Wer kennt sie nicht, die Alexander von Humboldt aus der Beck’s-Werbung? Sail away, dream your dream und so weiter

Als Feuerschiff wurde die spätere ‚Alexander von Humboldt’ bei der Werft A.G. Weser in Bremerhaven im Jahre 1906 gebaut. Wie damals üblich nahm man als Rumpf für Feuerschiffe die Pläne von bewährten Seglern. Hier war es die Bark ‚Fürst Bismarck’, die als Vorlage diente. So waren die Voraussetzungen für gute Segeleigenschaften später gegeben. Zunächst aber versah das Schiff Dienst auf verschiedenen Positionen in Nord- und Ostsee, zuletzt als Feuerschiff ‚Kiel’. 1986 wurde es außer Dienst gestellt und von der Sail Training Association übernommen. Nach dem Umbau in Bremerhaven erhielt das Schiff seinen jetzigen Namen und wurde als Schulschiff eingesetzt.

Und als Schulschiff ist sie auch heute noch unterwegs.

10.08 am: Warm milk with honey.

12.21 – 12.29 pm: Split half an apple with Keith while watching the Battle at the Berrics semifinals.  I spread mine with peanut butter, which I then get all over my fingers.  I’m messy.

1.30 – 3.30 pm: This is technically supposed to be brunch at Craigie on Main with Keith, Kelly, Nancy and Jonah, but since it’s after noon I say it counts as lunch.  I have something like three cups of coffee, all with cream and whatever sugar cubes Jonah doesn’t eat, as well as a yogurt-drenched fruit cup with some amazing figs, grass-fed and house-brined corned beef and tongue hash with a slow-poached egg and crispy onion rings and chocolate-smothered profiteroles with what is supposed to be mint-chocolate ice cream but really is just overwhelmingly minty.

6.35 pm: Coke Zero and half an order of large fries from McDonald’s while  we drive to New York. Keith eats the other half while I lick the salt from my fingers.  I know fries aren’t the healthiest choice in the world, but I love them so.

8.11 pm: A bite of Keith’s banana-walnut bread from Starbucks.  I’m the one driving at this point, so I pretty much cram the bread into my mouth in a very unladylike fashion.  My mother would be so ashamed.

10.06 – 10.46 pm: At my parents’ house, where I drink one of my dad’s Beck’s and share two and a half lamejun with the dog. He doesn’t mind that I’ve sprinkled my food liberally with fresh lemon juice.

11.15 pm: Two glasses Torii Mor Late Harvest Gewurztraminer with Keith and my parents while we discuss dogs, nightmares and Thursday’s Thanksgiving menu.

Love 2 Dance presents Becks @ Barocco Bar
Sambata 21 Noiembrie

Str. Domnita Anastasia nr. 10 (langa Primaria Capitalei)

Intrare: 10 lei
Rezervari: 0768.812.240

http://www.myspace.com/djbecks
http://www.love2dance.ro
http://www.baroccobar.ro

Âme – Beck’s Berlin Sessions Mix

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Becks premiered a new hair-do on Friday night against the Houston Dynamos. His hair is a faux hawk with blond highlights on top and dark roots at the base of his head. I like the general shape of his hair, but the blond is a bit much. It’s harkening back to the early 2000s with boy band hair. At least his beard isn’t screaming homeless chic…

Photo taken from Perez Hilton

What do you all think of Becks’ new look?

Âme – Beck’s Berlin Sessions Mix

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Beck continues his Record Club project. If you’re not familiar with the project, this is how it works: Beck rounds up a revolving cast of guests to cover an entire album’s worth of songs in a day. The results are then posted in weekly installments on Beck’s website.

So what are the latest entries? Mr. Beck is teaming up with respectively Wilco, Feist and Jamie Lidell. He’s going to cover the 1969 ‘cult fave’ ‘Oar’ by onetime Moby Grapye/Jefferson Airplane member turned acid casualty Skip Spence.

Sitting in on drums was James Gadson(who has drummed with Bill Withers0n, while Spencer Tweedy(son of), pitched in on drums as well.

The two previous entries in the Record Club were a cover of ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’(with producer Nigel Godrich and actor Giovannie Ribisi) and ‘Songs of Leonard Cohen’(with MGMT and Devendra Banhart).

Enjoy ‘Little Hands’ (with Wilco, Feist and Jamie Lidell) below!

A Crown Lager used to be enough to make the bogan look sophisticated. The “golden microphone” was in the right hand whenever a birthday speech, awards speech, or other special occasion occurred. Crown was first released to the Australian public to commemorate the Queen’s visit in 1954, allowing the bogan’s ancestors to seem more classy for Her Highness. But globalisation (and, perhaps, republicanism) has meant that the new bogan needs more. It now wants to communicate its national sophistication by drinking beers from other countries.

