Linkage: Fun Stuff on the interwebs

If life were a video game, that’s how I’d get to work, too:

(Alternative Link)

Also interesting, this article on the ridiculousness of in-store HDMI cable prices. Or rather, the links in this article, to this lovely HDMI cable for $2,594.75. Read the reviews. Quote:

“When I got this cable, it came wrapped in bacon, which I thought was pretty weird, but shrugged it off, slid off my recliner into my Rascal, scooted from the living room to the kitchenette, and started cooking my bacon-wrapping.

As the smell of delicious pork back filled my double-wide, I turned around to look again at the box the cable came in.

Could this be? Yes! It was a “3 wolves barking at the moon shirt” and even better, it fit me perfectly (I wear an XXXXL).”

 

Cheap living

I recently thought about how when my parents were my age, they hadn’t been paying rent for years. I’ve not only been paying rent ever since I’ve had a job, but I’ve also spent most of my savings when I went to Australia for a year. Now I pay rent again and it bothers me, because even if I lived in the same place for 20 years, I’d basically have spent over 100.000 EUR on rent without getting anything in return. Or well, what you get in return is a place to live, but the money basically just goes out the window.

At any rate, I’ve looked for cheap ways of living now, and one i particularly like is living in a cheap concrete tube, like this one (via Freshome.com):

Concrete Tubes as hotel rooms in the TuboHotel.

A concrete tube is probably no more than 200 EUR, so if I had three of them (bedroom, kitchen, study) we’re looking at, say, no more than 1000 EUR including delivery. (I’m making all of this up. It’s an estimation.) I’d need a place to put them, so I’d have to rent a little garden somewhere for maybe 30 EUR/month which should have water from a garden hose and hopefully a community toilet. Of course, it might be semi-illegal to live in a little garden you rent. Plus, without insulation, I’d freeze to death in winter (and in summer, with the summer we’ve been having…)

Next option would be to get a tree house. One with electricity and a shower and all sorts of stuff, like this one (as seen on baumraum.de):

They write on their website that they’ve built tree houses for 12.000 EUR to 150.000 EUR and I don’t want to think about what price range this one has if it even has a bathroom and electricity. But if it were only 12.000 EUR, it could quickly be paid off and then of course all the money you earn is yours alone. And if you get tired of living in a tree house, you can sell it to someone else, along with the land, and spend all the money you made on something bigger later.

Ideally, of course, you’d live somewhere without having any expenses, that means usually your parents’ house, but of course then you have to answer to them (“as long as you have your feet under our table” etc.) and you get asked to put on your slippers and make your bed.

Oh well, the things I think about on a Sunday afternoon. :)

Here’s some YouTube links about houses and tree houses and all sorts of stuff:

Peter Bahout interview (this has a great tree house)
Tree House Living for adults
Garbage Warrior (about Earthship houses)
Permaculture – True Way of Life

Books: Night Watch, The Clown, Lucky

It’s been a while since I’ve last written, and although I’ve been a bit distracted, I still managed to read three more books since my last entry. I finished A Confederacy Of Dunces, which was very good indeed.

After that I read The Night Watch by Sarah Waters, which was also quite interesting, especially since it’s not the kind of book I’d usually read. It’s also set in WW2, which I also usually don’t care to read about. And yet, it had some interesting storylines and characters. So all in all, I’m glad I strayed a bit from what I’d usually read.

Next I read Ansichten eines Clowns (English title: The Clown) by Heinrich Böll, which I thought was very interesting, too. Amusingly enough, although it’s a German classic, it had been loaned and recommended to me by a British girl. When I went home to my parents one weekend and mentioned I was reading this book, they told me they owned two copies of it. But what matters is that I read it now and I liked it, and it was interesting to read about a melancholic clown with a drinking problem who lamented the loss of his girlfriend to another man.

And finally, I read Lucky by Alice Sebold, the author of The Lovely Bones which I read last year and was very impressed with. Lucky is the autobiographical story of how she was brutally raped at 18, how that terrible act of violence affected her, how it affected her relationships, her family, her life in general. I thought the book was quite insightful.

