how bizarre

 

via zoë beck 

Wär ich ein Buch (1973)

Via Sandra Uschtrin, who edits the most useful newsletter I have ever signed up for.

the red big bag vs. the big red bag - how to order adjectives in english

even the teacher himself gets confused when he gives the example of 'the old boring physics teacher'. according to his own rules written on the board behind him, it would have to be 'the boring old physics teacher' - at least that proves his claim that this clip might of interest for native speakers, too!

"songs and poems - or sentences, as i call them" (m. donhauser)

last night i attended a great poetry reading at the literaturhaus berlin, the highlight of which was a reading by oswald egger, the first-ever winner of the recently awarded oskar pastior prize. that prize is a cool prize for two reasons: 1) in his lifetime, oskar pastior saved every penny for a foundation that was meant to financially support 2) experimental, innovative poets. oswald easily lived up to this criterion, as what he read fortright sounded like sylvia plath on LSD: "Ich igelte mich ein wie ein Iltisknauf", "so schopf-, so schädelblanke Felsen", "Ich sah durch die Toten nur Sonne und Knochen, nichts sonst". while oswald's imagery was richer than anything else i had heard in a long time, and while his recital was fantastic, i thought he did miss a timely ending. our minds spun in spite of his (sometimes probably unintendedly) humorous passages, so that following his verbal detours became increasingly difficult.

michael donhauser, who was second to read, had a better gut feeling there. his reading was to the point and sincere. like last time at the lyrikerempfang, it seemed he had dislocated the alphabet in order for it to become landscapes that recall own memories. (work sample.) 

franz josef czernin, who had been the first poet to read, struggled with turning the old idea of the four elements (that he chose to wrap in the old corset of the sonnet) into something modern. a highlight: "Mein Schauen ging (...) nicht verloren." thereafter, he presented his edits of three more poems in a slide show. this was very interesting to see at first, but i found that the novelty of the idea wore off quickly - probably because he had up to fifty slides to show for each poem; or maybe because he flicked through them so fast that even when you wanted to follow his wordplay, you couldn't.

my overall verdict: a worthwile, interesting reading.

now and then, a poem by billy collins

michel houellebecq on why he is creative

currently reading as part of the #50bookschallenge: 'slaughterhouse five' by kurt vonnegut

"natur beschreiben ist sowieso ein unsinn, weil sie ja jeder kennt." - thomas bernhard on the economy of writing

max frisch's daughter on her relationship to her father

over at swiss radio station drs3. (in german.)

hingehen!

finally found: a sylvia plath interview

medium funny, but nevertheless kind of interesting: some woman on creativity and anguish

cheers to my friend greg funnell who pointed this out to me!

off topic: it's easy to see a tide turn!

no, i am not depressed. it is just a great poem.

sunday lecture

if you're interested in pandora, her box, psychoanalysis and family secrets, and have an hour and a half of spare time, you should watch this video, created by the philoctetes center for the study of imagination. amongst other outstanding women, kathryn harrison (or here) is in it. she wrote the kiss, a controversial book which is incredibly well written and still one of my favorite books of all time. after i had read it in 2005, it took me two years until i was able to email her and let her know. she replied very kindly, which still means a lot to me. thank you, kathryn. picture source

bizarre

resistance at work

here's an anti-globalization documentary called the fourth world war.
it contains some pretty rough material and may not be suited for everybody to watch.
if you still want to go ahead, i hope you guys are over sixteen and speak some spanish.

...remember, though, that in whatever direction you're moving, VIOLENCE IS NOT THE WAY TO GO!

i'm linking to this just because i want to remind all of us that in some areas of the world, life is far less comfortable than where we live.

hardcore cuteness

for those of you who haven't seen sicko yet

voilà.