schwarzweiss

i guess i'm the only presumptuous toolbag who likes the cool rainy weather, even in the middle of july. everyone around here is so indignant, as if they "deserve" a sunny summer, and oh isn't it just typical bullshit berlin that we're deprived of what's coming to us.

it's like the headlines here... every day it's another headline about how hartz IV welfare is going up! or threatening to go down! or taxes! or kindergeld child support! we have to pay WHaT?, and can you believe they're going to give us less??? how dare the sun not come out in summer!

i pay attention to the newspaper headlines, the fact that they're there on paper and not robotically organized by google news is so retro and like, european. I'm tickled that one) there are at least seventeen different newspapers to choose from every morning at every Ubahn stop, so at least you get the nice illusion at least that print media isn't compLetely monopolized; and two) the 'yellow' press is so unabashedly trashy, with tits and 24 point fonts on the front page. (which, i'm sorry, i find appealing in my junk food-junkie/ jaded aestheticist/sensationalist way.)

since they're all laid out like that, a bed of flowers, a buffet of 'what's going on in deutschland this morning', you get this urban walking around sense of the day's critical mass.

and so the critical mass on thursday, the front page of every goddamn newspaper in germany:

http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-kurier/print/berlin/226571.html

twins born, one black and one white. OH MY GOD!

ok, granted, this is a freaky phenomenon and not very common. but seriously, who cares?

well, clearly the germans.... who gape at the reality of interracial relationships, who are boggled by mixed blood, who still seem fuzzy on the tenets of a multi-cultural liberal democracy, and grant minimal legal rights and no citizenship to those born on their soil unless they are "german".
isn't it fitting then, isn't it a relief, to see these sticky issues in black and white? eliminate all those shades of grey?

i'm not going to go on about this for fear of seeming paranoid and/or bitter. let's just say i find it Interesting when my paranoias get expressed in such a, erm, semiotic way.

owl night

it's generally around this time of morning when i go back and forth trying to decide if i should just fucking go to bed or stick it out til the next day. i just can-not get to bed before dawn these days, regardless if there is beer or any other narcotics around. it's true there are only about five hours of darkness a night, but that shouldn't be an excuse, how hard is it to close your eyes at 2 am and just dooozzzeee

the other night some of our pan-european guests ate pasta with a spoon, that was long before we were flailing around gas-station chianti drunk to "your kiss so sweet, your sweat so sour". repitition should be funny, but when you repeat drunkness, i don't know if it is funny. things started to stop being funny after five straight days of drunk. it all ended in tears and an inadvisable 6a.m. email to the ex. naja.

the week started out -- or the former week never ended -- with the germany victory over turkey. since the saturday before i had been, you guessed it, drunk, and had left my camera on a park bench in prenzlauer berg, i was recording the screams and wails on a dictaphone, maybe i'll figure out how to post it here... chronic archiver of experiences that i am. people flooded the streets. turkish AND german flags. schlesiches tor... deutschland, turkiye! over and over. later among the staggering masses spent time with yara discussing canadian hospitality at barbie's afterwards, she had on a pink wool amoeba shaped hat and low crotched harem pants she had sewn herself.

the next night

oh fuck it

going to bed

to be continued