coffee talk

Lightning storm over Berlin

2011-09-12T11:06:00.001+02:00

Lightning storm over Berlin,
originally uploaded by Matt Biddulph.

cafe im nu

2010-11-02T22:09:00.000+01:00

after 5 days berlin .... walking and sliding over ice and jumping over puddles -- we happen to be in a different neighborhood - the helmholzplatz, and of course we have to check out the coffee shops of the area. here we are at 'im nu' which is a german slang for in an instant, in no time... in a moment...
very cozy place, warm, good lighting (one of my main criteria for giving a place the thumb up or down...), little bistro tables - which should be mandatory for any place calling itself a bistro ...;), quiet converstation, people reading magazines and lounging on sofas..

cafe leonhard

2010-02-09T16:01:00.000+01:00

here we are ... about a month later - just arrived in berlin a few hours ago... and headed straight to the 'stuttgarter platz'. we have kind of a love/hate relationship with cafe leonhard there. the place is a fantastic example of a mixture of minimalism and cozyness. the lighting is perfect, so is the location. particularly if you can sit outside and people watch.
the waitstaff is a little hit and miss. the are not exaclty bad, but none of them ever smile, and for someone who has lived in the US for a while, that takes a little getting used to.

cafe gallop

2010-01-31T22:28:00.000+01:00

it was a nice day in the middle of arctic cold days here in denver - and we decided to head up to lo-hi... denver's not quite northwest neighborhood. it is not the actual highlands, so that is why the 'lower highland' name for it.
on 32nd and zuni is a place called 'gallop', that sounded interesting, so we wanted to check it out.
overall very pleasant, actually european feeling - particularly since they served coffee plus wine or other spirits. very civilized:) exposed brick gives it that very cozy feeling and the baristas were friendly.
it was a little hot, with the sun burning through the window, and they only remedy for that seemed to be an open door. so i am not sure how that would be on warmer days.... also a little odd was that they did offer wireless - plus had a kind of an unwelcoming note by the register, regarding people with computers. hmmm .....

the philosophy of coffee shops...

2010-01-12T02:09:00.001+01:00

it is a new year and a new decade .... not technically speaking. we actually have another year, but that is apparently how we view time - so who am i to walk against the tide. there are more important things to fight for.
we have been in berlin for 5 years now... depending on how you count the years i guess. eduardo's 50th birthday in 2005 was the moment we decided that we wanted to have a home base here. we moved our 'stuff' there that same summer, but did not actually start spending time until spring of 2006 .... so, either way, we have been here for a while. i will continue talking, blogging and philosophizing about berlin.
but, my new life phase directs me to the coffee houses of the world.
today we met good friends at cafe europa here in denver..... more on that shortly ~~~~

winter solstice .....

2009-12-13T00:27:00.001+01:00

it is not quite winter yet ... but it feels like it - the weather, the holiday spirit, the short days and dark nights... and it feels like change. at least in my life it does.
it has been a transformational period in my life - these last 2 months. and now it is almost winter solstice.
so i am making a few changes to my blogs -
grassroots is staying the same, still talking about politics, still creating art!
art of living is changing direction - you can read up on my changes there ...
and this little blog here has changed from berlin talk to coffee talk.
not that berlin is changing, it is still the city we love, we live and work and
blog out of - at least part time. but it is not a new foschini project anymore, so i am shifting my focus to something i am doing at the moment, right now:
sitting in a cafe somewhere around the world. i am an expert at coffee houses.
i drink coffee | i write | i am a philosopher and designer | and i travel the world
_________________________________________________________________________________

more to come shortly, but my coffee is getting cold and it is getting cold ...
talk to you next time;)

bach on sunday morning

2008-12-22T13:47:00.003+01:00

....sundays in germany are very very quiet, almost zen like. you could not do much if you wanted to, since everything is closed - so it is the perfect day to sleep, hang out, day dream, write, see your family, eat christmas cookies - or listen to bach….. bach expresses the sunday feeling here in this country, the slightly melancholic, introverted, quiet side of the sunday. it is cold and dark outside, not many people on the streets...........

art.of living | in Europe

2008-11-13T11:50:00.008+01:00

a few snapshots from Berlin....