I’ve read nine books this year so far, which is bad considering I was aiming for 24 books and it’s already August, almost. Then again, a lot can happen in five months. Certainly a lot happened in the last five. :)

Books: Summertime Sound, No One Here Gets Out Alive and A Confederacy Of Dunces

What better way to update my blog again by rambling about some of the books I read lately?

I’ve read Homicide by David Simon for a long time back in March or so. It took me forever, as the book has almost 700 pages in rather small print, and while it’s interesting most of the time, it’s not exactly a quick read. I was curious about this book because I read that The Wire (the TV show) is partially based on it or was written by the same guy. He spent time inside the police force as a journalist, observing them work, and everything that happens in the book actually happened, which is rather mind-boggling, considering how crazy some of those cases were. At any rate, I do recommend this book, but be aware that due to the sheer size of it, it’s quite a commitment. ;)

No One Here Gets Out Alive

Next, I read That Summertime Sound by Matthew Specktor, which was recommended by Sara Quin of Tegan & Sara fame. There’s actually an audio file of Sara reading from That Summertime Sound, so that made me curious. However, I was not really that intrigued by the book when I finally read it. I feel the story goes in circles and I don’t care about the characters. The protagonist (= the author?) just comes across as whiny. So that’s not a book I’d recommend.

Then I read No One Here Gets Out Alive, which is Jim Morrison’s biography, Jim Morrison of course being the lead singer of The Doors. I really didn’t know much about him or The Doors when I started this book, but wow do I dislike him now. What a completely rude, irresponsible and narcissistic guy that was! Sure, he had a tough upbringing, but geez… I really don’t get why people worship him the way they do. Also, the authors of the book are both big fans of The Doors, and while they’re still rather critical of him, they do write about what an amazing poet Morrison was. I really don’t see it. He’s got nothing on Ani DiFranco.

Words and Music

Next I tried reading Words and Music – A History of Pop in the Shape of a City by Paul Morley, but after he rambled on and on about Kylie Minogue’s hair and endless lists of musicians I’ve never heard of and such for 40+ pages, I finally gave up. Maybe the book is simply too abstract for me, there are some people on amazon.com who apparently loved it, but I simply couldn’t get into it.

So I moved on to A Confederacy Of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole, which has been recommended to me more than once, and I’m really enjoying it. The main character is such a rude and awful fellow (kind of like Jim Morrison, hehe) and yet it’s so engaging to read about all the crazy things he does. The book is set in New Orleans and it’s fun to read the various ways of speaking the characters have. I’m almost finished with it and I do recommend it. Sadly, the author committed suicide at age 31. His books have always been rejected while he was still alive.

Please go here for a list of books I read, and go here to see the cover images of the books I’ve read. You know you want to.

So, what are you reading?

Music Monday #36: An Horse

On Monday, April 4, 2011, I went to see An Horse in concert in Frankfurt. An Horse [-> Wikipedia], as you might know, are a very cool band form Brisbane, Australia. They’ve opened for Tegan and Sara before, which is how I personally found out about their existence.

Their first full album is Rearrange Beds and it came out in 2009. I have listened to it many times and I like it better with each listen. Maybe you will, too. When I read that you can pre-order their next album, I did so very quickly. I ordered it on vinyl, the reasoning being that the price was the same as the CD, vinyl has bigger artwork, and I’ll most likely listen to it in MP3 format most of the time anyway.

The venue they performed at was called Das Bett, a rather small club in Frankfurt. The support act was a band from Cologne, Periscope, and while they put in a lot of effort, I thought it was hard to get into the music. Then again, I always find it hard to judge live music. It’s usually rather loud and the vocals aren’t very clear. When The Jezabels opened for Tegan & Sara in Melbourne, I thought they were okay, but I only really got into them when I listened to their EP at home.

