Today is Spring

There are tourists out and about. I went for a walk to set up and interview and lo and behold more than half the conversations I "intercepted" as I walked by groups of two or more at cafe´s and on the street corners were in English. I shouldn´t be surprised. Especially in the case of Americans. Berlin offers so much for so little. Cafe´s, Art, Street life, Bars, Alcohol, Restaurants are all available at small prices in comparison to what one would have to pay in Paris or London. Plus there is less control here and still something a bit wild for being a capital city. Today was also the first day without the winter jacket and so that is pretty much proof that winter is over.

Monday Monday

Nothing much happening worth reporting or commenting on. Maybe that is good. The headline from Berliner Zeitung (which is not an evening gossip tabloid) was that a seven year old boy tried to mugg a seventeen year old girl in a park in Berlin. The little thug approached the girl (who was jogging), kicked her, and actually managed to get her cell phone before she got herself together and took care of the little twerp. Of course now he is on the front page of the news with instant celebrity status. I hope he tries it again when he is a bit older and someone kicks his teeth in.

Portugal-Sweden match report

Back in the day (and I am talking 94 here for anyone who remembers) the Swedish national team was known for its defense. That is how we did so well and got ourselves a bronze at that World Cup. Since then our defense has gone back and forth and not been as stable (note in 94 we also had someone named Brolin need I say more). Nowadays we don´t have Brolin, but instead Zlatan (who is better all around I think). Yesterday we also found out we have a spectacular defense. Granted Johansson didn´t exactly play at tops, but then again Christiano Ronaldo didn´t exactly score either so there isn´t too much to say there. Mellberg and Majstorovic proved that playing together, there won´t be too many teams who can break through. That means we just have to get our offensive qualities a bit sharpened. That means that we need to let R. Elm play more and it means that Anders "Taco" Svensson is probably not far from the end of his career on the international stage. Anyway we tied Portugal in a game that anyone who wasn´t rooting for Sweden will call ugly and defensive. It doesn´t matter if we can beat Denmark twice and Hungary one more time, we will be in South Africa.

I want to know

I think that Obama should release as much information about what the CIA and military have been up to for the last eight years. I want to know just exactly what they were doing waterboarding people for. I want to know how they were allowed to do this and whats more I want those responsible held accountable for it. Cheney is wrong and an idiot about national security. Protecting someone does not give you the right to do what you want no matter what the case. I know that there are going to be voices from the right accusing the whole thing of being a witch hunt, but considering that they are usually the ones going out on those kinds of hunts, they should taste their own medicine.

The little PM that could

Its really funny. Yesterday he lost a parliamentary vote of confidence (meaning his coalition had failed and that he would have to at best seek a new coalition or let the president call for new elections) then the next day he decides to come out and criticize US stimulus spending. That would be like George Bush trying to tell the world that McCain hadn´t really lost the day after the election. Ok maybe that wasn´t a great way to put it, so instead I will say it was like listening to a team of footballers who just lost the world cup 3-0 and then have the balls to tell the first media microphones they run into that they were the better team. The Czechs are a funny little country.

Thinking high density vs. urban sprawl

You are silent oh readers of these words, it would be nice to hear you speak your minds every now and again. Today I was sitting reading from Richard Florida´s book "Cities and the Creative Class" and while I can´t find myself agreeing with everything he says, I do find it interesting in many ways. He talks about how to create cities that are attractive to creative individuals and how this approach will lead to better local development (mostly in an economic perspective) but of course any type of development has externalities (which is where I am concerned). I keep thinking back to the US and its development patterns: how the ususal thing to do is to build office parks, residential areas, and shopping centers and all of these separated by wide roads and zoning differences. What do we lose in this system? First I would argue we lose exercise; every one has to drive to work. Because we all have to drive to work we lose time in traffic (the US government has figures on how much money is lost in traffic jams every year and its not pennies we are talking about here). By living in Suburban growth patterns i.e. the cul-de-sac lifestyle, we isolate ourselves from others (this is even more true in the case of gated communities which are honestly class segregation). Why do we live like this? The standard laissez fair argument would be that this is what the market desires. My counter to that is that there are other growth patterns that could be tried in cities, but no one is willing to innovate or be creative (note here the influence of Florida). My background studies at the moment have a lot to do with sustainable development and so I take that type of approach to building and development as a whole: our housing situation in the US is not a long term approach, nor is the shopping center development. These areas are built for twenty year boom periods and not for long term stability. That is why suburbs all look the same. What would happen if some developer in coordination stepped outside the box and created more interesting places to live that didn´t just rely on spectacle (getting a famous architect)? Would it work? Could we produce more interesting neighborhoods with more stable living and work patterns? Or is the suburb really as good as they said it would be in the fifties?

