Adieu New York

Sunny Brooklyn will be Sunny Bavaria. This is where we'll be...

Farewell JB

James Brown had been one of my very first celebrity interviews. It was 1985, just before 'Rocky IV' came out and he came out with 'Living in the USA'. He was ranting and raving and yelling out James Brown shouts, his extravagant wife next to him and modest European me was utterly impressed how much self-assurance and egomania one single living being could muster up without coming across as completely mad. Well, my friend got the mad part a few years later, when JB had just finished a photo shoot with him and got impatient that it took Wolfgang and his assistant so long to pack his photo equipment, so he chased them off his poperty with a shot-gun.

Years later when I had just moved to New York in the late 80s the Godfather of Soul was incarcerated for dancing the Good Foot for a bunch of police officers after they had followed him in a wild car chase. A friend of mine produced Maceo Parker's first album back then. But times were hard for Maceo without the steady gig as part of the JBs. One afternoon he stopped by unannounced in my Chinatown appartment. He knew I had a very decent alto sax, so he asked, if he could borrow it. He had run out of money, needed to repair his own horn and was up for a sutdio gig with Mtume. He brought the sax back a week later and offered to give me a cut of his studio fee. Which I of course declined, since I was now the proud owner of an alto saxophone sanctified by a week's worth of Maceo playing on it.

The last time I saw James Brown was some years ago at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. Which of course was a grand evening, now forever in my repertory of pop veteran stories.The next time I saw Maceo was in Biloxi Mississippi where he was the star member of Prince's band.

Bury KKKramer

Do we really have to feel sorry for those racist celebrity millionaires, who use valuable airtime to save their careers with some petty 12-step moments? Can't we just hate and bury them? Remember, they're not your friends, even if they feel all so familiar. Michael Richard's been caught on anti-semitic and racist rants before. Not to talk about his blackface performance up on YouTube right now, which in itself should've been reason enough to drive him out of Hollywood, so he can spend the rest of his days in some honky town. Why should we allow bigots like Richards, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger or Paris Hilton "to heal"? And what's media whore Al Sharpton's problem? Of course he'll get more air time out of "helping Kramer repent". But if he'd have any integrity he would have refused to even take Richards' call. Oh, and if you have any inclinations to feel sorry for Jerry Seinfeld, whose Holiday DVD payday was probably severely reduced by Richards' lynch mob antics, don't forget that this is the guy who bought himself a whole building on 83rd Street to house his collection of Porsche's.

---

Watch Kramer's Laugh Factory rant

Watch Kramer in blackface

Read about Kramer's anti-semitic rant

Lasse Gjertsen Editing Superstar

Micro-Lending

I just became a micro-lender. I have invested in a Taxi business in Uganda and a market stall selling sunglasses in Mexico. The lending institute is called Kiva and is run by a few idealists out on the West Coast, who broker interest free micro-credits through their website. So far they had a 100% payback rate. After Muhammad Yuns and his Grameen Bank in Bangladesh won the Nobel Peace Prize Frontline World ran a feature about Kiva.. Which gotten them so much interest that they had to limit the amount you can invest, so they don’t run out of projects to support too soon.

Funny how one picks the projects to invest in. In the report they said that African projects get the most response, since there’s such great interest right now. Agricultural projects of course go well. The Taxi business needs their loan for a new engine, because their Toyota mini-bus always breaks down. Seemed urgent, but hasn’t gotten that many responses yet. I guess, because nobody likes cab drivers. Same goes for the rental businesses in the program, sicne everybody tends to see their landlord as the enemy. And the sunglass business? Hey, style can be essential too. Well alright, I picked that one for sentimental reasons, because it’s in Queretaro, where I went for one of my first hard news stories, covering the civil war in Guatemala and Queretaro was the town, where the rebels and the government held some meetings to discuss peace.

---

Become a micro-lender at Kiva.org

Germans Who Say Nice Things

---

Mehr davon

Steve Carell does a German who says nice things solo

Oaxaca Crisis

The situation in Oaxaca continues to heat up. Last Friday three people including New York journalist and activist Brad Will were shot dead by members of government backed death squad (see photo below). The crisis started, when Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz quelled protests after he allegedly stole the last election outcome in his state. A raid on a teachers' demonstration in the local Zocalo started riots, which still go on. Brad was a videographer for Indymedia, training fellow activists in documenting police abuse during hairy situations. He had established Indymedia branches in Latin America and had been beaten once while documenting an attack on homesteaders in Brazil.

In the US there were 15 demonstrations protesting his death. The gunmen are still on the loose. In a recent development the Zapatista are mobilizing for Oaxaca. In a speech in Chihuahua City Subcomander Marcos announced the Zapatista rebels' total support for the people of Oaxaca and summarized the situation: "As of today, the federales have killed at least three people, including a minor; left dozens injured, including several Oaxacan women; and detained dozens, who have been illegally held in military prisons." Mexico seems to be falling back into the pre-democratic days of 1970s and 1980s Latin America.

