Maifeiertag

Yesterday was May Day, a public holiday in many European countries, and contrary to what many Americans believe, it is not only a Communist holiday. In fact, it also commemorates an important event in Chicago history, the Haymarket Riots.

Since the kids had the day off and Spiderman 3 opened here on Maifeiertag, we went to the movies. Bob refused to go because the Cine-Star Theater was showing the movie only in Deutsch. We could have driven 20 kilometers to Nürnberg and seen it at a theater that shows films in their original language, but it's so much easier to go to the local theaters. I didn't have any problems understanding the movie, but I do have a problem with seeing familiar actors speaking in unfamiliar voices. Let me digress here and say the worse are the dubbed voices of Clint Eastwood and all of the Simpsons--they are not even close!

All movies and TV programs on German channels are dubbed. We have CNN in English, TV Monde in French, and MTV in English with Deutsch subtitles, but all the other channels are in German, regardless of the origins of the film or program. It's not a big surprise that Bob and I love visiting Przemko and Kristin, because the Belgians don't fool around with dubbing. They use subtitles!