Smok'em If You Got'em

The short of it is, my apartment burned down. The long of it is, the building is still standing, but there's extensive water damage to my unit. So I'm out of an apartment for 3-6 months. In the Hotel Bellerive this week and until I can find a temporary, furnished flat. I will post more about it later, but here's the page 3 article and one picture for now. You may remember from an earlier post that I was very happy with my new bed after sleeping on a one person air matress for a few nights. The bed itself was ok after all the water damage and mainly needs some cleaning (as most everything else does too), but the matress and sheets will have to go. In the article, my terrace is the one to the left of the one with the flowers. Just when I had the place just about like I wanted it...BOOM!

"I Am Not A Man; I Am Cantona!"

After my fourth trip to IKEA yesterday (don't ask - it's sometimes difficult here without a car, so you take what you can get), I'd planned all week long to try out Lausanne's open air theater. It's down literally right on the edge of Lac Lèman, and it's really terrific with the little beer garden area where there are different boothes for snacks and food, beer, sweet girlie drinks, Nespresso coffee, or your basic assortment of bottled drinks (suppose popcorn was available too). The seats are just card table chairs, but the screen and audio are very good. They played lots of dramatic movie tracks (think John Williams) as the screen raised up, so it really gave you the sense of being "at the movies," if you know what I mean. My friend Johnny from Charlotte would love it.

I'd been excited about this all week, because Into the Wild was the featured film. It's based on a true story of this Emory kid who graduates college only to shun his trust fund family and strike out on his own adventure ending up in the Alaskan wilderness (e.g the "wild"). It's a mixed bag, as he ends up getting himself killed in the end, but a very good flick. Also, the soundtrack is completely comprised of original Eddie Vetter (from Pearl Jam fame) tunes, which would've been awesome on the theater's speaker system.

Problem was: I was so excited about the movie that I apparently completely overlooked the date. Turns out that Into the Wild is playing Monday night, not Saturday night...something I didn't know until I was sitting there and the movie actually started with some random scene I didn't remember. As the intro credits began, the title Looking for Eric flashed up on the screen. Being the eternal optimist that I am (?), I immediately was comforted by the fact that the movie was in English. Turns out, it was British English with Manchester accents, so I still only understood about 80% of what was said.

The movie was not bad. It covered a divorced, middle-aged postman who has this teenager-like admiration for former Manchester United footballer (soccer player) Eric Cantona, constant troubles with his unruly step-sons, and layers of emotional distress from leaving his young wife and baby thirty years before. The crowd definitley thought it was a comedy, based on its frequent outbursts, but the un-American English must have prevented me from seeing it this way. Not to say there weren't funny parts, but if you've ever watched PBS you've seen that the Brits view comedy a little differently than Americans. The funnier parts relate to the main character's hallucinations of Eric Cantona, who visits him at his lowest points and remains the constant philosopher and cheerleader..."Say 'non' like a Frenchman! Non!"

I will give Looking for Eric three out of five stars and would recommend it. Though I would recommend Into the Wild even more.

Alinghi 5

What's that funny name you ask? Team Alinghi is the current defender of the America's Cup, the oldest active trophy in international sport. It's presented to the winner of the prestigeous regatta race of the same name, which began in 1951 (predating the modern olympics by 45 years). Though the race is so old, it's only been run 32 times by my count, every 3-5 years it seems. This is because the defender must be challenged by another yacht club, something that has become more common in recent decades. Following USA's past dominance, Team New Zealand was a strong contender and holder of the cup in recent years, but in 2003 after a controversial rule change allowing team sailors to hail from countries other than the the team's sponsoring nation, Switzerland's Team Alinghi took the "Auld Mug" for the first time. Here the cup is on display in Lausanne on Swiss National Day, August 1, 2009.

Two years ago, upon a challenge by Team New Zealand, Alinghi once again prevailed in the America's Cup at the contest in Valencia, Spain. And next year, Alinghi will face the USA's Golden Gate Yacht Club in a yet-to-be-disclosed location. The Swiss are more than excited about the event and yesterday launched the Alinghi 5 on Lac
Lèman here at Lausanne's Port d'Ouchy in honor of Swiss National Day. Supposedly the largest boat yet to sail on the lake, it's a huge 90 foot catamaran so big that a giant Russian helicopter (the biggest and most powerful in the world) had to lift it onto the lake. Can't take credit for these two photos, but they add to the post a bit I think. There are some other pretty cool shots of the lift at this link. To get a look at the massive ship, I ventured down to the lakefront yesterday morning to see what I could see.

Mostly I could see tons of people. But I did get some good looks at the ship, none of which I did a very good job of capturing on camera. Here you can at least see the crowds of people and all the smaller boats that were following along behind the Alinghi 5 like little ducks or something. Finally, the ship headed out to deeper waters in the center of the lake and raised its sail before turning West-Southwest for Geneva. You can barely see the helicopter and little (daredevil) biplane above the ship that were in on the action too. In the background are the mountains behind Evian, France. As it was VERY sunny yesterday morning, it was also very hazy across the lake. The view is the best just after a storm when the clouds have lifted.

Last night around dusk the fireworks began to celebrate the Swiss national holiday. With all the regulations around here, you'd think fireworks would not be excluded. But it seems any three year old pyro with a few francs can buy and set off whatever he wishes. Besides the terrific display of fireworks shot from ships in the middle of the lake, random people and children setup their own Roman candles and other "completely safe" crackers in the midst of the crowds without any regard for others' eardrums. With my luck, I was certain to soon be blasted in the face with some errant firecracker, so I moved back to my nice little terrace viewpoint with my cone of Mövenpick ice cream before calling it a night. Random fireworks continued throughout the night, so Sunday afternoon now calls for a nap. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.