At any rate, once Periscope ended their set, An Horse took to the stage. It was almost sad that only about 50 people came to see them, but An Horse still seemed happy, considering it was a Monday night. “Who does that? Who goes out on a Monday night? I never do that,” Kate said. “But I don’t go out on Friday night either.” They played some old songs, which were great, and some new songs, which were cool, too, although I didn’t understand much of the lyrics. I found Damon’s drumming quite impressive, and it still amazes me how this small band of only two people can produce as rich a sound as they do. One Fender guitar, one drum set, two harmonizing voices – apparently, that’s really all you need.

They warned us ahead of time that they wouldn’t do an encore, as encores are awkward, and besides, they had already played all the songs they know. So after the final applause, we went over to the merchandise table and I bought one of their T-shirts to support them. It has a severed hand and a bird on it, and as Damon was standing nearby, I asked him what the meaning of the shirt was. He told me they just had a friend in Melbourne do all their designs, and they usually liked what she came up with. So basically, it didn’t mean anything, it was only meant to look nice.

All in all it was a very nice gig and if they ever play anywhere near you, do go there and support them. Then you can say leter, “Hey, I already knew them before they were really famous.”

Music Monday #35: Songs about driving

On today’s Music Monday I would like to talk about three songs that are about the road, about driving. The road movies of songs, basically.

Let’s start with I Drove All Night, a song written by Steinberg & Kelley initially for Roy Orbison. It was a hit for Cyndi Lauper in 1989, and later for Céline Dion in 2003.

The songwriters Billy Steinberg & Tom Kelly may not be household names to most people, but they were behind many well-known songs and seem to just churn out hit after hit after hit. They were also behind Eternal Flame and In Your Room by the Bangles, Like A Virgin by Madonna, I’ll Stand By You by The Pretenders and Alone by Heart, just to name a few.

I Drove All Night is basically a very cheesy love song about someone who drives all night to be with the person they love. What I like about it is the image of someone actually driving for hours along a dark, long, straight and probably mostly empty road, simply to spend some time with the other person. So driving is the effort that is made to be with someone else. Sweet.

I was dreaming while I drove
the long straight road ahead
to taste your sweet kisses
your arms open wide
this fever for you is just
burning me up inside
I drove all night to get to you

[Read the complete lyrics at azlyrics.com.]

(Listen to the song on Grooveshark or look for it on YouTube.)

While I Drove All Night is lyrically simple, there’s always Ani DiFranco who can talk about the most trite things in such a way that it becomes extraordinary. At least that’s how *I* feel about her lyrics. Here’s her take on driving.

cloud blood smudge smeared on the sky
it’s dawns roadkill
i’ve been driving since midnight
and i’m driving still

stop on the top of the ridge
just to feel the wind on my rand mcnally
then i feel the air grow cold
as i drift in to the first blue of the valley
and you’re wondering how far down you are on my
call back list
but you don’t realize
everytime i find i’m by a phone the landscape shifts

[Read the complete lyrics at danah.org.]

(Listen to Cloud Blood on Grooveshark.)

In this song, especially with the way the music sounds, driving feels more like something monotonous. She’s been driving since midnight, the sun is coming up, she’s tired and taking a break. She gets cold, keeps on driving, her road map by her side. Maybe she’s driving to get away from someone (literally and metaphorically), or maybe she’s just thinking of the other person now because the monotony of driving doesn’t offer enough distraction so that she ends up thinking about whatever went wrong in her relationship.

The “every time I’m by a phone the landscape shifts” line is not part of the driving imagery, but it’s my favorite line in the song. You know, because the other person might be annoyed or disappointed that she doesn’t call, disappointed about how far they have fallen on Ani’s list of priorities, when in reality whatever happened is still a big struggle for Ani, and every time the opportunity to call opens up, it starts dominating her thoughts. Well, that’s my take on it, anyway.

