Post Titled: What is more annoying than the No Fly List?

DUNNO.

PT_animal_one scrubber, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

sketches .
I would also like to take this opportunity to post about the "Texas German" dialect (or language?) which is dying out- really bizzzare....
" While eating "der hamburger," Dr. Boas overheard an "interesting sounding German" that sounded a bit odd to the native speaker. It was sprinkled with English words and phrases pronounced with a German accent. Other phrases sounded German but weren't quite right.
Dr. Boas discovered the people were speaking "Texas German," a dialect that developed as German settlers came to Central Texas in the 1840s. But the people who speak it are dying, and with them, the language.
"Once it's gone, it's gone," he said. "If you're an archaeologist it's still possible to dig up some dead bones that were there ... but when a speaker is dead, the language is dead." "
CLICK HERE for full article.

thanks Tim-!

Oh no you d'in't: The ONION Ground Zero video...

Post Titled: Fossil Fuel Follow-Up
In a follow-up to last month'S posting about cleaner coal and how it sounds like a bunch of hooey, (SEE: "Hummer Sucks")here is an article in the NY TImes that says, yea, basically it is like a junkie going onto methadone... READ FOR YOURSELF,

Post Titled: Rising Costs of US immigration fees:
ouch:
"An application for citizenship, including biometric encoding, would climb to $675 from $400; an application to become a permanent resident would rise to $1,010 from $395. The latter would be partially offset by the elimination of fees applicants have to pay while waiting for the green cards, officials said."

so the Germans don't seem so bad afterall...

FROM the Guardian regarding the shadiness of the G8:

"As George Bush put it: 'Real rich people figure out how to dodge taxes.'"


Kid in maryland dies from tooth infection -from SLATE:

"It may be that Deamonte's abscess had progressed to the point that the nerve endings were dead, so he didn't feel the pain for a time. Or maybe he was just a child who complained less. In any case, Deamonte eventually developed headaches, because the infection had reached his brain. A hospital emergency room gave him antibiotics, but within days he was back in the emergency room, this time for brain surgery. He died after six weeks of hospitalization.

After hearing Deamonte's story, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, had his staff call the 24 dentists listed by Deamonte's Medicaid provider. Twenty-three of them either were wrong listings or would not take Medicaid. The 24th was a specialist, not a dentist."

rest of that story HERE

To Lighten the Mood, THE ULTIMATE MOUSE CURSOR (thanks Nigel!)

Post Titled: World Bank reitierates impotance of its Muppet Replacement Policy

Robert Zoellick to replace Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank

Post Titled: Berlin Thunderstorms and Pirates of the Carribean 3
Almost as if it were a part of the normal course of the day, it has suddenly burst into grey and violent thunderstorms every late-afternoon and evening for the past 5 days here in Berlin... in this case (these days of impossible and even "dangerous" weather, ahem ahem, it is perfectly ok to stay indoors and paint while watching PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN 3, right? Of course.

Post Titled: The Angry Disenfranchised Youth Brigades...

I am looking into "2008: European Year of INtercultural Dialogue" for work...

Post Titled: SPAM of note.

this is so wierd.

Post Titled: Kultur wierdness in the Hood...
After romping around al day in the rain with Paul der Andere and Jesi I came home to find a wierd rained-out street parade, I doubt the camera speakers captured how insanely loud the sound of 15 trucks each with its own DJs and sound systems really is...

stripe horizon NADINE pink and green

stripe horizon NADINE pink and green, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

a little collage made from a foto of Nadine by Susanne Jakob

Post Titled: De La Soul at the Admiralspalast Berlin 25 Mai 2007
Post Subtitled: "Ain' no young men up in here" after 18 years De La Soul still has an extremely loyal fan-base and can rock the sh*t outta a crowd.

Pos, Dave and Maceo
At the last minute and after getting caught in an awesome flash thunderstorm at the Kulturfest with Paul and Jesi
I decided that i needed to get back on my bike and ride another half-hour through the rain to go
to the De La Soul show at Admiralspalast (an unusual OLD theater venue on Friedrichstrasse). Upon arrival I was pretty convinced that i had
made a mistake- the crowd in the Hof out front of the entrance was definitely not there for
the same reasons I was. Hundreds of run-of-the-mill teenagers mixed with Middle-aged corporate types mingling with ego-asshole-metrosexual-just-got-back-from-the-gym-and-my-pechs-are-half-
the-size-of-anna-nicole-smith's professional dudes in their late 20's/early 30's
sprinkled with plenty of loud retarded American college kids- then again, i am there alone- indeed, just "me, myself and I" , but "I don't give a f*ck cuz I love hip-hop." (quote I do not credit to myself)- It was very disheartening at first.
actually I really couldn't find anyone who wanted to go back out into the weather and/or shell out the money.
And, as it turns out, another very good reason to think that this was an awful idea was that
this was some kind of Radio Eins party, the spiessers had wristbands and there were - I dunno, there were 4 euro beers and a slightly snooty vibe, even the
apparent hip-hop heads appeared a bit too canned. Looking at the schedule I realized that I had alomost two hours to kill before De La was going on, so I
left the venue, went to the imbiss under the U-Bahn overpass and got a Radeberger for 1,39, returned to the Hof at the Admiralspalast
and peoplewatched. After awhile a columbian hairdresser (middle aged woman) and young german/french jazz singer named isabelle started talking to me,
that went well- it is rare that you randomly meet just nice strangers to kill time small-talking with. However, I got separated from them and ended up just waiting
in front of the satage with photographers.
The show opened with a group of 11 Beatboxers, thos were od but had much too much stop-start to really bring it to a peak.
THe De La Soul show itself was incredible, huge amount of energy- and they played a very good mix of old and new material- my favorite is always EGO TRIP with its multiple false astarts, and then any song where Maceo descends from the turntables and raps, it always seems that in an almost comic-book fashion the floor shakes when he stops down with one foot, like a buddha-HULK. Pos and Dave were in top form wie immer, carrying the lyrical side of things, ever-so charmingly.
STAKES IS HIGH _ favorite quote : "life can get all up in your ass"

a more popular song De La Soul feat. Redman - Oooh with the Wizard of Oz theme, granted Art OFFICIAL Intelligence is not my favoite album:

somewhat unrelated- Pos is the featured vocalist in this song:

Post Titled: Back when Man roamed the earth alongside Dinosaurs...
Michelle sent me this link to an article about a new Creationist museum in Kentucky that displays cavemen along WITH dinosaurs... good lord, what WILL they think of next???

Post Titled: Hill and Knowlton PR Firm's Blogging Code of Practice
THIS POST WAS SO BORING THAT I IMMEDIATELY DELETED IT; but here is a link to what it was talking about.

Post Titled: Art Investment.
Friday. Hot. Unkept teenage chain-smoking Tourists from the Mediterranean and France are clogging the sidewalks below again. I make a sign that says "HUP VERBOT wegen buro" and taped it to the construction site below since it has been incessant honk-rage for a week straight, hope that will change something... I think I -. well, yes, I accidentally spammed a bunch of email addresses with a blank email "art investment" JUST LIKE THE ONEs I GET with the title: Hot INvestment tip! and a childish crappily assembled graphics attached about the Frankfurt Börse.
On the subject of art investment, however, what can I say- I do mull it over. Back when I had a real job, disposable income and a decent art collection myself I was only buying work here and there because I actually liked it. Since then there have been a half a dozen artists who I am kicking myself for NOT having bought when I like their work and it cost 1/10 what it does now... scheisse. Ok, more on that later.

