Post Titled: THE BIG PICTURE
has now been added to the ROMANS cagegory in the blogroll...

Post Titled: WEIRD AND WIREDnews
It is still early in the day, not even 10 am yet and I think I may have already found my favotite thing on the internet HERE in Johanna Thompson's Thompson Times

FURTHERMORE from WIRED... my attention has been drawn to issues of Spam this morning, firstly because WIRED's Editor in Chief was complaining about it in his blog and secondly because I have been wondering how Ron Paul has consistently been in the Technorati top ten on and off through these last months, and now-. thanks to WIRED- it is clear that his popularity is being promoted by a SPAMBOT ARMY

scheisse, we're just, like, a step and a half away from some Terminator Matrix type shit where computers gain consciousness and crush mankind...
oh, and as if that weren't bad enough... you aren't even all you:

"Most of the cells in your body are not your own, nor are they even human. They are bacterial. From the invisible strands of fungi waiting to sprout between our toes, to the kilogram of bacterial matter in our guts, we are best viewed as walking "superorganisms," highly complex conglomerations of human cells, bacteria, fungi and viruses."

Post Titled: If I see the words "Master Chief" one more time...
who named a character in a bestselling video game "Master Chief" ?? (that's Halo 3 for those of us who donät care) But really- that has to be the dumbest name ever. Like, what is the difference between that and "Commando Leader" or "Lieutenant Boss-man."

Seriously.

In other words which are not related to these previous words I got a box full of magazines and put it under my monitor at work to elevate it to closer-to face-level because I have been getting chronic pains in the left side of my neck and down into my shoulder- not to complain about health problems here, but I needed to switch to using my left hand for the mouse because of the carpal tunnel in my right hand... the point is that my ailments are COMPUTER-related. This so-called lifestyle or workstyle or whatever you may call it is affecting my body. 40+ hours a week hunched before the glowing screen just ain't raight.

Post Titled: FRIENDS, ROMANS, COUNTRYMEN
so, I rarely alert readers when I add any new links to the Blogroll (that list way down South-Left), but I should stop that- bad habit. sooo, here, new to the COUNTRYMEN list is Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail" (he is Editor-In-Chief of WIRED magazine, which is one of my favorite things.)

Post Titled: MRSA
eew. (suppliment to earlier Twit.)

Post Titled: An aptly-sized coin... a scorched earth... and viel zu viel klo-papier

Lemme just ask a question- what is going to prevent someone from running off with a cart at the airport anyhow?? That ONE shiny €???
HERE, a brilliant little post in James Fallows Blog (Thanks to co-worker Dan for that one) and and then- something creepy about the future of us... and some silliness to balance it out in the Gurardian:
"He said he was flummoxed as to how the ministry's 360,000 employees could be using 10 rolls each a day. "Maybe toilet paper has military uses that we are not necessarily aware of,"- after it was erroneously reported that defence ministry civil servants and soldiers used 800m rolls of paper a year."

Post Titled:

Being John Malkovich

's VAIO Ad
DISCLAIMER: BEWAAARE this is nothing but an ad campaign trying to get you to buy a SONY VAIO computer. John Malkovich is a paid actor-advertiser! don't fall for it... err, whatever. Anyhow, HERE is John Malkovich talking about the word "dude." and it is... well, hypnotically silly. Any press is good press and I am giving this press in my own right. No, I am commenting on the use of a semi-popular and respected actor as a tool for advertisers,... I think. Don't get me wrong, I loved John Malkovich in that jewel-thief movie...

"“The school I went to was in a town called Normal”.

John is the least ordinary man you could ever meet. He’s someone that wonders in the everyday and revels in the unique. One of John’s many passions is architecture and it’s obvious that he has an eye for beautiful design. Maybe that’s what attracted him to the Vaio TZ. The sleek, flat styling of its carbon fibre finish and the sensuality of its ergonomic keyboard are a triumph of form and function in harmony."

here is the main page where you can select from many many different subtitles...
www.vaio-john.com and listen to Mr. Malkovich soothingly drone on about his... artsy worldview... while gripping and caressing his VAIO. (psst, SONY can feel free to toss me some cash for writing about this if they'd like (or deleting it or watever, as always- I am open to bribes)and "Hi" yea, I know you are reading this to report on your ROI)
M'k... Honestly, I DO think it is an interesting campaign and and and honestly I will never buy a VAIO- so it isn't as if it were advertising kryptonite to my weak-willed inner consumer drone... BUT more importantly, this is just another situation in which someone you kinda maybe like and respect... kinda goes to the Dark Side... like, HOW entertained was I to see Wes Anderson directing that American Express commercial? That ad was clearly marketed towards ME, me and every other 20-30 year old with some-any-old amount of disposable income and an exposed area of neck ripe for the lifelong financial chopping block.

and before that MODEST MOUSE in that Nissan COMMERCIAL- which used this song (although I can't find the actual commercial)

jesus, it is no wonder... well, I mean, ooof- my weak scattered argument here on a Tuesday morning... the Philips ads with the Beatles songs... we just /err- I just) have to get used to the fact that in this all-in-one G.U.T. Pop-existence... marketing departments are sniffing around for what's cool and good just like we are...

