Then, of course, there's Frühlingshit

Or Brathering

HT Boing Boing

3 days in March

Wonder how you manage to make ends meet

Someone over at digg came up with the outstandingly good idea of giving visibility to political sponsorship by PSing leading politos into NASCAR driving suits and plastering them with advertising from their sponsors..

And doesn't Michelle Bachmann look cute in her cocktail waitress dress....

Who needs a car?

 Hechtsheim to here takes 16:25 - only 5 minutes more than the same trip in the car

Even WALKING only takes 37 minutes, for goodness sake

Every picture tells a story

The 1400 block Montana Avenue in Santa Monica is a favourite place - villagey, definitely upmarket, but inviting.

It's got Blue Plate, a favourite breakfast/lunch/dinner place, it's got Whole Foods and it's got loads of funky shiops.

Like "Every picture tells a story" which - apart from selling kiddie books - has an exquisite collection of framed original artwork from children's books.

I'd like to say that the owner shot back with "but I came out looking just the same" when I greeted him with "Combed my hair in a thousand ways", but at LEAST he knew the song....



Spent some time feelin' inferior
standing in front of my mirror
Combed my hair in a thousand ways
but I came out looking just the same

Daddy said, "Son, you better see the world
I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to leave
But remember one thing don't lose your head
to a woman that'll spend your bread"
So I got out

Paris was a place you could hide away
if you felt you didn't fit in
French police wouldn't give me no peace
They claimed I was a nasty person
Down along the Left Bank minding my own
Was knocked down by a human stampede
Got arrested for inciting a peacful riot
when all I wanted was a cup of tea
I was accused
I moved on

Down in Rome I wasn't getting enough
of the things that keeps a young man alive
My body stunk but I kept my funk
at a time when I was right out of luck
Getting desperate indeed I was
Looking like a tourist attraction
Oh my dear I better get out of here
'for the Vatican don't give no sanction
I wasn't ready for that, no no

I moved right out east yeah!
On the Peking ferry I was feeling merry
sailing on my way back here
I fell in love with a slit eyed lady
by the light of an eastern moon
Shangai Lil never used the pill
She claimed that it just ain't natural
She took me up on deck and bit my neck
Oh people I was glad I found her
Oh yeah I was glad I found her

I firmly believe that I didn't need anyone but me
I sincerely thought I was so complete
Look how wrong you can be

The women I've known I wouldn't let tie my shoe
They wouldn't give you the time of day
But the slit eyed lady knocked me off my feet
God I was glad I found her
And if they had the words I could tell to you
to help you on the way down the road
I couldn't quote you no Dickens, Shelley or Keats
'cause it's all been said before
Make the best out of the bad just laugh it off
You didn't have to come here anyway
So remember, every picture tells a story don't it

Can someone please answer me 2 questions.....

Question #1:
What does this new alliance actually want to achieve by bombing the crap out of Libya?

Question #2:

What does the new alliance intend doing in the longterm once they've stopped bombing the crap out of Libya?

I must have been in hibernation for the past week or so, because I have no idea.....

Idiots all

Angele Merkel's centre-right CDU party is about to get comprehensively stuffed in two major state elections his weekend.

Totally deserved.

Rhineland-Palatinate (my patch) is pretty much a shoo-in for Kurt Beck, the rustic incumbent with street paddock-creds, despite an effective challenge by Julia Klöckner, a hard-eyed one-time Wine Queen who can dodge a journalist's straight question with the best of them.

Baden-Württemberg, on the other hand, shouldn't even be up for grabs. Traditionally CDU-ruled with none of this coalition crap, they've thrown away any semblance of a lead in the polls by a display of unparalleled arrogance in trying to force through a rebuild of the main station in Stuttgart against massive popular opposition.

And then there's the nuclear power issue.

Nuclear power is about as popular in Germany as a pig in a synagogue anywhere else and extending the lifetime of a number of them a couple of months back did Angela's polls no good at all and the environmentalist Green Party all sorts of good.

The events in Japan over the last couple of week, though, gave her the perfect opportunity to do a flip-flop without too much egg being left on her face.

"Crikey" she said " We'd better take the oldest plants off-line straight away and let's have a 3 months moratorium on extending the life of the others until the state elections are over and everyone's forgotten about it all"

She reckoned without Rainer Brüderle, her Minister of Economics from her coalition Free Democratic partner.