---

Brad Will's last report, when he filmed being shot

Brad Will sings at the Change You Want To See Gallery

Mexican report on Will's death and the crisis in Oaxaca

A memorial site for Brad Will with a letter of support signed by a.o. Tariq Ali, Noam Chomsky, Mike Davis, Eve Ensler, Danny Glover,Michael Moore, Mira Nair, Arundhati Roy, Alice Walker and Howard Zinn.

Bruno

Of course the signing of 'Bruno' was the inevitable consequence of Borat mania. Universal won a heated bidding war, paying 42 million $ to Sacha Baron Cohen for the movie rights to his third alter ego, flamboyantly gay Austrian fashion reporter Bruno. Judging from his interview with pastor Quinn in Little Rock/Arkansas who specializes in gay conversion, this might be at least as funny as Borat. Which starts to suffer from over-exposure, Borat's Letterman appearance being the tipping point.

The best jokes are of course still written by real life. A gay man has claimed that he had had a three year sexual relationship with mega-church founder Pastor Ted Haggard, who is both Bush's spiritual advisor and the evangelical spearhead against gay culture. Could of course be just an election ploy.

---

Watch Bruno interviewing the dear pastor on the Ali G. Show

Christian Nuts

Turns out all that Christian posturing by the administration was pure political opportunism. Not that this comes as a too big surprise, but as always it took a whistleblower. In this case it is David Kuo, who used to work as the special assistant to the president and was responsible for the White House Office Of Faith-Based Inititatives. According to his book Bush's chief strategist Karl Rove saw the evangelical leaders as 'nuts'. When the faith-based program was rolled out a bit too hastily, Rove answered an aide who complained 'Just get me a fucking faith-based thing. Got it?'. It worked though. Out of the 20 races targeted with Christian strategies, the Republicans won 19. Which might happen again on coming Tuesday.

---

David Kuo's book is called 'Tempting Faith'

Watch David Kuo on Bill Maher.

And on 60 Minutes Part 1 and Part 2

In Memoriam Willi Ninja

Last night's Choice Awards ceremony at Cielo was in large parts a memorial to Willi Ninja, who passed away September 2nd. MC Ultra Naté stepped away for a while to make room for Willi's favorite House diva Barbara Tucker, followed by the lastest incarnation of his House Of Ninja recreating most of his classic dance moves a dozen deep. It wasn't exactly a full-blown ball, but a heartbreakingly sincere celebration of the House founder's legacy. Which according to Guy Trebay now lives on all over the nation with balls and houses springing up as far as in LA and Arizona.

---

Watch Willi and the House of Ninja

There's a heartbreaking video from a fundraiser, when Willi couldn't dance anymore, just sitting on stage crying while Barbara Tucker sang for him.

The Anna-Nicolisation Of Jessica Simpson

What greater joy than watching stars implode in public. They reran Jessica Simpson's last appearance on the Tonight show. Which was way beyond her usual ditz, charting the unknown territories of pharmaceutically altered behaviour. It was hard to decide, which moments reminded us more of that other Texan bombshell. Was it the well-choregraphed recurring apperances of her cleavage, the slight slur in her speech or her rolling eyes worthy of an early 20th century minstrel show? Although a highpoint in the genre of 'celebrities just moments before their puclic breakdown' (which actually came a few days later during her sister's birthday party in London), it was a sad moment for Jay Leno, who seemed to be remote-controlled by Simpsons' creepy father-manager. Working his way down a checklist of gossip issues Jessica wanted to spin her way, his execution seemed even more wooden than usual. Foreshadowing greater things to come might be Simpson's new video, in which she blatantly rips off pre-breakdown Mariah.

---

Watch Jessica Simpson imitate Mariah

Celebrity Colonialism

Why are African kids all the rage now? Because they are oh so cute and Bosnian kids look too much like your maid in London? Because South East Asia is so 1973 and Gary Glitter's escapades in Vietnam somehow made having Asian kids a bit degoutant? And what could be next in celebrity colonialism? Keith Richards buying himself a new liver, preferrably in the Muslim world?

---

Watch Madonna teach Africans how to dance in the beginning of the news report on the case.

Cocksucker Blues

After they had released 'Exile On Main Street' in 1972, the Rolling Stones commissioned cover photographer Robert Frank to shoot a documentary of their US tour. The result was a hazy film full of scenes like Keith Richards nodding off backstage, roadies doing groupies and staged orgies. The Stones never released the film. Frank sued them and was allowed to screen the film once a year only once. There are some bootlegs around. Excerpts have now found their way onto YouTube. Watch the first clip, when Keith Richards and a roadie throw a TV set out of high rise hotel room. Not as much glamour and rebellion as Rock myhtology might make you believe.

---

Watch excerpts from Cocksucker Blues

Fania

Johnny Pacheco celebrated his 50th year at the Madison Square Garden Theater with a Fania All Stars concert. Proving once more that they are one of the best live acts of all time, having never lost a bit of steam since they played Kinshasa in '74 (see above).

