I know it's a little long in the tooth, but I love this song (and video). I feel like this must have been made by Americans who are making fun of Germans -- Like this video should have been premiered on sprokets.
You might remember that before I left for South America, I spent some time trying to learn some Portuguese before I left. By chance I happened to pick up the Pimsleur CD' s for my chosen language and I was really happy with the system...
[Something about that Pimsleur website makes it look like it might be associated with the Hanzo corporation]
...I'm especially enthusiastic about the system after trying something different for my upcoming trip to Germany. The "Learn in your Car" series is a pile of shit. Stay away. I went back to my Pimsleur buddies and have been making some pretty good progress in picking up a some of working German.
When I was going through the course for Portuguese I couldn't help but feel as if the authors operated on certain assumptions when crafting their lessons. Now that I've ventured into the German language lessons for a bit, those assumptions have come into sharper focus thanks to the contrast between the two. So while the Portuguese lessons seems to give a traveler some outstanding tools for picking up lusty prostitutes, Pimsleur's attitude toward German women seems a little colder. Consider this piece of dialogue from somewhere around lesson 10:
Me: Hello Miss!
German Woman: Hello
(Apparently I have no time to mess around so I get right to the point)
Me: I would like to eat something with you. At what time would you like to eat with me? One o'clock?
German Woman: No...not at one o'clock.
Me: At two o'clock?
German Woman: No...not at two o'clock.
Me: Would you like to eat with me at four o'clock or five o'clock?
German Woman: No sir. I do not want to eat with you at four o'clock or five o'clock?
Me: you want to eat later...at eight o'clock!
German Woman: Certainly not!
Me: at nine o'clock?
German Woman: No. I do not want to eat with you.
Me: Ah I understand...You do not want to EAT something. You want to DRINK something! Something at the restaurant in Opera Square!
(you have to give me credit for a positive attitude at least)
Me: What time would you like to drink something? one o'clock?
This goes on again, with me asking this woman for a drinking date for practically every tick on the clock. Finally (after more begging on my part) she finally says: German Woman: I do not want to drink something with you at four o'clock or five o'clock. and for good measure I don't want to drink with you at eight o'clock or nine o'clock.
Me: Would you like to drink something with me later?
German woman: You don't understand.
Me: What don't I understand?
German Woman: You don't understand German.
At that point the lesson abruptly ends which I think is "code" for a door being slammed or hand being slapped at my face.
So there you have it. The world according to Pimsleur is filled with hot and spicy Brazilian sex-pots but Germany is home only to the likes of Frau Blucher.
More (sorta) related German news is the current state of my recent fascination with random (mostly German-made) boardgames. Our little group (which began with about four Puerto Rico players) has really blossomed into a decent sized pool of people willing to spend a few hours on all sorts of intriguing games from all over the world. I've even managed to convince a few girls to join in!
It's a great hobby. I love how it brings people together. We can sit around the table, have a drink or two, and enjoy eachothers company while playing games that usually move pretty quickly but are genuinely interesting.
So if you're a friend of the blog and are interested in joining us one of these nights, let me know and we'll see about getting you in.
Here's my last bit of German-stuff. One of my all-time favorite animations. Sadly the youtube video of it doesnt read all that great -- give it a look anyway:
I am starting to suspect that I am a bad driver. Either that or people hate Minis. I'll be driving along minding my own buisness when a car will pull up alongside me. I'll look over and see the guy next to me vigorously waving his middle finger at me. The first time this happened to me, I just figured that the guy next to me was some sort of angry freak. Now that it's happened twice...I mean...there couldn't be TWO angry freaks out there in the world could there?
By the way -- regarding the middle finger and it's origins: Stop talking to me about bowmen and french people. please.
I've got a random bunch of media to talk about today with links aplenty. So fire up those speakers and we'll get started.
First of all...Even though most of my readers have seen this already...You should really check out some of the results of this contest. It challenged participants to take a movie and re-cut it into a trailer in such a way that the new advertisement promotes an altogether different product.
Second: Mashups. Mashups are basically just remixes, but the point of them is to take two disparate styles of music and mash them together. Sort of the "cover song" for a new generation. It's not an entirely fresh or new idea really but it's still pretty fun and there seems to be sort of "mashup community" forming. Or maybe its been there for a while. I can't claim to be on the cutting edge of culture all the time. Anyhoo...enjoy these samples that Fwats X passed my way:
Lastly: You should be watching Lost. I mean really. What's wrong with you. Go rent season one, do what you have to to catch up to season 2. It's some of the best TV I've seen in years.
