Friday, October 20, 2006

Americana

Lately I've become more and more impressed by how much American culture the UK has imported. As you'd expect, there's a McDonald's in the center of town doing great business, and Starbucks has a strong presence -- though a few other coffeeshop chains are giving them a run for their money. Beyond that, every student seems to watch South Park, CSI, or 24 (really, it's a lot like IU).

I would just credit this to globalization, but the entertainment trade is imbalanced. For example, a film called The Queen opened here recently. It's about the royal family's (delayed) reaction to Princess Diana's death, and by all accounts it's quite good -- unfortunately I haven't seen it yet. It's playing in the US, but only in the major cities (as far as I can tell from a little Googling). Now, I was in a small town called Leamington Spa about two weeks ago, and their cinema was showing Adam Sandler's latest comedy.

So I'm wondering, are France and Spain like this at all? Is it maybe just easier for the British to take in American films and TV because they don't have a language barrier?

Cheers,
Joe

3 Comments:

Blogger Atom Mechanic said...

Important question: is there an equivalent of Mother Bear's, and are there any Indian restaurants?

10/23/2006 2:10 AM  
Blogger Joe said...

I really don't know, since I haven't eaten out much due to the prices. I've heard there's a place called Pizza Express which is good but a little expensive (so it sounds like Mother Bear's, but with a confusingly familiar name). There are a lot of Indian restaurants scattered around, but I haven't tried any of them.

10/23/2006 8:38 PM  
Blogger Eaglie said...

"Impressed by how much American culture?" Is that really the wording you're looking for?

10/26/2006 4:23 AM  

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