one funny little tidbit on the s-bahn in berlin
(the above underground transport system) -
it smells!... usually like wet dog... the photo
is actually from a ryanair magazin...
so that means other people have noticed it, too...
hahaha
~~~~~

also - more photo art to be seen at
http://globalgrassroots.blogspot.com/

happy holiday season......

berlin to dublin...a quick 2 hour hop on ryanair

2008-11-10T17:05:00.005+01:00

we just got back from a weekend in dublin, vitisting our good friend
ann o connor ---

it was fun even through the wind and the rain - we just used our time to visit more pubs then we would have done ordinarily... hahah
one of the funnier (or should we say - amazing... an example of the six degrees of seperation that we seem from anyone else at any given time....) on the streets of dublin, late sunday morning - we ran into a friend of a friend from denver, colorado

also - here a good article from travel and leisure on going to europe cheap..................
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

13 Affordable Trips to Europe

From May 2008

By Reid Bramblett

With editing by Adrien Glover, Sarah Kantrowitz, John Newton, and Clara O. Sedlak

So what if the euro is up and the dollar is down? That doesn’t mean you should skip a trip to Europe this year. You can still find great deals, even in pricey places like Paris and London. The secret is simple: knowing where the bargains are.

Did you know you can see the Louvre, Musée d’Orsay, and Pompidou in Paris for free, get full meals in London for less than $10, and spend the night in a Bavarian castle for $125? How about staying inside the storied Alhambra palace grounds in Spain for less than $150 a night, dining in Rome for under $30, and cruising on the Bosporus in Istanbul for $1? (No, that’s not a typo.)

See our list of 13 affordable European itineraries.

Here are some additional tips on how to shave hundreds of dollars off your next European vacation, no matter where you go or what the exchange rate.

Airfare: Do research through aggregators like kayak.com, then compare the results with fares offered by wholesale-style consolidators like Destination Europe and Airfare Planet.

Package Tours: Since you can book packages in dollars, they may save you money-but price the elements individually to be sure. Go Today, Gate 1 Travel, and Tour Crafters offer weeklong packages starting at $549 per person.

Transportation: Rail Europe has a variety of passes, but for any trip over five hours, opt for a faster, cheaper no-frills airline. Want to drive? Check the aggregators, as well as consolidators like Auto Europe. For a longer trip, a short-term lease of a brand-new Renault or Peugeot will be cheaper—and offer better insurance coverage—than a two-week rental.

Lodging: Find small mom-and-pop inns and B&B’s at European specialty sites like Venere and Booking. And consider the myriad of lodging alternatives—agritourism farm stays, cottages, private rooms, convents, campgrounds, villa rentals, castles—that are less expensive and more authentic.

Dining: Spend a pittance on a royal picnic. Just look for the daily markets you’ll find in most towns, and keep your eyes peeled for street stalls and carts selling roasted pork sandwiches and sugary crêpes. Or head to a pub, trattoria, or tapas bar for hearty, traditional dishes costing far less than at a restaurant. When you do dine at a temple of haute cuisine, go at lunch, not dinner: you usually get the same menu for less.

See our list of 13 affordable European itineraries.

Sights: The best things in Europe can be free. Those grandiose churches that showcase frescoes, stained glass, and architecture by Michelangelo and Matisse? Free. London’s top museums like the British Museum, Tate Modern, V&A, and others? No charge. Madrid’s Museum of the Blind and Paris’s Perfume Museum? You guessed it. Get a list of free sights and experiences in Paris, London, Rome, and Madrid at Europe for Free. Also, most European tourist offices offer discount passes for public transportation and sightseeing (a notable exception: the largely useless Venice Card).

Shopping: Sharpen your bargaining skills for Europe’s street markets, and you’ll return with more interesting souvenirs (and colorful stories) than the tourists who stuck to the overpriced tchotchke shops. If you research local prices at home and stick to the “stock shops” that sell overstock, last-year’s models, and slight irregulars, you can bring home a treasure for far less.

Trimming your budget doesn’t mean sacrificing the quality of your trip. In fact, the less you spend, the less insulated you are from the local culture. Staying in a thatched Irish farmhouse, perusing old masters in Rome, or snacking your way through Spanish specialties for $2 a dish aren’t just the tricks of the frugal traveler: they’re the stuff dream vacations are made of.

See our list of 13 affordable European itineraries.

Also within this article:

New York Artists Escape to Germany

2008-11-03T14:21:00.001+01:00

By Damaso Reyes in Berlin

Leonard Cohen famously sang "First we'll take Manhattan, then we'll take Berlin." Now many New York artists are doing just that, turning their backs on excessive rents and the stifling conservativism of the post-9/11 city to carve out a niche for themselves in the thriving Berlin art scene.

When David Krepfle left his small hometown in Iowa and moved to New York in 1989, he had $100 in his pocket and dreams of becoming an artist. He found a loft in the Brooklyn neighborhood known as DUMBO ("Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass"). Back then, it was the kind of area where nobody cared if he used a chainsaw to make his art -- even if he did often get chased by thieves on the way home from the subway.

But over the years, as the neighborhood became the hippest place to live in New York, Krepfle's rent grew and it became a struggle to keep his home. Then he visited Berlin in 2001 -- and was so impressed that he joined the ranks of the New York artists making the exodus to the German capital.

PHOTO GALLERY: THE NY ARTISTS LIVING IN BERLIN EXILE

Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (7 Photos)

"It felt like New York 20 years ago," he says, recalling his first visit to the city. "It had the same energy, the same kind of freakiness and underbelly, as New York had then."

Krepfle, who has now lived in Berlin for a year, is one of an increasing number of American artists who are leaving New York to set up a permanent base in Germany. More than 10,000 Americans now live in the German capital -- a number which has grown steadily over the past decade.

New York-based artists are inspired to make the move through a combination of rising rents, diminishing opportunities and a growing sense that the city's centrality to the art world has passed its peak. Gone are the days when up-and-coming painters such as Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg could rent a huge loft in Manhattan for just a few hundred dollars a month. Today those same lofts rent for upwards of $5,000 and sell for millions, forcing artists out of Manhattan and into the outer boroughs. But even in Brooklyn, spaces that rented for hundreds just a decade ago now cost up to 10 times as much.

Krepfle now pays €500 ($695) a month in rent for a studio in the up-and-coming eastern Berlin district of Friedrichshain. The boyish 46-year-old shakes his head and marvels at how much his storefront studio on a quiet, tree-lined street differs from his DUMBO loft, where he lived directly under the Manhattan Bridge and had to put up with a constant industrial rumble.

"This is the first opportunity that I've ever had in my life to make solid art where I don't have to worry so much about paying a big electric bill or a lot of rent," he says. "It gives me the opportunity to really focus on the art."

It has now been a year since Krepfle sold all of his belongings to come to Berlin. In that time he has found both a home and inspiration. The walls of his studio are lined with the work that he has created here: colorful, cereal box-sized images of contemporary news events interpreted through his unique lens. World figures like North Korea's Kim Jong Il and Saddam Hussein are juxtaposed with images dealing with globalization, consumerism and the rise of radical fundamentalism of all flavors.

And it's perhaps not entirely coincidental that there's a political element to Krepfle's art. It's not just cheap rents which are enticing artists to come to Berlin -- many New York artists are leaving because they feel the place they fell in love with has fundamentally changed.

"I'm not crazy about living in America while George W. Bush is president," says David Henry Brown Jr., a painter and performance artist who recently had a one-man show at a Berlin gallery. The intellectual atmosphere of Berlin is "really open," he says. "I feel like I have taken off the handcuffs that were developing in New York."

For many artists, the event that alienated them from the United States was the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and their aftermath. While the attacks seemed to bring the nation together, for many on the left it heralded the start of a reactionary period in American history which made them feel less and less welcome in their own country. "You have a transition, especially catalyzed by 9/11, where New York becomes a corporate puppet," Brown says, filled with resentment.

Alaskan-born artist and experimental filmmaker Reynold Reynolds agrees. He feels the 9/11 attacks "made the city much more conservative, much less tolerant, much more a place of paranoia." He lived in New York for 11 years -- including during 9/11 and its aftermath -- before coming to Berlin in 2004 for a fellowship at the American Academy. "Some of the things that I did in New York would now be completely impossible," he adds, noting that throwing dummies off bridges would likely lead to arrest rather than a review in the New York Times. "Berlin is a much more inspiring place to be an artist," he says -- so much so that he recently signed a five-year lease.

Theorist and environmental architect Peter Fend, who had a studio in the World Trade Center, is another whose decision to leave New York was influenced by 9/11. "My reaction to the whole event was one of immediate anger about US foreign policy," he says. Fend first came to Germany in 1984, and his view of Europe and Berlin, where he has lived for the past two years, is perhaps more pragmatic than most.

"I go where I am welcome," Fend says, voicing his frustration with the New York art world's obsession with making what he mockingly calls "happy art" in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. "There's no love for Germany," he says. "There's some appreciation for where we are at but I can't say that I'm loving it. It's just a place to do exile."

But with New York rents rising inexorably, and a growing dissatisfaction both with the current administration and the increasing commercialization of the art world, it seems likely that more and more artists will decide to make the move to Berlin.

And for some at least, the German city has an attraction of its own. "My fantasy growing up was always New York and then Berlin," says Krepfle, a smile spreading across his face.

chocolocation..........

2008-11-03T14:02:00.010+01:00

location location location ------------------------------
it seems like berlin gets better and better, the more we unwrap the chocolate wrapping...
we just went to our first art-night: vernissage berlin-style.

our friends sabine and gunther are here at the moment, which is always an event - for many reasons. we of course just enjoy seeing them and going out. they are also very bohemian and we all enjoy going out late in berlin.
but the other reason that makes it a fun event is that gunther looks a lot like bruce willis, so we have strangers asking him about it and often wanting to have their photo taken with him. it makes it even more believable when we all speak english together. it is really funny.
to top it off, one of the places we went to is 'white trash' - and they are doing a really good job to live up to their name.

i loved it. great place, not to go to all the time, but for sure a fun place to tak 'bruce
willis and girl friend' - hahaha

one of our projects while we are here, is to find the perfect 'duck'
(the old citroen's nickname here in germany) and ship it back to
the states...... hahaha - so ve has been searching..... here a snapshot for
all of you in the 'new world' who have not seen one -

we will keep you posted on that little undertaking.......

nbg fotos

2008-10-29T16:00:00.002+01:00

Euro Travels

2008-10-25T10:34:00.004+02:00

The last few weeks have been busy with travels and friends, the highlight being a quick trip to Paris with a girl friend. This is one of the things I love so much about Europe - within 90 minutes you can be in another great city in a different country, language, culture. It was phantastic.
