a berlin blog
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a berlin blog |
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Saturday, November 27, 2004 No Dark Sarcasm In the ClassroomThe London teenagers who sang the chorus on Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" back in 1979 have sued for royalties. The band only paid their school at the time (for the use of a small labor force?); the kids were never compensated. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:35 PM (0) commentsMonday, November 22, 2004 Postcard From America
Yes, I know he's all over the web, but I like him. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 3:17 AM (0) comments Friday, November 19, 2004 Don't tell me you're busy. It's the Monday after Thanksgiving.More details on the novel event next week:Monday, November 29 Mrs. Dalloway's 2904 College Ave., Berkeley 7p.m. Actor David Mendelsohn reads from Mike's novel Too Much of Nothing, and Lorrie Holt reads from Colette's Green Wheat, in a new translation by Zack Rogow. Both books are coming-of-age novels. Zack and Mike will both be in attendance to sign books and all that kind of thing. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:51 PM (0) comments Wednesday, November 17, 2004 "Jews"James Wolcott wonders why we don't just go ahead and re-name the United States "Israel West." American soldiers apparently call the enemy "hajis" (instead of gooks or krauts), which might sound offensive; but you know what the hajis call our jarheads? Come on, guess. I heard this from a soldier friend, who's volunteered for a tour in Iraq. Go ahead. Wild guess. No idea? Come on. Not even Afghanistan in the 1980s -- crucible for all the current trouble -- was invaded, in the Arab mind, by "Jews." This should be a nice long nightmare. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:37 AM (0) commentsTuesday, November 16, 2004 Man Sets Self on FireReally? He walked up to a White House guard hut, handed someone a manila envelope, which seems to have contained an ignitable liquid, but wound up burning himself -- and now the official word is that he "set himself on fire." As if that were the protest.UPDATE: This piece makes it sound like he really did plan to set himself on fire: Mohamed Alanssi, who had recently discussed his work as an informant in interviews with The Washington Post, told the newspaper by faxed letter and telephone on Monday he intended to "burn my body at unexpected place," the newspaper reported.Hmm. Something still smells off. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 12:46 AM (0) comments Saturday, November 13, 2004 Why is this such a grim year?Iris Chang, who pissed off the Japanese with a history book called The Rape of Nanking, died in high noir style here last weekend:Police found her body in a car on a road south of San Francisco and said she died from a single bullet to the head.Suicide, apparently. She was clinically depressed. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 12:32 AM (0) comments Wednesday, November 10, 2004 Oh, AllahHere's the short film Theo Van Gogh was murdered for. To me it was unexpected -- not crude and shrill but stylish and sensual; also a monologue, not a documentary. Imagine a Christian terrorist carving up a director in the street for something like this. At least in America our fanatics come out with pickets and megaphones. (Or bombs, in the case of abortion clinics.) (Or senators.) But Muslims who kill have the idea they're just defending Islam; to a Muslim radical this film is nothing less than a new crusade.The travelogue I'm writing on Indonesia has brought me around to the idea that democracy, for all its virtues, is the wrong tonic for terrorism. Not that any Islamic nation shouldn't vote if it wants to. But Muslims who want shariah see democracy exactly the way they see this film -- as an insult to God's wisdom, by the west -- which is why so few of them will get around anytime soon to thanking us for their freedom. A stable democracy is just a big target, something to keep the assassins busy. And the idea that stability and wealth in a Muslim nation might reduce the number of terrorists is pretty much bunk. Radical Islam, like most radical ideologies, tends to be a middle-class phenomenon. I thought neoconservatives knew that. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:16 AM (0) comments Sunday, November 07, 2004 Exile
In January I move to Berlin. My wife Jen and I are divorcing, bewilderingly, so I think I'll take my German passport and switch continents. (The move will of course be blogged.) Before I leave San Francisco there'll be one more book-event: A store called Mrs. Dalloway's just opened in Berkeley, and a local actor will read a chapter from Too Much of Nothing at the kick-off party. What fun. Details later, but keep Monday November 29 free if you want to see the Last North American Engagement in support of the novel; I'll be there to sign copies and answer questions. