Just amazing what some East German private libraries hold up to this day…
Singles@Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart tried to contractually force their employees to restrain themselves from falling in love with each other. And if it weren’t for the German unions and court system they would have got their way. But then again, what’s bad for their employees must not be bad for their business – see this advertisement for a “shopping for singles” event at the local Wal-Mart.
Interestingly, their singles shopping seems to be rather popuplar – at least in theory. Two out of two people I told about this answered that they had not only heard about it, but that they actually wanted to see what it’s like at some point.
Good products solve problems. Good stores should, too. I think it is truly impressive how one private hierarchy (aka company) can be such a ideal-type display of all things good *and* abysmal about a market economy.
Clicking the image will take you to my flickr account. The picture was taken with a SE t610.
25.
Paul McCartney never really recovered musically from his divorce from John. I’m not saying John could not have benefitted from Paul after the Beatles split, but still, I think his solo music was more mature than McCartney’s, probably to this day. My favorite is “Woman” –
Woman I know you understand
The little child inside the man,
Please remember my life is in your hands,
And woman hold me close to your heart,
However, distant don’t keep us apart,
After all it is written in the stars,
oooh well, well,
oooh well, well,
So let’s use this day to remember one of last century’s most important artists – John Lennon – who was murdered on December 8, 1980. Not only the good die young, but when they do, it is even more tragic. From Wikipedia –
In the late afternoon of December 8, 1980, in New York City, deranged fan Mark David Chapman met Lennon as he left for the recording studio and got his copy of Double Fantasy autographed; the event of Lennon signing one of his last autographs was caught by a photographer who witnessed this goodwill gesture. Chapman remained in the vicinity of The Dakota for most of the day as a fireworks demonstration in nearby Central Park distracted the doorman and passers-by.
Later that evening, Lennon and Ono returned to their apartment from recording Ono’s single “Walking on Thin Ice” for their next album. At 10.50pm, their limousine pulled up to the entrance of the Dakota. Ono got out of the car first, followed by Lennon. Beyond the main entrance was a door which would be opened and a small set of stairs leading into the apartment complex. As Ono went in, Lennon got out of the car and glanced at Chapman, proceeding on through the entrance to the Dakota.
As Lennon walked past him, Chapman called out “Mr. Lennon.” As Lennon turned, Chapman crouched into what witnesses called a “combat” stance and fired five hollowpoint bullets. One bullet missed, but four bullets entered John’s back and shoulder. One of the four bullets fatally pierced his aorta. Still, Lennon managed to stagger up six steps into the concierge booth where he collapsed, gasping “I’m shot, I’m shot.”
Chapman stood there, holding his .38 Charter Arms revolver, which was pulled out of his hands and kicked away by Jose Perdomo who then asked “What have you done, what have you done?”, to which Chapman replied “I just shot John Lennon.” Chapman then calmly took his coat off, placed it at his feet, took out a a copy of J.D. Salinger’s novel, The Catcher in the Rye, and started reading.
Police arrived within minutes, to find Chapman still waiting quietly outside, still reading the book.
Riots in Paris
When my car’s windows were smashed twice during the world cup in 1998, when I was living in 10th Arrondissement, I had my car repaired in a garage in Clichy.
I actually lived in a Banlieue for a couple of months before moving to the city . But “92”, or Val d’Oise, wasn’t what most people would expect a Banlieue to be like, maybe except for the mall, for the life that revolved around the local Auchan.
Still, today, seeing pictures from St. Denis, I am just as much at a loss of comprehension as most commentators who just open their drawers and recompile some standard arguments about economic problems, immigrant societies, and religious clashes. But in the end, all this is really just a lack of understanding.
Last night, the first cars were allegedly burnt in Berlin and Brussels. It suddenly looks like we do have a common European public sphere. And possibly a common European social model, all differences notwithstanding.
At this point, I don’t know what all this means. In France, the position of Mr Sarkozy is very much at stake. But what if he were to step down? A Presidential hopeful brought down by angry youth? It would probably be a new Europe thereafter.
