Voll Krass Alter!

As anybody who has been drunk at 2am in Germany knows, the Döner is a staple of German fast-food cuisine. It was invented in 1971 in West Berlin by the recently deceasedahemalive and well Mahmut Aygün(en).

***UPDATE***
Apparently, he is still alive. Rumors of his death have been greatly exaggerated.

On Saturday, I had some special “Döner mit alles” potato chips. The guy on the package is Kaya Yanar, a German-Turkish comedian, who is know for pushing the limits of Ethnocomedy. I thought it was funny. Fortunately, it is a just a “Lümütüd Edition”. They tasted awful.

Germans, Lincoln and Charlie

When you talk about American presidents with Germans, most of them know of at least 3 that were not in office in the last 30 years. JFK, Roosevelt and Lincoln (Interestingly enough, many Germans know more words to the American national anthem than the German one). JFK because of his Berliner, Roosevelt because of the war, and Lincoln because he freed the slaves and because of his big hat and beard.

Here is an Op-Ed from today’s New York Times about what Germans think about Lincoln. It’s kind of short and obvious, at least from my point of view, but it is what it is.

AT least two dozen Lincoln biographies have been published in Germany. Streets and schools are named after Old Abe.There is one simple explanation for all this: Germans admire Lincoln for his success in uniting a country.

Although I think America has seen better days and things might not get better for awhile, I’m reluctant to say that her days are numbered. America didn’t fight a civil war for nothing. When times get real tough, the Amis pull together and clean house. Hopefully this will happen real soon.

Although I don’t agree with a lot of what Charlie Daniels says, I nod knowingly when I hear him sing:

And we may have done a little bit of fighting amongst ourselves
But you outside people best leave us alone
Cause we’ll all stick together and you can take that to the bank
That’s the cowboys and the hippies and the rebels and the yanks

Moin!


I have been out of action a bit as of late. My computer was broken and I was limiting my online wanderings a bit while it was in the shop being repaired (The AppleCare Protection Plan is worth every penny). In that time I went to Cologne for a weekend with M and we saw some music and art. We went to the Chocolate Museum and the Gerhard Richter exhibit at the Museum Ludwig. We saw the exhibit on the last day. Kim Gordon was making a presentation the evening we left but we had to miss it because we would have missed our train back to Lüneburg. Staying an extra night wasn’t an option because some convention started the next day meaning that all hotel prices tripled overnight. Rats. Anyway, I think I’m going to write a sad country song about heartache, drinking and small beer glasses in Cologne.

Now that I have my computer back, I have a lot of mixing work to catch up on for various projects. Musically, I have been dabbling with 2 additional projects; bass for a local group called Werkraum and guitar at a jazz/blues improv night which takes place every couple of weeks. The Werkraum project is interesting because I have never really played bass in a band. The Jazz thing is challenging because the other musicians I play with are very good players and it pushes me to work on improvisation and learn many jazz standards that everybody should know. I haven’t played jazz in any capacity really since high school ensemble so it’s been a while. I have completely forgotten how to comp.