Watching an interview from the Leipzip book fair where you can see the interviewee (looking uncomfortable and somewhat distanced right from the start) getting increasingly uncooperative with each ensueing question. Not good? Right? Even worse if the interviewer happens to be a professional journalist possessing an academic degree in German ( Read more... )

More often than not, I find myself reading two different books parallel at the same time. When I'm not on holiday and thus out of my usual rhythms,  there are daytime books, nighttime books, and only very few which fall in between. The respective categories don't seem to have anything to do with a book's genre, content or narrative complexity. King ( Read more... )

*looks around, carefully dusts off her journal, then decides to kick off the new journalling year in classic bullet point style*

What I'm currently reading:

• Hans Fallada: Ein Mann will nach oben
• Heirich Geiselberger, Tobias Moorstedt (Red.): Big Data, Das Neue Versprechen der Allwissenheit, Suhrkamp 2013 (a collection of academic and non-academic ( Read more... )

Simply because it's so much fun to watch. Completely without words, so do you don't need any German to enjoy! :)

I guess, if there were such a thing as a special heaven for the artistically inclined, the fathers and mothers of Dadaism would sit on their own nonsensical little cloud and smile gently down.

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This entry was originally posted at ( Read more... )

After the article published in Die Zeit a couple of weeks ago, I had a certain feeling it would  only be a matter of time until other major newspapers would pick up on Kaeptn Peng. But a rather longish, favourable review regarding a left-leaning songwriter/ rapper and band  published in the feuilleton of the F.A.Z., which is one of Germany's most ( Read more... )

Well, you know how it goes... ;)

Books I bought but have yet to read:

• Hilary Mantel: Wolf Hall
• Sven Regener: Herr Lehman

Recent cultural events that I went to:

• A rather intriguing and audience friendly staging of Wagner's Parsifal in Cologne, additional fun for Star Wars fans included
• Kaeptn Peng und die Tentakel von Delphi in Cologne which was quite ( Read more... )

This afternoon, when I went out with Wesley, the Spaniel there were thick, heavy snowflakes falling down from the skies. If the weather forecast is right, Easter will be considerably warmer than last Christmas. Oh, parents with children of egg-seeking age, I really don't envy you at the moment.

But now for something more cheerful. I've been meaning ( Read more... )

Two anonymous online support groups that should exist, but unfortunately don't. At least not to my knowledge...

1. Christmas Phobics Anonymous. Not that I dislike Christmas per se. Also, I actually look forward to many of the things that usually come with the event. Card writing,  buying and giving presents, Christmas fairs, watching Christmas-y ( Read more... )

Only just about twenty-five people at special premiere screening of a film at a small arthouse cinema (with both the movie's director and parts of the cast present!) should be bound to indicate something, shouldn't it?

Please feel welcome to choose freely from the following more or less likely options below. More than just one correct answer is ( Read more... )

A rather normal Tuesday afternoon at Casa Bimo, roughly about 5 o'clock. BimoDad comes in, they both have coffee and apple pie, chatting about this and that. After a while BimoDad gets up from the coffee table, walks over to Bimo's TV set and grabs a S1 box set of Boston Legal lying on top of the DVD player. The following dialog ensues ( Read more... )