the lives of others.....

ok, so...there is a german film nominated for the foreign language oscar that has just come out in the u.s......i say come out quite loosely, as it is not playing anywhere around here......despite the npr reviews and the fresh-air interview with the director....and the nytimes piece about it......the storyline goes something like this.....east german member of the secret police sets up a lsitening center in the attic of the apartment building where an artist and his actress girlfriend live.....every room is bugged, so that the police/listener guy can catch them saying something subversive toward the state.....crumbling state by this time (1984)....and the policeman becomes intrigued by the lives he overhears....and his life is changed by it despite his convictions that art is unncessary and dangerous.....in the fresh-air interview, the director said that it was not until he was filming that he discovered that the actor who played the policeman had lived in berlin during the time in question...and after the wall fell, he petitioned the secret police for his own file......some folks found it easier to move ahead and not find out who had betrayed them.....but this guy wanted to embrace those issues.....seems he was working at the time with at least 2 actors in his group at the time that were secret police plants- pretending to be actors to spy on him....but i digress from the lives of others.....spying on the artsy couple made this guy realize that he had no life of his own.....and that is so very sad......but even those of us who feel like we have a full life like to have our share of peeking in at the lives of others.....that is precisely why soap operas have held the fascinatiuon of so many for so long.....and why we like serial evening dramas.....like e.r..or c.s.i...(well-not me because i have never seen them) or grey's anatomy....(which i do not miss...) ....and that is why we so enjoy an exceptional novel- with characters that draw us in heart and soul.....as opposed to fiction that is easily put down......and i suppose this explains why it is so interesting to read the blogs of others.....i have looked in on the meanmama blog a few times this week.....we do have a few things in common.....she doesn't capitalize.....and she isn't as mean as the moniker implies...and she seems to be a free-thinking and thoughtful soul......on the other hand...she is a vegan....which i most certainly am not.....speaking of the lives of others....i went out to lunch yesterday with my eldest to catch up.....i had every intention to order a steak sandwich at j.beth cafe.....having studied the menu, but i ordered a glass of sauvignon blanc instinctively....and went on to enjoy the crab cakes over spinach salad.....which were delicious and far less caloric......i discussed the film with andrew......who would enjoy it for the german language as well as for the plot line.....after our lunch i drove back to d-ville to meet some dear friends for wine and savory treats.....to catch up on their lives.....thankfully we (collective) lead far less dramatic lives than those in the news, or those sad local folks we know to be going through rough patches.....and that is a relief- to find out that one's fabulous friends live just as quietly as you.......