WWE, Les Simpson, et WWII

---

Last Friday we had an evening with Adele, Florent, Olivier, Fred, and myself, grilled up some meat and cheeses, red wine to go with it, it was fun time. Towards the end of the evening we found ourselves watching WWE (the new WWF, 'professional wrestling').

As is every time when some bizarre American television creation comes on the screen, it was interesting to be watching this with my French friends here around the dinner table. The culminator for me, I know that is not a word, was when two fighters came out, it was Finlay (an Irishman) vs the Boogey Man. The Boogey Man was dressed up like an exaggerated medicine man from some bush tribe that had never seen civilization. He had a sidekick who was dressed like him, but who was a dwarf.

Finlay had a dwarf sidekick as well; he was dressed as a leprichaun, sort of a 'good luck charm' for Finlay. He began the fight under the ring, hiding, popping his head up from time to time and shooting angry glares at the crowd and the opposing fighter.

By the end of the fight, both dwarfs were up in the ring fighting, as well as the original fighters, and it was a free for all. We were all sort of speechless watching the two dwarfs in ridiculous outfits battling it out. No one knew whether to laugh, or turn the tv off, or to curse, or to just enjoy the fight. Is this demeaning to dwarfs(I use this word loosely-- Im not sure if it is the most up to date word to use)? My first reaction is yes, but then again the other two wrestlers are wearing just as ridiculous outfits and are just obscene as the dwarfs are.

One of the most popular TV shows in France is ‘Les Simpson.’ It shows regularly, and I have enjoyed watching it at least once a day. The most number of times I have watched it in one day is fivepe. The French Simpson voices are pretty funny, and in fact do justice, I think, to the original characters. I have picked up lots of random French words that I would have otherwise never learned.

Other popular shows here in France include ‘Malcolm in the Middle’ and ‘Prison Break’.


Yesterday Flo and his friend, Christophe, were playing a Playstation II videogame called ‘Call of Duty, the March on Paris,’ a game that is set in World War II in which the Germans have taken control of Paris and much of Normandy, and you as the player (along with your fellow soldiers) must fight to regain control of the region and the city. I was struck by the realistic graphics of the game—the images, the voices, the violence, it was all pretty intense (though no more than any other PSII game). Even more intense was the fact that the towns that the soldiers were marching through in the game were the same towns that we drive through everyday. One of the major levels that you must complete in the game is ‘Rouen.’ At one point Florent remarked, ‘oh, that town is about 30 kilometers from here.’ The same towns my grandfather drove trucks through during the War.

It is incredible when a videogame, something that was created as entertainment and as a way to make a profit, hits so close to home.

---

Photos

Snack break
Florent and I spent an afternoon helping paint his sister's new house; None of the pics I took of the house turned out well except this one. It is the snack table.

Le Vaudreuil
the view as you enter Le Vaudreuil.