Jews, Jeans & Jealousy

I had a natural but totally unecessary reaction of jealousy last night. For reasons known only to my seriously disturbed mind, I'd got it into my head that my gorgeous and utterly lovely girlfriend had decided that she was bored with me and would soon be on the look out for a new muscle bound lover who could bench press a football team into the ground. My imagination was ignited further when I remembered that she would be going climbing this evening with a colleague from work to try something different. One of the things I love about my girlfriend is that she's willing to try lots of new things in life, and I was happy for her...yet insanely jealous at the same time! It made no sense. There I was smiling on the outside, but concocting fantasies of lots of beefy muscly blokes that she'd meet at the venue who would no doubt check out the new bit of hot stuff entering their view. My imagination got worse when I started imagining her going for a drink with these studly gentleman after a long sweaty climb for a cool relaxing drink and chat in a nice cosy pub.

As you can see, my mind checked out of head early last night and ran off to write it's own dramatisation of something every person in a relationship is always secretly scared of - what if their partner decides to look elsewhere? Of course I made a stupid decision and initially didn't say a word about my raging irrational jealousy when we were enjoying a few drinks of our own in the pub. But my saavy girlfriend, being of superior intellect, knew something was up and gradually pulled the truth out of me.

Of course I felt like a total tit.

And it did kind of put a bit of a downer on the evening for a while. But then she reminded me of something that every person who's in a relationship they care about should remember. She told me that she had exactly the same worries about me when I go out doing things by myself with other people. She expertly continued to sooth my self-abused ego by telling me that even though she always had that worry at the back of her mind, she also trusted me.

By then I was feeling like a bigger tit than Jordan's entire chest.

After I stopped sulking and kicking myself (metaphorically speaking) in the head, my brain woke up and realised she was right. Sometimes you have to remember that whilst you're always going to feel slightly nervous about what the other half is up to socially when you're not around, if you truly care about that person, then you'll remember that it's their life too and you must learn to trust them.

I shouldn't complain. I'm a slow learner and I'm going out with someone who's ten times smarter than me when it comes to common sense, but I'll get there eventually.

Now about those Jews... (by the way if you're easily offended or always call people racist for making harmless fun at people then you're reading the wrong blog and should log off now)

My cinema is shortly due to play host to the annual UK Jewish Film Festival (playing 7th - 19th November. Book Tickets Now!). It's very popular and a great event. However the audience are notoriously difficult to please. Even if you've prepared everything perfectly, they will find something to complain about. But I'm not here to make fun of Jewish people (I spotted the ringer at the back just dying to jump on me and yell 'Anti-Semitic Pig!'). I'm here to raise a concern (we're not allowed to say 'complaint' anymore apparently) about the content of the festival itself.

If I was Jewish, I would be deeply embarrassed to attend a festival where over half of the films playing have something to do with the holocaust. It's as if the Jewish cultural identity can only be related to something terrible that happened over sixty years ago. Yes it was tragic, yes it was evil, yes it did not go down well with the world. But in the words of Bob Marley, the Jews need to chill out. I'm fairly certain that they have over two thousand years of history to draw on as well. Why concentrate on the same depressing few years?

No offence, but when we're in the depths of an economic recession where people are quite depressed anyway, do you really want to go and show them a film where the hero, his family and their pet labrador 'Rex' get burnt to death in the first five minutes? "Welcome to the Jewish Film Festival. We know you've had a tough day, so sit back and relax. Put your feet up and drink some wine whilst we entertain you with a delightful comic romp about 6 million people being horribly tortured and killed. No refunds available." Bravo.

Films can inform yes, but is it really necessary to hit people in the head about the same thing every year over and over again? Over the last sixty years millions of people worldwide have been tortured and massacred every day. Do I hear about them all the time?

Anyway, please come to the festival (playing 7th - 19th November. Book Tickets Now!) If it does really well, I look good with my boss and the company might give me a bonus at the end of the year! Watch and make up your own mind. If you think I'm wrong, then please let me know and I'll happily debate with you. (there are actually a few out and out comedies this year!)

And as for jeans? Well, I just put that in the title because it sounded good. I don't actually have anything to say about jeans at the moment apart from never buy from Primark.

Ps. For anyone dying to criticise my viewpoint as being highly racist or anti semitic I should probably point out that my girlfriend's part Jewish and she also thinks the festival should lighten up.

Me - 1 Jewish Film Festival - 0 (playing 7th -19th November, Book Tickets Now!)