Another guest blog today! (One can see, the soccer world championship is getting closer)
"The upcoming world championship reminds me of the 1974 championship. This is a journey into the past, when I grew up. So many things have changed ...
What did not change is the weather. The 1974 tournament was characterized by heavy rain, especially during Germany vs. Sweden (4:2), which is remembered as the "Regenschlacht im Duesseldorfer Rheinstadion", and Germany vs. Poland (1:0), remembered as the "Wasserschlacht im Frankfurter Waldstadion". Lately, I bought Germany vs. Sweden on DVD, and I can tell: The players were listening to the national hymns and looked as if they were coming directly from the showers!
Three days later, it was even worse. At the regular beginning, the referee had a look at the field and simply said "No". This was the moment when Frankfurt firemen and their desperate attempts to get the water off the field became a part of the history of football. Sorry for the strong Polish team: They had some more problems with the water on the ground still remaining ... and with German goalie Sepp Maier making his lifetime match in the pouring rain.
And now ? Today, we had snow in some areas of Germany. And not only on the top of the mountains"!
Stevie
5/31/2006
5/20/2006
Eurovision Song Contest today
When I heard the song for the first time, I thought this is just terribly bad music and the lyrics are even worse. The second time I said, nobody can be that bad and suspected the song was a joke. You can listen to it here, it's the yellow-red-green-striped flag. The lyrics are, roughly, "We are the winners, we are, we are ..." (with the variation: "we are the winners of Eurovision") - about 2o times, and the "so you gotta vote for the winners". The complete lyrics are here.
But they made it to the semifinals, so who knows?
Oikotimes writes about this letter they sent to the radio stations: "We kindly ask any radio or TV station which is currently broadcasting our song "We Are The Winners" to withdraw it from the playlist completely until 22nd of May. The band feels that airplay of the track before the Eurovision song contest causes damage to the efficiency of our forthcoming performance in Athens. This has something to do with the concept of the song – the "winners" anthem should not be overplayed because it was conceived as a fresh surprise to the ESC audience, in the first place. Thank you for your understanding. With love from Lithuania,"LT United".
Now that's at least a congenial and sympathetic streak ...
phronesisaical quotes the Lithuanian humor-meisters: “We always knew we’d perform in the contest one day,” said Lithuanian group LT United. “We’ve been watching the Eurovision Song Contest since about 1977. We’re old – we’re like 63 years old. We’re just very good looking.”
But there's strong competition: Lordi from Finland, a heavy metal band with scary masks whose lead singer wears a chain-saw shocks the Finns."Lord have mercy on us Finnish people now," said Father Mitro Repo, a clergyman in Helsinki.
At least they bring some diversion to this otherwise rather dull event. By the way, favorites are, according to the betting shops,Greece, France, Slovenia, Spain and Great Britain. And Germany is catching up!
Here's the oddschecker
in case anyone should want to place a bet. Yesterday, their odds at sportingbets were 80/1, now it's 50/1.
The official site of the Eurovision song contest.
But they made it to the semifinals, so who knows?
Oikotimes writes about this letter they sent to the radio stations: "We kindly ask any radio or TV station which is currently broadcasting our song "We Are The Winners" to withdraw it from the playlist completely until 22nd of May. The band feels that airplay of the track before the Eurovision song contest causes damage to the efficiency of our forthcoming performance in Athens. This has something to do with the concept of the song – the "winners" anthem should not be overplayed because it was conceived as a fresh surprise to the ESC audience, in the first place. Thank you for your understanding. With love from Lithuania,"LT United".
Now that's at least a congenial and sympathetic streak ...
phronesisaical quotes the Lithuanian humor-meisters: “We always knew we’d perform in the contest one day,” said Lithuanian group LT United. “We’ve been watching the Eurovision Song Contest since about 1977. We’re old – we’re like 63 years old. We’re just very good looking.”
But there's strong competition: Lordi from Finland, a heavy metal band with scary masks whose lead singer wears a chain-saw shocks the Finns."Lord have mercy on us Finnish people now," said Father Mitro Repo, a clergyman in Helsinki.
At least they bring some diversion to this otherwise rather dull event. By the way, favorites are, according to the betting shops,Greece, France, Slovenia, Spain and Great Britain. And Germany is catching up!
Here's the oddschecker
in case anyone should want to place a bet. Yesterday, their odds at sportingbets were 80/1, now it's 50/1.
The official site of the Eurovision song contest.
