Mar 29, 2011

Samira Frassa

On her blog Ein Leben als Moderatorin, Samira Frassa lets us in on her life as "Germany's youngest TV presenter". From videos of introductory moderations to looks behind the scenes and blogger meetings, almost every step of her experience has been lovingly documented.

Follow the jump below to find out more about Samira, her attitude and favourite blogs - one of which is edited by a reader of hers!

Mar 26, 2011

GCB Shares

Image: Source
There's so much going on right now that I haven't had the time to comment on at length:
Jule has been assigned to ponder Respekt und Autorität, two attitudes that I have had a fair amount of problems with at school myself. As does Nadine in a briefer, English post entitled Reflections on Generosity and Respect.
Fleur, our beloved Vintage Girl, summed up her holidays in France, complete with a batch of fun pictures.
Liisa introduces photographer Dennis Cordell whose favorite models are the spiritual people of Asia.
Amongst other cool international bloggers, Eman Hashim has been nominated for the BOB Awards and needs your support.
And, finally, Fuck Yeah Book Arts shows us how to make newspaper nails as shown above.

Mar 24, 2011

Happy Birthday!


My other blog turns four today, and here is my critical birthday speech.

Mar 23, 2011

Mar 22, 2011

World Water Day 2011

Today is World Water Day. This year's focus topic is Water and Urbanization. Not only in light of current fears of radioactivity entering Tokio's water pipes, the topic couldn't be more prevailing. If you're a blogger, you might also want to highlight 15 October in your calendar: Blog Action Day. Their website is currently down so here's a link to their outdated Twitter. Not the smartest strategy for a social media campaign, huh? Last year's Blog Action Day topic was water, too.

Mar 21, 2011

For German Readers: Och, nö!

Leider, leider: Raffaela verabschiedet sich von ihrem tollen Blog. Warum, steht ziemlich lang und herzzerreißend hier. Im Prinzip findet sie, dass Bloggen - ganz besonders in der Modesparte - zu einem  Affenzirkus verkommen ist, in dem Persönlichkeiten zwischen all den Product Placements kaum noch eine Rolle spielen; was vielen Macherinnen so lange Banane ist, wie sie sich mit Sektgläsern auf Shop-Eröffungen profilieren können. Aus ähnlichen Gründen, allerdings die Yoga-Szene betreffend, hat auch Linda aus den Vereinigten Staaten neulich ihr Blog aufgegeben. Ihr wütender Abschiedspost strotzt (sehr un-Yogi-like) nur so von Flüchen. Wirklich schade, ich werde die beiden vermissen!

Mar 19, 2011

GCB Shares

Music journalist Ann-Kathrin Eickhoff offers a free song for download and, by doing so, once again shows extraordinary taste: Click here to get Jessica Lea Mayfield's new single Our Hearts Are Wrong.

German Abendbrot copies a freely available Jamie Oliver recipe and is very happy with the result: South Indian Rice and Seafood Soup.

Image: Source
Diane discusses The Ups and Downs of Yoga. This is an interesting read for Non-Yogis, too, because she basically ponders the question of how much help is too much help and judgement of people in general. (Be warned: I've become a pretty diligent yoga student myself lately and might be writing about all things related more often now.)

Ever wondered how to credit properly? Design*Sponge has the answer and a matching image (see to the right, click to enlarge).

In an adorable post, Ninia LaGrande wonders whatever happened to her childhood dream of becoming a dreadlocked jewelry vendor in Tuscany: Stopp! Ich möchte hier raus.

And then there's Luciana Schmidt, who has been unhappy with people advertising their own blogs in her comment section. While, on the one hand, I can understand her feeling of being abused, on the other it seems a little weird to read such a statement from someone whose own blog is pretty much all about advertising. Either way, she offers the possibility of adding your own blog to a long link list below her original post, which is nice. So far, she's already collected over 100 mostly German fashion and beauty blogs.

