Merz: The Starlight Night

The lyrics of this marvelous song by Merz (1999), are by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844–89, an English Jesuit and innovative poet who experimented with metre and developed what he called ‘sprung rhythm’, anticipating free verse. The Starlight Night Written Feb. 24, 1877. Published 1918 LOOK at the stars! look, look up at the skies! O […]

Our brain on an intercultural challenge

This excellent animation looks at the way our brain is involved in intercultural incidents. Instinctively, the brain causes us these feelings: The early evolutionary reptilian part of our brain that rules gut feeling has 4 strategies when meeting something new, the 4fs: feeding, fighting, fleeing or f*cking. Our stone age brain is keen on cooperation, […]

Presidents R Us

The Washington Post (my hometown paper) presents the White House Correspondents’ dinner, one of the biggest social events in the calendar where the presidents get to show their communication skills to the max. A nice guide to self-deprecation and humor, US-style.

Jonathan Winters

November 11, 1925 – April 11, 2013, American comedian, actor, author and artist. In this slightly surrealistic training video from the 60s, Jonathan Winters demonstrates the 5 resistances in sales to the industrial buyer: ignorance, indifference, inertia, fear (or: indecision), procrastination He also stars in this sales training video for Mobil Golden Circle – 1966

Margaret Thatcher – Elvis Costello: Tramp the Dirt Down

The death of Margaret Thatcher has led to an outburst of celebration in the UK that has been absolutely astonishing to someone like myself, who grew up in the USA and was on the outside looking in. I had no idea that her policies could excite anything like these emotions so many years later. What […]

Come, wanton spring!

This has been the coldest spring on record. They say temperatures are going up to 9 degrees this week. Come, wanton spring! Talk Talk – April 5th from The Colour of Spring, 1985/6 Here she comes Silence in her sound Here she comes Fresh upon the ground Come gentle spring Come at winter’s end Gone […]

Kishi Bashi

Wow. Kishi Bashi. I hadn’t seen the ads, instead discovering him through Paste Magazine. All that attention to detail, craftsmanship and polish. Animal Collective meets Andrew Bird and classical Japanese music. They are hosting a video-based riddle contest for idioms like wearing _ _ _ _ h _ _ _ _  _ _  your  _ […]