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:59 PM (0) comments Usage NoteThe Economist likes to trot out a line on the word "liberal" that's always, always worth revisiting, and a short piece in this week's issue is required reading for anyone looking at this blog. The magazine points out that "liberal" works as an insult in both Europe and the United States. In America it means John Kerry. In Europe, and especially France, it implies George Bush. In the good old Enlightenment days it meant anyone who spoke up "for individual rights and freedoms, and challenged over-mighty government and other forms of power." Modern politics, of course, has split into social liberalism and economic or free-market liberalism. I'm not sure Bush qualifies in either category; but anyway The Economist wants to reclaim the word from both Karl Rove and the French.We'll quote at length, in case the link fails: When you understand that the tradition it springs from has changed the world so much for the better in the past two and a half centuries, you might have expected all sides to be claiming the label for their own exclusive use.posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:53 PM (0) comments Saturday, November 06, 2004 Culture WarDavid Brooks punctures the whole idea of a "moral/ethical" turnout for Bush:Much of the misinterpretation of this election derives from a poorly worded question in the exit polls. When asked about the issue that most influenced their vote, voters were given the option of saying "moral values." But that phrase can mean anything - or nothing. Who doesn't vote on moral values? He argues the election showed a drift to the right in wartime, which is both obvious and more sane than Bill Bennett's "culture war." He also gets in a kick at certain people who can never imagine they're wrong: If you want to understand why Democrats keep losing elections, just listen to some coastal and university town liberals talk about how conformist and intolerant people in Red America are. It makes you wonder: why is it that people who are completely closed-minded talk endlessly about how open-minded they are? That's actually well-aimed. Of course it ignores the fierce and gleeful intolerance of Bush voters who feel a bit wimpy for living in Blue America, and it falls into a broad, fuzzy pattern that Matt Welch identifies in this hilarious post about coastal elites in big-time media coming down on other (Democratic) coastal elites. Brooks skips around the worst of that nonsense. But a lot of writers don't, which is why you should also read Welch's other post about "the Angry Enfranchised Majority, who will hunt down Communists everywhere they don't actually exist, proclaim crude and sweeping generalizations at odds with their own personal experience, and make marvelous asses out of themselves in the process." posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:11 PM (0) comments Friday, November 05, 2004 Golden StateRepublicans rallied churches across the land, and people flooded out to vote against gay marriage, stem-cell research, abortion, and liberals in general as a deluded breed of evil ideologues. This is the conventional wisdom, that the "evangelical vote" -- about 4 million people who stayed home in 2000 because of old stories about George Bush's drunk driving -- swung the election. Pundits everywhere quote an LA Times exit poll from Tuesday showing that Bush voters turned out for "moral/ethical" reasons, more than terrorism, and declare that a culture war is now on in the United States. I'm inclined to agree. But have a look at this note on the poll:The Los Angeles Times Poll interviewed 5,154 voters who cast ballots in the general election Tuesday as they exited 136 polling places across the nation including 3,333 California voters as they exited 50 polling places across the state. Most of the voters polled came from California. Not the Bible Belt, people. Something's wrong. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 11:26 PM (0) comments Thursday, November 04, 2004 The Globalized ElectionBBC wonders if the Guardian helped swing Ohio to Bush, with its wacky pen-pal idea. The paper's web site put concerned British people in touch with Ohio citizens, in order to stump for Kerry on behalf of the civilized world. Predictable response from an Ohio voter: "Some arrogant Brit telling us why to not vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies."Still, it's interesting. America is now so powerful that everyone felt caught up in this election. Le Monde, Bild-Zeitung, and The Economist all endorsed a candidate (from Paris, Berlin, and London). The average American citizen is now, to the rest of the world, as a congressman is to the average American citizen -- a voting member, someone worth writing to with grave concerns. Which gives Hank Trout from Booneville, Ohio, say, a huge amount of power, without diminishing his fine old American sense of getting victimized by yellow-toothed Brits. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:11 PM (0) comments Third Annual Radio Free Mike Headline AwardIndonesia Congratulates Americans for Elections Success. -- Jakarta PostThe hideous apparition below is an oversized puppet of Rangda, the witch, standing in a pavilion in Ubud, Bali. Our editor's writing a travelogue on Indonesia. Early blogging on it starts down here. Just follow the links, or scroll: The entries are all connected, but it's a bit like one of those choose-your-own ending books. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:33 PM (0) comments Wednesday, November 03, 2004 Bleaaaggh
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Monday, November 01, 2004 Los Días de los Muertos
Today and tomorrow make up Mexico's Days of the Dead, which we commemorate every year at Radio Free Mike for obvious reasons. This year we could make cheap political jokes about Osama bin Laden coming back to haunt the campaign, but we'd rather not. Just get out there and deny George Bush a second life. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:51 PM (0) comments | |
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