Berlin Blog

Seasonal

thoughts and stuff, friends.

Lots of snow on the ground here in Berlin at the moment.

8 weeks before launch.

Here my top 4 albums for 2005:

The Decemberists: Picaresque (The vocal affectation mostly works perfectly)
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (The hype! The hype!)
Kanye West: Late Registration (Though he should have excluded that song about how much he loves his mama)
SunKilMoon: Tiny Cities (Nobody else liked it, but I think it's genius)

I have no idea if this blog will continue to be a blog after early March, 2006.

The "New" Berlin Wall

NY Times (reg. required) article from yesterday, discussing Berlin's parallel Western/Muslim cultures.

The main challenge this piece poses to non-Turkish/non-Muslim Berlin residents is as follows: You are living in a culture in which female slavery is happening before your very eyes.  Are you willing to name it, to try and do something about it, or are you comfortable simply letting things go as they have gone up until this point, under the guise of tolerating "cultural differences"?

Translating the Real

BLACK EYED PEAS
"My Humps"
What you gon’ do with all that junk?
All that junk inside your trunk?
I’ma get, get, get, get, you drunk,
Get you love drunk off my hump.
My hump, my hump, my hump,
my hump, my hump, My hump, my
hump, my hump, my lovely lady lumps.

Translation:

Our male narrator begin with a question:
What is it that you intend on doing with all
the flesh, muscle and fat -  all the flesh, muscle
and fat which comprises your buttocks?

The receipient of his query, a youngish
woman, answers:

I am going to intoxicate you - intoxicate
you with love using my buttocks. My buttocks,
my buttocks, my buttocks, my buttocks,
my buttocks, my buttocks, my buttocks,
my buttocks, my pleasant female buttocks
mounds.

50 CENT LYRICS
"In Da Club"
You can find me in the club, bottle full of Bub
Mama, I got the X, if you into takin' drugs
I'm into having sex, I ain't into making love
So come give me a hug if you into getting rough

Translation:
If you are looking for me, I'll be at the nightclub
with a bottle full of champagne.

Mother, I have 3,4-methylenedioxy-N-
methylamphetamine, in the event that you are
the type of person who enjoys ingesting illegal
substances.

I am interested in sexual intercourse, but not
as a symbol of romantic love.

Come and embrace me if you want to have
aggressive sexual intercourse with me.