R.I.P. Willi Ninja

It was the summer of '89 and Willi was sashaying up the hill to Schloss Neuschwanstein, that overly campy castle in the Bavarian mountains, which became the blueprint for the castle in Disney's Cinderella and subsequent corproate logo. Those Bavarians didn't quite know what to make of the King of Vogue who upstaged King Ludwig's castle that day. That glamorous charisma was the reason, why Malcom McLaren gave him center stage and Madonna just stole his dancers. Which (ever the den mother of the House of Ninja) he took in stride. After all, his protegees got to travel the world and dance in 'Truth or Dare' and the video for 'Vogue', while he went on to teach Naomi and Paris and dance in highbrow productions.

He'll be missed,

---

There's a tribute to Willi Ninja with a list of links

There's also a video tribute to him on YouTube

Willi leading the house at the Love Ball

Hot Blooded

Hackers got into Governor Schwarzenegger's computer and published a recording , which was made during a speechwriting session with Schwarzenegger and his chief of staff, Susan Kennedy. They speculate about the ethnic background of state Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia. After ruminating if she was Cuban or Puerto Rican, Schwarzenegger says:"They are all very hot. They have the, you know, part of the black blood in them and part of the Latino blood in them that together makes it."

This should come as no surprise to historians. Another one of Schwarzenegger's timeless appreciations of Latin traits comes from his documentaryCarnival in Rio, which he shot for the Playboy Channel in 1983. While observing some scantily clad Samba dancers at Club Oba Oba in Rio Schwarzenegger muses: „You know something, after watching the mulatas shake it, I can absolutely understand why Brazil is totally devoted to my favorite body part: the ass."

---

Time for a repost - watch Arnold in Rio

Way Down South

If you know our best man Rich you probably know that he's way down South in Antarctica doing sound on a film with director Anne Aghion and cinematographer Sylvestre Guidi. Even if you don't - he's been writing a blog about his days in the ice, which might be one of the best blogs around. Because it's brillant writing, not random blogging. From a place few ever get to go.

Photos by Richard Fleming (hills near McMurdo) and Anne Aghion (Rich On Ice).

---
Read A Brooklynite On Ice

Official film site

Better Behave

There's a brillant new idea for making air travel safer: Behaviour Detection Officers. The TSA trained airport screeners to look, if you seem nervous, anxious, angry or in any other mood classified as potentially dangerous. Observed are facial expressions, body and eye movements, changes in vocal pitch and other indicators of stress or disorientation. The system is called Screening Passengers by Observation Technique, or SPOT. They're already on duty (see photo from Dulles Airport). The Israelis developed the program, although it sounds more like it was inspired by the 'What the fuck are YOU looking at'-school of communications from the streets of New York City. It all makes sense in the grander scheme. If America really wants to be the bully, it was about time it behaves that way on micro-levels as well.

Here in the US there have already been cases, where passengers were threatened with detention, just because their behaviour didn't please the officers. So remember: Don't pick your nose at check-in. Sit up straight at the gate. Don't get fresh with ground personnel. No smoking in the bathrooms. No chatting in the aisles. No soda pop in backpacks. Reminds you of third grade? Well, back then you got away with a scolding. Now it might land you on some no-fly list.

---
Try "The Micro Expression Training Tool" developed by Paul Ekman, who helped the T.S.A. set up the new screening program, based partly on recognizing facial expressions.

New York State Of Mind

How many more old lefties trying to regain some relevance by milking the 911 tragedy does New York have to endure? First Bruce Springsteen. Then Neil Young. Now Oliver Stone wants to reinvent himself as a kind of Hollywood Norman Rockwell by bringing us a family values version of the attacks (did the backlash after his celebrity worshipping docs of Castro and Arafat have anything to do with that?). He does succeed in giving a taste of being trapped under megatons of rubble, by burying his audience under two very long hours of patriot shlock. But if a guy who rarely leaves the rosy hills of Hollywood wants to immortalize New York's biggest trauma, he at least might wanna know what he's doing.

Right at the beginning Stone outs himself as an out-of-towner. First there's the classic view from East Broadway with the NYC court and the Woolworth Building behind the Manhattan Bridge, which in the early morning of Septemer 11 would've still had the Twin Towers looming behind (missing in this shot). Then there's the Staten Island Ferry going South past the Statue of Liberty, cut to a guy glaring at the approaching skyline (which would mean going North).

The most obvious bungle is the turnaround moment of the first act, when officer Jimeno catches American Airlines flight # 11's shadow on the Westin Times Square Hotel's colorful facade. Which wasn't up yet that day (see photo, which shows the hotel's state of construction in December 2001). And oh yeah - the way that plane's flying North? It would've hit the Adam Clayton Powell State Office Bulding in Harlem and not the Twin Towers. C'mon Oliver Stone. Don't treat New York Ugly American style, like some Middle-Eastern backwater where it doesn't matter what's left and what's right. Alright, shoddy artistic license ain't half as bad as shoddily fucking up the War on Terror. Although it might explain the empty New York theaters last weekend.