Its a good feeling when

You wake up in the morning to the sound of the alarm switching on the radio for you and get to listen to the weather report and then the traffic update on Deutschlandfunk. There is something relaxing about hearing about how long the lines are on the autobahn that morning as millions commute back and forth in their gas guzzling Audis and Volkswagens. The word to remember is Stau, which is essentially the German word for traffic jam. Meanwhile, our hero i.e. me, is laying in bed thinking about how if things got really bad, all I would have to do is to get up and get on the subway. Cars are for suckers.

Which is more absurd?

The idea that climate change will severely affect our planet or that we can continue consuming natural resources at the current western rate?

Thoughts on Watchmen

Its been a while since I gave a movie review on this blog. I thought I would do "Watchmen" since I just finished it. I get this feeling about most superhero movies that they are divorced from reality (ok I know its a movie but still). The Dark Knight went some of the way in bringing a more grim outlook to these kinds of movies but I still felt that in the end it wasn´t dark enough. The stereotype about comic books are that they are for kids so then we call them graphic novels to juice it up a bit. Watchmen is not a children´s story. Nor is it a cookie cutter superhero adventure. It wasn´t written that way and when it was brought to the big screen it wasn´t portrayed that way. I didn´t like 300 (the director is the same) and I had this feeling going in that I wasn´t going to like this movie either. I did like this movie, in fact its one of the best I have seen in the last two years. The music choice was excellent as was the cinematography. Its funny, how many super hero movies use Bob Dylan? Usually the standard formula is to use whatever average and popular rock band is available. Instead this used really good music. I found myself sitting there thinking with all this great music when is Hendrix´s take on All Along the Watchtower going to show up and then at just the right moment it did.

Finally on the ending; excellent and the jokes about Ronald Reagan were spot on. "We don´t dignify absurdities" should be the media´s slogan.

Some more thinking...

Ok I have to say that there is anger over Obama being on a late night show and over him filling out a basketball scorecard is probably the most amusing thing I can think of. Is that the best they can do? These were things that didn´t take very long and are a normal part of someone´s life. Do they expect him not to use the toilet, not eat, and never ever think about anything fun? Stiff uptight white guys.

Bored and Amused

I am bored and amused with the republican critique of Obama appearing on Leno´s show. They are claiming it demeaned the office of president etc. The truth is they weren´t clever enough to come up with it in the first place. All the same though the joke about the Special Olympics wasn´t so funny, though I can guarantee you everyone makes these kinds of jokes in private. So what does demean an office of the president. Secrecy and Torture, two things the republican party stands for, oh yeah and the general promotion of greed as an avenue to freedom.

Looking for inspiration

I am looking for inspiration to keep doing thesis work. Don´t misunderstand me, I really like my topic, my place of study, everything. Its just hard to keep a continual focus. Maybe the problem is that if I put in too much effort I might get too much out of it. Well that is actually a horrible thought now isn´t it? I should be striving to be ahead of the pack and do something that stretches itself far from mediocrity and out into the ranges of creativity and the amazing. Pardon me waxing poetic on my own skills. I am actually wasting time in between going to the library.

Building tanks

Today I read that Russia is talking about a massive arms buildup. Or perhaps the way they put it was better; arms modernisation. The firt thought that came to mind as I sat musing about this was why they want to modernise and why they had to make it some kind of announcement? Then my thoughts next took me to that film Operation Canadian Bacon, where Alan Alda as the American president realises that with the cold war over and the economy in a slump, the only kind of solution is to start an arms race. Thats where the Russians are. They have no idea what else to do. So the best thing would be to invest in some kind of militaristic and nationalist pride. This has of course always lead to good things in the past so why wouldn´t it now? All in all a rather cliche thing for the Russians to do. I just thought they had it in them to be more creative.

Spring are you upon us?