Post Titled: POST=OBLIVION
These days it just seems to me that with the post it is like you are sending something into oblivion, into the hands of men who can lose or steal your property or words... and much less than prefer it to electronic mail, I actually fear and mistrust the so-called REAL post now... I am trying to express this to the various offices who do send me mail... but the seem a bit taken aback. For example, my letter to the BVG (subway)
"Dear Blah-Blah,
Clearly there has been a mistake on your part because I already paid my fines in early July. I do not wish to receive any more letters from you as they are a waste of time and resources, for further correspondences please just email me.

Sincerely,
xxxxxxxx

I think that if I send this type of letter to every bonehead office which insists on sending me paper mail over the next few years... then at least I have a chance of receiving less paper mail...

Post Titled: The Villa Noir Party...
...which I went to on Saturday night was as about as pointless as this promo video for it:

Villa Noir
Hochgeladen von HerrSchmitz

BUt I bumped into Alicia and Florian and we quatsched and watched the hipsters do their mating dances and coolness peacock-esque expositions, meanwhile we got drunk on cheap Grey Goose balanced by free energy drink promotions, explored the rotting building and cool video installations on its peeling walls, danced like an idiot...

and somehow managed to ride my tiny communist bike home safely in the wee hours of the morning.

Post Titled: Turkish politics at the door
Basically this protest (image below) occured across the street from us yesterday, pro and anti PKK activists (source of problems between Turkish Military and Kurds in Northern Iraq) and since of course, our neighborhood is basically Turkish, semi-violent protests errupted. We were at a friend's going away party at the time, but one of the guests who arrived had been at the protest- a bit unnerving... especially when one is used to their being a quiet German-Turkish tension, not a loud Turkish-Turkish one... gotta do some homework..

Hermannplatz, Kreuzberg. Foto: HSB/HeHe

Post Titled: Lesser-Known Heroes
Much thanks to Alicia and Florian for opening my eyes to the world of:
Indian Superman


Turkish Rambo



Turkish Star Wars

Post Titled: Recent Drawings TAR ART RAT
My cousin Claire requested a bit more artwork in the blog, so here are some recent drawings:

WELTZEIT (ink on foamcore) drawings based on images in German Newspapers) 18 x 18 in.

Drawings of Faces (pencil on paper) 3 x 6 in.

Woman Accusing Elephant (Ink in vellum and paper) 8.5 x 11

Post Titled: This canNOT be real... but it is, Appalachian State University's promo video
had to break the blogging fast to post this-
NOTE: "Solid as a rock and proud as a peacock"

Post Titled: Dear loyal readers and not so loyal readers- (isn't that ..."traitors"?)
Post Subtitled: "Post-Google" has been Twitterpated.
for the time being I have reason to believe that I am being watched at work, ( I know, sounds a bit paranoid) but for the time being I have refrained from posting and have instead just been Twittering because no one here at my entire work has a clue as to what Twitter is and it is the closest thing I can get to blogging without being accused of wasting work-time as my own personal internet wasteoftime time... Iäm going to try to post as often as possible, but until I feel like ... you know. I have to things like tings that seem like research somtimes:
but things that are somewhow work related, like this (beautiful) error I found in the scan of Google Books amongst the pages of
"Everything You Know Is Wrong"


Oh, here is some really tragic but silly local news from california Schoolbus Stolen from Preschool.
other things that might've been blog posts over the past few days:
I can#t actually remember if I have ever been to Zermatt, Switzerland, but I saw this foto in a blog and realised that I have definitely been here-
and apparently that is Zermatt, therefore I have been to Zermatt. I know it seems idiotic, but from 1993-2000 we went to a lot of places, I can't exactly remember names.

Other Lost Post- this is Theresa Silvernail, we used to be in art class together, she was really cool... I guess it is just odd when soooo many people you know have joind the military... ok, that photo won't load.

Also, (vent- vent, huff-huff) just based on my professional interactions over the last 9 months- I could say some very mean things about how Spanish people are like retarded little children, but I wont. Like how they are like that guy "Ray" in the Fifth Element, the deaf pop-star with the big white hair, and when Bruce Willis is hiding behind a bar while being shot-at by the Mongoloid terrorists and asks Ray to toss him a nearby gun but what does Ray do? Ray tosses him a nearby billiard ball instead, thinking that all is well. I could use that analogy to say "that's how it is sometimes (often!) to work with the Spanish" but I won't. I will not throw out those blanant stereotypes, no sir, nooo not on the fine fiiine lily-white pages of this blog.

