Post Titled: New Video for "Summer Song" by YACHT
ok, not my favorite YACHT song, but nevertheless...

YACHT - Summer Song from Jona Bechtolt on Vimeo.

Post Titled: the weekend in photos
took the nightbus to Den Haag on Fri., arriving completely disoriented at 5:45 am Sat. (dark, cold, a bit strange) morning... I kind of stumbled around in complete confusion, and then took the bus to the one place I thought might be a good hangout to kill a few hours- the beach at Scheveningen. When I got there the sun was just coming up and it was completely freezing. I took about 100 photos and waited at least until the sun had begun to warm the beach before laying down at the base of the dunes beyond the boats and falling asleep... anyhow, here are a few images I took in the Hague and Amsterdam...


#

Post Titled: I don't check the internet for 2 days and Paul Newman up'n dies."Newman sometimes teamed with his wife and fellow Oscar winner, Joanne Woodward, with whom he had one of Hollywood's rare long-term marriages. "I have steak at home, why go out for hamburger?" Newman told Playboy magazine when asked if he was tempted to stray."

There was a period many years ago where W. Popko and I were recently dumped and lonely-ish and living not too far from one-another, so meanwhile whilst boyfriends and girlfriends and whatnot were upstairs or unavailable we'd be down in the living room, falling into the the habit of midnight beer and pizza and Cool Hand Luke, over and over and over...

Post Titled: Dag.

off to Den Haag and Amsterdam for the weekend to see some old friends, so not sure if i#ll be posting! Hope the world doesn't collapse while I#m gone.

cheers,
;p


p.s. Post Titled: Adspace backfire
the streaming ad for Sprint on HuffPo froze a few seconds in and just stayed there...

Post Titled: PANIC NOW!
As if you weren't already disturbed by the choice of Sarah Palin as John McCain's running mate...

Sarah Palin at Church with Pastor Thomas Muthee and witchcraft

Post Titled: Danger, America, Danger!

found in the blog "NINA IN WASHINGTON"
Republican National Convention 2004 feat. Bush, Cheney, Guiliani, Schwarzenegger...

Post Titled: Nonfiction, sometime in the middle 2007

„Here, change your underwear“
„uhhm“ I look into a large clear plastic bag full of what appears to be cheapy elastic-puckered thongs.
“naw. That’s ok, ahm… I'll just keep my own on, thanks.”
“But they will be bloody and destroyed by the end of the day! Change.”
Staring at the larger, unhealthy looking middle-aged woman (who probably only exists in my memory) I looked back into the bag… there definitely didn’t seem to be any men’s underwear. At least nothing that fit my definition of men's underwear...
“but… these are ...girl’s underwear...”
"no, they are for men." I scrunched up my face before the bag of thongs.
"but they really look like women's underwear...
“no, they are all men’s underwear!
Since the entire side of my pants leg was charred and basically missing- a hole- no, just open, like Jessica Rabbit, but charred, pale, bloody and hairy. In that case I really just wanted to stick with my ratty black boxer-briefs… “no, it is fine, no thanks”
“but your underwear will be destroyed!”
"it's fine. They are old, tattered, and it is dark to begin with. Won't matter. Thanks though..."
She finally gives up and huffs at my lack of compliance, turning she toddles off back to the maze of clothing racks and boxes full of bags, full of shoes, full of belts, hats, holsters, etc...

I then spend a good 40 minutes sitting in a barber's chair getting worked on by a white-haired guy who kept applying gnarly fake skin swatches and constructing bloody gashes to all exposed skin above my shoulders and below my waist. I didn't have a mirror in front of me, but judging from the things he seemed to be putting on my face I was headed towards Ahhnold in Terminator 2- large chunky areas of exposed tissue, (no metal skeleton poking-through though.)
I kept looking at the old man’s make-up toolbox on the table in front of me. It opened and folded out like a fly fisherman’s box, multi-leveled and packed with tools of the trade. On the vertical portions random snapshots and Polaroids of past people he’d made-up, many of whom looked very familiar but the only one I could label by name was Alan Rickman, brooding with a pale white face and dark eyes, looking like the angel of death whom you would actually want to have as the angel of death; stern, slightly intimidating, but funny- that dry humour, so charming 7 not particularly friendly, a respectable chap, ...familiar ... with a great voice.

I was slowly shocked as my face became completely grotesque. I could just barely see the reflection in the small glass window of a door across the room. The guy grumbled and hummed and went about his business of messing me up. A very soft cloth baggie of what looked like fine gunpowder was plop-plop-plopped on my face about a thousand times, brushed away, repeated, etc.
I stepped out into the waiting room, which was now about full of other men, half of which were now zombie-like like myself, but apparently I looked particularly bad because everyone who looked up suddenly put on the “OooowwwH!” face and winced, the same sorts of faces we put on while watching guys wrack themselves on rails in the bloopers sections at the end of skate videos. Brutal.
The guys in the waiting room are from everywhere. Gambia, Poland, Nigeria, Ukraine, Berlin. The very ordinary officespace-type room is full of the standard fold-out beerfest tables and benches, the lacquered ones with green metal legs which click into place when set-up properly. I sit next to a quiet blonde guy with muscles three or four times the size of mine- maybe more even- maybe five or six times the size of mine- and I am not a small guy, but HE is enormous, a HE-MAN, a WWF wrestler, sitting there quietly I try not to stare so let the mind wanter and start thinking about Rutger Hauer for some reason and how much I love Harrison Ford and Chewbacca and the Millennium Falcon. Across from me is one of the Africans, looking impatient and trying to decipher the paperwork. Everyone has paperwork and there are only 2 or 3 pens circulating amongst 20 people. I still find it amazing that these guys are all supposed to be American... the Slavic dudes look Slavic, chiseled cheekbones and handsome jaw-lines, and the African guys are mostly straight out of Africa. All the untraceable cartoonish childishness of the average American face in hardly to be found.
I got on a bus with these guys and promptly fell asleep. When I awoke, we were on the autobahn and there was just concrete, green green grass, and shiny new-ish looking buildings. We wound around these shiny new buildings- big supermarkets, a university, and even American-sized parking lots. These places did not exist in Germany until the 1990s. Then they started popping up on the edges of villages, between villages, in industrial districts. It all had the crisp German sensibility coupled with the disastrous US suburban sprawlishness and that fakey feeling of something that is too carefully planned...

