Al Burian
Mob Rule at Mauerpark Karaoke
This is Andy Warhol’s prediction come to life: “in the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Warhol overestimated the individual’s fame allotment by about eleven minutes, but the basic principle is there.
Berlin Story: Adieu, Tacheles
This is typical of the strategy used in dealing with squatters: offering a ten or twenty year amnesty period, after which the original occupants have moved on, passing the torch to a younger, more complacent generation, who are easily steam-rolled in...
Gérard Depardieu Ruined My Day
Working at a wine shop is great, except for one slight hitch: I know absolutely nothing about wine.
It's Official: Exercise Does Not Make You Less Depressed
Many people who are stuck in unhappy life situations—a boring job, a bad relationship, an oppressive economic or political system—might intellectually accept their circumstances, and yet be unable to shut off their neural hard-wiring, the primal alarm...
Berlin Story - Peaceful Revolution
I find it inspirational to see the two things that I considered so subversive and revolutionary in 1989, punk bands and underground zines, now officially laminated and sanctioned as being just what I thought they were.
Berlin Story: Ramones Museum Versus Cafe Halford
The interior of Cafe Halford resembles less a cafe and more a rec-room I would have designed in my teenage fantasies when I was thirteen.
The Grinberg Method
Sandra sat me on a massage table, naked feet forward, and proceeded to ask me the standard opening questions of psychotherapy. Instead of meticulously taking notes, she responded to my answers by squeezing my toes and kneading my feet. This was weird...
Bringing Hate Back Into German Politics
As a German citizen with the right to vote, I consider it my civic duty to inform myself about current events. This has proven difficult, because German politics are exceedingly boring. The two major parties, the Christian Democratic Union [CDU] and...
Artists No Longer Welcome in Berlin
What Berlin does have going for it is great ambience. It is really fun to just hang out. So the pressure becomes intense, with everyone struggling to do the bare minimum they possibly can and yet still qualify as creative, thereby maximizing the time...
A Night Out with an Anarchist
I introduced my anarchist friend to my other friends. This proved to be awkward.
Berlin Story: Pack Up Your Flags, Fuckers
Nationalism is fun. It feels good to win. It feels good to be on the side that is kicking ass.