Anyhow, here is (deactivated links text-only) the Twitter Roundup (of aborted blog posts) THAT is what Twitteris, it is... like a foster home for aborted blog posts..:

-"A Vision of Students Today" - is this video silly, meaningful, of just an onslaught of information, I dunno...


-Bank of America is getting cuffed by the Karma Police
(on that note:

-someone actually said "Addicted to the Internets." I think she was Russian, but either there is more than one internet ir it is a band...?

-"Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale -two weeks ago- said, "The next disaster will be Twittered,"" Rafe Needleman, News.com Blog Oct. 23 2007

-"seriousity" or "seriosity" is not a word, but it is now. to use it in a sentacne: "Well, now, aren't you Mr. Seriosity?" great, right? yao!

-listening Radiohead's NUDE whilelooking at WSJ Wildfire fotos

-Thai?-Skype(TM) (NASDAQ:EBAY) บริษัทด้านการสื่อสารอินเทอร์เน็ตระดับโลก เปิดตัว Skype for Pocket PC 2.0 ซึ่งเป็นซอฟท์แวร์เวอร์ชั่นใหม่สำหรับ ...

-Holy moly, it is "deep-seated" NOT "deep-seeded"! - thanks Languange Log!!!

-the Guardian: Never mind the treaty squabbles. Europe's real problem is Babel

-BBC: The US dollar tumbled to a new euro low in early Asian trade as concerns over the state of the US economy deepened. currently €1=$1.43 ...

-post sigur ros afterglow wanna move to iceland for a year or two, but what would we do there?. does have the 2nd highest standard of living-


P.S: My co-wokerd highly recommends this film: The Band's Visit

Post Titled: Sigur Rós on Tour With Heima: Gimmie Seizure ... Gimme Closure
NOTE: this entry was originally written for and has been cross-posted at Electropeasant a more objective and polished version can be found there.
I also posted it as an external link on Sigur Rós wikipedia site -enjoy.

HEIMA Official Trailer:


Due to traffic I arrived too late to see them at Coachella, and probably never forgive myself. However this somewhat surprise show somehow makes up for it. I noticed the show posted on their website several months ago, forgot all about it, then re-remembered through a facebook post on their music site. Actually, I just checked and it is improperly listed as being in Barcelona today: "21.10.2007: barcelona screening", anyhow-

Sigur Rós is currently on tour throughout Europe with their film, Heima (“(at) home”) playing a three-song acoustic set before the film gets underway. Although the acoustic set is definitely a far cry from the soul-shattering experience of seeing them in an actual concert show, it is nevertheless lovely, and prepares one for the film which truly puts the band and their music into context: into the country of Iceland. The documentary shows an account of the Summer of 2006 when the group toured their entire homeland playing free shows in all manner of venues, from small community houses to endangered flatlands, abandoned fishery factories to town squares in the most remote regions of the island. Their intent with this tour was to bring the music to the landscape and the people, ultimately: to bring it home from whence it came.

Tour documentary movies can be very hit or miss, but Heima does not in any way disappoint. Granted, the film was opened by the band itself and the soundtrack played nearly as loud as an actual concert, but nevertheless, it runs seamlessly from beginning to end as it transitions from the band to the bewildered faces of children and amused or confused expressions of older folk viewing the shows as they come through town. All throughout the film there are shots of people wandering in from the countryside to see this strange band of their compatriots, who have become one of Iceland"s largest cultural exports, and there they are xylophoning and sing-scream-whining before everyday folks living in the harshly gorgeous setting which inspired the music itself. It is as if to say to all of Iceland: "this is what we do, and so much of what we do is about you."

Dropping hints throughout the movie that they were overwhelmed with commercial success, and implying that the final closing show of the tour in Reykjavik was the last real show they had planned for awhile, it all makes one wonder if they will actually release another album or do another tour at all. Their shying-away from the fruits of popular appeal and marketing brought to mind the incident on the last tour where they sold t-shirts for one dollar each to protest some sort of merchandise rule which they had become fed-up with. How refreshing that was-
In the Q&A however it came to light that the film's director was none other than the former head of story development at Disney, and director of “Lilo and Stitch” (a completely enjoyable film, by-the-way.) A bit surprising for such an unusual band, but it worked well- there is no blatant Disney-ism of which to speak and I think it was more of a coincidence that he worked on the film as he expressed also being a big fan.