Today I had to ride the subway and visit two libraries. One library to pick up research material for my ongoing thesis and the second one to pick up another book by Gunther Grass which I foresee finishing by Friday of next week. The tourists were out in force today with their badly folded maps and their wide eyed stares. The Hertha Berlin fans were out with their flags and scarves as the big game approached for the early afternoon (I am happy to report they held off aspirin-owned Leverkusen). That makes Hertha the Bundesliga leaders which is pretty much unheard of in modern times.

There was also a massive protest that started less than a block from my house. The police were everywhere and it seems that everything went off without a hitch. I followed the whole thing to Gorlitzer Bhf before deciding that I didn't want to stay out watching them march. They were protesting about gentrification and higher rent prices while the economy is stagnating. It was rather disappointing to see the police filming the protesters so they knew who had been there. Its nice to know they are probably running files on the most common protest marchers in Berlin. Paranoia!

The Yellow Journalism trail...

I like to read newspapers, listen news radio (mostly bbc), and read internet based news. I have a wide variety of sources that I turn to. When I want to know whats going on in the US I either read CNN or BBC. Perhaps I will turn to Der Spiegel if the item is big enough. When I want to read European news, I stick with The Guardian, BBC, Spiegel, and Dagens Nyheter. When I want to read sports news I go with a wide variety that is not worth listing. In Sweden we have two sensationalist newspapers that while often wrong, still provide great sports coverage even sometimes before the more reliable sources do. It struck me after watching clips from Fox News today that this is a cable news station that is essentially a sensationalist source. Their talk shows (Hannity and Colmes, O´Reilly) are essentially made up of sensationalist minded news individuals with massive egos who don´t have anyone standing there correcting them. When they do, they don´t accept the criticism. Fox News is yellow journalism at its best. If I was to lift my glass in honor of them this is what I would say:

I propose a toast to Fox News, for its distortions, its falsehoods, and its obvious bias. As a news station that fills our airwaves with things that can´t even be called news or continues its lying (I mean them not correcting Gingrich), they stand as a true example of hate, ignorance, and a complete lack on interest in doing good journalism. Here is to you all the journalists who don´t check your sources and don´t even bother trying to be accurate, it seems you are safe inside those republican walls.

In defense of RL

I can't believe I am writing this. I am going to defend Rush Limbaugh, but only for a short second. Ok, now out with it; I don't think there was anything wrong with what he said about wanting the president to fail. I think almost everyone has those kinds of thoughts at various times (though even with Bush I can´t remember ever formulating my distaste for him quite like that). Enough of the defense, because that is about all there is.

Rush Limbaugh reminds me of a whale. He is big and imposing and possibly dangerous if you find yourself in the water in his vicinity. His vicinity is the radio. On the radio he tells us daily about how much he dislikes democrats and how much the republicans are doing for the country. He doesn´t like african americans very much if at all; all you have to do to understand this is to read his books (I have read both). There is no point in making any comments here about his personal life. Even if they weren´t as disastrous as they are, they only sidetrack us from the real issue: his hate for anyone and anything different than himself. He doesn't like women very much either: he refers to feminists as feminazis and has even gone on to make the claim that ugly women invented this notion to somehow help themselves get into society. I consider myself a feminist (if you want to have this debate Mr. Limbaugh make sure you know what feminism is).

Like his other fellow master of hate and ignorance (and yes I will say it stupidity) Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh is a college drop-out. At least the other member of this conservo-biased media triumvirate is college educated and at least on paper intelligent (I mean O'Reilly of course). In the end I would hope these fools continue to use their hate and ignorance the way they do. I have this image of their hateful words building up a weight that will pull them very far down on the scales of history. We will remember them as they are: arrogant, angry, and out of touch with any form of reality.

BBC

I was reading Justin Webb´s blog today on BBC.co.uk and he made a good point about Republican resistance to any of the Democrat ideas that are being put forward at the moment. The idea is that if any of the Democrat policies actually work, then the Republicans have a lot more to lose at the moment. This will be especially the case considering that their policies have been tantamount to a joke for the last eight years.

Today I am going to Cologne for a funeral. So I don´t know if there will be any updates to this blog until around thursday or so. I am hoping to see the watchmen as well as the Man U vs. Inter Champions League second leg.

Its a...

