There is this guy called Ali Rahimi who works on computer vision and who seems to be a funny guy. At least he conducted this great piece of scientific research "On the Effectiveness of Aluminium Foil Helmets" : Using a 250,000$ network analyzer he concluded that the government started the aluminium foil helmet craze to gain access to peoples heads/brains.
Long time no (real) post, but I had to finish my mémoire. So the Chromeo concert in Berlin (1st concert in Germany ever!) got canceled cause Dave1 had an eye disease. Hope he'll get better, soon -- and that the alternate concert will take place when I'm there.
Some tiny random links accumulated over the last weeks:
A nice Jazz performance slash pantomime video, implementing the communication character of the Bird's sax involved in a heated debate with Dizzy Gillespie's counterpart (thanks, Steffi)
A tiny glimpse on the upcoming posts on German comedians (thanks, Steven): Mathias Richling, one of the better contemporary German comedians, commenting on the German minister of the interior Wolfgang Schäuble and his recent decisions before, during and after the G8 summit (Richling born Swabian, Schäuble a native of Baden, by the way) . Very acid-tongued but definitely funny (unfortunately only in German).
...and, of course, the recent hype clip on the web: 5 seconds of dramatic chipmunk
As announced last night on his show, the Worldwide Festival website is finally online. The most important information: Festival pass for 3 days is 43 € and there will be 5 (!) WWFs in 2008:
In 2006: Sete (France)
In 2007: London, Shanghai and Sete
In 2008: London, Beijing, Tokyo, Frankfort and Sete.
For some months now I have been watching the geeky "Elektrischer Reporter" online (sorry--80% in German). It features a weekly interview on the future of the internet and the technologization of society, topics I feel (urged to be) interested in and I've been posting about in the past. Yesterday, I watched the interview with scifi author Bruce Sterling who, after some rather boring first minutes, said some very relevant things on topics that were--to questionable extent--also discussed at the G8 summit. Today, however, I watched the interview with mind-boggling Mercedes Bunz who, in addition to having a great name, has a lot of very smart things to tell. I recommend everybody (who understands German) to watch her 10 minute interview.
On June 4, 1882, the great German comedian KarlValentin was born (died Feb 9, 1948). Based in Munich, he produced great 'miniatures' for the visual, auditory and audiovisual media. The New York Magazine called him "the Charlie Chaplin of Munich Dadaists". His humor is hard to describe and sometimes not so easily accessible. Check out his official website (with example media), when you're in Munich: his great Karl Valentin Musäum in the Isartor, and the example short cuts (one, two & three) available on spiegel.de (who reminded me of his greatness).
I guess in some upcoming posts I will mention some other great German comedians...
There is this guy called Ali Rahimi who works on computer vision and who seems to be a funny guy.
