Musik Monday - American Soldier

It's Memorial Day, and I hope between the picnics and fun, Americans take a moment to remember those who protect us and our freedom.  And especially remember those who died defending and protecting us.  I'm changing it up again this week to honor all the past, present, and future soldiers with this Toby Keith song:




Not so much about the actual music today, but I love country music and Toby Keith.

Though it's not as common where I grew up as in other areas of the country, I've had a number of friends join the US Military in some capacity.  My father was in the army and both my grandfathers were as well.  My grandpa did everything he could to join and I know he was in Korea and did a lot of dangerous work looking for bombs on bridges because of his engineering background.  My Opa joined after moving here from Germany to become a US citizen and even was stationed as a US soldier in Germany for a while.

I'm lucky that none of my close friends and family have died or been seriously injured while serving in the Armed Forces, but it's important to remember all of those soldiers who have.

Musik Monday - Grün, Grün, Grün

This is a classic German children's song and a great way to teach colors to anyone.

Grimm - a show for German speakers

Tonight is the season finale of Grimm!

I caught the first few episodes of Grimm when they aired, but ended up missing several because of my schedule. Then finals ended and that meant a few days of tv marathons for me.  I probably watched 4 back-to-back the first go around because I liked it that much.  There are many reasons I like the show.

Musik Monday - Weird Al, Yoda (live!)

Back in March I was the lucky, lucky winner of Weird Al tickets.  Then, I got even luckier and won backstage passes to a meet and greet after the show!  I could not have been more excited.  I got him to sign my copy of "When I Grow Up", the children's book by Weird Al.  I also had him sign a program for my friend who I didn't take to the show.  I'm running out of time and haven't gotten anywhere near uploading pictures, so I'll put another post just for all of that.

For now, I wanted to post a video of him performing "Yoda" live:

There's even a little hint of German culture at 4:05 or so, which is so fitting for my blog.  It goes beyond the Yoda song to one of the most impressive performances I have ever seen in a concert.  You have to see it - barely compares to live, but it's amazing.
I thought this was the best choice since I gave him the crochet Yoda I made from a previous blog entry.  He liked it!  He said it was pretty cool!  That made my day.  So now if you use the pattern for crocheting Yoda that's linked in that entry, you'll have a twin Yoda to the one Weird Al has.  What could be cooler than that?

Musik Monday - Comedian Harmonists, Veronika

Spring is here!  And after school is out, we can actually enjoy the season.  One of my first thoughts in springtime is an old German music group, the Comedian Harmonists, specifically this song "Veronika, der Lenz ist da".  Translated, it means "Veronika, the Spring is here":

Here is a very good translation of the lyrics from German to English for those of you who are curious.

I love this group for their amazing harmonizing abilities and their back story, which is told well in the German Film Comedian Harmonists.  The group was very popular before WWII, but ran into difficulties because half of the members were Jewish and one was married to a Jewish woman.  They faced immense obstacles after initially being such a huge success and eventually disbanded when members fled Germany.  They formed new groups, but nothing came near the original.

Their songs are generally wonderful, happy songs.  I couldn't help put put them on when the weather started warming up and everything got greener.  As they say readers, der Lenz ist da!

German-American Spotlight

I've been so happy with Musik Monday, that I decided to start a new weekly post - Saturday spotlight showcasing a different German-American each week.

Part of the reason is that people don't know who's really German out there and there are a lot of stereotypes out there (though many have some basis in reality).  I'll start in a couple of weeks with an actual person, but here's a video that inspired this idea in the meantime:

Germany is very great.  Name 3 Germans!

May the Fourth be with you! (Yoda Crochet)

It's Star Wars Day!  As many a geek will say today, "May the fourth be with you".
According to wikipedia, the phrase dates back to a pun in a London newspaper headline in the late 70's.  There's more to it though.  This was the most interesting (and amusing) part of the article for me:

"In a 2005 interview on German news TV channel N24, George Lucas was asked to say the famous sentence "May the Force be with you." The interpreter simultaneously interpreted the sentence into German as Am 4. Mai sind wir bei Ihnen ("We shall be with you on May 4"). This was captured by TV Total and aired on May 18, 2005.^[5]"

In honor of the day, I finished what I started a while ago from this Yoda crochet pattern.  It took a while, but partially because my crochet skills are rusty.  I love amigurumi (making little figures pretty much), but I always run into problems when I'm crocheting in 3-D.  I had to start this over a couple of times before I got it right.

Finished Product - Step-by-step pictures after the break