In an opposing not-AS-large parking lot, one with holes and weeds in the asphalt, there were rows and rows of vehicles all opened and spread out interconnectedly like a caravan-village. Some full-on mobile workshops or tool sheds, many bored fire department trucks and firepeople, some attractive firegirls, more benches, an old-fashioned double-decker bus in the middle, we got off one bus and onto the double-decker and waited. It was hot and dull and no one had cards because all of our belongings were in little baggies back in Berlin. One Nigerian guy had smuggled a camera and we took turns taking fotos of us, the Russians smiling with the Nigerians, everyone warming up and getting a bit playful for what seemed like it might be a long day.

Heat, boredom, running over to pee behind the guard rail and peeling through the utility belts, then three layers of battle dress uniform –not so fun but what else was there to do. I keep drinking juice, tea, coffee and eventually they serve soup-line style a meaty spaghetti bolognese, (grrr, vegetarian) I just eat the French bread. The fire department didn’t feel like chatting and if I spoke any further to the other guys then they might ask where I was from and it was far too early in the day to be outed as an American. I wanted to wander to the mega grocery store for some non-meat food but i couldn't- i was a severly injured zombie-looking soldier, it just would've worked, "this is a small town, they have heart-attacks or call the police or something, sh*t." All throughout the day kids stream back and forth from a music conservatory somewhere in the military complex. They seem perplexed.
(Fast Forward a few hours.)
We are finally allowed to get close to the center of activity. Before then there was commotion, building activity, welding, trucking, carting, delivery all into the entrance of this very dull military base building, but.half a day of prep work and the old abandoned American Military facility is ready. We are allowed in, walking up a few stairs, then a landing, entrance, a few more stars and then two huge tanks, of compressed gas amongst many rubble machines set to blow. I wander through the entire building. The rooms themselves are all full of real rubble, dangling wires, old newspapers, the most recent I could find was from 1995. All the paint was bubbling, peeling, crumbling off the walls and ceilings. Some of the windows were gone, and most of the door handles. Toilets were cracked completely in-half, the water had been off for years, and there was nothing but dust, crap, and more rubble. It was hard to believe... I wandered to the back of the building and found a bathroom which had been rhinocerized. Looking out the window there were two kids walking home from school. They looked up at me just standing there in the broken window and they saw: a 1970's American soldier covered in blood int he frame of a broken window in a dark bathroom of an abandoned building... and at that moment I thought: now I understand where ghost stories can come from.

Everything of interest had been scavenged long long ago. A polish guy chatting on his mobile simply throws a glass Coke bottle down the hall, it shatters. No one seems to care, they are all busy with anticipation or on the verge of being completely fed-up with waiting.

We are escorted into two small rooms on either side of the main entrance, and wait. We receive instructions and wait. The whole front of the building is set to blow, they are not reeeeallly sure what will happen, but there will be only one take so do it right. Yelling, screaming terror, run like men in shock, pain and fear. There is one large black man with a very passable American accent, turns out he is a bouncer at some big club, he will lead the charge while the rest of us shout obscenities and get the eff out.
There are two very nice women going around with jugs, gauze, @-tips and turkey basters dabbling us with fresh blood constantly, I think all in all I have at least a liter of blood all over my body and saturating the burnt-away parts of my clothing, weighing me down. Out of boredom and for a more authentic look I roll in the dust, concrete crumbles, dirt and plaster of the floor. More waiting more waiting, we sing and joke in our post-apocalyptic state.
Things are moving forward, there is a fake run-through where we are indeed laughing and yelling- of course until we burst through the front door and stumble, crawl, slither to the front lawn and the jeeps pull up, people run to help us, we are choking on the fake smoke and our limbs no longer function like they did just a minute ago. There are two run-throughs, then we are b´packed back into our tiny rooms "well, the explosives have never been set off so we are not sure what will happen when they actually DO go off..." they say- then countdown, "3, 2, 1 action!" and a phenomenal explosion rocks the building, the ceiling-high windows next to me all blow out completely sending chunks and shards of glass raining down and flying everywhere but the camera is rolling and gotta "EVVRYBODDY GET THE FUCK OUT! GET THA FUCK OUT!" Shouts the black guy and we are a yelling, swearing and truly scared stampede in a room, hall, stairwell full of the acrid (always acrid) and potent smell of freshly set-off explosives. "RUNRUNRUN GO-GO-GO GETTHEFUCKOUTGOGOGO", there is rubble everywhere and then we bottleneck at the door. The awning above the front entrance has collapsed (which was intentional) but there is rubble and broken glass everywhere covering the landing, ground,stairs, and sidewalk- I am choking of fake smoke and slip don the stairs on and into a pile of glass shards but I just keep going, i think a Polish guys comes to my assistance and I collapse really hamming it up on the font lawn but actually still coughing because of the smoke and dust. Everyone is laying around, bleeding, moaning, and we just continue to lat there as cameras hover around us.
They re-film portions of things, including a scene with a normal-looking white guy who stumbles around the doorway positively spurting high-pressure blood from his body. In real-life this looks like the most fakest thing in the world, but the magic of film somehow must erase most of that doubt...
I was such a mess that I really couldn't get on the bus like this- so somehow I convinced somebody to let me into the Director's trailer to shower. Try as I might, I could not get all the grit, blood and gravel down the drain, not to mention the tiny bathroom was thereafter streaked with blood from my pants/ knees/ elbows and ass all hitting the walls of the tiny trailer bathroom as I attempted to hurry. By the end it was pretty-much looking like if you'd stabbed a wild boar and let him loose in there... but I left a sorry/thank you note in the kitchen drawer on the back of an expired U-Bahn ticket.
Got on the bus, everyone was waiting, exhausted looking pissed. I shrugged, "sorry" and dozed-off on the trip back to Berlin. The one African guy who took fotos disappeared somehow as soon as we arrive back, so- well... I have images in my mind.

NOTE: The above text a non-fictional account of my memory of working as an extra in the film
“der Baader Meinhof Komplex” which opens today, September 25, 2008, in theaters across Germany.

