I finally got around to watching The Lives of Others, and I couldn't recommend it more. Based on the previews I thought it would be a pretty straightforward (and drab) political thriller, but like all really wonderful movies, it was more about what makes us human. I loved it. I was even more touched to learn that the idea for the movie came from music...specifically this Lenin quote:

"I know of nothing better than the Appassionata and could listen to it every day. What astonishing, superhuman music! It always makes me proud, perhaps naively so, to think that people can work such miracles!" Wrinkling up his eyes, Lenin smiled rather sadly, adding: "But I can't listen to music very often. It affects my nerves. I want to say sweet, silly things and pat the heads of people who, living in a filthy hell, can create such beauty. One can't pat anyone on the head nowadays, they might bite your hand off. They ought to be beaten on the head, beaten mercilessly, although ideally we are against doing any violence to people. Hm — what a hellishly difficult job!"

Poor Lenin should have been listening to more music and patting more heads.


Is it weird that I'm at my desk, working on my "virtual desk" for Dunder Mifflin Infinity? Either this is a huge waste of time or I just doubled my productivity.