10 Movies starring Elvis Presley – and their funny German Title-Translations
There was a time when it was not uncommon for Germany to translate the titles of foreign movies. Why? Well, to make people understand it. Sounds good. But sometimes it went a bit too far. Changing the meaning of the original title to something else is not that good, right?
Today, Germany keeps the titles most of the times – for movies and TV-shows. So we have “How I Met Your Mother” or “Fringe” and “CSI”. But now back to the times when titles we changed. Why not looking at some of the Elvis Presley movies?
The Top Ten after the jump/below… (Germany obviously loved the word “hot”…)
German Singer Herbert Groenemeyer in America – What we know so far…
He’s a star in Germany – as well as in other European countries. Herbert Groenemeyer. Originally written with the letter “ö”. The one you won’t find on an American keyboard. So since we’ve reported about Mr. Groenemeyer now crossing the Atlantic to play some music there, it’s time to check out what we know so far about it…
Ten facts here and after the jump (video, too)…
1. Born April 12, 1956, Herbert Groenemeyer is an active musician, composer and performer since the early 1970s. He started as a composer at a theater in Bochum – western Germany.
2. In Germany every album he has brought out since 1984 went to number one. All in all he has sold over 13 million records in Germany only.
A few Questions for Ola The Comedian – Comedian, Writer and Winner of the #2012DIABLOGAWARD
(Photo from Ola’s Facebook page)
A few weeks ago the #2012diablogaward ended – with the announcement of a winner. It was and still is Ola The Comedian from Croydon – in the souther London area. And since time moved on in the meantime, we got in touch with him recently to find out what he’s up to at the moment. Any plans for another USA-trip like the one last year, maybe?
Read below what he answered to our short questions…
Describe yourself in five words
Hilarious, awesome, intelligent, sexy, humble.
Where do you feel home?
Wherever my friends are.
What’s your profession?
Stand-Up Comedian, Writer, Actor, Comedy Club Owner, Entrepreneur
More after the jump/below…
A conversation with Aksel Ahmetoglu: Owner of Interior Aksel – Shop for Vintage Furniture
Interior Aksel is the place to go to for those of you who love vintage furniture. Chesterfield, and more. Old furniture, lamps and very stylish product from the last century. Always touring Europe and the rest of the world to find and sell those pieces. That’s Aksel Ahmetoglu. Founder and owner of the store Interior Aksel.
The transatlantic diablog met him for a chat in Aachen – his hometown.
A.: You know. My priority is authentic vintage furniture by Chesterfield and other design classics. But espacially the old Chesterfields. Most of the items are from the time of Art Deco, so from around the 1930s, until the early 80s. It was my initial idea to find those old treasures. They are rare and very unique. All of them. They stand the test of time. Very, very timeless…
tdb.: But there’s more on your shelf…
Interior Aksel items: The Robot from Queen’s “News Of The World” Album Cover and Chesterfield furniture
The famous robot from Queen’s “News Of The World” Album Cover. Music fans know him. He is prominently featured on the cover of the British band’s 1977 album. Only a few of them were produced to promote the album.
Aksel Ahmetoglu, owner of the online store Interior Aksel, has one of them. Plus a whole lot of more very cool furniture. British Chesterfield sofas. High quality pieces from the 1930s to the 1980s. And a lot more.
The transatlantic diablog was on location to check out some of the products he had in stock in January 2013. As you might imagine, it changes from time to time, since some of the products are very rare.
So now, let’s have a walk through Mr. Ahmetoglu’s studio…
PopSpots by Bob Egan: “The exact Spots where famous events of Pop culture took place”
Some people travel the world to make photos. Some people do it for musical reasons. Bob Egan combines both things.
Constantly looking for the origial settings where famous album-covers were taken. Some are very obvious. The Abbey Road in London. The one with The Beatles on it. Or another classic: Bob Dylan in New York.
Sometimes the artists are on the cover, and sometimes it’s just a place or an object. Bob Egan finds them all. Like the one above from an Oasis record. The photo was taken in London by Michael Spencer Jones.
Our top five of the best covers after the jump/below…
Exclusive Video: Cologne Fairground – The minutes as it opens…
Another one of our exclusive videos offering you a special view on topics, trends and trivia on both sides of the Atlantic. This one here takes you to the annual autumn fairground in Cologne. Located directly at the river Rhine and only a few miles from the famous Cologne Cathedral, it’s a very colorful place.
Our video takes you for a walk in the minutes as it opens. The first people arrive. The big wheel is ready to turn…
More after the jump/below…
Exclusive Video: The Panama Canal – at Miraflores Locks in the 1960s
It’s the only lock in the world that has special locomotives to pull the ships through. The Miraflores Locks of the world-famous Panama Canal. The 48-miles-long canal connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific one. All that via the Carribean Sea.
After the canal was completed in 1914, its contruction was one of the most largest and difficult engineering projects ever, ships could avoid the much longer Cape Horn route.
