February 28, 2014

NAILYMPICS?? I kid you not.


Keystone/AP/Alessandra Tarantino
A model presents her, um, paw....


The Swiss gold-medal winner Heidi Roch-Burch, of Fribourg, was celebrated in the local giveaway newsrag 20minutes. She won in the free-style category known as "French Twist".

The competitors had only three hours to decorate their model's nails at the Nailympics in Rome!
(btw there were 600 participants from 38 countries, in case you think it's limited to just the fanatic few).

Unfortunately, in their excitement, 20minutes and lessentiel neglected to specify which nails had won! At first I thought it was the above talented talons, but I don't think so, as Ms Roch-Burch apparently won with a stiletto nail design (see example below).

Oh well, they're all spectacular in a sexy, spooky, slinky sort of way.
And other competitions are coming you way soon: The Swiss NailArt Trophy, then Dubai, then....?

http://www.lessentiel.lu/fr/lifestyle/dossier/beaute/story/Elle-est-la-championne-du-monde-du-nail-art-28935155



Heidi Roch-Burch

February 11, 2014

SWISS VOTE: THE CHEESE STANDS......ALONE


http://www.tdg.ch/dossiers/votations-9-fevrier-2014/dossier2.html?dossier_id=2517

Thank you Geneva -- you opposed the initiative by 60,9% ! 
In fact (see map) all of French speaking Switzerland opposed this disruptive initiative.

But all of Switzerland went to the polls on Sunday. And Switzerland approved the UDC's proposal "contre l'immigration de masse" .
"l'immigration de masse"  evokes images of salivating hordes at the border, waiting to rush in to trample the pristine landscape and take over all the jobs, housing and welfare.  And the voters who approved were scared.

The vote of approval is a powerful message with negative impact on a basically prosperous country. An overwhelming majority of Swiss economists, social experts, politicians and industralists have been against this xenophobic initiative.  

It was a vote of emotions over logic, and apparent self-protection over dynamism. 
Just like the vote back in 1992  not to join the European Economic  Area. 
Through extensive bilaterals as of 1999 (in effect as of 2002)  Switzerland has been able to recoup some of the losses. Students could now be part of the superb European Erasmus exchange system, filmmaking and theater and countless other activities were not culturally and economically isolated.
A certain equilibrium has been achieved, and unemployment is a modest 4%.  Foreigners are not exactly kicking the Swiss off the assembly-line.

A small for-instance: the HUG, the Geneva Cantonal University Hospital, employs a large number French nurses, doctors and aides. Because they need to. Staffing the hospital will be very problematic if the non-Swiss job-holders have their permits revoked. How does one handle those already holding work permits? Those who have been here three months, a year, four years? Or more? (I imagine it won't happen this way, as it could wreak havoc).

But no-one knows how this negative initiative will play out, and how it can or will be 'respected'. No one was prepared. On Monday politicians began meeting. All those bilaterals will have to be revisited. Back to square one? 
What was driving this vote? It's not so simple; it's not necessarily extremist xenophobia. 
Twenty-eight per cent of Switzerland is non-Swiss. That's hefty.
Gleaned from articulate letters quoted in "Le Monde":
http://www.lemonde.fr/europe/article/2014/02/10/avec-ce-vote-la-suisse-montre-qu-elle-existe-face-au-poids-lourd-europeen_4363520_3214.html
« Il fallait dire stop » par Alexia
"C'est parfait que la votation soit passée serrée ! Oui, il fallait dire stop à une accélération de l'immigration, mais ne pas laisser croire que nous étions des rétrogrades non plus. Concrètement, la vie s'est quand même globalement compliquée ces dernières années, avec une énorme pression en Suisse romande sur les loyers, une grande augmentation de la circulation avec l'arrivée de frontaliers, d'immigrés. Il faut prendre le temps d'intégrer correctement les nouveaux arrivants".
She says life has become more complex, rents are higher, traffic is denser. Let's take the time to properly integrate the new arrivals.
  • « Exister face au poids lourd européen » par Sebastien M. (Genève, employé de banque)
J'ai voté oui. J'y ai longuement réfléchi, ai pesé le pour et le contre, lu beaucoup d'avis contradictoires. Et je dois avouer qu'il n'y avait pas d'argumentation structurée au refus de ce texte. Le seul argument entendu (et rabâché) était : attention, l'Europe va sévir si le peuple suisse accepte l'initiative. Cela a attisé la défiance du peuple suisse face à une Europe se voulant hégémonique. Avec ce vote, il y a ce sentiment « d'exister » face au poids lourd qu'est l'Europe. Les conséquences ? On verra bien, mais il y a fort à parier qu'elles ne seront pas aussi catastrophiques que l'UE veut bien le faire croire...
He says the only argument against the initiative was that Europe would "sévir" -- sort of rise up against little Switzerland. Now he says the country has the feeling it "exists", facing up (a sort of David and Goliath) to Europe's heavy hegemony. He doesn't think it'll be as catastrophic as the EU wants us to believe. Hope he's right.
People have reacted to the spectacular and very rapid change in contemporary life, and have voted to slow it down in a particular way. 
It's a retro vote, but also a vote of perplexity and pain.

