Tale of Two Cities! Is there something wrong with me?"
I saw Lost in Translation in a theatre filled with unimpressed Japanese people. Some of them walked out half-way through. One guy, who walked out during the scene where they are lying on the bed, yelled out (in a Japanese accent), "Start to do her, Bill!" and laughed hysterically, as he was exiting. The guy sitting next to me kept loudly slurping his drink and laughing in the incredulous way that people laugh when they are trying to convey that they can't believe this shit. Obviously the movie was not what they were expecting. But what were they expecting?
I started to think about it and realized that the experience of the movie is likely very different if you can understand what is being said. You can't identify as easily with the sense of alienation the characters are feeling, which is pretty much the entire point. So I'm glad that when I saw the movie I didn't know what was going on any more than the characters did. But, being me, and obsessive about these kinds of language-related things, I was glad to find a translation. At least to one scene. What Else Was Lost in Translation? (What about the talk show? I desperately want to know what was going on there.)
Lots of weird people on buses today:
On the bus on the way there, there were these annoying drunk 16 yrs olds talking to each other loudly in that way that people do when they are drunk. The bus was full of people and I couldn't see them, but I could hear them loud and clear.
"Are we on Sherbrooke Street?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure? We could be on any street! How do you know for sure? I need to know what street this is! Please! This is an emergency! What street are we on? Are you sure this is Sherbrooke? Help!"
"One hundred percent."
"You are sure?"
"One hundred and ten percent."
"But we could be on any street!"
"Yes, we could."
Etc., etc.
At one point the guy sitting behind me muttered, "Shut up!" And it made me laugh. And he realized that I had heard him and started laughing too.
Apparently the girl had been reassured enough to believe that they were on the right street, because they started having a new conversation.
"Where are you getting off?"
"Um, on the street."
"Which street? Marlowe?"
"No! The street! The street!"
"The street we're on right now?"
"No! THE STREET!"
The guy behind me muttered "What the hell," but I thought he was probably doing it to make laugh again. Then it was my stop and I had to get off. So I never found out how the drunk-girls saga ended.
On the bus on the way home, the bus driver was blaring techno and giving away balloons and candy. He didn't give any to me, but at one stop he got up and ran to the back of the bus and thrust a green balloon into the face of the only kid on the bus. The kid just stared at him blankly. The bus driver handed the booty to the kid's father, who looked equally confused, chuckled to himself and went back up to the front to drive the bus. At the metro, he gave everyone who got on the bus a piece of candy, and when asked why, explained that he was happy.
Third time's a charm.
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"The mind of the thoroughly well informed [person] is a dreadful thing. It is like a bric-a-brac shop, all monsters and dust, and everything priced above its proper value."
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