Archiv der Kategorie: almost a diary

almost a diary, compulsory reading

Bin ich Deutschland? Am I Germany?

Well, not quite. But I ordered the domain „www.ichbindeutschland.de“ as soon as I heard in early 2005 that there would be a huge social marketing campaign telling me that if I weren’t Germany yet I certainly should become Germany as quickly as possibly. I humbly complied with their demand, if only on the internet.

When the campaign began last September, I initially covered it in German on www.ichbindeutschland.de, but eventually I felt that I should use the domain for something more personal, and point it to my – so far English language only – personal blog and finally make almostadiary.de bilingual.

I had been thinking about writing in German, at least a little, since I started blogging a couple of years ago. Now, with a domain pointing to this site that is in some sense promising to the occasional reader to present the very personification of Germany, I feel I may finally have sufficient incentive to blog in German, at least every now and then.

It will be interesting to see how this works out – I certainly won’t solve the linguistic challenge by translating every post. So, welcome, gentle readers from Ichbindeutschland.de – herzlich willkommen auf almost a diary.de.

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almost a diary, oddly enough, photoblogging

Singles@Wal-Mart

Singles@Wal-MartWal-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.

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almost a diary, compulsory reading, music, photoblogging, US Politics

Dick Cheney’s a surfer!

Paul JohnsonDick 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)

Richard CheneyAlright, 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?“)

I am God motto tshirtAs 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?„

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almost a diary, oddly enough, photoblogging, traveling

The way young housewifes bake.

the way young housewives bakeDespite the title, no porn here, gentle readers. But have a look at the book on the left which I found in the „family library“ of the happy couple whose wedding celebrations I attended in Bochum this weekend: a loose translation of the book’s title would be „The way young housewifes bake.“ The presence of said book is particularly interesting given that the newly wed wife admitted publicly during the party that her husband is the better cook…

Oh, before I forget: It was the first time I visited Bochum. And although I haven’t seen too much of it, Herbert Grönemeyer seems to be right to claim that is a better place to be than one usually thinks.

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almost a diary

Grace Of My Heart

I’m zapping through the channels while getting myself a coffee and I’m finding out about a new kid in German tv town – an NBC subsidiary called Das Vierte (the forth). They’re broadcasting mostly older American movies and tv-series. Its a good guess I’m gonna like that channel – everyone would like a tv channel he finds out about because he recognizes scences from one of their favorite movies. In my case, it’s „Grace of My Heart„, a good, unfortunately underdeveloped film about a songwriter/singer (sic!) allegedly modeled after Carole King and wonderully played by Illeana Douglas.

I first saw the film nine years ago in UIP Germany’s executive theatre, while doing an internship with their avertising agency. Among other things, it was our job to come up with a decent German title. But the film was never released for cinema. Since then, I’ve watched it a couple of times and I like it just as much as back in 1996.

And the the soundtrack, featuring new Brill Building era songs specifically written for the film by, among others, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello, is, in my opinion, nothing short of spectacular.

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