His body was found. Did we see an ethereal light shine in the sky that led to his corpse? Did his wet nurse sell him to the Jews for ritual murder? Was little Werner taken on Gründonnerstag (or is it Weiß-, or Heiliger?) right after he received the [more]
These days I’m a visitor at Chaos Computer Club Congress #30C3 in Hamburg, the biggest european meeting for hacks and hackers. Germany has recently become a haven for internet/information activists, guesting people like Laura Poitras or Jacob Appelbaum. No surprise the issue around the governmental eavesdropping on literally [more]
The question is what happened? I refused to write, me who was determined to not skip a single day. And now a whole week of empty squares I don’t even dare to look at. A line of shame. But what can you do I’m on the countryside and [more]
On balls Belle of the ball. Lick my balls. What a balls-up. Football. Rugby ball. Cricket ball. Tennis ball. Table-tennis ball. Talking balls. Having a ball. To ball (someone i.e. I balled this chick/guy). On the ball. (He had) real balls. Cojones. Baseball. Ball of flame. Playing ball. [more]
My uncles and aunts from the second district: pointy beards and white ties, heavy chains on high bosoms, used to bring to the borders of the Seret[1] train cars with provisions, sermon-gifts, candies for the kids, the lilac of the Kaiser’s riches. The aunts, like turkeys with excited [more]
Time seems to be a fundamental concept which we have to accept as a precondition of our understanding of our own life and the whole universe around us. … Even if we cannot provide a formal definition of time, something instructive and important about time can always be [more]
In 1935 Martin Heidegger wrote ‘The Origin of the Work of Art’[1] in which he posited the concept that a relationship could be both critical and respectful, both detached and attached, at the same time. It was not until 1978 that Jacques Derrida was to take this philosophical idea [more]
A friend once told me: “Never feel responsible for anybody else but yourself.” He is now partying it up in a Brasil, living up to that mantra. I wonder how happy that makes a person, to only feel responsible for themselves. Are you capable of really loving another? [more]
The schizophrenia of living in two cities just hit me more than ever. Anyone else who’s with me?
It is Christmas Eve. I’m at my parents’ place, the place where I grew up. Being brought up in a catholic home and having a father who sings in the church choir it is evident we will go to church tonight. We are only three instead of five. [more]
Sommer 1995. “Steine, Würstchen und Sahne.” So sah nach Ansicht unserer knapp zweieinhalb Jahre alten Tochter Rejsale der Haufen aus, den sie da gerade auf ihrem geliebten “Pippi und Kacka”-Topf hinterlassen hatte. Ich, der große, unbekannte Micky Rosenzvajk, den seine hundsgemeinen Freunde bereits seit 20 Jahren einfach nur [more]
In Norwegen gibt es eine Tageszeitung mit dem schönen Namen Klassekampen. Laut eigenen Angaben erreicht die Zeitung täglich 50 000 Leser, aber schon allein die verkaufte Auflage ist beeindruckend: 16 353 in einem Land mit ungefähr 5 Millionen Einwohnern (nur so zum Vergleich: das ist weniger als in [more]
Dear fuenfnullzwei.de/60pages, Not long ago I had a lovely, fleeting encounter with a fellow student, Gülgün. She was beautiful and from Istanbul and spoke German because of her studies at the German School there. Later, she studied Economics, also in German and she never wanted to return to [more]
Zwischenjahreszeit, Karussell der Erinnerungen, Schleudersitz der Gefühle, zweiter Teil. Dieses Gefühl. Nach Hause zu kommen, in das Zimmer, in dem man aufwuchs, wo alles so klein ist was mal so gross schien, im zu kleinen Bett zu liegen, Waschmittel wie vor zehn Jahren, einen Atem voll nehmen, die [more]
Zwischenjahreszeit. Zwischen den Jahren, zwischen den Zeiten. Katapult in die Vergangenheit, zurück in die ehemalige Heimat, Heimat noch immer, Heimat auf ewig. Auf der Eisbahn, schlaksig die Beine, trocken der Atem, wie eine Wolke aufgewühlten, gefriertrockneten Staubs aus den Tiefen des elterlichen Estrichs. Alle kreisen hier, die coolen [more]
There is probably no contrast between two discrete time intervals as stark as the one separating the pre-Christmas from the post-Christmas period. It’s as if, on Christmas eve, someone flicks a switch and the city goes into hibernation, giving way to a virtual dead zone of human inactivity. That [more]
There are some things I’m quite happy to not know anything about. I hope that doesn’t sound ignorant – even though that’s probably the very definition of ignorance. I’m mostly talking about French theorists after early Foucault. I know enough about Althusser, Deleuze, Derrida and Badiou to confidently [more]
Some of the first Yiddish words recorded are nitl and levkoches. Nitl, from the Latin natal=birth, sometimes written Nittel, is a holdover from the Judeo-French spoken before the emergence of Yiddish proper in and around the year 1000. It means Christmas. Like most first Yiddish words, these were [more]
A big party took place in “Black Swan” last night. More then thousand performers came to Berlin from all over the world to celebrate the revival of the famous Montana ´66 festival of Method Acting. Black Swan, that is how the people of Berlin are calling the Bettenhaus [more]
