Travis in Berlin

FYI, I'm tumbleblogging now over here: travisjtodd.soup.io

It's a lot easier than this blog. Little less time-consuming. Little less creative. Same satisfying flavor.

Labels: Berlin, Blogs, Tumbleblogging

Hello all,

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with this blog or podcasts lately. My life is starting to accelerate at a pace that my digital presence can't keep up with. Most notably, Grow Votes is starting to gain a lot of momentum, and we're getting really heavy into development. Therefore, I'm going to abandon this blog for a while in favor of our company's blog: http://growvotes.org/blog/

I hope that it's shed some light on German culture, travel and my time here. I may post from time to time in the future, but don't hold your breath.

Thanks everyone for following along!

Love,

Travis J. Todd

Labels: Berlin, blog, grow votes, travel

http://www.languagetrainers.co.uk/blog/2007/09/24/top-10-hand-gestures/

This is a great article and a must-read for anyone traveling abroad. You don't want to get caught in Germany thinking your complimenting someone's cooking but really calling them an anus.

Labels: Berlin, Germany, hand gestures, travel

If you go to a store in Germany, no one asks you within the first 30 seconds, "Can I help you look for something?" I worked in retail in the States and this was a company policy. In Germany it's implied that "no, you're just looking" unless you are by fact looking helplessly lost, then only reluctantly an employee will ask if you need their assistance. They really get it culturally. They were offered capitalism and got to choose the best parts and leave the others by the road side.

This cultural difference is most pointedly exemplified in a story I heard last night. It's about retail behemoth, Wal-mart. Wal-mart tried to come to Germany, but jsut couldn't figure out why people we afraid of their stores. It wasn't that they didn't like big-box discount places, they have OBI and IKEA. The problem was the people. When someone is standing at the door, smiling and welcoming every person, the Germans probably thought he was a nutcase. And when old ladies were asked if they needed help with their bags on the way out, they turned and ran, because the only people who'd ask you that in Germany are people who are trying to steal your bags.

And it's not that the Germans are impolite, it's that they're too polite. They don't feel like they should intrude into your life. You should be free to live you life in comfort without being harassed by other people. Ah, Wal-mart, proving Southern Hospitality doesn't quite cut the Senf mustard in Germany.

Labels: Berlin, Cultures, Germany, shopping, travel, wal-mart

Hey all. Just wanted to say that I've been working for about 3 days on Part Three of the Road Trip podcast series, and iMovie is doing nothing but crashing. Everytime it crashes it does some weird thing by sending all the movies to the trash and saving over the previous version of my movie. It's very frustrating. So, I'm going to get iMovie '08 today, snd hopefully have something for you guys soon. Sorry it's taken so long.

So, on Friday we went to see Seeed, who are an awesome reggae/hip-hop band and Berlin natives. They were welcomed home in open arms and sold out three amphitheater-sized shows in a matter of days. The show was epic, with a massive stage, costumes, set-changes and some of the most kick-ass reggae/dancehall music this side of Kingston.

This is one of many live shows I've gone to in the past month (I saw New Zealand's own The Black Seeds twice). And I've come to another cultural observation about Germans: They love going out to concerts and will do about anything the band tells them too. Like when the lead singer says "put your hands in the air!" no one is "too cool" as in America to get involved. They love to clap along, even the ones with no rhythm. They also love to buy merchandise and dance their white guy 80s moves. This is absolutely wonderful for a band, but I couldn't help thinking...

These Germans will do anything for a good showman with a microphone. Give a man a stage and a Sennheiser and the crowd wave their hands just as Simon says. It made perfect sense all of a sudden how Hitler brainwashed them all some 70 odd years ago.

Labels: Berlin, Germany, seeed, the black seeds, travel

So, I've been living in Berlin now for about six months and you really get a good (well, unsettling) perspective on America from this great a distance. You start to see how identical the Bushies are running things to the Stasi of Cold War East Berlin. Warrentless wiretapping, building walls along the borders, ...

What struck me today is there is this song, that was #1 on several European music charts, peaked at #3 on the German Singles Chart and was released more than a year and a half ago. And no, it's not some crazy house music by an obscure European band. Its the song "Dear Mr. President" by American artist, Pink.

Here's a link to a video and lyrics: http://becauseimaddicted.blogspot.com/2007/07/pink-dear-mr-president.html

What struck me most about this song is that it is almost ever-present on the radio here. I could turn on the radio right now and bet I could find it, but to my disbelief, no one I talked to in the States had ever heard of it.

So, it's pretty obvious to me that the Republican-backed Clear Channel Communications, which owns almost all the big media outlets in America has had it blacklisted. I can't help imagining what would happen to someone like Vietnam War era Bob Dylan or John Lennon in a political landscape like we have today.

So, lets use our last front of freedom, the internet, and at least give it a listen and pass it to a couple friends. And while you're at it, see Das Leben der Anderen The Lives of Others.

Labels: America, Berlin, Bush, Pink, Stasi, travel