pop culture reference in title

30 September 2014

Ett liv som hund

Min familjen har alltid husdjur. De hade hundar före jag föddes – faktiskt, Purzel, hunden som de hade in året när jag föddes (1984) blev gravid och hade tre liten valpar en månad före jag föddes. Mina föräldrar behålls en av de som hetade Mopsy. Hon var min vän när jag var liten och vi spelade ofta på gårdet. När vi—Mopsy och jag—var sex år gammal, blev Mopsy gravid. Det var en olycka med grannes hund Terry… Nägra månade sen forsvann Mopsy plötsligt. Samtidigt blev jag sjuk och jag var tvungen att gå till sjukhuset, när läkare tog ut mina […]

17 February 2014

That Is Not My Name

When I went to Australia, I did something that I have wanted to do all my life, but always failed to take the chances I had: I changed my first name. Not legally or anything – I merely gave everyone I met in Australia my second name instead of my first name, thus they addressed me by my second name. Why would anyone do that, you ask? It’s simple: I have hated my first name ever since I became consciously aware of what an old-fashioned, stupid name it is. In German, it rhymes with a lot of bad things. Therefore, […]

27 January 2014

A Place In This World

I’ve been back in Germany from Australia for two weeks, or something along that line. Truth is, I have completely lost my feeling for time (hello, jetlag) and I usually can’t even tell which weekday it is. I was a bit shocked today when I realised that January is almost over. My first week here was very surreal. I had been away from this place for half a year. In this half a year, I have experienced how perfect and pleasant life can be. Suddenly, everything about this place is a shock, everything is making me feel incredibly unwelcome. People […]

17 June 2013

Only the End of the World again: Jericho vs. Revolution

Do Americans have a (sub)conscious desire to eliminate their society? This is a question you could ask yourself when you look at the vast amount of dystopian and apocalyptic fiction out there, seemingly all of which seems to take place on the North American Continent. The Walking Dead, I Am Legend and Falling Skies depict the US as overrun by zombies/vampires/aliens, The Handmaid’s Tale depicts a totalitarian theocracy, Jericho shows us the immediate aftermath of nuclear annihilation and Revolution shows us a world without electricity. [This is probably a good time to warn you about the massive spoilers in this […]

12 May 2009

Have you tried… not being a mutant? (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

I’m not much of a superhero geek, I never read a lot of superhero comics (except Witchblade maybe), but every once in a while I enjoy a bit of easy-to-digest entertainment a la Spider-Man, Batman Begins or Superman Returns. But the X-Men are probably the most interesting among those present day movie superheroes. They work because they are not just a single individual in the fight against evil, but a group of human subspecies which acts as an allegory for minorities – complete with awesome superpowers every kid who’s been mobbed in school dreamed of. With a devoted fan like […]

20 June 2008

She saved the world a lot: Buffy the Vampire Slayer

The first time I heard about Buffy Summers must have been some time in 98 or 99, through a TV commercial. In the following 4-5 years, I occasionally watched her and her friends on TV, twice even had my aunt tape me a couple of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel episodes from US TV. But I never really had the chance or the enthusiasm to watch the whole thing from the beginning, as I should have. Plus it was airing so late and full of scary demons, so that I was either too tired or too scared to watch […]

4 April 2008

Got myself a gun: The Sopranos

The Sopranos first caught my attention in December 1999. I had just turned 15, young and innocent as I was I visited my family in New Jersey and New York to celebrate the 99/00 thing. As sort of a souvenir, because it seemed so weird and different from what we have in Germany, I took home an out-of-date issue of the TV Guide. It had The Sopranos on the cover, advertising the upcoming Season 2. I’m not sure whether I ever read the accompanying article, but I probably never fully grasped (or just didn’t care) that the show was about […]

21 June 2007

Doomsdaylight: Heroes

Yesterday I finished watching Heroes. It’s been a long journey. Sorry for this geeky post. I started watching this show exactly a week ago, and since then I’ve been consuming it like a zombie with the result that I now feel like someone ate my brain. It sure is a lot to absorb, but at the same time it’s relieving to be at the end of the journey. That’s the impact a simple TV show can have on you ?! This definitely isn’t the easy Friday night entertainment you’d expect it to be. On top of that it’s quite graphic […]

25 May 2007

Dead Men Tell No Tales (not even At World’s End)

I have seen Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End last night, and my expectations were pretty much confirmed – the movie didn’t really make sense. (x-posted to the reviews) I’ve been a fan of the Disney ride since 1996 (I haven’t been there again since like 1999, but I’m dying to), so I was all the more excited when I saw the first movie in 2003. I absolutely loved it, it was a solid, spirited story and great escapism. But now imagine the writers – you have a great hit movie, the people are screaming for more, so what […]