---
Watch the trailer featuring two and half of the aforementioned moments.

Deutschland

So Germans started to feel good about themselves again, waving their flag in soccer stadiums, music videos and from their car windows. It was kind of interesting to see who put away the flags after the soccer world cup was over and who didn't. Here in the US flags mostly adorn SUV and Pickups. German flag wavers tend to drive economy and compact cars.

Part of Germany's rather relaxed new soccer-craze-fueled self-assurance is also a new will to make fun of Hitler. Director Dani Levy has shot a comedy with Dadaist comedian Helge Schneider playing Hitler. And cartoon superstar Walter Moers sets Hitler's last musings to some Reggae beats:

Back In Town

Here's a new highlight in the history of bureaucracy courtesy of the Lufthansa ground personnel in Munich on a Sunday morning 6AM. "Yes you are in the computer, but I cannot process you, if you don't have a printout of your booking." - "But you see me listed as booked in the computer?" - "Yes, Sir." - "So you could print out the booking." - "I'm not authorized to do that." Lengthy discussions, a printout faxed from New York and good old Teutonic bitchiness are followed by a twin-engine turbo-prop flight to Frankfurt due to a lack of passengers to fill a jet, which makes the trip 20 minutes longer, so almost everybody on board had quite close connections, because who in his right mind would take a Sunday 6AM flight to Frankfurt, if he hadn't a connection to catch. Whatever happened to German efficiency? C'mon, you invented prejudice, so at least live up to the ones about you.

Gone Surfing

Bushwick

New Larry Clark film coming out . Same story (wiry teenage skater boys meet skinny teenage suburban girls, random sex and violence happen), different city (Los Angeles). All according to the tried and true Larry Clark formula and as long as you're able to forget, that he was already 38, when he shot his legendary photos for 'Teenage Lust' some 25 years ago, it is indeed the essence of teenage sex and weltschmerz hip. So what better place to have a movie premiere than a block party in Brooklyn. In Bushwick! The latest frontier of urban grit, where Larry Clark took his sponsors to boldly go where no corporation has ever gone before.

He found the perfect media partner in American Apparel whose campaign outright stole his visual language. Lately American Apparel turned into the new Starbucks though. It's now just another corporation looking for street cred, always hot on the trails of hipster real estate pioneers. Each store signals the end of a bohemian era in that particular neighborhood. They just opened a very mall-looking one on Smith Street, which looks eerily out of place. Kind of a bridgehead of suburbia, just like the Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle. We all know what's next - rent hikes, soccer mom SUVs and the cotton dockers crowd. Bushwick! You're next...

---
Trailer promo for 'Whassup Rockers'.

Music video style promo for 'Whassup Rockers'.

Official website promo for 'Whassup Rockers'.

We Call It Life

Here's the nominee for lifetime achievement in corporate spin:
The Competitive Enterprise Institute came up with a campaign to stem the rising tide of global warming awareness (pun intended) with the slogan 'They call it pollution - we call it life'. The message is - carbon dioxides are actually good for us. You know, the stuff that cute kids breathe out and majestic trees breathe in. So basically Al Gore and his regulation-crazed eco-Nazis want to outlaw breathing! And you thought 'Thank You For Smoking' was an exaggeration.

Just in case you wonder, who's behind the self-proclaimed 'non-profit public policy organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government', here's a list of some of the organisations financing the Competitive Enterprise Institute:

Amoco Foundation, Inc., American Petroleum Institute, Coca-Cola Company, Detroit Farming Inc., Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Company Fund, General Motors Corporation,Gilder Foundation, IBM, Koch Family Foundations, Philip Morris Companies, Inc., Pfizer Inc., and Texaco, Inc..

---
Watch the "We Call It Life" spot. There's also a spot claiming that the glaciers are not melting, but actually growing.

Trailer for "Thank You For Smoking"

A Soviet Moment

That was a rather Soviet moment - the post office just returned a book I had sent out to Europe about a week ago. There were some ominous looking hieroglyphic codes on the envelope and a very official looking sticker saying: "We regret that your mail is being returned to you because of heightened security measures." Turns out any mail weighing over 16 ounces has to be presented to a postal clerk in person. The equally Soviet style lines at any US post office make mailing letters heavier than that of course a rather time-consuming task. Which will drive me into the arms of UPS and DHL, whose clerks actually serve you and even make house calls.

Although I have to admit that I do agree with the equation of overweight being a security threat. So next time one of those people whose lack of willpower makes them easy prey for any Twinky or Whopper that crosses their paths squeezes next to me on the subway, I will inform them that due to heightened security measures all passengers with a body mass index over 30 should report to an MTA clerk or any other transit authority official before boarding a train.

And yes - now that book would arrive way too late.

