Have you ever been melancholy and in love? Have you ever heard of Leonard Cohen? And his song Suzanne? Of course you have, it’s one of the most evocative and symbolic love poems put to music, ever. She feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China. She gets you on her [...]

All Hallow’s Eve is nearly upon us and ye olde blogosphere is blowing up with all manner of ghosts, (not so many goblins), beasties, werewolves, witches, vampires, Caspers and–my personal favorite–zombies. Thanks to the wonders of the internets, right now I’m listening to Alfred Hitchcock Presents Ghost Stories for Young People [rapidshare / depositfiles [...]

I’m still catching up on western hemisphere news I missed while ensconced in China. But his particular five-day-old item has jostled me a little out of my jet-lagged, fuzzy-brained funk. Since you don’t read any other blogs except for this one (pause for chuckle), check it: Barack Obama is considering running for POTUS in 2008. [...]

I’m back in Berlin, puffing a Double Happiness and copy-typing here my in-flight scribblings from a tiny pocket notebook. With the prospect of 12 hours cocooned mid-air with nothing to read and nothing to stimulate my neurons except for Adam Sandler, I was practically forced to write something.

A plastic cup of red wine and a [...]

Now I’m worried about Italy. As I told my brother, Micah, it seems that the Roman Empire still has some declining left to do. Congrats on the World Cup, though, I guess you ‘earned’ it even if Zidane ended up stealing the spotlight for France in the long run.
I don’t want to hate here (OK, [...]

Here I offer you, gentle reader, some random strings and threads that have been trailing me on my Red October in China as I burp up garlic vapours (that’s perfectly acceptable here) from my lunch of donkey and celery jiaozi (dumplings):
Burping frequently and or loudly raises nary an eyebrow here. Elegant dinner, mid-conversation, whenever, where-ever, [...]

This entry will be–I admit–shortish but at least it will unburden me from some of the guilt I’ve acquired this week from not following up on my last assurances of regular blog postings. I should have known that would bite me in the ass. Getting the time, technology and sobriety together at the same time [...]

We’ve been whirling around Shanghai (’on sea’) for the past five days during Golden Week. Needless to say — but I’ll say it anyway — it’s been a blast. The blast metaphor is pretty appropriate too; remeniscant of the title to that Brian Eno album, Here Come the Warm Jets, stepping off the plane on [...]

That’s the question we all ask from time to time when we find ourselves in a troublesome spot, no?
Q: My 14-year-old daughter got scratched by cat. What do I do?
A: Call the cops because she might be attempting suicide.
Q: I’ve got an interview coming up on Britain’s GMTV. What do I do?
A: Pop some [...]

I just got this from my friend Kelly Ann. It’s going on 2day & 2morrow in Berlin.
Premiere: Dienstag 3. Oktober 20 Uhr
Weitere Aufführungen: Mittwoch 4. bis Samstag 7. Oktober 20 Uhr
ENGLISH THEATRE BERLIN (formerly known as Friends of Italian Opera)
NAKED WEST

Eine Liebesgeschichte unter Ersatz-Cowboys, eine Komödie, die keine sein möchte. In den Hauptrollen: Leidenschaft, [...]

There are some ruffled feathers over at Radio Free Mike these days. If you interest yourself in German-American relations, the German media, claims of anti-American bias in said media versus reality, right-wing blowhards or you just like to see a good battle between the forces of good and evil (oh man, has Bush been in [...]

That’s my default mode on the first of every month (Get it? Like April Fool’s Day. I know. When you have to explain it…) Anyway, among other notable things that happened on this day in the year of my birth, Muhammad Ali beat Joe Frazier in the Thrilla in Manilla.
Oh yes: I’m going to fly [...]