5/19/2006
Belle and Sebastian in Concert
Last week we went to see Belle & Sebastian in Koeln - the fourth time to experience them live, after Haldern, Hamburg, and London. Although there are some reservations as regards their latest album "The Life Pursuit" (with exceptions, though: I love "Another sunny day", "For the price of a cup of tea" and "To be myself completely") - and they did play several songs of this one as they are promoting the album on their tour - their performance was great! There were lots of the old songs - classics already - such as "The State I'm in", "Dog on Wheels", "The Loneliness of the Middle Distance Runner", and, of course, "The Boy with the Arab Strap", and more. The new album is certainly directed at a young audience with lots of "dancing-songs".
IMO, their success comes not only from making real good music and quite original lyrics, but from the fact that they are absolutely creative, inventive and very very prolific and, obviously one of the big exceptions in a "century of fakers" (also one of their songs, by the way from the album "Push barman to open old wounds). Additionally, they're still very much"indy" and anti-commerce. They have a small stall of t-shirts and artifacts, but everything is very relaxed, rather un-businesslike, and you can't get half of the things, such as the cool brown sweater I wanted to bargain ... sigh.
Stuart Murdoch, the band's leader is constantly improving his qualities as a showmaster and seems to have overcome his original shyness. The other band members are more in the background, as always.
IMO, their success comes not only from making real good music and quite original lyrics, but from the fact that they are absolutely creative, inventive and very very prolific and, obviously one of the big exceptions in a "century of fakers" (also one of their songs, by the way from the album "Push barman to open old wounds). Additionally, they're still very much"indy" and anti-commerce. They have a small stall of t-shirts and artifacts, but everything is very relaxed, rather un-businesslike, and you can't get half of the things, such as the cool brown sweater I wanted to bargain ... sigh.
Stuart Murdoch, the band's leader is constantly improving his qualities as a showmaster and seems to have overcome his original shyness. The other band members are more in the background, as always.
5/14/2006
Guest Blog: Bikes and Cycling, by Stevie
There's a Guest blogger today, Stevie.
"First of all, I have to say that "sport" means cycling to me, at least if we are not talking about watching it on TV. I enjoy being outside, seeing the country, feeling the wind and the weather. That's why I decided to buy a new racing bike a few months ago. And when the bike finally was delivered, I have to say that it's nothing less than a biker's dream ! It's a Droessiger Alu Lite, black, with a Shimano 105 group. o.K., o.K., you can even spend more money by buying a full carbon frame and an Ultegra or a Dura Ace group. But the Black Lady I got for my money was worth every single cent. No, I don't get any money by Droessiger, I don't ... But I can now understand some musicians and their emotional attitude regarding their guitars ..."
And isn't she beautiful, the black lady?
"First of all, I have to say that "sport" means cycling to me, at least if we are not talking about watching it on TV. I enjoy being outside, seeing the country, feeling the wind and the weather. That's why I decided to buy a new racing bike a few months ago. And when the bike finally was delivered, I have to say that it's nothing less than a biker's dream ! It's a Droessiger Alu Lite, black, with a Shimano 105 group. o.K., o.K., you can even spend more money by buying a full carbon frame and an Ultegra or a Dura Ace group. But the Black Lady I got for my money was worth every single cent. No, I don't get any money by Droessiger, I don't ... But I can now understand some musicians and their emotional attitude regarding their guitars ..."
And isn't she beautiful, the black lady?
5/08/2006
Flickr Leech
I really love Flickr Leech. I tried it out in the search option with "church" and "cats", and of course, my own photos, all of them on one page, and then with "Ireland". Very nice.
5/07/2006
In whom we trust
Media or government?
More people around the world trust the media than trust their governments, according to an international poll.
In a survey of 9,000 people in each of nine countries, 61% had "a lot" or "some" trust in the media, compared to 52% for governments.
Support for the media was highest in Nigeria, India and Indonesia.
In the US, UK and Germany, there was greater trust in the government than there was in the media.
Read more ..
Here's a nice presentation of the data!
The full poll results.
Austria was not in the sample, but I'd like to think that unlike the Germans they would have more trust in the media. But not in the Austrian media, hopefully, or only in the few "quality" newspapers, or in international quality media.
Interestingly, the poll says that "Germans appear to be exceptionally enthusiastic consumers of news, with 80 percent following the news every day and 91 preferring to check several sources for their news". Wow!
And the younger people get their news from the internet, everywhere.
More people around the world trust the media than trust their governments, according to an international poll.