Watch our exclusive video showing you some action at Miraflores Locks – back in the 1960s. Some special footage after the jump/below…
Exclusive Video: Cologne Uni Center – Look Down on Köln!
It’s one of the tallest buildings (133 metres) in Europe that’s only, or mainly, used by people to live there. Just a few shops and businesses are located in the lowest of the 38 storeys. Cologne Uni Center. Together with the world famous Cologne Cathedral (156 metres) and the television tower (266 metres) it draws a virtual triangle on the town’s map.
The transatlantic diablog had the rare opportunity to enter the viewing platform – an amazing overview included. Because, what may be quite usual for American cities is a bit more special in Europe. Buildings of that size. Also special is the combination of smaller flats for students and large flats, up to 160 squaremetres.
Check out our exclusive video, shot on the day of the building’s 40th birthday.
The video after the jump/below…
Ask America: Ten Questions and a trip from Yale to Los Angeles!
Are you happy at the moment? What’s freedom for you? Do you believe in your government?
Questions two radio reporters recently posed to American people from all over the country. And now you can follow them on their trip from Yale University to Los Angeles. There’s a full online special available at the radio station’s website – Videos included.
From a young doctor at the famous Yale University, to a student from Texas, to a soon-to-become actress on LA beach.
Check out their revealing answers. All that after the jump/below…
“The Art Of Fielding” – A Book by Chad Harbach [Read an Excerpt here!]
The German FAZ newspaper says something like “welcome to the first league, boy. All parts of America are reading your book…” about author Chad Harbach. It’s his debut novel and took him 11 years to write it.
A book about talent. Winning and failing. And Baseball. All that in an All-American setting. A college in the Middle West. One of those places you instantly have an image of when you hear the word college…
But why not asking publishing director Nicolas Pearson what the book is about?
A video with him and an excerpt of the book after the jump/below…
(No) Vampires Beyond This Point: Forks, WA – The town of “Twilight”
Forks, WA. Incoporated August 28, 1945, elevation 300 ft (91 m), ZIP code 98331, total population 3,552 (in 2011).
Sometimes they’re fictional, sometimes they’re real. Places where famous books and movies are set. In this case it’s much more difficult, because the books and movie series we’re talking about deals with vampires. And they must be fictional, right?
Forks, Washington is the small town where Stephenie Meyer located her series of books, called “Twilight”. And since the books are quite famous, the town is too. But where in the world is Forks, WA?
The answer and some more things after the jump/below…
Listen to the Poem “Digging” by Irish Writer Seamus Heaney!
His works often deal with the local surrounding in Ireland, he now lives in Dublin, and Northern Ireland. That’s where he was born April 13, 1939. Poet, playwright, translator and lecturer Seamus Heaney.
And if you wanna go to Ireland without actually being there now, just listen to the excerpt of his 1966 debut book we present here. Much has happened since it was written. A Nobel Prize in 1995, and many other books up to his latest release “Human Chain” – the twelfth collection of poems by Seamus Heaney.
The poem “Digging” after the jump/below. Enjoy.
Photos + Playlist: camou* in Liège
Frequent readers of the transatlantic diablog know him: Photographer camou* aka Chris Amouzou. Traveling a lot, he recently got to the Belgium town of Liège.
Take a walk through the streets of the town with camou* and his analogue G2 camera with our exclusive gallery. And to feel like Mr. Amouzou felt while taking the photos just start his personal iPod-playlist he also shared with us. Great experience – both of it.
Although Liège (formerly Liége – notice the minor change) is located in the French-speaking region of Belgium, the photo above looks like it was taken in Las Vegas. Doesn’t it?
Gallery and songs after the jump/below…
From Harrison to Obama: The Best Presidential Campaign Slogans [PLUS: Some Dumb Quotes]
The times of Presidential Campaigns are the times of opinion, revealed secrets, media and slogans. Every candidate has one. Has to have one. That, and songs and other ways of visual support. Like posters. Without judging we have a closer look at a long history of slogans. From the recent ones (Obama’s “Yes We Can” in 2008) to some almost historical slogans. Together with the stories behind it…
By the way. Do you know the recent slogans of Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney?
More after the jump/below…
Weltenreiter Tyron Ricketts. Back with a Book and Songs! [Video incld.]
Weltenreiter Tyron Ricketts. Back with Songs and a Book!
Weltenreiter is a German wordplay. A mixture of Welt (World) and Wellenreiter (someone who’s actually surfing). And all that combined you now get from actor Tyron Ricketts. In the physical form of a book and album.
He himself said he was a bit exhausted after quitting the rather safe job at a German crime series a few years back. What then? Maybe traveling. That’s what he did. Six months and one ticket, various countries – most of them hot-spots for surfers.
Being home again he put all the photos he took in a book. It’s out now and has the same cover as the album he wrote. The first in a long time. In a recent TV-interview Ricketts said he was a bit afraid that his songs sound too old school. Do they? Maybe. But it’s also sweet soul music. Or at least music for soulful people.
