Breaking Batman

This is cool. The next super hero movie is supposed to be Batman versus Superman. Ben Affleck was just announced as the actor to play Batman.

A fan has made a movie trailer ahead of the release (waaaaay ahead; the movie’s not due out for a couple more years) from video clips of previous Superman & Batman movies, various Ben Affleck movies, and Breaking Bad.

The best bits, in my humble opinion, are the Bryan Cranston Breaking Bad clips.

http://blogs.movietimetv.ca/this-fan-made-man-of-steel-2-trailer-is-pretty-good/

It just came to me. Now I know how Breaking Bad is going to end (spoiler alert!).


Walter White is the new villain in "Superman vs Batman"! It's all so clear to me now!

No Stinkin' Badges

As I walked to work this morning I passed a sporty-looking import car that I didn’t recognize. Well I kinda did. I recognized it as a right-hand-drive Japanese import, more than 15 years old. They’ve been popular the last few years. There are 3 of them in our parking lot.

What really caught my attention however was that there was no brand name on it, at least from the sides and front of the car; only a stylized “S”. That reminded me of a fun-fact I’d learned on our recent European vacation. Cars there can be ordered from the factory “de-badged”, meaning one can specify how many or few badges are to be affixed to a new car leaving the factory.

In the Vancouver/ Richmond area I’ve noticed the exact opposite. New sporty cars often are accessorized with more name badges than originally intended due to owner customization. I have to say I like the stealth approach better. Less is more. Also, why advertise to potential thieves that your car has the high-power engine option, or top interior trim level, etc. It’s common enough these days to have your car stolen.

The de-badging also reminded me of an unexpected car I’d seen yesterday posted on The Samba intentionally unmarked by its marque (un-marqued?).

As an aside, sadly I must report that a VW Bug I’ve been following for the last year and a half finally appears to have sold, but a car related to this blog topic has taken its place. A few blogs ago I described two distinct camps of Volkswagen Beetle customization; the Cal-look (with which the now-sold Agave green ’57 was grouped), and the German-look, later-model Beetles and Super Beetles upgraded with Porsche suspension and wheels, and often sporting high-power Type 4 engines. The new posting from yesterday is a de-badged 1970 Bug currently in the Netherlands, modified with 911 wheels, race-ready in terms of full roll cage and tuned suspension. And no stinkin’ badges (also one of the most memorable Blazing Saddles lines, IMHO).

Fireworks Accompaniment

We were fortunate to attend Zuri Fascht during the portion of our recent vacation we spent in Switzerland. It’s a 3-day summer festival (2013 dates: July 5-7) that happens every 3 years. Many say the highlight is the two-evening fireworks extravaganza. It would be difficult to argue that claim.

Our hosts live in a middle storey condo overlooking Lake Zurich. From that vantage point we had a decent view of the fireworks, although we missed some of the low ones. We had our chairs all lined up and ready too early as it turns out. We thought the show started at 10 pm, but it was really a 10:30 start. On the Saturday evening I was standing at the railing just after 10 p.m. gazing North when I detected a flicker near the periphery of my vision along the northern horizon, in the direction of the airport. A few orange dots, appeared together in a group as if a light switch had been activated. The dots reminded me of a small swarm of distant fireflies.

As I looked closer I could see more small dots near this grouping, only these ones were blue. For awhile it almost seemed like they were going to mimic constellations, but I couldn't detect firm patterns (not that I can pinpoint anything besides the Big Dipper). As I watched, the pattern changed. Some of the blue lights changed to brighter orange lights. I counted as many as 20 lights (both blue and orange) at any one time. There were probably more but a tree obscured my full view. The number of orange lights varied from 2 to 11 as I watched, while the blue lights remained visible throughout. It was like the blue lights activated to orange, then were switched off back to blue. But just before the fireworks began, all the lights winked out.

I’m guessing that these lights were illuminated hot air balloons, but I have no confirmation. I’ve tried Internet searches, but unless I’m using unsuitable search words, or perhaps owing to a language barrier, I can’t find any definitive source to confirm exactly what these lights were.

Hopefully a reader of this blog can shed some light (pun intended) on this somewhat spooky introductory prelude to the spectacular Zuri Fascht fireworks display.

Trackside

On July 10 we traveled via InterCity Express (ICE) train from Heidelberg to Berlin. For this portion of our vacation I really wanted to travel on land, as opposed to flying. My Dad lived in the former republic of East Germany for most of his life before immigrating to Canada in approximately 1957, before the Wall was erected. I’m not exactly sure which year it was; his family was always quite secretive regarding details of that time period.

It’s been 24 years now since the dis-mantling of Wall but I was curious to see if I could still tell the difference between the former states of West and East Germany. Twenty-four years would not necessarily be enough time to undue the decline bestowed upon East Germany by approximately 45 years of separation, not to mention the damage inflicted by WW 2. Something else to consider as well is that train routes don’t always travel through the best parts of towns or cities; they skirt past the edges, which can be seedier. We traveled by train from Toronto to New York City once and I remember we never really got to see the best parts of the towns we passed.

However, on this particular journey it wasn’t long after passing Frankfurt (which I knew to have been West German) that my photos begin to depict older style train buildings. Then, after Fulda, which was barely inside the former West state boundary, many buildings begin to look in need of repair.

I tried my best to photograph nameplates on trackside buildings as we passed, but the route we traveled didn’t stop often. Of course the train slowed to pass through urban areas, but it still was not easy to catch a name in a photograph as we sped by. I had to rely on the odd photo with a name, then fill in the blanks later with my notes. I wrote down all the place names I could remember as we passed them if I’d missed photographing them.

 

The first large old-style train station we passed looked reasonably well-kept. I missed the name of the town (between Fulda and Merseburg). 

Then it was industrial-style buildings for a while, including smoke stacks. The first genuinely rundown trackside building photo I have is at Merseburg. I checked online for an East German map, and this town is firmly located in the former East German republic.

Merseburg

 

Looking around the comfortable modern train car in which we were traveling I noticed most people were not even looking out the windows. Admittedly we were tourists, and being Canadian, rail travel is a novelty (whether that should be the case or not is another subject entirely). Perhaps most others were locals or frequent business travelers. I’ve always been one to have my nose glued to the window on a trip. Even as a small child I never wanted to sleep while we traveled in case I missed something good. The only time I’ve allowed myself to sleep on a trip is in the passenger seat of our car as my wife drove us through Saskatchewan. I don’t think I can be faulted for saying Sask looked much the same at the Western side as it does at its Eastern border.

Approaching Halle I saw many run-down, boarded-up factory buildings. The area began to look more prosperous as the train neared the passenger platform of the station. Buildings within sight of the train platform appeared to be well maintained.

Halle

Past Halle, trackside buildings were in noticeably poorer states is repair. Lots of graffiti, and plant growth taking root in mortar joints between the clay bricks, thus contributing to many low-tech, unintentional "green roofs".

Another trackside building I viewed from a different train was near Madrid. As we pulled into Vallodolid I was pleasantly surprised to see a roundhouse. It appeared to have been unused for many years, but being located in such a hot, dry region of Spain it seemed to be in reasonably good condition. I even caught a glimpse of a train coach inside. It’s definitely a building I would like to have explored. 

Valladolid, Spain

Valladolid

Valladolid