And for anybody who ever thought that the Parisians are not friendly, you need to go and see for yourself how nice they really are. Of course there is an occasional rude waiter, but I have had that experience in every city. Over all every one was more then nice and helpful.
Most of them speak english, but I think it is always polite to first ask 'parlez vous anglais' - before you start rambling of in your own language.
We stayed in St Germain, on the cutest little side street called 'Buci' - that street was so perfect, it was at times hard to pull away to go out in other neighborhoods. Our little cafes and shops and restaurants were so charming, we would sit for hours sipping wine and watching people...

Back in Berlin it has gotten a little colder, but still nice and dry and the fall colors are spectacular. Today is Saturday and the best market is in Schoeneberg... so off we go - more later

Deep into fall now - we have even changed our clocks already - unlike the US, which I think will take another week or so of the 'summer feeling'. So now it gets dark around 5pm.... but there is something particularly cozy about being inside with blankets and candles. This IS my favorite season. We may even dive deeper into fall, by going for a couple of days to Dublin - meet up with our friend Ann O'Connor..........

One other fun thing to do on a cold, dark evening, is to go around the corner to the neighborhood vietnamese soup place. It is soo good and really cheap, it has become one of our regular spots!

A daily living kind of problem to solve now is our wet clothes. Our clothes rack broke and we don't have/don't want to use a dryer. So for the moment we hang clothes around the apt on various chairs and things (it is good that german washers tend to be pretty small...hahah)
I would like to buy one small enough to fit into our (very small) bathroom - but Ve would like one big enough to fit sheets and things.... hmmmm.....
off we go to the store
ciao ciao for now --

castle celebrations

2008-10-12T14:55:00.002+02:00

random shots of friends and family -

first in italy and later in strassburg.......................

autumn in the city

2008-10-11T12:31:00.001+02:00

finally berlin feels like home again. this was not berlin's fault, but we felt a little bit unsettled for a while. that could be partly because our place had been rented out for about a year, and we had to make it our own again. and also because things do change when you are gone for a while. but the city changes in a really good way. in our neighborhood are many scaffoldings on beautiful old buildings that are being restored or even just painted (including ours). our little neighborhood park finally got finished, after years of being under semi construction. the apartment under us finally got sold and is being worked on. our neighbor above us had cancer surgery, but is doing very well.
we have a phantastic new vietnamese place around the corner from us that has become our new regular 'cold october night soup place'......
it is great to be here again and we wonder why we were gone for so long.

tonight we stopped in our little neighborhood bistro where the regulars hang out and we saw one of the old timers hans peter. he has lived here forever and seems to know everyone. we sat with him and his friend for a few minutes to catch up - of course outside, since berlin has caught the no smoking ban also (that is a whole story by itself, since the germans are fighting this more then any other country and there are still many places where you CAN smoke - but more on that some other time)
so as we are chatting with hans peter his friend is rolling a cigarette... plus doing funny things to the tobacco, like burning it for a few seconds before rolling it - and then added some little brown pasty like things... but we were not paying too much attention since he was not exactly part of the conversation. but then he got up and said he was going to smoke a few meters away, since 'you cannot smoke here' but we were welcome to join him and have some.
i had apparently still not completely arrived in berlin, since i was not sure what he meant and said 'no, that's ok, thanks' and then asked hans peter why he would not smoke here (kind of thinking like someone in boulder where often bars don't let you smoke in their little outside seating area either) - but as i was asking i realized that he apparently was smoking hashish.... hahaha ---
i should have added that this little neighborhood bar is an old hang out from the 60's - but even though, it is hard to imagine smoking pot right outsid of my brothers bar :-)

just a quick side note - i have not been writing much, because we are having internet issues in our apt, and when we are at the internet cafe for limited time, it is hard to have the creative juices flowing. those internet cafes are pretty fun and a fascinating social study by itself though. you see everyone from the traveler to the semi homeless to kids playing games to people making international calls yelling into the phone or a man that had to work out some ocd issues before he could pick up the receiver. the real money maker (1 hour online is only 1 euro, so the owners don't get rich on that) is the fact that you can buy anything from beer to junk food there, when most regular stores are already closed) this has become our international office and home away from home for many hours of the day....
see you there next time -------

almost in Berlin.... writing from Nuernberg

2008-09-23T12:26:00.000+02:00

september 19 - euro trekking....

we just got back from our quick italy trip. our very good friends alexia and rob got married in the magical setting of a castelo outside san gimignano.

we are lucky enough to always be able to borrow my parents little car when we go on our euro trips, which is fantastic on gas consumption.

so we started heading south on wednesday early am.... it ended up taking almost 10 hours, with trucks and traffic and just occasional stops for gas and bathroom. but finally, around 5pm we arrived and minutes later on one of the small streets of sg ran into lauren and tyler, our friends from denver who were sharing an apt with us.

so our time in italy started with wine, bruschetta and friends and continued on that way....

the next 4 days were the most amazing travel time or the most amazing any time really - to be in a small town and continuously running into very good friends, old and new. there were 130 people at this wedding from argentina to teheran, and we knew a large number of them. so we would see people in the coffee shops, on the streets and at the market - it was amazing!! this is what it must feel like to live in a village - but with people that were handpicked to live with you.... hahaha

the wedding was at the castelo, about 30 minutes outside of sg. it was beautiful, even with a little rain off and on. and it was an amazing ceremony and fun party --

it was kind of sad to say a quick good bye at 3am after the wedding, to leave the next morning to go back to germany. this was like being part of a big italian family and now everyone was going home... another 10 hours north through the rain, but it was sunday, so at least this time there were no trucks on the road.

so now it is 'nuremberg' time again for a while. spending time with family, friends, sitting at our favorite cafes with newspapers, cappuccino and notepad. we are learning german, writing down stories, blogging and making plans.

most of it are travel plans... some others life plans. talking about our next few months and where to go. it already seems that time will be too short to do everything we want.

we want to go to strassburg and munich, i might do a girl trip to paris...
some other ideas are - dublin and copenhagen. stay tuned on more urban treks :-)

happy beginning of fall... or happy spring - depending on where you are :-)

the wall has fallen, but socialism lives on....

2007-10-14T12:31:00.000+02:00

...at least gastronomically --
Berlin has a great socio-economic-cum-culinary institution: the Weinerei. Literally translated as "winery," these restaurants – which now number at least five in the Prenzlauerberg-Mitte area of the former East – offer a little taste of the Marxist paradise the German Democratic Republic (aka East Germany) was never able to realize. They are all guided by a basic principle: you pay a nominal fee (maybe one euro) to become a member and receive a glass, after which you can eat as much food and drink as much wine as you want. At the end of the evening, you pay what you think the evening was worth, often into an oversized wine glass or a hollow glass fish or something else absurd. (Their menus could be emblazoned with the motto: "From each according to their ability, to each according to their need.") The food is sometimes simple (pasta, bread, salad) sometimes impressively complex (pumpkin soup garnished with pumpkin seeds and oil, homemade ravioli, etc.) and the wine gets better with each glass after the third. The atmosphere is usually hipster homey (old furniture, flea market wine glasses, super-kitsch interior decorating: cheap prints of 19th century genre paintings or religious themes – jesus and mary being favorites).
But at the end of the day, what makes the arugula taste that much crisper and the last drops of wine that much richer is the feeling that a better life, unencumbered by monetary values, may still be possible.
(Nothing makes me wax poetic about socialism like a few bottles of Weinerei wine.)
=======

here just a quick note on a funky place we went to last night.
above is an excerpt of what I found online on the place. it is kind of hard to describe without seeing it. we went downstairs, for which you need a code word (let me just say 'cocolores' hahaha)-
he has a kitsch corner that Marilyn (from the mercury cafe) would love!! the guy opening the wine bottles for the guests - it is self serve - played Frank Sinatra. a guy with crazy hair stopped by later during the night selling 'space cookies'.... anybody's imgination what the ingredients are :-))
all in all you feel like in some former GDR living room, (with a large foto of Gorbatschow on the wall), but so cozy that you want to spend your cold and dark Berlin winter there ===

matjes & more ...

2007-09-09T17:57:00.000+02:00

here just a few random thoughts from the last few months... -
an actual blog about what we have been doing on this side of the atlantic will come in the next few days. really!
---
things that I am still getting used to and things that are soo familiar…

there are many things about Germany that I like and love - for example that you can walk along the Karl Marx Allee or go the market at the Lenin square - and nobody thinks anything of it. it is perfectly fine to talk about various forms of philosophy and thought and have dissenting views, without being socially ostrasized…

when it comes to food, I really like cold hering, what they call 'matjes' here. it is almost like eating sushi without the rice and the seaweed, and if it is well done, it is sooo good - but maybe you have to grow up here to like like it... it is is a tyical german 'home cooking'. I love it!!
then there are things that are not familiar and I have no idea how to behave culturally correct at least half the time.
when do I address someone in the formal and when in the informal way….?
do the people know, who have lived here all their lifes? what a crazy social custom…
it used to be pretty simple:
kids, family, friends and anyone who agrees on it, say 'du'
strangers, collegues and kids to adults (other then family) say 'sie'
and the only one who should initiate the du, is the older person…

but things are changing -
this generation is more casual and Berlin is getting more 'multi-kulti'
usually people within the same age group (up to roughly 50) say du - kids often say du to adults and almost anybody can offer the du to anyone else…
but this shift makes things much harder, since it is despite all the relaxedness and 'americanization' of culture, the du-sie difference has social implications

I consider my status here in germany as that of a tourist who speaks really good german… I have never lived in this country as an adult..it is a very strange phenomen, to speak the language so well, and still feel so much like a foreigner… hahah
well - we combine many nations and cultures among the foschini-team --
lately we have been eating here like the Spanish, I am not exactly sure how that happened. but we tend to have lunch around 4 and dinner around 9 …
it just seems to fit better into our daily routine (if you can call it a routine….*&^) - but it is fun. and it works well with our public transportation ticket -

.... here just a quick tip for travelers in Berlin:
if you are here longer and you do not want to pay a lot for your subway ticket … then one of you ca buy a weekly-pass and the other person can ride along for free on weekends and evenings after 8pm -.....

start spreading the news...

2007-08-19T13:06:00.000+02:00

....from our 'new york of europe' - city..