Being a cynical, smart-ass, can sometimes feel like an easy way out. I'm not sure that it makes a person very happy either. There is something to be said for being able to put aside snarky sarcasms and embrace the things that we so often take for granted. In that spirit I offer you two important videos.
These are videos that not only inspire us with glorious melodies, and sublime harmonies....But they teach us a little something about life...And love.
The last time I checked, that video of that kid dancing to Romanian Techno music no longer exists (or at least not from that link). It's okay though because the actual video is just as good really.
Al Franken also used the song as a bumper for his sohw this morning which made me smile.
Well 2005 has arrived. Time just keeps marching on. I expect big thing out of myself this year...Big things indeed (like turning 30...yikes!).
Colorado was pretty epic. I was basically a tag-along, but got along well with the large group of people who had assembled in the (not-so) modest cabin in Beaver Creek that became our home for a few days. A tag-along and something of an 11th wheel being the only single person amongst the flock of married/attached couples.
We had some good snow and got plenty of solid runs in while we were there. One of the unusual things about this group was that it was so heavily populated with telemarking peeps. Telemarking is basically skiing downhill on cross country skis...And it looks like way too much effort. Apparently though it's the new cool thing to do. There were quite a few of them on the mountain.
New Years itself was a bit more mellow than what I would have wanted. Most of our crew got started fast and early (like at 3:00 in the afternoon), so by 10:00 most of them were wiped out and ready to retire. By the time the (pre-recorded) ball dropped, only 3 or four of us remained. I watched an episode of South Park and went to bed.
As a whole the group was a really interesting mix. I thought everyone was pretty fun to be around. It took a day or so to pick up on the "language and culture" (which consisted mainly of the phrases "interesting", "aggressive", and "O.G."). It's always a weird thing to adjust to different people and their style of humor and sarcasm. I had a weird exchange with one of the women in the group who was a high school English teacher named Claudia, after a friend of hers made some reference to the Harry Potter series:
Claudia: I only read the first two books of those series, but I couldn't read the third one.
Me: Why not...They get progressively better you know.
Claudia: Eh...The third one was too long.
Me (being jokingly critical): Too Long?! Aren't you a freaking English Teacher?! Since when can books be too long for you?
Claudia: It was just too long!
(at this point Liz gets uncomfortable and leaves the room)
Me: Look I could understand if you just aren't into the book...But too long...That's just not a good excuse for someone in your position.
We argue a lil more about it, and I assume Claudia understands this is just playful ribbing on my part. Only the next day I discover that after I had left the room she refused to let the subject die and made comments like, "How does HE know what I read...I read the Iliad last summer you know!"
which really would only have proved my point...But that's neither here nor there. The whole thing just struck my as really funny.
Anyhow...The trip is over now, and it's back to work, and hangin out in front of the computer.
Speaking of that: Here is the lil video that got me to start using the phrase: Booya so much.
What I really need are some roof racks. I know that thule has a strong reputation, but I kinda would like to get the "official" racks for my Mini. Frankly they just look a lot better.
I called up today to find out how much they would cost. The nice lady at the parts department told me that the racks plus the attachments for surfboards would be about 300.00, which seems reasonable. The bike attachments are about 100.00 which seems fine as well. To find out the installation cost I get transferred to the service department where I discover the installation cost is about 400.00.
This seems absolutely ridiculous to me. Perhaps I don't really understand what I'm paying for, but it just doesn't seem like installing some roof racks should cost me that much money.
"Sooo...no parts come with that?" I say/
"No that's just installation"
"400 bucks?"
"no...385 dollars"
"That just seems a lil high to me"
The response to that last comment was something like, "Yeah well...whatcha gonna do?"
Man...I hate it when I don't know the value of a dollar. I mean...for about a few hundred more dollars I could buy an old beater of a pick-up truck to drive to the beach and back (okay about a thousand more dollars...still).
Anyhow. I have a holiday treat for you. Its David Sedaris reading an essay he wrote for Esquire about Christmas traditions in Holland. It's in three parts. Enjoy!
I'll be driving to Reno tomorrow. I'm not really lookin forward to the long drive...but (thanks to the suggestion from Diana) I got me a library card and checked out a couple books on tape (CD) so I should be well entertained for the drive despite the lack of company.
feel free to gimmie a call while I'm on the road tomorrow!
