What McDonalds, Cpt. Iglo and Oscar Mayer don't want you to know

Have you ever wondered why Chicken McNuggets only have 4 shapes? Or how come fish sticks are rectangular? Or how Oscar Mayer hot dog sausages are made?
Do all these kinds of food not seem... unnatural? Like freaks of nature? Well they are because they are all genetically engineered monsters. Here is the proof:


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These pics were secretally taken within a manufacturing facility of corporate America. The insider who took these photos suddenly disappeared without a trace. His whereabouts are unknown and the police is in the dark. But the truth ist out there now. If you look close, you can even see a young Chicken McNugget hatch in the background. Its skin has not reached the crispy golden shine yet and is very vulnerable to external causes. Disturbingly, its siblings are being feed the same sauce that sooner or later will become their tasty supplement and demise.

Pictures taken from Manhattan bridge

I went out to walk across Manhattan bridge yesterday. Why? Because it is a good spor to take pics of Brooklyn bridge and the lower Manhattan area. I stayed there for some hours. Basically just taking the same picture over and over but at different lighting conditions. Here are some results. Hope you like them.

A Bayer in Nu Jorg

Aaah Oktoberfest... How I love thee... Thy frosty beer and crusty Haxn are like a piece of heaven to me...

Thank god for the restaurant Zum Schneider in the east village of NYC. In my all my years that I have lived in the US, I have never found one German restaurant that actually had authentic food. And by that I mean authentic Bavarian food. But that dryspill is over. Now I can eat Obazda, Schweinebraten and Wiener Schnitzel whenever I want. Here are some pics of my last endeavor:

Celebrity Sightings Part 2

Three celebrities in three days. Not bad I would say. So who did I see? And where? Well, I actually saw two of them in one and the same spot. I was enjoying a lunch at a restaurant called Coffeeshop on Union Square (regular hangout for actors and models) when I noticed this dude sitting at a table not too far away from mine:



Can you guess who that is? Well, he is in one of my favorite movies of all time: Stand by me. Furtherore he will star in the upcoming show Do Not Disturb.



But on top of that, after a while this guy came in and sat down at another table:



That's right, Joshua Jackson who will be in Lost creator J. J. Abrams' next show called Fringe which is a bit like X-Files. Fortuntely, I have already seen the first episode and was not that impressed. Partly also due to the fact that Jackson really doesn't fit into the role he is playing. Abrams should have cast someone else.

Last but not least I saw one of my childhood idols at a restaurant called Pastis in the meatpacking district of Manhatten. Back in the day the butchers processed meat in that area but all that has changed. Now it has a lot restaurants, bars and clubs that attract a more yuppie crowd. But enough NYC history, I saw no other than:


Boris Becker. He was enjoying lunch with his kids. No woman at his side though. Oh man, I will never forget his great matches at Wimbledon. After all he is the best tennis player that ever came out of Germany.

If there's something strange in your neighborhood

Who you gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!

I went to visit a landmark of one of my favorite films of all time. The Ghostbusters HQ is in New York and can be found here:



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Inside the firstation, they actually have a Ghostbusters 2 sign. And outside a Ghostbusters/Fire department logo painted on the street. Check out my pics:


While I was there, five other people came to take pics. And this is almost 20 years after Ghostbusters 2. Pretty damn cool. Of course everybody knows Vankman, Ray, Egon and Winston are not going to walk out of that firestation. But when you are there, you still hope they really would.

The saddest place on earth: Las Vegas

I went to Vegas for the first time in my life last weekend. "Wow! Vegas! Awesome!" That's what I thought. The city you always hear all these crazy stories about. When people go somewhere to go nuts, where do they go? Vegas of course! Or at least, that's what a lot films out there tell us.

Well, I went there and thought it was a sad place. So sad, I felt sorry for the people living there.

Seriously, Vegas is not a good city. The first thing you will see when you get off the airplane at Vegas airport, are slotmachines. As you may know, gambling is legal in Vegas. And pretty much that is all you do.

