Best. Trip. EVER.

I'm slowly starting to edit the film I'm making from my backpacking trip this summer.

The girls sent me some pics for inspiration.

Best trip of my life. Great people, great places, great food, great wine, great books to read on the train even. Everything about this trip was awesome.

I'm not gonna mention that my passport got stolen and that I had to sleep at Amsterdam airport, waiting 19 hours to finally get home, with the most expensive ticket ever.

It's a memory I'll cherish forever, and people I'll never ever forget.

SOWETO 1

On Saturday we went to SOWETO, one of the biggest townships in South Africa.

A township is a place, well... a place where most people live in small shacks or "matchbox" houses. Walls and roof are made out of old metal sheets , the "houses" are packed next to each other without much space in between. They are not waterproof at all, and it must get very cold at night without any isolation.

In South Africa the word township originally meant a segregated town. Under Apartheid the term township came to mean a residential development which confined non-whites (Blacks, "coloureds" and Indians) who lived near or worked in white-only communities. Soweto ("SOuth-WEstern TOwnships") furnishes a well-known example.

We didn't get to see the shacks up close this time, but I hope to get inside one, or at least walk in the streets there before I go home.

But in SOWETO they also have real houses, some built by the government, and some are also built by charity organizations. Lately people who live there have also built houses that are more similar in stature with those in more affluent suburbs, and many of the people who live in "matchbox" houses have also improved and expanded their homes. So really, you have everything from "matchbox" houses to houses you can find in the estate I live in!

After SOWETO we went to the Apartheid Museum. That was really, really heavy. It's appalling that something like that could happen in our time! I just don't understand it... How could the rest of the world just sit back and watch it happen?!? It's disgusting.

I took some pictures, but I'll get back to that later.

For more information on SOWETO, you can always google it, but this link is also a good way to go. And I really think you should read more about the history of SOWETO, because it is a huge part of South Africa's history, and people from our part of the world usually knows way to little about Apartheid, and the struggles and the reality of people less fortunate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soweto

Happy Halloween!

Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw

Last night, October 29th, I watched the 1989 cult classic "Heathers", featuring Winona Ryder and Christian Slater. And October 29th just happens to be Winona's birthday. Coincidence? I don't think so.

The movie is a High School flick from hell where the sweet teenage world, made famous by John Huges, meets dark indie humour and a lot of dead teenagers. You can actually say it's very anti-Huges.

I love it! I mean I would have loved it just for the amazing clothes and Winona alone, but the film is genius! You take a typical High School film, and you ad suicide, guns, slushies, a rebel with a very strong cause, and teenage angst, and you have the perfect cult film.

Winona's character Veronica falls in love with the mysterious, dark, "I hate all people my age 'cause they are sooo immature and I couldn't care less about anyone 'cause I'm so dark and mysterious and I read books and I'm really smart but people don't get me", rebel J.D. played by Slater.

They fall in love, and before you know it Veronica's best friend/the bitch who is making her life miserable is found dead by suicide, and not long after that the two biggest dickheads on the football team are also found dead by suicide.

Coincidence? I don't think so!

Everyone who is the least bit interested in film should see "Heathers", that's my opinion.

Not only will you enjoy the clothes, the plot, the High School feeling, and well, the pretty people, the dialogue is priceless. Any film where a preppy Queen Bee of the school says " Well, fuck me gently with a chainsaw", is truly a work of literary art! This sentence has become a famous quote, and you can find it in films and TV-shows to this day, as a tribute to this cult classic.

"Greetings and salutations" is another quote form this film, made famous by Christian Slater.

But again, I have yo mention the clothes. Can anyone PLEASE tell me where I can get Winona's wardrobe from this film?

So in conclusion, if you appreciate films for the 80's, or cult films in general, or dark humor a la Tarantino, or you just want a good film to watch some Friday night, "Heathers" is my recommendation to you! It has everything:)

And if you don't like it, well then you can just go back to "American Pie" number 23, and stay behind in the uneducated, uncultivated dark. And don't you ever come in to my video store asking for "American Pie" number 24: "The Frap Party". Like no one's done THAT before...

There are ghosts in my room...

Lions and tigers and cheetahs, oh my!!

Ok, so no tigers....

I'm happy

Sometimes so little can make such a big difference.