Archive for October, 2008
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Friday, October 17th, 2008….
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Well, the more I watch Mr. McCain speak, the more I feel sorry for the man. He is plain TIRED. The energy and the enthusiasm are gone. He just wants to go home and rest. He doesn’t want to be the president of the
BTW – what should one think of a government which says it is sorry to rescue its country? Greetings to Mr. Paulson. And since I am already here: I just heard Paul Krugman, yesterday’s the winner of Nobel price for economics, say that he didn’t understand Paulson’s bailout plan. You see, and I’ve been so cruel to poor Sarah P.
Made in Austria
Tuesday, October 14th, 2008Jörg Haider, the superstar of Austrian far-right wing politics (which two weeks ago, has won a third of the seats in the parliament) died on Saturday in a car crash.
More surprising than this news was the press conference in which the PR of his party started crying like a baby, bursting out in emotional waterfalls, saying how much he loved Haider. And it couldn’t be any clearer than that – they were a couple. The rumours weren’t only rumours.
The fact that Austrian right wing politics is not saying so many things disgusts me even more than the things they are saying. A conservative party with a double life, which is everything but conservative, is even more disgusting than a conservative party with a conservative life.
And wouldn’t it be just brilliant to have an outed gay right wing party?
Jones is back!
Friday, October 10th, 2008Ooohh, Ms. Jones is back! Grace Jones’ new album Hurricane should be released end of October 2008. The single Corporate Cannibal is already out and the timing couldn’t be better – here a few verses:
i deal in the market, every man, woman and child is a target
a closet full of faceless nameless pay more for less emptiness
i’ll make you scrounge, in my executive lounge
you pay less tax, but i’ll gain more back
my rules, you fools
we can play the money game
greed game, power game, stay insane
lost in the cell, in this hell
slave to the rhythm of the corporate prison
But here comes the best – the video is definitely one of the best videos ever made. A piece of art, should end in a museum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FgMn2OJmx3w
BTW – the lady is 60. Madonna, eat your heart out!
Ana and System in Crisis
Thursday, October 9th, 2008Something very strange is going on. I have this horrible flu and somehow, my flu seems to be magically connected to the economy crisis. Yep, it is creepy and believe me, not a good place to be. I realised the connection day before yesterday, as I got up in the morning (after days of being ill) feeling worse then ever. I turned on CNN and the lady reporting about the crash on Asian markets said something like “It is like feeling sick for days but then one day waking up suddenly feeling even sicker.” Yes, I know how it feels. I am grateful for today’s status quo of the crisis – I am finally able to write a sentence or two.
Here are some interesting things I learned:
- Top managers in
- 12 suicides in Renault – all middle management – because people just can’t cope with the stress anymore (the topic of my next book). Top management compensates stress or responsibility with high salaries and often lets the middle management prepare and implement decisions, so it is the middle management that suffers most
- Hey, almost forgotten about paradox of the “Corporate Responsibility” fashion – every company swears to this magic formula while acing completely irresponsible towards anything but raising profits. Which brought us to where we are today.
- And here something that boosted my spirits: Lehman CEO Punched at Gym (Yep, that’s the guy who earned $460 millions to help bringing the world into the economic crisis)
http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2008/20081006150152.aspx
- Finally, everybody is officially admitting that the lack of regulation does not work and that people motivated by greed cannot be trusted. My questions: 1. Did we have to get this far to understand this? 2. What are we going to do about it?
- I was very amused while watching the press conference by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling (God, with this name the guy should look like George Clooney). Because: They also don’t have the answers! Journalists posted two great questions: 1. Where does this money come from? And 2. Are people who are guilty for this going to be punished?
Ad. 1. Both Brown and Darling didn’t know how to answer this question. In the later CNN analysis, the business correspondent also didn’t. It took Richard Quest (and from this moment, I am officially his fan – you can check it on Facebook) who said: “They PRINT it!” Bravo Richard! Truth can be so simple. And yeah, we’ll leave the inflation discussion for later
Ad. 2. I am very afraid that in this panic to save the world, we are again forgetting about basic things such as justice, fairness and morals. Maybe you already heard it – one week after the 84$ million AIG bailout, AIG managers spent $ 444,000 in a luxury resort. Should all be in jail by now! To read more: http://www.financialpost.com/most_popular/story.html?id=866284
- On Tuesday evening, I watched a programme on Arte “dedicated” to managers. And I learned about what in Germany is called “Heuschrecken” – representatives of private equity funds (yes, mostly coming from the USA) who use mafia-like methods to increase short term return rates without considering the long term effects – such as firing thousands of people. Arte/ZDF made an excellent portrait of one of those guys – whose wife seriously stated in front of the camera that she is happy that her husband is here to “Bring
- And this is one point I definitely was missing in yesterday’s Obama-McCain debate – how could/should the system be changed to make it fair and to avoid further crashes like these. Instead, we heard a question for which someone should have been sent to an IQ test: “Is
O.K., this was way too much thinking and I am afraid the fever is up again. No wonder. Going back to my couch…
Goodbye Lenin!
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008Yesterday, I watched “Goodbye Lenin!” a German movie from 2003. A fantastic movie, I can highly recommend it. Great music, sweet humour, excellent art direction. But the story is the winner. It is about a family in DDR, East Germany, 1989-1990. The mother is a party member, big believer in DDR and socialism. She suffers a heart attack and falls into a comma and while she is in the comma, the
Congratulations to Arte’s programme editors, because the timing just couldn’t be better.