The film overall seems to imply closure in a way to these past six years of their career, since ágætis byrjun ("a good beginning") when they got the nod from Cameron Crowe, Radiohead and others as a big and important influence. Most importantly though it is absolutely beautiful. If you do watch it on dvd at home be sure to play it extremely loud on a good system.

I wouldn't go so far to say that Sigur Rós will stop doing what they (and most other bands) do at this point, album, tour, etc.- but I wouldn't be surprised if they did, in fact, retire a little bit, and even if they do they have still left a legacy of three gorgeous albums as well as the feelings and memories which their live shows have inspired permanently burnt into those who have seem them perform. Enough, isn't it? Regardless, I do hope they continue on...

Post Titled: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Wienerschnitzel
 

Post Titled: David Byrne on David Letterman
this is a re-post, the original link in the previous post below seems to be no longer existent

Post Titled... Uhh, Homeless Frank is Quoting Radiohead
homelessfrank I'm ready 44 minutes ago from txt
homelessfrank You want me? Fucking come and break the door down 44 minutes ago from txt
homelessfrank homelessfrank I'll be waiting with a gun and a pack of sandwiches about 1 hour ago from txt
homelessfrank You want me? Fuckin well come and get me about 1 hour ago from txt Icon_star_empty

Post Titled: Who IS this man?
That is what I found myself thinking is a sort of out-of-body moment about halfway through this video of the Oct. 17 White House press conference:

can't write just now, too darn bsy... (see: Twitter, right)

Post Titled: TWITTER
is working again and I kind of love it because it takes 1/10 the time of posting, and it is trashy as hell. See Right side collumn. did I say "trashy?" nöööooo...

Post Titled: Ann Coulter's website hacked
with this message:
"Dear Readers,

I've been participating in a charade for nearly eleven years, now. Quite frankly, I'm sick of it. You have all been a part of a sick joke that I began considering shortly after first getting on the air. At first, it was quite interesting to see how people would react when I would use twisted logic and poorly masked bigotry.

But eleven years is a long time to be living a fake life, and I can no longer tolerate this falsity. Even someone as fake as I tires out eventually.

Here's the truth, I don't care what people believe. Jews don't need to be "made perfect" as I so arrogantly proclaimed to Editor & Publisher not a half week ago. I don't even care if people are Muslim. Granted, I don't know much about the religion or the people, but they are people. This is something that we cannot forget, they are in an abhorrent situation. These people are in need of education. Perhaps if we did not participate in causing them misery, they would not hate us so.

In fact, does it really matter whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Atheist, or even Pagan? We are one nation. One. We should not let petty differences separate us, we are all American, and should act in that manner.

And with that, my precious viewers, I bid you adieu. My career as a media figurehead is over.

Signed,

Ann Coulter"

thanks to dlisted and HuffPo

Post Titled: sigur rós væntanlegir tónleikar
Uh, lemme start (disgustingly) by quoting myself from twitter: "TARartRAT - first time facebook came in handy: added sigur rós to my music list at 3 am last night, found out they were playing on the 21st, bought tix about 15 hours ago from web"
Literally, I am adding those little "ooh, this is who I am defining myself by the coool music I like" band boxes in the middle of the night in a bout of insomnia and I though "gosh, my list would be so much cooler if I added sigur rós!" (who(m) I really do love), so I went to their page and voila´! (accent?) Somebody had listed that they were having a show on October 21st in Berlin- so I frantically searched the internet, until realizing that I had to have an effing german kreditkarte to buy tickets online, which I don't, so I just went to the Admiralspalast (same venue I saw De La Soul at a few months ago) and bought tickets at the kasse the next day. Nuts.
What is different about this "show" is that they are really just on a movie tour. They made a movie and are playing acoustic sets with it- I am very curious. The MOvie, "heima" (I assume meaning "home" since it is so similar to the German word "heimat" meaning something like "where you're from, your exact plot of homeland, or maybe just homeland in general" if I had to translate it) which all makes sense since their music IS the icelandscape. After listening to their music while driving around IN Iceland I had no desire to listen to id again for another year, and only seeing them live could really measure up- (let me be a sap and say that seeing them live probably does something wierd to some deep subcounscious ancient/animal part of the brain, when they first started touring people would inexplicably faint.
I like this quote: "Some have been known to faint; others vomit. Many claim to experience spiritual awakenings. No, I am not talking about meeting the Pope, I am talking about a rock concert." -Ryan Doherty, The Hoya, Georgetown University.
Since this upcoming show is acoustic, I really do not know what to expect, afterall- so much of the sigur rós experience is about being completely overwhelmed and reduced, body and mind, to an infantile state for a moment... can an acoustic set do that?

Post Titled: There is some totally fucked-up anti-muslim graffiti outside my work... it has been there for several days, adn i secretly hope it is still there in the morning so I can at least fotograph it. Is that fucked up?

