I've heard people talk about Stieg Larsson's "Millennium" series for a few years now, but I've only just started reading the first book.
Usually when it comes to books, movies, TV shows and the like, I don't go with trends. Chances are, if everyone's talking about it, I'll ignore it and try it out in a few years in peace when all the hype has died down. When the "Tomorrow" series by John Marsden first came out, I ignored it. Everyone at my school was reading it, so I didn't. Then halfway through high school, once everyone stopped talking about it, I checked it out. And loved it. It was exactly the same with Harry Potter: I was working at Toys R Us when the fourth book came out, and every second person was buying it or asking where to find it, but I wasn't interested; when I decided to venture into the world of Hogwarts a few years later, I loved it. It's the same with movies (Lord of the Rings, Empire Records), some bands (Green Day, silverchair) and tv shows (How I Met Your Mother, Gilmore Girls). Usually once I try one of these really popular series, I tend to like them, but I don't like to be told what to like by the hype circus.
So I've waited a few years to read "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", and until today, I loved it. It's very well written, the characters are well developed (so far anyway - I'm only 200 pages in), and I'm torn between reading it at every opportunity and savouring it - it's that good.
Then there was today. I still love it, but I'm mildly annoyed by today's pages.
Product placement in media is almost unavoidable. From Bella Swan's MacBook to the Miracle Whip in Lady Gaga's "Telephone" video to the Coca Cola water glasses on talent show judges' desks, there's no escaping it. That's the thing with movies, TV or radio - the fleeting image of a brand of computer, food or drink in a popular show is a subtle (or sometimes less subtle) way of creating a positive association with their product in a few seconds, but it's typically in the background - rarely is it blatantly highlighed: that's what commercials are for. In books however, it's less subtle. I'm sure I've come across occasional mentions of food or drink brands in novels before, but one word in a thousand isn't something you really notice. Or notice maybe, but it doesn't distract you from the narrative.
In the first hundred and fifty odd pages of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", there were a few mentions of an iBook, but I didn't think much of it. Then a central character's laptop got destroyed halfway through chapter 11. It would have sufficed to mention that the laptop was expensive or high-quality or state-of-the-art or similar; not everyone who reads Swedish crime novels is interested in computer specifications. Well, it would have sufficed for me. Larsson however thought it necessary to outline the specifications of her computer in detail - the brand, the brands of various components, and also mention several times that she bought it because this model by this brand was the best available, the highest quality, a superior product. This irritated me - if I wanted to read about Apple computers, I wouldn't be reading a Stieg Larsson novel; I'd be reading the Apple website.
That wasn't enough though. The following page outlined her desired replacement, in even more detail than the previous page. It wasn't just that it was blatant product placement, or that it was for a brand that I dislike for various reasons. The thing that really annoyed me was that the author chose to waste two pages of his novel on a sales pitch for a 2004 model Apple laptop when he could have been further developing a character or continuing the narrative - you know, what fiction writers usually do in their novels.
I'll keep reading, but reading in the hope that the next page does not make more than a passing reference to technology branded with a piece of glowing white fruit.
A new job and Milli Vanilli on the sax
So some of you may already know, but in the last few weeks, my work situation has been... well, interesting to say the least.
Here's the short version. Australia's not in the EU, so I need a visa to work and live in Germany. Until May this year my work and residence permit has been restricted to a specific position within the company I work for, which became more and more frustrating. I'm a teacher - qualified and experienced in teaching English and German - but I was employed as, well, a receptionist. Albeit a receptionist who got asked grammatical questions and had to cover for her boss when she didn't feel like teaching, but a receptionist nonetheless. Making any changes to my contract would have involved a three-month ordeal of appointments and paperwork involving immigration and the employment office convincing them that neither Germans nor EU citizens could do the job. Problem with that is that not only are there Germans who are qualified English teachers, but that the country where my chosen teaching speciality originated is also a part of the EU. The United Kingdom.
When a teaching colleague resigned in August, I grabbed the job with both hands, and for one fantastic month, over four years since I started at the company, I was employed as a teacher. A week after I got the job, I was offered another position - a managerial role at another centre. Full-time hours, training for the next step up the ladder, and I would get to keep teaching - a reduced number of hours, but teaching nonetheless.
Bring it on.
