h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm off to Brussels tomorrow for the weekend to see my brother and his wife. They've lived there for about 40 years now. No great plans for what I'll do while I'm there other than chat and drink some Belgian beer.

They live just across the road from the Stoclet Palace, a mansion built for an Austrian banker.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoclet_Palace

This looks interesting, but is not open to the public. It's owned by members of the Stoclet family who can't agree on what to do with it so it is just sitting there, empty. It's got lots of very fascist-looking bronze nude statues on it.

Enjoy the beer!

So, what is it about a bronze nude statue which makes it fascist? Is it the salute?

Fascist figure painting and sculpture is remarkably like Soviet and Maoist art, wouldn't you say? Stocky-heroic.

It's the standing up straight (I hesitate to use the word 'erect') staring into the distance pose. No lolling. Fascist figures are usually very well-muscled but have very short hair, unlike classical figures.

Vigeland's work in Frogner Park, Oslo has a similar feel to it.

My son was in Brussels a couple of weeks ago. Despite the situation there, he had a great time. Are they still on alert there?

A colleague of mine, who lives in Brussels, went to Antwerp to do her Christmas shopping, to avoid the crowds.

I never spent any time in Brussels - but we used to go to Antwerp or Liege all the time.

Antwerp's zoo is great - and there's the Rembrandt house. Liege has a fantastic Sunday morning market.

Forget the beer - go get a pannekoeken. With that awful coffee.

The closest I ever came to visiting Brussels was when I saw the film "In Bruges."

And this film.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064471/

Sorry, I didn't see that one....

I haven't seen it since I was knee high to a grasshopper. But I do remember it vaguely. I may have watched it with my great grandmother on the Late Show as she baby sat my sister and I. That's how I first saw both _It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World_ and _The Russian's Are Coming, The Russian's Are Coming_. Those two were on a New Years Eve, maybe 1972 or '73. My Great Grandmother insisted she was just resting her eyes. She didn't really like these films, she thought they were "silly".

I remember going to see "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" in the 60s. My father was very disappointed because he thought it was a Stanley Kubrick film and it turned out to be a Stanley Kramer film.

Because I was only 4, I had no idea what it was about. I remember something about four palm trees in the shape of a letter W but that's all.

From memory, it was a huge inheritance/scavenger hunt. The final prize was under the Big W. There were so many great comic actors and teams in that film.

My memory was erroneous. It was a hunt for loot sparked by the dying words of a thief.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057193/

Any film that had Spencer Tracy, Zasu Pitts, Ethel Merman, and Buster Keaton couldn't be all bad.

One of my co-workers once said that it was his favorite film. Certainly it had to have the most illustrious cast of all time.

Barrie Chase, Carl Reiner, Jerry lewis, Wayne Anderson, John Clarke, Nicholas Georgiade, and Marvin Kaplan seem to be the only cast members who are still alive. I know that may seem like a lot, but the cast list runs on for pages.

Charles Lane lived to be 102, but even he has passed away.

My main impression of Belgium for years was an endless motorway with awful yellow lighting that stretched from Brussels to the coast with about one service station or layby over the whole distance. Driving through there at night to get to the UK while the kids slept was an awful test of endurance. Nowhere to change drivers, nowhere to go to the loo.

Last time we did the journey, we passed Ypres on the way back (at least it was in daylight this time and no toddlers in the car). That was in 2014 and I so wanted to see a few of the famous places from WWI which would have had exhibitions and events going on. Somehow we missed it. The exit to Ypres/Ieper was blocked off with road works and the next exit didn't mention Ypres at all. Maybe in 2018 I'll find a way to get there.

Jeepers, creepers,
What have they done to Ypres?

Known to the troops at the time as Wipers.

http://youtu.be/HH9Kvv56AHw

That was a good film.

I'll never forget the first time I read the 'Wipers Times' - around 1971. I found an old, bound edition in the university library. You couldn't take it out of the building, so I grabbed a piece of floor and read the whole thing.

I swear when I got up again, I felt like I'd been there.