Resumed, Resumés, and England

I just wrote a long-winded post about my experiences dealing with the rigid French bureaucracy and other things, but Philippe's computer crashed. Philippe is my cousin, by the way, who magically made my CV not only French but impressive. Apparently having several different jobs under my belt, contrary to being a sign of shiftlessness and depravity, could be a unique advantage. This remains to be seen.

Though my last post seems bleak, I came to terms with the loss of my material possessions over the ten days I spent at my grandmother's. I also realized, however, that living without the Internet at this point is impossible. It not only feels like being disconnected from half of the world, but from a practical standpoint nothing can be accomplished without an online computer anymore.

A final note of interest. I read all the Narnia books as a kid, completely ignorant of the religious significance. Curious about the movie, I checked the review of my old friend and John P's Halloween costume, Roger Ebert. I was Richard Roeper, for those that aren't in the know.

Ebert ends his article with an interesting idea, one that I have mulled ever since I first arrived in London and got 60 pounds for 100 dollars:

"[It]'s remarkable, isn't it, that the Brits have produced Narnia, the Ring, Hogwarts, Gormenghast, James Bond, Alice and Pooh, and what have we produced for them in return?"

It's strange that I have been thinking the same thing; on a personal level, my most cherished bands are mostly British. Out of the top ten I can think of on the spot, seven are british:

The Beatles
Led Zeppelin
New Order
The Cure
Radiohead
My Bloody Valentine
Rolling Stones [edit: I could substitute Pulp here for the Stones, depending on mood, but RS have had the bigger impact overall due to parental influence so they win.]

and three are American: Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Guns 'n' Roses. Granted, SP and GnR are probably top three, and a list of the top twenty would probably lean more American thanks to Seattle and Indie in general. Still, I cannot emphasize how huge the brit bands are for me. And this is just a personal list, ignoring The Who, The Kinks, Elton John, etc ad infinitum.

Probably, the reasonable response to all this nonsense is that really it's the same language, whatever. But for a little country, they sure do have things going on up there, culturally as well as economically. Plus, I actually really liked the tea there, and I miss it!