But is he an excellent driver?
Is it possible to learn German in just days? Linguistic savant Daniel Tammet managed to do so in the course of a week. Using his own special technique, the 30-year-old, who has a mild form of autism, has learned to speak more than 10 languages.
Or you can do it my way by hanging out in Spelunken with drunks and other lowlifes that teach you real German.
Drunk German: Hey Ami, du kannst mich voll am Arsch lecken!
Me: Um, nö.
From the New York Times
Europe has more than its share of mass graves, a reflection of the extraordinary scale of violence of the previous century. But throughout the Continent the public is far more used to Germans as perpetrators rather than victims, and perhaps nowhere is that more true than in Germany itself.
One of the most touchy subjects of WWII is the direct aftermath. Like the article states, 12 million ethnic Germans were uprooted and send back to Germany after the war. A lot of them died on the way back, either from the cold or hunger or they were killed by the survivors of Nazi atrocities. It is a touchy subject. Germans are not allowed to be “the victims”. Up until the German reunification in 1990 when the German-Polish Border Treaty was signed, there were still German territorial claims east of the Oder-Niesse Line.
Here in Lüneburg there is museum called the Ostpreussisches Landesmuseum (East-Prussian Museum) where they preserve “the heritage of the German culture of the East.” They are not immune to controversy. Sometimes when they put on events, they stir up sore feelings between survivors and their descendants and other Germans. Sometimes it’s just weird things that causes a scandal. Last year there was an exhibition of old hunting trophies and such. Along with old hunting rifles and other equipment, there were mounted heads of deer and other animals that had been hunted in the East Prussia. Among them was a deer killed by Hermann Göring. It caused a problem because at first it was just there in the exhibit without any explanation or context about who hunted it. So naturally some people accused the museum of not taking seriously the crimes of Germany’s nazi past and there were protests and uproar. Then the museum had to redo the exhibit and put it in context.
So yeah, it’s complicated over here.
I may or may not have been conceived to this song.
That’s how we roll in Missouri.
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 deceased…ahem… alive 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.
Of course they also have a sense of humor. And they are a bit morbid.
This video is in German. If you don’t understand, skip ahead to about 1:50. I don’t know if it is a real instructional video. Probably just a film school project.
*****UPDATE*****
Actually this is an award-winning short film called Staplerfahrer Klaus – Der erste Arbeitstag and it has its own website.
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
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.
..open our shop on March 16.
I found this sign in the window of a soon-to-be new shop near our place. Germans love Obama too (and Hendrick and Ilsa are no exception), so much so that “Yes We Can!” has sort of become a catch-phrase shown in ads. I’ve seen a few other ads in newspapers and such but this is the only one I photographed.
The last time Germans got this excited about a politician… well, you know how that ended up.
😉
Okay. I was away for a bit.
More to come….
