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a berlin blog |
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Friday, December 31, 2004 Sumatra Devastation RoundupFrom Der Spiegel:Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl [remember him?] was vacationing here and said the area reminded him of Germany after World War II. From The Jakarta Post: Riza, a 26-year-old clothes vendor, said that at about 8 a.m. she was enjoying the holiday in bed when suddenly she saw walls of water, mud, rocks and branches rushing into the neighborhood. People were screaming and running. Riza, who was living in a rented house near the coast in Banda Aceh with three friends, dashed up to the second floor of a neighbor's house and stood on top of a cupboard.posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:08 AM (0) comments Wednesday, December 29, 2004 A Test for SusiloIndonesia's new president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, is apparently in Sumatra to lead the relief effort himself. In theory that's a good thing. But the Acehnese tip of Sumatra, which took not just the tsunami but also the massive quake, happens to be a rebellious province, like East Timor until 1998. The rebels most likely hate the symbolism of a president and former general bivouacking in their backyard, especially when the vice-president, back in Jakarta, says things like this:For the time being Aceh doesn't have a local government, so the national government has to take over.Jakarta has kept even reporters out of Aceh since Indonesian soldiers closed down on the rebels last year. Which means that Susilo wasn't keen on letting in the Red Cross or (good heavens) the UN; so for a couple of days the flow of relief has been slow. Now it sounds like restrictions have eased, but not before Susilo himself set up shop just outside Aceh, in Medan. What seems like altruism may also be shrewd paternalism -- and the Indonesian government can be a smothering parent. ALSO: In the same Sydney Morning Herald piece you'll learn that the earthquake may have shifted tectonic plates near Sumatra by about 98 feet, wiping out three atolls that made up Indonesia's maritime border in the west. Which would have a surprising effect: A diplomatic source said the disappearance of the atolls would probably reduce Indonesia's territorial limits.posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:38 PM (0) comments Tuesday, December 28, 2004 Just to Top Off the YearTen meters, in theory, is a surfable wave, but in the Indian Ocean it was also enough to submerge some of the Maldives and pile the bodies of surprised sunbathers on the shores of Sumatra, Indonesia, where Acehnese rebels have put their civil war on hold, "saying [they] did not want to add to the chaos and confusion."UPDATE: The Asia Foundation has a philanthropic site called Give2Asia, which just set up a tsunami fund. I know a few people from the Asia Foundation in Jakarta; it's a solid organization. And of course there's always the Red Cross. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 2:11 AM (0) comments Sunday, December 26, 2004 Things I'll Miss About Ocean BeachThird in a series: 
I'm pretty sure Berlin will lack a Seahorse House. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 11:16 PM (0) comments Saturday, December 25, 2004 Why Am I Leaving California?Hermosa Beach is one of the first cities in America -- one of the first cities in the world -- to bring wi-fi access to the masses. Someone figured out that offering the whole town free wireless would not be ruinously more expensive than wiring Hermosa Beach City Hall. ($4500 a month, as opposed to I think $1500.) A popular plan to do it is now making its way, painfully, through the local institutions. But a trial system has been up since last summer, so here I am, on a palm-shaded bench by the Hermosa Pier, blogging from my laptop, having coffee, girlwatching.The lifestyle has its downsides. In the coffee shop, a cashier kept asking if I wanted a frequent-buyer card. The guy wouldn't take a simple "no" -- I nearly had to beat him down with a stick. Same thing happened when I went to the bank. (Would you like to open a new account with us, Mr. Moore? Do you need a loan?) Even on Christmas Eve, you can't conduct a simple transaction in Los Angeles without listening to some idiot sales pitch. But this outdoor wireless -- posted by Michael Scott Moore | 12:03 AM (0) comments Wednesday, December 22, 2004 Defending Liberal SocietyA mob of Sikhs in Birmingham, England, have forced a play to close by stoning the theater. I think it's shameful, but the Times of India puts the problem in a peculiar way:The play's closure has prompted anguished debate over the merits of allowing British minority communities free rein in policing the arts.What about the British police arresting a violent mob? Or maybe defending a theater is somehow out of the question. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:22 PM (0) comments See, even Kofi Annan thinks so"No doubt that this has been a particularly difficult year, and I am relieved that this annus horribilis is coming to an end," Mr. Annan said.posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:18 AM (0) comments Cartoon SkeletonsThe more sharp-eyed among you have noticed I have a thing for skeleton cartoons. Here's an artist who draws cartoon skeletons:
