Prototype of a Person

What Stephen Fry Taught me about America

Epic landscapes have always captured my imagination, emphasis on the imagination. American movies often feature grand scenery, and having grown up on a diet of science fiction and fantasy movies I had always associated these incredible places as unnatural and purely cinematic. The documentary series Fry in America reprogrammed me, in more ways than one. Not only did it give me a broader understanding of the diversity that exisits in America culture, it also showcased the grand natural landscape of the American states, without the Hollywood lense distorting and overemphasising.

Lake Powell and Monument Valley, and the entire state of Utah is a fixation of mine since I watched the documentary series (and I’m already planning my visit in 2010). Scenes from 2001: A Space Odyssey and Back to the Future were filmed here, and of course, many many westerns. The ethereal beauty of these spots, especially Lake Powell, remind me so much of a Martian landscape, the addition of the unnatural water (Lake Powell is a man made lake) bring to mind the science fiction concept of teraforming - taking an inhospitable planet and changing it’s atmosphere to make it more Earth like.

Putting a standard film crew, an English gentlemen and his taxicab into these scenes gave me perspective, and I can now understand why everything in America is so… big. The roads, the buildings, the personalities. Being surrounded by these incredibly huge, monstrous natural creations, it’s only human to attempt to fit into that landscape. I imagine the early European settlers felt quite small and insignificant here. I imagine, I will too.

Observations on Orlando

There are two reasons why my blog has been very quiet as of late, firstly my BT broadband and phone line have been broken since the 24th of August and I was in Orlando for couple of weeks.

I’m too annoyed to talk about BT, but I do have a few observations that I’d like to share about my holiday destination.

Observations on Orlando

The tipping system really works. It was a joy going out to restaurants in Orlando. All of the waiting staff knew that their service would determine how much they got payed for that night, so they all went out of their way for us. It was okay to ask for something strange like “No tomatoes on a burger” and not feel like a freak, so unlike Dublin. It was really good value for money to eat out, again so unilike Dublin.

Dolphins are like hairless sea dogs. They have these wonderfully funny personalities, all of them unique, sweet and affectionate. I’m comparing them to dogs because my own border collie Ben is the only other animal I’ve ever witnessed reacting to people so… humanly, with what can only be described as facial expressions and body language. I never imagined it possible to really swim with dolphins, but you can in Orlando and it was worth going just for that one experience. My happy place, when I close my eyes, is lying on the man made beach at Discovery Cove looking out at the dozens of dolphins happily frolicking in their elaborate ocean enclosure. Part of me has always had difficulty dealing with the idea of wild animals in captivity, but with so many species reaching almost extinction within my own lifetime I’ve begun to realise how important breeding programs and education are, and a learning experience it truly was.

Milk is never a good choice. Dairy tastes very strange in America, from cheese to butter. American style sandwiches made in Ireland taste better. Thankfully Starbucks coffee was still damm good though.

Cans of soft drinks/soda are hard to come by. I’m a big fan of cans of coke but I only ever saw them in one shop, even the vending machines were filled with plastic bottles instead. They did have these nifty beer bottles made from tin though, I hope they bring them out here, it would stop beer bottles turning into weapons.

Toilets that automatically flush are amazing and so hygienic too. Many of the public toilets there featured automatic toilets, soap dispensers, taps and paper towels dispensers. It saddens me to have to do it all by hand now.

Clothes are dirt cheap but electronics are expensive. I was very surprised and disappointed at this, I had budgeted for gadget goodies but ended up buying a lovely little Fuji Z100 fd when I got home.

September is the perfect time to go to Orlando theme parks. We very rarely had to queue for anything. It was blissful. The weather was amazing, despite tropical storms and hurricanes nearby, these only made it rain for an hour or so and usually at night, we literally had only one overcast day the whole time we were there.

Americans are obsessed with weather. Weather bulletins every 15 minutes and dedicated weather channels, hurricane tracking is big business there and Orlando TV has many meteorologists and none of them are optimists.

3D really works (on me). Despite knowing full well that the stuff flying in-front of my face wasn’t real I still managed to scream and flail my arms around wildly whilst at Terminator 3D at Universal Studios. How embarrassing.

Drivers don’t indicate. I’m pretty sure we were almost knocked down about 10 times. *shakes fist*

Cheese and Onion is not a crisp/chip flavour. How I craved thee Hunky Dory’s.

Chocolate is twice as expensive as fast food. 99c burgers, blergh!