faux château

Some might be too quick to savour the irony of the Chinese being victims of counterfeit goods, but I did think it was an interesting reversal to hear that the outrageous popularity of red wine, for its health benefits and cuisine pairing opportunity, especially from certain growers like Château Lafite Rothschild of the Médoc region, has inspired imposters wanting in on the action. In the Chinese market, some vintages can fetch a price of several thousand euros per bottle, and knock-offs are emerging--mostly new wine in old bottles. Wine from this estate have always commanded premium prices, where ever they are sold, however. In the main, the penchant is for the French tradition but wines from elsewhere are becoming popular, too. It would be disappointing and embarrassing for a member of the cult of connoisseurs to fall for such a trick, but the subject of luxury and trendy refinement is a strange thing, especially when the substitute passes muster.

freude oder schadenfreude

Though not everything in the world is being influenced by the state of financial affairs and cultural mores and norms are not always so neatly packaged, a study commissioned by a consulting firm and a liquor distributor is showing that the typical German is having difficulty expressing his or her genetic make-up for joy—something is defective in the bio-chemistry preventing, as it were, the DNA replicating and passing along a capacity for fun and leisure to its messenger RNA. There are stereotypes of the exacting and gloomy German, which might be drawn into sharper focus in the current economic climate where two factions have emerged, like the industrious ant and the lazy grasshopper.  This survey, for what it’s worth, really provided some interesting insights about a growing imbalance between work and play. The lens of parable is an apt analogy, with the Germans are weathering the financial crisis with patrician discipline but also too burdened to enjoy how good they have it—collectively and individually, it seems.

They are victims of their own success in another way (not just as beneficiaries of the chaos) too, being spoiled for choice, and the obligation to take up any one of a number of pleasurable pursuits is ringing hollow as a weird and funny (uncomfortably accurate observations, some) sort jealousy comes into effect: jealous of the Joneses, one’s neighbours, as etiquette and appearances dictate, but also being unable to embrace the stylings of Club Med. This is not universally true, of course, and there are plenty of exceptions and recent moments of pride and of joy, suggesting that we’ve simply gotten to be forgetful and misguided and hopefully not naturally dour, but it is worth noting how people rate (and whether they considered their grumpiness—or happiness unique or abnormal beforehand) themselves and how they look from another perspective.

papercraft

Some weeks ago it was suggested that the United States will expand (turn inward) its vigourous disinformation and propaganda operations to help sway domestic opinion. There mere hint of more government sanctioned red-herrings diluting journalism—especially when the mainstream and most hard-hittingest comes pre-fabricated in the forms of internet research, stock-photographs and sponsored articles (take the case of the on-going tumult of confusion in Syria, for example)—has met the requirement and served up a hopeless dose of distrust without doing anything further. To bring the level of skepticism this high effectively negates the public’s ability to rally around any cause (or any health-conscious person or stock-market croupier for that matter), since one is not just looking at stance, ideology and motivation with a suspicious eye, which was always advisable, but now has cause also to doubt the veracity of the movement itself. It is as if Anonymous or any protest group is not just prone to infiltration but could be nothing more than a strawman of stuffed-ballots and a colossal toolbox of popular sentiment. To bait the public with such hoaxes is the censoring of the word gullible from the dictionary but puts conspiracy into everything once there is no way of verifying trustworthy sources.

geisterstädte

Der Spiegel’s English-language stories section reports on an exhibition in Berlin about contemporary ghost-towns and the deliberate choices and accidents of history that are creating the phenomenon.

One nearly abandoned town featured in the museum’s profiles is Centralia in Pennsylvania, which became depopulated due to trash burning on this day in 1962 that got out of control and spread to a network of underground shafts of a disused coal mine. The area became unlivable (and restricted due to concerns over health and safety) and the fire is still smoldering. The coincidence of the timing between the anniversary and the opening of the exhibit caught my attention initially, and I found that although authentic ghost towns are relatively rare and Centralia unique, eternal coal dust fires are not, and there is one to visit just outside of Dudweiler (DE/EN) in the Saarland that has been stoked since early Baroque times. The town’s fate inspired the horror film Silent Hill and has held attention and the imagination over the past half a century. The exhibition explores what piques this fascination for the recently abandoned, decommissioned and maybe these mementos mori forces one to contemplate how long our presence can linger in a place without us.

torch song

Protests and boycotts are always of a selective nature. Parallel to the threats by some European countries to sit-out the Euro 2012 final matches to be held in the Ukraine over the host’s treatment of its former prime-minister (apparently having had selectively made an example out of her perceived violation of public-trust) and even propose the games be held in another venue, like Germany or Poland, holding the Eurovision Song Contest in Azerbaijan was not without controversy.

Just as it is a valid question whether a soccer tournament ought to be treated as a political football or is a matter for personal and private convictions or international attention on other issues is not out-competed by the competition, many groups wondered if Baku was the right host with a poor record of human rights, including allegations of a rash of attacks against journalists that went uninvestigated and the forced removal of residents from the location where the auditorium was built for the show. Confrontations were subdued ahead of the gala, whose tradition began nearly sixty years ago as a way to test cross-compatibilities of different national broadcasters and native systems across Europe in a live event. And although the show is meant to be apolitical and some regard the whole affair as something square and un-hip (though probably very much the opposite), it still relevant and demonstrates compatibilities and cultural interpretations (which are sometimes translated with considerable license) with a review of distinct ballads and reinventions of pop songs. Though protests and boycotts did not materialize, the producers made me happy (in addition to fun performances by the Babushkas, the Iranian Reindeer, a reprise of the Irish twins and others) because they did not avoid the subject of human-rights and justice in televised profiles of the host country and presented it as a challenge. Because of the spirit of the Eurovision, I think, unlike with other grand extravaganzas, Azerbaijan won’t be forgotten with only the fancy band shell to remind them once how they were once the focus of a critical and concerned eye.