Election Day

It was election day in Munich today and after just observing elections in various countries at various stages of democratization, I went into the booth for the first time in 20 years. Current Social Democratic mayor Christian Ude was the only candidate with a platform promising to raise the ratio of child care from slots for 3 % of all kids in Munich to something approaching two digits (yup, my priorities did change, there were some guys promising world peace, but we just need a slot in the nursery for now). Although he does love his ceremonial duties (like the customary opening of the first barrell at Oktoberfest every year) a bit too much. Anyway. He got 66.7 % of the votes. That's 0.2 % more than today's results for Putin crony Medvedev.

Turned out our neighborhood is more boho than we thought. The whole rise and shine stuff definitely doesn't fly on a Sunday morning around here. Fred went early and there was almost nobody at the polling station. I went after my Sunday shift and it was packed with young bohemians, gay cruisers and old hippies. Our district is also the only one where the Rosa Liste (the local party for gays and lesbians, and that means party as in political) has a real chance to get an assemblyman (OR woman) in. How West Village is that.

Freezing Grand Central

Taking that flash mob thing a few steps further.

Civilized

On Wednesday William F. Buckley was found dead by his cook in his house in Stamford, Connecticut (amazing how many clichees about conservatives can one pack into the first line of his obituary). Interesting again how likable somebody like Buckley becomes in the light of seven years of Cheney and Bush. And how civilized and intelligent those TV debates must've been in 1968, if ABC pitted Buckley against Gore Vidal.

William F. Buckley debating Gore Vidal Part 1 and Part 2

William F. Buckley debating Noam Chomsky Part 1 and Part 2

Britney

I never thought I'd aggree with former New York now LA police chief William Bratton who had the following to say about possible new laws to protect the known and the beautiful from the ruthless paparazzi:

“What we need is for Britney Spears to stay home instead of traipsing all over town. That would solve the problem. We don’t need additional laws…I’ve got laws coming out my ears to deal with this issue. What you have is several young women in this town and several young men basically making fools of themselves and tying up not only my resources but the resources of the media that would do better covering legitimate stories instead of a bunch of airheads running around out there…Quite clearly some of these characters so favored by the paparazzi are clearly in need of services. Not police services, but psychiatric services.”

Aaaah, the salt of the earth common sense of seasoned law enforcement.

The Real McCain

Now that it's very likely that the name of the next president of the United States is John McCain, agit-documentarian Robert Greenwald's new website The Real McCain is definitely worth a visit. Like most die-hard lefties he's got a rather awkward sense of irony and stiff timing, but contentwise he's right on the mark.

Howl

Turns out Allen Ginsberg didn't read his seminal poem "Howl" in California for the first time, but for students at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, while hitchhiking from Berkeley to the Pacific Northwest. So history has to be rewritten! They do have a recording over at the Reed College website.

More Advertising For Myself

Legendary philosopher Jürgen Habermas thinks it's a great loss to my paper that I don't report from the US anymore. He complained to a colleague of mine over dinner that he misses my writing about America. Well, if that's not something to brag about! I wish he'd told that to my editor in chief.

Advertising For Myself

I'm gonna interview Jeremy Scahill live on stage tonight. He wrote the incredibly enraging book about the private military contractor Blackwater. Promising to be an equally enraging evening.

8 PM at the Werkraum of the Kammerspiele, Hildegardstr. 1 in Munich.