well, after 2 months of lots and lots of bread, ve decided to cut the carbs. we have been eating indian bread, turkish, german broetchen of course and many other ethnic varieties a few times a day - so time for a break.

we keep on finding new favorite places to eat and hang out. last night we found a funky greek place, called 'terzo mondo'. the owner is a greek architect that looks like a mixture of Pavarotti and Karl Marx. apparently it attracts actors and activists, he himself used to play in a german soap opera. he is a fun and interesting guy who seems to know a lot other architects, since he used to teach at the university of berlin… we will see …
another place we recently found is 'favela café' owned by sabine and henrique. not a full blown restaurant, but they serve feijoada and moqueca - we will try it sometime in the next few weeks. they are super nice people and their mandioca frita is pretty good!!

we live in the so called 'quieter neigborhood' of berlin - but we too have our share of odd to crazy people. there is one woman who has hair almost down to the floor and she wears layers of black. I know that does not sound so bad, but the aura - cloud that follows her is quite creepy. she walks extremely slow and keeps on stopping and looking around - at times in the middle of the street. sometimes she sits down on her stroll… the other day at an outdoor café and at her table was a normal looking woman. my theory though is, that the woman did not sit next to her voluntarily… as most of you might know, in germany you share tables with strangers… her estimated age is somewhere between 35 and 48… she could just be a harmless city neurotic. but she also could pull a knife if you get too close -- we tend to stay on the other side of the street. hahaha
(i will try and get a photo..in fact my newest plan is to try to talk to her the next time we see her... which is most days --)

last night was the 25 year anniversary party of our favorite hang out in berlin…. it was packed inside, outside and standing. they had a live dixie band and great energy. we met a couple from england who owns a place in berlin --
and we had some interesting interactions with semi drunk people... one woman insisted on wanting the bar stool that eduardo was sitting on - but when i explained to her that he had back problems, then the german mother was coming out ... and she insisted he stayed sitting - and the 2 of them chatted away for the rest of the night - haha - it was pretty cute. more details when we see you all in person.
the other cute incident was ve 'stealing' a cigarillo from a package on the bar... the british couple had reassured us that the people had long left. but a little later the 'owner' did appear back on the scene. he did not notice anything - except that ve seemed to be smoking what he was smoking. the 2 of them also somehow seemed to have switched their wine glasses... i am telling you - it was packed!!

these are all the news for now -
i am leaving with the regular: 'there are a few things that we like better in the US - segment:
germans are not so good at small talk...parties tend to start kind of quiet and slow... they usually do get momentum - but the start of any conversation with new people can be an effort - something that seems much easier with the generally cheerful and chatty american -

cheers to all our friends around the world -
we miss you!!

news from the capitol……

2007-07-17T15:39:00.001+02:00

trying to get a few highlights… can be a low point…haha

well - not that bad, but it was an experience --
the hairsalon is around the corner from us,
the guy who owns it has his head shaved…
maybe not a good sign for a hairdresser?
it was only going to be a few strands - very cheap (another sign?)
the very loud arab music I kind of enjoyed.
but when he said the only color he had at the shop was blond,
(if I would like another color I need to go across the street to the little
drugstore and buy it there and bring it over), I could not keep myself from
laughing…oh well. blond it is.
then he wanted to put one of these swimming caps on me. the one with the holes,
where they get a knitting needle to pull out the strands, I protested. I thought that was from last century? no?
ok - he got some aluminum and started… it took only a few minutes - what can
you expect for 'very cheap'…
but when he started washing out the creamy blue colorstuff that
was in my hair, he only washed the top of my hair that I had highlighted… he did not wash all my hair!!
except when he tried drying my hair, then he actually did wash my 'head' because instead of pulling the hair back to dry (we had washed it forward at the sink) he kept the hair in front and therefor 'cleaned' my face also…
so then half of my hair and half of my face where somewhat wet --
just in that moment another customer came in, that he wanted to start working on (who knows if this guy knew what he was getting himself into - I almost warned him) -
so he gave me the hairdryer and dried the rest myself… since not all my was washed it was an easy task… hahaha….
sorry - but that was the first time ever, that I did not give a tip in a hair salon…..

besides that little hair event, life has been a mixture of learning about real estate in berlin and hanging out with our denver/brazilian friends who are visiting -- (check our artofliving.blogspot for some news regarding real estate)

berlin is hot, so we go to various biergaerten or beach bars - and stay inside during the day. on tv we watch the tour de france or news from the other 'side of the ocean - perspective'. plus we have a new favorite show:docusoap - that shows germans who are moving to another country! I love it)

-

...i am at the bakery...

2007-06-25T11:09:00.000+02:00

well - things do work different here...
the little wine bar 'die garage' a few blocks from us, is only open monday to friday 6pm to midnight. the little corner tavern is never open on saturdays (that is what the sign on the door says: samstags nie!)
and across the street a greek guy owns a television store, that he keeps locked, wtih a sign saying: i am at the bakery next door!
he happens to own the bakery next door. plus the greek restaurant next door to that. with the delicatessen store across the street and the dry cleaners he only own the real estate and collects the rent. we do not know how many more stores or spaces are his... but he seems to take life pretty easy, playing backgammon at this bakery and chatting with the neighbors, like in some greek fishing village that went bourgeous.. hahaha

people also do not always respond to emails. i had sent one to a company regarding the meter reading in our building - and instead of sending a quick email back, they send snail mail. ahhhhh ~~
so far we have only been in berlin for 3 weeks, and we already had nancy, trish, carsten and my parents 'drive by' - it is great!!
more friends are coming next week - we cant wait!!!

little updates and photos from the visit with my parents are coming -
in the mean time i will sign off with my
'US-positive-statement':
you can find lots of newspapers in coffeeshops in the us, sometimes only parts of them.. but you can fold them and tear them and do whatever you want... in german coffeeshops they come in a 'stick'... and it drives valtinho crazy. it takes a certain technique to read them - and you probably have to be born here to know how.... (photo to come next time)
but at these times ve wises he was at the market on larimer, folding up the ny times and reading it his way - ;-)

der alte fritz

2007-06-19T13:37:00.000+02:00

and here some random background stories on berlin -
der alte fritz - that is frederic the great...
you see him around in statures, bar names, actors....
= wiki info: --

Frederick II (German: Friedrich II.; January 24, 1712 – August 17, 1786) was a King of Prussia (1740–1786) from the Hohenzollern dynasty.^[1] In his role as a prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire, he was Frederick IV (Friedrich IV.) of Brandenburg. He became known as Frederick the Great (Friedrich der Große) and was nicknamed der alte Fritz ("Old Fritz").

As an enlightened monarch, Frederick patronized the arts and philosophers. For years he was a correspondent of Voltaire, with whom the king had a turbulent friendship. He modernized the Prussian bureaucracy and civil service and promoted religious toleration throughout his realm. Frederick is buried at his favorite residence, Sanssouci in Potsdam. He was succeeded by his nephew, Frederick William II of Prussia.

Berlin, "The old Fritz"

To take full advantage of Flickr, you should use a JavaScript-enabled browser and
install the latest version of the Macromedia Flash Player.

View @Stefanie's map

Taken in Berlin, Bundesland Berlin (See more photos here)

52°30' 59" N, 13°22' 40" E

.... an actor in front of brandenburg gate, playing the old fritz...

many things here in berlin are named after the old fritz - my favorite panini sandwich at the st oberholz cafe for example....

here are some fun berlin facts from the fat tire bike tour berlin website:
---

The capital of Germany again as of 1999, Berlin is Germany’s largest city with about 3.5 million inhabitants.
Berlin (the city-state) covers 891 square kilometers (about 556 square miles), making it:
- Almost 9 times as large as Paris
- One-third the size of Rhode Island
The municipal area has more trees than Paris, more bridges than Venice, 3 airports, 3 opera houses, 2 zoos, 150 concert halls and theaters, and 170+ museums and exhibitions.
There’s more recent construction in Berlin than any other European city (and second only to Shanghai worldwide). But, Berlin’s debt level is around €47 billion (more than €13,000 per Berlin inhabitant).
Elections in 2001 put the Social Democrats in power, and made Klaus Wowereit, Germany’s first openly gay leading politician, mayor.

Did you know?

As flaunted on all the tabloids, it was over a 5th floor balcony railing at the Hotel Adlon (at the Pariser Platz, and seen on the tour) that Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the hysterical crowd.
There is annual tax of €150 to own a dog in Berlin.
Kaufhaus Des Westens (KaDeWe) – is Europe’s largest department store.

BERLIN IN THE 20TH CENTURY

The Berlin Airlift lasted from June 1948 to September 1949. A total of 278,228 flights were flown carrying 2,326,406 tons of supplies! There were 70 British and American casualties.
The Berlin Wall was 106km (66 miles) long and 3.6m (11.86 ft) high with 302 watchtowers. 152 people were killed trying to escape.
In John F. Kennedy’s famous speech at the Berlin Wall, he stated "Ich bin ein Berliner." Literally, this translates to "I am a jelly donut" because a ‘Berliner’ is a type of jelly donut. Grammatically speaking, he should have said "Ich bin Berliner", but hey, he still got the point across that "I am [like] a citizen of Berlin."
In just the final days of WWII, over 100,000 Berliners lost their lives to the Russians in the fight for Berlin.

Did you know?

Hitler brought 7,000 prostitutes back to Berlin for the 1936 Summer Olympics, reminiscent of decadent 1920s Berlin.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin during World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
The Trabant, the official sedan of East Germany, had a body largely made of resin-based plastic, was initially designed to be a three-wheeled motorbike, and could only go 0 – 60 mph (100 kmph) in 21 seconds.

BERLIN PRIOR TO THE 20TH CENTURY

The Hohenzollern dynasty ruled Prussia (with Berlin as its capital) for about 500 years (1414-1919).
Berlin lost more than a third of its population during the Thirty Year’s War (1618 – 1648).
When Berlin became the capital of unified Germany in 1871, the population boomed and by 1880 the average inhabitants per building lot rose to 60. Averages in Paris were only 20 and in London only 8.

Did you know?

Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm I (1713 - 1740) had a fetish for tall men and a personal army of giant troops. He also spent 80% of tax revenue building the mighty Prussian army, which his son, Friedrich the Great, used extensively.
Friedrich II banned imported coffee to boost sales of the local alternative: beer.

i forgot to mention the last time, that when we left for europe, we happened to leave for the airport with extra time, so we could get our pour la france coffee before take off ...since we were on an airline that did not provide food -
well, that was the only reason we ended up making our flight -
just looking at the rocky mountain news today, that picture fit our day exactly -

Kasia Broussalian © The Rocky

Travelers stand in lines before the main security checkpoint at Denver International Airport last week.
---------
the security line wrapped all the way around baggage claim! it was unbelievable.
so here are some denver newspaper flying tips

--

Summer flying tips

IN GENERAL

• Print your boarding pass at home or work, then skip the check-in line. Several airlines also have separate areas for people who already have printed a boarding pass but need to check bags.
