Archive for June 2008

Jonathan Coulton live in New York City

Last Saturday I saw Jonathan Coulton live at the Highline Ballroom. The concert was awesome! There were a lot of unknowns for me before the show, but pretty much all my expectations were easily surpassed. The setlist speaks for itself, I guess. The first three songs paved the way for many more cool pop songs. I think the audience was as attentive as it was enthusiastic. The folks on stage (JoCo and at times Paul and Storm, Kristen Shirts and her Ukulele Army) apparently had fun and all was good. A more detailed report in German is online at Vampster.com. Thanks to Mitch for taking the picture below!

Jutze and Jonathan Coulton after JoCo's concert at the Highline Ballroom, NYC (2008-06-21)

  1. The Future Soon
  2. Ikea
  3. Shop Vac
  4. Flickr
  5. Tom Cruise Crazy
  6. Soft Rocked by Me
  7. Birdhouse in Your Soul
  8. Code Monkey
  9. My Monkey
  10. Creepy Doll
  11. I Feel Fantastic
  12. Mr. Fancy Pants
  13. I Crush Everything
  14. Skullcrusher Mountain
  15. Still Alive
  16. You Ruined Everything
  17. Re: Your Brains
  18. First of May
  19. Sweet Caroline
  20. Mandelbrot Set
  21. Welcome to the Machine
  22. Curl
  23. A Talk with George

Fußball-Nachrichten

Wenn man dieser Tage nicht aufpasst, wird man rücksichtslos von Fußball-Nachrichten erschlagen. Erschreckend finde ich dabei immer wieder die unglaubliche Inhaltslosigkeit. Gerade eben erst bin ich auf Tagesschau.de über folgende Aussage gestolpert:

Polen will bei seiner EM-Premiere für eine Überraschung sorgen.

Im Zusammenhang ist damit natürlich der Siegeswille der Mannschaft gemeint. Für sich genommen ist der Satz aber viel unterhaltsamer. Zumindest male ich mir gerade allerlei Ãœberraschungen aus. Natürlich wird es keine Ãœberraschungen geben, nur ganz viel Blabla danach – und hier oder da Jubel. Oder nur Blabla, wenn es 0:0 ausgeht. Zum Glück bin ich die meiste Zeit über im nicht-EM-Ausland und bekomme das alles – einschließlich der drögen Berichterstattung – nur am Rande mit.

Ich lese lieber die Meldungen über die sich abzeichnenden Konsequenzen der Ölabhängigkeit der Industrienationen, deren Regierungen und Bevölkerungen immer noch nicht einen Weg weg vom Öl eingeschlagen haben. Solche Nachrichten machen mich zwar nicht fröhlich, geben mir aber zumindest das befriedigende Gefühl, Recht zu behalten.

Chasing Amy

If someone paid me for doing the research, I’d like to investigate factors that distinguish movies I like watching once and movies I like watching on a daily base. Sure, I’m exaggerating. Most interesting movies (the former kind) are still entertaining the second time around; also, most of my favourite movies lose a bit of their fascination after three weeks of non-stop watching. Still, they usually regain it after a short break and soon their lines make it into my vocabulary.

The latest addition to the latter group of movies is D.E.B.S. The movie has its flaws, no doubt about it. Some scenes are way too long, whereas others pass by much to quickly. I’d also have liked to see a grander introduction of the D.E.B.S. folks, for example a successful mission that shows their chemistry and strength. I could go on and on, but the truth is: I love this film! Of course, this has nothing to do with Jordana Brewster’s stunning beauty or Sara Foster’s skirt. I mean, there’s more to the movie than the visual aspect. The setting is hilarious and the story fresh. The look is cool and the music video moment before the finale is just soooo great. Mind you, I’ve never been a fan of Erasure. Thank you Angela Robinson. Two thumbs up!

Building churches ain’t what it used to be

The focus of this post is on Christianity and the situation in Europe. It can possibly be extended, but I’m no expert, anyway. The central point I’d like to express is that I’m wondering, why the Christians don’t build big, fancy churches like they used to. Given today’s possibilities in structural engineering and architecture combined with the knowledge about history it should be a piece of cake to build a second Kölner Dom. There are so many things that would make the endeavor so much more feasible than hundreds of years ago.

Sure, it’s not going to be cheap; nor easy. But on the other hand: if a grand, old church is a sign of admiration of God, then there is not much of this admiration left in today’s bishops. Also, maintaining the old buildings is a challenge that would become even more difficult if new old-fashioned churches were built right now. I assume, those buildings are nightmares in terms of energy-efficiency, but I don’t know for sure. Still, from a theological point of view, this shouldn’t matter. What are scientific findings compared to the power of God, anyway? He would take care of the climate if we just started building majestic churches again.

The bottom line is the surprise that the Christian church seems to be more progressive than might be expected from its cruel, dark scriptures. But I still have the feeling that Christianity without new “old school” church buildings is only a shadow of its former grandeur.