… or roughly 32 000 feet above the ground, that’s where I am now, as you are reading this. In about six hours I will land at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands, back where I started hundred and twenty-three days ago. It doesn’t seem that long when you are at the end of it, but that’s still a good third of a year.

It’s been a mostly fun and rewarding experience, but I have to say it was also frustrating at times. Nevertheless, I’ve quite gotten used to being able to drop in at the Starbucks around the corner, biking down Squirrel Hill into Oakland, having all kinds of conversations with Americans, hanging out with film club people, going to Pitt games with my landlord, et cetera. So, although I am quite excited to go home, there will definitely by things that I’ll miss.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about my stay in Pittsburgh, and there will be some final US related articles coming up in this category as well. Keep reading

For many people the name of the character alone might make their skins crawl, let alone its tagline: “when patriots become heroes”, but one should keep in mind that the fictional superhero Captain America was created during the second world war. A time in which the global war efforts of the United States were internationally uncontroversial and parodies like Team America: World Police did not exist. It is during this historic period that most of this latest movie adaptation takes place.

We follow Steve Rogers’ struggles in the American army and his transformation into Captain America. The main villain in this Joe Johnston directed movie, the Red Skull, is convincingly played by Hugo Weaving, of Matrix fame, and the protagonist Captain America by Chris Evans. His entertaining transformation from a frail man to a superhero is aided by a defected German scientist, an excellent role by Stanley Tucci.

Captain America does not take itself too seriously and is luckily not without humor and self-deprecation. After his transformation the Captain is turned into an entertainer for troops abroad, a role which quickly loses meaning to him. Hence, his foray into the forefront of battle driven by an additional strong personal objective. Good supporting roles are given by Tommy Lee Jones as army colonel and Hayley Atwell as strong female officer. The movie’s ending hints to a sequel, and of course to the upcoming Avengers movie.

As with any super hero movie, good and bad are portrayed as rather black and white in Captain America. Despite its fine execution: good cinematography and well paced dialogues, it doesn’t feel like this movie has a whole lot to say of its own, which is something we’ve gotten used to thanks to high quality film adaptations of Batman and Spiderman.

My main observation is that Captain America feels to run-of-the-mill and doesn’t add anything to the established genre of superhero movies, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing if it comes expected. Hence, If you like comic book heroes and are into a light “popcorn” movie with plenty of action, then you will find Captain America entertaining. If you want anything more than that, you’re probably looking in the wrong place.

Rating:  

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Trailer hosted by YouTube. Copyright © 2011 Marvel Studios.

During my stay in the Pittsburgh I’ve had lots of interesting conversations with all kinds of people. However, what stands out for me in particular is those with young Americans in their early twenties. They represent what America will look like tomorrow, and many of them are not very happy about what it looks like today. What follows are anonymized excerpts of various conversations, not exclusively, but predominantly with young adults, some of these have been slightly altered for the sake of readability.

Pride
I was standing near the front of a fairly crowded bus. We were waiting for it to depart: several people still needed to pay before exiting the vehicle.
“That’s taking a while,” I murmured.
“Damn, I just want to go home you know”, a middle-aged man standing next to me said. “They can just have their cash ready when they want to exit. They’re delaying all these people this way.”
“It’s not a very efficient system: paying cash, where I come from we use cards for that.”
“Where do you come from?”
“The Netherlands.”
“Oh wow, a friend of mine lived there for sometime, in Amsterdam I think.”
“Cool, then he probably knows the public transport infrastructure is better over there.”
“Sure, sure, better then here. There’s lots of things that could be improved in the United States.” He hesitated and continued: “but don’t misunderstand me: I am a proud American. It’s not a perfect country, but people keep coming here: just like you came to Pittsburgh, so we must be doing something right, right?”
I nodded in silent agreement.