• Check Web sites such as Flightstats.com and FlyDenver.com to see security wait times, airport delays and your flight's status before leaving home.

SECURITY

• Check out tsa.gov to find the latest security policies and view a list of items that are prohibited in carry-on bags.
• Remove extraneous metal objects (e.g., keys, coins) from your pockets.

PARKING

• Allow extra time to find parking, as the economy lots and garages near DIA's main terminal often fill up.
• If you're picking someone up, use DIA's short-term parking lots in the "arrivals" area.

a few more general observations for the week...:

…things are a little smaller here… closer together…streets narrower… portions….hahaha
a very good friend visited last year and wanted to order a soup and a salad, but the waitress talked her out of it, telling her the portions would be too big for her - she was not amused 
here, at a coffeeshop, you can buy individual cigarettes for 25 cents a piece!

things also tend to be a little slower… overall. not always though.
there are wide streets, for example the bismarck strasse (8 lanes) - where the pedestrian traffic lights are so short, you have to galop across the street, if you don't want to end up getting stuck in the middle…

fly robin fly...

2007-05-31T12:49:00.000+02:00

do you guys remember that song...?... the 80s maybe... somebody mentioned it the other day on tv, and since that time it comes to me during non-sleep jetlag times, at around 3am. you may not know this piece of trivia, but the whole song consists only of 6 words:

fly robin fly, up up to the sky ~

that is a lot of repetitions when your mind goes crazy in the middle of the night....

our flight to frankfurt was relatively uneventful, except that i believe i have funky kid-karma. if there is a screaming kid anywhere around, it will end up on the seat behind me. the parents actually managed to sleep. the kid has probably worn them out. i on the other hand was wide awake and watching the same movie over and over again: the pursuit of happiness! ha....

door to door 33 hours later we arrived in nuernberg - and my soccer team had just won the cup! the first time in 40 years!! we landed with perfect timing in the middle of a few 100,000 people celebrating. it was great!

---

in the mean time it has already been 2 weeks... sorry for not writing until now, but since we were spending a lot of time with my parents and did not have our own computer in nuernberg - writing time was limited to emails and work related computer time...
we also had some difficulties in another communication field - the cell phone. i forgot my charger in denver and it took a while to get a new one. the nice man at the 'handy store' (germans call their cell phones handy....;-) ordered the wrong piece, since my german apparently is not very good anymore, since it was my mistake. when we finally got the charger and headed north to berlin, i had thrown it into one of the bags and could not find it anymore.
ve was sure that i had left it at a reststop, so i had almost resigned myself to getting a new phone (maybe one that match the particular charger we had just bought) and we were leaving to go to dinner... with the door in hand ... we heard the familiar cell phone ring 'rumble'. somewhere in the apartment was a phone!! it was my mom who saved the day... hahaha

it is sunday and everything is closed in germany. we are sitting at one of our favorite cafes in downtown berlin 'st oberholz' at the rosenthaler platz. hot, 30 degrees celsius the mood is mellow. a group of americans in their 20s are giggling and talking loudly. maybe they just saw their first smart?? hahaha

ok - from now on i will give more regular updates on life here.
and i deccided to have a new ending to my blogs. most of you know my political views and a friend has told me in one of our heated discussions (slightly wine induced..) that i have never said anything positive about the states....
well - here is my positive american statement of the day:
'there is less bureaucracy then in most places i have lived or visited...'

ciao ciao - until soon

berlin info

2007-05-17T19:56:00.000+02:00

Districts of Berlin

Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf is a political construct of the two former Berlin districts Charlottenburg and Wilmersdorf. Charlottenburg is the heart of West Berlin and stretches between the KuDamm (jointly shared with Wilmersdorf) and the castle Charlottenburg in the north. Wilmersdorf has always been an upper class inner city villa area. It is quiter but has nice restaurants and cafes.

Charlottenburg is divided in two areas. The southern part of the district is one of the wealthier areas of Berlin with posh flats and apartments. The northern part is a nice living area. Charlottenburg was the center of the former West Berlin and was really good built-up after the war. Today it's mostly an upmarket shopping and living area for city slickers. Charlottenburg has a big wealthy russian scene, so sometimes people talk about Charlottograd.

U-Bahn

For the central bus station the U-and S-Bahnstation Kaiserdamm / Messe ZOB ICC is the best station
If you want ot ride the bus along the whole Ku'Damm best jump of U-Bahn Wittenbergplatz oder S-Bahn Halensee (east to west or vv)
For the Schloss (castle) Charlottenburg the U-Bahn Richard-Wagner-Platz is best
U-and S-Bahn station Bahnhof Zoo is best for the Zoo or a short walk to the Ku'Damm. Friends of the partner city Los Angelas can walk right to the Los Angeles friendship place
Kudamm is best reached by U-Bahnstation Kurfürstendamm or Wittenbergplatz

S-Bahn

To reach the former Center of West-Berlin get of at S-Bahn-Station "Bahnhof Zoo"
To explore Charlottenburg you can get of at the S-Bahn-Station "Savignyplatz". Around Savignyplatz you will find cafes, bars, restaurants, fast-food, book- and fashion-shops.

getting ready to go....

2007-04-24T18:05:00.000+02:00

Leif Parson

wir sind berliner......

2007-04-07T22:11:00.000+02:00

Berlin

The essay following here was prepared by passports, the student travel company. For a selection of overseas tour itineraries visiting Germany, click here

Ich bin ein Berliner

A city of three and a half million awaits you — native Berliners with their dark sense of humor, "fugitives" from cities all over Germany, and the communities of Turkish, Spanish, American, French, Polish and so many other nationalities and languages that contribute to the unique flavor of this city.

Berlin lies across two rivers, the Spree and the Havel. Its buildings and monuments represent layers of history stretching back to the early years of the Middle Ages; its humble beginnings as a trading station, its growth to regional prominence as seat of the Hohenzollern Dynasty, its ascent to the status of capital under Bismarck, and disastrous tumble from grace during the Third Reich. Despite 70% destruction during the Second World War, most older buildings have been rebuilt, and since the unification of the two Germanys in 1990 and the decision to relocate the German Government to Berlin, the building work goes on.

It's a green city with countless parks, canals and spaces to unwind in, but if you want culture, it's there for the taking. Museums, art galleries, theatres, opera and concerts are all competing for your attention. And, at the same time, it's an exciting, busy, cosmopolitan city — every type of international cuisine is on offer. You can watch the world go by from a table at a pavement cafe, or retreat to the intimacy of restaurants like Pasternak in Prenzlauer Berg or Abendmahl in Kreuzberg.

A BIT OF HISTORY

Within just a few centuries, Berlin — today the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany — grew from a fishing village and trading center at a crossing point on the Spree River, into the Prussian capital city and royal residence. The town of Colln was first mentioned in a document from 1237. It later merged with its sister city Berlin, profited from Prussia's rise to the rank of a great power, and after the founding of the German Empire in 1871 became the political, industrial, scientific, academic and cultural center of Germany.

In 1933, the National Socialists put an end to this. It's here that the destructive war and holocaust were planned and implemented. At the same time, however, Berlin was also a place of resistance to the Nazi regime. In 1939, the German capital had a population of more than 4 million. World War II, unleashed by the National Socialists, had catastrophic consequences for Berlin, resulting in almost total destruction of the city center and its industrial districts.

After the war, the city was divided into four sectors by the victorious allied powers. In 1948-49, the Soviet Union imposed an 11-month blockade of the land routes to Berlin in an attempt to bring the people of West Berlin to their knees and force the Western Allies to withdraw from the city. This attempt was thwarted by an airlift launched by the Western Allies. To stem the mass exodus of people from the Deutsche Demokratische Republic (GDR), the GDR communist leadership began construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961.

It fell in 1989 when the communist block collapsed. On October 3, 1990, the unification of Germany was consummated in Berlin with a state ceremony. Since then, united Berlin is once again the capital of unified Germany.

7 more weeks

2007-04-04T23:26:00.000+02:00

swinging into our other life....another 7 weeks to go ~

Foto: ddp

...arm aber sexy!

2006-11-09T17:39:00.000+01:00

Hauptstadt der Unterschicht

Macht Florida-Rolf Urlaub an der Spree? Voller Missgunst schaut Westdeutschland auf das faule und vergnügungssüchtige Berlin. Darin steckt vor allem eines: Der Neid der Abgehetzten auf die Abgehängten. Eine Polemik von Jens Jessen

Die schadenfrohe Fratze wird noch lange in Erinnerung bleiben, mit der die westdeutsche Provinz auf die Niederlage Berlins vor dem Verfassungsgericht reagierte. Kein Geld für die parasitäre Hauptstadt! Das war eine gute Nachricht. Kein Geld für den Hochstapler, der Bonn die Regierung weggenommen hat. Kein Geld für den Bruder Leichtfuß, der sich im Glanze von Opern, von Museen, Theatern, Debattenzirkeln sonnt, die er nicht bezahlen kann. Kein Geld für den Kuppler, der Ost und West zusammenführt, die nicht zusammengehören. Kein Geld für den schillernden Verführer der Jugend, der die Töchter in die Boheme der glücklichen Arbeitslosen lockt. Arm, aber sexy hat der Bursche sich genannt. Das war ein Fehler. Es sind immer die größten Fehler, die der Wahrheit am nächsten kommen. Arm, aber sexy ist genau die Charakterisierung eines Schwiegersohns, der ehrbare Bürger in ihren Albträumen heimsucht.

Berlin ist der Florida-Rolf unter den deutschen Bundesländern. Erinnern wir uns noch an die Gestalt, mit der die Bild-Zeitung seinerzeit die Hartz-Reform propagierte? Frech und faul und braun gebrannt: Das war Florida-Rolf, wie er sich mit deutscher Sozialhilfe ein schönes Leben unter Palmen machte. Die wirkliche Geschichte der wirklichen Person ist längst vergessen. Aber das Muster des arbeitslosen Anspruchsdenkens hat sich eingeprägt. Genau nach diesem Muster schien der westdeutschen Provinz Berlins Auftritt vor dem Verfassungsgericht zu geschehen. Die Stadt, die von unserem über den Länderfinanzausgleich perfide umverteilten Steuergeld lebt. Die nicht arbeitet, aber klagt und heimlich prasst. Die den Wohlstand anderer will und selbst keinen Ehrgeiz entwickelt. Faul und unerziehbar wie die Unterschicht, deren empörende Existenz wir gerade entdecken.

Und in der Tat musste man nicht einmal genau hinhören, um in dem hasserfüllten Geifern gegen Berlin die gleichen Stichworte zu finden, mit denen die Debatte um die neue Unterschicht geführt wird. Der Stadt geht es noch viel zu gut! Allein für Kultur gibt sie mehr aus als Hamburg. Wie kann es angehen, dass ein Armer sich mehr gönnt als ein Reicher? Selbst das florierende Baden-Württemberg muss, um den Staatshaushalt zu sanieren, kostbare Handschriften verkaufen. Und Berlin will drei Opernhäuser behalten? Hält sich die Stadt am Ende für was Besseres?

Nichts könnte für den neiderfüllten Egalitarismus, der die Raison d’être der alten Bundesrepublik war, anstößiger sein als dieser Verdacht. Deshalb war die bloße Idee einer Hauptstadt schon anstößig und konnte nur kompensiert werden durch die Erbärmlichkeit Bonns als Regierungssitz. Wer seinerzeit aus den Residenzen München oder Stuttgart nach Bonn fuhr, konnte eigentlich nur lachen; und dieses Lachen tat sehr gut. Dagegen Berlin, das schon durch schiere Größe und die Erinnerung an Preußen ein Gefühl von Demütigung erzeugte – das tat nicht gut. Und nun will dieses Berlin, anstatt sich mit dem Hauptstadtstatus zu bescheiden, ausgerechnet dafür noch einen Ausgleich? Auf die Frechheit noch eine Prämie für Faulheit obendrauf? In der Haltung der Stadt steckt für die südwestdeutsche Perspektive etwas empörend Enthemmtes; nicht unähnlich der Lebensweise der Langzeitarbeitslosen, die es sich mit Flasch Bier vor dem Fernseher bequem machen.

