D'oh!

I fit right in....
Marge and Sophia - separated at birth?

Saw the Simpson's movie on opening night. There was a big crowd with a mix of locals and expats. The Simpson's is on here but I'm not sure what time, what night or what season.

I give the movie a 7. It was classic Simpson's but not exponentially better then the tv show. Homer even makes fun of the people dumb enough to pay to see a movie of something you can see free on tv.

The crowd also seemed to enjoy it. Two observations about the difference between a Singapore and US crowd are 1) Spore people are all on the phone and sending and receiving text message up to and during the movie. Not just a few people but about 1/3 of the crowd. 2) There are a lot of US centric things that Sophia and I laughed at but no one else did - Itchy and Scratchy on the moon and the scenes in the Oval Office, Chief Wiggum saying "they're China's problem now" when the family jumps into a sink hole, when leaving Alaska Homer says, "good to be back in the USA!". These jokes all fell flat.

Anyway, as the New York Times reviewer said - "It was a better then average Simpson's episode so maybe I will only watch it about 20 or 30 more times".

Heres to the Banter Group!

Tom Reed (ok it's his favorite movie star Jake, a placeholder until I get a picture of him)

Holly and her pal Oscar.

Flaming Dan and Luz in N'awlins
Dan, Holly and Luz

In 1979 I spent the better part of a year going to college in London. It was a great experience. I learned to appreciate what is like to live outside of the US and it was the first time I had the chance to be an independent adult (albeit a very immature one). Back then, in the techno dark ages, the only way to stay in touch with the folks at home was through letters and the occasional short (due to the extremely high cost) and difficult (due to the bad connections) phone calls. While I did get rather proficient at filling every square millimeter of those fold-up aerograms, it was still hard to really stay connected. Even civilized, modern London of 1979 seemed to be as far away from home as if I had been camping in the mountain of Afghanistan.

Today it is 100% different. Email, Skype, Vonage (www.vonage.com) , phone cards, the web, blogs and cheap travel (www.kayak.com) make living in Singapore similar to living in Milwaukee or DC - with better food and less foul weather. I can watch the Brewers live on http://www.mlb.com/ almost every morning. I read the Journal-Sentinel (www.jsonline.com) and the Washington Post (www.washingtonpost.com) before people in Milwaukee or DC even wake up. I can talk live to friends and family on a very clear line for a reasonable price almost any time. I can fly back to the US (or God forbid one of my friends or relatives could shell out a few bucks and come here!) for about $1000. I can watch most US TV shows about the same time on Spore TV (http://www.starhub.com/portal/site/CableTV) or buy entire seasons of good shows like The Office or Heroes in Bangkok for about $4.00. I can get pictures of everyone minutes after they are snapped and I can write and post pictures on this blog to keep anyone who is interested up to date on my goings on.

One of the key lifelines I have to the down and dirty of what's really going on are my banter group friends. The original group, started years ago, consisted of Tom Reed, Dan Colegrove and Roy Marden. Since that time we have removed Roy for cause, Tom has had a few timeouts (all self selected) and we have added Holly Borgmann and Luz Figuereo. The current group has a politically correct make-up of a Jew, a Wasp, a gay person, an Hispanic and a half Jewish vegetarian. It can also be broken down as a flaming Liberal, a flaming Republican, a less then flaming Republican and 2 fence sitters. A third way to break it down is a senior citizen, two younguns and two middle aged stiffs. Finally it can be sliced into married no kids, married lots of kids, newlywed, long time life partner no kids (if one of them gets pregnant it will be an event!), and single but looking. All in all it is a fun, diverse group and we always have something to talk about be it politics, sex, dead celebrities, bad jokes or just plain gossip.

I can usually catch the group live late nights and early mornings here in Singapore and always have some good reading on my way to work with the news and views of the US day that transpired while I was asleep.

So I thank the banter group for being there and have now officially mentioned you in my blog as well!