Already week number five and I’m finally reviving my most-weekly and mostly-loved feature, Tuna da Week—this time front and centre, all up in your grill (bi*ch, I’m so trill). What better way to start the year then to review the one we just blazed (even if the “Year of the Dog” still has two weeks [...]

As fate would have it, the polar bastions of Berlin’s leading right and left wing newspapers, Bild Zeitung and Tageszeitung, live askance from each other on Kochstrasse in Kreuzberg (SO36 district). Early last week in a public vote, the locals spoke and successfully got this part of the street renamed Rudi Dutschke Strasse in honour [...]

We just enjoyed a four-hour-long Sunday breakfastlunch with Kelly Ann and crew at Josephine’s, the cafe par excellence on Bergmannstrasse. Roisin, Heidi and Kell are “blasting through Berlin’s brunching hot spots, Bezirk by Bezirk, and sharing the delightful and delicious places that make Sundays oh so much better without doing the dishes” at their Berlin [...]

Warning: this post is composed mainly of apologies and thank yous.
A big thank you goes out to all that attended my birthday party last Friday (and those that wanted but couldn’t). It was a hoot, as they say in southern Ohio. And finally thanks, also, for being such non-boring people. You rock. Boredom kills (they [...]

During a birthday party this weekend (mine—the party, not the weekend), there was some interest in trying out the the shisha (or hooka) I had recently borrowed from my neighbour.
It took some trial and error, a bit of asking around (thanks Mike and Yuhang), a few burnt fingers and some borderline fire hazards, but [...]

This is from a birthday party I attended two weekends ago in Magdeburg (whatup Hendrick). These are two dogs with helium balloons tied to their collars in a movie theatre after hours (rented). It was hilarious at the time (guess you had to be there). Of course, it being 4:00 in the morning and various [...]

A punk movement in Soviet era East Berlin? I didn’t think so either until I saw the display at the DDR Museum last month (which is worth one of your afternoons—ask Ed). OK, so GDR rock ‘n’ roll, fine, you’ve got your regime-safe Puhdys, your “Sieben Brücke” and so on, but the inherently subversive [...]

This blog has just been upgraded to WordPress 2.1 with nary a problem. Astounding! (Now, also reachable at subdomain, blog.tranzformer.de).

See anything funny here? Hint: I cropped it to keep the pertinent parts visible. One can only assume that their regular guy was off for the day—or at least blindingly hungover—otherwise, no excuse. Hey human resources, in case y’all’re looking for someone with eyes like a hawk, sign me up!
(screen shot from yesterday’s nytimes.com front [...]

Check out the Grüne Woche this week. It’s going down at the Berlin-Messe (Funkturm). At first I thought it was supposed to be about green technology but then was informed that it’s actually the agricultural ministries of various countries charming the convention goers with their respective wares. Jian, Matthias, Yuhang and I wandered around the [...]

Wow. I am blown away by Children of Men. See this movie.

Stop me if I’ve used this title before (it’s not every day that you see the Chillicothe Gazette listed on the front page of Google News).

Bob Ney, inventor of “Freedom Fries” and corrupt, pork-meister legislator of my own Ohio district, is gonna spend 30 months behind bars for his involvement with Jack Abramoff’s lobby money [...]

I’m not really a computer geek (I only play one on TV and I did study physics, strangely enough), but it’s true, the .rar file type for compression is pretty badass. You might like your .sit’s and your .zip’s all to pieces, but me, I’m a .rar guy.
This site (I love *.rar) is hosted [...]

Fave five rawk ‘n’ roll
Because some abbreviations deserve both apostrophes.
1) My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade (I likes what I likes)
2) The Twilight Singers - Powder Burns (the Afghan Whigger in ‘Nu’ Orleans)
3) Eagles of Death Metal - Death by Sexy (fun for the whole family)
4) Muse - Black Holes and Revelations (OMG, that [...]

Let the games begin (almost)!
Minuses: midwestern, black, outspoken, religious and inexperienced
Pluses: midwestern, black, outspoken, religious and inexperienced
This kind of complicated profile promises to leave the more divisive pundits with a problem, not having any clear-cut lines to draw in the sand.
Who knows, we may even get to talk about the issues instead of names [...]

Fave five mp3 blogs
These sites expand(ed) my musical horizon(s).
1) Orgy in Rhythm (so much great-but-rare jazz here)
2) Krautrockteam (so much kraut)
3) WFMU’s Beware of the Blog (so much freeform goodness)
4) RelaxYourSocks (so much indie rock and indie hop)
5) Moistworks (authors writing about music)

Here some parallels between MLK Jr. and his German namesake, plus a quiz.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s I Have A Dream speech @ youtube
from the Magnum photo gallery @ Slate
Stanford University has the first half of his autobiography online (as well as his best sermons and speeches). I read a few paragraphs and promised myself that [...]

Fave five hip-hop
It’s like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under.
1) Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead (Jay who?)
2) The Coup - Pick a Bigger Weapon (criminally slept-upon)
3) The Roots - Game Theory (sonically devastating)
4) Zion I & The Grouch - Heroes in the City of Dope
5) Mr. Lif [...]

Fave five of the singer-songwriters
1) Bob Dylan - Modern Times (Bob loves Alicia)
2) Nas - Hip Hop Is Dead (the street poet returns)
3) Tom Waits - Orphans (unintentional Berlin soundtrack)
4) Alejandro Escovedo - The Boxing Mirror (Ed Ward-approved)
5) Neil Young - Living With War (Canadian-fried American rage)

Not that this is an “Ohio musician in Berlin” promotional site but… Enduser is dope plus it’s got (1) some backing from De:Bug, (2) a cool venue and (3) zombies on the flyer.
And just what exactly is breakcore anyway?