Joschka Fischer, Germany’s foreign minister from 1998 to 2005 (and currently a visiting professor at Princeton University), has some posted some urgent words on the Guardian’s online soap box, comment is free, about the senseless violence going on in Sudan right now and the EU’s duty to action, to “get tough” with the perpetrators. He [...]

China’s “most famous” punk band playing at Roter Salon last Friday (and an excuse to try out slide.com). A few low resolution video snippets of that lively show can be seen here, here and here.
Joyside is touring all over Europe’s three German-speaking countries for the next two weeks and returning to Berlin for their final [...]

This, below, is probably the most iconic of urban artist Nomad’s cute and disturbing bestiary, something like a technoid pirate vampire bunny. You can think of him as the street artist kindred spirit to Bjork, whose new album Volta, by the way, she says will be techno voodoo, extroverted, tribal and pagan.

I clipped this [...]

Aloe (pronounced Aloy? apparently) Blacc wasn’t even the best part… Master G of the mutha flippin Sugarhill Gang was (Wonder Mike was in the hospital for some unexplained reason other than he was “under the weather”). And you know the crowd went crazy. Imagine seeing the dude who actually created the fundamental particles of hip-hop [...]

Four years of survival qualifies any Berlin night life institution as, well, an institution (remember Dangerous Drums, anyone?). liveDEMO, which the Berliner Zeitung calls “die beste Black-Music-Party der Stadt” is gonna celebrate its fourth anniversary in high style tonight with, among others, two original members of the Sugarhill Gang, a squadron of vocalists and DJs [...]

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European astronomers have spotted what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet outside our solar system, with balmy temperatures that could support water and, potentially, life.
They have not directly seen the planet, orbiting a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. But measurements of the star [...]

It’s called MOG TV and it’s dope. Above, Over and Over by Hot Chip.

Consider this my version of Harper’s Weekly Review except this one is not at all objective, much shorter, more random, won’t come every week, not affiliated with Harper’s and not really much of a review. Otherwise, enjoy:
Yuhang and I enjoyed a fine German alpine dinner (Rostbraten and Lacksfilet) at the lightly hyped restaurant Schneeweiss last [...]

  Jorge Ben - Menina Mulher da Pele Preta
I love this strummy little ditty by seventies Tropicalia star Jorge Ben from 1974’s incredible A Tábua de Esmeralda. I can easily sing the chorus and I don’t know a word of Portuguese. Something to play when the sun shines just for you and your worries, well, what [...]

The bi-monthly (and as far as I know, pretty young) neolib mag Foreign Policy has quickly reached the top of my must-read global edification pile (right next to my global degradation pile). Thankfully, since it’s published every eight weeks I have enough time to digest it and not feel guilty for not fully consuming it [...]

Tim O’Neil at PopMatters reviews the new concert DVD from “German industrial godfathers” Einstürzende Neubauten:
Palast Der Republik presents the group in fine form, playing for an enthusiastic hometown crowd in a historically unique venue. Live, Einstürzende Neubauten do not present much in the way of spectacle: no fancy light shows, no video installations, no makeup [...]

Sure, YouTube has spouting Diet Coke bottles and Will Ferrel talking with a foul-mouthed two-year-old, but Google Video is where the brain food is—especially the insane amount of documentaries. Case in point: this Channel 4 programme about the gold standard in hard-boiled, dystopian sci-fi, 1982’s Blade Runner.

In one hour we get interviews with PKD [...]

This was posted today as a Warden Message on the website for the US Embassy in Germany:
U.S. diplomatic and consular facilities in Germany are increasing their security posture. We are taking these steps in response to a heightened threat situation. The U.S. Embassy encourages Americans in Germany to increase their vigilance and take appropriate steps [...]

…then you can have a B-Parade, apparently, to fill the vacuum left by the catchier-named Love Parade, which will not actually be happening this year. When not even a chain of fitness studios symbolised by a weight-lifting banana (McFit) can get approval from the city (as it did last year with a fistful of one [...]

Speaking of hip-hop’s golden age, imagine if the late 80s game industry saw Public Enemy’s Flava Flav (or someone like him) as a way to convey to kids that they shouldn’t copy computer games. This is what you would get. Thx, Einar!
Plus, a track (DL below) off the new album Waiting to Inhale from every [...]

This is one of three designs for the custom “Berlin Air Lift” series, a future-retro throwback to the Air Force 1s of yesteryear, the golden age of hip-hop and the fall of the wall. I don’t know if I would rock these on the daily but I gotta say they do encapsulate Berlin somehow. SneakerFreaker [...]

One of my favorite streets in Kreuzberg is the south side of Dresdener Straße, a cul-de-sac between Oranienplatz and Kottbusser Tor. It boasts a great Kino called Babylon that plays all kinds of independent and mainstream British, American, German, French and Spanish (etc.) films in original language (now showing: 300 in OmU). There is a [...]

Yuhang and I thoroughly enjoyed the performance by Deerhoof on Sunday at the Festsaal Kreuzberg, Skalitzer Straße 130. They are a very tight, very spastic band whose every song stops and starts enough to probably contain eight smaller songs. These kids can jam. (Think bugged-out, loud Brainiac (from Ohio, btw) spazz ‘n’ jazz-rock with Cibo [...]

This is a great idea. Dailylit.com emails you, free of charge, a bite-sized segment of a book (I’m doing Moby Dick now) in daily instalments so you can conquer the classics even if you don’t really have the time to sit down with the physical tome itself. Each segment takes about five minutes to read [...]