Dom returns, taking a break from his ongoing promotion of little known German media in his series of Bewegtbilder posts (latest here, for example) has just joined the fight against the undead and is aiming for the head from now on. He’s a quick student.
So…it all started with a t-shirt.
Every once in a while everybody feels a little bit like a poser. When I had purchased a zombie themed t-shirt from Threadless with the most delicious design, I had one of those moments. Although having seen a few movies with zombies and zombie-like creatures in them, I was fully aware that the classics and milestones of the genre–in any medium–were something I had yet to experience.
Being an insecure geek who tries to know it all (or at least all about the things that are referred to on my clothes. Note to self: find out more about cotton), I decided to catch up on what had happened in the world of the moving corpses. The question was: where to begin? I sent an email to our chief cook, bottlewasher and zombie hunter Widge (as I often do when I am too lazy to Google things). He quickly supported my idea, supplied me with a shortlist of essential movies and comics, branded me a zombie virgin, stole my lunch money and made fun of my DVD collection.
Today we stray a little from our normal methodology here in the “Bewegtbilder” arena. Usually I take the opportunity to introduce the English speaking world to lesser known movies of German origin and language, but today I will introduce you to a German New Year’s Eve tradition: a classic TV skit — in English. Furthermore, I will babble a lot about the media. Consider yourself duly warned.
You can say a lot of bad things about TV. Such as… Nothing good is ever on. Even the commercials get worse every year. They cancel good shows and continue the crap. In today’s world, TV becomes more and more redundant. The selection is too big. The selection is too small. The news are controlled by media companies that could not care less about being neutral.
Play Written & Directed by: Jörg Buttgereit
Directed by: Thilo Gosejohann
Starring: Jürg Plüss, Claudia Steiger, Adolf Asser, Sandra Steffl, Rafael Banasik, Michael Waechter, Jörg Buttgereit
DVD Features:
Released by: Media Target Distribution
Region: 0
Rating: 16 and older in Germany
Anamorphic: Yes
Language: German with optional English subtitles
I’m back with another installment of Bewegtbilder (Moving Pictures), where I talk about German films that should get more exposure to a global audience.
Film: 4 cups of…tea
DVD: 3.5 cups of tea
Written by: Hans-Christian Schmid, Michael Gutmann und Michael Dierking
Directed by: Hans-Christian Schmid
Starring: August Diehl, Fabian Busch, Dieter Landuris, Jan Gregor Kremp
DVD Features:
Released by Eurovideo / Touchstone Home Video
Region: 2
Rating: Free for kids 12 and older (German rating)
Aspect Ratio: 1,85:1 (16:9 anamorphic)
My advice: Try getting it if you think it’s worth the trouble.
German minister of family affairs, Ursula von der Leyen
Quick note from Widge: One of the best things about having international contributors is we can get info from people who are “on the ground” where stuff is actually happening. So Dom decided to send us his take on the recent news about Germany and their bright idea of internet censorship.
I’d rather be fighting Zombies. Or windmills. Or even zombie windmills.
I should have known. Really. When–out of the fear of cyber-criminals and hackers–the German government passed a law that declared the development and usage of software that is aimed at testing the security of networks and computer systems, I should have known.
This law, if “interpreted” like some people read the Bible, makes it practically illegal to ping a network and makes it illegal for software companies in Germany to produce security testing software. Nice one. Can I still use “ping”? I have the feeling I can not.
As so many really silly laws though, this one never really was a problem because the police neither has the means nor the knowledge to hunt hackers or sysadmins. It would make for some great comedy though. “Put down the mouse! Don’t you dare start that brute force attack!” – “I have a port listener and I am going to use it!”
Ever since I can remember, I loved cola. I liked the taste and I loved whatever it did to me. Young me, of course, had no idea that the mighty caffeine was raising my blood pressure and preventing my brain from realising it was getting tired. Plus, there was the cheap and easy sugar high.
As I grew older I became something of a cola elitist (there was a time I could guess if the cola came from a keg, a plastic bottle or a glass one by tasting it). I tried many many different ones. My favourite to this day is Jolt Cola, probably due to the caffeine amount in it, which causes a stronger buzz and a stronger taste as well.
Why do I tell you this? Well, I want to introduce you to a selection of German beverages. My comments on their flavours are of course based on my personal taste. Regarding that taste, when it comes to the classic Cola War, I prefer Coca Cola. Diet cola, let alone decaf, has no place in my fridge. I will, however, try any soda, caffeinated or not, just leave me alone with decaffeinated cola.
Widge’s Note: Ladies, gents, boys and girls, please welcome guest columnist and German correspondent Dom to the mix.
By now, most of you out there have heard about the banning “scandal” of Red Bull Cola (reviewed here by Widge) here in Germany. Let me try to shed some light and share my thoughts on this.
Here a rough summary of what happened through the eye of the naïve consumer: a laboratory in Germany registered some amount of cocaine in Red Bull’s cola and a lot of states of our Federal Republic reacted by immediately banning it from the stores. Others did not.
The amount of cocaine was so small (0,4 microgram per litre), that some states declared — rightly so — that it bears no risk. In fact, according to a Bavarian state institution, to have an effect on you, a dosage needs to be as big as 25 to 50 milligrams. To put this into perspective, you would need to drink tens of thousands of litres.