The song ends with more tiresome and exhausting driving. Oh, she puts it so well.

it’s been way too long
since i’ve been behind the wheel
headlights guiding me right through the dark
i feel
dry eyed, trying to resist
sleeps first kiss
everytime i have time to think
i think of this

And lastly, there’s the song Road Trippin’ by the Red Hot chilli Peppers, which is basically the description of a fun road trip with friends, of leaving everything behind to get away to some fun times. One could argue that the song also implies drug use, but I personally don’t see it that way. To me it’s about getting your friends and some snacks and going “anywhere”. The destination doesn’t matter as much as the way to get there.

Road trippin’ with my two favorite allies
Fully loaded we got snacks and supplies
It’s time to leave this town
It’s time to steal away
Let’s go get lost
Anywhere in the U.S.A.

[Read the complete lyrics at azlyrics.com.]
(Listen to the song on Grooveshark.)

Links:

• Cyndi Lauper – I Drove All Night [Grooveshark]
• Roy Orbison – I Drove All Night [Grooveshark]
• Ani DiFranco – Cloud Blood [Grooveshark]
• Jay Tea – Cloud Blood (Ani Cover) [YouTube]
• Red Hot Chilli Peppers – Road Trippin’ [Grooveshark]
• Wikipedia article on Road Trippin’
• Wikipedia article on I Drove All Night

Rambling: Apartment Hunt

I’m currently looking for an apartment, and let me tell you, it’s not fun. Don’t do it! (Heh.)

Seriously, it’s very frustrating to look for an apartment, especially in Frankfurt, as there is a lot of demand. I could of course pay a real estate agent to find me an apartment, but they usually want 2,38 times the rent for their services. So basically you’re supposed to give them about 1000 EUR so they unlock the door for you, let you look at the apartment and then give you a paper to fill in with all your personal details (like how much you earn). Crazy.

I looked at a place last week that I actually quite liked – especially the beautiful dark wooden floors. Not that they match any of my furniture, but that’s beside the point. The apartment is above a restaurant, so of course noise becomes a concern. Plus, I do recall the staircase up to the apartment being strange and narrow. So I told people that it was strange and narrow. And meanwhile I don’t even recall how strange and narrow it was, so it’s become warped and twisted in my mind, a staircase out of an Escher painting, even though it probably wasn’t even that bad. I’m probably overthinking it.

Another highlight of the apartment hunt happened today, when I spent almost 15 EUR on public transportation to and from an apartment in a suburb. When I got there, the guy who was supposed to show it to me didn’t show up, and the cell phone number I had written down didn’t work. So I stood around in the cold (and it was really cold) for about 40 minutes and eventually left. It didn’t help my general mood.

What did help my mood, howver, was Felicia Day. I recently downloaded the first three seasons of The Guild for my iPod. They’re short episodes, maybe 5 minutes long each, and they’re about this quirky guild of World of Warcraft players. I’m at season two, and the episode made me laugh. They get better and better. I will buy the show on DVD once I have an apartment.

Well then, let’s hope next week will bring me a lovely apartment with moderate rent, where the toilet is actually inside of the bathroom (as opposed to in a separate room), where the bathroom doesn’t have any pink tiles, where it’s quiet and the subway station is really close by.

Music Monday #34: Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton in the 60ies. Yes, she used to be cute.

When I woke up this morning and – still lying half-dead in my bed – switched on the radio, they talked about how it’s Dolly Parton’s 65th birthday today. Happy birthday, Dolly Parton!

Of course with news like these, when they start talking about songs she recorded in the past and her success and they use the past tense, it’s kind of creepy because you’re like, “Okay, why are they talking about Dolly Parton? Did something happen to her? Oh, the suspense!” And then you’re relieved when they say it’s her birthday.

But anyway, the point I want to make is that Dolly Parton, who by the way grew up very poor as the fourth child of twelve, has had an amazing career and wrote some amazing songs. She’s also a very successful business woman. In case you’re unaware, Dolly Parton wrote “I Will Always Love You”, which later was a big success for Whitney Houston, too. But more interesting still is that Elvis Presley wanted to record it. Dolly was thrilled of course, until she found out that by recording it, he also wanted to get half the publishing rights to it. So she stood up to the ‘King’ and said no. And now she’s super rich.