In a survey of 9,000 people in each of nine countries, 61% had "a lot" or "some" trust in the media, compared to 52% for governments.
Support for the media was highest in Nigeria, India and Indonesia.
In the US, UK and Germany, there was greater trust in the government than there was in the media.
Read more ..
Here's a nice presentation of the data!
The full poll results.
Austria was not in the sample, but I'd like to think that unlike the Germans they would have more trust in the media. But not in the Austrian media, hopefully, or only in the few "quality" newspapers, or in international quality media.
Interestingly, the poll says that "Germans appear to be exceptionally enthusiastic consumers of news, with 80 percent following the news every day and 91 preferring to check several sources for their news". Wow!
And the younger people get their news from the internet, everywhere.
5/06/2006
Magazines on European issues
I don't seem to be able to find much intelligent political/societal/cultural magazine/essay writing in the internet that also puts some weight on European issues and doesn't focus entirely on America.
Okay, there is Telepolis, which is great (and it certainly has the best media theory, internet and communications section), but it's mostly in German, with a few exceptions, then there's Prospect, but you have to have a subscription for some of the articles, and Sign and Sight, which I also read a lot. And that's it. Or is it not?
In any case, should anyone reading this know of interesting magazines, please let me know!
However, yesterday I discovered TCS Daily which has some interesting articles, e.g. the "Worker's Paradise" by Gareth Harding, on the fear of the "established" EU-members of the Eastern European working force swamping their countries.
Okay, there is Telepolis, which is great (and it certainly has the best media theory, internet and communications section), but it's mostly in German, with a few exceptions, then there's Prospect, but you have to have a subscription for some of the articles, and Sign and Sight, which I also read a lot. And that's it. Or is it not?
In any case, should anyone reading this know of interesting magazines, please let me know!
However, yesterday I discovered TCS Daily which has some interesting articles, e.g. the "Worker's Paradise" by Gareth Harding, on the fear of the "established" EU-members of the Eastern European working force swamping their countries.
5/05/2006
Caspar David Friedrich
The Caspar David Friedrich Exhibition "The Invention of Romanticism" opened today in Essen, Germany.
I love the picture Kreidefelsen auf Ruegen, especially because we enjoyed the same view almost two years ago when going there for our holidays. Sadly enough, the chalk cliffs as seen in the picture fell down last year. Fortunately, this painting exists.
Ah, and the Sea of Ice!
Quote by CDF:
"The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him."
More on C.D.Friedrich
So much desolation and isolation, and so much beauty.
I love the picture Kreidefelsen auf Ruegen, especially because we enjoyed the same view almost two years ago when going there for our holidays. Sadly enough, the chalk cliffs as seen in the picture fell down last year. Fortunately, this painting exists.
Ah, and the Sea of Ice!
Quote by CDF:
"The painter should paint not only what he has in front of him, but also what he sees inside himself. If he sees nothing within, then he should stop painting what is in front of him."
More on C.D.Friedrich
So much desolation and isolation, and so much beauty.
World Vote
A new group/initiative: The World Vote Field test. They plan to hold a global and simultaneous online voting day on May, 15.
Even the field test, done in parts of Africa (Senegal, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo) tells a lot about those countries. I'll watch this.
Even the field test, done in parts of Africa (Senegal, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo) tells a lot about those countries. I'll watch this.
5/01/2006
John McGahern's funeral
John Naughton has a remarkable account of John McGahern's funeral.
John McGahern who is said to be the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett died on March 30, 2006.
Although he originally had wanted to become a priest his urge to write was stronger. He wrote: “Instead of being a priest of God I would be a god of a small vivid world.”
So far, I've only read The Barracks, a marvellously written piece of contrasting warm and chilly aspects both of the landscape and the people.
Read: Remembering John McGahern, by Bob Minzesheimer who took a course on Irish literature taught by McGahern.
Links:
TheTimesObituary
Wikipedia on McGahern
Obituary in the Guardian by Richard Pine
John McGahern who is said to be the most important Irish novelist since Samuel Beckett died on March 30, 2006.
Although he originally had wanted to become a priest his urge to write was stronger. He wrote: “Instead of being a priest of God I would be a god of a small vivid world.”
So far, I've only read The Barracks, a marvellously written piece of contrasting warm and chilly aspects both of the landscape and the people.
Read: Remembering John McGahern, by Bob Minzesheimer who took a course on Irish literature taught by McGahern.
Links:
TheTimesObituary
Wikipedia on McGahern
Obituary in the Guardian by Richard Pine
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