Shame
“So, I’ve noticed that in the United States the gap between rich and poor is large,” I said.
“Yes, that’s right,” she replied.
“So, in Western Europe, particularly in the Netherlands, that gap tends to be a lot smaller: people are in some sense more equal, certainly in terms of purchasing power. We say `the strongest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden’”
“Right, that’s the way it is supposed to work here. However, it really doesn’t work that way since rich people get huge tax cuts. I mean: Warren Buffet even suggested imposing more tax on his own socio-economic group: the rich.”
“But, the American economic system does encourage more risk-taking and appears to yield more innovation then the European one, right?”
“Right, but I still prefer a welfare state, like those in Europe or Canada.”

Rich
I was having a conversation with a group of people.
“So, I am trying to understand how it works here: are conservatives mostly older people and liberals mostly younger people?”
“More or less, the people in the bigger cities: the densely populated areas near the coasts, are generally more liberal, and most young people that are conservative are rich kids,” a girl replied.
“Rich kids?”
“Yes, like: kids with very rich parents, if one thing is true in America it’s that being rich will make you richer,” a boy added.
“That seems perverse. So, how does it work with tuition, that’s supposedly high here, right?”, I continued.
“For Carnegie Mellon it is about forty-three thousand dollars per year, but it varies depending on the school.”
“What, seriously?”, I wasn’t really expecting it to be that high.
“So, what is it in the Netherlands?”
“If I’d tell you that you’d go crazy”, I smiled.

History
“So, then, what was the American fight for independence really about?”, I asked.
“Well, don’t misunderstand: the American revolution was about a bunch of rich white guys on one side of the ocean that were unhappy about the unfair levied taxes imposed on them by some rich white guys on the other side of that same ocean: the British.”

Heritage
“One of the things I’ve found quite disappointing here in the United States is the emphasis on a person’s ethnic heritage.” I paused and pondered if I should broach the subject further, “statistics presented in the media are often about race: White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, and all combinations thereof. I mean: I personally don’t think that should matter at all.”
She smiled, “race shouldn’t matter: I agree, but it is an historically very sensitive issue here in the United States.”
I continued: “As an example, I’ve seen a lot of non-white people working menial jobs. Is my observation incorrect or is this really true?”
“It’s true, it’s true. It’s not just race though, it’s more socio-cultural,” she paused and frowned. “And you know what’s even worse? Say someone manages to get out of that situation, for example: a black female, she then gets stereotyped as the ‘strong black woman’”
“Positive discrimination?”
“Exactly.”

Occupation (1)
“So, what do you think occupy Wall Street is all about?”, I asked.
“I think what it boils down to is getting money out of politics.”
“Money?”
“Yes, in the United States when you run for president you need money: lots of money.” He paused briefly, then continued: “so, most of that money is provided by companies. They basically throw their weight behind any candidate who best serves their interest.”
“And you also have a two party system, right?”
“Right, you can run either for the democrats or republicans, there’s really no other practical way to win an election.”
“So, to recap: would you say it’s basically about reducing the indirect political power and influence of large and rich corporations?”
“That’s exactly it.”

Occupation (2)
“Have you followed the occupy Wall Street movement?”, he asked.
“Yes, somewhat, someone told me about it, but enlighten me: what is your view on what that’s really about?”, I replied.
“That’s indeed somewhat unclear to many people. So, there are a lot of important issues that the occupy movement raised, like: the greed of wall street, the influence of corporations, etcetera.” he said.
“However”, continuing, “there’s one issue at the center of it all.”
“And what might that be?”, I asked.
“Young versus old”, he replied with confidence. “Look: the young generation is tired of the older generation trying to dominate and regulate everything in this country.”
He hesitated for a second. “Don’t misunderstand me, I think this is a great nation.”
“I’ve heard that before: that belief seems like a very common American trait”, I interrupted. “Where does that actually come from?”
“I think we’re instilled with it from a young age onwards,” he looked briefly up at a friend for confirmation while rubbing his hands to battle the cold breeze.
“Many people think ‘frak it’ and then ‘flee’ to Canada or Europe,” he continued. “But if everyone with progressive ideas does that: only the conservative ones will remain. There’s already too much emphasis on tradition and that’ll only make it worse”
“You should come to Europe”, I said, “Just for a while to see what it’s like, I mean: it’s not perfect over there, but it would give you a better feeling of the differences.”
“No system is perfect.” He smiled.

