Indiefeed

Looking for some new music? I can only recommend Indiefeed, another one of the freebie treats I am enjoying with my Ipod.

I encourage you to check out "Ikea" (the text in the box is "reissue-jona") for a little lift and Dntl's "Dumb Luck" for quite the opposite. I really dig the song from "Soular", too.

Last Sunday, we rode again to the in-laws. This is how I see my "wahl-heimat" in my mind's eye, even when it rains non-stop (see Pfingstwochenende 2007).

Moose on a Bandwagon

The Karlsruhe soccer team finished in the first position in the second league, meaning they move up to the first league. Tickets will become more expensive and they are going to lose quite a bit next year. A mixed blessing, even for fans.

I vote "Hell yes" too.

I was for a rare evening out during the Eurovision song contest this year, and I think it's generally been covered around the ex-pat blog community, but some of you not keeping up on catty celebrity critique might have missed out on this over at Go Fug Yourself.

They have it from Variety.





We are starting to think about moving - how much we've got, how much we can spend, what's available and it scares the living bejeezes out of me. I have no idea how anything works here and what I seem to be being told is that you're not that much better off buying here. (It's been browbeaten into me that one is foolish not to buy if one can manage it in the States.)

I need someone to tell me what to do. There seem to be some many guides in America which explain the steps. First get your credit card debt under control (ok - not an issue). Then make sure that you have your emergency account set up (yes, but how much here etc.) All that sort of thing. Does any one know any good resources they could recommend for a financial ignorant like me?

Oh, and the pictures. Good friends from college in DE and NYC. Did you know that there is a §$%! ferris wheel inside Toys R Us in Manhattan?

Friday night found us at the dissolution of a church Jugendkreis that my German attended in his teens. Some of the folks had continued to meet until recently - while a new, younger youth group had been established and the official end to what had become the "Young Seniors" was celebrated Friday.

There were photos and plenty of video. Their first talent show included clips of my German both playing guitar and juggling and all that with a great haircut and perfectly acceptable shirt. I hadn't known that he went through a cute phase in the middle of two awkward phases (hair too short, hair too long). Yes, even then, he did those weird mouth things while playing the guitar that children do while drawing with concentration - but what a cutey patooty! Unfortunately, even after we get a DVD with the films, I don't see myself getting it formated to post here any time soon.

And so I offer the following nuggets from my German -

Is that a rooster on the weazerwane? (Try "weathervane" with your German soon!)
MG: Do you get cranky before you get the, how you say, regulation? Me: Honey - that's "crampy" and the word is "period".

And yesterday's of Eurovision Song Contest reminded me of Stermann und Grissemann, who used to do a simulcast in audio that made the competition truly worth watching. Worth watching as well is this contribution to Dorfers Donnerstalk. . .

WashPost Article on Latino Catholics

This article is a decent jumping off point for one of my most serious gripes about our time in Costa Rica. My friends were begging and pleading with me not to blog this, but this blog is all about cultural differences (well, once in a while) and they don't read my blog anyway.


I was really looking forward to going to Mass during Holy Week in CR, because of my other experiences with Mass in Spanish. Yes, the music is always awful, and by that I usually mean that they sing the same 5 songs ever time and the music is led by some woman with a strangly high, slightly off-key, drony voice, but I am often really touched by the piety I have seen among members of the Latino community. (I, according to the linked article, have apparantly also only been to the "old-fashioned" Spanish Mass.)

And Holy Thursday was that way. The homily was very, very long, but it was good. I knew the songs - as I said, it's the same 5 ones. Altough it's the one night of the year we are supposed to get to sing in Latin - no dice. Why is it that I know so many more English speakers comfortable with Latin than Spanish speakers. (They have higher literacy rates in Latin America and a much smaller step from Spanish to Latin than from English. Why is this so difficult?)



But then there was the Easter Vigil. I have no problem (ok - less problem) with exhuberance in music. I went to prayer group with BAC friends in college. Praise music is fine I have no problem even with clapping or quite honestly with the charasmatic movement - it's just not my box of cookies, but I want to notice the difference between the music in church and what they are playing in the bar, and when they are both backed by a cheesy synth salsa beat, I can't. And "This is our culture." isn't going to cut it with me if 1/3 of the pieces are rewritten (does one say - African American (?)) Spirituals or ($%&§!) the Our Father set to "The Sound of Silence". As all of those were composed by people from my country, it's far more my heritage than theirs.

end Rant part I

Coming in Part II "Animators" and why they have no place at a Mass which runs 2 hours even without them.

Part III - more Animator reflections - "Does injuring people who push the length of the Mass to 3.5 hours unneccisarily constitute a corporal work of mercy?"

A few photos from Costa Rica

I will fix them later - sorry!! Gotta work.