Heino’s Hideous Handicap

Rumors have circulated about Heino, the German pop star whom Lonely Planet once immortally dubbed a 'tranquilized albino Ken doll', for many a year. The reason? He is never seen in public without dark sunglasses. Some say it's because his eyes are an eerie reddish rat-eye color, or because he's abnormally photosensitive, or because he's German. But I believe this album cover, found at a blog post called Worst Album Covers of All Time, has solved the mystery:

Heino, the albino baker's apprentice turned German Schlager legend, has strabismus, also known as heterotropia! Now personally, I can't see why this should have driven the man to don dark glasses. I happen to find strabismus extremely attractive in women (please lift the restraining order, Condi! I've learned my lesson!). But I suppose EMI Germany's crack mid-70s market research gurus soon concluded that Heino was just a bit too Marty Feldmanian to inspire swooning fits among the frumpy Hausfraus who remain his target audience. By the way, the single is called "Dear Mother…A Bouquet that Never Wilts." I'm not sure whether he's giving his mother this or comparing her to one, but either way, I should call my mother.

One other thing. Why is it that posts that promise you the "Worst Album Covers of All Time" routinely include some of the best album covers of all time? Case in point:

Lichtenberg Aphorisms in English

From a website called Mangan's (Adventures in Reaction), I stumbled on a nice collection of Lichtenberg's aphorisms translated into English. A selection:

• "I ceased in the year 1764 to believe that one can convince one's opponents with arguments printed in books. It is not to do that, therefore, that I have taken up my pen, but merely so as to annoy them, and to bestow strength and courage on those on our own side, and to make it known to the others that they have not convinced us."
• "Nothing can contribute more to peace of soul than the lack of any opinion whatever."
• "He traveled through Northeim to Einbeck and from there through Mlle P. to Hanover."
• "With my pen in hand I have successfully stormed bulwarks from which others armed with sword and excommunication have been repulsed."
• "Proposal: in a cold winter why not burn books?"
• "Truth will find a publisher at any time, complaisance usually only for a year. That is why when you write you should always do so with courage and candor."
• "I forget most of what I read, just as I do most of what I have eaten, but I know that both contribute no less to the conservation of my mind and my body on that account."
• "It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody's beard."
• "Not only did he not believe in ghosts, he wasn't even afraid of them.""We have the often thoughtless respect accorded ancient laws, ancient usages, and ancient religion to thank for all the evil in the world."
• "The world offers us correction more often than consolation."
• "Since this life is no more than an evanescent point of time, I find it incomprehensible that the state of unending bliss and glory does not begin at once."
• "There are people with so little courage to assert anything that they dare not say there is a cold wind blowing, however much they may feel it, unless they have first heard that other people have said it."

Monday Music Blogging: ‘Francisco’ by Brian Eno

Over the weekend, my shuffle play spewed out this track from the album 'The Shutov Assembly'. Mesmerizing and other-worldly, especially the recurring low-frequency wobble that sounds like a muffled scream.

Semmisítsd meg! Pusztíts! Most!

I have a feeling Black Flag would sound even punker in Hungarian. But until Henry Rollins obliges us, we'll just have to make do with having the lyrics translated into Hungarian.

 

Black Flag – My War / Magyar Felirattal!

Köszönet a fordításért: Csimpy

Dalszöveg:

Az én háborúm!
Te egy vagy közülük!
Azt mondod a barátom vagy,
de egy vagy közülük!
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Azt mondod a barátom vagy
De egy vagy közülük!
Egy vagy közülük!

Azt mondod a barátom vagy
De egy vagy közülük!
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hogy te nem vagy az.
Mert te egy vagy közülük

Az én háborúm!
Te egy vagy közülük!
Azt mondod a barátom vagy
De egy vagy közülük!

Van egy jövendölésem
Az agyamban él
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Őrületbe kerget
A szívemben érzem
Ha lenne egy fegyverem
A szívemben érzem
Meg akarok ölni valamit
A szívemben érzem
Ölni
Ölni

Egy vagy közülük!
Azt mondod a barátom vagy
De egy vagy közülük!
Mondd meg ha tévednék
Próbáld énekelni nekem az egó-dalod
Egy vagy közülük

Az én háborúm!
Egy vagy közülük!
Azt mondod a barátom vagy
De egy vagy közülük!
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Mi van? Mid van?
Csináld! Csináld!
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Majd alkoss
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Most!