Kino Baader Bader Meinhof Complex regiseur Uli Edel dreh baader-meinhof 25.sept, 2008 moritz bleibtreu schauspieler mit Martina Gedeck, Moritz Bleibtreu, Johanna Wokalek und Bruno Ganz. Ab 25. September 2008 im Kino Der neue Film von Uli Edel

Post Titled: Need the Eggs...
(and here we enter territory which Post-Google rarely dares to tread...)

In my social sphere 2008 has been the year of the big bad breakup (marriages, engaged couples, etc.) it is going off like everywhere -just like New Years fireworks in Reykjavik- An old friend of mine had a very bad break-up recently, so to blow off steam and mull over the boy-girl issues she has started blogging. I usually read her posts somewhat helplessly, but today I was kind of able to respond:

Her:
Montag, September 22, 2008 - 1:32
So over men...

What is it with men? Why do they constantly disappoint?

If men and women were created to partner, why were they created so differently? It's impossible!

I don't think we were created to partner. It was intended for man and woman to mate to reproduce. And, so that they don't stay together for long periods of time, so that they can reproduce with many different mates, men were created to be assholes.

If only women were created to not care."

(mhh, guess that assumes we were created. anyhow)

Me: When I have this argument in my own head then I always fall back on what Woody Allen says at the end of Annie Hall: "After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs."

Anyhow, coincidentally I watched this yesterday, an it kind-of helped overall... or at least I felt better about the ridiculousness and importance of male-female interaction

if the embed didn't work then here is the link "Helen Fisher: The brain in love" TED TALKs

Post Titled: Postcard To Brooke Interactive
English writer and part-time Berliner Oliver Guy-Watkins has been on-tour with his Postcard to Brooke series, where he gets hundreds of strangers to read a poem by Rupert Brooke.
Anyhow, the Postcard to Brooke Interactive site is now up, have a look.

Post Titled:McCain/Palin Must-Reads I received (another) email early today from Palin/McCain, asking for my time and money- which is normal, but what was not normal was the section beneath that, their recommendations of must-reads:

McCain/Palin Must-Reads
The New York Sun (9/22): Palin on Ahmadinejad: 'He Must Be Stopped'

But if you click on the link then you realised that this was a report on a speech which never happened… the article begins: “Governor Palin, the Republican nominee for vice president, was scheduled to speak today at a rally in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to protest the appearance here of President Ahmadinejad of Iran. Her appearance was canceled by rally organizers who sought a nonpolitical event. Following are the remarks Mrs. Palin WOULD HAVE GIVEN…:”

Are you kidding me? how is a speech which never happened FIRST on the list of Palin/McCain "must-reads"??? WOULD HAVE GIVEN…? I won't be giving a speech today either but I can spam you with a link to my 5th grade "I have a dream" essay

Post Titled: Polar bear Knut's keeper dies: Thomas Doerflein found dead in his Berlin apartment. Thomas is famous for being the "mother" of Knut, -damn, that is really sad actually. from CNN and Photos

Post Titled: First letter from-for Sarah Palin...

"Dear Supporter,
Dear Candidate,

Barack actually calls me by name -like Jesus might- because he hires people who know things about the internets and how to implant my name after “Dear” because there are mass-mailer mail-merger whatever programs that do that... I'd imagine MOST, actually- I work at an company of less than 100 people and even WE have that option.

When I joined John McCain as his running mate, I knew I was in for a roller coaster ride of ups and downs on the campaign trail. Maybe it would be better if you went to an amusement park and literally rode a REAL roller-coaster ride for the rest of the campaign, that would be more really realistic than the virtual roller coaster of the campaign trail. But, I want you to know that I joined John McCain and the others on our ticket in this great election because I'm putting our country first. I don’t understand what you just said, but another 6 weeks riding roller coasters… the very thought makes me nauseous. I can hear your voice in my head as I read. I can hear yours and Tina Fey's. Why don’t you have some physical trait or tick I can dislike? If you were less physically attractive and far less home-towney then I could easily dislike you more -but your are such a mommy mom victim, such a infant in the deep end... this election is going to %&§* your #$%& up, Ms. Palin. Things will just not be the same for you ever again either way.

John McCain and I have been called "mavericks" and "reformers" because we're guided by shared values and principles and we're not afraid to stand up to the status quo in their defense. I have no idea what your’re talking about. What I do know is that I have no great expectations from either party, but I know I would be massively disappointed if you and the Old Man ended up in office. And that's why we want you to send us, and other reformers like us, to Washington. You have a bus.

Will you help send us to Washington just move there, you’ll love it. There are constantly deer in my grandfather’s garden which got squeezed there by the suburbs that go on for three states in every direction. there are many many malls and Target stores and stuff by making a generous contribution of any amount to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 right away? Dunno if you know -but Old Man McCain is rich, biiiatch! Your financial support will go a long way in electing Reform Republicans in November. No, nonono, honey- you got it all wrong. Old man McCain's money will go a long way, I can't even afford Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica on DVD. -He, on the other hand, is rich!

As the mother of an active duty soldier, I want John McCain as our next Commander in Chief. That might... not be a good idea… And I want to elect a Congressional majority in November who has the courage to support our troops and who will stop bowing to political pressure and admit the surge has been successful. It has been effective, sure, that is great- but let’s do the numbers and then see how excited we still are about the sacred surge that totally rocked. I think that is why people are poopy-faced, We need to send a team to Washington who will support the brave men and women in uniform and bring them home with their heads held high in victory. Ok, -some are brave, sure (whatever that means) others are actually fulfilling ROTC obligations, others don’t really know what to do with their lives and still others are just patriotic nutcases, -but this isn’t an effing football game.

Friends, whoawhoawhoa, hold your horses in the course of a few weeks, the Obama-Biden Democrats have launched attack after attack on me, my family and John McCain. They're desperate to win and they'll no doubt launch these attacks against other reformers on our ticket. Come on, Palin!
Anybody in any neighborhood in America would be like "Yea, Bristol's mom is, like,... intense... actually, she's really weird." you are the weird mom! crazy hyper supermom, and you scared me! I am more familiar with your Mormon supermom peers, but still- creepoid!
They are spreading lies and misinformation and we must stop them. I guess I just don't get it. Your immediate contribution of any amount- whether it's $25 or $250- helps McCain-Palin Victory 2008 fight back before they turn these shameful tactics on others we support.