Post Titled: Germany's Next Top Model Barbara
Nadine and crew have been following the developments of Germany's Next Top Model very Closely over the past months... and although I have really only just gotten a clue in the past few days, I was a bit surprised at the relting winner, Barbara... Uhm. SHe doen't really strike me... at all.

Post Titled: Justin.tv
sociology, psychology... might have some catching up to do...

Reminded of this email I received yesterday...

"CYBERSEMIOTICS
Why Information Is Not Enough
Søren Brier
A growing field of inquiry, biosemiotics is a theory of cognition and
communication that unites the living and the cultural world. What is
missing from this theory, however, is the unification of the information
and computational realms of the non-living natural and technical world.
Cybersemiotics provides such a framework. By integrating cybernetic
information theory into the unique semiotic framework of C. S. Peirce,
Søren Brier attempts to find a unified conceptual frame work encompassing
the complex area of information, cognition, and communication science. The
integration is performed through Niklas Luhmann’s autopoietic systems
theory of social communication. The link between cybernetics and semiotics
is further an ethological and evolutionary theory of embodiment combined
with Lakoff and Johnson’s ‘philosophy in the flesh.’ This demands the
development of a transdisciplinary philosophy of knowledge: as common
sense as well as it is cultured in the humanities and the sciences. Such
an epistemological and ontological frame work is also developed in the
book.

Cybersemiotics not only builds a bridge between science and culture, but
it also provides at framework encompassing them both. The Cyber-semiotic
framework offers a platform for a new level of global dialogue between
knowledge systems including a view of science that does not compete with
religion but offers the possibility for mutual and fruitful exchange.

Søren Brier is an associate professor in the Philosophy Unit of the
Department for Management, Politics, and Philosophy at the Copenhagen
Business School.

University of Toronto Press
544 pp / 6 x 9 / September 2007
Cloth ISBN 978-0-8020-9220-5 $85.00 (£55.00) - Special 20% Discount Price
$68.00 (£43.50)"

as well as the newly formed International Journal of INternet Science... which I also recieved an email about.
I mean, actually, at this very moment I don't even see the point in studying this stuff... it will change too rapidly. To me it seems that one needs as much time and concentration just to absorb it and realise what is actualy happening... and by then end of that day every day the mind is erschöpft, Perhaps this will all level-out after they develop something more effective and just as legal as coffee to supercharge the human mind and truly make it able to deal with such a bulk of fast information... or not-.. Heck,... no idea.

Post Titled: Half man, Half ____.

"Some states have allowed scientists to race ahead with this science, which may yield promising treatments, but it also has a potential to produce monsters."

thanks for the heads-up, Nigel!

"willowcup" by Laith McGregor

"willowcup" by Laith McGregor, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

very talented young painter.

Post Titled: Hopping from Video site to video site
is www.cinecast.us dying already? or is it just my slow-ass computer. cinecast just isn't as reliable as it was two weeks ago- which is the exact thing that happend with peekvid.com and alluc.org however cinecast's quality and selection still seem to be the best... soo, we shall see.

Post Titled: European Union's Best Intentions

From the EU website regarding the EU Culture Programme 2007-2013:

"We need to create the conditions so that the peoples and countries of Europe fall in love again with our process of integration," said EU Commissioner for Education and Culture, Jan Figel' in his opening speech to stakeholders at Bozar. He could think of no better occasion than the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, "to renew our wedding wow".
Wedding wow? Play on Words, or clever pun?

"I tried to organise freedom, how Scandanavian of me" -Björk

Post Titled: Googlefont!
I think I just found my new favorite thing/tool/toy of the day... "define irony"...

Adult Swim Ad, originally uploaded by Vanderlin.

I finally found an image of what the whole Aqua Teen Bomb scare was based on - what the hell, who would confuse this thing for a terrorist bomb? Silly earthlings.

Ignignokt: "We are sorry in the most sarcastic sense of the word"

ok, I'll toss in an episode:

Post Titled: THIS IS AN ADVERTISEMENT:

I cropped out the company's logo. What is this ad saying- I honestly am quite puzzled...

Post Titled: European Population Pop COnspiracy?
THere is seriously a pop song out now with the chorus "I wanna have your baby" ... can't help but wonder if it isn't some government-funded project in an attempt to boost Germany (or Europe's) dwindling birthrates. Couldn't find a clip... crappy song, though.

Post Titled: That Harmonic Lull.
Overcast, went out and bought pineapple juice for lunch, thinking about the wierdness of everything... even the distracting and cartoonish wierdness of everone I saw out and about. Went to the library and got a few DVDs: "40 years of German video art", a Ludachris DVD of videos, concert footage and who knows what else or why I was attracted to it, and an obscure american movie from the 1950's that I had never heard of and may never watch.

Thanks library!

and now, some
ALAN GREENSPAN QUOTES:

I do not deny that many appear to have succeeded in a material way by cutting corners and by manipulating associates, both in their professional and in their personal lives. But material success is possible in this world and far more satisfying when it comes without exploiting others.

The Fact that our economical models at The Fed, the best in the world, have been wrong for fourteen straight quarters, does not mean they will not be right in the fifteenth quarter.

The true measure of a career is to be able to be content, even proud, that you succeeded through your own endeavors without leaving a trail of casualties in your wake.

To succeed, you will soon learn, as I did, the importance of a solid foundation in the basics of education - literacy, both verbal and numerical, and communication skills.

We need, in effect, to make the phantom 'lock-boxes' around the trust fund real.

Whatever you tax, you get less of.

An article I read earlier this week regarding the deaths of 3 German soldiers in a suicide bombing at a market in Afganistan ended with "Germans seem to have the least amount of tolerance for their own troop casualties" and as far as i know they are now planning to pull out of Afganistan altogether.
In the time between I posted earlier and am writing this now, they actually recovered what is believed to be the bodies of one of the U.S. Soldiers listed below... and the Democrats have now backed down from their provision in the new Iraq budget that calls for a withdrawal date... I really try not to think
about the Americna Occupation of Iraq too much, but today it just floored me. Why are we not outraged and pulling out after over 3,600 American casualties?
I also tried to imagine the real heart of the problem... but couldn't really. Vague conclusions and theories...

Post Titled: American Soldiers search for missing comrades in Iraq

I found this account of the search for the three missing American soldiers to be very upsetting...
NEW YORK TIMES.

On that topic I realy have nothing to say, -what could there possibly be to say?... I really can#t imagine what kind of hell that must be: both the men who are being held and those risking their lives to look for them, ... young guys from notmal-sounding places... half-way around the world and missing, captive...
"Pfc. Joseph J. Anzack Jr., 20, of Torrance, Calif.
Specialist Alex R. Jimenez, 25, of Lawrence, Mass.
Pvt. Byron W. Fouty, 19, of Waterford, Mich. — were not found."

Post Titled: Possible Banality of a Video Blog Post
Banal video blog entry #1: a re-enactment of my dissapointment at the sewing machine malfunction...

Post Titled: Damn,
I really do like it - Europe, Berlin, Europeans, all of it.

Post Titled:Hectically Depressing graduation speech:
The Apocalypse is Yours Now by Barbara Ehrenreich. If that doesn't cheer you up I don't know what will.

Post Titled: Sunday, Lazy Sunday
Fotos in Susanne's Blog from yesterday, a day of cleaning and creating new minimal furniture arrangements...

