a berlin blog
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a berlin blog |
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Friday, October 28, 2005 In Over His Head There's a legendary chocolate shop down the street in Prenzlauer Berg, where you can buy the finest Mexican or Indonesian bars of chocolate with 75% cacao, or 89%, or 99% if you're some kind of fundamentalist; and next door there's an attached cafe, where legend has it you can buy THE BEST cup of hot chocolate you'll ever taste IN YOUR LIFE, so I wandered over last week to try some. But the cafes in that block are sort of narrow and confusing. The woman behind the bar was happy to steam a hot chocolate out of the espresso machine, and it was pretty good, but somehow not up to the orgasmic standard set by the store's reputation, and on the way out I realized I had wandered into the the wrong cafe.Bugger. A few nights later I tried again. I made sure to aim for the right door, and I asked the bartender -- sort of knowingly -- for a cup of chocolate, feeling very confident, since this time I knew what was coming. The cafe was low-lit, a bit pretentious, and decorated in cozy shades of brown. But the bartender was very mysterious. He said: "With or without orange?" This stumped me. I had no idea how to answer, so I went out and found a place with beer. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:56 PM (8) comments Now Dick Cheney's Right-Hand Man is Just a Novelist... according to the Washington Post, which apparently had a farewell feature in the can, waiting for Scooter to resign. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:53 PM (0) commentsTuesday, October 25, 2005 Turkish DelightHere's a good interview at Spiegel Online with Orhan Palmuk, the Turkish author who maybe-almost-but-didn't-quite win the Nobel Prize this year. I had nothing to do with this interview, I just think it's terrific.Harold Pinter can keep his Nobel Prize, as far as I'm concerned. I was never a big fan, but still I had a favorite play or two. So he's good, or used to be. The problem is that what Gore Vidal likes to call "the jokers in Stockholm" have been so political for so many consecutive years. If the Nobel committee had wanted to pull on George Bush's coat by praising a fierce critic of the Iraq War, they could have saved their reputations by giving it to Pinter last year, instead of rediscovering Elfriede Jelinek, who's so brilliant she wrote Bambiland without ever having visited the United States. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 6:34 PM (0) comments Sunday, October 23, 2005 In the Neighborhood 3 No self-respecting kiez can exist without its own condom shop. But Prenzlauer Berg also has one of the highest birthrates in Germany, so if the condoms fail, right next door, there's the inevitable kids' clothing shop: 
posted by Michael Scott Moore |
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Tuesday, October 18, 2005 Bye-Bye JoschkaA lament of mine for Germany's ex-foreign minister is up at Slate. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 7:35 PM (13) commentsMonday, October 17, 2005 SynchronicityIn London last August, someone took me to a raffish club away from all the cocaine in Soho, and when I went to pee in a toilet up the stairs, I could look out over an air shaft and see the small, unpretentious office of Merchant-Ivory Productions. There were a few desks, some computers, a printer or two, and stacks of videotapes. That was it. I started thinking about Kazuo Ishiguro and The Remains of the Day, and I wasn't quite done thinking about them a few days later when a Spiegel Online writer came in to ask if an English-speaking journalist wanted to come help interview Ishiguro in Berlin. Why not? I went, and the results are over here. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 8:53 PM (1) commentsSunday, October 16, 2005 In the Neighborhood 2 This is a "Thai-sushi" place, the sort of thing Ed mentions in his comprehensive post about Asian food in Germany. Please don't tell anyone the food sucks, though. The lack of business here keeps street noise down at night. I'm in favor of "Fresh & Easy," myself. It's like a little bit of Orange County right here in Prenzlauer Berg. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 9:21 PM (1) comments Saturday, October 15, 2005 In the Neighborhood This strange image of a calavera comes from a hand-drawn poster for a rock show that was up in Prenzlauer Berg last month. I have no idea what the Russian says, but obviously Posada's revolutionary ghost is still alive and well in the Ostblock. With each of those links you have to read or scroll down some to learn about Jose Posada and his calaveras. Thanks to Rick and Kuchen for the snapshot. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 4:27 PM (3) comments Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Wonderful ThingsI've tried three times, but I can't visit this web site without going helpless with laughter. No idea why. It's easily as good as the pirate keyboard. Thanks, Desyl. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 2:48 PM (1) commentsMonday, October 10, 2005 Wir Sind Kanzler! You know, it was actually nice having no government for three weeks. You barely noticed. For a while it even looked as if one of the Polish twins was going to turn up as chancellor in Berlin while somebody wasn't looking; and on cool placid autumn afternoons in the cafes along Friedrichstrasse that hardly seemed to matter. Germans aren't overjoyed with their new leader, but they don't mind that she's a woman; they just want more jobs, a stronger economy, but the same enormous welfare state, and since that indigestible contradiction has been voted into parliament and now rules the cabinet as a massive "grand coalition," living here should be exactly like having no government for a couple more years. Cartoon credit: Frank Hoppmann posted by Michael Scott Moore | 9:27 PM (0) comments Sunday, October 09, 2005  Sorry for the radio silence, but I've been laid flat by a relapse of some stomach bug I caught in Indonesia, brought on (probably) by stress and not eating my oatmeal. Here's a photo of the view from my balcony. Fate seems to be taking free swings at me with a baseball bat just for claiming it -- starting with the stony look on the face of the property manager two weeks ago, who signed that frivolous lease, and ending with this wretched disease. WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU WANT A NICE APARTMENT IN BERLIN? WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? But Fate can do what it likes. After this Year of Bullshit -- Annus Spucatum Taurus? -- I don't have any fear left. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:04 AM (0) comments More on my intelligent design piece... is over here, on William Dembski's blog. posted by Michael Scott Moore | 10:01 AM (1) commentsSunday, October 02, 2005 Bali 2One bombing may be carelessness, but two looks like miserable news for everyone's livelihood on Bali and the neighboring islands. When I was there last year most of Bali was still suffering for tourists -- except for Kuta. And in Kuta the one place that really hopped on a Saturday night was Paddy's, the sort of sports bar on steroids that got bombed in 2002. Australians I talked to said they didn't think lightning would strike twice. Bloody hell.PS: I owe lots of people answers, but I moved this weekend and lack both time and a good internet connection. (I did set one up, only in the wrong apartment.) (See below.) posted by Michael Scott Moore | 1:07 PM (0) comments | |
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