Summer

It's Jazz festival season in New York with the JVC Festival taking the traditional route to larger audiences and the Vision Festival proving that New York City can still be daring. Friends had even planned to come over from Europe to see some shows. Until they found out they could see all that music much more conveniently in Montreux, Saalfelden and Burghausen. There's gonna be some great shows, like the Herbie Hancock quartet with Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland and Brian Blade or the Joseph Jarman Ensemble. Not that anybody really has anything to add to what has been said some fourty years ago, when crazed innovators could make the cover of Time.

---
The Thelonius Monk Quartet "Epistrophy"

The Thelonius Monk Quartet doing a whole set starting with "Round About Midnight"

Miles Davis & John Coltrane "So What"

Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers featuring Wayne Shorter and Lee Morgan "Dat Dere"

A Soldier's Song

The Marine Corps is currently rather embarassed about a video that appeared on the internet and shows a Marine singing a song called 'Hadji Girl'. Amongst US soldiers in Iraq 'Hadji' is a derogatory slur for Iraqis. The song, which the soldier sings to a crowd of jeering comrades, tells the story about a firefight. In the heat of battle a young girl appears out of nowhere and invites this Marine to meet her family. She is leading him into an ambush. When they arrive at her home, the girl's father and brother open fire, the Marine hits the ground and the girl is killed by her brother and father's gunfire.The girl's father and brother are still intent on killing the Marine so he grabs the girl's sister and the brother and father then proceed to gun her down also in their haste to kill the Marine.

The song's lyrics go: "I grabbed her little sister and put her in front of me. As the bullets began to fly, the blood sprayed from between her eyes, and then I laughed maniacally. . .I blew those little fuckers to eternity . . .They should have known they were fucking with the Marines."

The singer is Corporal Joshua Belile. Nine months ago he performed before his fellow Marines in Iraq. Marine spokeseman Lieutenant Colonel Scott Fazekas said: "The video that was posted anonymously is clearly inappropriate and contrary to the high standards expected of all Marines. The video is not reflective of the tremendous sacrifices and dedication demonstrated, on a daily basis, by tens of thousands of marines who have assisted the Iraqi people in gaining their freedom." Belile now says his song was just a joke and the words bore no relation to actual events in Iraq. He has apologised and promised never again to sing those lyrics.

The song is not the first example of violent lyrics from the frontlines. The GIs belonging to the rap group 4th25 had recorded a whole album while being stationed in the Baghdad suburb of Sadr City. Which make the drug-hazed frontline culture of GIs in Vietnam look rather tame.

---
4th25 video in - wmv ... flash ... realplayer

4th25 - Homepage

Brazil

That 1 : 0 against Croatia was of course disappointing, especially after months of bombarding the global public with promises of miracle work like in the already legendary one-take video Ronaldinho did for a sneaker company, which is indeed quite amazing, even if you consider the very simple trick used to enable the almost supernatural longshots.

---
Watch Ronaldinho work his magic

Cat Power

OCD might not be the best precondition for a Rock Star career, but despite the ticks and fits Cat Power's Town Hall show was unbelievably good. And how many people get to have their videos shot by 'Kids'-writer Harmony Korine. But it sure helps to have a voice somewhere between Marianne Faithful and Dusty Springfield and a backbeat like Ben Webster or Dexter Gordon, which makes even songs like 'House of the Rising Sun' or 'Hit the Road Jack' sound fresh.

---
Cat Power's "Living Proof" directed by Harmony Korine, plus "Fool", "He War", and "Cross Bones Style".

Cat Power drunk at a Karaoke Bar doing "Slim Shady" and The Kinks.

Puerto Rican Day

It's Puerto Rican Day weekend. Miguel Cotto's fighting at the Garden, El Gran Combo plays the Copa, Parade under the tutelage of Grand Marshal Marc Anthony starts Sunday 11AM at 44th and 5th.

P.S.: Despite the hometown crowd's cheering for Brooklyn-based underdog Paulie Malignaggi, Cotto won by unanimous decision. Although nobody beats Malignaggi's Gotti-kid-hairstyle and his excellent pouting for the cameras.

---
Watch the promo for the Cotto-Malignaggi fight

Watch Malignaggi's reel

Watch a summary of the fight

Paranoid Yet?

So the government knows who you called overseas, what you wrote in your last e-mail to Europe and what kinky searches you did on Google. Ever wondered what'll happen to all the information you give everytime you go to the Doctor, use your a membership or credit card? The ACLU came up with a scenario that's not as far-fetched as you think it'd be.

---
What'll happen when you order Pizza

How To Get Ahead On Television

There might be no pundit more brillant than Ann Coulter, who has mastered the art of hatemongering as entertainment and now topped herself by slandering 911 widows . That unhinged even the eternally friendly Today Show's Matt Lauer and got her a cover of the Daily News. Not too bad for a book launch. Now hear the roaring applaus from the heartland and watch her new book shoot up the bestseller lists.

