Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Don't Hassel the Hoff: Big in Germany

Yesterday we gave you a sober-minded patriotic message from an American with Austrian connections. Today, we maintain part of that theme. It ain't the sober-minded element.

As you well know, David Hasselhoff is a major rock star in Germany. You may be less familiar with the story of his rise to musical fame. Turns out that Austria plays an important role, as this excerpt from a 2019 NPR story reveals:

"It all started with a girl named Nikki," Hasselhoff said during a recent interview with NPR in Berlin, where he was on a concert tour of Germany.

It was 1985. Hasselhoff's agent told him that Nikki had won a contest in a magazine and her prize was lunch with Hasselhoff at his home in Southern California. He remembers groaning, not wanting to go through with it. "I said [to the agent], 'I'm going through my Ernest Hemingway period.' Knight Rider was canceled; I lost my marriage. I'm sitting here staring out the window going, 'What am I going to do next?' " he said.

Darkening his Hemingway period were tepid U.S. sales of his debut rock album earlier that year. Hasselhoff needed a pick-me-up. So when Nikki ultimately came knocking, he reluctantly let her in. "And she went, 'Oh, it's very nice to meet you. Your album, Night Rocker, is No. 1 in my country,' " Hasselhoff recalled her saying. "I went, 'Where's your country?' And she said, 'Austria.' I said, 'Oh wow! Where is Austria?' "

The rest, as they say, is history. The Hoff's 1987 album, Looking for Freedom, went platinum in Germany and Austria, and Triple Platinum in Switzerland. He played a concert on New Year's Eve 1989 at the Berlin Wall that a generation of Germans still connect with the dismantling of that barrier. He still sells out shows in that part of Europe, though most are now a mix of covers and reminisces about all things Hoff.


This is all an elaborate setup for the actual point of this mostly pointless post. For the next 12 days, you - yes, mere mortal you - can bid on memorabilia that spans The Hoff's career in film and music. $60 right now will get you The Hoff's personalized bathrobe. Various Baywatch scripts are yours for the taking for around $200 each, as is a signed pair of the swim trunks Hasselfhoff wore in the Spongebob movie.

And for around $900,000, KITT can be yours. Per the description at liveauctioneers.com, FULLY FUNCTIONAL K.I.T.T. CAR WITH FULL CONVERSION CAR LOCATED IN U.K. LOT WINNER RESPONSIBLE FOR DELIVERY EXPENSE,  IF HAMMER PRICE EXCEEDS 25% ABOVE RESERVE PRICE, THE HOFF WILL PERSONALLY DELIVER THE CAR TO THE NEW OWNER.

The Hoff. Will. Personally. Deliver. You get the point. And the HAMMER PRICE has well exceeded the reserve price.


There's a ton of other great stuff on offer. I daresay many of you will spend more time today than you should perusing it. I look forward to hearing about your finds in the comments below. 

Let's hope our return to dipshittery is sustainable, just like The Hoff's music career in Germany.

35 comments:

  1. “Night Rocker” is such a bad title that it’s brilliant. Sounds like the Hoff could use some cash.

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  2. Pour some out for Sheldon Adelson. Or don’t. The $75 MM he donated to a Trump PAC in August was money well spent!

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  3. Good thing Teedge just refinanced.

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  4. i'm not proud of this, and i immediately asked the good lord for forgiveness after i did it, but my first reaction when i heard adelson had died was 'good'. so i guess i poured out a little vitriol. i'm not proud.

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  5. First Sumner Redstone, then Adelson. Sexy men are dropping like flies.

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  6. I know I always watched Baywatch for the top notch scripts.

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  7. For the mortgage followers...about to pull trigger on a 2.25 15 yr fixed w a couple grand out of pocket costs. Giddy up. Wheeling and dealing too...you can't negotiate/leverage folks against each other too much.

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  8. i gotta tell ya...better.com
    find a few good quotes, then go to them. EXTREMELY helpful, professional, and non-commission based...

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  9. I gladly accept finder’s fees or “heads-up” fees. Payment accepted in Bitcoin or Venmo!

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  10. Thank y’all for the advice! We went with mortgage guy who helped us buy our house three years ago. 2.75%, no points, money toward closing...saving about $355 per month. That’s a big deal for us. So, thanks much!!

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  11. I watched the 30 for 30 on the USFL last night. It’s ... interesting in light of recent events.

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  12. g:tb, saving members money since early 2021. only took us 17.5 years to figure out our economic power.

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  13. the news right now is absolutely fucking bonkers. one thing more batshit than the next. the matrix is glitchy like a motherfucker at the moment.

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  14. relevant to your interests, whit/les, dave/truck:
    https://www.oldtownschool.org/classes/detail/?courseid=6798

    or you could ask rootsy for lessons.

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  15. Z, I’ve been saying that since 2016! If everyone watched that 30 for 30, that loser would never have been elected.

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  16. And I’m your huckleberry, rob. Signed up.

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  17. Speaking of the USFL, have any of you seen Herschel Walker's son Christian? He is a flamboyant pile of crazy.

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  18. happy 60th to rock weirdo and boom town hero/heel wayne coyne.

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  19. Enjoy the class Whit. I can teach someone how to carry fragments of a song around for ages and never quite finish it. Not sure there's a lot of demand for that.

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  20. "i was born a rootsminer's daughter..."

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  21. That's a good start. No need to go any further for now.

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  22. The book by Jeff Pearlman on the USFL (Football for a Buck) is an insightful read into the hideousness of Trump as well.

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  23. The Black Crowes have released a 30th Anniversary Edition of Shake Your Money Maker with some unreleased tracks. One getting some play is called "Charming Mess." It's my guess that it was not released because they didn't want Rod Stewart to sue them for creating an extremely close facsimile of "Hot Legs." It took about 4 seconds of listening to hear the similarities.

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  24. Jim Jordan keeping it real right now. Real fucking pathetic, that is.

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  25. I saw that too TR. I love folks resisting impeachment because "we as a nation need to come together." Why can't we come together and agree that this guy needs to be impeached and shouldn't be eligible to run for federal office ever again?

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  26. Why is Congress voting again? I thought there was one impeachment count. What was the vote for this morning?

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  27. here we go...Nets get Harden, Rockets flip Lavert to Pacers for Oladipo...Brooklyn with KD, Kyrie, and Harden will be one helluva basketball experiment

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  28. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  29. ...except they have no Kyrie

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  30. he'll eventually be back, once he stops wandering the earth like Caine from Kung Fu

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  31. good thing the nets have an experienced head coach to manage this experiment.

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  32. Nash is in waaaaaayyyyyyy over his head, but he has D'Antoni next to him. They also have zero depth now. Such a panic trade and they gutted their whole future to have three ball-dominant alpha-male scorers together. Joe Harris is very very happy he just signed that deal. Because his shot numbers are gonna plummet.

    Nets play Rockets in last regular season game of the year. It's in Houston. Cousins will try to clobber Harden. I wonder if that becomes a "load management" game for fat James.

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  33. Rhett Miller workshop was super cool. Love that guy.

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