• True value

    For over an hour Benjamin Herman and the Robin Nolan Trio played their hearts out at the Jazz Festival. Afterwards, they presented their new album. You could have a chat with them. And take your picture with them, if you wanted. For only 20 euros you could buy the great album, directly from them, enthusiastically signed and handed over with a fitting smile.

    A true bargain for such a high-quality, spine-tingling experience, but a number of people around us thought differently. They called it expensive and preferred to go for a beer and have something to eat.

    Close view of a plastic garbage reflected in a puddle on the ground

    When you talk food at a festival, you’re quickly forking over 5 euros for a small plastic cup (0.20l) of Heineken or 8,50 euros for that marketing gimmick known as Silver. Muffins go for 7,50, sandwiches start at 12.50, with a slice of pizza doing 14 and a rice bowl topping 20 euros. A quick bite with something that trying to pass for beer easily touches 50 euros for two people, everything served in disposables. But it probably makes for a nice selfie … or something.

    Little good can come from a society that has over 50 euros to spare for high processed junk in plastic wrappers, but considers 20 euros for 56 minutes of brilliant music (bought directly from the artist, with lasting memory of a lifetime) too much.

  • Stalin is dead

    From the department of classic jokes

    The Soviet nation decides to get rid of him once and for all, and wants to bury him as far away as possible. They set up a special commission tasked with finding a suitable location. They reach out, but quickly get a lot of no’s from allies in Asia, Africa and South America. Desperate as they are, they decide to call on some European countries. 

    The commission first turns to the British government with the request to make available a plot on a distant cemetery somewhere in the vast corners of their commonwealth. 

    “Well,” replies the British government, “we do already have Napoleon III, so are kind of maxed out in the foreign dictator-category. And with Karl Marx with have more than enough red heroes here. Adding Stalin really would be overdoing it a bit.”

    Then the commission calls on the Germans. They have a feeling this could work out, as this western powerhouse kind of owes them something. 

    “Well, we could bury him here,” replied the Germans, “but parts of Hitler are here too. Both of them in the one country might be a bit two much.”

    Then an email from Jerusalem arrives: “We recognise the support we got from the Soviet Communist party during the UN general assembly of November 29 1947 which greatly helped to carry UN Resolution 181 partitioning Mandatory Palestine into two independent states. We also remember the support we got from the left during the war of 1948 and thereafter. Therefore we agree to bury him here.” 

    The members of the commission read the email in utter panic and respond immediately: “Thanks but no way, you already had one resurrection there … ” 

  • The Tao of Pooh

    An introduction to Taoism by Benjamin Hoff.

    • Pros: Funny, full of wisdom.
    • Cons: –
    • Rating: 4,8 / 5