Only in America

When I first saw the clip I didn't get it. It took me some cycles (I'm gettin' old) to realize what was happening behind the scenes.

Here's the story. Happened at CES (Las Vegas) this last week. CES is where the world's largest show-off their latest goodies for the greatest TV monitors money can buy, especially those available in the future. One notorious example this year included a 3 mm flat TV by Sony based on OLED display technology (so thin because there's no back light as new light is automatically generated by organic substrates stuck upon another, passing electrons among them when voltage applied, and emitting photons of different colors -frequencies- in the process of filling empty electron holes).

Gizmodo confessed to have orchestrated the following gig. They were offered a gadget called TV-B-Gone (see circuitry on photo above) that is capable of shutting down any TV with IR receiver you can think of. So, a Gizmodo crew, equipped with a (candid) camera took a walk around in the CES halls and had a good time, shutting down monitors while people were watching demos, lectures, etc...

Enjoy the clip at YouTube here. Only in the US of A...

Giuliani's secret of 'success'

This YouTube video was ripped from Giuliani's homepage. No wonder that Iowan Republicans decided he was not worth more than 3%. Now tell me. How thick can someone be not to see the mess the current Administration has burried the entire US into? Thousands of casualties in a useless war in the wrong place, with nothing really achieved where it should have been after all (hunting down of that S.O.B. Bin Laden), a domestic economy in shambles, the highest unemployment figure since very long time and a dollar with half its value than what it was when they took over in 2001. Good ol' Rudi thought he can continue this 'successful' insane cowboy 'strategy' and came up with nothing better than using towelheads jumping up and down in order to send a message to his followers and the average American: ' Beware! Without a leader like me (as the one in power now) you are doomed to be extinguished by scores of moron towelheads and their spiritual leader, who, btw, is cowardly hiding like a worm for the last 8 years in the sterile mountains of that appalling country, Afghanistan. '

And the Iowans said: Thank you very much for your message Mr. Mayor, but no thanks! Be happy with a generous 3 percent! Because, by the time any towelheads will be able to cross the pond and mean a real threat again, we'll all be dead of hunger, with no income, homeless and unemployed, sold out to the Chinese and Indians. It's the economy, stupid!

Apparently Rudi believes we still live in the year of 9/11. I don't know this for a fact but I thought I read somewhere that he has even tried to exploit the tragic day by requesting from his supporters to donate 9$ 11cents to his campaign. Jeez, some Yankees deserve a Nobel Prize for creative thinking...

Anyways, if Rudi doesn't get it after Iowa and continues to ride on the 9/11 bandwagon, we are going to see some serious disasters in his effort to gain the Republican nomination for the 2008 Presidentials. He thought it was a slum dunk but I believe he seriously underestimated his co-citizens and the pain the last 8 years have meant to them and the rest of the world.

The Clintstones

Go read FSJ's recent article on the Iowa caucuses. It's a scream. Especially if you are not a Clintstones' supporter in this coming 2008 Presidential Elections. Related to that, one of FSJ's classic blogposts, in my opinion, is this article from a long time ago, but nevertheless one of his very best, ever. If you got any free time, go read it... you'll have the laughs of your life.

Dedicated to my Dutch speaking friends...

with Dutch subtitles... Dalaras for ever!

This clip is so typically Greek. Emotional bouzouki music, played by the best available bouzouki player of all times (I remember I once saw this guy in a live programme with Manolis Mitsias, in Athens, in early 70ies), lyrics that make you think seriously about life (remember, two Greek writers won the Nobel Prize of Literature in the last 40 years, Seferis and Elytis... poetry is really serious shit to Greeks), no elements of banal 'love songs' words in the lyrics at all (like, I love you, I miss you, I see the sky in your eyes, and more of this BS), a whole audience singing along (it's true, the average Greek can sing along hundreds of songs written in most of the previous century), even Theodorakis, shown in the last few seconds of the clip, sitting among the commoners and singing along too (the lady next to him looked very embarrassed, understandable as we all know that Mikis' voice has nothing to be jealous of a mule's, I think a mule sounds better)... and all this, taking place at the feet of the Acropolis hill, at the Roman theater of Herodes of Attica.

Nevertheless, for those who are used of him, Dalaras is the Greek Voice by any conceivable measure. There are many excellent singers but there is one Dalaras above them all. Even if you get irritated by his sound from time to time, you just can't help loving the guy and what he did to the Legacy of Greek popular music...

Now, if you want to hear another version of the same song from a modern Greek Kouros (a stud) with a divine voice as well, and witness some of the dancing fun Greek babes enjoy at similar sounds, link here for more. There's more to it than syrtaki, innit?

(PS. BTW, the dance they are doing is called the 'zeibekiko' and it's sort of reminiscent of a belly dance whereby a person (man or woman) dances to the rythm with sensual jumps and lusty moves of their ass whereas one or several others sit on the floor on one knee and clap their hands to the rythm... that's the only part I could do, if I tried... I think. The term zeibekiko sounds Turkish to me, so, who knows, maybe the dance is a left-over from the hundreds of years long occupation of Greek territories by the Othoman Empire).

The Iowa blues...

If you ever wondered why the fuss about these preliminaries for the nomination of party national presidential candidates in a tiny state like Iowa (where the heck is this located anyways?), then don't worry too much. You're not gonna be able to grasp easily the significance of the event as most of the rest of us, non-US nationals, or aliens as US authorities usually like to call us.

Take a look at the Wikipedia article about the caucuses. You might learn something. I did the same and I must say, I enjoyed the reading about the actual voting process of the Democrats; that looks more like a social game that many adults play in spacey precincts (like bingo or like the 80ies social game of Diplomacy). From one point of view this may look very much as the ultimate democratic process, much more than some contemporary Swiss cantons or Agora Athenians during the Golden Age. It must be real fun, much more than any other social fun party you can think of. Apparently the Republicans seem to prefer a more conventional style of casting votes via plain vanilla ballots but, nevertheless, the Democratic process must be real amusement to watch... especially seeing active supporters of leading candidates trying to convince the undecided, the latter enjoying a game of 'yes, but...'. Cool!

The aspect of all this I like most is the belief that 1% of existing US voters decide largely what the actual final outcome is likely to be. In other words, the Iowa citizens seem to be the soul and conscience of the entire nation, not? Hard to believe, but this is what the media and the common opinion seem to accept.

So, Obama and Huckabee (who's this guy, again?) seem to have won in yesterday's Iowa caucuses. So be it. Are they going to be the National level nominees for their respective parties? Doubt it for the both of them... maybe Obama... but who knows?

The thing I took away however from this first election, is the fact that Hillary hasn't even ended at second place whereas Giuliani ended at the bottom of the ladder of the GOP with 3.4% of the votes. Say what? The National Hero of 9/11 rockbottom?! Wow!! There is still whole lotta hope for the nation! These results for Hillary and Giuliani are both great news and that tells me that at least Iowan's have a lot more brains in their sculls than we are used from average US citizens. That's good. I am now convinced that 2008 is gonna be the year of positive change for all of us.

Happy New Year!