YOUTUBE: Extreme Water Slide

Three things to keep in mind before watching this video:
1) As the parenthetical title says "engineers are silly folk." True. They are also, in this case, crazy.
2) If anyone knows what type of motivation was used to convince the slider to commit this feat, please tell me.
3) Were there others who went before that we don't know about...?

Sergio del Limonar

MOVIE: Die Welle (The Wave)

Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and several dozen others throughout the next year, the German film Die Welle - translated literally as The Wave - has been a hit with critics and audiences alike. The story is based on book of the same title by Todd Strasser, and occurs at a German high school where a teacher, attempting to engage his pupils in a week-long civics lesson on autocracies, ends up turning his class into a dictatorship that extends beyond the walls of the classroom and even the school itself. Both book and film were inspired by a Palo Alto, California, history teacher named Ron Jones who performed a similar social experiment at Cubberley High School in April of 1967.

Powerful both in the fact that it takes place in contemporary society and in the realistic dialogue between the students in and out of class, the film shows the viewer just how easily ideas can be manipulated and people can be coerced. Near the beginning of the movie, on the first day of the course, many of the students claim that a dictatorship could and would never be allowed to happen in modern Germany again. By the end of the story - all dressed alike with new "recruits" and gang-style greeting gesture - gathered together in the school auditorium, they get a good look at what they've become.

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: "Mamacita"

Usually I don't partake in the entertainment offered on airplanes. I prefer to either read or sleep. Often it's the later that wins; for some reason take-of makes me sleepy. On a recent flight, however, I found myself listening to the music selection offered on continual rotation. One song in the "Pop Music" bandwidth caught my ear and I made sure I listened to it the three times it came around again.

German-born Mark Medlock's 2009 single, "Mamacita", off his Club Tropicana album is a catchy and sexy tune ripe for a day at the beach or dancing in your kitchen as you whip up some dinner. Those of you Spanish-phobes need not worry, as the only non-English word is in the repeated titular phrase.

In the song, Medlock is essentially asking the mother of the love of his life to give him her approval. He sings, "Oh, Mamacita give me your daughter, 'cause such a girl is hard to find!" The steady melody and slightly island-beats add to the happy groove of the song.

Download this now and be the first to introduce a great new song to your friends!

Sergio del Limonar

MUSIC: "Evacuate The Dance Floor"

This weekend I was at a crazy wedding and the DJ played a song called "Evacuate The Dance Floor" which did exactly the opposite. By the German electro-pop group CASCADA who brought us the overplayed "Every Time We Touch" back in 2006, the catchy dance track demands that the DJ clear the party because the music being played is just too damn infectious! Now there's a fiesta I want to be at!

This may be my new life soundtrack for awhile. Perhaps Davey can do some pop 'n' lockin' in front of the Eiffel Tower or some equally German landmark* with this playing.

Sergio del Limónar

* I studied the French language for five years in high school. I apologize for my lack of German tourist sites. I'm aware there was a wall but didn't that was (a) there anymore or (b) appropriate to dance to a great song in front of.