Post Titled: Billionaire Dropouts

this is pretty ridiculous.

Post Titled: Virtual City of God
"An armed gang of four kidnapped one of the world's top RPG gamers after one criminal's girlfriend lured him into a fake date using Orkut, Google's social network. After sequestering him in Sao Paulo, they held a gun against the victim's head for five hours to get his password, which they wanted to sell for $8,000. And yes, the story gets even better..."
full story from Gizmodo HERE

Post Titled: WikiNazism?
I was pleased to find THIS POST in Manoj Ranaweera's Blog "The EIPP (e-invoicing) and StartUp Blog" about the struggle of fairly clever everyday folk like myself with the ever-oppressive WikiNazis of Wikipedia. Have you ever tried to add or edit an article in Wikipedia? Jesus- Good effing luck, my friend.
Proposal: everybody add an article called "WikiNazis"
Uhh, Problem: That article would be immediately deleted, dumbass.

Post Titled: Blog Environmental Action A Day Late
from the Guardian: "The Amazon burns once again"

Post Titled: Center for Media and Democracy - Weekly Radio Spin, October 12, 2007

This is a nice little roundup of little-known facts that the CMD does, listen HERE
and, my god- apparently there is a VERY large company called WPP Group, which owns a a LOT of PR, Advertising, Marketing and Branding Companies all over the world... which ultimately amounts to the business of mind control. CHEKIT HERE they have podcasts and live streaming uh, information...
Wonder how long it takes for them to find this post?... "Hi, Hi there. Yea, you. Hi."
Trying to wrap my brain around this... will keep you posted.

Post Titled: "The Corporation" mit Deutsche untertitel
TEIL EINS und TEIL ZWEI

Warning: THIS MORNING I AM BORING AND READING BORING THINGS THEREFORE POST-GOOGLE WILL BE BORING. Makes sense, right.
Effing, news and shit, g. It is Monday, I have faced nothing but rejection all morning, and the new Radiohead is still making no sense whatsoever, of course I am only listening to it though the one good speaher left in the left side of my skype headphones and FROM a skype history. I am listening to an album THROUGH - err, FROM a skype history day after day... because I have no money and can't bear the thought of downloading without paying, jeez. BEWARE OR BIG LONG RANT TO COME, lonely human.

and this article is the most depressing thing

ever ever ever: (except perhaps Star Wars Episode 1)
like, "why can't I calculate and quantify my (path to) happiness-"
ripped from dealbreaker.com, craigslist posting in New York:
"What am I doing wrong?
Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New York . I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all.

Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives? Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?..."

and a fitting answer:

"I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament. Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I see it.

Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a cr@ppy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't be getting any more beautiful!

So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!..."

DE-PRESSSS-ING! SAD! PROOF THAT CONTEMPORARY LIFE IS NOTHING SHORT OF AWFUL!, right? sure.

Onwards. Onwards. Onwards.:

Yesterday in the early morning Nadine was criticizing my German grammar, to which I started playing Devils Advocate (sorry, I simply have to sometimes):
"We should simplify German, it is too difficult and full of rules, nobody want's to speak a language like that, it isn't user-friendly. Hell, maybe I should just stop trying to learn German altogether, maybe Turkish would be more useful- especially in our neighborhood- I mean in the national integration plan (put forth by good-fairy Angela Merkel) it says everyone (foreigners living in Germany, that is) should integrate and especially learn German- but, really, why bother? maybe it is more realistic to just learn Turkish, because in a few generations all the Germans will be dead and there will just be Turks- why not start the shift now?"
"What!?!"
"Look, the Germans have one baby per couple when they are, like, 40 years old. The Turks have 4, 5, 6 babies by the time they are 38, so- if this trend continues- do the math! The Germans geiz will kill them, they want time and money and urlaub and Uni til they are 30 to themselves for so long that they will die out, killed in an unaware subconscious suicide driven by hardnosed greed, apathy and aloofness."

NOTE: I do not actually think this, BUT I do like to hypothesize it as a possiblity, I mean- it IS possible, perhaps even likely...
However, I am often convinced that Europeans need more incentive to be motivated- by this I mean that life could stand to have a few more risks in it. Like, rather than sink or swim it is swim or lifevest... ad dinner with a table full of Germans Nadine said "The Germans are unmotivated." plain and simple. That is because this is basically a communicst country rules by a rich and bascially retarted aristocracy.
It is even watching its own slow-motion near-future carcrash BUT chooses to look the other way and go about its business like everything is just dandy.
Europe needs a fire under its ass- but what? Fire, fire of some sort... That is really the only thing I can think that might get the society jumpstarted again and out of its decadent downward spiral.
Sounds like a crazy Right-wing Republican talking, right?
A friend of Nadine- who is half-german, half American, said recently: "In AMerica, it is 'be all you can be', in Germany it is 'be what you are, and work, but not too hard...'"