---
Ann Coulter slandering 911 widows on the Today Show

The Best Of Ann Coulter

Just Relax, That's What Jesus Would Do

In this week's issue of the New Yorker Sasha Frere-Jones is musing about the reasons, why so many British popstars make it anywhere in the world, but in the US. There are some exceptions and 'their lyrics tend to be uplifting; they lack identifiably English accents, and they avoid British slang unfamiliar to Americans.' So forget about cynical superstars like Robbie Williams, whose new single rips religions old and new and advises his listeners 'Just relax, that's what Jesus would do.' Case in point.

Department of Porkland Security

In the spirit of Gerald Ford the new Homeland Security budget sent a clear message: DHS to New York: Drop Dead!

DHS chief Michael Chertoff announced that the anti-terror budget for New York City will be slashed by 40.1 percent. At the same time the budgets for some cities hitherto not known as prime targets for terrorist attacks were raised - Louisville, Kentucky + 41.2 %, Omaha, Nebraska + 38,8 %, Jacksonville, Florida 26 % etc. etc.

Mayor Bloomberg commented: "When you stop a terrorist, they have a map of New York City in their pocket. They don't have a map of any of the other 46 places or 45 places [that get funding]." He left no doubt, that it's pork barrelling that’s at play here: "We tried to do an analysis of some of the moneys and whether or not they were given out for political reasons, and in fact in many of the places where they got money — but arguably there's no threat — there are close connections either at the Senate level or the House level.“

In the meantime the Daily News got hold of documents, which revealed the criteria for the budget assessments. Turns out DHS classified New York as a city with no significant landmarks or national icons. Bloomberg's seen it too: "All I can tell you is if you look at their worksheets, and it says that New York City doesn't have any high visibility national icons ... I mean, I don't have to list the Brooklyn Bridge, the United Nations, Rockefeller Center, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building and the Stock Exchange."

The document did note a commuter population of more than 16 million around the city twice struck by fundamentalist terrorists and twice more targeted in plots halted in pre-operational stages. It noted the more than eight million residents and the largest rail ridership in the nation - more than five million. It is those commuters and rail riders who are expected to suffer most from the cuts since mass transit is listed on most DHS alerts as the top terror target.

Now the Daily News calls for Chertoff's resignation. Might be a good idea, before we get Katrina'd up the Hudson. Not that we New Yorkers aren't willing to support the war against terror, that still fills us with fear everytime the subways stops dead in a tunnel or makes us duck for a milisecond, when a jetliner flies by just a little to low or makes us worry, when there's stand-offs with apocalyptic leaders of Islamic nations harboring nuclear ambitions. But when some bureacrat cronies start to treat us like cannon fodder, we get a bit testy. Maybe secession is the solution. Make New York City a protectorate of the E.U., kind of a Hong Kong of the Western hemisphere. Hey - if New York City was a country, it would be the 17th largest economic power in the world. New Yorkers generate a GDP of 500 billion a year. That's more than Switzerland and almost as much as Russia. Let's see, how long the US would survive without us.

Farewell, au revoir, leb wohl, hasta nunca!

Dreamworlds

The devil, the apocaplypse, all true believers going to heaven, while special holy forces mow down all the non-believers. Best of all - that cesspool of sin, the ugly Moloch New York in ruins. No, that's not Ahmadinejad's platform for re-election, but the basic premise for the video game version of the legendary 'Left Beind'-series of fundamentalist novels by Tim Lahaye, which are based on prophecies from the Bible's Book of Revelation. Quite an irresistible tagline:
Conduct physical & spiritual warfare : using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.

If you are a bit more secular minded and you're really into gepolitics there's 'Mercenaries 2 - World in Flames'. As the website promises:
'A power-hungry tyrant messes with Venezuela's oil supply, sparking an invasion that turns the country into a warzone. But for you, international crisis is all upside: You are a mercenary, and you profit from chaos.' And they said gaming is just frivolous escapism.

---
Watch a video trailer for 'Left Behind Games'

Check out 'Mercenaries 2 - World in Flames'

Pull My Daisy

Watch it while you can - YouTube has a copy of the legendary Beatnik film 'Pull My Daisy' online. It was shot during Januar '59 in painter David Leslie's loft on 4th Avenue and 12th Street, directed by Leslie and Swiss photographer Robert Frank (already famous for his book 'The Americans'), written and narrated by Jack Kerouac, featuring Allen Ginsberg, his lover Peter Orlovsky, Gregory Corso, Larry Rivers and music by David Amram. "Pull My Daisy" was first screened in November 1959 at New York's Cinema 16 festival on a double bill with John Cassavetes' Shadows'.

The film's script was based on the third act of Kerouac's play 'The Beat Generation', which in turn was based on an evening at Neal Cassadys' home in Los Gatos in 1955, when a visit of the local bishop and his elderly mother and aunt coincided with the unexpected arrival of Kerouac, Allan Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky.The visit turned into a nightmare for Carolyn, Neal Cassady’s wife. After tea had been served, Ginsberg sat between the two elderly women and asked brightly, "Now, what about sex?" Caressing a bottle of wine, Kerouac slouched down on the floor by the bishop's legs and fell into a drunken sleep. As Carolyn tried to carry on a normal conversation with her guests, Kerouac would wake up now and then, look at the bishop, say, "I love you", then go back to sleep.

