Decade Under the Influence.

What better way to leave the Noughties than with a song by a band that's one of the biggest representatives in a genre I used to like a lot, then grew tired of; used to be full of emotion and excitement, and then turned big and ... shit. Just like the Noughties. To hell with you and all your friends, 2009.

Iconic Noughties.

Phillip Niemayer did a graphic review of the past decade for the New York Times.
Very cool.
(Via Pascal and The Junction.)

Or We Could Move On.

One of the most beautiful songs I discovered in the past, say, half year is Or We Could Move On by Happiness. I discovered it as a download on Karo's blog. And now, Karo herself did a wonderful version of it. Do check it out.

Your Idols are Dead.

A recent survey conducted by the British-American Tobacco funded Stiftung für Zukunftsfragen asked 14 - 29 year olds, who they would name as a role model/idol (Vorbild):

Mother Teresa (24%), Martin Luther King (20%), Mahatma Gandhi (15%), Anne Frank (14%), Hans and Sophie Scholl (11%) and Graf von Stauffenberg (7%).

Yes, they're all dead.
Doesn't really surprise me, though. I, too, would have a hard time to come up with a lively answer for that question, especially among "public figures". If pressed, I at the moment would feel least uncomfortable with Michele Obama (seriously).

What does surprise me, though, is that no athlete or popstar pops up in this top 6 list. Maybe (hopefully) my/the next generation did* finally understand that stars aren't role models**. Yet most people probably might still have "famous" people in mind when talking about role models/idols. Unfortunately, I'd say, since in my opinion, family members and everyday heroes are the best role models - maybe the only role models one should have, if one doesn't want to reject the concept "role model" entirely.

I found this survey in a post on Mädchenmannschaft, which describes hard time the participants in a recent discussion had to find a female role model. One interesting example that cought my eye was that somebody mentioned Lena Odental - but the participant wouldn't specify whether he meant the Tatort character or the actress portraying her, Ulrike Folkerts.
Maybe today's idols are dead - or fictional.

*Or the survey is just flawed. The list is way too conventional - and neat.
** Rockstars are either "just like us... or dicks"

Young Rebel Set.

Young Rebel Set, the new band on the wonderful Grand Hotel van Cleef label, fit right into the musical scope of this blog. Folk. Indie. Alleged Springsteen & Dylan references. Beards. Hailing from Stockton-on-Tees, they're also something for people who listen to Artic Monkeys, Maximo Park etc. 'because of the accent'. Here's the video for a charming litte ditty called "If I Was":

And! - they're coming to Freiburg on 29.01.10
Young Rebel Set might just blow up or fade away - haven't quite made up my mind. But for now, you can believe the hype.

Drain the Blood.

The Rural Alberta Advantage, probably my best discovery this year, released a video to Drain the Blood today. Apparently it's their first official video. Nice!

Evolution of Storage

An amazing graphic documenting the evolution of storage devices:



Evolution of Storage by Curtiss Spontelli

via.

“I’ve always wondered something. Why is it called a ‘revolver’?”

I can't even begin to express the condescending creepiness of this 80s video teaching women - mothers - how to use - and accessorize - guns. For fun and protection, ye know?

Isn't the internet amazing, how it keeps bringing (hilarious?)crap like this up? In this case, everythingisterrible.com dug it up. And you're never going to unknow this. Sorry.

Edward stalks Buffy.

An mash-up of Twighlight and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, adding a interesting perspective to the Edward craze:

“In this re-imagined narrative, Edward Cullen from the Twilight Series meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It’s an example of transformative storytelling serving as a pro-feminist visual critique of Edward’s character and generally creepy behavior. Seen through Buffy’s eyes, some of the more sexist gender roles and patriarchal Hollywood themes embedded in the Twilight saga are exposed - in hilarious ways. Ultimately this remix is about more than a decisive showdown between the slayer and the sparkly vampire. It also doubles as a metaphor for the ongoing battle between two opposing visions of gender roles in the 21ist century.”

(Via.)

Top Ten iSongs.