Mar 18, 2011

For German Readers: Bloggende LehrerInnen

Photo: Janina Scheidmann
Zu diesem Thema hat Spiegel Online unter anderem die Kunstlehrerin Janina Scheidmann interviewt. Erst vor drei Tagen hat sie mit einer ihrer Klassen Werke des großartigen amerikanischen Künstlers Cy Twombly betrachtet. Leider scheint den Kids ihr Blog aber eher schnuppe zu sein: "Die fanden das drei Minuten interessant, dann nicht mehr." Woran könnte das liegen, was meint Ihr? Macht bloggen der Jugend etwa zu viel Arbeit - mit all der Rechtschreibung und dem Kram? ;)

Mar 16, 2011

Design Competition: Create 4 the UN

Anne Roth has alerted me to an important campaign and cool competition: The UN's SAY NO to Violence Against Women initiative is currently inviting creative submissions for its ad campaign.  Deadline is 31 May 2011. More info here.

Mar 15, 2011

Carmen Rüter of m.e.t.r.o.n.o.m.

Carmen Rüter's blog m.e.t.r.o.n.o.m. is one of my favorites in the German-speaking blogosphere. Probably, because it combines information and style in simple posts like this one. Or maybe because it's an Austrian blog like Blica and Consens - I find them extravagant and different from the rest.

Follow the jump for an interesting interview on space and time, the advantages of Twitter hashtags, and a cool collection of international urbanism links.


Mar 13, 2011

Calls for Papers, PhD Fellowships, Summer Schools

It's been a looooong time since my last list, so let's get started quickly and without any frills. Follow me beyond the jump for interesting research offers. Some of them are last minute, so hurry up! 

Mar 12, 2011

Annina @ Re:publica XI - The Conference for Blogs, Social Media and Digital Society

*Deutsche Version nach dem Sprung*
Finally, all speakers of this year's re:publica have been announced, and the is long and interesting. Scrolling through it, you will see the current who is who of the blogosphere and likely recognize a few familiar faces previously introduced on GCB: Simone Finkenwirth, Nadine Lantzsch, Magda Albrecht, Helga Hansen, and Kathrin Ganz.
Simone and myself have prepared a divided talk on...

Mar 10, 2011

"I’m not moving to Paris to be a housewife! Or, yes, I am!"

Photo: Source
Today I found a two week old interview with Salma Hayek  at the New York Times. It's entitled "The Real Housewife of Paris". An extensive and technically well-written portrait that, probably accidentally, crushes every single one of Salma's likeable character traits. It starts with the title shot: Salma refuses to be photographed smoking cigarettes, but agrees to have a lit match dangling from her mouth - confusing.

In spite of  numerous professional achievements that include the production of hit TV-series Ugly Betty, an Oscar nomination and UNICEF activism, the article continues to list the "by far most significant roles in her life" as being a cook to a filthy-rich husband demanding a three-course meal every night, and a driver (albeit a loving one) to her 3-year-old daughter. Yet instead of going into more detail on the causes of her social work, Salma proudly points out that while she could easily hire a stylist to assist her in picking free and custom-fit designer clothes for the day, she much rather takes the risk of mismatching herself: "I want [my husband] to be proud of me and not think, The stylist did a good job. That’s not sexy!”

According to the article, Salma prefers starring in independent European movie productions to Hollywood box-office hits now mainly because they are being shot closer to her family's estate in Paris. And if she doesn't feel like working any given day, she spontaneously goes on strike and just tells everyone to "deal with it". Frequent racist remarks she has been subjected to as a Mexican woman in her work environment ostensibly never hurt her: "Many times the idiots are in power. What are you gonna do?" Partying with corrupt Russian oligarchs sounds like mighty good distraction!

I used to confuse Salma Hayek with Penélope Cruz, who acted in many more memorable films than Salma did, Volver, for example, and who says smart stuff like "Ego is a lion we have to keep under control". After reading the above mentioned article, I am confident this mix-up won't happen again.

Mar 9, 2011

For German Readers: Heute mal 'was Anderes!