This all reminds me of the old children's song "The Farmer in the Dell":

Children circle round, hands joined, and one child plays the farmer, who then takes a wife, who takes a child etc.

The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Heigh-ho the derry-oh
The farmer in the dell!

The farmer takes a wife
The farmer takes a wife 
etc.
The wife takes the child
etc.
The child takes the dog,
etc.
dog takes cat, cat takes rat, rat take cheese, and...

The cheese stands alone
The cheese stands alone
Heigh-ho the derry-oh
The cheese stands alone.

The other characters then rejoin the circle and one child--the cheese chosen by the rat--is left in the middle......turning round and round alone as the song ends.

February 7, 2014

HEY JAY Z ......... DON'T RIP OFF AN OLD SWISS MAN

Flagrant - not even a word of apology or acknowledgment. 
Listen to these two recordings on YouTube. They're not long, but you don't need long to realize Jay Z has done more than borrow.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxsnaamt6gI    Bruno Spoerri's   "On the way" 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Sboc05DhA     Jay Z 's   "Versus"


Clare O'Dea writes on January 28th 2014:
 'Veteran Swiss jazz and electronic musician Bruno Spoerri has accused Jay Z, one of the United States’ most successful hip hop artists, of illegally using a 1978 music sample in the rapper’s latest album Magna Carta Holy Grail.
'"In a way I’m flattered that a relatively young rapper takes a sample from an old man, a sample that is about 35 years old,” 78-year-old Spoerri told swissinfo.ch, speaking from his home in Zurich.
“On the other hand I’m furious because it would have been so simple to clear the sample. All it would have needed was a call or an email to the company and I think it would have been relatively cheap.” 
...........The 1978 track On the Way was composed by Spoerri for the film LilithFinancially, the two musicians are at opposite ends of the music spectrum.
In 2012, Forbes estimated the net worth of Jay Z – real name Shawn Carter – from music and other businesses at $500 million (CHF450 million). Jay Z and Justin Timberlake won a Grammy award on January 26 for their collaboration on another track from Magna Carta Holy Grail.
Spoerri, who still performs once or twice a month, says what matters most to him is an apology.'

 See also http://www.srf.ch/radio-srf-3/musik/bruno-spoerri-jay-z-spielt-auf-zermuerbung

Bruno Spoerri is a serious working musician, the first electronic music composer in Switzerland, a sax player, and he deserves proper recognition!

SRF 3/Carmen Köppel 



            Getty Images


Getty Images
                                                     


Philip Seymour Hoffman

Philip Seymour Hoffman
A great actor. Young, gifted, addicted and now, unhappily, dead.
About three years ago some friends and I walked into the Elephant & Castle in the Village for a Saturday or Sunday morning brunch and talk. We were seated within sneezing distance. The intensity we'd seen on-screen was still apparent: he exuded a life force (and not because we were gawking fans). He was also a bit on edge as his friend / assistant reported on various appointments, messages, projects: his Obligation Brunch.
How we were smitten in his presence. What a loss.

This brief footage and commentary sums up what made him such a tremendous actor:
http://www.theguardian.com/film/video/2014/feb/03/philip-seymour-hoffman-video-appreciation