---
Watch „Pull My Daisy“.

Digital Maoism

Jaron Lanier just published a brillant, if not seminal essay on the pitfalls of all implications of Web 2.0 in John Brockman's online forum Edge.org. It's titled 'Digital Maoism - The Hazards of the New Online Collectivism' and starts with the question "The hive mind is for the most part stupid and boring. Why pay attention to it?" and delves deep into the new forms of collectivism that start to transform the public sphere. I remember the dreadlocked Lanier from the early cyberpunk days in the San Francisco of the ealry 90s, when R.U. Sirius was publishing Mondo 2000 and Timothy Leary praised the psychedelic qualities of virtual reality. Lanier was another VR believer, a fact that he now describes as youthful hype.

---
Read the essay Digital Maosim

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! It's Fear Pandering!

Did anybody notice the shamless pandering to 911 fears in the trailer for „Superman Returns“? The hero's high speed flight through the skyscraper canyons of Metropolis looking not so different from American Airlines Flight 11 crashing into the North Tower in the trailer for Oliver Stone's "World trade Center". The terrified masses looking up into the sky as seen in the numerous photo essays from that day. The burning, crashing plane tumbling towards the ground with the images of struggling pilots and passengers evoking „United 93“. The cathartic ascending of Superman and Lois over the Daily Planet's Globe, which looks like Fritz Koenig’s sculpture „The Sphere“ from the World Trade Center Plaza. The eerie resemblance of Planet Krypton to Ground Zero in the weeks after the attacks.

Maybe this is as oversensitive as the poltical correctness brigade’s search for traces of mysognism and racism in blockbuster movies. But hey, we live in New York after all. Just this morning some low-flying jets were following a bulky transporter plane in the skies over Brooklyn. Some fleet week air show partiot prancing of military hardware. Still - the sounds of non-civilian planes chasing each other overhead even got the bunch of burly construction workers across the street to look up rather worried.

P.S.: And now that they're still crusing around over our heads - enough already! It's New York City! We get NERVOUS, when you strafe us! And start to wonder what the FUCK you're lookin' at!

---
Watch the trailer for „Superman Returns“.

Watch the trailer for „United 93“.

Watch the trailer for Oliver Stone’s „World Trade Center“.

Website for the documentary „Koenig's Sphere“.

NY1 clip on the Fleet Week Overflights.

Simulacrum of Freedom and Democracy

Of course there are no surprises in an ‚American Idol’ season, just as there are no surprises in a new Starbucks drink or a Tom Cruise movie. Every new twist and flavor will be comfortably familiar. Which is exactly the point. So in this week’s AI final you had the two classic embodiments of Pop music – a white boy with severly challenged motor skills imitating black men and a high-strung brat who can well up on command. No question who was about to win (that princess behaviour just goes so far after all). The really scary moment was of course Ryan Seacrest’s ratings brag “63.4 million votes were cast - more than any US President in history has received", which was immediately taken as just another proof for the degeneration threatening the fabric of America by cultural pessimists from Huffington Post to the Chinese State Press Agency. Well, in a presidential election you can vote just once and so far there has always been at least one more candidate, so the correct comparison would've been, that this American Idol finale had more combined votes amassed by millions of teenagers texting verociously for four hours than any presidential election since before 1960.

Being that most pop phenomena are the perfect simulacra for freedom and democracy, with a choice of syrup flavors standing in for opportunities and a religious fanatic for a moral hero, “American Idol” is of course a wonderful substitute for your right to have your vote count. There we have it – all the excitement of an election year, real results and a clear winner without the consequences of having voted in an incompetent cronyist. There was actually one surprising moment – a bespectacled David Hasselhoff tearing up in the presence of another primetime idol ready for his very brief moment of glory with the prospect of spending your retirement on the German county fair and variety show circuit (yup, Kelly Clarkson made it to the Top 10 over there without being on the highest rated prime time TV spectacle for months on end ).

---
Watch a white boy imtating white dudes who imitated black guys.

Listen to Taylor Hick's pre-Idol music on Alabama's NPR affiliate WBHM's website, where you can download some of his songs like Soul Thing

Watch ambition to the point of tears.

Hear David Hasselhoff sing German on German TV. And if you must - watch him sing a German Christmas carroll looking like an odd mix between John Holmes and Al Gore.

David Spade on the AI finale.

World Trade Center # 7

So now there's the first fully functional rebuilt office tower at Ground Zero - World Trade Center number seven. There was a bit of triumphalism in the air, when Larry Silverstein cut the ribbon and Jeff Koons unveiled his exuberant "Balloon Flowers" sculpture. And since around Ground Zero every gesture's weight and meaning is automatically amplified a thousand fold, the gestures not made registered almost as much. Notably absent from the ceremony were all those politicos who just last fall had scrambled for podium time at the groundbreaking for the Calatrava terminal. Hillary and the mayor, the governor and even a minister from D.C. had talked in length about the grandiosity of rebuilding and how a strong New York means a strong America.

