The Legendary Fall

Current books read: Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale - watched dvd: The Good Girl, Finding Nemo - study reading: Environmental Economics. Pussinggg..

Prologue

Fall, as a season has definitely gotten into my soft side. Eventhough I don't like it. Somehow, every fall seems like a brand new start, or a milestone or just the time to say, "Yes, fall is coming! I'm a have a lotta fun!"

For a start. I came to Germany in fall. I joined my gamelan (traditional Indonesian music) group in fall. I started blogging in fall. One of my favorite movie is Legends of the Fall.

When it comes to something that I like to do, fall has a lot to offer as well. I used to remember, for 5 years when fall came (yes, Indonesia has no fall season, but I mean when fall comes to the northern hemisphere) I got so excited because it is time to watch good movie. By good I meant movies which will win primary and/or movie awards with the peak of the season in the annual Academy Awards, or Oscar. You know how americanized those things are.

Yes. Fall to me was so special. In the past years, fall meant the return of TV series that I like to watch. Friends, Survivor, The Amazing Race, The Apprentice, Sex and the City, and so on, and so on. This year, it's the return of Wer Wird Millionär, Wetten Dass...?, Dittsche, and so on, and so on. So it's clear that fall deserves a headliner post.

Part 1 - Yea! It's fall!

Fall always makes me blue. Because I love love love the sun. I am not afraid of getting dark or very dark unlike other Indonesians. In fall, the sun becomes a bit more shameful to show its face on earth. It just appear shorter, and I hate that.

In Hamburg, when fall comes, it means prepare yourself without streaming sunlight at all but only cloudy sky and rain, or light rain (what's it called?). The whole day. Or Week. It makes me cold, weak, and crappy, and really works as a reminder, that winter is coming.

Fall also means the end of the green pasture and healthy trees and blossoming flowers and cheap vegetables. Pastures will become soil colored soon enough. Trees will gradually changed into yellow, brown, or red. Yes, the view of them is breathtakingly awesome. But be quick and enjoy them while you can! Within a week all of them will be gone leaving us with leaveless tree. Sigh. Because the leaves are falling, no pun intended.

As I came to Germany in fall, the weather is cold enough for an Indonesian, but it turns out that it was not cold enough for my too-thick jacket. That time the sun went down "normally", the leaves were falling one by one as breeze came, and I was told to prepare to buy an umbrella to block the rain and wind.

Part 2 - Falling in with the Movies

I was a sucker for fall movies. When almost all people are watching almost all summer blockbusters, for me fall movies are the one to be hunted and kept alive. I mean come on, yes Titanic was a summer blockbuster, but do you realize what really happened in fall?

Awarding season kicks of with National Board Review. After that critics of three cities: Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago. Then come the guilds. Then come the globes. Then come the academies, british one, and then american one. With awards after awards if you really love movies, then it's hard to ignore or not want to watch those movies.

There is something exciting about trying to catch those movies. Especially when you're in Indonesia. And then talk about them for a coffee (there never was a coffee on my table, though), and just preparing having a head-to-head argument or disagreement about your or your friend's trump. Gosh. I miss those good old days. Again, I had to say, I quit it last year. Quit hunting it for two years, though. And definitely won't join the hunting season this year.

The exciting thing about catching fall movies in Indonesia, is that because Indonesian distributor can not risk their money for something not so mainstream. For example: I watched Shakespeare in Love in theatres after it won Best Picture in Oscar 1998, sometimes in February. There's nothing fall about February; movies like Far From Heaven did not made it to the movies; I watched the Hours before Oscar, but the theatre was less than 50% full. During Kinotag. So, Indonesians (or in this case my movie circle) are expected to be more creative in order to watch these movies before Oscar in order to be able to argue clearly why they think their trump's gonna win. Eventhough not every person tried that hard, and jumped right in into conversation even before they watched the movie.

For me, it is still interesting though to see who will win what just to catch up with ol' time favorites.

Part 3- Fall-tering to the Hooks of TV Series

I surrender easily to the hands of TV series. Nowadays, I like watching them even more than I like watching movies. It's the sense of exploration of new characters that will last weeks that always tempts me. See, I'm not really a strong person for not being able to hold that kind of temptation.

Anyways, out of the series that I liked to watch are most of the times series with competitions in it. In Indonesia, I like (eventhough I hate to admit it) to watch all TV-quizzes and competition.
From the highly praised

• Siapa Berani,
• Cerdas Cermat (elementary school children answering questions that are most likely to be asked at school),
• Kuis Keluarga Lifebuoy (family quiz, mixture of some games),
• Asia Bagus (singing competition between south east asian countries plus Japan),

to the deep down in a barrel like

• Asah Asih Asuh (quiz from homemakers when mostly they are being asked to answer or demonstrate homemaking 101),
• Gosip atau Fakta (quiz all about Indonesian celebrities' gossip or fact),
• Apa Ini Apa Itu (I don't even really know what this quiz it's all about),
• Tebak Gambar or what's-that-quiz-with-David-Chalik-as-host? (It's a super stupid quiz, and most of the time I like watching it to see how the host and contestants react of the stupidity of the question. Or the answer.)
• or Kuis Dangdut.

That is why, I really like watching competitive reality TV on any TV out there. Eventhough now I have to be more selective as I don't have 50 hours a day to watch competitve reality TV shows. So what's a better way to start fall rather than selecting the reality shows?

So far, I am only interested in three of them. The Amazing Race: Family Edition, Survivor: Guatemala, and The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, in the order of decreasing interest. The next post will be my early take on these series, and decision on whether I'll watch them or not.