&amp;amp;lt;A TARGET="_blank" HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/click%3Bh=v8/3498/3/0/%2a/m%3B55462863%3B0-0%3B0%3B12648978%3B4307-300/250%3B18868082/18885977/1%3B%3B%7Esscs%3D%3fhttp://gratis.literaturen.de/praemie2.php"&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;IMG SRC="http://zeus.zeit.de/banner/hausbanner/xtra_literaturen/literaturen_200x300.gif" BORDER=0&amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;lt;/A&amp;amp;gt;

Der tragische Irrtum Berlins besteht darin, zu glauben, die deutschen Länder hätten gerne eine Hauptstadt, auf die sie stolz sein können. Ebendas wollen die deutschen Länder nicht. Sie wollen ein Berlin, für das sie sich mit Vergnügen schämen können. Sie wollen durch ein leuchtendes Berlin auf keinen Fall an ein Phänomen erinnert werden, das sich am besten in die paradoxe Formulierung vom bestraften Fleiß kleiden lässt. Denn nichts charakterisiert den Aufstieg Westdeutschlands nach dem Krieg besser als ein rastloser Fleiß, auf den der Lohn in Form von Glanz und Glamour nicht folgte. Was hat das »Schaffe, schaffe, Häusle baue« den Schwaben eingetragen? Ist Stuttgart die Stadt, auf die die Welt blickt? Was gibt es in Düsseldorf außer Boutiquen und elenden Sechziger-Jahre-Quartieren, die halbe Monatsgehälter eines Besserverdienenden kosten?

Diesen Artikel können Sie auch als mp3 hören, klicken Sie auf das Bild. Weitere ZEIT-Artikel zum Hören finden Sie unter www.zeit.de/hoeren

Das ist das große dunkle Geheimnis am Grunde Westdeutschlands: dass die gewaltigen entbehrungsreichen Anstrengungen einen Niederschlag in echter Lebensqualität, in Würde, Eleganz, in Leichtigkeit und Stolz niemals fanden. Das ist buchstäblich gemeint. Im Innern des Wohlstands herrscht kein Überfluss. In den reichen Städten Hamburg oder Düsseldorf oder München regiert der Mangel, der Mangel an Wohnraum zuerst, aber auch schon der Mangel an bezahlbaren Vergnügungen. Ein Lehrer in Berlin wohnt schöner und kommt leichter an Opernkarten als ein Unternehmensberater in Frankfurt.

Nicht dass dem gemeinen Westdeutschen dies völlig durchsichtig wäre. Aber er ahnt wohl dunkel, dass Berlin die empörende Anschauung dafür bieten könnte, dass Leistung sich am Ende doch nicht lohnt. Dass der Überfluss nicht im Innern des Wohlstandes, sondern der relativen Armut zu Hause sein könnte. Im Moment dieses Gedankens spürt er meist einen stechenden Schmerz an der Brust. Der Schmerz kommt von der Brieftasche, aus der er die Euro umverteilter Steuergelder gen Berlin flattern fühlt. Seiner Steuergelder!

Lange wird in Erinnerung bleiben, wie im Jahre 16 der Wiedervereinigung noch einmal das neiderfüllte Grundgefühl der alten Bundesrepublik sich gegen Berlin machtvoll entlud, als sei nichts geschehen, nichts gelernt worden, als habe keine Ernüchterung der Globalisierung einen Funken von sozialer Solidarität entzünden können. Denn Berlin ist in diesem Zusammenhang nur eine Metapher. Es geht nicht um Berlin, es geht um die Verlierer der Gesellschaft. Es geht um die Hand der eben noch Bessergestellten, die sich um die Brieftasche krampft. Deutschland hat, das ist wahr, in Zeiten des Wohlstands das Teilen gelernt. Es schickt sich aber an, in den anbrechenden Zeiten der Knappheit augenblicks wieder das Teilen zu verlernen.

Das geht freilich nicht von heute auf morgen. Noch ist der Anspruch der Armen auf staatliche Hilfe nicht bestritten (sie muss nur kleiner werden). Noch wollen die reichen Bundesländer die ärmeren unterstützen (es muss sich aber eingrenzen lassen). Entsolidarisierung ist etwas, das genauso gelernt werden will wie Solidarisierung. Dazu gehört als Erstes, den Gedanken der unverschuldeten Not aus den Köpfen zu kriegen. Deswegen ist es so wichtig, von Arbeitslosen recht oft zu sagen, dass sie gar keine Arbeit wollten. Deswegen müssen die Sparanstrengungen Berlins als kaum gemäßigte Verschwendung betrachtet werden. Vor allem aber müssen Armut und Not als Formen des Versagens, als natürliche Früchte mangelnden Ehrgeizes und Fleißes ausgegeben werden.

Die Individualisierung von Erfolg und Niederlage ist der wichtigste Baustein zur neuen Mitleidlosigkeit. Der Gedanke an Ungerechtigkeiten, die außerhalb persönlicher Verantwortung liegen, wenn nicht gar im System des Kapitalismus, gilt bestenfalls als antiquiert. Lieber spricht man von mangelnden Leistungsanreizen. Übrigens soll auch der globalisierte Wettbewerb nur zur äußeren Rechtfertigung von Massenentlassungen dienen. Der gekündigte Einzelne muss lernen, die Verantwortung für seine Überflüssigkeit bei sich selbst zu suchen.

Es ist überaus erhellend, die Unterschichtendebatte mit der Rede von der neuen Bürgerlichkeit zusammenzubringen. Wer die Wortführer näher betrachtet, wird unweigerlich auf die hässliche Figur des Aufsteigers stoßen, der die Tür hinter sich zuschlagen will. Nichts ist irreführender als die Bemerkung, den Unterschichten fehle es an Ehrgeiz. Vielmehr ist es dieser Ehrgeiz, der den Verteilungskampf in einer bedrohten Mittelschicht anheizen könnte und deshalb absichtsvoll entmutigt oder wenigstens beschwörend hinweggeredet werden muss.

Meistgelesene Artikel des Tages

Beliebteste Galerien

Es liegt in der Natur des Aufsteigers, dass jeder der Letzte gewesen sein möchte, der es geschafft hat; darum muss die Leiter für alle etwa Folgenden gekappt werden. Darum war es so ärgerlich für die Frankfurter, Kölner, Hannoveraner, dass hinter ihnen als Nachzügler noch Berlin das Treppchen hinaufkeuchen wollte. Jetzt steht die Stadt kippelig auf der vorletzten Stufe, hat sich aber so geschickt an den Fersen der Drüberstehenden festgekrallt, dass es schwer wird, sie wieder nach unten zu bekommen. Das Ärgerlichste aber ist: Die Stadt hat ihre Lage begriffen, sie rüttelt nicht mehr, sie hat sich gesetzt, eine Mundharmonika aus der Tasche gezogen und brummt sich ein Liedchen darauf. Den Statusverteidigern gellt es in den Ohren; wer aber nichts zu verlieren hat, hört es recht gerne.

Die Situation ist deshalb so misslich, weil Berlin in seiner unverdrossenen und gut gelaunten Drängelei den Schwindel auffliegen lässt, dass alles so, wie es ist, auch recht und gerecht verteilt ist. Dass der Tüchtige oben und der Untüchtige unten und der faule Spaßmacher nur auf Zeit geduldet ist. Denn das ist der schlichte Grundgedanke des neuen Marktradikalismus – nichts als ein ins Ökonomische übersetzter Darwinismus. Den Starken belohnt der Erfolg, den Schwachen enttarnt der Misserfolg. Alles andere wäre gegen die Natur.

Die Frage ist freilich, ob wir tatsächlich in einer Gesellschaft leben wollen, die sich diese Natur als Gesetz zu Eigen machen und zweitausend Jahre christlicher Mitleidsethik in die Tonne treten will. Diese Frage ist es, die Berlin aufwirft – und recht kindlich und vorlaut, wie wir zugeben müssen, in die Runde der Erwachsenen hineinquakt. Die Onkel und Tanten hören es ungern, können aber auch nicht weghören, weil auch sie heimlich sehr erschöpft und unglücklich sind und dunkel noch wissen: Der Mensch lebt nicht vom Brot allein.

Zum Thema
Sozial abgehängt - Wächst eine neue Unterschicht in Deutschland heran? Ein Schwerpunkt zur aktuellen Debatte »

... the quirkiest news items to come out of Germany

2006-11-06T23:03:00.000+01:00

From the Fringe | 02.11.2006

The Best of "From the Fringe"

From animal antics and wacky inventions to celebrity gaffes and cultural idiosyncrasies -- DW-WORLD.DE's "From the Fringe" brings you news on weird and wonderful happenings from all over Germany.

From the power of David Hasselhoff to obsessively obedient drivers, from valuable poop to boob jobs on the run, we've gathered a selection of our "From the Fringe" stories so you'll always be up to date on the quirkiest news items to come out of Germany.

DW-WORLD

WWW-Links

Externer Link: Germany Light

Never want to miss another "From the Fringe" on DW-WORLD? Then click here to subscribe to our weekly "Germany Light" newsletter that brings you a selection of quirky stories.

the way the world lives

2006-09-23T23:45:00.000+02:00

Ueber den Daechern der ewigen Stadt
Rom...
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,aml1/immobilien/mietenvermieten/artikel/681/86595/

global travelers...

2006-09-04T22:18:00.000+02:00

here is an interesting ny times series, written by a guy keeping a travel diary, since he started in may.... called 'the frugal traveler sees the world'

www.nytimes.com/2006/09/03/travel/03frugaltraveler.html?8dpc

we on the other hand have arrived back in the united states - and it happends to be an american day for the workers... it is kind of ironic, that most of the workers seem to be working on this day - but we enjoyed some good food at our local greek restaurant - and we are trying to adjust again to being here.
hope to see you all (all you all that live in the rocky mountain region) very soon, because you - our friends - are the main reason that we are here from time to time.
the other reason is work! so it fits that we came back today....

so for the next few months, berlin talk is turning into global talk!

cheers

Antiwar vigil in Berlin against Israeli aggression

2006-08-07T14:32:00.000+02:00

By our correspondent
7 August 2006

Use this version to print | Send this link by email | Email the author

Last Friday evening the Palestinian community and other Arab organizations in Berlin called a vigil in the centre of West Berlin attended by over 500 people to protest the Israeli assault on Lebanon.

Moments of silence were held in the course of the protest and candles were lit to commemorate the many civilian victims of the Israeli bombardment and invasion of southern Lebanon and Gaza. Intended as a vigil, the protest had more the character of a demonstration due to the number of participants.

At the beginning of the vigil the organizers read out the extensive restrictions and bans on political activity which have been demanded by the local and police authorities. Arab organizations were prevented from carrying out a demonstration on Saturday in the German capital, and restrictions imposed by the police for the Friday protest included the banning of any symbols associated with, or indicating sympathy for, the Hezbollah movement or photos of its leading members—this although Hezbollah is not a prohibited organization in Germany. In addition, protesters were banned from displaying any propaganda or placards that could be interpreted by the police as “calling into question the right of existence of the Israeli state.”

At a mass demonstration a week earlier some participants had waved Hezbollah flags, displayed portraits of the Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and shouted slogans of support. Immediately after the demonstration a campaign was initiated by leading politicians in Berlin and supported by broad layers of the press to criminalize and demonize the Hezbollah movement, which has won broad sympathy from layers of the Arab masses due to its resistance to the Israeli invasion.

The leading Christian Democratic Union (CDU) politician in Berlin, Friedbert Pflüger, denounced those who supported the demonstration against Israeli war crimes as “preachers of hate” and “supporters of terror.” Pflüger was then immediately backed by Berlin Interior Senator Ehrhard Körting (Social Democratic Party, SPD). Körting’s department immediately declared its intent to conduct a criminal investigation into the activities of the demonstrators. Körting also denounced refugees from southern Lebanon forced to flee Israeli bombs and rockets as “potential Hezbollah terrorists,” whom he would refused to allow into Berlin.

In fact, the investigation launched by Körting yielded no results. Unable to proceed against demonstrators and organizers of the antiwar protests, Körting instead forbade any demonstration of sympathy for Hezbollah, which he equated with being equivalent to “the demand for the destruction of the state of Israel.” Police were in close attendance at the vigil and evidently prepared to move against the demonstration should any pretext have arisen.

Most of the participants at Friday’s vigil came from throughout the Arab world, in particular from Lebanon and Palestine. In many cases entire families, including children, joined the protest. German sympathizers were also in attendance as well as a group of US citizens who expressed their solidarity.

Protesters carried shocking photos of the damage done in southern Lebanon and horrific pictures of the dead and injured. A third of all victims of the Israeli bombardments are young children. Speeches to the demonstration pointed out that what was at stake in the fighting was the existence of Lebanon as an independent entity. Having initially concentrated its violence on the predominantly Shiite communities in southern Lebanon, the Israeli air force has recently been increasingly bombarding suburbs of Beirut and other areas inhabited mainly by Sunni and Christian communities.

