99 Luftballons

coffeechatSunday / Monday night – the weekend is over already. And with it January, too. How did this happen? The first month of 2015 has breezed by, just like that.

Can you guess it? Leslie’s prompt for this week’s Coffee Chat is – no prompt really, a freebie to rant or to talk about anything we want. So, I think that is it for me for a rant already. Well, at least for the one(s) that I want to make public. Some things better stay off the web.

Now how about some randomness? This past weekend saw me re-discovering some of my German roots. It all started with a friend posting the #1 song in the US charts on her birthday. Curious as I am I obviously had to look for mine. And since I am feeling mostly ‘international’, I looked up the US, UK and German charts. Are you ready?

USA – Sound of Silence | Simon & Garfunkel

UK – Keep on Running | Spencer Davies Group

Germany – Marmor, Stein und Eisen bricht | Drafi Deutscher

Now you can guess when I was born. Or most likely Google will tell you. In any case the German #1 kind of had a revival not too long ago and was almost cool. Of course, I had to play it to David and then it started. One song led to another and pretty soon we were singing and dancing along songs of the Neue Deutsche Welle while making dinner Saturday night. Obviously there was Nena, Major Tom, too many to name them all. While we do have some of them on disc, I actually searched for them on Deezer, an internet radio service on our Sonos streaming system. Which, by the way, I love. Both of them. The one thing though that sucks about Deezer, well, not really Deezer, but – there are a lot of songs, most especially German, European ones that cannot be played or rather streamed here in the US. I only say ‘licensing’. Understandable, but still annoying when you find a song or playlist and then half of the songs cannot be played. Apart from that minor issue I really love Sonos streaming as the sound is really good and internet radio.

So, fast forward to Sunday morning and before sitting down at our breakfast table my dear husband requests ‘why don’t we listen to some more NDW (Neue Deutsche Welle) and take in some more German?’ Really?! I tell you my American husband can be more German than I am. Since we weren’t prepared we were searching through the songs and playlists and had a lot of fun re-discovering old songs. My next mission will be to put together a playlist of German songs we both like.

songographyAnd that was it. Our weekend with lots of German for a change. And no super bowl. Sorry, we do not like to watch that ever so slow and boring sport. So instead of watching the tv and as a result of listening extensively to German songs in general and Nena in particular, specifically 99 Luftballons / 99 Red Balloons, I felt forced to create the image below. Not a masterpiece, but fun for a Sunday afternoon. Just another ‘Ordinary Day’ – this weeks’ chosen title for Kathy’s Song-ography, which I have not played along in too long.

99 luftballons, balloons, nena

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claudia3

16 thoughts on “99 Luftballons”

  1. Oh how fun to delve into the musical aspect of your birthday – I know what I’ll be doing today… 😉

    LOVE the image you created – I’m with Tamar, the pop of color in the balloons is stellar! 🙂

    Reply
  2. Boy do I love that piece. The splash of color and the fact that it’s not a splash of color on black and white. Rather, there are all sorts of subtle and bright tones.
    I didn’t Google your age! I was 1980 personally.

    Reply
    • Aaah – ha, I take it you are not a friend of color-key a.k.a. selective color? I mostly am not either. It does have it’s place. I have a couple of pics where it works just great. But it can be greatly overdone. Especially by folks just starting out with photoshop or other photo-editing programs.
      Thanks for not revealing my age in public – LOL – 1980, sweet innocence. Actually the decade I consider when my life really started *teenage years* 😀

      Reply
  3. I LOVE that song 99 Red Balloons!! that is such a great song — was very popular when I was younger. Hubby is half German, but we don’t know much about his side. his dad didn’t really promote it much, so he takes more of his mom’s Irish side. I wish we knew a little bit more so I could pass onto the kids.
    Great song selections. Sounds of Silence is one of my faves.
    So even just messing around casually on a Sunday afternoon with your photos, AND you still make something fantastic!!!? Are you even real? ha 🙂

    Reply
    • I guess one could almost consider it a classic by now, not? It was such a huge hit – unbelievable. NDW in general was pretty unbelievable. Hardly ever before had German rock /pop music been so popular in Germany (and other countries) been before. It was pretty exciting.
      I can imagine that you are curious about hubby’s German side. Do you know any of it?
      It actually is something I wonder about every now and then, my Grandma, she had relatives somewhere here in the US. I remember as a kid dropping off her letters to them at the post office. But she is long gone and no one really remembers the name or town etc. Pretty sad…

      p.s. I am very real. Trust me 😉

      Reply

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