And while she may be slightly scary these days with all that make-up and long fingernails and all sorts of other enhancements, I think her manner is quite endearing, as is her Southern twang.

You can watch her perform ‘Jolene’ in 1974 [alternative link] or watch her perform ‘He’s Alive’ in 1989 [alternative link]. That one actually gives me goosebumps, even though I’m an atheist. Or watch her perform ‘I Will Always Love You’ [alternative link]. Or listen to her song Travelin’ Thru, which she wrote for the movie Transamerica and for which she received an Oscar nomination [alternative link].

Or if you can’t stand Dolly Parton for some odd reason, at least listen to the White Stripes’ version of ‘Jolene’ [alternative link].

Books I Read in 2010 (Part 2/2)

And here’s part 2 of the list of books I read in 2010.

Abnormal Psychology by Gerald Davison and John M. Neale
Another book I found at the Asylum Hostel in Sydney. It’s a textbook for psychology students, which I’m not, but it was still interesting to read about the different kinds of disorders out there and how psychology is attempting to cure them.

The Game by Neil Strauss
I recently read that this book is supposed to be turned into a movie, so quick, read the book before the movie comes out so you can say, “Oh, well, the book was better.” Seriously, though, the book is not a must read by any standards, but it certainly has some interesting aspects. It’s about how Neil Strauss himself, once a geeky, shy and inexperienced fella, learned all about being a pick-up artist when he researched pick-up artists for a story.

Cause Of Death by Patricia Cornwell
Another good Patricia Cornwell crime novel.

Romulus, My Father by Raimond Gaita
I had never heard of the book or the movie adaptation with Eric Bana and Franka Potente, but I found the book in the hostel, so… Raimond Gaita is an Australian philosopher, and in this book he writes about his father’s life, how they emigrated to Australia and what their life there was like. It’s not a nice rags to riches story, it’s a dark story about poverty, suicide and mental illness. It’s still a good read, though, somewhat hopeful despite all the darkness.

Sofies Welt by Jostein Gaarder
This book also showed up at a hostel. The English title is “Sophie’s World”, the original Norwegian title “Sofies verden”. I started reading this over a decade ago and put it down after 20 pages because it bored me. This time around I simply had nothing else to read so I read it, still thought it was pretty boring in parts. I have no idea why this book was so successful. Maybe it’s a neat idea but I’d have preferred to read all this stuff in textbook form. Dumb.

Blood Born by Kathryn Fox
Kathryn Fox is an Australian medical practitioner and author of crime novels. She lives in Sydney, actually, which is where I found this book in a hostel, I think. But who can remember. At any rate, it’s a good read and it’s not bad as crime novels go, but I do prefer Patricia Cornwell’s books. Just because I like Kay Scarpetta more.

Evening in Byzanthium by Irwin Shaw
Also from some hostel or another. It’s about this aging movie producer who goes to the Cannes film festival and is thinking about a new project to tackle. It’s also about his relationships and his life. It’s not about terrorists, however, which is peculiar because the movie based “loosely” on this book is about terrorists taking over the Cannes film festival. Weird. At any rate, I think the book is from the 70ies and it shows, and I liked it. The protagonist always mixed whiskey and water, if I remember correctly, and when a charming Israelian guy left a bottle of Jack Daniel’s in our fridge, I tried replicating this “recipe”. Pretty gross.

Lautlos by Frank Schätzing
German crime novel, basically. Was okay.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Someone left this at the hostel, which made me particularly happy. I thought the translation into English was really strange and seemed to me like the translator’s first language wasn’t English. But apparently I’m the only one, as the guy even got an award for his translation. It’s a good read and I like the characters in it, so I might have to read the other two parts as well.