Another Earth is a drama film with a science fiction backdrop. The story revolves around a girl named Rhoda, portrayed by Brit Marling, who has recently been accepted to study at MIT. Unfortunately, while driving home from a party she slams her car into that of a famous composer, killing his family and throwing him in a coma.

The rest of the film is mostly about the consequences for both the composer and Rhoda, as well as one of the causes of the accident: Rhoda looking out of the window of her car because she sees another earth in the sky. This visual cue is revisited many times in the movie as we slowly learn what the other earth really is. However, more central to the story is the relation between Rhoda and the composer, a fascinating role by William Mapother. The fact that the audience and Rhoda share a secret together from the outset of the movie makes for some particularly gripping moments.

Another Earth is recommended for people who like well crafted art house films. While it borrows elements from other movies, like Moon and Crash, it’s hard to really compare to existing work, which makes that it has a unique signature: a good thing. Another Earth is slowly paced, but consistently throws enough at you to hold your attention. To what extent you will like this movie probably depends mainly on whether you sympathize with the faith of the two main characters. The cinematographic execution is rough in some places, but not a distraction. Finally, the abrupt ending may be a disappointment to some, but I couldn’t think of a more appropriate one.

Rating:  

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Trailer hosted by YouTube. Copyright © 2011 Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Many of the differences between the United States and the Netherlands are surprisingly small. After all: both are “western” nations. However, careful observation does reveal a number of them both small and large. Here’s a handful which are true at least in the Pittsburgh area and some of which likely extend to the rest of the United States.

Eating Habits
I’ve already discussed some food aspects at length. However, let’s take a look at habitual differences with respect to eating. When given a meal Dutch people usually wait till everyone has a plate and only then start eating: there’s a ‘synchronization’ point. In contrast: Americans start eating as soon as something is put in front of them. Furthermore, Americans generally eat with only one utensil: spoon or fork, unless they are cutting, and rest their other hand in their lap, something which is considered rude in Dutch culture. People in the Netherlands commonly use both knife and fork while eating and keep both of their hands above the table at all times.

Conveyor-belt Style Food
The American contribution to the world cuisine is “fast food”. It is amazing, but also depressing to see how many fast food chains there actually are, many more than in continental Europe, it’s truly a Fast Food Nation. Most of these fast food restaurants transform traditional cooking into a conveyor-belt style chain where either each person completes some part of the task of preparing the final meal, or where one person prepares your food item while moving along bins with ingredients.

Recycling
Pittsburgh has a curb-side recycling program and encourages its citizens to split their waste in non-recyclable and recyclable stuff. The latter includes everything that can be recycled, including leaf waste for which we have a separate bin in the Netherlands. There is no separation of different types of waste in public waste bins as is common in for example Germany. However, on the University terrain bins of this type can be found in some places.

You can get money back for recycling plastic bottles. However, I’ve not yet come across the automated bottle processing systems prolific in the Netherlands. Furthermore, there’s a lot of plastic waste being generated as a result of coated cups, take-out cutlery and bags. While many systems are in place which enable recycling. It’s not consistent and overall Americans don’t really seem to care about recycling at all. If you’re European: there’s certainly no need to feel environmentally guilty compared to what is happening here in the United States.

Banking
You probably won’t find cheques in the Netherlands unless you are at an archaeological excavation, but they are one of the primary means of payment here after cash and credit card. Interestingly, even debit cards are made so that you can use them as a credit card. Internet banking is available and works fairly well. However, an “on-line” bank transfer boils down to the bank mailing a cheque to the recipient on your behalf. Again: the American banking system doesn’t exactly sparkle modernity.