Post Titled: The Box Talks! (and I don't know if I like what it seems to be saying...)
Went to the Mauerpark Flohmarkt yesterday (a huge outdoor flea market) and returned with two old East German
school posters (roll-out scroll style of paper-on-canvas, like and old map), one is a very abstract and colorful Leger-esgue cross-section of the inner gears adn chambers of a milking or
milk-processing machine. THe other is a detailed skeleton of Waterfrog. Not the friendliest posters, but fascinating.
Also bartered for a digital tv reciever, so we get a few channels now, although it burps digital squeaks and confusion from time to time, and sometimes can't find channels.
I watched Spongebob in german, which was pretty hilarious, and then a very intimidating documentary about how the Ausländerbehörde Polizei (Foreign Authority Office Police) follow people, interview all their neighbors and interrogate you intensely about your life if you marry a foreigner in Germany.
I mean, peraps there is a similar process in every country, but this was straight-up Stasi
how the Beamter interrogated the couple (separately), for example they asked:
"What did you do on Sunday?"
"Uhhm... woke up and had breakfast..."
"Did you cook for your husband?"
"Yes"
"What did you cook?"
"Eggs."
"How were the eggs cooked? Fried, poached, -?"
Etc.
Then they bring the other spouse in along and ask the same questons. Over the next days they interviewed all the neighbors in the apartment building with a photo of the couple:
"Have you seen this woman? Does she live here? How often does she come and go? Do you see her kissing this man?" ETC.
THEN they show up randomly to their apartment at 7 am to see if the
couple is really living together, they go through the bathroom, bedroom, closets to see
what kinds of things both people have there that validate thier both co-habitating the same space, i.s. toothbrush, clothing, personal hygene products,
clean and dirty laundry... pretty freakish, really.
IN some cases it was determined that the marriages were fake for purposes of citizenship,
hope things go more smoothly for us- as I noted we have 9 years worth of fotos and letters to back things up...

German television (or at least the dozen channels we get) thus far seems to be quite educational, documentary-style programming, arts and political content, good stuf- a bit dry at times.

Post Titled: Plague of Gayness

thanks Manu!
oh, schmack,:

Post Titled: Watch Berlin

Watch Berlin seems to be an educational-cultural video site, not bad.

Post Titled: Deutsche Blog Charts aka German Blog Charts

INteresting, full chart: HERE.

Post Titled: BATTLEFIELD YOUTUBE - literally.

YOUTUBE PIONEERS CHALLENGE PENTAGON from Huffington Post

from the Guardian: LORD OF THE FLIES REALITY SHOW... hellooo, fart! I am sooo jealous about not being ellgible.

wiki HOW to Avoid uncomfortable conversations about religion.

Post Titled: PR

Interesting criticism of Public Relations, John Stauber In Der Spiegel "Saubere Namen für dreckige Zwecke"
by Judith Siers-Poisson now on-tour in Europe Helps if you can read German.

Post Titled: Christihimmelfarht
I had yet another undexpected day off due to yet another Christian holiday, not bad. I can definitely get used to this. I had inteded to go to Poland, but just ended up lounging around drawing, photoshopping and listening to music- just having a really genuinely nice day with Nadine.
I love the Term "CHristihimmelfahrt" it means CHrist's ascention into heaven, but to the english speaking mind it is the fahrt of Christi to the Himmel. THat definitely needs a graphic to go along with it...

Post Titled: Paul Wolfowitz
Post Subtitled: Wolfowitzwitz

Post Titled: German Bureaucracy Thrashed by Gentile Naieve Chaoticism

sooo, officially (if I were official and organized) months before I even got on the plane to D-land I would've been doing THIS stuff to strive towards a coveted German VISA. Instead I bought a one-way ticket and told them I was getting married. On the aforementioned site is the process... but now I am seriously wondering if ANYone actually goes through this process- I mean, is it even do-able? This morning I went to the Bürgeramt to get a Lohnsteuerkarte (something similar to the American W-2 form, which of course you have to be a legal SSN-wielding citizen to actually get, which I am not) and after a lot of me telling them how I was caught up in a multi-level beurocratic Teufelskreis (Catch-22, which is very true) and finally showing them an email from work that said I needed the Lohnsteuerkarte asap they sort of grimaced, huffed and finally nicely gave me one. I had been fighting for this for MONTHS, always lacking some piece of the puzzle- so I got a huge emo-adrenaline rush as I walked out the door and back to work. Had I attempted to get here via official avenues, I doubt anything would've ever happened... there are literally a half-dozen Catch-22s (or more?) which one encounters... My point is... well, one could practically write a book about the hundreds of ways ex-pat Americans manage to stay overseas... and I would be curious to know if even ONE of those stories would begin with "Well, I flew in-person (as is required) to the German Consulate in Washington D.C. (or San Francisco) - and - blah-blah" and held thier breath while following this procedure:
"Procedure with involvement of the foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde):
In cases where the visa application must be approved by an Office of foreigner authority (Ausländerbehörde) (particularly when the duration of the stay is indefinite) the German Embassy or General-Consulate abroad transmits the visa application to the regional foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde) in order to give them the possibility of a written opinion. Normally the forwarding is carried out by the express service of the foreign affairs office. As
visa applications contain confidential information, the dispatch is complicated. Necessary security measures make the process take up to 2-3 three weeks. Although the applications are announced to the the foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde) per fax to the Federal Office of Administration (Bundesverwaltungsamt) in Cologne beforehand, they normally can only be processed if a completed application including all documents is at hand.

The the foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde) checks the documents and investigates the relevant facts. It is often necessary that the persons of reference residing in Berlin (e.g., spouse, future employer) hand in further documents or provide for further information.

When the process is completed, the the foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde), provides the German Embassy or General-Consulate abroad with a written opinion of the visa application.
The German mission abroad then decides in sole competency whether or not a visa will be granted. The written opinion of the Office of Alien Affairs (Ausländerbehörde) is a
solely internal administrative proceeding that does not address itself to the applicant or the reference person, but exclusively to the German Embassy or General-Consulate abroad. Therefore normally the result will not be communicated to the applicant. Only the German Embassy or General-Consulate abroad informs the applicant of their decision. If a visa application is rejected, the applicant has the option of making a legal appeal to the German Embassy or General-Consulate abroad."

no, these are stories of subtle oddity and quiet chaos... how things really happen. The "I-am-in-love-with-one-of-your-women-and-am-coming-to-your-country whether-you-like-it-or-not" approach has worked, more or less, for me.

I mean, jeez, this is only thing in the website's link in the law "Translations" section for the rights of foreigners is this:


German Civil Code

Auf Grund von Mängeln der von einem externen Übersetzerteam zugelieferten Übersetzung sah sich das Bundesministerium der Justiz leider gezwungen, die Übersetzung aktuell nicht weiter bereitzustellen. Wir bitten um Verständnis.

In view of flaws in the translation supplied by a team of external translators the Federal Ministry of Justice is unfortunately compelled to refrain from making this translation available. We apologize for the inconvienence.


Wonder how many years it has been there like that-

To be fair, sometimes the people working at these places are very nice adn helpful, other times they are not, and other times, like this morning they are quite naieve themselves, like the guy who said "Oh, it must be no problem for Americna to get a work permit in Germany-" I just smiled. if "No problem" means months of waiting, hang-ups, frustration and uncertatinty, then yea- no problem.

