If there is one thing I hate in art, it’s repetition. It’s fine to have connections between works, or to have works that are part of a greater whole, but I have an absolute horror of repeating myself. And, to be honest, I tend to look with disfavour upon artists …
One of the biggest problems art is facing today is the definition of art in people’s minds. Too many people have been misled into believing that truly good art must consist of ambiguous abstractions that are somehow “timeless” – that art must be exclusively introspective, lacking context, and dedicated solely …
If the climate change deniers are right, why is it the middle of June and I’ve just turned on the heating? I know Germany’s a cold country, but give me a break… Anyone who thinks this is normal can only be classified as a lunatic. This is one position where …
This is part of an email I got the other day: Down here in Australia our government has kindly brought in laws that make all union activity in the construction sector illegal, unless it’s expressly related to legally sanctioned Enterprise Bargaining Agreement negotiations. The Australian Building and Construction Commission was …
On days like today, when the sun is finally out in this cold and miserable country, it is hard to believe it shines down on a planet so close to the abyss. A planet where resources are running out, governments are becoming increasingly criminal, and corporations are making our decisions …
The European Union called the event a tragedy. Somehow that doesn’t sound quite right to me. A heavily armed military force attacks ships in international waters and butchers peace activists? There must be a better word. Like piracy. Or murder. Or war crime.
I’m seeing/getting the first few complaints about Phenomenon 32 being socialist/atheist propaganda, and I already feel much better. I was wondering when that was going to happen. The atheist part is particularly silly, of course, given that the game very specifically uses quotes by Malcolm X (a devout Muslim) and …
It’s my birthday today, but I don’t have anything particularly fascinating to say about myself, so I’ll talk about someone else instead: one of my teachers. As most of you probably don’t know, I went to school at the German School of Thessaloniki (Deutsche Schule Thessaloniki – DST). It wasn’t …
I just watched this video of Salman Rushie, Mos Def and Christopher Hitchens debating nuclear disarmament on Real Time with Bill Maher, and I feel like vomiting. People like Christopher Hitchens are the reason that the future of humanity is looking increasingly dire. That condenscending, racist snobs like Hitchens have …
Our tiny blue planet has orbited the sun thirty times since the day Verena was born. Is this a lot? Is it a little? Are we tiny, insignificant specks of dust, or immortals striding godlike through an infinite universe? I don’t know. I don’t even have the damn words to …
