I don't know this guy very well, but man, was he right. This is from March 2008!
Here's another one.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Nina Hagen: Auf'm Rummel
Update: I decided to make it myself:
Update: She was born in 1955. I can't believe she was barely twenty when she did her groundbreaking work in the seventies. Isn't it amazing how in music, very young people can be very mature artists?
Update: examples: Sirena Huang and Jennifer Lin.
Nina Hagen: Auf'm Rummel
Appears on the album Unbehagen (1979).
wir standen auf'm rummel in treptow
tranken auf die schnelle mal 'n kuehles bier
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer, ich bin 'n kavalier
leute, ich gebe 'n korn aus
und wir tranken das bier und den korn aus
fuhren noch mal schnell mit der gespensterbahn
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer: die minelli is hier
hey lasst uns sehn ob es wahr ist
aber nichts hat gestimmt, denn da stand nur
nina hagen, da is nix dabei
eigentilich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer: vorne spielt 'ne band
hey lasst und sehn und mal gehn
geh ick nu oder blieb ick nu
irgendwie muss man was tun
geh ick nu oder blieb ick nu
oder wer weess wat
what i can do
die band brachte grad nen jethro tull hit
die spielten so mies, mann, da stimmte kein ton
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer: ich gebe
bei mir im garten eine fete
und wir fuhren mit der s-bahn nach dahlem
wir sassen dann rum und wir hoerten musik
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hauses
da sangte einer: hier is nix los, eij,
hier is absolut nix los
---
Suddenly I love this song which I've known for thirty years. Here's the text.
I'm not sure it's correct, I thought "I" in German was "ich", not "ick".
AB informs: "ick" is Berlinisch
Through The Lens points to Nina singing a Shiva song.
Personally I'm hesitant about mixing my beliefs with my art, it's really too different things and your belief are not relevant to your audience.
---
We're standing around the carnival in Treptow
Drinking a quick cool beer
Lemme buy you all a shot of Schnapps.
And we finish off the beer and the Schnapps
Take one more fast ride in the chamber of horrors.
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says: Minelli's here
Hey, let's see if it's for real.
But it was all a bum steer,
Only Nina Hagen, nothin' happenin'
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says: a band's playing up front,
Hey, let's go over and give a listen.
Like I should go, or should I stay
I mean, you gotta do somethin'
Should I go, or should I stay
Or who knows what
What I can do.
The band was just doing a Jethro Tull hit
They played so rotten, man, not one sound was right
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says, c'mon over to my place,
I'm throwing a garden fete.
And we take the s-bahn out to Dahlem,
Sit around listening to music.
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says: ain't nothin' happenin' here, nah,
Ain't absolutely nothin' happenin' here.
Update: She was born in 1955. I can't believe she was barely twenty when she did her groundbreaking work in the seventies. Isn't it amazing how in music, very young people can be very mature artists?
Update: examples: Sirena Huang and Jennifer Lin.
Nina Hagen: Auf'm Rummel
Appears on the album Unbehagen (1979).
wir standen auf'm rummel in treptow
tranken auf die schnelle mal 'n kuehles bier
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer, ich bin 'n kavalier
leute, ich gebe 'n korn aus
und wir tranken das bier und den korn aus
fuhren noch mal schnell mit der gespensterbahn
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer: die minelli is hier
hey lasst uns sehn ob es wahr ist
aber nichts hat gestimmt, denn da stand nur
nina hagen, da is nix dabei
eigentilich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer: vorne spielt 'ne band
hey lasst und sehn und mal gehn
geh ick nu oder blieb ick nu
irgendwie muss man was tun
geh ick nu oder blieb ick nu
oder wer weess wat
what i can do
die band brachte grad nen jethro tull hit
die spielten so mies, mann, da stimmte kein ton
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hause
da sagte einer: ich gebe
bei mir im garten eine fete
und wir fuhren mit der s-bahn nach dahlem
wir sassen dann rum und wir hoerten musik
eigentlich wollt ich laengst nach hauses
da sangte einer: hier is nix los, eij,
hier is absolut nix los
---
Suddenly I love this song which I've known for thirty years. Here's the text.