Post Titled: Turkish Pro-Secular Protests
There have been five Protect Your Republic Protests in Turkey over the past month, the first in Ankara at Tandoğan square in front of Anıtkabir, the final resting place of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on April 14, 2007:


and the most recent Gündoğdu rally, İzmir -May 13, 2007

Kind of beautiful, really. SOURCE: Wikipedia

I have Turks on the brain a lot because they are everywhere in our part of Kreuzberg. I asked my boss last week why it is that the Turks in Berlin still wear headscarves whereas everywhere I have been in Turkey was almost completely Westernized- he said that when the Germans invited the Turks to come as guest workers (since the 1960s, due to labor shortages of German men) they came from little remote villages -not progressive metropolitan areas- thus bringing with them more traditional small-town religious values. Eventually their wives came to join them here, and they had kids, and these ways of living were passed along (unless the kids rebelled- which must be extrememly difficult)... so, I think he'S probably right about that, and that explains that... a little clash of civilizations right out my front door.

Post Titled: DESIGN-A-TRUCK CONTEST for FREITAG
"You design a truck tarp. We put it on the street."
COOOL, DO IT: CLICK

Post Titled: Ding-Dong Jerry Falwell is dead.

IT's true.

THat is that.

Post Titled: World Bank Wolfowitz Scandal through the T.A.R. Lens...

Disclaimer, I have to write a blurb for a newsletter at work about Mr. Wolfowitz... here is my own personal draft that may need a few changes before going to print:

"The Crimes of Passion (Most Likely) Committed by Paul Wolfowitz
Under Pressure: A World Bank committee has thus far determined that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has violated the Code of Conduct, clearly more damaging to his reputation that merely having holes in his socks. He is accused of upping the salary of his girlfriend and fellow Muppet, Shaha Riza, the WB's Middle East and North Africa region Slightly Androgenous Senior Gender Specialist. Although Wolfowitz continues to defend himself and deny any wrongdoing, one must wonder: Why? She ain’t all that- I mean, a Google image search produces photos of a homely woman in-profile, with the face only a brother could love. Further audio recordings of phone conversations from Wolfowitz to Riza in which he states smoothly'I'll hook you up, Baby' are not working towards his advantage."

Hmm...I might've made that last sentance up.

Either wat the internet rage is raging on all sides, American and European, Left Right and LEft, and of all the comments I have seen posted I do believe my favorite thus far comes from The Huffington Post, thouroughly irreverant:
"MisterBorat: Throw the Jew down the well for Chrissakes!!" if you have seen that episode... where Borat is in a country-western bar in Texas and gets everyone to sing "Throw the Jew down the well" on the premise that it is a old folksong in his village back in Kazakstan.
Don't you just love internet rage? Isn't it just silly?

Seriosuly, though, is Mr. Wolfowitz feeling the wrath of Euro-anger at his role in the Iraq war- is that what this is all about? Do I care? not really, I don't care if Mr. WOlfowitz is Jewsish or Mexican or Arab or Eskimo, he can go. Just go.

Post Titled: Little Tiger drinks DOgmilk

A Bengal tiger cub that was rejected by its own mother has been adopted by an affectionate French Bulldog.

(also from Reuters)

Juxtaposed by "The Killer Tortoise" a video if inter-species hate:


On my iGoogle Desktop I have this feaure that converts english to Yoda-speak, for example:

"Love will tear us apart again." = "Tear us apart again, love will. Hmmmmmm."

Odd: BBC has a BANKSY gallery on their site.

Post Titled: "Muppets Preach Peace in the Middle East"

From Reuters

Post Titled: Redfin
I read and blogged about Glenn Kelman, CEO of Redfin and its eccentric CEO at least a month or two ago, (brag brag- in the world of my 'web-based' attention-span that means I remember almost nothing about this other than that he was a brutally honest CEO blogger, and I found that to be pretty amazing QUOTE: "I honestly believe that if Redfin were stripped absolutely bare for all the world to see, naked and humiliated in the sunlight, more people would do business with us." )I came across his interview first in the Seattle P-I then the intriguing article in WIRED) and now it "redfin" technorati top 10 becuase of a 60 minutes episode, hmpf. it is (is it?) ruffling the feathers in the world of real estate- for example: HERE

EXPERT OPINION from V.C. Chin
"A good real estate agent will create an effective marketing campaign and obtain the best possible price. A good real estate agent is worth their weight in gold, but most are worthless. They shouldn't get paid just for showing up without providing a real service. Redfin is a good company with a target market. They can help people who don't need or want specialized help. They can help weed out the bad agents."

Post Titled: Cool map.
Nadinechen is back in town and all the world is right again!:

from Worldmapper

Post Titled: Fuck Bank of AMERICA
and their sappy crappy singing. fuck them.
NOTE: my only puropse with this post is to add just ONE MORE thing to the internet that says "FUCK BANK OF AMERICA" for their inhumane and merciless business practices. THat's all. Oh, and because I came across this:

I haven't had any waves of anger towards them recently, a few months at least... until I Googled "Fuck Bank of America" today and read ONCE AGAIN just how awful and respectless they really are towards the common man.

Post Titled: On the Destruction Of BUILDINGS.

I was spookily charmed at this post in BLDG BLOG with comparisons juxtaposing old ruins with new ruins... merely becaused the sight of ancient ruins inspires awe and nostalgia whereas the site of new ruins wells-up deep-seeded fear and nausea recalling tragedies and attacks of the past decades... respectable vs. ghostly-ghastly, have a look got yourself HERE

Furthermore, I am currently all huffy with the Huffington Post for not publishing my comment to Steve Rosenbaum's Blog about Spider-Man 3 and the (same) deep-seated fear of the destruction of modern skyscrapers and the kinds of felings it arouses in the contemporary viewer... I mean, he makes a great point,
but where is my goddamn comment?!?, -they have posted such no-brainer comments as "So you're advocating censorship?" and "You're right - it's you." but they have yet to publish mine- which points out that there is a factual error in Mr. Rosenbaum post because the haywire crane scene which he refers to was actually caused by an electical short, not an attack of the Sandman (am I wrong?) but also that there are several specific things about Spider-Man (1) that were directly related to Sept. 11, not to mention that the scene where he creates a web between the Twin Towers had to be re-edited out of the film before its release... grr. He doesn't even properly hyphenate "Spider-Man"...

Post Titled: Schon Genug!!! and Online Glitches!
(an email sent to my family)
"Ok,. so I finalllly got my university transcript ordered! It is soo frustrating, because of a glitch in the credit card processing system I had to change my official bank acct. phone number from my german handy # to your cellphone #, not that they will ever call- but it is so annoying), because the phone # has to match a stateside number even if the address is an APO, and I use mom and dad's address because with (BANK) you have to have an American address,-will they EVER get it right with APO,AE in these online forms?!?? ANyhow, unless somethign awful happens I printed, signed, and scanned the pdf back -and my transcript will hopefully arrive as soon as possible so I can get the gears tolling with everything all over again... hopefully I won't have to have it translated- which would set me back another €40-50, but it is possible... actually, I probably will -ugh.
I was complaining about the Germans operating with 1950s-era beurocratic technology, having everything in bulky paper folders , walls full of stasi-style organisation, and nothing online and nothing and no one ever really accesssible, but strangely enough the Registrar having outsourced itself to HERDON, VA (where we used to live- believe it or not) really isn't any more efficient or easy... but at least it feels like something is gettnig done. the ausländerbehorden was supposed to call my work to confirm that my job was real, but as of a week we have heard nothing, lovely little "Don't call us, we'll call you- and, oh, actually there isn't really any way to call us anyhow, so don't bother trying." Nadine and I discovered why the process takes so long, or at least part of the reason, we wandred in when the number had changed in the waiting room into this tiny little space where you cna talk to one of the Beamter through the glass, except there was no one there ot meet us and no bell to ring or anyhing like that and we overheard all these women who work there chatting about dinner recipies for 5 minutes before they even realized that we were waiting... grrrr. No wonder everything takes a half day of waiting to even get the paperwork in-process and then at least a month to get done."