The airport / The hotel lobby-casino / Slotmachine in bar

Normally when most people go on vacation, they don't really spend time in the hotel because they are out and about exploring the place they are visiting. Well, in Vegas, everything happens in the hotel. So if you are not in YOUR hotel,then you are probably in one of the OTHER hotels. Why? Because that's all there is in Vegas: hotels. The hotel also is a casino with machines bleeping and blurping all day long already starting in the lobby. The hotel also always offers some kind of show like Barry Manilow or Siegfried and Twoface. The hotel also has several restaurants. And most likely, the hotel will also have some kind of nightclub and shopping area. Of course the hotels are quite fancy and some are so luxurious, it will blow your mind. Furthermore some of the restaurants are amazing and offer incredibly good food. But it all is overshadowed by the fakeness of it. Seriously, Disney World feels like the ancient cathedral of Notre Dame compared to Vegas. The city has absolutely no authentic atmosphere since everything happens in the hotels. When you go to an Italian restaurant everything is made to look Italian but it just doesn't feel right. In NYC there a little cozy restaurants in red brick houses, that are naturally run down and have an authentic atmosphere. In Vegas they try to capture that too, within the hotel, but it just doesn't work. I mean, just take a look at the pic of that Italian square. That was inside a shopping mall, with a fake painted sky and the smell of chlorine in the air. "Hallenbad"-atmosphere is what my buddies Roeb and Wollny called it. And there is nothing classy about that. The city has so little style, they have to rebuild other cities with style into it. Like Paris, Venice or even New York. Just look at the pics. It is white trash Disneyland. Everything is so unbearably fake! Even the women are! Since prostitution is somewhat allowed in Vegas, hookers are everywhere. The problem is you won't be able to tell which women are and which aren't prostitutes since they all look alike (fake boobs galore) and you can't really tell whether they just want your money or not.

So what do you do in Vegas? Gamble for one. But in my book, sticking a dollar into a slotmachine isn't really gambling. Blackjack is. Or Poker. But, if you are not into that or low on cash, you really shouldn't try. And even that is without a special flair since it is done in huge halls where you feel like cattle. Shows are another thing. You will find many a famous artists in Vegas: Cher, Elton John and all other kinds. Why are they out in the desert? Because in Vegas, they get paid way more than anywhere else. And why is that? Because there is nothing to do and only a huge amount of money could get someone to come out to live there! Drinking is a good thing to do. Again because that's really is not much else to do. Sports you can forget about. It is so hot there that you will get a heat stroke in no time. My friends and where close to going nuts and going at each other because of the heat after only being outside for about 30-40 minutes.

To me, Vegas is like a one-legged 50 year old prostitute, trying so hard to pass herself off as a prima ballerina from the Russian ballet. Underneath all those bright lights, this city has no style and glamour and seems rotten to the bone. You can really feel how people have pissed their whole live away and the city is full of scum and failed existences. Vegas might have been something at some time but I believe, the words of Ace Rothstein do it justice:

Today it looks like Disneyland. And while the kids play cardboard pirates, Mommy and Daddy drop the house payments and Junior's college money on the poker slots. In the old days, dealers knew your name, what you drank, what you played. Today, it's like checkin' into an airport. And if you order room service, you're lucky if you get it by Thursday. Today, it's all gone.

Still had a lot of fun though because I got to see some friends of mine that I hadn't seen for quite some time:

Cheers to you guys!

I sure am glad to be back in the real city of New York.

Beachclubbing in Liberty City

In a lot of major cities in Germany you have beachclubs. They are nothing else but outside bars with sand raked up. While there actually is a natural beach in NYC, there also is a pretty cool beachclub called the Water Taxi Beach. What's so good about it, is not the food or the drinks but the view. I think it is just amazing. But see for yourself:


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I can't even decide which pic I like the best. The last one I changed a bit using iPhoto. Anyways, why was I there? Well, I don't know that many people in NYC yet, but I came across this website called meetup. And there I found the New York City German Culture Meetup Group. Basically people that share an interest in Germany get together for fun times every once in a while. Some of them are Germans living in the Big Apple, some are Americans. You get together and just talk and share experiences. Pretty fun stuff. Unfortunately once it started raining, the meetup was over. Thank god, because a couple of more beers and I would have been done with.