am I just uncomfortable with life being so damn comfortable?? madness.
hmm.

and then there is the clearly abusive relationship that one has with the government here.
either they are cuddling you, soothing- patting your head and telling you not to worry, al will be well OR they are BUTT-raping you.

what the hell can you do about that? I don't want ANY relationship with the government, especially not a totally fucked-up manic abusive one---

---chunks of crap from earlier post---

Post Titled: "People's democracy is the lifeblood of socialism," Hu said
Post Subtitled: Red Net
FROM here - "The number of Chinese Blogs will surpass 60 million this year and possibly reach 100 million in 2007."

boring, huh? yea.

THIS FILM called "The Door" by David Shrigley, however, is not so boring...

Post Titled: Regarding the Post Titled "Josh" in Paperpools

I added a second and final guest post to Helen DeWitt's blog Paperpools, the reins of which have been handed to a few lucky readers while she has been away in Morocco. The post is the story of the time I spent with a guy named Josh, if any of my readers recognize any of the charachters in the story please keep it to yourselves. Thanks, and enjoy, it is a pretty unusual
HERE

Post TIled: Monke Island 

Post Titled: SUNSHINE
Went to the effing VIDEO WORLD, aka "house of disappointment", and the Good German was all checked out, as was the Good Shepard, the Good German Shepard , Zodiac, Spider-Man 3 and Antonioni's the Passenger (German title: Beruf: Reporter)- all gone so I just went ahead and got Sunshine again. I had rented it last weekend and loved all but one aspect of it, that aspect I am willing to forgive. Seems to happen with Danny Boyle films of late. Cillian Murphy seems to be his muse, though....

Post Titled: Berlin, NY, LA: “let the children use it.” RUHE BEWAHREN
my post in Art Face-Off HERE
it is fairly superficial, I know I know, and I would like to edit it, fatten it up a bit since this really was a great show curated by Oliver Guy-Watkins with help from Alicia L. Reuter and including work from: GARETH CADWALLADER, MATTHEW STONE, LIESEL THOMAS, ADHAM FARAMAWY, JENNIFER MARTIN, TOM J MASON, LAN HUNGH, MELISSA FROST, JOAO PAGLIONE, SINDY BUTZ, and GABRIEL DON-DANIEL

Post Titled: Rauchverbot Cartoon

Post Titled: BIKINIRAMA on Polylux show now online
Post Subtitled: Luddite Rock
VIEW THE SHOW ONLINE HIER at POLYLOG

Post Titled: AL GORE wins Nobel Peace Prize
bust it still isn't quite as priceless as this photo:

from the Washintgon Post:
"Former Vice President Al Gore Jr. was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize today along with a United Nations panel that monitors climate change for their work educating the world about global warming and advocating for political action to stop it."

Post Casually Titled:

CRAAAZY WHITE BITCHES
yesterday gave birth to these videos:
Eva Herman, German Moderatorin-gone-loopy on the sweet crack of nostalgia for evil times past

and, surprise surprise-
Ann Coulter, Satan

Anne, of course, knows very well what she is doing and makes money as some kind of creepy right-wing ideal-dominatrix, Eva got fired for saying that the Third Reich was the good old days for women and children and to criticise that is to criticise the autobahn (also built by decree of the Führer). p.s. and she's not sorry for saying that. Now that her current carrer is ruined, she might take a few pointers from Coulter - learn how to amp it up a bit and just make money off of spewing venomous bullshit..

I have been back in Germany for exactly one year today...

Post Titled: ŽIŽEK!
I am not sure if the International Journal of ŽIŽEK Studies is worth a darn, but the very fact that it is out there is nice...
Either way it does not change the fact that his wife is completely effing adorable

Post Titled: Titan Missle Base for Sale
thanks to Jesi and Alicia for pointing this out:
FOR SALE: Titan Missile Base Central Washington, USA

I do believe that ALicia's Bake Sale idea is a proper approach... just think, underground art city/world and fallout shelter...
I have been through that area- near Moses Lake, there is nothing there, really... except -apparently- an underground missile facility...

thanks to the Stranger's Jen Graves for SLOGging it HERE - it was very interesting to read the comments people left- which seemed to fall into 2 categories, (err- outlooks on life?) either: "too expensive to rennovate / old news!" or "I want it."

