-
Living under, or on, the medieval thumb
Somewhere, way back in history, a guy on a horse stumbled across a bend in the Vltava river, in what’s now the southern Czech Republic. Or not a bend — a whole series of bends, so that a little thumb of land was surrounded almost wholly by the river. He scratched his head for a…
-
Help a writer. This is why the Net is groovy.
Here’s a confession: I’ve never made it through the Illuminatus trilogy, despite trying several times, despite it being a canonical text (or maybe symptom) of the conspiracy prone, paranoid culture that led also to Gravity’s Rainbow and, say, Dick Cheney. Now its co-author, cult hero Robert Anton Wilson, is apparently sick and poor, and close…
-
Another Rome comparison. No, it’s not a happy one.
It’s getting way too easy to make comparisons between the current U.S. and the late Roman Republic. Sure, they’re not spot-on. But maybe someone there in Washington ought to be reading some Plutarch. Today in the NYT novelist Ed Harris points to a critical moment in the pre-Empire years, in 68 BC, when pirates attacked…
-
The little steps on the way to catastrophe
So many people around the world believe Bush and Cheney and the rest are power-mad fools who have failed miserably in their Iraq war. It is sometimes hard to remember that they’re still in power. Dangerously so. Now Congress is ready to pass a law on so-called enemy detainees that goes against the spirit and…
-
Lights, but none of them are quite celestial enough
A cool 5 am ride across the city. I have two complaints. One serious: This was the going away party for our closest friends here, Kenji and Till. They’re moving to Munich, for opportunities too good to pass up. We are overjoyed for them, and still devastated. We’re going to be spending too many GermanWings…
-
J’accuse. Or I date? It’s all nomative, relative, what?
This learning German thing, it’s good. It’ll be nice to be able to speak in a non-simpleminded manner someday. If that day ever comes. For now it’s getting up too early in the morning to throw ourselves into the twin hells of accusative and dative cases, and all the parts of speech agreeing, like that…
-
Field trips: Ruined village, bristling boars
A few days ago our friend Norbert called us and asked if we wanted to go to the old Olympic Village to take pictures. We looked it up; it’s mostly ruined, but a bank has purchased the property, and is restoring bits, and is celebrating the 70th anniversary this year. The Village is in the…
-
I like to water down my gin, with whiskey
So, who knew? We’re at a bar last night on Bergmanstrasse, hip orange and white decor, very minimalist, but the usual mellow Berlin crowd. I haven’t quite finished reading the cocktail menu when the waiter comes. I’m a fast reader, but it’s long. All I can recall is the Smokey Martini. Laphroig and Bombay. It…
-
Rain, ego, and marionette rock stars
It’s gray outside, which isn’t exactly new, but the persistence of the rain is. The temperature has dropped decidedly into fall territory, which seems a bit early to me. A year ago we arrived in Berlin to scout, and it was hot, T-shirt weather, a beautiful Indian summer. Since in SF we get our summers…
-
Your writing always seemed a little mechanical…
And so at last, writers, journalists, reporters, call us what you will, we’re being replaced by computers just like everyone else. The Thomson financial media group is using software programs to automatically generate earnings stories, within .3 of a second of the release of a company’s earnings statement. No chance of a John Henry moment…
-
Embracing violence, it embraces us
What does this say about us? America turns its resources to fighting the vague but real threat of terrorism. We start two wars. Support another one. The Middle East is radicalized, and new terrorists attracted daily with marketing campaigns more effective than Nike’s slam dunks. And what do we get? At home gun crime and…
-
The Nazis march, but are outnumbered
A genuine Neonazi demonstration marched past our window today. The first we knew of it was a flyer on our door, of unclear origin, advising us of the approach, and suggesting a few ways to protest. Hang a flag, write our local councilperson, turn up music loud out our windows as they marched past. We…
-
Go to war, miss the way the world changes
And so this is the outcome of Israel’s war. They have destroyed some of Hezbollah’s military capacity, rocket launchers and fighters. These are renewable resources. They have killed hundreds or perhaps thousands of Lebanese. Destroyed thousands of homes, and crippled the country’s infrastructure. They have inflamed hatred across the region; and the United States’ tin-ear…
-
Sweating through the Mediterranean
So, a little late, but almost exactly a week ago we returned from two weeks in France and Italy, sweating our way through the heat wave which has nothing to do with global warming. A quick recap: Two nights in Paris. Aimee left me here to go wandering through the best wineries in the world.…
-
Even Germans think the Democrats are screwed up
A fascinating look in Der Spiegal at various German papers’ interpretations of Lieberman’s loss in Connecticut. None are particularly happy about it, even though few think the GOP is anything but a disaster. Left wing paper focuses on “the kiss,” and say Clinton (who also should be defeated for the same anti-war reasons) isn’t likely…