Author: john
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First swift sighting
I fell in love with the swifts last year, birds that play in the air the same way dolphins do in the sea, with every evidence of unadulterated joy in the way they careen between buildings, skim the surface of rivers, chase each other through the heavens. When they left for the winter, it was…
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Terror watch, in the neighborhood
The US Embassy here in Berlin is boosting security. Apparently there’s an undisclosed threat to Americans here ongoing. Anybody have any clues? “U.S. diplomatic and consular facilities in Germany are increasing their security posture,” the Embassy said in a statement. “We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat situation. The U.S. Embassy…
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A year on. The post office on tax day. Bubbly.
Tax day. A year ago (minus two days) we arrived in Berlin, travel-tired, wide-eyed, speaking almost zero German. Norbert, who managed the apartment we were to stay in for three weeks, was kind enough to pick us up at the airport, and became our first Berlin friend, the punk-with-a-pillow. A year later, we’re settled, and…
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Pain on exhibit, and two views of crucifixion
At the Hamburger Bahnhof contemporary art museum is an exhibit on pain (Schmerz). Art shares the walls and display cases with medical implements, a case of pickled, often diseased organs, photos of autoerotic deaths, and a curiously compelling film of a man dancing naked in an attic, a pink plush dinosaur on a chair next…
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Tongue, fleur de weiner, and Austrian Morocco
Eating in Vienna: tongue, sliced thin and drenched in a kind of horseradish porridge. A lovely goulash, which means bits of stewed meat along with a fried egg, wiener sliced into a perfect fleur de lys (oh look, I say naively, foolishly — I think it’s octopus!), an enormous knödel at least as dense as…
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English über alles. History doesn’t matter.
It takes a ballsy mix of arrogance and almost willful historical blindness to argue that any condition is permanent. This IHT article draws from both, drawing on arguments that the English language is so widespread and useful as a world language today that no other is likely to topple its dominance. Ever. Riding the crest…
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Maerzmusik pt. 2-3: Jetsons musik und primal screams
Two more concerts for the Maerzmusik festival: The first was a piece by local composer Moritz Gagern, written for a chamber ensemble specifically playing in the rotating cafe at the top of the Fernsehturm here, the huge Soviet-era TV tower in the center of Alexanderplatz. I had never been up in the tower itself, save…
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A moral here somewhere
A few days ago, like many days, I went to a cafe with my computer to write. Afterwards, I went to the bookstore, bought several books, including Pynchon’s latest six-ton opus. I carried this all around in my backpack for several hours, having a lovely drink on the rubble slopes of Friedrichshain Volkspark with Aimee.…
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Maerzmusik pt. 1: The trouble with texture
The Berlin Maerzmusik festival, a two-week series of contemporary music of various avant persuasions, is ongoing. We’re seeing several, ranging from noise theater to (relatively conventional) orchestra. The latter may be the biggest disappointment. Saturday was a Konzerthaus concert featuring the work of an Israeli composer Chaya Czernowin, preceded by a beautifully textured Ligeti piece…
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Live music, up one flight
I’ve been to concerts in halls no bigger than a living room. Last night was the first that was actually in one. We met another Berkeley/Bay Area expat a few nights ago, who’s in town turning a thesis on German music writing into a book. He’s also a guitar player, playing with a jangly band…
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Halliburton moving to Dubai
Halliburton, Cheney’s baby, winner of all those no-bid contracts in Iraq, is moving its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai. Why, when it’s received such largess from the American government? It wants to improve relations with local state-owned oil companies, it says. Oh, and incidentally, they’ll be paying practically no corporate taxes there. Market types…
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Love note to vitamin D
With an apparently complete lack of irony, the online weather report said it would be 62 degrees today, with a chance of snow. Except for the parts that weren’t, that was totally true. The sun is out, blossoms are emerging from bud ends without the angry, fool-me-once cynicism of our December spring, the Mauerpark is…
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Sausage dog horror in Deutschland!
“Panic in Germany” reads the Spiegel headline. The population of Dachshunds is dwindling, as people are increasingly choosing other dogs, like that — choke — golden retriever. Births are down to a quarter what they were two decades ago, and in a saddening sign of the times, a dachshund race in Berlin had to be…
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A moment in time, a moment in bliss, a moment in SF
Concert pianist Jeremy Denk walks through Hayes Valley in San Francisco, in one of those states of wondering bliss that gives everything meaning and even ridiculous inanities a weird beauty. Good reading.
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The long view, in Afghanistan: Get out, while you can
Most everyone is familiar with how the Afghans kicked the Soviets out after years of bitter battle. I was less familiar with an earlier version of roughly the same story, almost 150 years earlier, when the British first decided to invade in order to put their own ruler on the throne, and forestall a largely…