Dowie, Dax and Teenage Angst.

Dowie: OMG, I got like this totally horrible problem!! I wanna die !!1!!!1!
Daddy Gov: Easy darling. No Problem daddy can't solve. how much money do you need?
Dowie: Noo! It's different this time! I'm gonna diiiiie!!
Daddy: Oh.. That much money?
Dowie: *whipingtears* Well, a few hundred billion....
Daddy: Well, okay. But I have to talk with Mommy first, alright?

- Meanwhile in the flat next door -

Dax: Have you heard Dowie screaming? I feel bad too!!!! Oh, the darkness creeping...
Father Reg: Oh, please. Here, take 30 billion, now go back playing in your corner.

-

Daddy Gov: Well, don't get too upset, but..
Dowie starts to cry
Daddy: I talked to Mommy, and while she agreed with me after our first discussion, she changed her mind when her judging uncle showed up. "We" can't help you this time, my dear. You got yourself into this mess alone and you need to figure it out by yourself. I'm terribly sorry, but remember: You'll always be daddy's darling.
Dowie: NoooO! I hate you! Runs up to room, banging doors. Has a tantrum on the window sill, falls asleep. Daddy covers her with a blanket.

Schamlose Werbung für die gute Sache #7

Two days ago I noted on the lack of music on music televsion, Pascal over at nocheinblog.info picked it up.
Meanwhile, my pals in Union Hills decided to enter the MTV Rookie contest. You can now vote for our video for Tell Me Once and Fuck Me Twice. I'm not in the vid', as it's plain rockin', no recitin' . So do your part to get music back on the corporate airwaves, or simply do us a favor. Vote or diet.

When there used to be music on music television.

Bored last night, I switched to MTV. And in one of those sudden fits of nostalgia I seem to have quite often these days, I remembered the 'good ol' days' when there acutally used to music (not neccessarily good, but nevertheless music) on MTV, only interrupted by the occasional Beavis & Butthead or Sout Park episode. Today, South Park interrupts the endless stream of scripted, dreadful dating shows (and there even worse spin offs). And I remembered the great time when Viva Zwei was still on air. And Charlotte Roche did great, well-intended shows (instead of writing bad yet wellintended books) like Fast Foreward.

And then, Pavement's "Carrot Rope" video popped up in my mind. First saw it on Fast Forward, back when there still was music on music television.

After a few glasses of white wine..

I spend the weekend with a good old friend of mine and his girlfriend in their new house deep down in Bavaria. And though we got along perfectly (twas just like in the old days - maybe better) and I managed to get along with his new friends, I thought about the people from school I don't get along with all that well. Either by intention (didn't care to much about them during school already) or because we just live to different lives by now and have to different approaches at things. And it'll probably get worse in next few years. After all, it's only been 5 years since graduation and no one of us is out of college by now. Or pregnant. Or married. Or (financially) successful. Oh boy.

And just by coincidence. Kettcar released their okayish (-5 points for the end) new video for "Am Tisch". A song about the same theme, same atmosphere I just described.

The lack of vending machines.

Coming back from a absolutely thrilling weekend with back to back performances of the amazing Portugal. the Man and the soon-to-amaze-you Steaming Satellites, I wanted to write this piece about a possibly clever insight I had about Joyce's Ulysses on Monday night.

But first I'll have to get over the confusion that slick P.R. people are following me on twitter and the air coming in through the window smells like winter. Oh, and after a day of traveling from Freiburg back to Ulm, wednesday feels like monday and the old question of "where is 'Home', anyway?" creeps up again.

While I get that sorted out and tackle that Joyce-piece, please enjoy Portugal. the Man's "And I":

I don't care about language, I just want to be president.

Walters then pointed out that he himself had used the lipstick line, but McCain held that Obama "chooses his words very carefully" and the reference was no accident.

(via NPR)

So the ridiculous lipstick-hassle is valid now, because Obama actually thinks before he speaks, but it's not a problem with Mccain, cause he just blurts it out?

Oh boy.

Alaskan women's groups vs. Palin.

via Feministing

Palin hasn't quite arrived.. and should leave asap.

Blast from the Past.

