Typologies of Tourism Photography (in Translation)

I couldn’t find any “Ethno-Bild” images in my collection of photos, but the “Oh hey, grim architecture in the developing world” thing is pretty clichéd as well. From Lima, Perú.

ast Sunday, Süddeutsche Zeitung’s bloggy online stepchild Jetzt.de published a brief article entitled, “Everything is so wonderfully different here!” (Alles so schön anders hier!), which sketches out a semi-serious/semi-satirical typology of the kinds of vacation photos you’ll find on your friends’ Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram feeds (oh, and Google+ too, I suppose). Lately, I’ve been been up to here (*points to neck*) with work, preparing articles for publication and getting a book proposal ready and preparing for the job market and figuring out how to renew my visa and my passport at the same time and entertaining a constant stream of house-guests and AAAGH TOO MUCH. So, following the example of my post last month where I translated part of a German-language article on negative stereotypes about tourists, I thought I’d do the same with this article. Like that earlier post, I’m only translating a small portion of a longer article. If you can read German, I encourage you to check out the original article here; if you like what you read and wish you could read it in English, send ’em an email and suggest that they hire a brilliant and attractive freelance translator (*ahem*) so that you can read the whole thing.

1. The Ethnic Picture (Das Ethno-Bild)

The Other Acknowledgements

A fairy-ring of mushrooms grew overnight on the lawn during the NEH Summer Institute at Wesleyan

uring the preparation of the final, revised, post-defense version of my dissertation, I finally had to flesh out all of the “front matter” of my dissertation. The front matter usually includes things like an epigraph, a dedication, acknowledgements, a table of contents, lists of tables/figures/maps/etc., and an abstract of the dissertation. Writing the acknowledgements was surprisingly hard, and there were a lot of people, organizations, and things that I couldn’t acknowledge in a scholarly dissertation. But this is a blog, and I have considerably more freedom to shift between levels of formality and punch through layers of politics and politeness. So here are all the other things for which I am grateful, dissertation-wise.

Suggestions Needed: Berlin, Summer of 2008 Podcast

o, I’m thinking of putting together a podcast of tracks from the summer of 2008 in Berlin. These are, essentially, the tracks that I heard EVERYWHERE when I went out to party. But I can only recall so many, so I NEED YOUR HELP! Vote for your most memorable and/or favorite tracks from 2008 (especially ones that were making the rounds in deep/minimal house circles) in the comments below. Even if the track was released before 2008, I’m focusing on tracks that were ubiquitous at that time. Here’s what I have so far:

• Sis. “Nesrib.” Cécile [note: I refuse to include “Trompeta,” which I can’t stand]
• Michel Cleis. “La Mezcla (feat. Totó la Momposina).” Strictly Rhythm. [see comments in link for lyrics]
• Stimming. “Una Pena (feat. Violeta Parra).” Diynamic. [see comments in link for lyrics, and here for a review of the track]
• Radio Slave. “Grindhouse (Dubfire Terror Planet Remix).”
• Lee Jones. “Safari (Stimming Remix).” Aus Music.
• Minilogue. “Animals.” Cocoon.net. [The video for this is AMAZING.]
• Danton Eeprom. “Face Control.” Foundation. [You can find this used to good effect on Ivan Smagghe’s Cocoricó mix CD]
• Shackleton. “Blood On My Hands (Ricardo Villalobos Apocalypso Now Remix).” Skull Disco. [possibly the scariest party music ever]
• Samim. “Heater (Claude VonStroke Remix).” Get Physical Music. [the track everybody loved to hate]
• Kerri Chandler. “Pong (Ben Klock’s Bones & Strings Rework).” Deeply Rooted House.

Wow, that’s already a long list. Aaaanyway, put in your votes in the comments!