I'm sure you've heard that in this election, the Obama-Biden Democrats have a large financial advantage over us. I'm coming to terms with that. You can help us close this gap today by following this link to make your secure online donation to McCain-Palin Victory 2008. The financial support you give today will make all the difference in this election. Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Governor Sarah Palin

P.S. I hope you will join me, John McCain and the other Reform Republicans in standing up to the status quo. Huh, -who howwhat? Our ticket is ready to take Washington by storm and shake things up to address our nation's most pressing issues. Won't you join us today by making a financial contribution to McCain-Palin Victory 2008? Your generosity is appreciated and I look forward to seeing you out on the campaign trail. You aren't coming to Berlin. I am not coming to the states... I just don't see how this is gonna work. Thank you. No, thank you. I feel like we are a bit closer now. I feel like we really connected.

________________________________________

Because the McCain-Palin Campaign is participating in the presidential public funding system, (why are we paying for his campaign again?) it may not receive contributions for any candidate's election. However, federal law allows the McCain-Palin Campaign's Compliance Fund to defray legal and accounting compliance costs and preserve the Campaign's public grant for media, mail, phones, and get-out-the-vote programs. Contributions to McCain-Palin Victory 2008 will go to the Compliance Fund, and to participating party committees for Victory 2008 programs.

Please visit this page if you want to remove yourself from the email list.

Paid for by McCain-Palin Victory 2008
A joint fundraising committee by and composed of the Republican National Committee, the Michigan Republican Party, the Missouri Republican State Committee, the Ohio Republican Party State Central & Executive Committee, the Republican Federal Committee of Pennsylvania, and McCain-Palin Compliance Fund.
"

Post Titled: the TED Talks are video podcastable!
can be searched and subscribed-to in iTunes store, but beware, there are 293 of them.

Post Titled: Politics as Usual

Tina Fey as Sarah Palin Saturday Night Live SNL


Barack Obama Bodysurfing Honolulu

Post Titled: "You could even substitute the word 'jealousy' for 'literary influence.' Literary influence is what the professors call it in the classroom, but actually the emotional experience of it is envy. Writers wouldn't be moved to emulation unless they were envious of previous writers. The little propeller that drives creative work (you can't see it because it is under the water) is jealousy, and that is what keeps the arts moving- but don't tell anybody. " -Poet Laureate Billy Collins from Weekend America

Post Titled: La bête est morte!
there is a graphic novel section of the French language bookstore underground at Q 206 on Friedrichstraße, yesterday I saw the book La bête est morte! (1945) by Edmond-François Calvo there, the drawings are absolutely gorgeous. SEE: "Avant le Depart", illustration in l'Armee Française au Combat (detail, 1946) The book is €26,95... what to do... what to do. (and why don't I speak more than 70 words of French!)Can't get it out of my head. Nevertheless, I think I am going to dedicate tomorrow to visiting comic book shops.

Post Titled: Really LOVE Stephen Fry's Podgrams (even if they are few and far between)

Post Titled: The Incredible Hulk's use of Alexander Calder
Just got home from work and torrented the Incredible Hulk (surprisingly quick download) and -of course- jumped straight to his major confrontation with the military / Tim Roth on the university campus and whoa- this time I realized upon 2nd viewing that the hunk of metal he uses as a shield actually appears to be a piece of an Alexander Calder sculpture which he rips off (from what definitely seems to be) one of those outdoor painted metal sculptures (very much like the piece in Seattle's Olympic Sculpture Park and/or the Seattle Asian Art Museum (ünless it is the same one and they moved it-? not sure, didn't have time to check.) Hmm... the Incredible Hulk... ripping off a chunk of art to shield himself against American military might... odd choice. Anyhow, he rips off a second a piece when Tim Roth is pelting him with a grenade launcher and uses them to slam together like cymbals in order to deflect bullets/supersonic blasts, cut hummers/helicopters in half and generally just smash things, -as Hulks tend to do)
Some excerpts from Calder's bio on his official site (heavily edited for my purposes, of course):
"Despite his talents, Calder did not originally set out to become an artist. He instead enrolled at the Stevens Institute of Technology after high school and graduated in 1919 with an engineering degree. Calder worked for several years after graduation at various jobs, including as a hydraulics engineer and automotive engineer, timekeeper in a logging camp, and fireman in a ship's boiler room...
Calder received commissions to make both Mercury Fountain for the Spanish Pavilion at the Parisian World Fair (a work that symbolized Spanish Republican resistance to fascism)...When the United States entered World War II, Calder applied for entry to the Marine Corps but was ultimately rejected."

just thought that was weird...

Post Titled: Tiger erklärt den Ali-Inklusive Urlaub

Post Titled: Radiobed.
Post Titled:A series of unconnected mentionings-of-music...
yo yo yo.
Personal anecdote- (who cares! to avoid and get to the point: skip directly to the mention of Bill Medley in bold down there) Back on the radio alarm! (stupid thing: iPod has an alarm, but you would have to be waring headphones for it to be effective OR leave it plugged into computer speakers all night, and given the costs of electricity in Germany it is actually a more attractive option to simply risk not waking up, this was only a problem during the 4 days of Polish houseguests when I was sleeping in my own guest room)
Thanks to the radio alarm, today I learned that it was Bill Medley's (of the Righteous Brothers) birthday and he is also the
guy who sings that Dirty Dancing song "I had the time of my life" (GREAT song to jump out of bed to at 6:36am on a freezing Friday morning, bytheway- (left the windows open, ouch!) but now after 6 hours of having it stuck in my head I want someone to shoot me with a tranquilizer which might induce a hibernation-like state lasting until -oh, let's say: June? I don't know if tranquilizers are that accurate...) (oh-just remembered that the horns buildup to this song was used also as an excerpt in the intro them to The Wonderful World of Disney) Anyhow, Radio Eins (or (whatever station I was listening to-?) pointed out the strange fact that the Righteous Brothers' also had a (re-)hit(?) song,
"Unchained Melody" which was on the Ghost Soundtrack in 1990... both films (Dirty Dancing and Ghost) star Patrick Swayze... no coincidence, apparently... but they wouldn't say why.
Somehow I retained all this information immediately after waking up. I can't credit it because I have no idea what station it was on.

