Luckauer Strasse on the Wall , originally uploaded by bpx . I'm always on the lookout for Wall era photos of my street corner, and this book *Die Berliner Mauer 1961-1989*, from the Berlin Story Verlag, had a couple. The houses belonged to the West; the sidewalks to the East. Respectively 1968, 1984 and 1980. The last one, according to the book text, is a patrol of US soldiers following the event of two GDR esapees making it over the Waldemar-Luckauer Strasse side to the West.
Luckauer Strasse on the Wall , originally uploaded by bpx . I'm always on the lookout for Wall era photos of my street corner, and this book *Die Berliner Mauer 1961-1989*, from the Berlin Story Verlag, had a couple. The houses belonged to the West; the sidewalks to the East. Respectively 1968, 1984 and 1980. The last one, according to the book text, is a patrol of US soldiers following the event of two GDR esapees making it over the Waldemar-Luckauer Strasse side to the West.
After where do I get real Chinese food? and where do I get real Mexican food? the most frequently asked culinary quandry for Americans new in Berlin (especially after mistakingly eating a Boulette) is: where can I get a decent hamburger around here? Of all places, tip magazin, one of Berlin's two bi-weekly events magazines, devotes its cover story this week to just that. As befitting such a short shelf life magazine, none of the 8-page (!) survey can be found online, so stop looking, though you can vote for your personal fave online. [...]
Trying to perfect my Berlinerisch in a birthday greeting today, I came across what looks to be a comprehensive listing of 'happy birthday' in a variety of German dialects - though I think the Schwizertitsch version is missing. German: Alles Gute zum Geburtstag! German-Badisch: Allis Guedi zu dim Fescht! German-Bavaria: Ois Guade zu Deim Geburdstog! German-Berlinisch: Ick wuensch da allet Jute zum Jeburtstach! German-Bernese: Es Muentschi zum Geburri! German-Camelottisch: Ewllews Gewtew zewm Gewbewrtstewg. Mew! German-Frankonian: Allmecht! Iich wuensch Dir aan guuadn Gebuardsdooch! German-Lichtenstein: Haerzliche Glueckwuensche zum Geburtstag! [...]
One of the great things - perhaps the great thing - about last.fm is its built-in unspecificity, i.e. you can't to exactly what you want, rather you get to listen to things similar to what you want, herein its indirect genius. So a few days ago, as this one played in living room ambience, Yuhang said, "this song is really, really sad" and I said, "yeah, and it's really pretty, too." And that is the story of this song, an exceedingly cinematic and Chinese instrumental of then unknown origin. Tan Dun - Silk Road [...]
Last week when pretty much every last article about monetary devestation to hit the wires needed some guy in the finance word expressing the sudden dawning of shock and dissapointment - usually by applying fingers to creased forehead and/or squinted eyes - I thought it'd be cool to put together a collage of their varied visages for, you know, posterity. Then, somebody went and did it better with a blog called Sad Guys on Trading Floors . Also: comical, short and ingenious - The Financial Crisis, as Explained to my Fourteen-Year-Old Sister
I can think why Der Spiegel might have thrown caution to the wind a few weeks ago and decided to run essentially the same "Is Google Making Us Stupid" story right after The Atlantic did it: could it be they learned that The Atlantic , with that issue, doubled their monthly sales from 42,000 to 82,000 ? Could be.
Achtung Ross County , originally uploaded by bpx .
My neighbor was relating to me last week how he and his girlfriend and her family, eating at a popular Italian restaurant just under Viktoriapark in south Kreuzberg, spotted Quentin Tarantino - who's been living in and prowling around Berlin these days (Zitty sez Bergmannstraße and Mehringdamm), shooting his new movie with Brad Pitt - lunching alone in a booth nearby. My neighbour said that the locals, dining there, acknowledging QT's presence in knowing whispers amongst themselves, left him alone, in peace - everyone except for his girlfriend's Croation dad, who immediately after being informed of [...]
which one is Ben's brother? , originally uploaded by bpx . hint: not the suity guy
I've been wanting to post this for a while, especially with Sub Pop records celebrating its 20th anniversary this year and everyone one-upping each other citing their true favourite grunge band they were into way before that particular northwestern American scene got usurped by MTV poseurs like Candlebox, Sponge and - good Lord - Nickelback (Mudhoney is the correct answer). So this band, Ohio's Afghan Whigs, who started by regular gigs at a Cincinnati lesbian bar , the first non-Seattle band booked by Sub Pop, is my vote for the band that never got its due - [...]
test to see if I really can post to this blog via email via flickr , originally uploaded by bpx . If this works, it'll be way cool.
this blog has seen better days, but I've got so many good excuses for my online absence you wouldn't even believe it! Illness! Marriage! Work! An Actual Life! Alien Abduction! And that was just yesterday!
Embedded video from CNN Video
Die Zeit blogger Jörg Lau got my star spangled dander up a tad today describing Boston area infrastructure - in the "power region" of MIT and Harvard even! - as laughable and amazingly unmodern . That was until I saw the the American Society of Civil Engineers has graded its current status as failing though graciously filing a grade D instead of an F, which last time I checked is the traditional grade for failure. Of course, it's nothing $1.6 trillion can't fix and Lord knows the US gov has money growing out its ears these [...]
US investment bank Lehman Brothers may be toast, but their recruitment website is still going strong (suddenly amusing videos here ).
It might seem odd (or purposefully ironic) that a country band would base a song on the ravages of crystal meth usage. That is until you learn - as I did in Frank Owen's superb book No Speed Limit - that Cookesville, Tennessee is the US speed capital bar none, located right smack in the middle of heartland America, where all is good, decent and righteously right-handed Republican. (Speaking of which, Sarah Palin's home town of Wasilla just happens to be Alaska's meth capital , a fact that delights and frightens me in equal measure.) And speaking [...]
Berlin, with its heavy and heaving skies, has a brusque way of greeting the homecoming traveller with a gloom to put quick closure to any naive and silly thoughts of a lingering vacation. Last Monday, when Yuhang and I returned from southern France on a Lyon-Berlin easyjet flight, was no different. A part of me - not the squinting, grumbling part - actually appreciated having a week of fun in the sun bookended so completely and decisively with a return to quote unquote real life. We were, Yuhang and I on that Monday, officially married for just over three weeks [...]
Unless you're a professional designer that is. But if you just want an endless and random stream of wicked cool graphics and photos compiled by what appears to be predominantly other design freaks, then ffffound.com is for you. Having not heard about it before, I sort of stumbled across it, though it's well-known enough to make TIME magazine's 50 Best sites of 2008. Don't even know what this is trying to say but I like it.
benperry.net
Bison - Quill
Neutral Milk Hotel- Aeroplane Over the Sea
Shinichi Osawa – Big Beach Mix 2012