Photo: Lu zieht an.
Der Name Luciana Schmidt fiel hier schon eine Weile nicht: Sie war vor fast genau einem Jahr die erste Bloggerin, die auf GIRLS CAN BLOG porträtiert wurde. Heute hat sie auf ihrem etwas anderen Modeblog Lu zieht an.  aber über ein interessantes Gewinnspiel von Mangoblüte berichtet, das ich Euch nicht vorenthalten möchte: Es gibt eine Uhr, eine teure Tasche, ein Armband, einen Nagellack, und ein Kochbuch abzustauben, alles zusammen im Wert von ca. 500€ - am besten, Ihr schaut Euch das selbst mal an... Ich habe jedenfalls gaaaanz ausnahmsweise mal bei sowas mitgemacht. ;)

Mar 8, 2011

International Women's Day!

Famous teenage blogger Tavi demonstrating for abortion rights. (Source: Frl. Zucker)
For many links and statements on International Women's Day by others and myself*, please follow the jump... Trust me, it's worth it! ;)
*For that one you've got to scroll down a little after the jump.

Mar 7, 2011

Julia of Kooyami


Julia's blog Kooyami is pretty unusual. With a wild mix of surrealist short stories, architecture, cat content and recipes, she delights her readers, who - and here I'm just guessing - appreciate fine aesthetics.

Follow the jump to find out how sociologists would typically start a blog project that, then, relate to Indian mythology, and why good tweets tend to be non-mainstream...



Mar 6, 2011

Quick Shares for German Readers

Photo: Quelle
Elke Brüns weist auf einen lesenswerten Artikel über die Stadt Kairo auf den Seiten der Schweizer Tageszeitung NZZ hin. Ein guter Anlass, um auch an meinen Aufenthalt dort im letzten Oktober beim Young Media Summit zu erinnern: Tage 1, 2, 3 und Radiointerview nach der Rückkehr. (Quelle)
Svenja zeigt, wie eine leere Ablage im Hotelbad aussieht, wenn sie ihre Schminksachen verteilt hat. Auch cool ist Anne Feldkamps Beitrag über sehr lange Haare.

Das Schirn-Mag stellt die britische Surrealistin Eileen Agar vor (siehe Bild rechts).
Silviu von der Mädchenmannschaft erinnert uns nochmal daran, wie wichtig eine Frauenquote für die Demokratisierung der Arbeit wäre.
Cathrin Karras erklärt, was der Bürgerkrieg in Libyen mit Vietnam zu tun hat.
Und Lisa Rank schreibt auf, wie sich Erwachsenwerden anfühlt.

Mar 5, 2011

Quick Shares

Photo: Source
GirlsCan, a new British project with a, uhm, very similar sounding name to GCB, is looking for girls who'd like to write about what inspires them. Let's just hope they'll reply to your submissions quicker than to my email of 22 February - I still haven't heard from them yet.

Can't find your dream job? Leo suggests to just create your own! How about becoming a shark photographer, for example?

Mira of Her Mouth ponders Diary Writing and offers a couple of writing exercises, too.

Mar 3, 2011

For German Readers: Annina @zdflogin

Der ZDFinfokanal bat Hauptgast Steffen Bilger von der CDU, Wahlwissenschaftler Thorsten Faas, Mitinitiator des offenen Briefes der DoktorandINNen Hannes Klöpper und mich, uns zur Causa Guttenberg zu äußern. Haben wir gern gemacht, das Ergebnis ist hier zu sehen. (Für die Vielbeschäftigten unter Euch gibt es auch eine sehr kurze Kurzfassung.)

Das Diskutieren hat großen Spaß gemacht, und ich glaube, wir hätten alle am liebsten noch mehr zu unseren jeweiligen Positionen gesagt. Leider bot das saucoole, internetlastige Format der Sendung Log In dafür keine Zeit. Es war aber auch sehr spannend zu hören, was das Publikum zu der Angelegenheit zu sagen hatte, live im Studio und zugeschaltet via Twitter

Wer Lust bekommen hat, nächste Woche zum Thema Türkisch First? - Wie viel "Deutsch" braucht die Integration? mitzudiskutieren: Die Sendung wird jeweils mittwochs ab 21:45 Uhr live gestreamt und ihr Hashtag lautet #zdflogin.