Alas.- oh, quite cool: Seattle Wunderkind musician Michael Vermillion was recently and randomly played on the RADIO EINS show Happy Sad LINK HERE TO PLAYLIST,

as this post rambles on about vague and unrelated musicians and their music... the Cowboy Killers are playing their first Berlin show since returning from their European tour tonight at Volksbühne's ROTER SALON
Official release says: "Part of a larger folk festival - more info as soon as we get it! We’ll be on a bill with a couple other bands, two dollar bash, etc. huzzah!" so go have your "face melted" (but not like Raiders of the Lost Ark)

ALSO, there is the matter of Joanna Newsom. an imp.
for years have avoided ms. newsom's music, thinking (literally): "that girl is weird." she IS weird. but now I listen to her every night before I go to bed. To me, (admittedly I know NOTHING about her) she comes across as a kinda Tiny Vipers meets that one girl from cocoRosie meets harp-playing angel meets 5-year-old girl... hate to admit it but I really like her music now. Still: weird.

RANDOM EXCESS TEXT:
I was translating some things at work on Wednesday for another dept... and there was a word which could absolutely not be translated: "Brainstormingtools" (actually used as a Denglish-German word in a German business text) BUT if one WERE to translate it... it would be "Gehirnsturmenwerkzeuge"... ja, best to just leave it as-is.
haha- from the Onion "Obama Deletes Another Unread MoveOn.org E-Mail"

Post Titled: TRICKLE-DOWN-UP-DOWN KRUMPONOMICS
When streaming the Daily SHow or Colbert Report online there is this ad which comes on beforehand
-Target or Wal Mart or something with these two girls sort of having a dance-off to something
that sounds like M.I.A. but is not, it is very catchy and annoyingly "cool"- yet (after being forced to stream through it for the dozenth time) the more I thought about it:
how long did it take for the cultural cool to get from the shitty parts of Los Angeles to the big screen via
David LaChappelle in his film RIZE then to sink into pure commercialized junk via Target or Wal-Mart or whoever?...
Anyhow, that is trickle-down-up-down krumponomics for you. hi.
HERE are the videos:


Reminds me of the rumors that haute coture would actually plant new handbag designs into the knockoff market for its own benefit- same sort of trickle up-down-up model... what about those rumors, anyhow?

PosT Titled: f*%k metallafuckinca

Post Titled: Regarding the dozen photos below-

as I said, i am braindead, been working a lot this week- and my final task today was to search for a photo to accompany an article... so, as I went I just blogged thing from flickr which I found searching for various terms. wild ride, that flickr...

plus ca change (land's end 11500)

plus ca change (land's end 11500), originally uploaded by ehoyer.

found in a search for "change"

American Flag on the New York Stock Exchange Building, Manhattan, New York City

American Flag on the New York Stock Exchange Building, Manhattan, New York City, originally uploaded by Scandblue.

found in a search for "Exchange"

squirrel catapult

squirrel catapult, originally uploaded by NomadicEntrepreneur.

also found in a search for "catapult" .... which is a good search term in flickr, by the way...

Frog!!

Frog!!, originally uploaded by Weird_Aunt_Martha.

found in a profile called "Weird Aunt Martha" in a search for "catapult"

Cupid's arrows for sale on EBAY

Cupid's arrows for sale on EBAY, originally uploaded by Terry_Lea.

someone... turned a squirrel into a cupid...
(found searching "arrows")

Model for McCain's acceptance speech..

Keeping eye on it.., originally uploaded by normanlynch.

probably. Ok, I have been at work too much this week, clearly getting a bit dumber.

Los Angeles Unified School Distinct band

Los Angeles Unified School Distinct band, originally uploaded by sjb5.

found with "Distinct" search... (this was found due to a typo, should have been "District"

pictionary telephone game

pictionary telephone game, originally uploaded by tatertot117.

ALSO found with "Telephone Game" search...

Masters of the Universe Konvolut

Masters of the Universe Konvolut, originally uploaded by morellasmails.

found with "Telephone Game" search

Telephone Game: Iteration X

Telephone Game: Iteration X, originally uploaded by wireguy.

found under "Telephone Game" (search)

Ants Communicating

Ants Communicating, originally uploaded by virilath.

found under "Communicating" (search)

COMMUNICATING...

COMMUNICATING..., originally uploaded by azli jamil - hope is an illusion....

found under "Communicating" (search)

Erwin Wurm: House attack

Erwin Wurm: House attack, originally uploaded by Dom Dada.

Erwin is pretty rad, probably one of the most enjoyable living sculptors

Stone house in the forrest of Denmark

Stone house in the forrest of Denmark, originally uploaded by Moster_k.

found under "Denmark" (search)

Battle Damaged Trexi :: custom toy commission...

Battle Damaged Trexi :: custom toy commission..., originally uploaded by riot68.

found under "Battle" (search)

My birthday! (also found on Flickr)

My birthday!, originally uploaded by Jeff Youngstrom.

for work I am scouring flickr for images to match articles- so I#m just going to blog a few along the way since it only takes 5 seconds.
My thoughts on this: I usually prefer outsider art.

The Evolution of Lara Croft

The Evolution of Lara Croft, originally uploaded by gnikonrop.

sorry, this is all had time for today, folks...

Post Titled: Kohleheizung: 'bout that time again.
some of us (paperpools will feel my pain on this one) still have coal heating, and guess what? the temperature has dropped drastically over the past week!- which means it will soon be time to fire-up the ol' coal ovens in each of the rooms... only problem is that since last firing the tops of all ovens have become storage spaces-- (see above, the bedroom oven)
anyhow, just to make this post more than one big whine should mention where I buy coal, but don't have that info on me...

Post Titled: THE SOUND OF SHIT HITTING FAN
every time weird things happen on the stock market I am like a kid watching fireworks --- woo, aaahw, whaa? --- the video of the guys leaving Lehman with boxes was totally intense...
"U.S. Stocks Drop, S&P 500 Sinks Most Since 2001 Terror Attacks" from bloomberg
brought to you by Marketplace

Post Titled: dispatch
from Tod: "David Foster Wallace hanged himself! Easily my favorite living writer under the age of 50. "

me: shit. hm. I hate it when people kill themselves, but age 46-! like, you got through all the weird shit of life already by that point, right??? Hemingway and HST I can kind of understand..."