Post Titled: Good Morning, Wierd News!

Feeling a bit funny in the head after having not left the apartment for 30+ hours between Saturday night and Monday morning, needed the downtime -it was rainy and windy so the world was best experienced from indoors, I stayed in and built furniture, drank tea, drew, painted and watched a ton of movies online- including the Last King of Scotland and Little Children, worthwhile stuff. Forest WHitaker blew my effing mind in that role. On top of that I still find Kate Winslet not only an amazing actress but also strangely attractive, even in a frumpy suburban housewife role like that, -I think it must be the face.
But after such an extended period devoid of human interaction I found it difficult to talk with people- Amelia stopped by and by brain struggle dto communicate, Nadine called and I could barely stutter-out a few words, odd. Komisch. Anyhow- after listening to that This American Life episode about Guantanamo (see previous post) I could not even begin to imagine what hell solitary confinement must be (not that there is any comparison)... If I start to feel wierd after a day and a half of being on my own what must happen to people after weeks/months/years? Jeez, terrifying to think...

Due to a glitch in financial planning I ended up having absolutely no money for 4 days straight, which is really kind of Zen in its own way... interesting. Challenging. A bit unnerving to being with, but so long as there is a bicycle, books, ink and the internet on-hand it isn't all that bad.

The other day I was walking through a flea market a few days ago and saw a CD titled Celine Dion and Anne Geddes... just take a second to think about that... what that might be... WHY WHY WHY didn't I pick it up and look at it, I only saw the label on the side of the case and practically ran out of fear... now, I man never have the opportunity to experience what that dynamic duo would've produced with their powers combined... meahwhile, I subscribed to the Anne Geddes baby fotos feed on my google homepage, it is out of control... I honestly thing there should be a retrospective of her work in a big fancy art museum someday, it is truly... (words fail me)

Ok, furthermore, wierd news I have found this morning:


Teach Your Children Well: Or, teach them... somethingTeachers Stage Fake Gunman Attack on Students in Tennesee, seriosly- what the hell were they thinking?


Mutation: Peruvian 5-year-old gives birth (1939)

Owner Lay Dead while pair toured Home: nightmarish.


Cancer: Over 200 common Carcinogens - oh, great. (recent study, L.A. TImes)

Music: "U.K. Music Label Creates a Vinyl-MP3 Hybrid" from WIRED


Hating on the Jews: Anti-Semitism in the Ukraine

NOTE TO GOOGLE ITSELF or rather whoever the all-seeing Googlemonster eye is who checks my blog fairly regularly now)- this can be looking into by googling "info:YOUR-URL-HERE" and clicking on google's cache below.)
OK:ISSUE: I have 2 Gmail accounts, therefore 2 iGoogle homepage accts which I check for news, etc. but only one blog connected to one of my gmail accts, but every goddamn time I log out of my gmail account it ALSO logs me out of my blog in another tab in Firefox, GRRrrr! THat is frustrating, can something be done about that? Probably not, but it is one of the only annoyances I have with Google software, not that big of a deal really-

Post Titled: This American Life episode "Habeas Schmabeas"

Very important episode of this American Life from 2006 re-aired last week, CLICK HERE to listen, every American should, no kidding.

Post Titled: Photos of Nadine by Susanne Jakob



Series taken as a test for a gallerie show in Duesseldorf.

Post Titled: Cinecast.us
In the past week I have fallen in love with www.cinecast.us namely for its quality and the fact that it has so much stuuf I reeeeally want to watch (again) namely DAVE CHAPPELLE'S BLOCK PARTY and the like)
Last night Florian was explaining to me how the DIVX technology works, pretttty amazing really...

Post Titled: The DESIGNMAI FESTIVAL I did not intend to attend...

If you don't know me personally then SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH because it might be boring: I woke up, attempted to cut my own out-of-control-Peter-Pan hair, which worked, watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith (CLICK TO WATCH), a terribly enjoyable film I might add and then had to decide what to do with a rainy Saturday. Took all the empty bottles to the store and got the deposits, then used that money to buy bread, cheese and beer. Practically a barter system. there was a break in the rain so I google-mapped the location of an art and culturething sponsored by Tiger called "Tiger Translate" I was mainly interested because Eboy was on the lineup and I love their sh*t, so I got on the bike and make the trek across town, along the way passing by a club just off Heinrich-Heine Str. called "Poppen" (Fucking) at the base of a leg of the overhead S-bahn tracks. The name of the club was displayed in white duct tape on the window, cleverly... uh, avoiding sign-design costs, I suppose. I actually only noticed it beacuse a teenage girl was dancing through the bars of the second-story window, along with booming electronic music and other young hip-looking kids in their late teens and early 20's laying on the curbs and sidewalks outside. Charming... it was 4 in the afternoon, and although I had heard of clubs going through one night into the next day and on through the next night I hadn't actually withnessed it, so I was a bit taken aback. "Yaaawh, Faaaarradfahrer!! Ja, Fahrradfahren ist die Zukunft, alter!" said a cracked-out kid on the sidewalk, "Uh, -ja!" I managed... anthow, gotta film that sometime if I remember. Rode on past Alexanderplatz and then was distracted along the way when I then acidentally came across the

DESIGNMAI INTERNATIONALES DESIGNFESTIVAL (indicators being over-creatively snappy dressers with unusual haircuts, little tiny fold-out bicycles and crazy glasses. In typical space-cadet fashion, being disoriented and overwhelmed and this find, I didn't even notice the ticket desk and went straight to the book sales desk where they had a copy of the most recent Bruce Mau book (title?) and a dual-language copy of Marshall McLuhan's "The Medium is the Message" oder "Der Medium ist die Botschaft"
Upstairs there were presentation areas for designers from all over, and I found a day-ticket on a table to legitimate myself. I actually got really excited because this stuff was SO sci-fi and "Web X.0" (whatever that means) it was amazing. Processes that imitated nature, products that looked like they were from another people and another planet, cellurlar-structured and creautre-esque furniture, stools, and lamps.
I guess I had taken for granted that design was blah-zaaay and could no longer stir my romatic mind, but seeing the FRONT Sketch Furniture made my jaw drop, and holy COW this is why:

music by: Hess is More.
so, yea, they DRAW the furniture in 3D space and then the machine or whatever "prints" it, whhhattt the faahk, amazing, right?

