Germany’s economist types are celebrating today because unemployment reached a big milestone mark — dipping under 4 million for the first time since 2002. For those counting, that’s still a whopping 9.5 percent unemployment here. I can’t find current Berlin figures, but the most recent ones I’ve seen are still somewhere up north of 15…

Someone ought to do a documentary on the parks in Berlin. Maybe me, with the exquisitely primitive video capabilities of my camera. We’ve spent the last few weeks exploring parks on the outskirts, the sub- or mid-urban swatches of green that sometimes feel as big as a small country, at least Monaco or San Marinito.…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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.…