His latest video below/after the jump. Filmed on the trip? – You got it. Some German lyrics anyone?
“Bombay Beach”: A place too strange for a film and music by Bob Dylan! [Trailer incld.]
It’s an almost unearthly place. Bombay Beach in California. Somewhere in nowhere land. A former recreation park, built around a lake that came to life after a bank dam collapsed. A story too strange to be written by screenwriters and so it is a real story.
A documentary, described as the most suprising and most ambitious in the last years, about the people who live in Bombay Beach. Directed by Alma Har’el. A former commercial filmer. Now she’s made “Bombay Beach”. One of the poorest places in California. Because the lake that once came by suprise now is completely polluted. The people who live there cannot escape. No way out of brutal heat and no future. But there then a future appears: A young boy among all the unique people in the movie.
Music by Beirut and Bob Dylan. And that for a film that brings Jack Kerouac’s America back to your mind. Fit?
The trailer and more information after the jump/below…
ON JACK’S ROAD. A Film about Kerouac, his famous Book and four People in America [WATCH HERE!]
In 1951, 60 years ago, Jack Kerouac wrote a book. A classic now. “On The Road” [German title: "Unterwegs"]. Generations of people have read it. Felt inspired by it. And it still captures a lifestyle. The idea of traveling from one end of the United States to the other one. A novel like a roadmovie.
What was it like? America of the 1940s and 50s. What did the Beat Poets see on their way from New York to San Francisco? What were they looking for? And did Jack Kerouac consider himself a Beat Poet?
It’s 2012 now and four young people re-lived the trip – as a photographer, musician, writer, and everything else. Together with some cameras they went to the places the book mentions. Streets. Houses. The house where Mr. Kerouac was born. All those places mixed with the expectations and ideas of those four people.
The French-German TV-channel now premiered the two-part documentary.
You can watch it after the jump/below. But only for a limited time. So hurry up…
The Story of the Emoticon – PLUS: A list of some of the obscurer ones
Scott Fahlman calls them ugly. He can, because he invented them. Emoticons. The word itself is a outbound of the age of technology. A mixture of “emotion” and “icons”.
Scott Fahlmann, professor and computer scientist at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, wanted to express humor in a very short and written way, in the moment he first used an emoticon.
It was September 19, 1982. 11:44am precisely, as he sent an email on an online electronic bulletin board.
According to the Independent the text was: “I propose the following character sequence for joke markers: 
Read it sideways.“
That’s it. History now.
Find a list of some of the obscurer emoticons after the jump/below…
George Best in real-time: Watch parts of “Football Like Never Before”
“Maradona good; Pele better; George Best.” It’s just a quote, but it shows his place in football history. If not the best, he was among the them for sure. George Best. Professional football player from Northern Ireland. He was a winger. Most famous for the years he wore the red shirts of Manchester United. From 1963 to 1974.
Born May 22, 1946, he made his debut, aged 17. That was on September 14, 1963. His first of many games for Manchester United. “Best unexpectedly quit United relatively early in 1974 at age 27, but returned to football for a number of clubs around the world in short spells, until finally retiring in 1983, aged 37.” [source]
Between those two dates there was football brilliance. European Cup Winner. European Footballer Of The Year. And many more awards and prizes.
On September 12, 1970, East German experimental filmmaker Hellmuth Costard brought eight 16mm cameras to the famous Old Trafford Stadium in Manchester. Just focusing on the number 11 among the red shirts. George Best. Watch parts of the documentary “Football Like Never Before” below/after the jump…
Brill Building, New York City: Home of Haberdashers and Songwriters
They are a part of American music history. A great team of composers. Burt Bacharach and Hal David. With Bacharach composing the music, and David writing the words – to songs you all may know.
“What The World Needs Now Is Love”. Sung by Jackie DeShannon. Tom Jones’ “What’s New, Pussycat”. In May 2012, both, David and Bacharach were awarded the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song. At a tribute concert at the White House. Both looking back to a career of 6 decades.
The songwriters met in the very early 1960s – at a place called Brill Building. Originally, it’s an office building located at 1619 Broadway in Manhattan. North of Times Square. Built in 1931 as the Alan E. Lefcourt Building it became very famous for housing music industry offices – and studios.
The full story, a short documentary and more below/after the jump…
Two Door Cinema Club: New Album “Beacon” plus Documentary “What Wee See”
It’s a quite joyful noise and something to dance to. The new album by North-Irish, now Glasgow, band Two Door Cinema Club. After their debut album from 2009 (“Tourist History”) brought them on the radar of the music world, this is their second attempt.
“Beacon” is produced by famous producer Jacknife Lee at his home-studio in California. And you can’t help and hear that in the songs. Even if the lyrics get a bit depressive, “Sleep Alone” is about nightmares singer Alex Trimble had after moving to Glasgow, the music is still uplifting.
Listen to our favourite track “Someday” below/after the jump. There’s also a documentary about the band’s recent touring activities and more…