Post Titled: Broken
Until 5 days ago I hadn't even really seen the Family Guy, despite good friends recommending it to me (for at least
the past 5-6 years) but now I have watched 11 episodes. Somehow you get sucked into this stuff in this buildup of
word-of-mouth peer pressure and cultural curiosity. Honestly, the brief clips I had seen previously didn't impress me
in the least- and overall it is a random, nihilistic sort of show- but then again- ...Mithridates had it in Night Hauling aaaannnnnddddd... my roomate downloaded
it... soooooit must be ok-
so yea, the Star Wars episode (which Georgie recommended) is pretty amazing- alsmot startling (since I know the film
frame-by-frame) at how accurate some of the sequences are (sound effects and music are ripped directly from the original
film and many of the starship sequences must've just been drawn-over from the original film)
There was something terribly satisfying about all this familiarity- and somehow even the gay jokes didn't really
ruin it... overall it made me think about what a great film Episode 4 is... and then sink into a very deep 15 second
depression when thinking about Episodes 1-3. My uncle saw Star Wars 9 times in the theater in 1977, Sam Weir from Freaks
and Geeks saw it 28 times in the theater... I wonder how many times I would've seen it...
anyhow,
walked around Kreuzberg and Neukölln for 2 hours yesterday nursing a hangover and listening to Weekend America, there was a fleahmarket in the street near my apt. got a Chinese bootleg (actually, maybe it is an official
release?) of "My Summer of Love" from an old lesbian couple -I'm particularly attached to this film not only because I think it is really quite good,
but also because I met/chatted
a bit with Emily Blunt after the movie premiered at the Seattle Filmfest several (4-5?) years ago, she was just standing there sort of looking around, we even became myspace friends (woo-hoo) then suddenly she vaulted to popularity because of her role as the evil secretary in "The Devil Wears Prada." Deleted me as a myspace friend (or deleted her acct?) dunno. I still really like her, though- she's a good actress. Looks kind of like a young Jane Seymour type. The other actress, Nathalie Press, in "My Summer of Love" delivers an amazing performance. As Ms. Blunt mentioned- she (Press) is actually a very proper well-spoken girl in real life, but one would ever guess that given how convincingly she play a small-town Yorkshire "working-class tomboy." (as IMDB put it) Here is a bit of the film:


oh, wow- it is Matt Damon talking shit about Palin. Thanks, Matt, -you have come a long long way since Team America.
I'm still probably not going to watch your movies, but thanks. Actually, after Franka Potente died in Bourne - I tuned out...

Hell's Chickens, sept. 13 2008

Hells chickens, stadt mission sept. 13 2008, originally uploaded by TAR-ART-RAT.

Hell's chickens at at Total Art Space mission, Lenauerstraße, Neukölln, Berlin september 13, 2008

big stuffed bunny

big stuffed bunny, originally uploaded by TAR-ART-RAT.

big stuffed bunny found in neukölln, berlin (yea that is a fridge next to it)

Battlestar Kampfstern Galactica roman buck book 1980

Battlestar Kampfstern Galactica 1980, originally uploaded by TAR-ART-RAT.

Battlestar Kampfstern Galactica roman buck book 1980 found at flea market, love it.

T.A.C. flohmarkt, Berlin

T.A.C. flohmarkt 2, originally uploaded by TAR-ART-RAT.

went back to the Treptower Art Center flohmarkt yesterday (by Badeschiff/Arena,) love this place... I got a novelization of Battlestar Galactica from 1980 "Kämpfstern Galactica" which includes three stories "Die jngen Krieger" "Die Entdeckung der Erde" and "Zu Lebzeiten Legende"

USDA MUMMY by tar art rat

USDA MUMMY 2 tar art rat, originally uploaded by TAR-ART-RAT.

yea, just a photo of a grow-in-water mummy in front of a box of cereal

Post Titled: "I'm John McCain and I suck Vietnamese penis and and and I approve this message."
ok, it is 1:44 am Sunday morning, gimme a vulgar break.

the Family Guy: the John McCain Experience (which turns into a weird Ron Paul fanvid)

"THE FRONT FELL OFF"

thanks, dad

Post Titled: Lil' Bush

Auuugh, she's just like a Little Bush!
My German colleague and I were talking yesterday about how odd it is if an American politician is well-spoken, well educated, reasonable and fairly intelligent then they are labeled an "elitist", whereas if they come across as a bit dumb, slightly illogical, and fairly clueless (wit the exception of meaningless party line mantras) on many issues then they are more -well- (what is the word?) electable? The only way my mind can justify that is perhaps: in the "land of equality" the public does truly desire to see someone who is more like them in the Oval Office, rather than some college boy. In Germany on the other hand you basically must be an elitist to even be eligible for the job- so it seems. They wouldn't want some non-expert redneck nobody in charge who clearly has no idea what they are doing, would they? I mean, I am definitely not a fan of the German caste system, (which totally exists, by the way- granted it is a comfortable and somewhat more humane caste system than most) and in which everyone more or less has their place in society and seems to stay there and then have children who stay there- but on the other hand the American system definitely has its weirdness... like, I am not opposed to person x rising up out of their situation to become a millionaire, billionaire, or even president- that is great- BUT... BUT BUT BUT... there are always cases were you wish that person hadn't made it quite so far.

Sarah Palin ABC interview with Charlie Gibson part 1

Part 2

Post TIlted: WHoa whoa whoa

NEXT DAY: CNN DUPED BY PALIN PHOTOSHOP, (idiots.)