Initially, the two main local brewers (Foster’s and Lion Nathan) were fearful. If the new bogan didn’t want to drink local beers as much, how would they make money? After much hand-wringing and whiteboard scribbling, an answer appeared. The approach was made: “Dear European brewery, can we please get permission to make beer in Australia, pay you so we can put your label on it, and sell it to our bogans?” If the price was right, the answer was often “Yes”. Or “Ja!”, as it were.

And so it happened. Soon the shelves of the local bottle shop were seeing more Carlsberg, Beck’s, Stella Artois, and Heineken than ever before. And cheaper than it previously was, too. Now the new bogan could get his hands on a slab of European beer for under $45, and gain all of the credibility that a slender green bottle could confer. New bogan males wanted to be him, bogan females wanted to be with him. One night he was trying to pick up at a backpackers bar, and his international style caught the eye of a German girl. He bought her a stylish beer, which she spat out on the first sip, exclaiming “Zis is not Beck’s!” Correct analysis, Gretchen, the primary thing it has in common with the original product is the logo. The bogan looked at Gretchen quizzically, wondering whether she was having trouble reading the English alphabet.

Meanwhile, Foster’s and Lion Nathan were laughing all the way to the bank. European beers were generally sold in 330ml bottles instead of the Aussie standard 375ml. This effectively meant that they’d moved from selling 375ml slabs of locally made beer for $35, to selling 330ml slabs of locally made beer for $45. The licence fees only took up a small slice of this massive bogan windfall. But the new bogan is blissfully happy. He is now a man of the world, even when not wearing his Bintang singlet.

Posters in situ at Vinyard

Beck’s wanted to celebrate 20 years of Inspiration since the Fall of the Berlin Wall and put Holler in charge of creating a campaign for it. In addition to the photo exhibition in 4 venues across Australia (see animation in my first post) we juxtaposed images of the past (border guards and Berliners watching the wall being erected) with the joyful, liberal and expressive Berlin of today.

Oppression to Expression

The three headlines show three transitions: “Oppression to Expression”, “Dominated to Liberated” and “Grief to Relief”.

Dominated to Liberated

Grief to Relief

So, aside from lazily neglecting my blog I have been rigidly sticking to my non-drinking game over the weekend. As usual, I wish I could report that it is incredibly difficult to not drink or that I can’t wait for the damn thing to be over so I can head straight to the nearest pub but it really isn’t the case.

A trip to Brick Lane on Friday night with my girlfriend, sister, Anne Onymous and a couple of others could have ended in disaster. I think the worst part was having my girlfriend sidle up to me (after sipping her way through a few gin and tonics) and seductively telling me how much fun it would be if we could “go off and get a little bit drunk together”. That was the only moment that it flashed through my mind that I was mad and that alcohol might actually cure me.

As usual, everyone wanted to know how it was going and there were a few raised eyebrows of disbelief when I said it was actually quite easy and that I might like to carry on after the three months were up. Anne Onymous had some really nice words of encouragement for me and nobody spiked my drink so I can’t complain.

Anyway… the point of this post is to say what I thought of non-alcoholic beer. I decided to take a break from fruit juice and blackcurrant and soda and go for a bottle of Beck’s non-alcoholic. At £3.30 a bottle I only tried one (but still can’t see how what is effectively a soft drink can warrant such a high price tag) and then moved swiftly back on to pineapple juice. It’s not that it wasn’t nice but it just seemed a bit pointless and the juice was tastier.

It has a sort of beery flavour but is a lot fizzier. In fact, it tasted a bit like shandy which would make sense I suppose. One thing that crossed my mind is that it does look like a bottle of ‘normal’ Beck’s so it might be a good thing for the image conscious but that wasn’t a big problem for me. In fact, I don’t really think people are bothered what you are drinking anyway.

More than anything it’s the stupid price that puts me off but also the concept of having a similar replacement doesn’t really seem necessary to me.Having said that, I like eating Quorn and have seen people smoking replacement cigarettes so alternatives obviously have a place in the market place. Ah well, for me I think it is likely to be my first and last foray into non-alcoholic beer drinking.

Glug glug…

These photos form an exhibition I curated/commissioned for Beck’s. It opens on Nov 1, 2009 in four venues across Australia. Check the Beck’s site for details.For me it is bit of a journey into my own past as well as showing the contemporary Berlin. Most of these places of improvisation, experimentation and creative expression were very much part of my student and early professional years in the always-changing city, Berlin. And since I am German and vividly remember the wall coming down I am celebrating 20 years of reunification, of my people peacefully overcoming such a horrendous monument. Maybe something you start appreciating even more when you move far away.

I go through phases where I don’t listen to music for awhile.  It usually happens when I need something new to entertain me.  That’s not what this post is about though.