I then wandered into a room where a panel discussion was happening and took a seat. there was a really inspiring presentation from Reto Wettach of the Fachhochschule Postdam on INteraction Design and SUstainiability as well as Human-oriented interactive software adn Hardware, (his point was that coputers should be designed in ecactly the ways that we interact witht he world, not that we should have to adjust to their way of doing things... I think I had this same complaint recently: what is the point of going to an effing miserable office from 9-5 (17), sitting in front of a gling machine screen, etc. This all needs to GO- the office model, OUT OUT!. After that there was the girl (blogger) behind we-make-money-not-art.com, Regine Debatty, in pigtails. The program said she was from Germany but she had the Frenchest accent ever. I was quite impressed by her simple and blunt positions after her presentation: "I am just an observer" and "I am a consumer, yea- I buy a lot" when questioned later. I really appreciated that she brought up Takashi Murakami as the example of where the concern for the distinction between art and design ends. "The Japanese look for beauty in everything, they are not concerned whether the object of beauty is an artwork or a product..." I could never really truly wrap my mind around that... my years of faschist aesthetics sensibilites told me what was and was NOT art, still trying to free myself of that... afterall, who even cares? it is Art-Nazi bull$hit, afterall... I sold all my Murakami art products in the last months because of my financial situaltion, and yea... artproducts... they are both.
It was another awkward feeling since the room was filled with folks who had big hard boners for design and I am somewhat indifferent to it, I man sure- it is cool, but... hmm. I am not nodding my head at itching to get a work in edgewise like the group towards the front, grey-haired, sweatered and man-boobed... Yea, anyhow, design is cool but I guess I just don"t need it. Don't need to obsess over a thousand dollar chair that looks like plasticine mollusks- although, I appreciate how it tricles-down to affect product appearances in general, like - mobile phones and shoes and the lot.
an exhibit:



The first idea stub is an idea stub for the idea stub.

Post Titled: Issara in India
Friend and former housemate Issara Willenskomer is traveling in india to film and install solar panels, resulting in some verrry entertaining blog entries, z.B.:

"Ladakh: a journey into intestinal fortitude
Kategorie: Travel and Places

Yaque has eloquently summed it all up, "Every time I come to India, I have one continuous fart. And it's fine when I go home but I don't know if my ass will ever be the same." Truly, much more can be said on both the subject of India and farting, but why bother? The truth is that we are in Ladakh, perpetual moonscape, imbiber of that myopic lens, the quintessential National Geographic™ eurocentric exotification of foreign lands and cultures. It is also the land of apricots, high deserts, mongrel dogs, mongrel cats, mongrel tourists. At night the stars are as big as grapefruits and you need a net to scoop them out of the sky. When we jokingly asked our host about yeti, he was so matter of fact, it was if we had asked him about prayer flags. The dust gets into everything and the air greedily sucks the moisture out of your body in an effort to equalize you with the dry atmosphere. Yesterday we witnessed a magnificent cat fight. After growling nose to nose for ten minutes, they erupted in a yowling ball of rage, spewing dust and tufts of hair. We laughed and cheered from our balcony. My white guilt is at an all time low. I have too much knowledge. In Nepal, in anticipation of the hoards of tourists soon to arrive this year or next, they are already putting up signs explaining that when alms are given to a beggar child, it allows them the luxury of not attending school, which is free. This system is perpetuated by foreigners who are moved by the impossibly cute, impossibly insistent 'exotic' child, and are compelled to act through the heart and wallet. Nepal recommends donating to schools, NGO's and pretty much anybody who will prevent the movement of children from the schools to the streets." to continue reading, click here

Other amazing entries:

The Perfect Shave

Robocop in India

Post Titled: Australian Painter Laith McGregor

Has a new website HERE, damn fine work- fun as all heck and terribly nice fellow as well. We met in Venice several years back very randomly...

Post Titled: Spider-Man 3

Here is a link to a full and pretty good-quality version of SPIDER-MAN 3 online.

I have watched the first 2/3 of the film a hald a dozen times, practically have it memorized, and once again (as with the first Spider-Man: i.e. "With Great Power comes Great Responsibility") I find myself being quite sympathetic to the types of life-lessons or *gasp* dare I say "morals" the film promotes, for example:

"A man has to be understanding and put his wife before himself, can you do that?"

Being a self-absorbed egotistical hipster gets you a whole lotta nowhere with no one. Not only that, but it is sad to see that happen to someone who was once a real, whole and interesting human being to begin with thereafter reduced to a shallow husk concerned only with the "cool."

It is a far better thing to die that to become a mere scenester. ... (Ok, this wasn't actually in the film, jusssst kiddding.)

Revenge is poisionous and pointless. Reminds me of the death penalty... Peter thinks that he has killed the Sandman (played by THomas Hayden-Church (sp?)) who murdered his uncle, he attempt to relay this in a positive way to his aunt, who bascially (dissapointedly) says that killing someone to prove that killing is wrong is tragic, hypocritical, and basically wrong.

A bond or relationship between two people can, in fact, be tested, broken, and then rebuilt; thereafter strenghthened and more meaningful because it has had to prove itself, perservere, survive and re-establish its importance. This cycle seems somehow more meaningful and solid than a relationship that has been nothing but smooth-sailing all along, never having been challenged or fought-for.

There are also a number of drug and greed metaphors. After being exposed to the black insecty-goo from outerspace, Peter Parker (and Spider-Man) are intoxicated by the new power of the now black suit. This power and the agression that comes with it turns Peter into a sort of junkie, alienating him from friends and family and taints the good that he does in the world into twisted and unnecessairily cruel and/or merciless acts. The power-lust brought on by the living black goo parallels the average heroin, crack or amphetamine downfall story quite well. Similiar to the character of Harry Oswald (played by James Franco in the film) who undergoes the same treatment of performance-enhancing biomorphicism as his father (played by Willem DaFoe) did in the first film.

Post Titled: Hot White Girls writing for White Hot Magazine
INdeed, both Alicia and Jesi have pieces in whitehotmagazine.com

Post Titled: Golden Age of Retardation just keeps on Rolling
and here is some proof: ("some", mind you)-
Key Search Terms that brought people to my Blog recently:

Perc. Search Term
18.18% wu tang forever
9.09% rat art tar
9.09% gordon baltimore thailand
9.09% gilbert and george dowload bbc
9.09% justin timberlake future sex love sounds
9.09% paperpools ilya
9.09% terminator biography russian -movie -sports
9.09% batman ogoun
9.09% scab action barney
9.09% nosbaum reding artnews projects berlin

Heard on Wait, Wait... Don't Tell Me! a Judge in Wash. D.C. is suing the drycleaners for over $65 million dollars for "'mental suffering, inconvenience and discomfort' caused by the loss of his suit pants."
jeez. the fellow needs a serious reality-check... wonder what his contact info is... hold up... ok, here it is: oah@dc.gov oh, oops, mailing address as well:
Pearson, Roy L Jr
3012 Pineview Ct NE
Washington, DC 20018-1617

More importantly here is a link to the CHung's Denense Fund (Korean family who owns the Cleaners)

and this post from someone who ACTually works for the Government is sad, but I got a bit of Schadenfreude out of it: "How do I deal with a boss who dislikes me personally and says no to all of my ideas?"

Scheisse, this is ridiculous, Kochstraße- the U-Bahn stop for my work (and street) might be re-named Rudi Dutschke Straße! ... oh, wait, he was in a movie with Brigitte Bardot, alles gut.

In "Movies on the internet" news: www.zamunda.net was reccommended by George
and then there is my current favorite www.alluc.org

Don't you hate it when you get a great idea, and then realize that it has already been done: CLICK HERE

Post Titled: Blue Dress. Blue Face

Great fotos SUsanne took yesterday of Nadine at our apt.

Post Titled: again and again and again.
Post Subtitled: DISCLAIMER: Allow me to drag you through my thoughts on the first half-day of a THursday in May.