Today is the first day of the last month of the first decade of the new century. So, of course, everyone is doing Top XY of the Noughties lists.
I want(ed) to do that as well. Of course. But since I'm 'working' on it for a month now and still haven't made up my mind how to sort, include, publish the list, or if I want to do it at all, I'll start with a Top 10 of songs that have been scrobbled onto my last.fm profile. I changed the list a bit to include only 1 song/artist. The list is by no means representative, as I only started last.fm in 2006, only started to include songs listend to on my iPod last week and still listen to a lot of music not on my computer. But anyhow, here it is:

1 Bon Iver – Flume
2 Portugal. The Man – AKA M80 the Wolf
3 The Rural Alberta Advantage - In the Summertime
4 Port O'Brien - I Woke Up Today
5 Karo - Schweinfurt
6 Muff Potter - Das Frozen Man Syndrom
7 Why? - The Hollows
8 Jimmy Eat World - Table for Glasses
9 The Joy Formidable - The Greatest Light is the Greatest Shade
10 Popup - Lucy, What You Trying to Say?

Shoes! Shoes! Shoes!

Neil Patrick Harris is a shoe fairy, sings; got shoes for Sesame Street.


via Sneakergirls.

The Bra-Burning Myth - Uncovered!

From Indexed

Healin' and Killin': New Zealand Is Doin' It Right.

Okay, that might be a bit oversimplified. But New Zealand is spending 18.4% of its budget on health care, and 3.1% in its military. Actually, that's quite similar to the spending in Germany. And are "we" doin' it rite? Compared to others, maybe. The US is spending ruffly as much on its military than on health care (at the moment).
Compare these statistics yourself on Visual Economics and Sociological Images.
By the way, the US is spending 17.1% of the budget on education, New Zealand 15.1% and Germany - 9.5%
Ah, comparing statistics to turn them into populist slogans - it ain't easy.

Freiburg is on fire!?

In the last couple of weeks, and especially today, a large number of protest are going on all around Austria, Germany and other European countries as part of teh so-called Bildungsstreik. This is (or is supposed to be) a map of all universities where students are taking part in the protest against the the past introduction of tuition fees, the Bologna reform and other education related issues..

Unsere Unis auf einer größeren Karte anzeigen

Here in Freiburg, a demo with ruffly 5000 participants just ended and the main auditorium is occupied by students since Monday night. More info on twitter and on the corresponding website. The motto is "uni brennt" or "Freiburg brennt" (Uni/Freiburg is on fire), which is catchy yet, due to the implied violence, problematic.
We'll see where this goes. I wouldn't go as far as claiming that the broad student protest movement is "back", but there is certainly something going on. And the protest and demands are even slightly more differentiated and creative than in the past. It's also interesting to see the participation of high school students. Might add my 2 cents later, yet first I have to get back to... studying.

Poetry or Prose?

Once again, I am at a point where I ask myself: What is the better way to express all those timeless, priceless moments in life, good and bad, beautiful and ugly, sublime and vulgar? Poetry or prose?

So, if you can be arsed, let me know in the little poll box on the right hand side. Or, even better, start discussing in the comments section. Or both. Or whatever.

Clay Shirky on Copyrights, Prohibition and Access to Knowledge.

In an interesting interview with GRITtv, Clay Shirky talks twitter, technology, access to knowledge, journalism - and compares copyright law to the prohibition.

(via netzpolitik)

Homeward Bound.

Traveling down
a road you know
too well -

Travelers enchanted
by the sights are
too peculiar -

Pressing their noses
against windows you
don't need.

Mechanically you put on
your coat to arrive
before they remember
their suitcases.

Asti on the Train.

Sixteen-year-olds,
giggling,
discover the joy
of popping bottles
of Asti on the train.

Traveling and drinking,
talking 'bout boys,
for no good reason.

Twenty years from now
they'll have to join
clubs and societies,
to talk, travel and drink.

Boys turned into husbands,
the bottles multiplied,
the giggles got louder
- but rare.

Drink and dialect remain,
only the sixteen-year-olds
get lost on the way.

Everybody's Gonna Be An Author.

An interesting chart showing facebook and twitter authors and comparing the development to book authors:



Seed Magazine: From nearly universal literacy to nearly universal authorship.
(via Andrew Sullivan)
The post title is of course borrowed from this. Somebody should do a corresponding cover.

Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say
Come on baby let me tell you
All the things I wanna say, and
Everybody's gonna be an author,
which means you and me, my love.

(Un)favorability.

The anniversary of his election is coming up, time for a litte Obama related quiz.
A recent poll shows 2 variants of his favorability-unfavorability rating:
a) 28-67
b) 68-23

Guess which rating is for the Southern states.

Via marbury.