Occasionally when my brain stops functioning in the middle of a German separable verb I paddle through the commercial channels on Sky to see what’s happening in the world of reality TV.
I can get about 100 UK channels and discounting the religious ones (which all have the same story) that still leaves about 80 for idle grazing.
I have in the past discovered some absolute gems and my latest piece of gruesome dross is “Operation Repo”.
This is about a group of very large people in the San Fernando Valley who repossess cars - well it is LA so it is mainly gigantic ‘pickups’ and monstrous Koala Crushers.
In the show the cameras follow these very large people as they confront owners who are behind in their payments and make off with their vehicles - or vee-hikkles as they call them in the USA.
The very large people threaten to sit on the car owners if they do not hand over their keys. This would mean certain death.
I watched two episodes and became quite enthralled by the astonishing confrontations with the enraged vee-hikkle owners and the shoving and wrestling matches that took place.
So enthralled that I was suspicious and Googled it.
And....I had been deceived. The show is a FAKE! (Gasp!).
It is apparently based loosely on real incidents but the actual repossessions portrayed in the show are staged - using (very bad) actors.
Fancy that - faked reality TV!
You just cannot trust anyone these days.
After that I went back to my German verbs. These are horrible - but real!
The leaves are falling off the trees in droves here and the Ducks are preparing for winter. I am waiting for the cafes to pack up their outdoor areas - this is the sign that the cold weather is really upon us.
Someone (probably either Parsifal or Viennesewaltz) told me early this year what these contraptions are called but I have forgotten and cannot find it in my own blog!
This is my second favorite time of the year - the favorite being Winter.
I am hoping Merisi will have some wonderful shots of the Viennese Autumn.
I think you mean Schanigarten - pl. Schanigärten, of course; when in doubt add an umlaut...
ReplyDeleteKeep up with the Deutsch - it does get easier. Mark Twain is all very well, but I actually think English is worse than German in many respects (consulted the Oxford Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs lately?).
In regards to Twain, the Austrians gave as good as they got. He was resident in Wien at the turn of the century, where he was known mockingly as 'our famous guest' (although there were some unpleasant undercurrents of anti-Semitism to that). The best Twain antagonist in Vienna was undoubtedly Karl Kraus, whose pioneering journal Die Fackel has been made available online (in its entirety, with search function) by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, at http://corpus1.aac.ac.at/fackel/ - well worth a look.
Fake reality?
ReplyDeleteWho booked Sarah?
P.S.:
I am still celebrating late summer.
So how are you *supposed* to say vehicle? Just putting the emphasis on the first syllable like us normal-sized people do? Or something all together different?
ReplyDeleteI love the fall too. It's my favorite season.
Parsifal: I will keep at it until I can use separable verbs properly.
ReplyDeleteMerisi: All politicians are fakes.
Wanderlust: You are just fine. It's us Aussies who have the funny accents. Here we say 'auto'