You know that feeling when you suddenly hear a song again that you liked "ages" ago, haven't heard a lot since and it suddenly brings up a sweet nostalgic feeling? You suddenly feel 10 years younger, happier and more innocent (even though it's a depressing song and/or only 5 years old)?
Screw the guilty pleasures und arrogance of taste. I like those blasts from the past.
Today: 3 Doors Down with Kryptonite. Came up thanks to this post by Pascal. I like the song, digg the video - and 3 Doors Down turned into crap after that song (or record).

Wide Sargasso Sea

Because Wide Sargasso Sea can be seen, and was intended as, an answer and expansion to Jane Eyre I couldn't help but mainly focusing on the similarities and differences between these two novels. And there are plenty. On the one hand, there is the narrative voice. Of course, this difference is pretty obvious, as Jane Eyre is pretty much a classic example of an Victorian novel with a first person narrator that is as reliable as a first person narrator can be. But, I think, what is striking about Jane Eyre's narrative voice is that it is mature and self-assure in its tone, although through important parts of the book Jane is either young or confused or both. This is quite different in Jean Rhys's novel. Not only does the narrative voice change in the different parts of the novel, the narrative voices, in my opinion, are also at times more personal and often fittingly insecure. Especially in the first part of the book, concerning Antoinette's childhood dominated by confusion and anxiety as a result of the neglect of her mother and these sense of being in-between groups. This cannot only be felt in what is narrated, it can be also seen in how it is narrated, especially during the scene in which her family's house is burnt down.

An interesting commonality I see between Jane and Antoinette is the place the school – boarding or convent – takes in their lives. Both grew up in a insecure, rather harsh home in which both have to struggle with neglect and animosities. The prospect of going to school is a possibility of a safe haven. Both still have to struggle in school, but at least for Jane this more or less works out, she meets and finds friends in important and influential female figures in her life. Antoinette also considers the convent her refuge, but things do not work out as fine as they do for Jane.

The narrative voice in the second part of the novel is the point of view of Mr. Rochester. He, in my opinion, has some common features with Marlow's perspective in Heart of Darkness. He is also an Englishman in a situation and setting he fails to understand, recognize ,accept or at least tolerate when he visits Antoinette, her home and her family. Suspicious of all conventions and habits that in some way oppose or do not fit to 'proper' Victorian, English conventions. He tries to force everything into these conventions. This goes as far as renaming his wife Antoinette Bertha, in order to make her more English. Also, although he marries her, this is merely a convenient business and financial, rational act for him. Nd he treats the relationship with the professional, cold, matter-of-fact, one might say Colonialist attitude appropriate for the relation between two parties of a contract, but not of two lovers, at least in our modern understanding, despite all sexual contact.

Bertha is quite confused by this situation, desperately wanting him to love her, and even more confused, if not anxious, about the looming unknown goal and image that is England. To her this idealized place of Rochester's appears cold and scary, I think.

The novel appears to point out that this being torn between two her Caribbean self – which isn't all that stable either – and and the English other is part of the reasons that turn her into the madwoman in Jane Eyre. The book also seems to present the idea that Antoinette/Bertha appears 'mad' because the English society makes her appear mad by force and treat her accordingly. This makes me think of Said's Orientalism and the way i.e. African 'savages' are portrayed by Colonial powers such as Marlow in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.

Who needs Kindergarten anyway?

Spam is usually annoying. Page after page after page of penis eNlargEment and African off-shore banks. But sometimes Spam can be fun. Or remind you, that there could've been an easier way to live your life. If it would work.. Ah, all that hassle with endless hpurs spend reading and studying and writing exams and essay. Once I'm finished (with the first step) I learn that even my pre-school was superflous! Earning a degree as easy as ordering a pizza! (Btw: Might that be the last use of voicemail?)

I keep losing my way.

Hihi, I said S.E.X.

So-called "women's" or "men's" magazines, (Cosmo, FHM .. ) tend to give a lot of bad advice a lot a people claim to even think of as helpful. (At least, they read it.) The following video is a pretty classic example for that, as the topic is pretty typical: "Why do men cheat?"


via Feministing
Apart from all the cliche bogus about men and women: Why is a grown up lady, who still can't pronounce the word sex without giggling, allowed to give "advice" on a sex-related topic?

Hipster.

"i guess being hip means nothing matters but the sound of the noises coming out of your mouth and the knowing nods of the other empty vessels around you."