Thanks to The Aesthetic. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:55 AM (1) comments Monday, December 20, 2004 Actually, noI am not okay. People keep asking me that. I am not okay. This weekend has been an emotional cesspool, except for a show at the Swedish-American Hall in San Francisco by my friend Sean Hayes. He's a neo-folk singer from North Carolina who used to appear with only a guitar, but now he also leads a tight, professional band, with drums and banjo and electric organ and even a jazz trumpet. On Saturday he introduced a pretty new ballad called "You Fucked Me Right Up." Sean has such a delicate way of putting things. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:39 PM (0) commentsSunday, December 19, 2004 GoogleizedHey look, Too Much of Nothing is a searchable text on Google. In all the hype over digitizing rare, out-of-copyright books from the Harvard library, no one bothered to mention that workers in Mountain View have already scanned my novel for public inspection. In fact, no one even mentioned it to me.The project's still in beta mode, so there are a few glitches. Google's software reads nefesh as "nefesb," and someone has mistaken the book for an "espionage thriller." That's what I get for mentioning the CIA. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:40 PM (0) comments Saturday, December 18, 2004 What I Was Trying to Do... with Too Much of Nothing was take the Gary Webb story out of inner-city L.A. and suggest how it also touched kids in the suburbs. The ocean of cocaine lapping into Los Angeles in the 1980s not only fueled a crack epidemic; some of it would have trickled into outlying towns resembling Calaveras Beach.None of my critics have pointed that out, so I figured I should. Anyway, Matt Welch has a fine rant about Webb and his treatment by pampered celebrity journalists like Howard Kurtz: If there is one mainstream-journalism trait that I truly despise, and won't ever forgive, it's the knee-jerk condemnation of reporters -- especially freelancers and other castoffs -- who conduct lengthy investigations showing that the government did something worse than polite society can currently contemplate.And here's a page with useful links for anyone who has no idea what I'm babbling about. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:54 PM (0) comments Friday, December 17, 2004 The Death of Gary WebbMarc Cooper eulogizes the man who broke the Contra-cocaine scandal in The San Jose Mercury News eight years ago, won an award from his fellow reporters, then found his editorial support yanked after a campaign of intimidation by the LA Times, which was embarrassed by the scoop and pissy about it right to the end. His good name was lacerated not just by the Times and other embarrassed major newspapers but by a withering layer of cover fire laid down by the right-wing legions of the self-convinced ("The CIA, truck with drug dealers? Nonsense!"); but the CIA's own internal investigation has vindicated the outline of his story. Webb's work has inspired at least one novel, which I shamefully never sent him. He committed suicide last weekend with his father's .38. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:22 AM (0) commentsDolphin Altruism?If even half of this story is true, it's amazing. There's no one else around to confirm what this New Zealand lifeguard claims -- that a pod of dolphins saved him and three teenage girls from a white shark by circling them in a sort of screening maneuver, for 40 minutes -- but it makes great copy and even better radio. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:17 AM (0) commentsWednesday, December 15, 2004 Things I'll Miss About Ocean BeachSecond in a series: 