Post Titled: BIKINIRAMA on PolyLux! (ARD - Das Erste)
VIEW THE SHOW ONLINE HIER at POLYLOG
The original members of Bikinirama, Alva Ostwald and Rosalie Di Rocco, will be appearing in an interview on the TV Arts Magazine show PolyLux tonight on ARD. Links:
BIKINIRAMA official site POLYLUX
here is the POLYLOG full of goodness.
and and and, really, it's about time. How long can luddite girls in bikinis smashing our precious technology go unnoticed? (NOTE one day later: I did realize that Fake Steve Jobs and WIRED have blogged about them)
Most recent video: they DESTROY an iPHONE


BIKINIRAMA manifesto auf Englisch:
BIKINIRAMA [1] is an open community of performance artists, fighting for the aesthetification of the World Wide Web. Their work aims at a reflective view of our society. BIKINIRAMA is using existing pictures such as beauty, hate, lenity, anger, submission and dominance, to depict their view on society’s balances of power and to redefine them. BIKINIRAMA demands bikini wearing from every person involved in the creative process - constantly and without exception, for an equal level of expression, as an icon of femininity without nudity. The bikini is BIKINIRAMA’s revolutionary tool against inflationary nudity in media. BIKINIRAMA’s approach is to combine the weapons of a woman, with the traditional tools of raw manly aggression, to defy social conventions. Objects, generally considered as status symbols, serve as a release of aggression against the overriding materialistic standpoint. BIKINIRAMA evidentially shows that material goods no longer suit their position as icons of a consumer society. Anger and violence against those goods are acts of liberation, imparting a new sense of the erotic, which is BIKINIRAMA’s only acceptable substitute to prevailing definitions of sex. Episodes are periodically released for free on www.bikinirama.de

Personally, viewing the videos in light of the WIRED blog comments I am reminded of how precious or machines are to us. (a cliche statement, ok, sure) but we truly are bound to these devices. Devices which can produce interactive familiar voices or "connect us with the world" or entertain us...
Seeing them be brutally destroyed could/should allow us to step back and sort of realize that- that is IS truly a bit painful to watch them be murdered... we are that attached. I think it is worth sacrificing just one of them to have the opportunity towitness that, I mean - it isn't like you dropped your RAZR2 in the toilet, these things are brutally beaten to death- triumphant, not tragic.

Post Titled: good morning Yohrwurm
a mere 44 minutes into the work day and I have already found my favorite quote of the day, a post on wordpress called Arsenal Can **** Right Off which makes me wonder (yet again-!) why why why Beckham would ever come to America- where never would one find such a brilliantly titled blog post.

here is an interesting article in the Christian Science Monitor called "What are Facebook friends for?"

and and and

once again, just for good measure, (and since I just found it on youtube) I am going to post the best Rap Video of all time (gracias Paul Der Andere):

Kanye West "Can't Tell Me Nothin'" with Zach Galifianakis and Will Oldham aka Bonnie "Prince" Billy- I think I have teh equivalent of an "ohrwurm" (song stuck in my head- but in this case, a YouTube video stuck in my head- what is that-? a Yohrwurm?) I have watched this video well over 20 times now. also, wierd: Takashi Murakami did the cover art for Kanye West's new album Graduation...
Hi-Res shite HERE on the official site

Post Titled: guest post in Paperpools
over the weekend I had the privledge of guest-posting in Helen DeWitt's blog Paperpools, I wanted to do something kind of beautiful and silly, check it HERE

Post Titled: PJ Harvey - Silence
"Skeletal" as Manuel puts it, would recommend headphones decent speakers for this one.

Post Titled: French artist
Anne-Sophie ATEK has a blog now.

Post Titled: Owen Wilson at Darjeeling Limited Premiere

from HuffPo: "Before the movie started, Anderson introduced Wilson, his longtime friend and collaborator, saying, "I've never made a movie without him and I hope I never have to."

After not having seen it in a few years, I have been watching The Royal Tennenbaums incessantly since my wife has been out of town, and i am now convinced that it is one of the best films of all time... then again, that is coming from a guy who loves the Fifth Element adn the Ninth Gate.

Here is a re-link to Helen's brilliant post in Paperpools about Owen Wilson's recent suicide attempt.

Post Titled: Harmonised Internal Cultural Clash...

Translated from Lavanguardia.es ny Eurotopics:
"A character of the video game Zelda appears on a giant screen. The show seems about to begin. Suddenly the lights go on and the music rings out. The orchestra does not however play Vivaldi's Four Seasons, or Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. These are the sound tracks of video games like Zelda, Halo, Final Fantasy and Super Mario Bros. that are being played. The frontier between classical music and digital music has vanished in the video game field."