By the way…
Humphrey Bogart was really miscast in “Sabrina” (1955). I think Harrison Ford is clearly better as Linus Larabee in the 1994 remake. I’m sorry for Julia Ormond though. She’s seriously cute – but did she ever have a fighting chance against Audrey Hepburn? I don’t think so.
Still, on balance, I’d say the remake is better than the original, which is quite unusual. Watch it now, if you’re in Germany, understand German, and receive BR3 (31/10/05, Bayerisches Fernsehen, 23:05).
Dick Cheney’s a surfer!
Dick Cheney is probably a much cooler guy than you thought he is. After a hard day’s work of conspiring with his freshly indicted former Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the man still has time and energy for a jam session with the legendary surf music band “The Surfaris”. Well, one of the two bands using the name, each featuring one member of the original band’s cast (info from surfkraft.de)
Alright, maybe it’s not really Cheney. It could also be Paul Johnson, a surf music veteran, who is, along with Dick Dale, one of the genre’s principal founders and pioneers. At least that’s what his introduction was on stage, and that is also what’s written in the biographical part of the band’s website. He is also credited with the first record to be tagged as “surf music” – Mr. Moto, back in 1962. I wonder if Motorola’s ad agency thought about this when they created their latest campaign… (“hello Moto?”)
As part of their current European tour, the Surfaris stopped in Wiesbaden yesterday. And someone else did too. Standing behind the guy pictured on the left I somehow couldn’t stop thinking about the song Eric Bazilian wrote for Joan Osborne – “What if God was one was of us?“
One equals, ahm, not quite one.
From O2music Germany’s portal FAQs – question: “what’s CD quality?” Answer: “CD quality implies that the sound quality of music bought [through this service] is almost identical to the quality of a CD bought in a record store”.
No kidding.
Was versteht man unter CD-Qualität?
Unter CD-Qualität versteht man, dass die Tonqualität der Musik, die Sie kaufen und herunterladen, nahezu identisch ist mit der Qualität einer Kauf-CD.
Handy History
Xonio.de presents the history of the cell phone, a story in 63 pictures. From 1983 to today. Interesting. As they restricted themselves to those portable phones, which are actually handy, so you won’t find trunk shaped objects in the gallery.
A Riddle?
Since I mentioned the relative size of the German an French Blogospheres below, here’s another interesting fact about relative sizes: If you look at
Wikipedia’s main page, you will notice that, using an article per capita measure, the German part of the free encyclopedia is holding up very well not just in comparison to the Anglosphere challenge but also with respect to our French friends (about 1.3 times).
Assuming for the moment that both blogging and writing for Wikipedia means participating in some kind of digital civil society, do the different relative sizes of the respective elements thereof tell us something about the people behind the ventures?
Could it be that Germans are more interested in participating in something with a more authoritative, slightly more hierarchical, aura than the blogosphere, where the laws of information markets determine reputation, pseudo-link-list-authority, success and failure and everything is very much evolutionary, sometimes even in the short run? Could it be that the French are displaying an unknown taste for the said market forces?
I’m not sure, but it seems, just as contemporary forms of dating have apaprently enabled social scientists to gain a new level of understanding concerning the rules determining human mating ( you may not like it ;) – from Zeit Wissen, in German), mass participation in the digital public discourse could provide previously impossible insights into national discoursive preferences.
What do you think.
Neo-Con-lonialism?
Apparently, contrary to all the usual alligations, America seems to be far less colonilist than expected. Due to my sister’s imminent departure for the Afghan city of Herat I just checked the travel guidelines for said country. And surprisingly, four years after the fall of the Taliban, and three years after the NeoCon-Likud conspiracy theories became a household theory for the explanation of all kinds of wars with American participation, the Republic of Afghanistan’s travel regulations still require that no Israeli stamp be present in the passport of a person desiring a visum to enter the country. Seriously (in German).