The language school I work at has five centres around Berlin - I've always been based at one centre, but I've filled in at all of the others at various points. The centres are all the same in that they all teach the same method, but there are differences - at the end of the day, some centres are much busier than others. The one I've worked at until now is the busiest in Berlin, and the new location is one of the quieter centres, which is a great opportunity for me to learn the new job in a much less chaotic setting.
The location of the new centre is also very different. While both of them are on touristy thoroughfares, one in former East Berlin and the other in former West Berlin, that's the only similarity. The tourists in the first area are noticeably younger and more budget conscious - think youth hostels and pub crawls - while the second is clearly a more upmarket shopping area, home to Berlin's version of Harrods.
One thing remains the same though: the weirdos. Like every large city, Berlin has its fair share of weirdos. I have a theory that the alcholics, the beggars, the buskers, the undiagnosed mentally ill and the homeless that roam the city's streets are more visible in Berlin than in other cities partly due to the honesty policy of the public transport system, but that's a topic for another day.
The topic that inspired today's post is the kid I encountered on the way home. Walking past the six-storey department store I mentioned, I heard snippets of George Michael being played on the sax, and sure enough, there's a little kid and a saxophone that's almost as big as he is doing his best at
"Careless Whisper". Sounded pretty good too. He played to the end of the verse, with flair and attitude and all that, but when it got to the chorus, he stopped. He just stood there for the next sixteen bars and tapped his foot. Thing is, the sound of the saxophone didn't stop. It continued through the chorus, improvisation a-plenty just as before, then when the next verse started, he picked up his sax again and Milli Vanilli-ed his way through the rest of the song. Class act. Can't even be bothered sax-synching to the whole song.
Here's the short version. Australia's not in the EU, so I need a visa to work and live in Germany. Until May this year my work and residence permit has been restricted to a specific position within the company I work for, which became more and more frustrating. I'm a teacher - qualified and experienced in teaching English and German - but I was employed as, well, a receptionist. Albeit a receptionist who got asked grammatical questions and had to cover for her boss when she didn't feel like teaching, but a receptionist nonetheless. Making any changes to my contract would have involved a three-month ordeal of appointments and paperwork involving immigration and the employment office convincing them that neither Germans nor EU citizens could do the job. Problem with that is that not only are there Germans who are qualified English teachers, but that the country where my chosen teaching speciality originated is also a part of the EU. The United Kingdom.
When a teaching colleague resigned in August, I grabbed the job with both hands, and for one fantastic month, over four years since I started at the company, I was employed as a teacher. A week after I got the job, I was offered another position - a managerial role at another centre. Full-time hours, training for the next step up the ladder, and I would get to keep teaching - a reduced number of hours, but teaching nonetheless.
Bring it on.
The language school I work at has five centres around Berlin - I've always been based at one centre, but I've filled in at all of the others at various points. The centres are all the same in that they all teach the same method, but there are differences - at the end of the day, some centres are much busier than others. The one I've worked at until now is the busiest in Berlin, and the new location is one of the quieter centres, which is a great opportunity for me to learn the new job in a much less chaotic setting.
The location of the new centre is also very different. While both of them are on touristy thoroughfares, one in former East Berlin and the other in former West Berlin, that's the only similarity. The tourists in the first area are noticeably younger and more budget conscious - think youth hostels and pub crawls - while the second is clearly a more upmarket shopping area, home to Berlin's version of Harrods.
One thing remains the same though: the weirdos. Like every large city, Berlin has its fair share of weirdos. I have a theory that the alcholics, the beggars, the buskers, the undiagnosed mentally ill and the homeless that roam the city's streets are more visible in Berlin than in other cities partly due to the honesty policy of the public transport system, but that's a topic for another day.
The topic that inspired today's post is the kid I encountered on the way home. Walking past the six-storey department store I mentioned, I heard snippets of George Michael being played on the sax, and sure enough, there's a little kid and a saxophone that's almost as big as he is doing his best at
"Careless Whisper". Sounded pretty good too. He played to the end of the verse, with flair and attitude and all that, but when it got to the chorus, he stopped. He just stood there for the next sixteen bars and tapped his foot. Thing is, the sound of the saxophone didn't stop. It continued through the chorus, improvisation a-plenty just as before, then when the next verse started, he picked up his sax again and Milli Vanilli-ed his way through the rest of the song. Class act. Can't even be bothered sax-synching to the whole song.
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