While anger and anguish over the Israeli massacres was widespread, participants at the vigil remained disciplined and peaceful, intent on communicating their concerns to the public at large. Brief reports of the vigil in German newspapers noted that the demonstrators had abided by the restrictions laid down by the police and the bans on political propaganda stipulated by Senator Körting. Journalists were evidently unable to find any basis for the kind of witch-hunting campaign against protesters that they had carried out the previous week.

The protest was striking for the fact that none of Germany’s leading political parties were in attendance, including parties associated with the political left. Neither the Left Party—Party of Democratic Socialism, which sits in coalition with Körting in the Berlin Senate, nor the Election Alternative group (WASG)— which is standing its own independent candidates in Berlin in elections in September, although nationally seeking to fuse with the Left Party—took part in the protest in any shape or form.

Members of the German Socialist Equality Party (Partei für Soziale Gleichheit—PSG) spoke with many demonstrators who expressed their dismay over the unwillingness of European governments to undertake any action against the criminal activity of Israel, which was being firmly backed by the US. In particular, younger demonstrators were very interested to discuss with the PSG members on an international socialist perspective.

The PSG members distributed copies of the statement by the US Socialist Equality Party “What way forward in the struggle against war?” which were warmly received by many protesters. Christoph Vandreier, PSG candidate for the Berlin state elections in September, then addressed the rally by microphone and expressed the solidarity of the PSG with those taking part in the protest against Israeli-US aggression. Vandrier quoted extensively from the SEP statement and received substantial applause from the gathering when he cited from the end of the statement:

“If the tragedies that befell humanity in the 1930s—global war and fascism—are not to be repeated on an even more horrific scale, the working class must advance its own alternative. It is not enough to feel revulsion for the killing that is being carried out every day in Iraq and Lebanon and the lies that are told to justify it. Neither is it enough to protest these crimes. A new political force must be created that can put a stop to them.

“This can be accomplished only through the building of new political movement of the working class, independent of the existing big business parties and based on the perspective of uniting working people internationally—including the Arab and Jewish workers of the Middle East—in a common struggle for the socialist transformation of society.”

the war of Israel

2006-08-07T13:16:00.000+02:00

our friend Will wrote:

This is my first time here. All looks wonderful but...

I am responding to e-mail you sent regarding Qana.

The legacy of living on this big island called the USA is one of isolation disallowing the possibility of most here sharing the suffering felt by others around the world at times like this. Here we deal with traffic, boredom, debt and unpleasant neighbors. That seems to be the best we can do. Some might say, "What about 9/11?" Sorry, the one-shot deal of 9/11 doesn't count when discussing history, the big picture and all the misery the USA has dispensed around the world over the years. We as a nation cause and have caused the deepest pain elsewhere and are numb to the fact. The propaganda machine here sees to that.

Using 9/11 as perpetual cover ("war on terror") for brutal acts is like Israel using the excuse of The Holocaust for their ongoing dispensation of terror in the region. Woe is us, the powerful with the guns and money. If we want war we can have war. If we wanted peace and justice we could have peace and justice. The powerful call the shots. As long as the USA and Israel continue with the "Woe is us" BS, we will have what you see now: killing for the sake of it. These countries need to get over it, grow up and lead in a positive direction.

6:29 PM

entering the next decade

2006-07-20T14:12:00.000+02:00

.... well, i made it into the next decade....
with a little help form my friends -
it was the best birthday month ever --
it started with a surprise trip to paris for a few days
and then continued with a few surprise friends and family - so the celebration continued until now (and who is to say that it is over now, right?)

here a few snapshots

the foschinis in paris...

2006-07-13T12:34:00.000+02:00

is anyone watching the world cup??

2006-06-19T13:01:00.000+02:00

the weather has not been that great, which is kind of a bummer - but what better to do then to watch 3 soccer games a day in different little tapas bars, sangria in hand...
we are in portugal at the moment, visiting our old hang outs - and doing all the things we have been missing: eating grilled sardines, drinking very cold vinho verde and taking walks on the beach (a little more sun would be nice, but oh well...)
the rain brings mosquitos and they focus on me - but i have started walking every where with a spray bottle of skin so soft and a giant citronella candle.
my mom would say: it goes! (translated directly from german: not great, but ok)

watching the brazil game yesterday at a beach bar in nazare.... i had a little snack that i have seen other people eating around us, called 'perceves'. has anyone heard of this before (brazilians out there?...) - apparently it is little fishy stuff that grows on the rocks, and you crack it open and suck out the little squirmy looking thing. taste very salty and takes a little getting used to - but apparently very popular at the bars with beer... hahaha

so, speaking of world cup - is anyone watching the us? i realize it is not as much fun to get up for 7 am games..... and there has been some controversy here after the coach's remarks that the game against italy will be 'war' - which apparently with 3 red cards it was a little bit like war.
but according to this 'spiegel' article, the fans are there:
------

Articles Blogs Photo Galleries
June 18, 2006
Print Send this article Feedback
USA FANS FLOOD GERMANYWho Says Americans Don't Like Football?By Andreas Tzortzis in KaiserslauternThe entire soccer world dismisses the Americans as knowing nothing about the Beautiful Game. But USA fans have flooded Germany in record numbers for this year's World Cup. And have made huge sacrifices to do so.
For anyone looking for proof that America does not share the world's unbridled love for soccer, consider the case of Marshall Schnabel. When the Bostonian asked for extended weeks off to support the US soccer team in the 2006 World Cup, his employer turned him down.
So he did what he did the last time a boss refused to let him go to a World Cup. He quit.
PHOTO GALLERY: USA FANS STORM GERMANY

Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (9 Photos). "I had to be here," he said, jammed into a train car carrying US fans from Mannheim to Kaiserslautern for Saturday night's match against Italy.
The veteran of every World Cup since the US hosted the tournament in 1994 arrived in Frankfurt Saturday morning. At his hotel, he changed into an Elvis costume, an outfit he first debuted to the delight of fans at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.
"Last time around, there were three Elvises," he said, touching his black wig styled in the King's coif and adjusting his gold-rimmed aviator glasses.
WORLD CUP
World Cup at a glance: Interactive match schedule, host cities, players and coaches SPIEGEL ONLINE special: Games, Goals, GloryThe chances there are more this time have increased with the sheer numbers of US soccer fans who have traveled to Germany to watch the World Cup. US soccer officials estimate that there are more than 20,000 tickets in the hands of US fans, more than the past two World Cups, in France and South Korea/Japan, combined. Whether at the Czech Republic match last Monday or Saturday's bloody and spectacular 1-1 draw with Italy, American fans painted in the red white and blue, have announced themselves with loud chants of "U-S-A! U-S-A!" and scores of stars and stripes banners.
"The fan support today really motivated us and really lifted us up," defender Oguchi Onyewu said after the game. "It didn't feel like we were a man down, and I think if you watched the game, it didn't look like we were a man down."
Germany's central location and reputation as a favorite holiday destination is one reason more have come. But the sacrifices made by many and the passion visible on the streets of Gelsenkirchen and Kaiserslautern also suggest something else to long-time soccer fans.
"We're coming around," said Mike Winter, swilling a beer outside a pub in Gelsenkirchen last Monday. "There are a lot of new fans who are very energized and are spending a lot of money to come to Europe to watch them plan. I saw families on the train here. It's starting to grow."
NEWSLETTER
Sign up for Spiegel Online's daily newsletter and get the best of Der Spiegel's and Spiegel Online's international coverage in your In-Box everyday.
The growing awareness comes despite the fact that there are likely few developed countries around the world where it is more difficult to support soccer than in America. Thousands of dollars are paid to cable companies each month for the privilege of watching European and South American league games on TV. The time difference to Europe makes those games bleary-eyed early morning affairs, with barely a mention in the local and national papers and no one around afterwards to talk shop with.
Add to that the ridicule coming their way from sports talk shows and a professional league without the pace and skill of Europe and South America, and it's not hard to see why the sport continues to have a tough time attracting attention. The exception continues to be the World Cup, which US soccer officials say has received unprecedented attention from both the media and advertising communities this time around.
"I have tons of friends who aren't soccer fans. But around this time they get it. This comes around and they want to watch," said Nitin Rangraj, a bonds trader from New York sharing the table with Schnabel's Elvis.
Some fans spent three years saving up vacation time to come to Germany for the tournament. Others put money away for just as long. Rangraj made a deal with his wife when he married her in 2001.
"I sort of wrote it into the pre-nup agreement than I'm allowed to attend World Cups," he said, without cracking a smile.
For a country with such a small reputation in the soccer world, the effort and presence of US fans has not gone unnoticed. Last night, several Italians said they were overwhelmed at numbers of US supporters in the crowd.
"I'm surprised there are so many American fans," said Maria Della Vedova, emerging from a group photo with a bunch of Americans dressed up as superheroes. "There are many more than I thought. And there are so many who are coming from America to watch."
Though Della Vedova was willing to acknowledge that soccer seems to be growing in America, Carlo Restano of Parma said that size doesn't always matter.
"We are less tonight," he said, looking around at the mobs of US fans walking up the Betzenberg in Kaiserslautern to the FIFA World Cup Stadium. "But we are more fun. And we make more noise."
And they're more resourceful. Whereas American fans have not been able to grow their song and chant repertoire passed the tried but tired chants of "U-S-A!," Italy's rich soccer tradition offers a variety of songs to support the "Squadra Azzuri."
"We're still learning how to be fans," said Cortland Armour, an Orange County resident who turned down a job and delayed college graduation to be in Germany.
Given the display by Americans so far during the World Cup, it's probably just a matter of time before they channel all that enthusiasm into creating some clever songs. For a sport that is only really entering its second decade in a crowded sports field, plenty of time remains. Or, as Schnabel cum Elvis said as he prepared to throw himself into the crowd of red, white and blue on the Kaiserslautern train station platform:
"This is just the beginning."

die kult ente

2006-05-24T12:23:00.000+02:00

photo art

2006-05-22T12:10:00.000+02:00

living in foschini - burg

2006-05-22T12:07:00.000+02:00

workers day

2006-04-28T12:11:00.000+02:00

may day

happy may 1st and labor day in the rest of the world....
we have been gone now for exactly one month - and this is really the first time we get to sit down and 'blog'....
not that we have not been writing and taking photos... and walking around and exploring and meeting people and ovserving cultural differences -
but to sit down and process is another thing.
plus - getting to a point where we feel like we got enough done for now, that we do not have to work on our condo or contact people here or work on some things in denver - that, well that took about 1 month!
in the mean time we had our place painted, ordered the 'schrank', so we soon will be able to find ALL of our clothes, visited my parents in nuernberg, celebrated our 5 year anniversary at the castle, and found a very fun wireless cafe that i adopted as my office!
