Fo’ Shizzle

I’m sure I’ve mentioned it here before but I tutor a friend’s step-son with his English. Like many 13 year olds, he listens to hip hop and rap music. Most of it is in English so he doesn’t really understand what is being said. Every once in a while he asks me what some some of the common hip hop vernacular means. This week we discussed “hood”, “homey”, “sucka” and “bling”.

The first three were easy to explain, but bling was difficult. In order to explain it to someone who is just starting to learn English you have to break it down to the basic concepts and build up from there.

I’m not sure he got it. I was laughing because I thought it was surreal having to explain the concept of Bling Bling and blingin’ to someone. Maybe I will give him the Hip Hoptionary for his birthday.

Fo’ shizzle, mah nizzle.

Ton

A friend Uli is celebrating her birthday tomorrow and was having some trouble setting up the sound system. So, knowing that I am a sound guy, she called me up and asked me to help her out at about 10pm. After trying to sort it out over the phone I realized it was hopeless and after making sure there was beer there I told her I would swing by and check it out.

The system was in Ordnung but it was so old that it had the old 5-pin DIN audio connectors on the back. These basically look like MIDI cable connectors. I have heard that they were used earlier as audio connectors in Europe but until today I had never seen them in action. Luckily there were some adaptors hanging out of the back that went 5-pin to RCA and I saved the party. And the beer did flow.

Bush in Germany: With a Hush and a Whisper, Bush Drops Town Hall Meeting with Germans – International – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Bush in Germany: With a Hush and a Whisper, Bush Drops Town Hall Meeting with Germans – International – SPIEGEL ONLINE
Hmm, What’s the German word for “Chachi”? Maybe “Heini” comes close. I saw an interview with Dubya on TV yesterday about how important Germany was blah blah blah heart of Europe blah blah blah. It was some of the most pretentious bullshit I’ve ever heard. It was pretty embarrassing. Zum Kotzen sag ich mal aber ganz ehrlich.

Update: An interesting discussion over at Metafilter

Went to see The Frames last night. It was one of the best concerts I have seen in a long time. They got like a My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, U2 (sans obnoxious vocals way up in the mix) thing going on there. They will be big someday, mark my words. They are going to be touring in America soon. It looks like they are having some trouble with their website at the moment. Check back later to see if they will be playing near you.

Speaking of trouble with websites, we’ve hired a company to help overhaul my company’s with a nice backend CMS and an import function for publishing our stuff. Long story short; they’re slacking and I’m getting really frustrated. I lack the ability to speak at a professional level of German and properly convey that they need to get their head out of their ass and stop fucking around. Because I previously met the Ansprechpartner in a non-professional setting, I had already geduzt him. I thing we will start siezen again real soon.

When the whole project is over I think I will go back and get my Zentrale Mittelstufenprüfung and Kleines Deutsches Sprachdiplom. Those are German language degrees certified by the Goethe Institut. Maybe a sabbatical will be in order.

I was thinking about doing an occasional podcast. Should I?

Got an email from Jay over at Agitpropolis. He wanted me to take a look at his post about observations about living in Germany. I did and some of it is right on. The thing about looking people in the eyes when toasting is something new for me, but only because M does it. Most Germans I know don’t do it. They think it is kinda weird. I do too. Angucken!

Oh, and the German equivalent of the DMV? It has its own special circle in Hell.

Get this. I wanted to get an extra ignition key for my car for M. It has this immobilizer chip in it. I figured I would call a locksmith/keymaker guy just to make sure they couldn’t do it. I find it is always better to ask before assuming the obvious here because sometimes there are official stamped forms and permits required to accomplish the mundane. The locksmith laughed me off the telephone after telling me I need to call the auto dealer. I’m getting more German by the day. I am no longer ashamed of being laughed at by someone for simply asking a question. I clearly deserved this for I had been such a fool to assume that a locksmith should concern himself with all manners of keys and locks. So I call and they want €60 just for a copy and get this…They need to keep the car at the dealer for at least 2 maybe 3 days. WTF?!

Has anybody had this experience in the US? Is it the same there? Please let me know.

Chasey Lane

I know I have already complained about the sad and sorry state of German Radio programming. It’s still bad, nothing has changed there, but there is an interesting aspect to this that I don’t think I have ever talked about. There are many songs with English lyrics that rarely get airplay on any station in an English speaking country because of the song’s lyrical content. However, because English is not the native language here, some songs are in heavy uncensored rotation. The two songs that stick out the most are:

  1. The Ballad of Chasey Lane by The Bloodhound Gang
  2. Killing in the Name by Rage Against The Machine

Usually the latest American hip-hop gangsta thugged-out blingiddy-bling-bling joint won’t be censored either, but I have heard a censored “clean track” a few times on the radio. I have been told by someone in the know, that this is because the clean tracks come straight from the record companies and their corporate motherships want to avoid any controversy that might be caused by obscene lyrics.

I don’t know about them, but I only answer to one Mothership.

That is all.

Arschkrampe

We auditioned a new bass player tonight that supposedly played in a band with Jürgen Drews. That is not exactly something I would brag about but a gig is a gig.

I came across this journal entry from a guy that found a stack of already graded papers from a university freshman physics class and added his own additional comments. Any teachers or soon to be teachers should find it amusing.

I’m not the best writer but I know how to get my point across. I think. I can’t believe college freshmen are writing these “papers”. I’m extremely grateful to Fr. Leininger, S.J. (Don’t forget the S.J. gentlemen) and Mrs. Felice for teaching me how to organize my thoughts and put them into words.

Wow. I just popped my head into the other room and saw Ray Parker Jr. on some German eighties revival show. Can you guess which song he was singing? Hmm? Wait for it…..wait…..if you said Ghostbusters you win a brand new car!!