Naked and Dressed

Unfortunately, my short visit to the opening burlesque theater of my friend did not work. The snow chaos and closing the airport in Brussels has stopped my trip. As a small consolation, my friend has promised to send me a DVD with footage from the opening. I’m curious.

As a result of the misery I have no pictures and no report  I wanted to post.Instead, I post something about the great photographer Helmut Newton.

Many of you will certainly know this name. Already in the 70 s he was the most coveted and most expensive fashion, advertising, portraits, and nude photographer. His oversized images, mostly in black and white, with beautiful women in seductive poses are striking and provoking. You can contemplate a good example of his talent in the wonderful Newton bar . Sip delicious cocktails there by the way! Or visit the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin in order to admire his oeuvre.  You can still  see on this page many works of this photographer. Of course, there are some image bands with photographs by Helmut Newton to buy. One thing is for example “Work”, it contains many wonderful pictures and is not even expensive.

If you become a real fan of Helmut Newton, you can visit the cementry in Berlin, whre he is buried  after his death in a car accident.

Dita von Teese

I am lucky because a friend of mine has  invited me to the opening of his Burlesque Theatre. Next week in Brussels .. “Wow, how cool is that!” some would say. “Burlesque, what’s that?” would wonder others.

Well, Burlesque was called a genus of American theater entertainment primarily in the first third of the 20 Century. It was close to the American vaudeville, but  striptease was presented as a central attraction.

The artistes did not undress completely, but has only got rid of certain items of clothing. Pulling out of gloves could serve here for erotic attraction. When the strip has became  the real taking off the clothes after 1930, it was over with the combination of dance, singing and an indicated striptease.

Today, the art of burlesque undergoes  comeback and has become sophisticated entertainment. Surely, you already have heard of Dita von Teese, the undisputable queen of burlesque! See her interview on “What is the difference between striptease and burlesque”

Next week I will let you know how the opening show was. If you are by any chance in Brussels next week, so come to see the very exciting art of burlesque!

Rocambole

The idea is that anyone can look at it, can edit it, and – most important – add some competent answers. This document is, unfortunately, still not complete.
I should mention that the contained answers  have  in large part been put together by Lana, and I’ve continued. Furthermore, I should specify the source of this material. It is, of course, from the “Fundamentals of Corporate Finance” by Ross, Westerfield, Jaffe.

I am looking forward to a lot of contribution and good luck to all of us!

Corporate Finance.

PS. Is there any useful tuition for our topic on the youtube? PLease, send a link, if so. Thanks!

Other post reported on the incredible growth of the number of Facebook users in Europe. Incredible 100 million Europeans in the month whisper sweet nothings in at least one social network. Every europeane Facebook user has about 120 friends on average . Interesting .. I have to probably still expand my contacts ..

Another interesting case was reported. There is now a world’s first course in “social media consultant“. This has been launched in Birmingham, England. Not only the technical aspect of designing a social network is taught, but the course also examines how companies can benefit economically from a good contact in the social network to their customers. I can imagine that this training has a promising future. A promising future in an increasingly digital future. What a clever play on words has occurred to me as a conclusion! Not bad, huh?

I experienced an absolutely impressive classical concert where I definitely recognised myself being a classical music fan. What a pleasure to discover new things touching you so much you can’t forget this feeling even few days later. Therefore I attached a video presenting one of my favorite pieces I enjyoned that day: Pablo de Sarasate,  Carmen Fantasie op.25. Unfortunately, I could not find the performance of the brilliant Hyeyoon Park I liked so much, but here you have a great impression of that wonderful piece of music performed by another talented young woman:

I hope, you liked listening to the music and maybe already discovered your passion for the classical music too.

Doesn’t the term “classic” come from the expresion “Klasse haben”, meaning possessing style?

In fact, this is an event carried out in different countries and dedicated to advertising films. The founder of the Night of the AD Eaters is the passionate collector of commercial spots Jean Marie Boursicot.  He possesses the biggest advertising film collection containing more than 950000 commercials from all over the world! He started his collection in 1978 after he has recognised there is nobody collecting advertising films.

After having seen close to 350 short commercials yesterday, I now understand that the organiser considers this branch of film making as worthy of collecting and presenting. One film stuck to my mind: a parody on the notorious Citroen dancing roboter created to present a Chevrolet car. It is a humorous way to take advantage of the very famous commercial film created by a competitor. What a smart strategy!

I enjoyed this event a lot and can recommend it to everybody who is interested in entertainment linked with a high art of producing of advertising films.

Calendar

Nevertheless, I actually like the Christmas time. I like many lights in the city, Christmas events and glühwein. People are friendly and cheerful. Though, they often become quite stressed towards the 24th of December. This is because of theier (voluntary or perceived) duty to make their relatives and friends happy by giving them Christmas gifts.

My family,  like me, does not celebrate Christmas in this traditional way. But I have to admit, when I am invited to join my friends to celebrate Christmas with them, I stick to the tradition and organise some nice little things for them. In some way, it is just nice to make a pleasure to someone you like.

Oh, and I also like this “Jingle Bells” song:It makes a good mood, albeit kitschy, but still nice.

I am wondering, whether the majority of the Christmas-celebrating-folk actually remembers the reason to celebrate? I mean, I have seen some reports on TV, which revealed that there are many (expecially young people) who do not know that,  according to the Christian faith,  Jesus Christ was born a long time before on 25th of December. It seemed, many interviewees just followed the tradition to celebrate, to buy gifts, etc. only because they are used to do so..

Apropos buying presents: Christmas time is the best season for every retailer. The sales soar up incredibly. Not for no reason the shops open on four last weekends before Christmas day, at least in Germany. It pays for them in any case to engage an extra personnel and to incur additional costs, an increased turnover justifies this expenditure.

Thus, I tend to believe there is more commerce nowadays about the Christmas, rather than a religious motive to celebrate the Nativity of Jesus.

What do y o u think about this topic? Why do  y  o u  celebrate Christmas? Let me know about your motives.

Thanks in advance!

The recent retrieval of my “lost” friend just intensified my positive attitude toward Facebook.  She was my best friend who emigrated in the USA and our contact somehow abandoned.  And now, ten years later, she found me with Facebook! Isn’t  great?!

I know, there are some critical voices about data protection regulations  but I believe, the good things just outweigh the critiacal ones.

What do  y o u  think about Facebook & Co?

Guitarist Manuel González

Being inspired by Jo´s Post on a marvelous piece of music Romance d’Amour I recalled a great experience I had few months before: a guitar concert of Manuel González in Palau de la Música in Barcelona. What a unforgettable experience! Not only because of his guitar play alone, but also due to the fantastic arcitecture and atmosphere of that impresseive building. Wow!

The artist also played this wonderful piece of music Jo has described in her blog Romance d’Amour.

But for me, it is the tremendeous Asturias by Isaac Albéniz which the artist Manuel Gonazález has described as a “thunder is beginning over Asturias”. Unfortunately, I can´t provide you the original record of the artist´s perfrormance on this particular piece. Still, I found an amazing performance by Ana Vidovic.

Are you hearing the thunder? Enjoy!