Dieser durchaus treffende Kommentar findet sich unter einem interessanten Blogartikel zu "Hipster Racism" hier.

Law & Other

If our system were truly about what harms, we would promptly legalize currently illegal things that are harmless -- gay marriage, pot, and Mexicans. Then we would criminalize currently legal things that are harmful -- nuclear weapons, Hummers, and the Gypsy Kings.

- Nato Green. Mehr aus der amüsant-merkwürdigen Kolumne (momentan Anwärter für den "Was soll ich davon halten" Award 2008 bei mir) "Top 10 Ways Gay Marriage Harms Straight People" gibt's bei HuffPo.

Copyboy and Stardom.

..oder über-über-über-über-übermorgen.

Gibt diese Tage, an denen nix los ist. Es geht einem nicht gut, auch nicht schlecht, das merkwürdig-tolle Wochenende steckt in den Knochen, der Start in die Berufswoche ist noch nicht geschafft und man freut sich schon auf das Ende. Man kann sich so richtig auf nichts konzentrieren, hat eigentlich auch auf gar nichts und alles Lust. Und dann, beim wahllosen Surfen im Netz, trifft man doch auf den Lichtstrahl, den Funken, der den tag entfacht, das Aufstehen in retrospektive wieder sinnvoll macht.

Mein Funken des Tages nennt sich "Ich, Alexander", wurde über Herz Statt Kommerz auf MySpace gefunden und macht ganz fantastische Musik. Ein Soundtrack zu Tagen wie diesem, und zu so ziemlich jedem anderne Tag auch. Und das Gesamtpaket ist auch noch liebenswert.

Good Shoe Gone Bad

Ernsthaft, was soll sowas? Und ja - es ist Satin.

And now to something comepletely different - Qanun

Bin hier ja sonst mehr so Indie-lastig in meine Empfehlungen. Aber dieses Mal möchte ich eine etwas andere Musikveranstaltung sehr ans Herz legen: Diesen Freitag spielt Gilbert Yammine, z.Zt. Student im M.Sc. Studiengang Communications Technology an der Universität Ulm aber "auch noch" renomierter Qanun - Künstler. Er hat der Veranstaltung den vielversprechenden Titel

"Aspekte eines Instrumentes zwischen Tradition und Moderne"

gegeben. Eintritt sind schlappe 2€ für Studenten. Mehr Info gibt es u.a. hier im Webauftritt der Universität.

Schamlose Werbung für die gute Sache.

AFGHANISTAN + PAKISTAN

von Menschen und Mächten - von Kultur und Krieg

Kultur-Uni-Konstanz präsentiert: Ein kommentierter Bildervortrag des Fotoreporters Knut Mueller, der seit dem Fall der Taliban (2001) im Auftrag des Nachrichtenmagazins DER SPIEGEL so häufig in Afghanistan gewesen ist, wie kein anderer deutscher Journalist.

Über die bekannten Klischees von Burkas, Waffen, Drogen und Drachenläufern hinaus, zeigt und erklärt Mueller Bilder, die den Geheimnissen dieses faszinierenden, dunklen Landes im Herzen Zentralasiens mit seiner enormen geostrategischen Bedeutung auf die Spur kommen.

Von der umkämpften Südprovinz Kandahar bis zu den Festungen Alexander`s des Großen an der Seidenstrasse nahe der usbekischen Grenze im Norden – von der antiken Stadt Herat im Westen bis zu Osama Bin Laden`s Höhlenversteck im

östlichen Tora-Bora-Gebirge bereiste Mueller dieses widersprüchliche Land.

Unter dem Schutz regionaler Patrone konnte Mueller in entlegene Stammesgebiete an der pakistanisch-afghanischen Grenze gelangen, die Europäern sonst absolut verschlossen bleiben.

(Mittwoch 09.07.2008, 20.00 Uhr, A 704, Uni Konstanz)

You gotta be kidding me.

Es gibt ein herrliches neues Stars Video, "Bitches in Tokyo"... Das Video ist noch großartiger bekloppt als der Titel. Neben den Frisuren und Klamotten empfehle ich vor allem die Szene bei etwa 3:30. Der verständnisvolle Erwachsene, der immernoch total scene ist, erklärt New York Dolls und The Smiths.
Der Song ist auch nicht schlecht, by the way.

Bitches In Tokyo