And a great tip for a fun movie evening:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Bye_Lenin
Little Fly Friend
Monday, October 6th, 2008And now, something completely different. Few days ago, there was this little fly that woke me up in the morning. I was angrily helicoptering my arms around my head to scare the fly off but it continued coming back – so I got up. I was annoyed and wondered where this fly came from. We don’t normally have flies here, especially not in October! That evening, I watched TV and this little fly came and sat on my hand. I moved my hand and the fly flew away. But it flew so slowly that I realised it must be exhausted, or ill, or old. In the morning, I was in the bathroom, putting my make up on, when the fly came and sat on the mirror. This is when I started liking the fly. It reminded me of Orlando, the black cat Claudius and I had, who was always sitting on the washing machine, watching me put on my make-up. I liked the ridiculousness of the situation, weirdness of the fact that even having a fly around can make you feel less lonely. And then next day, I found the fly next to my desk – dead. I was a bit said. Especially because it proved that I was right – this poor little fly was here to ….die. I threw the fly into the garbage can. And no, I did not make a little funeral for it.
And then I went to my bedroom – only to find another dead fly, this one next to my bed! I was mad! So, it wasn’t one and the same fly the whole time! I didn’t have a little fly friend! The truth is that, out of some weird reason, the flies chose my apartment for their morgue. And as I am writing this, another one is flying around my head. I hope the last one. Very macabre…..
Palin, seriously.
Sunday, October 5th, 2008Here the Palin story because I was very surprised to hear how many people here do not know about this phenomenon…
The first time I read about Palin, I was just amused. I read a profile on her in a Croatian newspaper and the first thing that made me think that something was wrong, were the pictures showing her in her symbol too tight skirts and too high heels. But as I started reading, I quickly understood – this is going to get worse. Yep, this ex-beauty queen is the governor of
And then two days ago, I switched on CNN and stayed glued to the screen as I realised I am witnessing the second half of Palin-Biden debate. As the debate went on, I continued asking myself: Is this serious? Come on, I would immediately give this guy the keys of the whole universe and make him not its VP, but its president. To her, I wouldn’t even give the keys to my car. Can’t afford a new one since this financial crisis.
Palin seemed so false that I thought she must have a DreamWorks logo somewhere behind hear ear. This woman is programmed! And then came the highlight: her closing statement. She was speaking her empty memorised sentences into the camera with a sly smile and blinking eyes and if somebody had just blended in a telephone number and promised telephone sex with a hot secretary, they would have earned a f….g fortune (and could have bailed out the
Anyway, the debate finished and I jumped to my computer to learn more about this female wonder of programming. And what I found shocked me even more. The media was praising Palin for not embarrassing herself AGAIN. Does
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRHkYN3hXkw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeMypXCUWMw
I don’t know. Palin is just beyond any serious comment. And the
Capitalism is Dead (no worries, will be put on life supporting machines)
Thursday, October 2nd, 2008I can just say “Capitalism is dead.” Never thought I could say this still in my 30’s!!!
So what now?
In my fairy tale, we (they) would admit we (they) failed and see how we could turn this catastrophe into a new system which works and is fair. Save what can be saved. Enough of economic/financial pixie magic! Greets to Mr. Marx!
In real life, we (they) will take this corpse and put some make up on it and make it work. Somehow. And yes, YOU will pay for the make up! Of course Mr. Flud gets to keep his $460 million compensation. And no, he will not donate anything for the lipstick!
And in real life a corpse with lipstick cannot function, so it will keep on collapsing while we (they) keep on drenching whatever can still be drenched out. Until our corpse turns into nothing but a pile of ashes.
Yes my dears, we’ll all be in that pile.
Ashes to ashes……
Boys without Balls
Friday, October 17th, 2008Because I heard a complaint that I am currently writing too much about politics, I would like to share here some newly gained knowledge about – castrati! I am inspired by yesterday’s concert by Max Cencic, a famous countertenor in Theater an der Wien.
Most of you will know (most probably through the 1994 movie “Farinelli”) that castrati were worshiped by whole nations, adored by both queens and kings. Still, it is interesting to learn that castrati were not, like many will believe, men who could sing as high as women. They were more: They (and their voices) alchemically embodied a combination of manly, womanly and childish aspects. Reports say that Farinelli’s vocal range was 3 octaves and he was able to sing any pitch effortlessly in both pianissimo and fortissimo. He could sing for five minutes without catching a breath and his coloraturas were so lively that often, the orchestra was not able to keep up his tempo and would sometimes just give up playing and listen to him sing in bewilderment.
But when you learn more about the medical aspects of castration and its consequences, you cannot but be disgusted of the human obsession with freaks. In 18th century, castration was already forbidden, but the public, or aristocratic, adoration of castrati never ceased. This is why many poor families had had their boys castrated in hope to secure them a life of fame and fortune – in spite of high death rates of this procedure. From Wikipedia: “Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents a boy’s larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence shared by both sexes is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. As the castrato’s body grew, his lack of testosterone meant that his bone-joints did not harden in the normal manner. Thus the limbs of the castrati often grew unusually long, as did the bones of their ribs. This, combined with intensive training, gave them unrivalled lung-power and breath capacity. Operating through small, child-sized vocal cords, their voices were also extraordinarily flexible, and quite different from the equivalent adult female voice, as well as higher vocal ranges of the uncastrated adult male.”
So what really surprised me is that the oh-so-adored Castrati were actually freaks. They were growing slower but longer, sometimes still in their forties. Very frail at their early age, they later grew higher than average, with too long arms and legs and then often became strongly obese, with female curves. Hmmm, I am very happy that Max has his balls – he is both nice to listen to and look at.
For those who want to hear a castrato sing, here you will find a recording of the last castrato Alessandro Moreschii : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castrato
Tags: Article, Commentary, Vienna
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