Buses and Public Transport
The bus system in Pittsburgh is decent, although not exactly reliable or punctual. Unless you have a pass, you pay cash to the driver and you have to pay exact. There’s a machine that collects your bills and coins in front of the bus. Although I am not a big proponent of the OV Chip Card, the cash payment system here is inefficient and cumbersome. People enter and exit buses using the front door, rarely does the back door get used. This doesn’t really make sense to me either. Many of the buses are also equipped with bike carrying racks, located at the front of the bus, on which one or two bikes can be mounted. Although this is a nice service, I would not quickly put my bike at the front of a bus.

Trains are not a very popular mode of transport, since they take very long to get anywhere. The reason being that passenger trains don’t have a high priority on the rail network in contrast to freight trains. Most people resort to either airplanes or cars for any type of travel. Car usage has historically been heavily promoted, since a large part of the American economy used to rely on it.

Streets and Cars
The streets are somewhat wider, but that’s also because there are no separate parking bays: cars are almost always parked on both sides of the road on nearly all streets. Whilst this occurs in the Netherlands too, parking bays are probably more common.

Traffic lights in the United States are consistently on the opposite side of the street, while in most of Europe they are more commonly on the same side. I feel that opposite placement is actually better since this makes the light easier to see when it’s high up.

The cars are bigger: you will not see many compact cars driving around here. This is also caused by the fact that the driving distances are generally longer and the fact that gasoline is somewhere between two and two-and-a-half times cheaper here compared to the Netherlands. As far as I could find there’s no vehicle excise tax based on the weight or pollution of vehicles which would also explain why Americans prefer large cars: there’s no disincentive for owning one. However, there’s a road and fuel tax system.

As far as brand names are concerned, it seems French cars are not popular. There are very few cars that carry the Peugot or Citroen brand: I haven’t actually seen any. However, German and Japanese cars are prolific: BMW, Volkwagen, Audi, Honda, Toyota, and of course American car brands like Chevrolet, GMC, Ford and Jeep. Of these American brands only Ford is popular in Europe.

Bikes
Bikes are not very common: I have had people take pictures of me because I was riding a bike. Nevertheless, I have been told that their popularity is rising. Many bikers are of the “sports” kind and not of the “commute” kind. Bikes are a bit more common among the student population, but nowhere near as common as in the Netherlands. Furthermore, there are no separate traffic lights for bikes and there are only occasional bike lanes. On some streets it is certainly safer to use the sidewalk for biking, even if it sometimes annoys pedestrians

Finally, they do not have Saint Nicholas here. I guess the United States is just a bit too far from Spain. Can’t have it all.

Clint Eastwood has sharpened his directing skills in the past decade, showing that he can make high quality drama films such as Mystic River and Million Dollar Baby. In his newest feature he takes on the life of J. Edgar Hoover, the former long-time director and founder of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The script was penned by Dustin Lance Black best known for the award-winning movie Milk.

J. Edgar tells the life of its subject through flashbacks while an elderly Hoover dictates about his past. A lot of this revolves around the Lindbergh kidnapping. Hoover’s personal life throughout the years is highlighted, particularly his relationship with his deputy Clyde Tolson. Controversial subject matter surrounding his persona is not swept under the carpet, like his alleged homosexuality and self-glorification.

Although inter-cutting between past and present is an effective storytelling device, it is sometimes disorienting in J. Edgar. The cinematography is decent, and most of the make-up used to make actors look older is convincing. Leonardo DiCaprio delivers an excellent performance as J. Edgar Hoover and whilst certainly intended as a deep drama movie, it is not shy of amusing dialogue.

J. Edgar is not particularly gripping, at times a bit too slow, and occasionally hard to follow due to some flashbacks problems. Nevertheless, it is overall a well crafted movie that gives insight into a person who was instrumental in establishing some of today’s established forensic practices. If you’re into biopics, and can oversee some minor flaws in execution, this is for you.

Note: J. Edgar will be released outside the United States in January, and in the Netherlands on January fifth twenty twelve.

Rating:  

Official Site | IMDB | Wikipedia

Trailer hosted by YouTube. Copyright © 2011 Warner Brothers.