140 km/h (93 mph) is one hell of a speed. In Switzerland you're only allowed to drive 120 on the highway. In Kitzbuhel in Austria the ski-professionals are racing up to 143 km/h on their skis. Kitzbuhel is the steepest downhill-ski-slope in the world, the fastest, and definitely one of the most difficult and dangerous. At that speed if things go wrong, they really go wrong. As Swiss skier Daniel Albrecht found out on Friday morning:
Listen to the commentary from the two Austrian journalists - you don't have to be fluent in German /Austrian to understand how shocked they were by the crash.
At the moment Daniel's in hospital in intensive care, kept in coma to prevent stress causing brain damage. As far as the doctors can say he'll survive, but they don't know about permanent injuries now. May he get well soon!
Just two days later the main race was held, won by another Swiss, Didier Defago, who just won the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen a week earlier.
Congratulations!
Samstag, 24. Januar 2009
Samstag, 10. Januar 2009
The Glory (????) of the Human Voice
Between Xmas and New Year I converted all my 400+ CD's to MP3 for my iPod. Working as a salesman in a CD-store back in the early 90's I happen to have some collector's items which I came across again now. I'd like to show you some of them.
Warning: If you're a musician with a discriminating ear, then DON'T watch the second video in this post as it might be ototoxic for you!!!!!
Note the questionmarks in the title. What I'm going to show you gives you a completely different look at singers.
If you're a regular reader of my blog you will remember the post about the English salesman who sang an aria in a talent show. Here comes the opposite: Florence Foster Jenkins was an American 'singer' who started her career in 1912 and died in 1944. All her relatives and friends advised her not to sing. But when her father died and she inherited several million dollars, she funded her singing career. Her concert were very rare, normally once a year she would sing at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York. Only one month before her death she sang at Carnegie Hall in New York. The audience was always chosen by herself in personal interviews, so it wasn't easy to get a ticket. The concerts were always sold out, and people left with tears in their eyes - tears of laughter, where as FFJ thought it was tears of emotion. Once a critic stated that she 'didn't let herself get terrorize by the intention of the composers'.
To give you a reference what I'm talking about, here's 'Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen' from Mozart's Magic Flute, sung by Diana Damrau, a German opera-singer. The aria itself is a real tester. It's one of the most difficult pieces to sing in classical music:
And here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the one and only Florence Foster Jenkins with her version of the same aria. Note her complete lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability:
Warning: If you're a musician with a discriminating ear, then DON'T watch the second video in this post as it might be ototoxic for you!!!!!
Note the questionmarks in the title. What I'm going to show you gives you a completely different look at singers.
If you're a regular reader of my blog you will remember the post about the English salesman who sang an aria in a talent show. Here comes the opposite: Florence Foster Jenkins was an American 'singer' who started her career in 1912 and died in 1944. All her relatives and friends advised her not to sing. But when her father died and she inherited several million dollars, she funded her singing career. Her concert were very rare, normally once a year she would sing at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in New York. Only one month before her death she sang at Carnegie Hall in New York. The audience was always chosen by herself in personal interviews, so it wasn't easy to get a ticket. The concerts were always sold out, and people left with tears in their eyes - tears of laughter, where as FFJ thought it was tears of emotion. Once a critic stated that she 'didn't let herself get terrorize by the intention of the composers'.
To give you a reference what I'm talking about, here's 'Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen' from Mozart's Magic Flute, sung by Diana Damrau, a German opera-singer. The aria itself is a real tester. It's one of the most difficult pieces to sing in classical music:
And here, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the one and only Florence Foster Jenkins with her version of the same aria. Note her complete lack of rhythm, pitch, tone, and overall singing ability:
Donnerstag, 8. Januar 2009
Welcome to the year 2009
Here's a selection of pictures I took between Xmas and the New Year:
Staufen has an Advent calendar every year. People from the village create one window for each day, this year I found this one the best.
Although it got freezing cold on New Years Eve - the streets were basically ice-rinks - I went up the hill in our village to see the bonfire.
Lighting the fire up
Lots of smoke at first...
It's slowly starting to get hot
On fire!
The next day showed winter in all its beauty - time for a nice shot of a blackbird eating holly-berries.
And last but not least: A whiteheaded maki at the zoo in Zurich wishes you all a Happy New Year!
Staufen has an Advent calendar every year. People from the village create one window for each day, this year I found this one the best.
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| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
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| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
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| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
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| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
Although it got freezing cold on New Years Eve - the streets were basically ice-rinks - I went up the hill in our village to see the bonfire.
Lighting the fire up
 |
| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
Lots of smoke at first...
 |
| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
It's slowly starting to get hot
 |
| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
On fire!
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| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
The next day showed winter in all its beauty - time for a nice shot of a blackbird eating holly-berries.
 |
| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
And last but not least: A whiteheaded maki at the zoo in Zurich wishes you all a Happy New Year!
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| Von Jahreswechsel 08-09 |
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