The computer whisperer
My dear laptop, a trusty companion that went across the Atlantic with me and helped me get my work done far away from home, is on the blink. First it started freezing on me, and then it wouldn’t start. The trouble seems to be the graphics card (thanks, Alex, for figuring it out). And not only MacBook Pros seem to […]
9/11: The falling man
I’ve just finished Don DeLillo’s “Falling Man”, an alternately moving and bleak description of relationships after the attacks on the Twin Towers, focussing on a troubled marriage. When Lianne sees her estranged husband Keith, a survivor of Tower 1, come in the door covered in blood and helps him clean up, she realizes that most of […]
Pretenders: Brass in Pocket
Listening to Radiohead’s “Creep” and the singer’s wish to be “special” kept reminding me of Brass in Pocket by the Pretenders, their breakthrough hit of 1979. Bandleader Chrissie Hynde said that she was initially reluctant to have the song released: “When we recorded the song I wasn’t very happy with it and told my producer […]
Overboard
This is a slightly embarrassing story, but the reactions it’s been getting tell me: You have to make a fool of yourself and tell everyone about it from time to time. So here goes. Down in Croatia with ABC Wassersport, on board the Taiga, a 37 foot Bavaria sailboat, I managed to go overboard.
Joshua Harris: Inflatable sculpture
Harris makes moving street art from plastic shopping bags and trash bags which he attaches to the subway exhaust shafts in New York. Watch the ephemeral creatures come to life and die as they inflate and deflate, controlled by the winds generated by the passing trains:
Job description: Community organizer
The SZ yesterday translated “community organizer” as “Sozialarbeiter”, i.e. a social worker. Sorry, but that’s wrong.
Love in a Backward World
This five-minute film tells the story of a couple who spot each other on a crowded street and fall in love. Although everyone else in the world around them moves backwards, they move forward, and so find each other. For Angela & Ulrich.