I'm not sure it's correct, I thought "I" in German was "ich", not "ick".
AB informs: "ick" is Berlinisch
Through The Lens points to Nina singing a Shiva song.
Personally I'm hesitant about mixing my beliefs with my art, it's really too different things and your belief are not relevant to your audience.
---
We're standing around the carnival in Treptow
Drinking a quick cool beer
Lemme buy you all a shot of Schnapps.
And we finish off the beer and the Schnapps
Take one more fast ride in the chamber of horrors.
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says: Minelli's here
Hey, let's see if it's for real.
But it was all a bum steer,
Only Nina Hagen, nothin' happenin'
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says: a band's playing up front,
Hey, let's go over and give a listen.
Like I should go, or should I stay
I mean, you gotta do somethin'
Should I go, or should I stay
Or who knows what
What I can do.
The band was just doing a Jethro Tull hit
They played so rotten, man, not one sound was right
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says, c'mon over to my place,
I'm throwing a garden fete.
And we take the s-bahn out to Dahlem,
Sit around listening to music.
Actually I wanted to head home long ago
When somebody says: ain't nothin' happenin' here, nah,
Ain't absolutely nothin' happenin' here.
Long Bets site
Long Bets site. I think it's encouraging that somebody is trying to think further than this week.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Great Britain
I've just watched Bill Bryson's TV documentary about the UK, named "Notes From A Small Island" after his book.
One of the points he makes, which applies to most of Northern Europe as well, is that there is precious little dangerous nature here, unlike most of the world including the US. For example we don't get weather like this. (Interestingly, minus 40 degrees is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius, I don't know how that happened.) And we don't get really hot summers either. I love it.
A thing I noticed during the multi-hour show was that everything interesting or impressive he had to tell about Great Britain happened centuries or decades in the past. Almost everything he mentioned, he then ended up by saying: "but in the past few decades, this has been disappearing" or words to that effect. I don't think amongst all of the many places he visited there was a single growth area. How can such a great nation with traditionally a disproportionate number of great minds in science and arts just taper off like this? It's odd.
Maybe an exception was central London, though that was mentioned for sort of negative reasons: people who grew up there can't afford to live there now. For some areas, apparently even people who earn a quarter million pounds ($0.4M) per year can't afford to live there, because the house prices are driven up by people earning millions per year. (In my native Denmark nobody is poor, but virtually nobody earns more than a quarter million pounds per year, I think.) This kind of situation must be artificial, it seems so weird. There's no way a modest-sized house can be worth ten million pounds, or an executive can be worth a bonus of such a sum.
One of the points he makes, which applies to most of Northern Europe as well, is that there is precious little dangerous nature here, unlike most of the world including the US. For example we don't get weather like this. (Interestingly, minus 40 degrees is the same in Fahrenheit and Celsius, I don't know how that happened.) And we don't get really hot summers either. I love it.
A thing I noticed during the multi-hour show was that everything interesting or impressive he had to tell about Great Britain happened centuries or decades in the past. Almost everything he mentioned, he then ended up by saying: "but in the past few decades, this has been disappearing" or words to that effect. I don't think amongst all of the many places he visited there was a single growth area. How can such a great nation with traditionally a disproportionate number of great minds in science and arts just taper off like this? It's odd.
Maybe an exception was central London, though that was mentioned for sort of negative reasons: people who grew up there can't afford to live there now. For some areas, apparently even people who earn a quarter million pounds ($0.4M) per year can't afford to live there, because the house prices are driven up by people earning millions per year. (In my native Denmark nobody is poor, but virtually nobody earns more than a quarter million pounds per year, I think.) This kind of situation must be artificial, it seems so weird. There's no way a modest-sized house can be worth ten million pounds, or an executive can be worth a bonus of such a sum.
Answering mails (updated)
I've blogged about this before, so feel free to ignore. I just had an added thought.