today is a holiday in the 'old world' (meaning 'aou'.... anywhere outside the united states) and we have joined protest marchers -
i was going to add some photos... but it keeps on giving me error messages -
so photos will come later
happy workers day
happy cinco de mayo
happy white asparagus eating time

xm

and here they are --

Bon Voyage Foschinis!

2006-03-29T20:53:00.000+02:00

Martina and Valter are off to Berlin again for a few months starting tomorrow. Let's wish them a schöne Reise und viel Erfolg und Bier! Please visit the Thermen Bad for me near Europa Center / Zoologischer Garten. It's the best!!

http://www.thermen-berlin.de/

where we have been - so far - 2006

2006-03-10T18:27:00.000+01:00

Berlin Talk

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

...... a campari....please

2006-02-16T20:24:00.000+01:00

Sophie Scholl

2006-02-16T16:48:00.000+01:00

Berlin Talk

Last Days
Humanizing a German underground resistance heroine
by Leslie Camhi
February 14th, 2006 12:39 PM

A jury of her fears: Jentsch
photo: Zeitgeist Films
Sophie Scholl: The Final Days
Directed by Marc Rothemund
Zeitgeist, opens February 17, Film Forum
Making a film about Sophie Scholl, the 21-year-old Munich University student who, together with her 24-year-old brother Hans, mounted the most famous underground resistance network in Nazi Germany, is a challenging proposition. First there's the difficulty of humanizing a figure whose heroism, in contemporary Germany at least, is legendary. Then there's the problem of her character's evolution, when her commitment to her ideals appears never to have wavered, even for an instant. Finally, most viewers going into the film will know that Hans and Sophie Scholl, together with other members of their group, the White Rose, were imprisoned by the Gestapo and executed. A life so tragically and quickly extinguished presents maudlin temptations, but director Marc Rothemund ably resists them. His gripping, moving film focuses on a breathtakingly brief five-day period: the Scholls' arrest for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets on university grounds, their interrogation, their show trial before an infamous Nazi "blood judge," and their murder by state authorities. Percy Adlon's 1982 feature Five Last Days explored similar territory, but Rothemund's film benefits from historical material that's since come to light, in particular the transcript of Sophie's grueling Gestapo examination.
Village Voice Online Store

Julia Jentsch gives a brilliantly nuanced performance as Sophie, a fun-loving girl who likes marmalade and Schubert but also happens to be a rare beacon of conscience in totalitarianism's dark night. Rothemund and screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer suggest the possible sources of her moral strength, in the example of her father, a conscientious objector, and in her searching intellect and profound love for Hans (Fabian Hinrichs), which bears the seeds of her broader empathy for others.

But don't expect dramatic transformations: Her character's consistency, some 60 years later, is still unnerving. Flawlessly composed under scrutiny, she even convinces her Gestapo interrogator, Robert Mohr (Alexander Held), of her innocence. Confronted with her brother's signed confession, she relents, but still hammers away at Mohr—she and Hans were the only members of the White Rose, she insists, and Mohr has the wrong worldview, not them. (Is it too perverse to hear, in her insistence on receiving "the same punishment as my brother," a touch of sibling rivalry?) This was a woman who, just before her sentencing, rose in the dock and fearlessly told her Nazi judges, "You'll soon be standing where I am now."

the Cheny incident

2006-02-14T17:10:00.000+01:00

the Cheney incident
here is anexcerpt from another blog, about the newest government incident - you can read more at http://direland.typepad.com/

QUESTIONS ABOUT THE VEEP WHO COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN DICK CHENEY'S HUNTING "ACCIDENT"? (Updated)

A smart mid-western friend who has a lot of quail-hunting experience writes:
Quail The entire Cheney hunting accident story stinks. The delay in announcing it isCheney_2 suspicious, obviously. I'll bet Cheney had a few beers in him, but I'm not sure that is illegal in Texas (drinking and hunting is illegal in most states, but I couldn't find out if that includes Texas).
But a few other points that may be worth noting:
1. The news reports say the accident happened "around 5:30 pm" on Saturday. In Texas, quail can be hunted until 30 minutes after sunset. Sunset on Saturday, in Corpus Christi, was at 6:18, which means they were legal until 6:48. The "around" is suspicious.
Harry_whittington 2. The news reports say that after Whittington (left) had gotten off his shot and went looking for his bird, Cheney and the other hunter went to another spot where they saw a covey of quail. Texas quail might be different from Iowa quail, but in Iowa when a shotgun goes off, every quail within earshot flutters away. The story doesn't make sense.
3. None of the stories have commented on the fact that they were "road hunting", or hunting from a car. That is just about the lowest kind of low-rent, dishonorable kind of hunting there is (the phrase "road hunting" is often used synonymously with "poaching"). When I was growing up in Iowa, I went pheasant or quail hunting on scores of occasions with my Dad and others. We never would have hunted from a vehicle and it was an insult to even suggest that someone might. It was considered dangerous and declasse, as it was too great an advantage for the hunter to be "fair". It most states, including Texas, it is also illegal: Shotgun

"It is unlawful to hunt from or by means of motor-driven vehicles and land conveyances or aircraft of any kind except paraplegics and single or double amputees of legs may hunt from stationary motor-driven vehicles or land conveyances."
However, Texas exempts private property owners from the prohibi

Tolerance Toward Intolerance

2006-02-09T18:28:00.000+01:00

Tolerance Toward Intolerance

By Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff
Tuesday, February 7, 2006; Page A21

Last week the publication I work for, the German newsweekly Die Zeit, printed one of the controversial caricatures of the prophet Muhammad. It was the right thing to do.

When the cartoons were first published in Denmark in September, nobody in Germany took notice. Had our publication been offered the drawings at that point, in all likelihood we would have declined to print them. At least one of them seems to equate Islam with radical Islamism. That is exactly the direction nobody wants the debate about fundamentalism to take -- even though the very nature of a political cartoon is overstatement. We would not have printed the caricature out of a sense of moderation and respect for the Muslim minority in our country. News people make judgments about taste all the time. We do not show sexually explicit pictures or body parts after a terrorist attack. We try to keep racism and anti-Semitism out of the paper. Freedom of the press comes with a responsibility.

Who's Blogging?
Read what bloggers are saying about this article.

* The Moderate Voice - -
* woweezowee
* blogs4God | A semi-definitive list of Christians who blog.

Full List of Blogs (98 links) »

Most Blogged About Articles
On washingtonpost.com | On the web

But the criteria change when material that is seen as offensive becomes newsworthy. That's why we saw bodies falling out of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. That's why we saw the pictures from Abu Ghraib. On such issues we print what we usually wouldn't. The very nature of the discourse is to find parameters of what is culturally acceptable. How many times have we seen Janet Jackson's breast in the course of a discussion of the limits of family entertainment? How many times have we printed material that Jews might consider offensive in an attempt to define the extent of anti-Semitism? It seems odd that most U.S. papers patronize their readers by withholding cartoons that the whole world talks about. To publish does not mean to endorse. Context matters.

It's worth remembering that the controversy started out as a well-meaning attempt to write a children's book about the life of the prophet Muhammad. The book was designed to promote religious tolerance. But the author encountered the consequences of religious hatred when he looked for an illustrator. He could not find one. Denmark's artists seemed to fear for their lives. In turning down the job they mentioned the fate of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh, murdered by an Islamic fundamentalist for harshly criticizing fundamentalism.

When this episode percolated to the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, the paper's cultural editor commissioned the caricatures. He wanted to see whether cartoonists would self-censor their work for fear of violence from Muslim radicals. Still, the European media ignored this story in a small Scandinavian country. It took months, a boycott of Danish products in the Arab world and the intervention of such champions of religious freedom as the governments of Syria, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Libya (all of which withdrew their ambassadors from Copenhagen) for some European papers to reconsider their stance on the cartoons. By last week it was not an obscure topic anymore but front-page news. And it wasn't about religious sensibilities as much as about free speech. That's when the cartoons started to show up in papers all over Europe.

Much of the U.S. reporting about the fracas made it appear as if Europeans just don't get it -- again. They struggle with immigration. They struggle with religion. They struggle with respect for minorities. And in the end they find their cities burning, as evidenced in Paris. Bill Clinton even detected an "anti-Islamic prejudice" and equated it with a previous "anti-Semitic prejudice."

The former president has turned the argument upside down. In this jihad over humor, tolerance is disdained by people who demand it of others. The authoritarian governments that claim to speak on behalf of Europe's supposedly oppressed Muslim minorities practice systematic repression against their own religious minorities. They have radicalized what was at first a difficult question. Now they are asking not for respect but for submission. They want non-Muslims in Europe to live by Muslim rules. Does Bill Clinton want to counsel tolerance toward intolerance?

On Friday the State Department found it appropriate to intervene. It blasted the publication of the cartoons as unacceptable incitement to religious hatred. It is a peculiar moment when the government of the United States, which likes to see itself as the home of free speech, suggests to European journalists what not to print.

The writer is Washington bureau chief of the German newsweekly Die Zeit.

beginning of 2006... 7 weeks to go

2006-02-05T23:54:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the first Foschini Blog

We are getting ready to 'set sail' again in a few weeks, for another Euro-Adventure. As most of you know, we now have a little place in Berlin, but we have not actually stayed there yet....
Some of our friends have kept it warm and cozy for us;-)
-- hey Heidi!!!
We will keep you updated on adventures and regualar daily life -
political issues, travel stories and photos - and we invite you to do the same.

2006-02-05T17:42:00.000+01:00

coffee talk

Lightning storm over Berlin

cafe im nu

cafe leonhard

cafe gallop

the philosophy of coffee shops...

winter solstice .....

bach on sunday morning

art.of living | in Europe

berlin to dublin...a quick 2 hour hop on ryanair

13 Affordable Trips to Europe

New York Artists Escape to Germany

PHOTO GALLERY: THE NY ARTISTS LIVING IN BERLIN EXILE

chocolocation..........

nbg fotos

Euro Travels

castle celebrations

autumn in the city

almost in Berlin.... writing from Nuernberg

the wall has fallen, but socialism lives on....

matjes & more ...

start spreading the news...

news from the capitol……

...i am at the bakery...

der alte fritz

Berlin, "The old Fritz"

fly robin fly...

berlin info

U-Bahn

S-Bahn

getting ready to go....

wir sind berliner......

7 more weeks

...arm aber sexy!

Hauptstadt der Unterschicht

... the quirkiest news items to come out of Germany

From the Fringe | 02.11.2006

The Best of "From the Fringe"

DW-WORLD

WWW-Links

the way the world lives

global travelers...

Antiwar vigil in Berlin against Israeli aggression

By our correspondent7 August 2006

the war of Israel

entering the next decade

the foschinis in paris...

is anyone watching the world cup??

die kult ente

photo art

living in foschini - burg

workers day

Bon Voyage Foschinis!

where we have been - so far - 2006

...... a campari....please

Sophie Scholl

the Cheny incident

Tolerance Toward Intolerance

beginning of 2006... 7 weeks to go

By our correspondent
7 August 2006