Upon first reading I mistakenly thought they were describing an elevated form of what The Advantage or the Mini Bosses do- that is, live music that covers Nintendo soundtracks... can you imagine? Alas, it is the inverse, a philharmonic recording the soundtracks for new versions of these titles. Amazing: just like hollywood does with sequels (brand recognition riding on the shoulders of previous films) the videogame industry is able to do Over and over and over and over- how many versions (titles) of Mario have there been since Donkey Kong? I would venture to say somewhere between 50-75

On that note I am almost willing to bet that when people who are in their late 20's and early 30's now are in their mid-40's and early 50's (or sooner?) that the philharmonic WILL be playing the original NES 8-bit Zelda and Super Mario Bros. soundtracks (or 1987 medleys) in the great concert halls of the world. Sounds insane, right? but...

Post Titled: National Integrationsplan Revisited
LINK HERE to the offical flyer.

Post Titled: Der BAHNSTREIK
it is amazing that the in the run-up to this strike (a week of the news/papers saying "there's going to be a strike Friday" that thousands of people are still stranded all over Germany. One might think that if you knew the trains would be at a standstill that you might seek out another method of transportation. Does not bode well for these creatures of habit, who clearly take for grated (of feel that they have a right to) these supposedly clock-work-workings of society...
I only understand the prpblem superficially- BUT for the past ten years or so, as the Bahn has had to comepete with air travel, it has not had competitive prices- in fact, as far as I can tell- it has raised prices to compensate for lost revenue. Not a good way to attract new customers or even to keep a loyal client base.
Ahh, the Bahn... the Germans... more hier in DER SPIEGEL

Post Titled: OK,Ok FREE BURMA, gotcha-!
(Nike revisited)
JUst a thought: viral marketing really is effective, especially when dopes like me embed the videos to criticise them, the eye-candy effect is nevertheless there... and more people see the ads as they spread like they were intended to. Joke is on all of us. BUT perhaps I can take solace in the fact that at least some very talented folks are earning money while their aesthetic reaches a large audience... right? (*yawn, coffee*)
sure.

Post Titled: Burma
burma and/or myanmar has been in the news a lot (rightfully so), and although I am generally against passive activism such as this- I will nevertheless dedicate one day of blog posting to the subject... alas,

list HERE of companies profiting off of Burma's military government
and in Marc's Webvox [Memex My Brain]

Post Titled: Follow-up racist German post
"Germany: Mob Attacks Greeks in Berlin

By REUTERS
Published: October 2, 2007

The police said they had arrested 11 members of a mob that shouted xenophobic slurs and attacked three Greeks at a gas station in eastern Berlin over the weekend. A police spokesman said at least 13 attackers punched and kicked two Greek men while hurling insults at them for being foreigners. The attackers pushed and shoved the victims’ Greek female companion but did not injure her. The attack occurred just weeks after a mob of 50 people shouting racial insults attacked eight Indians near Dresden."

Condensed version of conversation with Nadine on the matter:
ME:This is too bad, why do you think it happens/is happening.
Her: People are frustrated.
-why?
-I don't know, maybe they feel trapped in their lives...

It is just ironic, last week journalist Adam Goldmann was talking about his impressions of a recent trip to India- how half of Bombay's 18 million population is homeless... (I can't substantiate that) but just think about that- 9 million is basically 10% of the German population... which brings me back to the same damn issue I visit every few months in this blog:
Germany is land of plenty and has an amazing quality of life in comparison to the vast majority of the rest of the world... so why do so many people here act/seem/ pretend to be so miserable?
A paradox for sure.

Post Titled: In the NEWS...
HuffPo:
"BAGHDAD — The number of American troops and Iraqi civilians killed in the war fell in September to levels not seen in more than a year."

Post Titled: Randy Pausch's Last lecture
give on September 18, 2007 this is just great-

1H 44M 7S is the length of the LECTURE HERE on Google video
the only real connection I have to this guy is that I just happened to download Alice when I was a freshman in college...

On bad days -when I now think about the EU, the image of the Rockbiter often comes to mind. (The Neverending Story) The Rockbiter is ancient, slow, crusty, a little bit wise but more likely helpless- and a victim of his own apathy, sure to be dragged away by the Nothing… then I have to remind myself that America is probably worse... well, who knows anymore, really.

POST TITLED: RADIOHEAD "IN RAINBOWS"
bye-bye record company.
DOWNLOAD RADIOHEAD "IN RAINBOWS" HERE
and pay as much as you deem fit- or is that just a rumor - hmm, must read the details- apparently you can't download until October 10th...
annnnd it is pegged at no. 1 on technorati, I am sure thom is happy. and thanks to patrick for the 3:28 am (my time)BOING BOING tipoff: "Radiohead lets fans pick price for new album...This is major, and it's such a slap in the record industry's face. An unsigned superband, treating loyal fans and customers like loyal fans and customers instead of thieves -- what a revolutionary concept." indeed. I hope it is as gorgeous as those blurry digitized rainbow colors in the background promise it to be.