A friend of mine had talked about how I often answer emails with just one sentence. I asked why that was so remarkable. She said:
[it's interesting] because the one-sentence is a nice compromise between answering in detail to a message (that takes a lot of time) and not answering at all (that happens when one has answered in detail to too many messages and doesn't have time left). If one does not answer, the messages are there waiting, it is uncomfortable.
I have often marvelled at how many people are apparently *not* uncomfortable with having unanswered emails. Many people (most?) seem quite happy to let their in-box be perpetually full. And to never actually answer many mails. I don't get it, I want to ask them: there's a mail sitting there from a friend or a customer. And apparently you make a conscious (?) decision to delete it without answering it... what's going through your head at that moment? "This person is not important." ? "This mail is not important." ? "I'm too busy for that one." ? "I'm sure he/she will understand if he/she never hears back from me." ?
You just hit the delete button without thinking at all?
Another friend of mine once said that when his inbox has built up to great proportions, he just deletes it all in a fit. I wonder if that is common. To me it seems like letting the mess in your living room pile up until every half year you just empty it all into a garbage container without sorting it at all.
I may finally have gotten the answer after 13 years on the Net:
Anikó said:
I have been a not-always-answering person for long. Actually, it changed not long ago.
It's about how the mind works. You don't have to make the conscious mean choice not to answer. You just have to read the message and think: I will answer later. That gives you the good feeling of being a good and reliable person, and you don't think about it. And then, next time you open the mailbox, there are new and urgent things to read and answer, and you don't go back. Then the unanswered letter gets to the second page of your mailbox, so you don't see it anymore when you open your mail. And through the rules of geological stratification, it gets lower and lower and you never reply to it.
Maybe at a certain point, some moths later, you clean the whole thing. Then you may see it, but it is too late anyway. A slight feeling of guilt seizes you, but not for long: life goes on !
[Also: if it's been weeks and nothing happened, maybe it was not that important after all... -Eolake]
So, this is how I see the process.
To my defense, I don't think I left too many e-mail messages unanswered... But some, yes. And, from the time life was through real letters, I left quite a few letters unanswered. This was part of my cleaning this december: I went trough my mail and answered all of them. Some I received 10 years ago. Just a post-card in an envelop, wishing happy new year, giving my new address, saying sorry for not having answered, but wanting to keep in touch. More than 20 postcards. Felt good !
Actually it is not long ago I realized that if I don't answer to a not very important or unexpected e-mail right when I read it, then I will probably never. Without any bad intention. So I set myself a rule that if I want to answer, I have to do it right on the spot. because now I know that if I say to myself : I will answer later, it actually means I will never answer. And that's a serious decision!
A friend of mine had talked about how I often answer emails with just one sentence. I asked why that was so remarkable. She said:
[it's interesting] because the one-sentence is a nice compromise between answering in detail to a message (that takes a lot of time) and not answering at all (that happens when one has answered in detail to too many messages and doesn't have time left). If one does not answer, the messages are there waiting, it is uncomfortable.
I have often marvelled at how many people are apparently *not* uncomfortable with having unanswered emails. Many people (most?) seem quite happy to let their in-box be perpetually full. And to never actually answer many mails. I don't get it, I want to ask them: there's a mail sitting there from a friend or a customer. And apparently you make a conscious (?) decision to delete it without answering it... what's going through your head at that moment? "This person is not important." ? "This mail is not important." ? "I'm too busy for that one." ? "I'm sure he/she will understand if he/she never hears back from me." ?
You just hit the delete button without thinking at all?
Another friend of mine once said that when his inbox has built up to great proportions, he just deletes it all in a fit. I wonder if that is common. To me it seems like letting the mess in your living room pile up until every half year you just empty it all into a garbage container without sorting it at all.
I may finally have gotten the answer after 13 years on the Net:
Anikó said:
I have been a not-always-answering person for long. Actually, it changed not long ago.
It's about how the mind works. You don't have to make the conscious mean choice not to answer. You just have to read the message and think: I will answer later. That gives you the good feeling of being a good and reliable person, and you don't think about it. And then, next time you open the mailbox, there are new and urgent things to read and answer, and you don't go back. Then the unanswered letter gets to the second page of your mailbox, so you don't see it anymore when you open your mail. And through the rules of geological stratification, it gets lower and lower and you never reply to it.