Yesterday was a Friday, and it was one of the longest Fridays I have had in awhile.  Not only was it my first Friday since my vacation to L.A., but it was rainy and I was cold all day!  It was a crummy Friday, and Fridays should never be crummy!  They should fly by and we should all have goofy smiles plastered all over our faces!

To cheer me up I started listening to the  best friend I have…my iPod!  Usually when I am grumpy music always helps and I decided that this time I would shuffle all songs instead of going straight to my playlists.  Oh and I have terrible ADD when I have my iPod on shuffle.  I try REALLY hard to keep myself from skipping.

Here is a list of songs (w/minimal song skipping) that helped me get through the last hour and a half of work:

• Tenacious D – Wonder Boy
• Red Hot Chili Peppers – Torture Me
• Pennywise – Bo Hymn Tribute
• Fabolous feat. Lil Wayne – Salute Me
• 50 Cent – Wanksta
• Beastie Boys – Girls
• Modest Mouse – Lives
• Usher – Nice & Slow

3 of these songs bring back good memories, 3 of these songs can always make me sing no matter how bad I sound, 2 of these songs make my head bob like a muhfucka, and ALL of these songs helped make the ending of my day great!

Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR a.k.a. me in this case meets Casey Spooner (before his gig at the Melbourne Festival) and we talk about FS’s creative process, working in New York and who he rates in Australia’s music scene. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischerspooner)
Follow Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR content through
facebook.com/uberselektor

Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR a.k.a. me in this case meets Roland Appel at Future CLassic’s office in Redfern. We chatted about musical influences, growing up in Germany in the 80s and what the Australian scene is like. You can follow all of Beck’s ÜBERSELEKTOR content through facebook.com/uberselektor

For a limited time Beck’s labels will be taking on a whole new look thanks to collaborations with the world of music.

Electro Pop Sensation Ladyhawke and indie faves Hard-Fi have created their own bespoke labels for the iconic green bottle for ‘Music Inspired Art’. The acts will be the first music artists to take control of the labels following previous collaborations with Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin and Gilbert & George.

To mark these unique musical labels, we’re giving away a crate of Ladyhawe and Hard-Fi bottles, a Hard-Fi signed iPod and set of drumsticks.

To be in with a chance of winning this great prize simply answer the following question:

Which two artists are designing this year’s Beck’s labels?

Just email your answer and phone number to: laura@whos-jack.co.uk

Plus check out www.becks.co.uk to find out further information

Please drink Beck’s responsibly 
www.drinkaware.co.uk

© 2009, InBev UK Limited, all rights reserved

Here is a picture of a fiddler crab:

Photo: JUNGLECAT

As noted before, us Mexicans have a knack to gloss people based on how closely they resemble any member of the animal kingdom. In any given posse of Mexicans you may find one pajaro or caballo. A nickname frontrunner has emerged, granted his is not an animal nickname but it is an apt reference to Tolkien. Presenting 5′4″Atlante F.C. forward, Christian Bermúdez, affectionately known as El Hobbit,

But I digress.

The following story features another entrant into our Animal Nickname Hall of Fame:

German arm wrestler shows off his single Popeye-esque limb

The Brit writer brands him “Popeye” but what do the Limeys know of nicknames? (see ‘Becks’) No, I’m going to go with the “Fiddler Crab”, here’s why:

In case you’re wondering, his name is not Tevye.

AB InBev a luat nastere prin fuziunea dintre Anheuser-Busch (lider de piata in Statele Unite si producatorul celebrei Bud americane) si InBev (locul 2 pe piata internationala). In portofoliul noii companii sunt aproximativ 300 de branduri, printre care Stella Artois, Beck’s, Leffe sau Löwenbräu.

Totusi, numarul acestora incepe sa scada, pentru ca vor sa vanda active de 7 miliarde $. Mai intai, in septembrie AB InBev a vandut brandul Tennent’s (din Scotia), pentru ca zilele trecute sa isi vanda operatiunile din Europa Centrala si de Est catre un fond de investitii (CVC Capital Partners). Tarile din care iese AB InBev prin aceasta tranzactie evaluata la peste 1,5 miliarde euro sunt Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cehia, Ungaria, Muntenegru, Romania, Serbia si Slovacia. Primul brand al lor din aceasta zona este Jelen Pivo (Slovenia), urmat de Bergenbier din Romania.

Pentru consumatorul roman nu se schimba multe. Noul proprietar are licenta sa produca in continuare brandurile internationale (Stella Artois, Beck’s, Lowenbrau, Leffe), pe langa cele romanesti (Bergenbier si Noroc). Sa speram ca noul proprietar este dispus sa faca investitii, mai ales ca in Romania firma a pierdut in ultimul an in jur de 5% din cota de piata, ajungand la mai putin de 20%.

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All Wheels Drive House Present:
Becks @ Bubbles Club (George Enescu 27-29)
Joi, 8 Octombrie / Ora 22:00

Soulful, Jazzy, Funky House & More
House Music All Night Long !