It is quite possible that my transition into so-called 'adulthood' keeps taking three steps forward and two steps back. today was one of those days where that was once again blaringly obvious. It IS going forward, but at a different and stumble-tripped-up chaotic rate, just something to recognise and deal with, I suppose.
I attended my first press conference today at the Haus der Bundespressekonferenz, couldn't find the front door- I don't think there is one, then accidentally walked-in on a UNICEF press conference before finally finding the right part of the building- which was NOT marked AT all. Nice people to greet you, sign-in, get all sorts of free (good) food-juice-caffinated drinks (and by the way if you are ever hungary all you would need to do is put on a suit and walk into this place: Schiffbauerdamm 40) I showed up and took a seat at the very long u-shaped table, flipped through the info packet and observed the cameramen and their neurotic jolting motions, noticed the tired disinterested (and somewhat distorted?) faces of journalists from several major newstations and papers... a small-ish but official gathering, and it felt wierd being the youngest(-looking) person in the room, definitley the youngest-looking, but then again as things got started it really didn't seem to matter. The meeting was to present the expectations of European Youth for a Tobacco-free Europe in the future, this involves banning smoking everywhere, banning tobbaco advertisements, etc. Good luck. Since I knew almost eveything in the presentation ahead of time (from researching for the article I wrote about the campaign a few months back), I basically just pretended to be taking notes and just wrote down all the German vocab words that I heard being used but did not know the meaning of.
Afterwards I had some time to kill since by the time I actually got back to work it would already be lunchtime, so I wandered along the bank of the Spree by the Bundestag, very futurustic- they filmed some opening scenes of X-Men here, then wandered over to Unter den Linden, visited the Akadamie Der Künste, (which has a grea t little bookstore) then to the GAlerie Lafayette on Friedrichstrasse, a place I like to go just to be surrounded by commercial eye-candy. At the peak of broke-ness about a month and a half ago I used to torture myself by walking through the food court, and although I still can't even afford a cup of coffe there, it is nto nearly as depressing to walk thorough wearing a suit... Their "food court" is one of the only things that actually makes me question my vegetarianism, -it is so picture perfect French gourmet food behind glass and on plates of middle-aged folks sitting for lunch, all gorgeous. In the Q205 (an underground mall down the way) the girl at the crepe´stand looks uncannily like Lonelygirl15... at least lonelygirl15-esque, then again, so does Seattle Curator Carrie E.A. Scott, and the wokman who plateyed the teacher in Rushmore... odd.
I still had time to kill and only 80 cents in my pocket so I decided to visit a few galleries. For some reason many of the Galleries in the neighborhood are locked and you have to be buzzed-in. Having a suit and a folder full of excel documents really made things fun. I visited Francisco Clemente's show at J--- and was thouroughly underwhelmed, expressing my underwhelmedness by jotting notes down silently as I went throught he space. CRONE had an ok but slightly simplistic show, more on that ...
later...

Post Titled: Regarding the Palestinian Kids Show Post from yesterday with the Jihadi Mickey Mouse:

It got cancelled-

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- After an episode made global headlines earlier this week, the Palestinian government has shelved a Hamas-owned children's TV show starring a Mickey Mouse lookalike that urged Palestinian children to take up arms against America and Israel.
The show, "Tomorrow's Pioneers," aired in Gaza on Al-Aqsa TV station, which is owned by Hamas -- an Islamic militant group that controls the Palestinian government and has called for the destruction of Israel.

Post Titled: Berlin art at Artfaceoff.com

Ok, my lazy arse finally got another post up for the local goings- on in Berlin for artfaceoff.com -click that, yao.

Post Titled: "CRACKDOWN ON MONSANTO SEEDS
Germany Tightens Restrictions on Genetically Modified Corn"

From Der Spiegel

Sometimes the overbearing German regulations actually get it right.

Post Titled: Hamas Mickey Mouse Teaches Terror to Kids
Jihadi Mickey Mouse... pretty-much un-EFFING-belieavable.


get 'em while they're young... I suppose this is just a practical use of a kids show, and teaches values, like most kids shoes attempt to... Jihadist Mickey Mouse or "Farfour(or Farfur)" as the character is called, of course... it makes perfect sense.

Post Titled: Kraut Haut

Germans love getting naked.

That's cool, -except when paedophiles go around the beach taking pictures of naked little kids- like Nadine and Jesi experienced the other day.

Post Titled: The Libertines
Nadine and I were musing (once again the other day) WHY Kate Moss might want to marry an icky guy Pete Doherty... I have never listened to his band the Libertines, although she seems to like them a lot, but I did hear a tragic recount of their demise on NPR several years ago- maybe told by Sarah Vowell?
anyhow, I was re-shocked to read it again on the Guardian. and the description of that Thai rehab clinc- jeez.

"The band won countless awards and were lauded by critics. But all the time their presiding genius, Pete Doherty, was hurtling headlong toward self-annihilation...

The guitarist, singer and songwriter is in the grip of a £250-a-day addiction to heroin and crack. Three times in the last month he has tried rehab clinics, including the world's harshest situated in Thailand, only to drop out each time. Last year he spent time in jail for burgling his own bandmate's house. In a music business now sanitised by boy bands and Pop Idol , Doherty, 25, has proved that there is still a niche for the savage hedonism of the old-style rock'n'roller, a star that burns twice as bright and half as long.

'I think Pete's main problem is that he is fascinated by the dark side,' ...
Things fell apart in May last year when Doherty was kicked out of the band for failing to turn up for a European tour. Two months later, while the rest of the group were in Japan, he burgled Barat's flat in Mayfair and stole a guitar, video recorder, laptop, mouth organ and CD player to fund his drug habit. He admitted: 'Yes, I'm a heroin addict, yes, I'm addicted to crack cocaine, and I don't know what to do.'...

He then got a place at the world's toughest clinic, the Thamkrabok monastery in Thailand, with the help of the actress June Brown, alias Dot Cotton in EastEnders, whose godson, Tim, has been hooked on crack. There he faced a pitiless regime, including beatings with a bamboo cane and being forced to drink a black concoction of vile herbs that made him vomit throughout the day to rid his body of impurities.

Gordon Baltimore, a former US Marine who runs the remote 784-acre centre, told one newspaper: 'For 30 days the patient is nothing but a robot. We push the button to decide when he eats and when he sleeps. Once someone starts his programme, the only way he can quit is when he's dead. The method of punishment is the bamboo stick.'

Hardened heroin, opium and crack addicts can be heard wailing in pain at the clinic. They are made to sing the Thai national anthem every day, and tapes of chanting by Buddhist monks are piped through to their cells every night. They endure a diet of rice and water. Once a patient has overcome his addiction, he must sign a vow never to take drugs again.

Doherty bolted before dawn on Day Three of his 10-day detox treatment and returned home, only to be arrested for reckless driving and possessing a flick knife. The Libertines were forced to cancel performances at the Glastonbury Festival..."

Post Titled: From an article called "Competition is the American Imperialists Way!"
Post Subtitled:Commie bastards!
Post Sub-Subtitled: Jussssstkiddddding, I love competition and Communists... (well, the hot ones anyway).

Post Sub-Sub-SUbtitled: Jussssstttt Kiiiiddding, not so superficial. sh*t, where's my coffeee. I broke down and watched the forst 1/3 of Spider-Man 3 online yyesterday, how's that for junkie capitalism?
Post Now Retitled: There's still nothing quite like the North Korean Mass Games


Quote from North Korean Doll Factory Owner:

"Dolls of white bear, brown bear, puppies and kitten were manufactured. Even I felt like being a child when I was looking at those dolls. Some of them were planned for export to South Korea while the rest would remain for North Korean kids. I was dreaming of North Korean children holding the dolls produced in my factory.

