Collective Cynicism

Posted on 2008/03/01 10:34:56 (March 2008).

[Friday 29th February 2008]

Today is a day that doesn't exist, that was never meant to be but that lunar phases put on our calendar every four years.
Technically if someone was to live 365 years, and was born on a leap year, it would be 366 years old.

Anyways, the evening of this Friday is what I feel I should talk about.

Since on Saturday we have a birthday party of a friend, and since the coming Monday I am about to have a "little" trip of which I cannot yet disclose the nature, me and Gianfranco decided that it was better to go to see "No Country for Old Men" today.

Since we decided to go at the late night show (starting at 22:50), we went to this multiplex cine hall that was built at the outskirts of Florence, where they have a nice pizza place. Friends, chats, pizza, cinema. What a lovely night.

The problem is that we never seem to get timing right. Last time we went there we arrived more or less at the same time (around 20:30) bought the ticket in hideous advance and then got stuck at the pizza place that was full beyond belief and that forced us to eat in 10 minutes flat.

That's why this time we went there a little earlier.... and the cinema was DEAD EMPTY.

We were sat and fed in less than 30 minutes...

This left a good hour to be wasted, now at the bathroom, now at the entertainment center and taking a walk near the cinema (weather is finally moving towards spring standards!!)

Around 30 minutes before the beginning of the movie, we were standing there, in the hall that separates the cinemas from the rest of the complex, waiting for the ticket inspector to open the gates.
Here a sudden outburst of cynicism stroke and like two old men sitting on a straw chair outside a small bar in a country village (the typical Italian old man that argues about almost anything and looks grumpy), we started commenting on the local "fauna" inside the cinema.
I will spare the audience the comments, most of them were quite sharp and downright politically incorrect, but it helped us spending those 30 minutes and gave us a good picture at how the world is moving today, as there were a lot of younger people around and we never stop to see what they do or how they express themselves.

Incidentally the law of retribution stoke here, and sitting next to us were some ladies that we especially loved to comment about (and even more incidentally the ugliest fattiest sweatiest one sat next to me...).

Before leaving we helped this couple that had a flat tyre in the car park, the guy managed to to completely spoil one of the bolts and in the end all our efforts were useless, but at least the cynicism was only in the way we look at the world, not at the way we behave..

Last thing. the movie is good, very Pulp Fictionesque, didn't like the ending bit, but a good movie nonetheless!

A couple of comments:

1) Your rambling about the age of people that lived for 365 years is completely wrong. To put it right you would have to redefine the year as 365 days long :-P

2) I like the idea of you sitting on a straw chair complaining about everything. I think it really suits you :-)

Posted by Federico at 2008/03/01 13:14:29.

Fede: Actually you are right my calculation is TOTALLY WRONG... It would take 365 leap years to effectively "gain" 1 year of age, therefore you need to live 1460 years (assuming that one is born on a leap year)...

Posted by Lox at 2008/03/01 13:26:59.

Staring and sneering at people is the best you can do?!
You ought to be ashamed of yourself, young man!

Posted by Sheri at 2008/03/01 15:53:06.

... or maybe in more gentle vein, it is called "Watching the world go by..." :)

Posted by Nigel at 2008/03/01 22:43:46.

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