DDR Underwear et al..

Spiegel has a great piece on DDR Fashion

German Google Research

This interesting piece appeared showing how google search items tell us what men and women want. I previously did this with images of Germans and their ‘typical attributes.’ Just few shots using Google to predict what people say about anything. In this case: Germans. I learned a lot about the Germans today and why they stink, love scat, the Hoff, and are apparently hot, rude, and kinky.

Perhaps worth mentioning. The German search entries are much longer. They also question their involvement in war a great deal including their current involvement in Afghanistan.

15 Minutes to Buffalo. German Trucker Pulp & the Romantic Hero

The Ectomo blog recenlty talked about ‘East German trucker pulp”. When it was pointed out that this pulp fiction was not from the DDR, the blog replied. “Yes, dammit, I know. I don’t care! ‘DDR Pulps’ just sounds better.”

Well it sounded better when Iraq had WMD’s as well.

The point should not be missed, though. Although East Germany was not fantacizing in this way about the US, Germany was and you can own each issue for EUR 1,50. There are a number of these Trucker fantasy books for sale. Additionally, Tom Astor sings a great German country song about the life of a German trucker. And here! The romanticism of it all is just a bit too much. Cheese sells, however. The band “Truck Stop” also gets in on the fun.

To turn it around to literature, it reminds me of the Theodore Fontane poem, John Maynard. John Maynard is the lone american hero who guides an ailing ship ship to safety. They only need to get to the shores of Buffalo! The link provides both English and German text.

“John Maynard was our helmsman true.
To solid land he carried us through.
He saved our lives, our noble king.
He died for us; his praise we sing.
John Maynard.”

Meet Germany in Pittsburgh

See the German Embassy’s page out German influence in Pittsburgh. I have written about this before and the influence is indeed strong. The G20 summit has brought great attention to Pittsburgh.
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/10__Press__Facts/03__Infocus/08__G20__Pittsburgh/G20__Pittsburgh__S.html

Godwin’s law, Aids, and a Bad German PSA

Godwin’s law talks about the decline of a civil argument and the eventual reference of Hitler and the Nazis.

Verein Regenbogen has a new PSA comparing AIDS to Adolph Hitler in that AIDS is a mass murderer. If that were not enough, they provide a CGI sex scene with a woman having drunken sex with Adolph Hitler.

Using the imagery of Hitler in this way does invoke Godwin’s law. If you need to make a video like that for schock value, perhaps your argument is in need of an update. There are many reasons to support campaigns to stop AIDS. This is not one way.  For Shame.

See also

Im Bett mit Hitler

http://www.aiem.de/ Aids ist ein Massenmörder (AIDS is a mass murderer)

Reverting to image(inary) understanding: False bus stops attract patients with dementia

A very interesting story here about a hospital that has constructed a fake German bus stop to attract patients with dementia who attempt to flee. They of course go to this bus top and await a bus that never comes, making it easier for hospital staff to find them and keep them out of trouble.

In additional to disorientation, patients often have an urge to move and lose what we consider to be a traditional concept of time, sometimes reverting back to previous times in their lives when they would head to work, visit old friends, or go out on the town. The traditional green and yellow signs signaling a bus stop are easily recognizable and provide a stark visual clue for the people, thus attracting them and keeping them ‘safe’ until hospital staff arrive. The fake bus stop includes a waiting area and bus schedule and cost EUR 7000.

For more images related to German busses, see CAPL.

East German Beach Bingo

I watched this film last night on the instant option within Netflix. Wow.

“Hot Summer” -1967/ 1968 from DEFA. There are many new DEFA films on Netflix, btw.

From Wikipedia

Heißer Sommer (Film)

Filmdaten
Deutscher Titel:	Heißer Sommer
Produktionsland:	DDR
Erscheinungsjahr:	1968
Länge:	95 Minuten
Originalsprache:	Deutsch
Stab
Regie:	Joachim Hasler
Drehbuch:	Joachim Hasler Maurycy Janowski
Produktion:	Horst Dau
Musik:	Gerd Natschinski Thomas Natschinski
Kamera:	Roland Dressel Joachim Hasler
Schnitt:	Anneliese Hinze-Sokolowa
Besetzung
Chris Doerk: Stupsi Frank Schöbel: Kai Regine Albrecht: Brit Madeleine Lierck

Heißer Sommer ist ein vom DEFA-Studio für Spielfilme, Gruppe „Johannisthal“, produzierte DDR-Musicalkomödie aus dem Jahr 1968.

All things Orange and German

I received a gift recently of a lovely imported Bavarian folding table, aka Bierbank, Fest oder Bierzeltgarnitur.

The color struck me initially as I remember seeing tables with this brilliant orange in the train station of Munich during my first trip to Germany.  Upon investigation, the color is called “Löwenbräu Orange”, which begs the question, why? I have yet to find out why the beer producer has its own color, perhaps due to the color of the beer?

I have also seen this color called “traditional orange” as here:

Perhaps a reader can comment on the nature of “orange” in Germany. One item I always noticed is that an egg-yolk or Eigelb” (literally egg-yellow) is not as yellow as we see it in the US. I have heard that is due to the feed or perhaps due to the inorganic nature of American egg farming.

Click for larger view

Try a test yourself: German Eigelb:   English “Egg-Yolk”

Typical German

Today I asked two large databases of visual representations what “Typical German” items they have. I typed in “Typical German” to their databases and these are screenshots from the two thumbnail sets I received.  The first database os corbis images (corbis.com) and if you notice, they have an obsession with large round things. Dough, of course. The second image is from getty images and has more of a smattering of images but seems more food obsessed. When I tried to check the keywords for corbis, nowhere did the term ‘typical’ come up. Years ago, though, when I did this trick as a cheap way to guage visual representation of a culture, it was mostly war related items, so some progress has been made.

Korean views of German (Bier)

Again, the Korean obsession with Bier raises its head. Previously, we see the exotic nature of the German language and ‘culture’ in Korean.

First, Bier. Exotic, stylish, and German

The Language of Love

Or perhaps the unfortunate use of Nazi soldiers in an authorized Mac Store

Finally, today, we see North Korean catch up with a new TV Bier Ad. A true North Korean Lager, “make it a part of your daily life” they say! (Actually, they bought a factory in England and shipped it over, but Lager is a German word, right?)