If production phase kept up, there would be more order from international buyers and I could be able to teach more skills and know-how to North Korean technicians.

My next objective was to gradually increase the production rate to a hundred thousand dolls per month. What I had achieved by then took about six months. One hundred thousands dolls per month seemed an easy task.

But a ‘North Korean’ trouble occurred again. Since salary was set immobile, production cost was higher if output was low. When output was increased, the number of inferior goods also rose.

So I pushed the employees to work hard and cautiously at the same time with low rate of inferior goods. The reply was “we don’t work in a capitalists’ way!” Workers did not get paid more for extra production.
“The Great Leader comrade Kim Il-Sung and the Dear Leader comrade Kim Jong-Il already told us how to work. We only follow that.”

I could not find a word to respond. "

Post Titled: Gilbert and George Download
for the next two daysyou can dowload a work of art HERE

Scientology can't decide what to call their self-help courses, you can help them pick out names by taking this survey.

Post Titled: Peter, Bjorn and John

Ohrwurm: A song, or an advertising jingle, that invades your consciousness and won't leave.



I have had this sond stuck in my head for a week. I guess that is POP for ya.

Post Titled: Articulation of Germany's big fat HANG-UPs.

DISCLAIMER: this post is NOT directed and anyone I know personally OR work with on a regular basis, but is directed more towards the society as a whole. Mind you, when I am in the States (or even when I am not) I am just as (if not more) harsh of a critic of that so-called society.

LAst week, in various states of delirium from over-working on the UdK project I would come home in a delerious state after having worked 17 hours straight and rant to Nadine about how "The Germans can be just a little bit FUCKING RETARDED, often they can't solve problems, are obsessed with process itself, times, schedules and are willing to just write most things off as 'not possible' instead of Just DOING it, FINDING a solution or a way." THis was making me NUTS, literally. It wasn#t just the germans either, it was the people from many an EU nation.

In retrospect, I am a guest here and should respect the way this society works, even if it is a little bit fucking retarded it is still one of the top economies int he world and produces many innovations. BUT to back-up my remarks, 10 years ago the then- Bundespräsident Roman Herzog said the same damn things, just a bit more diplomatically:

"Probably the biggest scold of the past few decades has been Roman Herzog, who was President from 1994-99. His political origins lay in the mainstream-conservative CDU/CSU, so he's a cherished whipping-boy of the left. Whatever you think of him politically, there's no question that he was one of the greatest scolds that ever scolded. In this 1997 speech, Herzog begins by describing the optimism he encountered on a recent trip to Asia, and then comparing it with German society, where he laments: "the loss of economic dynamism, the paralysis (Erstarrung) of society, and an unbelievable mental depression." Instead of approaching new technologies and challenges soberly, he continues,

'...we fall prey to fear scenarios. There’s hardly a single new discovery which does not first provoke questions about the risks and dangers – but never about the opportunities. There’s hardly a single reform effort that is not immediately suspected of being an “attack on the social state.” Whether atomic energy, genetic technology, or digitalization: we suffer from the fact that our discussions are distorted into unrecognizability – to some extend ideologized, to some extent simply “idiotized.” Such debates no longer lead to decisions. Instead, they end up following a ritual, which always seem to play out in the same seven-step pattern:

1.In the beginning, there is a reform proposal which would require some sacrifice from some interest group.

2.The media registers a wave of “collective outrage.”

3.Now (at the very latest) the political parties jump onto the bandwagon, one of them in favor, one against.

4.The next phase produces a blizzard of alternative proposals and empty symbolic gestures of all kinds, going all the way to mass demonstrations, petition drives, and questionable blitz-polls.

5.A general lack of orientation follows; citizens become insecure.

6.Now, from all sides, come the appeals toward “prudence.”

7.Finally, at the end, the problem is put off. The status quo is maintained. Everyone waits for the next big subject.'

These rituals would be amusing to watch, if they didn’t also dangerously cripple the ability to actually make decisions. We fight about the unimportant things, in order to avoid having to concentrate on the important ones."

CREDIT: plucked from a blog called German Joys

I still love Germany and Europe, of course, but damn- people!, the motto around here sould be JUST EFFING SHUT-UP AND DO IT! - kinda like the old Nike slogan, but more harsh...

on top of that, there are other problems that Germany seems to prefer to look the other way on, namely the integration of its minority populations... but this is also and EU issue.

Post Titled: that wierd number letter combo all over the web last week.

in a a nutshell. -from Technobabble 2.0

Post Titled: Mark Twain's War Prayer:

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

-Mark Twain

Post Titled: Former Kids in the Hall member Kevin McDonald Cleverly Wins French Election Under the Pseudonym "Nicolas Sarkozy"
(or is it Sarkosy?) and will he continute to 'crush heads'?



In other news: do not click HERE if you are queasy... ugh, (shiver down spine) ugggh!

paul diddy and nadine

paul diddy and nadine, originally uploaded by TAR ART RAT.

on the U-Bahn!

Post Titled: WHy Video Games are cooler than art...
Ok, sad sad day, Paul and Jesi and Melissa and Mike and I went to the opening at the Hamburger Bahnhof, and I was like "Ok, art, ok, nice, ok, Warhol, ok, installation"and then - THEN there is an installation made up of 12 REAL 80's and 90's arcade games all lined up in two row of 6 facing each other less that 2 feet apart which you could play- and WHOA, they had Galaga, and let me tell you: I am now the majority of the top scores, except first, the joystick stuck badly, but man... Galaga is heaven. THe art was good, but the half-hour I spent sweating and cursing while battling intergallactic space invaders in 2D and 8 bits (or less?) was sooooooo gooooooood!!!!

useful GALAGA info


Afterwards at a wierd little bar, (all too difficult to explain- very odd) called Palmero or Paloma at Kottbusser Tor I simply said to Melissa "Yea... I haven"t been paying too much attention to art, I am more interested in life these days..." Life... and Galaga, apparently.
No, but the show was good, I should blog it in artfaceoff when I have an attenion span and a brain cell to spare.

Here is a crappy unauthentic too-sharp version online, I will look dor something better

and shoot- I interviewed Kalle Lasn today! that was great.
interesting life he has had:

Kalle Lasn's Biography

"I was born in Tallinn, Estonia, during the middle of World War II. In 1944, as the Russian army approached Tallinn, my family escaped to Germany. We lived in a displaced persons' camps for five years. When I was seven we immigrated to Australia where I received my education, graduating with a B.Sc. in pure and applied mathematics. My first job was with the Australian Defense Department where I played computer-simulated war games in the Pacific Ocean. At age 23 I headed for Europe, but my boat stopped in Yokohama for two days. I fell in love with Japan and was unable to get back on the boat. During the '60s I ran a market research company in Tokyo and made enough money to travel around the world for three years. Then I returned to Japan, married Masako Tominaga and we immigrated to Canada. I started a documentary film making company. Over the next 15 years, my documentaries were broadcast on PBS, CBC and around the world, winning over 15 international awards. In 1989 I produced a 30-second TV spot about the disappearing old-growth forests of the Pacific Northwest, but to my dismay, none of the commercial TV stations would sell me any airtime. The Media Foundation, Adbusters Magazine and Powershift Advertising Agency were all born out of this incident and the realization that there is no democracy on the airwaves. I've spent the last thirteen years editing and publishing Adbusters, launching social marketing campaigns like Buy Nothing Day and TV Turnoff Week, and fighting legal battles for the right to access the public airwaves."