Cottbus, Germany. A century ago, Cottbus was a thriving mid-size town in the middle of Germany. A city with industries and an upper class of citizens that had no difficulties to afford building one of the most outstanding art nouveau theatres without much ado. The city was nice, [more]
The place I grew up in is an epitomized fairytale. Things are clean, people civilized. Narrow alleys bear the ambience of the middle-ages. Seats in cafés are standardized, so that no one gets confused with the distractions of modernity. It’s a place one finds “boring” when growing up [more]
hi guys, are u ready for Xmas? I am off, no more babbling on 60pages. My days are over, I am jumping out of my window of the 8th floor of this rotten old Tel-Aviv warehouse, where I put my lofty studio in. The studio of the forlorn, unheard [more]
I am sitting right now in the center of the ex-Amish community, Columbia, Missouri, USA. How did it come to be this way, a center for people who break away from their Amish community? No one really knows, just some people who left the community themselves with some [more]
(h/t: Kliph Nesteroff) Okay, don’t worry, this ain’t gonna be another one of those “What does a Jew like you think of Christmas?” posts. Really. Cause the truth is simple: Christmas is the best. Just the best. “Completely flawless” as another Jewish friend has put it. Especially if [more]
As I decided to try living as a free spirit right after graduation (organizing my very own festival) instead of sweating for someone else, I quickly had to find a source of funding that would bring my Bohemian aspirations and my consumer life-style together. So I took this [more]
… and to you all, marvelous smart bright shrewd 60people. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BaqIManacQ
Halban, Oman. Since the technocratic hubris in architecture burst in the sixties, the self-image of modern architecture as a morally and culturally superior discipline collapsed, and architects could no longer just be architects, but had to lean on other disciplines as a source of justification for their works. In [more]
Two days ago I managed to throw a glass of Darjeeling tea over my laptop. The incident, which later caused an eternal breakdown of my silver 4-year-old (I guess the sugar slowly wandered into the filament), in the beginning affected only the keyboard, that is: the letter “A” [more]
Tolokno is free, and maybe we can see how important that is because she herself says that it’s really unimportant. Maybe this is not a time for theory though.
Holocaust selfies? http://www.jspace.com/news/disturbing-trend-worst-holocaust-selfies/ These people are stupid and naïve. But they aren’t a “disturbing trend.” And I am not outraged. How can I be if they are taking pictures in the Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas? I mean, the place is strange and the history it references [more]
The location for the revival festival on Method Acting was announced today. Most of the actors and guests expected the building site of the BND to be the hottest location for Christmas Eve. But it is not. The final spot, where people like Al Jareau, Bradley Cooper, George [more]
Yesterday, this tiny plane brought my family and me to the Norwegian mountains. I was convinced that eight days in comparable solitude were going to do wonders for this essay I’m trying to write. When you wake up at ten in the morning, however, and the light is [more]
Having returned from my current home in New York City to my childhood home in Switzerland for the holidays, I’ve been struck over the past two days by the frequency with which people here ask me about New York’s mayor-elect Bill de Blasio. People here have a curiosity unbounded [more]
Taman Negara, Malaysia. Walking in a jungle is the ultimate experience of non-spatiality. The jungle surrounds the hiker with a similar colour range in all directions, and a constant and even soundscape. When walking it is impossible to anticipate the path ahead and so every move becomes questionable [more]
This week my Alma Mater, the University of St. Gallen, announced that Alumnus Joe Ackermann, the former chairman of Deutsche Bank, would sponsor a new chair for “Business Economics and Public Policy”. On 29 September, my other Alma Mater, Yale University, announced the largest donation ever received in [more]
While you were trying to decide which type of horseradish to order from the Gefilteria in order to complement your homemade sushi, that term globalization has undergone some kind of meme upgrade. There’s glocalization, maybe you have heard about that. It’s a term from Roland Robertson and it [more]
I like best things. Not “better” things – this film is better than this film – but best things. I will often say: this or this is one of the best things. Of course you have to draw the line somewhere, because otherwise everything would be the best [more]
This is long overdue for me but I can’t seem to finish my thoughts on this as I am changing my mind.
As I am writing this, I am sitting in my favorite Amsterdam café, hidden in the narrow streets of the Jordaan area. In the spirit of Christmas they are playing the soundtrack to “Sound of Music”, which is unusually appropriate in light of their usual playlist. The couple [more]
“S: It’s so unfair. I guess these silent types make you work twice as hard and then you can’t escape because you yourself create the cage. Maybe’s that’s why you feel so bad. It’s like he’s watching, watching you do this to yourself. C: Misery and self-loathing is [more]