So, I got ridiculed at the video store last night for the first time ever. What happened:
It has been awhile since I've watched Berlin Berlin, last left off at the end of Season 2
and I realized that they randomly had season 3 at @HOME - the privately owned video
place on Hasenheide- sooooo, bringing the little tag to the desk, the guy retrieved the disc
and showed it to me to confirm. "Ist das mit Absicht?" to make sure he was renting me out the correct DVD-
"Jaaa... " I said sheepishly, -yes, with my best shrug of: i consciously and intentionally am renting this- unable to mutter any other defense, slowly cringing at havig been outed
the guy drinking beer at the counter- a foreigner in his early thiries jumped to life: "what- what is it???"
stretching over the counter he strained to read the DVD label "Äyyh?" his face skewed-up?
Oh.mein.gott. lemme outta here lemmeouttahere. I thought, oh- but: no, they had a new computer system and they had
to update my information- very veryyyy slowly, meanwhile the line is building up behind me and the Berlin Berlin dvd is clearly visible in front of the guy, whos is smirking- I don't know WHY I care what people think about this- usually I wouldn't, but for some reason, this ridicule was particularly awkward- and I was trapped.
Fortunately the account is in Nadine's name, so I was sort-of able to imply that MAYBE I was renting it for my
wife. Ugh. usually I wouldn't care... but for some reason this time it was just sort of horrifying.- like, this would be the equivalent of renting Dawson's Creek on DVD... at a videostore which isn't a great-great videostore, nor it is pretentious like some of the ones in Seattle, but this place does have a Director's section- ow.
Anyhow, (think I have mentioned this before, but) Berlin Berlin is so weird. The main driver of season 2 and now 3 is whether or not the main character -Lola, placed by Felicitas Woll, should choose to be with the nice handsome boy she met art art school- or her COUSIN. her first cousin. she sleeps with both of them back and forth adn can't make up her mind. Meanwhile, me- as a person who has grown up socially to regard one's cousin as AS off-limits as one's own siblings- is just like "DUH! C'mon Felicitas! whaaa?!?" Nevertheless, the cousin's best friend is thrilled to hear that they have gotten together,and is very supportive, meanwhile the art school boy is very very peeved that his girlfriend is %&$#ing her cousin.
Jury says: EEEEWWWWWW. wow. whoa whoa whoa. ewwww.


Oh, yea- 99.9 % sure that the Palin image above is photoshopped but it is awesome anyhow... Sarah Palin in an American Flag bikini with a rifle. C'mon America, just like Feliticas &%$§ing her cousin: eeeew, don't do it- don't vote for this broad and her white-haired monkey!

Is Hotel Chevalier über pretentious? I just don't know... it is now on my iPod...

Post Titled: the Real McCain
from therealmccain.com via David Weinberger's JOHO the blog

Post Titled: from the BBC's BIG BANG blog:

1559pm (BST) FROM Professor Brian Cox: "After the minor controversy about David Kings remarks on Monday morning about the value of CERN, we note that CERN costs quite literally peanuts. UK taxpayers spend £80M per year at CERN, whilst in 2006 (the last year for which we could find figures) we spent £120M on peanuts."

if you'll remember from a previous post (6 months ago or more?), Brian Cox was a consultant on Danny Boyle's film SUNSHINE, he also does the DVD commentary. so cool.

Post Titled: Ok, LHC is up and we're all still here... present an accounted-for. Geil, äy.

things I have noticed today or yesterday:

Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit totally looks like Alec Baldwin!
(or vice versa: SEE ALEC
and KLAUS Positively UN-Canny! I'll just go ahead and send this along to his office and see what they have to say.

On PALIN: "My colleague Sally Quinn put it most provocatively..."When the phone rings at three in the morning and one of her children is really sick, what choice will she make?"" - from Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post,...
Me: "Uhm, like... Brangelina do it...just fine,"

Millennials... I know I bitched and moaned over that 60 Minutes segment the other day... but, like being a cylon amongst robots...
I'm one of them!... since I usually/actually refer to business suits as "monkey suits"... and fall asleep listening/watching a video iPod... my brain constantly slurping digital informationinformationinformation all day every day and can't go for more than a few hours without internet... and think that people who can't use the internet (but have had the opportunity to learn) are somehow sub-human... yep, just another piece of Gen Y trash. Frack. Time to move to a deserted island!

Post Titled: Large Hadron Collider-
Dan wrote:"apparently it switches on at about 8am British time tomorrow. good luck man... hopefully we'll all still be here tomorrow

BOOM"
Would it "BOOM" or "*SLUUUUURP*" as we all get sucked into mini black holes?? and where the hell is Douglas Adams to make fun of all this??? dammit. REALLLLLY don't want to get sucked into the French-Swiss border. really not.
Reminds me of the lyrics "Its not eternal, imperishable- oh yes it will go..." from the song WOW AND FLUTTER
(pssst- ooh, speaking of French- someone put Miss Modular to images of Breathless! nice.)

So, 8 am (GMT) is 9 am here, the exact time that I have to be at work, so I#ll just take my sweet time, have a nice bike-ride and maybe even feed the stupid swans and cute ducks at the ufer on my way to wrok JUST IN CASE we are all about to get sucked into a black hole, in which case you nor I nor this blog will exist any longer.

FYI: (for the folks who haven't read me posting about CERN several times already) The Hadron Collider is built by CERN: Welcome to CERN,
the world's largest particle physics laboratory.

Here are some images from a BBC show called The BIG BANG

I don't actually think this will happen, actually- since listening to NPR's SCIENCE FRIDAY the other day I am really not afraid at all... not really, but there is a slight chance. SEE: Large Hadron Collider Set to Start Up (broadcast Friday, August 29th, 2008) there's even a hip-hop video about it. Not bad.
anyhow, just came across thsi photo of the beach in Poland- it wasn't sunny, very windy, but warm adn people were unphased(sp?) check the baby. (it is checking you)


Holy moly, Alicia just sent the much-anticipated link to Technoviking from the Fuck Parade... maybe the world SHOULD end-
Davis and i accidentally happened upin the Fuck Parade last summer- like, 2 dozen flatbed trucks with DJs on them moving verrrrrrrrry slowly from Kreuzberg to/trough Friedrichshain. Anyhow, here it is, keep an eye on the jiggling man-boobs. Fascinating... KNEECAM No.1 - the original Technoviking tape

Post Titled: A Whiter Shade of Pale
Procol Harem
As mentioned in previous posts, when I ride my bike I listen to Girl Talk a lot in my headphones, it just goes well with the urban scenery flying by. Listening to Girl Talk, however, is a sometimes nightmarish -and occasionally trivial- pursuit for ye ol' human pop culture memory brainsearchharddrive. On the new album,
"Feed The Animals" , I can pick out almost everything, it is much much easier than Nightripper- (DO click here to check out the massive list of sampled artists on the album) but sometimes the most simple-seeming and would be obvious things escape you- for example: the song "Still Here" an organ intro came into a song yesterday, and for the next 36 hours, I was thinking "I know that.. I KNOW that song..." waking up from a nap it immediately popped into my head:
guess it could've just wikipedia'd it to begin with, but that would've deprived me of that sweet agony of having something on the tip of your tonunge/brain for extended periods of time...