Maybe at a certain point, some moths later, you clean the whole thing. Then you may see it, but it is too late anyway. A slight feeling of guilt seizes you, but not for long: life goes on !
[Also: if it's been weeks and nothing happened, maybe it was not that important after all... -Eolake]
So, this is how I see the process.
To my defense, I don't think I left too many e-mail messages unanswered... But some, yes. And, from the time life was through real letters, I left quite a few letters unanswered. This was part of my cleaning this december: I went trough my mail and answered all of them. Some I received 10 years ago. Just a post-card in an envelop, wishing happy new year, giving my new address, saying sorry for not having answered, but wanting to keep in touch. More than 20 postcards. Felt good !
Actually it is not long ago I realized that if I don't answer to a not very important or unexpected e-mail right when I read it, then I will probably never. Without any bad intention. So I set myself a rule that if I want to answer, I have to do it right on the spot. because now I know that if I say to myself : I will answer later, it actually means I will never answer. And that's a serious decision!
Papercut
I admire people with patience, I have so little of it myself. I've made many works of art in my life, but very few of them took over half day to make.
Peter Callesen (oh, he is Danish) also makes large papercuts.
(I can't seem to make a direct link. Click on "large scale papercuts" on the left.)
One wouldn't imagine it would be the same man who would make bizarre and funny performances.
Peter Callesen (oh, he is Danish) also makes large papercuts.
(I can't seem to make a direct link. Click on "large scale papercuts" on the left.)
One wouldn't imagine it would be the same man who would make bizarre and funny performances.
Snow congregation
"You're probably wondering why I've asked you all to come here today."
The quote above is from an old Peanuts strip where Linus builds a whole bunch of small snowmen and then steps in front of them and says just that.
The quote above is from an old Peanuts strip where Linus builds a whole bunch of small snowmen and then steps in front of them and says just that.
Williamson's tunnels
Williamson's tunnels. One man in the 1800s funded the building of an extensive network of tunnels under Liverpool, for no good reason, they mostly lead nowhere, except it was found after his death that he had access to the basements of a lot of mansions in one street. It's nuts, gotta love it.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Subnormality comic
I've bitched before about the quality of the "art" of many web comics. Well, here's one which is nicely drawn, and sometimes funny too.
Also kudos to him for publishing the comics in a decent size. Most graphics on the web seem to assume that we all still have 15-inch monitors.
Also kudos to him for publishing the comics in a decent size. Most graphics on the web seem to assume that we all still have 15-inch monitors.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Clint's best weekend yet
"LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Clint Eastwood set a new personal best at the North American box office on Sunday as " Gran Torino " sped to No. 1, hoping to grab the attention of Oscar voters a day before nominations ballots are due. The light drama, in which the 78-year-old actor/director plays a grumpy old man who takes on some neighborhood thugs Dirty Harry-style, earned $29 million during the three days beginning Friday, distributor Warner Bros . Pictures said. Eastwood's previous best weekend was " Space Cowboys " with $18 million in 2000."
- Reuters
Obviously there's only one way to measure one's "personal best" and "best weekend": $.
Clearly things like personal satisfaction, quality, or love, are worth nothing. Anybody can claim those! No, you need a number so you can keep score of how you beat the others!
(Um, that was sarcasm.)
----
Anyway, it's pretty amazing that such a veteran is still working, not to mention at the top of his game, at 78! Most other stars who've been in the game for many decades are barely clinging on with bit parts in other people's movies.
Seventy-eight! Holy cow. Most people I know at that age barely have the energy to take out the garbage.
Leo Babauta of Zen Habits
It's cool that you can record video chats as interviews. Not the greatest quality, but it'll get better, and it's all done for free and without any travel.
I asked the author, and he said that this one was recorded on the Mac using Conference Recorder.
I asked the author, and he said that this one was recorded on the Mac using Conference Recorder.
Zen habits
Good article on the issue of the creator and the brave new world of digital works flowing freely.
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