Books I Read in 2010 (Part 1/2)

It’s that time of the year again! The end time. The time when we look back because before we know it, we’re head on into the next year with our good intentions and plans and projects that we try to complete before it’s that time of the year again, but next year. If you know what I mean.

At any rate, here’s part 1 of the list of books I read this year. I’ve read 17 books in total.

• The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza by Lawrence Block
  Quite entertaining as crime novels go. Especially because the protagonist is Bernie Rhodenbarr, a “gentleman burglar”.
• The Pocket Book Of Short Stories by various authors
  A really old book that cost 35 cents when it first came out. I got it on eBay years ago for maybe 3 EUR including shipping and started reading it and put it away again. I figured it was a good book to travel with, because the stories are all different and I’d also not be too heartbroken to leave it behind once I read it. And I did leave it behind, I think at the King Street Backpackers hostel in Melbourne.
• The Fellowship Of The Ring by JRR Tolkien
  This is a book I found at the King Street Backpackers hostel in Melbourne. It’s the first part of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and I once started reading this in German but got bored after page 10. I never cared for Lord of the Rings, even though I did watch the movies, but when I found that book at the hostel, I decided to give it a shot again and to my surprise, I liked it a lot. It was easier to read in English I thought, plus they are travelling all the time, which I could identify with at that moment, too. I didn’t find the other two parts of the book, though, even though I know they’re not so much a trilogy as they are one huge book cut up into three, but since I know how it all ends anyway, I’m not too bothered.
• Point Of Origin by Patricia Cornwell
  Another King Street Backpacker hostel find. I’ve read a few of Patricia Cornwell’s books already, they’ve always been quick and entertaining reads, and this one was no exception.
• Out Of Darkness: A Memoir by Zoltan Torey
  Another one from the hostel in Melbourne. We stayed there for quite a while, you see. The memoir is by a Hungarian guy who escaped Hungary when the Russians came. He went to Australia, where he wanted to be a doctor or something like that (he wanted to explore human consciousness) but then he had a terrible accident in a factory in Sydney where battery acid splashed into his face, and so he became blind. Instead of stopping being a visual person, he became more of a visual person and just started imagining everything very vividly in his head. It was quite interesting to read about his life and determination and all of that, even though I didn’t care for his style of writing too much. But it was still a good read.
• The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
  People have recommended this book for years now. It originally came out in 2002 and I knew nothing about it except that it was supposed to be good. This girl at the hostel in Melbourne had the book and I set my eyes on it and was going to ask her if I could read it after she was finished, but then from one day to the next the girl moved out of the hostel. Thankfully, she left the book behind! It might be the best book I read in 2010 and it utterly captivated me. It’s dark and violent sometimes and subtle and sweet at other times and I liked the premise of it and how it was written and you should read it if you haven’t yet.
• Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J. D. Salinger
  I tend to attribute it to J.D. Salinger that I eventually became interested in reading again outside of school, even though that’s probably not completely accurate. But be that as it may, after reading “The Catcher In The Rye” one day, I became interested in Salinger’s work and read all the other books I could get my hands on. I never did find this one, so when I found it at the book sale at Federation Square in Melbourne, I had to buy it. With Salinger, I think the way his books are written are way more important and entertaining than where the actual stories are going. That’s also the case with this book. It’s not a particularly quick read, but it’s good nevertheless. After reading it, I googled Salinger and came to the conclusion that while he may have been a good author, he doesn’t at all sound like a particularly likeable man in general. Not that it really matters, though.
• Open by Andre Agassi
  This book I found at the Asylum Hostel in Sydney. It’s Andre Agassi’s autobiography, and although I liked him without really knowing why, all I really knew about him was that he was a very good tennis player that was married to Steffi Graf. So when I read the autobiography, I was very surprised to find out what his childhood had been like, what his life in general was like, how much he hated tennis, etc. It’s a very good and engaging read, much better than I had anticipated, too. You’d think his recounting of tennis matches would be boring to read if you are not otherwise interested in tennis, but they’re surprisingly exciting to read, too. All in all a very good book that I recommend.