Slow day today and that could have something to do with going to bed at four in the morning. It all started at a birthday party and then we decided to keep things going around two in the morning by trying out some of the new local bars in our neighborhood. Well we weren´t disappointed. We went o Mama´s and it turns out that is the new busy weekend spot in ReuterKiez (our neighborhood). So today I managed to finish the collection of stories by Thomas Mann that I have been reading and started Jeffrey Eugenide´s Middlesex which I am expecting a lot from, given his quality of work with the Virgin Suicides. Oh yeah it wasn´t all laziness here as I managed to bake a pizza for a late lunch and now am going to do a bit of writing as well as some thesis work. Tomorrow we have to go to Cologne for a few days.

I have this little feeling...

That my thesis is starting to come together a bit. I had an interview with a local community development agency on Thursday and since then I have been feeling good about this whole thing. There is just so much more that still needs to be done. I have gotten to the point where I think of myself as continually at work. If I take a break and eat something or go out and do something else, then it is just a break from work. That will be the nice part about graduating again; the ability to disconnect work and play (don´t get me wrong though I firmly believe that work should also be play but it can´t always be that nice).

Today is Saturday and that means football. All my teams are going to lose today. I know I should be a bit more positive but having been that way for the last three weeks, I am now starting to realize that I just have to assume the worst and that that way I can enjoy when they actually do something good. Just don´t count on it...

Socialism: the joke is on you!

I have been listening to some of the clips where the right wingers are whinning about the idea of universal health care and calling it socialism and doing the same thing when it comes to other ideas coming out of the White House. I have this question for them: are they aware that they lost the election? When a majority votes one party out of office, it means that they are tired of their policies and ideas and if we take this line of reasoning one step further we could even argue that they are saying that the policies were a failure.

Now coming back to socialism. There is no socialist government in the USA, nor will there ever be. The right wingers harping on and on about this subject are merely replaying old propaganda that never really held any meaning. They also love to refer to socialist Europe. Can someone tell me where socialist Europe is? I don´t know, maybe we could say Spain but they don´t have a socialist system so I guess that is out.

The American propaganda voices need this notion of socialism being a threat to our everyday lives to remain somehow relevant in this day and age. I only wish they knew what they were talking about.

Nationalist moment of the day...

Did you known that before WWII and even a bit into the actual conflict the correct way to salute the American flag was identical to the Nazi sieg heil. I love that these small things that aren't thought about very often have such interesting histories. My suggestion: ban the pledge of allegiance and let the dictators of the world sell these kinds of pledges. If what you are selling is that great then you don't need a bunch of children swearing oaths to something they don't even understand. Now imagine if something like this was implemented in Sweden or Germany today, it would immediately be interpreted as a dangerous and slippery slope back toward nationalism.

Republican Prancing

The wild horses are out on the fields kicking up the soils of the great plains and generally revelling in their feeling of freedom. But this vision is not true because there are barbed wire fences stretching across all those spaces that were once open and free. We could take this same approach to the recent Republican meeting; its a place of ideals and visions. Its also a place of whinning and complaining. The thing I find most interesting about it is that they still aren´t anywhere near bringing something new and fresh to the table. They are intent on serving up the same dishes, dirty and crusted with leftovers left standing out too long. They want to lower taxes for rich people and award them for treating their employees as garbage and this will somehow stimulate the economy. They are against big government although they like to spend as much as possible when they are in charge as well. Basically they are a bunch of lyin' snakes.

Thomas Mann

I have been reading my second Thomas Mann book Death in Venice which is really a novella and in my case it was put together with several other of his short stories. The thread that I find unifying throughout his work so far is that I don´t find any strong female characters. I find them to be mostly in supporting roles or even used to portray women in general in a light that seems to me to be very shallow and not logical. I would take this to be a case where the author is possibly an ego-centric male who sees the women that he incorporates into his books as being only a way of showing the male rationality while the female mind is inherently anti-rational and petty. Maybe its just my interpretation but I am wondering if anyone else has seen this?

Case of the Mondays

Its monday again and it seems that so far I have no motivation to work on my thesis. This isn´t the best of all ways to start the week, but on the other hand it could have been worse. I did manage to wake myself up at seven and read for about forty minutes from Death in Venice by Thomas Mann so all in all the morning has not been entirely wasted. I find myself thinking that if I could only be more productive and stay focused longer, that I would get a lot more things done around here. The chain of logic that follows from this thought process is also that I would feel better if I got more things done. Seems to me that this is a pretty smart way of thinking. Now its just about translating thought into action. My first idea was to write this post as a way of getting things rolling or sharpening the knife. Next step.... THESIS!