Please let me know if this doesn't work. Thanks!
You may have heard about the immigration problems they are having in Switzerland. The current political party is "ultra" conservative and some factions within Switzerland have been riling things up. The lastest ads where the white sheep kick the black sheep out of their country certainly isn't helping matters. The US isn't the only country with immigration problems.
But, long before this became front page news, the Mariachis were causing quite a stir.
Way back in 2006, I believe, the scandal of the "No Mariachis on the Tram" began. Unlike in the US, the red circle around something in Switzerland is the equivalent of a red circle with a slash through it, as in most other countries. The above tram signs were deemed to be in poor taste and were removed, after the Mexican Consultate, having received many angry calls about the signs, investigated and complained to the city of Zurich. The Zurich Public Transport (VBZ), replaced the stereotyping signs with a non-descript guitar player, which cost them around 20,000 Swiss Francs, with a Swiss Franc being kind of equivalent to the Canadian dollar.
But, the VBZ just couldn't let sleeping dogs lie and came up with the commercial in the You Tube video, which is basically reiterating their point of no Mariachis on the tram, but without the non-descript guitar player.
I can't even imagine this airing in the US.
I didn't know Mariachis were a problem. The only way I ever got around in most of Europe when I have been there is by subway, tram, train, etc. I have never had the pleasure of seeing a Mariachi band play outside of a Mexican restaurant in the US. Supposedly, the Italians are welcoming to the Mariachis. Maybe they should try their luck there instead...I think the food is better anyway.
(I found this video and story on a blog I visit awhile back. Don't really understand the point of the video (other than it offends folks), since the Mariachis play and then the commerical essentially says, "Only 300 meters to the next stop" and then "Sorry, (dear) street musicians." Which must be the Swiss way of saying the Mariachis are not welcome on the tram. Huh?)
4 comments:
My guess would be that they are trying to stop street musicians (of any variety) of hitting up people for change when they're just trying to get to work.
Personally, I've never seen buskers RIDING the subways/trains playing their instruments and asking for donations.
I'ver always found them to be okay if they're just hanging out (as long as they aren't causing an actual obstruction) and if they have a tip can/hat it's okay, as long as they don't hassle people.
Kind of adds to life's "color." [and I don't mean this in a racial color sense.
And rrankly, as far as the stupid Mexican Council goes, if the sombrero fits ... tell your peeps to knock it off, or get a life if they can't stand the heat, stay the hell out of Switzerland's kitchen.
Oh, and for downloading vids YOURSELF to watch without agony. Try
http://keepvid.com to get a free flash player
you can either use that to download a youtube vid. [It can also download google vids and a number of other types.
Specifically for youtube vids
you might find
http://www.youtubex.com
friendlier.
AFter the file down loads rename to
whatever.flv
Then you can watch with the flash player.
Oh, and for your own blog for dial up a vid. 2 minutes or less isn't bad - anything longer, I use one of the above websites.
What I find helpful is to pause the video, until the whole thing comes down (as evidenced by the red line)
THEN hit play. If you happen to hit play again, before you've downloaded too many other things, it plays fast. I assume you use firefox or some other browswer that has tabs - so you can do "other stuff" while it's downloading.
The nice thing about keepvid and youtubex is that you can temporarily pause the download, if you need to load some other page on your browser and don't want head-butting resource contention issues.
Karen:
Thanks for the video viewing suggestions.
I agree about the Mexican government, but would wager with their recent comments, that they consider Switzerland's kitchen their own pantry.
I wish Mexico would ban mariachis from the boats and restaurants and beaches. You are there, trying to get to the island in peace, eat in peace or just lay around in peace and here they come.
I know people need to make a buck and I'm whining like a big bad Americano but it really drives me crazy.
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