Not that Berlin will lack cafés. But a surf-themed beachside joint with wireless access, under this particular angle of light, will be hard to come by. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:21 PM (0) comments Tuesday, December 14, 2004 Democracy Perfected... the larger the mob, the harder the test. In small areas, before small electorates, the first-rate man occasionally fights his way through, carrying even the mob with him by force of his personality. But when the field is nationwide ... the force of personality cannot so readily make itself felt, then all the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre ... The presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people ... On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a moron."Thanks to Paul Moor posted by Michael Scott Moore | 4:10 AM (0) comments Saturday, December 11, 2004 These G-ddamn Activist JudgesLast month, at the Shearith Israel synagogue in Manhattan, Antonin Scalia said the U.S. ought to quit dithering and fess up to being a religious nation, not just in spirit but in law. We have God on our money, God in our pledge of allegiance; why should we be so persnickety about separating church and state? "I suggest that our jurisprudence should comport with our actions," Scalia said, according to this AP report. Remember that he's a candidate for Chief Justice in case William Rehnquist is found to have been unexpectedly dead all this time.In the synagogue that is home to America's oldest Jewish congregation, [Scalia] noted that in Europe, religion-neutral leaders almost never publicly use the word "God."The only way to explain such trashy and tendentious arguments from a man professionally devoted to both reason and the "intent of the framers" is, well, activism. Because one country in Europe over the last hundred years where the leaders did not avoid the word God was Nazi Germany. This piece by Thom Hartmann is worth reading for the review of James Madison's ideas. Hartmann rubbishes Scalia's fantasy that the founding fathers, who believed in God, somehow didn't mean to keep church and state religiously apart. "We are teaching the world the great truth," wrote Madison in 1822, "that Governments do better without kings and nobles than with them. The merit will be doubled by the other lesson: the Religion flourishes in greater purity without, than with the aid of Government." I don't care if our money or pledge of allegiance mentions God or not. But if an activist judge wants to cite such piddling details to pry open a hole in our Constitution, and "morph" it (his own word) into something new, then the word God on our penny might just have to go. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:57 PM (0) comments Thursday, December 09, 2004 Oh, good ideaAlabama state representative Gerald Allen wants to cut state funding for books and plays that "promote homosexuality," writes the (Manchester) Guardian:What should we do with US classics like Cat on a Hot Tin Roof or The Color Purple? "Dig a hole," Gerald Allen recommends, "and dump them in it."Ha, ha, ha. Now, admittedly a seat in the Alabama state legislature is not a very high office, and you'd expect to find a joker like Allen in any congregation of Deep-Southern tubthumpers. But he's a fine example of the sort of idiot emboldened by the moral-turnout myth from last month, and for some reason he has the President's ear. UPDATE: The Blue Lemur quotes a much better piece on this foolishness, and points out that under Allen's bill, Lynne Cheney's lesbian historical romance would also get pulled from a hypothetical college library and dumped into a hole. That's Lynne Cheney, by the way -- the Vice President's wife, not his daughter. The book's out of print; old copies are hideously expensive. But it has a devoted following. One remark from the Amazon peanut gallery: "The female wankers of America need this book. Bring it back." Thanks to Waterbones. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:13 PM (0) comments Things I'll Miss About Ocean Beach... after I move to Berlin. First in a series:
Surfing near a windmill. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:41 AM (0) comments Wednesday, December 08, 2004 Recount OhioAt Radio Free Mike most of us are grimly resigned to another four years of "President Bush," but this piece in the New York Times reminds me that a few serious challenges to the final Ohio tally are still out there. They should be heeded. For a taste of why both Ohio and (yes) Florida smell so bad, there's this by a pollster at Zogby. In Ohio, writes Colin Shea,a number of precincts had voter turnout well above the national average: in fact, turnout was well over 100% of registered voters, and in several cases well above the total number of people who have lived in the precinct in the last century or so.Read the whole thing. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:40 AM (0) comments Monday, December 06, 2004 Berlin MitteI just landed a Berlin apartment about one block from this corner of Sophienstraße and Große Hamburger Straße. The link takes you to a website run by the enthusiastic people at "Sophieneck," a local restaurant. They've posted photos from around the neighborhood, which is old and traditionally Jewish.Menu items from Sophieneck: Berliner potato soup with baked wiener-sausage - 3,40 €Oh, mama. I may get fat. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:42 AM (0) comments Speaking of Media Elites 2Last night I sat with Lisa Drostova, critic for the East Bay Express, at some café tables onstage at a Berkeley revival of Tom Stoppard's Travesties. Tables and chairs on one end of the cluttered stage represented the Meierei Bar, Tristan Tzara's old watering hole in Zürich. A sign invited audience members to sit there. I asked if critics could sit there, too -- "or would that be too dada?" -- and with the artistic director's nervous permission Lisa and I got to be part of the most enjoyable play I remember reading in high school."The actors are gonna recognize you, though," said Patrick, the artistic director. "Is that OK?" I said. "I guess they'll recognize both of you," he said. "Yeah, but they like me," said Lisa. She's nicer than I am. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 2:31 AM (0) comments Saturday, December 04, 2004 Speaking of Media ElitesI never blog about my job, but this is worth mentioning. On Wednesday I went to a show by a certain a capella group that sings four-part harmonies in drag. The play was called Oy Vey in a Manger. Sounds dubious, I know, but the queens do good parodies of holiday songs, "God Rest Ye Femmy Lesbians" and that kind of thing. Anyway, late in the show they started some audience-participation silliness; they embarrassed one straight-looking guy by pulling him onstage for a lap dance. The song was awful, so I wrote that in my notebook. Then they sang something worse, called "Anal Warts," and I made a note about that. Then a drag queen was beside me. She grabbed my hand, took the pen and notebook, and made me sway to the song. I can sway with the best of them, but losing control of the notebook was nervewracking. As a rule, you don't want cast members reading your notes. When we finished swaying, the queen picked up the notebook, and didn't hand it back. Instead, she jotted a note of her own: "Every moment was marvelous!" Funny, right? But what had I written? Hopefully something noncommittal about the Filipino queen's dress? No: "Anal Warts (Edelweiss) also an unfortunate outgrowth." Well, hey. Grab a critic's notebook during a performance, risk psychological harm. But I liked the rest of the show. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:02 PM (0) comments Friday, December 03, 2004 Just a Regular Guy, FolksBrian Williams, who lives in Connecticut, earns a nice living in double-breasted suits on TV, and may be the soul of what people mean by the words Manhattan media elite, "is a NASCAR dad who considers pizza night with the kids sacred," according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and lots of other papers this week. The Intelligencer points out that Williams has run stories lately on NBC Nightly News about, say, Billy Graham, or a soldier recovering from war wounds, as part of a well-crafted image campaign before Tom Brokaw's stately exit. Williams has to appeal to the heartland, see, or his ratings will fall. The thing is, the Intelligencer and USA Today and most of the other papers on this story just hire themselves out as court flatterers and image-crafters by regurgitating NBC's pap about Williams. If it all sounds to you suspiciously like a presidential campaign, not journalism, then you can go ahead and leave the country, pardner. I just might. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 5:08 PM (0) commentsWednesday, December 01, 2004 Coming of Age"Blog" will be a printed entry in next year's Merriam-Webster Dictionary. The presidential campaign made it one of the most looked-up words on Merriam-Webster's site in 2004. And bloggers in Iran have joined the ranks of poets in Cuba, novelists in Indonesia, and interfering writers everywhere as jailed dissidents. Who says it's been a grim year? posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:52 PM (0) commentsThe Pearl S. Buck of Kneejerk Anti-Americanism?Does anyone else think it's weird that the author of Bambiland, apparently a scathing play about America and the Iraq war, has never even been to the United States? God knows there's plenty to criticize about the war, and I never expected the Nobel Committee to ignore it. But Elfriede Jelinek was a member of the Communist Party right up until the Soviet Union fell (and funds dried up) in 1991. Just the title Bambiland is a cliché. In Stockholm they're shaking their jowls and saying the literature prize isn't politically-motivated. But is it anything else, by now? posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:25 AM (0) comments | |
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