So I downloaded a new book to my PDA (I was tired of re-reading Al Franken over and over again while waiting for take-out). Short stories, and essay collections are really well suited to E-books, since I'm likely to only be reading it in short spurts. SO (once again) on my buddy Mike's suggestion I started reading "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs". Lo and behold the first chapter was a really good example of the sort of thing I was talking about in my last post (the "real").
His first chapter is about how he'll never be satisfied by a woman, and that women will never be satisfied with him because our ideas of love are based less on real life experience, and more on "Say Anything". It's funny stuff.
speaking of funny stuff. You should really check out Gwen Stephani's train wreck of a new video. You'll have to patiently sit through Jackson-esque (in terms of length, not entertainment value) intro before the meat of it gets going. It's a fuckin disaster. I dare you to look away once it gets going. My favorite part is this line: "Take a chance you stupid ho!" Which she sings over and over again.
The whole video reminds me of that scene in every "rise and fall of the superstar rock-god" movie, where the hero has gone too far. She's forgotten her roots, cashing in on her success, and looks positively ridiculous doing it. Everyone in the audience knows it's the wrong move...But all we can do and watch. It's the moment in the "true Hollywood Story" right before the car wreck, drug overdose, near-death experience, or discovery of Jesus.
Anyhow...My dad is sending me to Reno with some of the stuff my mom had in storage own here. While poking around he found a small box filled with old letters I had saved. I guess I used to be quite a letter writer cause there's a bunch of cool stuff in that little treasure trove. Email has made actual letter writing pretty irrelevant, but I miss sending a receiving snail mail. I used to labor away for long periods of time making clever little decorations for envelopes and stuff. It was fun.
I read through a lot of these old letters tonight. Out of respect for the innocent I will not post the contents here...Although I really want to. I was surprised by a few of the more frequent contributors. People who I barely remember and have definitely lost touch with. I corresponded regularly with one girl who I barely spent much time with while we went to school together. Once I left UOP though we engaged in some pretty lengthy correspondence.
Some letters where from people whom I'd entirely forgotten. I mean I still can't remember who they were or how I knew them -- Even after reading their letter.
Overall I felt like I'm not quite as good at keeping in touch with people now...Despite all the fancy new communication technology. Maybe I'll start writhing more traditional letters again. It's more likely that I'll just resolve to write more letters and not do it though.
ONe more thing: This has me all sorts of fired up!
I saw two movies last weekend. I thought Mean Girls looked like a pretty typical teen comedy but it was actually pretty good. Not nearly so dark and bleak as "Heathers", but still pretty solid.
A sidenote - I just discovered that the guy who wrote "Heathers" (which I rather enjoyed) also wrote the following stinkers: "The Adventures of Ford Fairlane", "Hudson Hawk", and "Demolition Man".
Speaking of stinkers the other movie I saw this weekend was Van Helsing. I have to admit that I like the premise upon which this film is based. I mean it sounds like a lot of fun. A lot of classic Hollywood monsters and the man who hunts them. Sweet. Unfortunately this movie just runs a little too long - about 2 and half hours too long. (zing!) It was really terrible. It felt like it was put together by two 7-year-olds constantly trying to one-up eachother.
On Sunday I turned 29. Next year I enter my thirties. You know those pathetic people who start to fear birthdays? They get depressed as time relentlessly marches on and youth gracelessly slips away from them?
I have a feeling I am destined to be one of those people.
I dislike getting slower, uglier, and more feeble (and I'm not sure I've got a lot of ground to lose in those areas :) ). On top of that I have always had an unnatural fear of dying. As a kid I would wake up in the middle of the night terrified by the thought of being dead. It's a fear that still can keep me sleepless every now and again.
Anyhow...regardless of the fact that I'm another year closer to my eventual demise, I had a great time with my friends over the weekend. We BBQ'd on Saturday at H-bombs house and played a bit of poker (I ended up just over even). On Sunday I visited with my family for a joint mother's day / birthday bonanza, followed by a great sushi dinner )compliments of H-bomb) at Nobu. All-in-all it was a fantastic weekend.
Now I'm off to E3. I'll only be going for a day this year but I'll be sure to report back my findings.
Go to Nike's Gridiron.com. On the bottom right hand corner there is a button for the Television ad. click on it. It's an awsome CG commercial. I suspect it's done by people from Square (Final Fantasy, The Final Flight of the Osiris)...can anyone confirm or deny?
