Posted in Events, Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, People on Nov 9th, 2007 1 Comment »
I believe I told at least some of you at one point or another that although I’ve long since collected the handsome certificate (now beautifully framed, for a prominent place on the wall of my Berlin apartment’s entry hall) proclaiming me a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany, the formal ceremony for us Neudeutsche [...]
Posted in Events, Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, Music, People on Nov 7th, 2007 No Comments »
From an unimpeachable, totally reliable source I have this latest shaming tidbit of barbarous stateside yahoo nitwittery towards distinguished visiting foreign artists in the fatuous name of “security”, a sacrosanct word which for the incumbent criminal administration apparently excuses no matter what indignities.
The Berlin Philharmonic, billed by Carnegie Hall for four concerts with its conductor [...]
Posted in Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, Music, People, Politics on Nov 3rd, 2007 1 Comment »
As a reputable musical journalist of several decades’ high-level experience, I almost invariably avoid even mentioning sources I feel I must, for whatever reason, leave anonymous, but I feel strongly that this present instance justifies such an exception.
On October 8th, a New York Times article under James R. Oestreich’s byline led off with this:
“Opening the [...]
Posted in Commonplace Book, Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, Memory Lane, People on Nov 1st, 2007 No Comments »
Back during the period when German television strove mightily to adopt and adapt the lucrative magic formula that had created such American advertising bonanzas as the pioneer talk shows of Jack Paar, Dick Cavett, et al., I once with stricken eyes watched Cavett’s interview, conducted in Cologne by the Westdeutscher Rundfunk’s chief honcho Werner Höfer [...]
Posted in Commonplace Book, Letter from Berlin, Memory Lane, People, Politics, Reflections on Nov 1st, 2007 No Comments »
When a day begins with one unexpected pleasant surprise, it has the same effect upon me that William Wordsworth’s rainbow had on him. When two further unexpected surprises bless the day, that rare benison gooses me into at least mental writing - in this event into what involuntarily took form between my ears during a [...]
Posted in Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, People, Politics on Oct 21st, 2007 1 Comment »
Today’s Sunday edition of The New York Times carries a riveting review of what sounds like a fascinating new history of the Weimar Republic Germany gloried in during the far too brief fifteen years between the 1918 end of World War I and the total political nightfall of Hitler’s 1933 appointment as Chancellor.
The lead paragraph [...]
Posted in Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, People on Oct 17th, 2007 2 Comments »
Well, chalk up another television first: Germany’s Armin Meiwes (pronounced My-vess), presently serving a life sentence for killing a man and eating more than twenty pounds of him, has granted his first television interview, during which, to quote the newsmagazine Der Spiegel, he “describes the taste of human flesh, provides a decent recipe for steak, [...]
Posted in Events, Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, Music, People, Politics on Oct 15th, 2007 No Comments »
BERLIN. - “Denk ich an Deutschland in der Nacht,” wrote Heinrich Heine (1797-1856), one of Germany’s greatest poets and most famous Jews, “Dann bin ich um den Schlaf gebracht” - “If I think about Germany during the night, it robs me of my sleep.” A partially sleepless night preceded the writing of this review, for [...]
Posted in Commonplace Book, Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, People, Politics on Oct 14th, 2007 No Comments »
To my fellow codgers, the phrase “good Germans” has specific overtones from the 1930s and ’40s, referring to those uncountable but numerous purportedly “good Germans” who emphatically did not elect the Nazis into power but, to quote one source verbatim, did “nothing … while Hitler destroyed Europe and murdered 6,000,000 Jews, and 5,000,000 Poles, Russians, [...]
Posted in Letter from Berlin, Life and culture, People, Reflections on Oct 10th, 2007 No Comments »
When I first came to Europe as a mere stripling of twenty-five (can you think all the way back to 1949?), I couldn’t help noticing fairly early that when the French and the Germans - whether in print, on the air, or almost anywhere - meant the respective vernacular of fuck, they came right out [...]
Ich bin ein [Texas-Born] Berliner
Life, people, and Kultur
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