Post Titled: Morley Safer's 60 minutes segment is even close to being on-target, millennials are just terrifying...
techincally I am one of them, having been born in 1980 (timeframe is between 1980-1995) but being on the cusp I can definitely kinda sorta stand on the fence and look down on both sides. Still, I was in college with the Gen Y kids, some of whom just seemed like, self-centered little a-holes on an unprecedented scale... (sorry kids.) On the other hand it all sounds so damn good...

Watch CBS Videos Online

Post Titled: McCain and Obama Respond to 'Community Organizer' Attack

(I think Christopher Guest said it best when he said "You're bastard people. That's what you are, you're just bastard people!")

Post Titled: Marjane Satrapi

an accurate paraphrase:
"Iran is my mother, I will always love her and
when she is sick I will go take care of her but France-
well, France is like my wife. I am in-love with her, I married her
but who knows what will happen, maybe I#ll divorce her, maybe I#ll cheat on her- who knows?! We'll see- "

"Iran and the culture of the West" talk and Q & A, HAU 1 Sept. 8, 2008, Berlin

Post TItled: MCCainathon

Since post google sometimes pretends to be bi-partisian and impartial, I joined John McCain's email list.
It wasn't easy, as the site "ERRORED" 8 times and never actually confirmed that I had subscribed- nevertheless, old man
McCain isn't exactly part of the internet generation so I#ll look the the other way on that one.
The first email I get is:

"Can you invest 10 days of your life to make history?"

Can I? Well, no, but "let's do the numbers" (as if the average workweek is 8 hours and federal minimum wage is $5.85,
not to mention the power of the human mind,
-which is priceless-
we are talking $5.85 x 8 hours x 10 days = $468.00... not including gas, babysitters, eating out/on the go, and all the other things I can't think of which one might have to calculate...
damn. Barack only asky for $5-$20. That is just the base because down below it goes on to say:
"These ten days will be unpaid and participants will be responsible for arranging their own transportation
and housing. The campaign is unable to reimburse any expenses." Old man McCain can't order the volunteers a
pizza at 11:45 PM?.

Since I GAVE my sharpie to the Nader folks back when and them my pen to the voter registration people on Obama's
Berlin visit
I think they could at least spurge for some office supplies...
campaigns can never have enough pens, highlighters, tape, staplers,

The John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign is looking for volunteers who are willing to spend the final ten
days of the campaign helping in a nearby state. Deployed volunteers will take an active role and participate in a number of Get-Out-The-Vote activities. These activities will include making phone calls, going door to door, recruiting volunteers, and assisting with additional campaign activities and operations.

These ten days will be unpaid and participants will be responsible for arranging their own transportation and housing. The campaign is unable to reimburse any expenses.

Please consider this opportunity to adhere to John McCain's call to serve a cause greater than self! On the evening of November 4th you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you did everything possible to secure
the future of our nation.

Let us know that you are ready and able to serve from October 25th through November 4th by replying to this email with your resume and cover letter. Please send both to Volunteer5@JohnMcCain.com.
I'm going to apply to this unpaid job with my resume and cover letter just to see what happens, at least I#ll get some more weird emails...

Post titled: mixt marketing.
ok- I probably very lamely and flimsily described why it is ok to download shit from the internet
for free in a past post... and yesterday after bulldozing the memory on me external hard drive to make room for
"Battlestar galactica: Razor" (since I have watched all the battlestar there is to watch i the regular seasons)
I realized that... well, let me put forth this scenario:
Without hesitation I deleted Drillbit Taylor (which i had in a folder called "Drill Taylor") -I'd watched the first 20 minutes of the movie about 3
times already, falling asleep each time, at which point it was really just time to move on. But- same as last time- I would've
never ever
rented it, and it never had a theatrical release here so- paying a ticket price wasn't even an option`in D-land...
At the end of the illegal download story I gain nothing and they lose nothing, nevertheless I would continue to spread the Judd Apatow brand via Word of Mouth,
because things like Freaks and Geeks exist, which might be one of the best shows about being in High School ever. and SuperBad really is pretty funny.

Post Titled: Google search for "frackonomics"
Did you mean "freakonomics"?

frack.

Post Titled: Marjane Satrapi tonight at Hebbel am Ufer EINS (HAU 1), Berlin
-seems like it might be good:
IRAN AND THE CULTURE OF THE WEST – LECTURE BY MARJANE SATRAPI

Post Titled: Wasilla
from Slate.


this video initiated a brief email exchange between my father and I:

Dad: So, what's the point! This is just more (elite) media upsettedness over an insurgent from Alaska.
Bottom Line -- reform isn't possible from within the system of elite politicians and media.

ME: the more I think about it, the point is that the choice of sarah palin is clearly just to dupe the average american into identifying with her so they vote for the ticket. the GOP can get the votes and just keep on truckin' and doing whatever they want: and in that cycle reform will really never happen, they just want to maintain power and pailn in a means to that end, she is a tool.


Dad: That depends on the meaning of the word 'reform' -- if you take a hard look at the things Mr. Obama & Co. propose, you will learn that all of their shtick is almost exactly the same as those ideas that the Jimmy Carter crowd put forth and failed with.

Jimmy Carter was a disaster -- his idealism notwithstanding. Too bad so many young people today weren't around to experience the awful years of Carter administration firsthand.

I think that the big dupe job is being foisted on the country by the Obama-mania sponsors (whoever they are?)! The guy is hardly credible -- as in,

The Emperor's New Clothes .

"Oh! How beautiful are our Emperor's new clothes! What a magnificent train there is to the mantle; and how gracefully the scarf hangs!" (Hans Christian Andersen)

Despite the amphitheater, the adoring crowds, the rah-rah cheering, and the fireworks - the words of his speech seemed to ring too empty and too hollow.

"But the Emperor has nothing at all on!" said the little child.

Post Titled: Last week...

Post Titled: Pulpable.
Unlike me, Dan actually spends some quality time on his posts over at Pulpable,

I was surprised to find the following foto on my camera, it is my new flatmate... trying on a tiny clown mask.