Virtual, but permanent.
General comments.
Web ads like this one make one wonder if it is wise to trust computers with advertising. At least, Albert Brooks should be thinking why his movie distributor allowed this ad to end up on this particular news page. Looking for humor in the Arab world? It might be just as hard to find in the Jewish world these days.
Obviously, this gaffe is not the reason the movie bombed, but it could not have helped.
Berlin is a short distance from Prague: only four and a half hours on a standard train. Yet, the two cities could not be more different. Languages are as those from different planets. one still looks as it did a thousand years ago, World War II and communism notwithstanding, and the other is a great cultural mecca slowly mending the severe wounds it sustained at the hands of fascism and communism. The pictures show only part of the story. A great deal of European history is told in these two cities. A scant 6 days are not enough to capture any significant fraction of this history, but they are just enough to instill an appreciation of the stories.
What makes Münster tolerable is the great access it offers to so many European cities. Düsseldorf and Köln (Cologne) are two very nice cities in Germany. Cologne is the largest city in this region of Germany, and it is by far the most fun to visit for a weekend because one can go to many museums, walk along the river, have great food, listen to great, cutting-edge music, and drink until morning every night. The proximity to Cologne has helped a great deal in preserving my sanity.
The biggest highlight of the city is the famous cathedral (the Dom). It is massive, gigantic and detailed beyond description. Click here for the pictures. Cologne need not be your primary destination in Germany, but it is such a nice place to visit and live.
Maturity is a quality that remains absent–at least, elusive–in American culture. Some time ago, people were shocked by a covered nipple. Consequently, they were protected from vulgar wit this year.
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Stones ‘agreed song censorship’
According to this article, a few lyrics from “Start Me up” and “Rough Justice” were cut from the Rolling Stones’ Superbowl halftime performance. The censorship proceeded according to an agreement between the NFL and the band.
Inside sources provided a glimpse of this agreement. Apparently, it limited the lyrical content of the Stones’ performance, but it provided them with unlimited smack, coke and hookers backstage.
Jagger hinted to this provision in a press conference before the game. (NYTimes article) “America [is] almost unrecognizable and it’s very hard to imagine what the United States was like 40 years ago…Hopefully, though, both of us still have our core values intact.”
Indubitably. Certainly, ticket sales for the current Stones tour was not stellar. This article delineates the Stones’ motivation for doing the show and agreeing to censorship: ticket sales.
The core values of America and the Rolling Stones are indeed still the same.