At the exact moment that she announced the reactor shutdowns, Brüderle was addressing a meeting of the Federation of German Industries (BDI) - a body which includes 40 of the country's top businessmen.

The minutes of the meeting noted his words "that given the approaching state elections, politicians are under pressure and, as such, decisions are not always rational."

And then he denies it, BDI backs him up with a "We'reverysorrythesecretaryfuckedupandshe'sbeenceremoniouslybeheadedhedidn'tsaythatatall" which no-one believes anyway and there's a great whooshing sound as all credibility flies out of the window.

What Angela should have said is this:

"Until we can replace nuclear energy and fossil fuels with renewables, we're stuck with reactors. They're no less safe now than before the Fukushima incident and we'll ramp up the inspection regime. We have a strategy for reducing our reliance on nuclear power and we're sticking to it.

But let's be clear on one thing - Germany's an industrial economy and we need power to produce the stuff we sell overseas.

I COULD shut down the older reactors to appease the anti-nuclear lobby, but that would be pure populistic electioneering and it would mean that we'll have rolling power cuts until we've built enough windmills and solar plants to compensate for the shortfall.

You've elected me as CEO of Deutschland Inc. The next shareholder meeting is in 2012 and if you don't think I've done a good job, you can vote me out then.

Until then, I'll do what I think is right for Germany"

If she still loses the state elections, she could at least look at herself in the mirror.

I don't believe it!

The guy who designed THIS (Jon Ives of Apple)

drives THIS.

Is he a pimp on the side, or what?

Just look at those evil alloys.


I would have him down as a Saab driver.

Man of good taste. Suave. Handsome. Etcetera.

Hello

HT Boing Boing

For the benefit of recently arrived Martians

Seen: guess where....

A day (or two) in Southern California with an iPhone 4

A bitter ale for bitter times

Wot? No tatts?

I love the Intelligentsia coffee bar on Abbot Kinney in Venice for its singularity of purpose.

It serves coffee, tea and croissanty-type stuff.

You queue outside, wait for your barista who makes your coffee in front of you, someone else takes your money and you either sit on concrete steps, outside in the alleyway or on bar stools at a bench.

It's very edgy/industrial design/clinical/echoey/jangly. It has the aura of the pre-op room before they gave me Leg 2.0.

They've opened a cafe in on W. Colorado in Pasadena, which serves the same great coffee, but I can't help but think that they've lost their focus.

They do brunch, lunch and dinner, serve craft beers and they have the same order process as Starbucks.

Place your order, pay, walk down the counter to the barista and pick up your coffee.

It's not as if they yell out "Skinny, decaf, no foam, caramel vanilla chai latte with whipped cream for jb", but the guy who takes your order looks normal.

Barnes and Noble/Apple Store normal.

No tatts.

What's the world coming to, ffs...?

Unless the husband is gay

Manfesto at Jonathan Adler, design outfit with a retail outlet on Montana Ave, Santa Monica.

It gets worse, but no less funny

This is the life VII

 

The breakfast - 

Poached egg on grilled haloumi and a minted pea and broad bean mash 

Eggs Benedict with lemon-smoked salmon

The view

From the Takapuna Beach Cafe

These people just crack me up....

On a fairly fruitless search in SoCal for an iPad 2 for Ms jb.

Ask one of the Apple experts standing next to a sign saying "We're sold out today, but ask one of our experts about how you can get one tomorrow"

Basically, you can't.

The conversation went something like this:

Q: How many units do you get in a day?
A: I don't know? They arrive all the time and there were people lined up when I came to work
Q: Really? How many?
A: I don't know. I didn't look.
Q: What time do you open tomorrow?
A: We normally open at 10am, but I guess we might open earlier when a new product like the iPad 2 comes out.
Q: So tomorrow?
A: I don't know.

Is it a dire lack of inquisitiveness or a severe case of short term memory loss?

Postgrad studies

Ms jb is continuing her education.

She's currently studying Anthropologie.

Tuition fees run at about $200.

Per visit

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This is the life VI

Dinner at the Engine Room, Northcote Point.

Sublime.

Welcome to LA

Guy in the Apple Store in Santa Monica demonstrating Google Maps on the iPad.
"You can even look at LA traffic" he says
Screen starts flashing red, amber and (not a lot of) green.

Blonde bimbo pipes up "What do the colours mean....?"

Bloody hell....
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This the life V

Lunch at Bambina. Dessert, double espresso, espresso machiato and NZ lollies at Agnes Curran.