A Natural Fit

    Out the other night at the Start Music Festival, the third weekend in a row that there was some kind of cultural event in Copenhagen. I was there with two of my closest friends in Denmark.  A couple of girls started chatting to us. One was from Texas.  After a few minutes of conversation the Texas girl asks me: “How are you hanging out with these guys?”

A little surprised I replied: “what do you mean?”

    “Well, I’ve been here for 18 months and it took me pretty much that long to get in with any Danish people. And I even speak the language too.”

    This isn’t the first time, I’ve heard about this kind of scenario. Sometimes even the Danes themselves will say that they are closed. My experiences have been the exact opposite however. I met a friend from three years back with whom I now live and he introduced me to loads of varied people who quickly became my friends too. I’d actually say being a foreigner has had the opposite effect than the girl I talked to implied – it seems to draw people to me. I’ve been asked so many times since arriving 3 months ago.  “Why did you choose to come to Denmark?” People are really interested in what would bring me here. They like my authentic answer that I had previously traveled a lot of Europe and visited Denmark three years ago and was drawn back because of the friendly people and the liberalism.

      In my opinion it was easier to make friends with the Danes than the Dutch. In Amsterdam, where I lived two years, it took a long time to break through with new people. I think the main reason is a blasé, guarded attitude towards Amsterdam’s tourists many of who deservedly have earned bad reputations for chasing vice. Also in the Netherlands, the individual friendship group is held a little tighter and is more restrictive. The Dutch will expand, but it takes time. The benefit of that is that once you are friends with someone you will be through the good and the bad. The Danes on the other hand have been really open. They want to talk, find more about me, and see what I’m about. It felt unbelievable good for my closest female friend to tell me I was one of her close friends after three weeks. Comparably in Canada often I find a pre-requisite for friendship is equal status. Further, it felt really hard to expand an already established friend network in Toronto beyond the friendly acquaintance level. Here, that expansion has happened quickly and naturally. In my experience it’s best to find a place that you fit rather than trying to fit yourself to a place.

The Blue Coffee Mug

      

    It was as if a magnetic force had emanated from the very world itself... a long crack started forming in my blue glass coffee mug. I’ve never seen a mug just disintegrate like this. It wasn’t just a mug - it was the mug she gave me. She knew my habit of using the same coffee cup every morning. So one day by herself at the mall she bought me another one -the same but in blue. I never told her properly, but to me it was an amazing gift. I just liked that she was thinking of me. And now that very blue mug was splintering right in my hands from merely putting regular temperature water in it. Something was happening, there was some incongruence in the world, as it couldn’t just be chance that the day it cracked was also the day of our last cyber argument...  the last time we communicated.

    

   A Danish friend recently told me– “some of my girlfriends think that you don’t like them.” A little surprised I answered her by saying – “don’t be crazy of course I do.”   To which she added – “some of them told me they kind of fancy you, but you don’t seem to fancy them they think.” It was interesting to hear this, because it brought forward something that I knew. Something, I’d been trying to forget. I’m a fool, but I still love her. She’s beautiful to me, and she will be forever... long after her youth fades. She gives the world a blasé persona as a defence to protect her best parts: the shy her, the sensitive her, the artistic her, the real her. I once knew the real her, though not anymore, and I know I could live a thousand lifetimes and never meet anyone like that again.

   
     This tale is one of personal growth as when feelings get that deep you will change from it. I can’t sit here like some perfect romantic when in reality I failed myself and her. Life brings answers but in its due time, not your own...  I was so relaxed about our growing relationship. I let her put herself forward to expand it, and when we were a continent away I relaxed in the comfort that there was someone out there that wanted me. I didn’t push to come back together when I could have. I wasn’t explicit in the here and now. I was comfortable that it would remain, it would always remain... it didn`t.  And now I have nothing again... except a deep well of regret. And now each time I feel low – I know that it will be her I think of and what I lost in that moment when the blue coffee mug cracked.

Film Review: Source Code

    “Source Code” combines Science fiction with a detective thriller as Jake Gyllenhall awakens to find himself in another man’s body, talking to a beautiful woman named Christine (Michelle Monaghan) that knows him - but he doesn’t know her, on a train that is going to explode in 8 minutes. He will have this experience again and again.

     Confused yet!? Well, you should be... but with 93 minutes of brisk film making director Keith Duncan – of “Moon” fame - puts himself to task of making sense of it all. The concept of repeating the same day, or moment, repeatedly is reminiscent of “Ground Hog Day” but this time it’s done as a thriller. Does this intriguing premise pan out? Yes, what we’re left with is a well paced film that may leave some scientific purest scratching their heads a little, but audiences entertained with good suspense and character development.

      A real world dimension gives the story more complexity when Army Captain Colter Stephens (Gylenhal) wakes up in his own body after dying the first time on the train. He is in some type of army bunker – trapped and confused why he is there. His only real world contact is Colleen Goodwin (Vera Farminga) who speaks to him via a monitor. She informs him that he has been chosen for a mission to uncover who placed the bomb on the train so the bomber can be apprehended in the present. This is possible because of something called the Source Code, a new technology that allows Colter to relive the last 8 minutes of another passenger from the ill fated train’s life. He will be sent back to those 8 minutes again and again. Suspended disbelieve may need to come into play as aspects of the theory of the Source Code are a little preposterous.  

     The real intrigue of the film is back on the train where everyone is a potential suspect. Repeating the same event means there are no consequences for Colter’s actions. To amusing effect he yells at, beats up, and even robs people in his efforts to find the bomber. Character development is evident as suspects are eliminated from suspicion – then appear again in Coulter’s next 8 minutes unknowing to how they were previously treated.  The only person he can trust is Catherine as his attraction to her grows each time he returns. The attraction between the leads gives the film heart as their chemistry is pliable and believable thanks in large part to Monaghan’s performance.  

    In the end we are left with a thriller that does provide genuine twists, entertains, and leaves the viewer thinking after the film is finished. Is this film a mind twisting epic at the level of “Memento” or “Twelve Monkeys” – no, but for intelligent summer fare, it more than fills the bill. Good performances and mounting tension make me recommend seeing it.   4 out of 6 Stars.