That was of course before they wrestled control over Ground Zero from Silverstein to prop themselves up as the can-do people in this swamp of inertia and paralysis. Sorry, as of today Mr. Silverstein is the first to come through with any promise down there on the ground. He was modest about it. Well, as modest as a billionaire with the air of an old-school New York City don can be. The building itself is triumph enough though. The David Childs designed monolith in mirrored glass towers over the gaping hole like a set piece from a Superman movie.

To get on good terms with the New Yorkers the much scolded Silverstein not only gave New York sculptures by Koons and Jenny Holzer, but also a lunchtime concert featuring seven New York City staples. Citizen Cope brought the appopriate despair. The Brazilian Girls stumbled through some shoddily looped tracks. Lou Reed sang 'Perfect Day' with such gravity that it sounded like it was his last, followed by a version of 'Sweet Jane' that he interspersed with cold cut tirades about McCain's infamous stump speeches at the graduation ceremonies at Columbia and New School. 'The same speech like at Liberty? Who does he think we are? Hillbillies?", he scoffed. "He'll never ever be elected by anybody with more than a 6th grade education." Reed was followed by enigmatic Suzanne Vega who dutifully sang 'Luca' and 'Tom's Diner' (she was a bit miffed about the rather lame audience participiation during the chorus, but hey, sorry, the 80s been over for a while now). Heartfelt highlight of the show was her brand new song 'New York Is A Woman':

New York City is a woman who's had a hard time,
but still is a heartbreaker.
She's every girl you've seen in every movie,
Every girl you've seen on late-nite TV,
In her steam and steel is the pain you feel,
New York is a woman who will make you cry,
Enter her and you're just another guy.

P.S.: Talking about symbolic triumphalism - one of the first tenants of World Trade Center Numver Seven is Chinese real estate tycoon Feng Lun who intends to use the top five floors for what he calls a business and cultural "China Center". Take that, old-school western economies!

Rocket Man

This of course makes William Shatner the godfather of irony.

Paris Is Burning

That Luc Besson produced action flic that had foreshadowed the Paris riots will be coming to American theaters in June. In 2004 Luc Besson of 'Femme Nikita'-'Fifth Element'-'Transporter' fame produced the film Banlieue 13, which told the story of gangs in a future, when the French government has erected walls between the ghetto projects and the communities of the affluent and rich. Not exactly French social critique, but surely a perfect summer flic.
---

Watch the US trailer for Disctrict B 13

Paranoia Nation

There was great alarm in Washington. Supposedly Jihadists had manipulated computergames to recruit the gullible youth of Arabia. The Defense Department got the Science Applications International Corporation from San Diego on a seven million Dollar retainer to monitor about 1500 militant websites by groups like Al-Qaida. SAIC’s major scoop was a clip from a supposedly modified version of the ego-shooter game Battlefield 2, which shows Islamist insurgents blowing up US military vehicles with an array of RPGs and remote-controlled roadside bombs, with a soundtrack made out of an insurgent talking about his way into Islamism, snippets from Bush speeches, anti-Iraqi televangelist quotes, islamist sermons and wild Arab pop music.

Which could’ve been the first give-away. Islamic fundamentalists are forbidden to listen to music, so the wild accordions would definitely be „haram“. If you were just a bit pop culture savy you also could have identified the voice of the insurgent as „South Park“ creator Trey Parker’s voice-over from the movie „Team America“. Just one google image search would have identified the „Sonic Jihad“ logo in the beginning as the lettering from rapper Paris’ album by that name. Some of the Islamists on the soundtrack are indeed authentic, but those videos they shoot during their attacks have been widely available on the web for a while now. So it turns out, this clip is one of the numerous mods created by gamers, modified game modes or sequences, that sometimes are like mini-movies.

This particular mod had been created by a gamer who calls himself Sonic Jihad and was published on the pages of the Planet Battlefield forum. Forum members of course had a field day. After all the mod had been presented before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence by a Pentagon specialist for public diplomacy by name of Dan Devlin.

Still, Reuters, Fox News and the Washington Post dutifully reported the potential threat from the world of gaming. Reuters closes it’s story with the stern warning: „Critics of the U.S. video game industry have long blamed the products for violence among American teenagers in civilian society, including high-profile shootings at public schools. SAIC executive Eric Michael said researchers suspect Islamic militants are using video games to train recruits and condition youth to attack U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq.”

---
Download the mod by Sonic Jihad

kick, push... coast

Any song that makes you feel like 15 again is a very likely contender for a summer hit. Here's the first of the season... "Kick Push" by Lupe Fiasco. He's a Kanye West protege from Chicago with an album scheduled for a late June release. "Kick Push" gott all the makings of an old-school summer classic - a hook remniscent of Naughty By Nature's "Hip Hop Hooray" and Fat Joe's "Lean Back", sentimental summer afternoon lyrics in the tradition of DJ Jazzy Jeff & Fresh Princes' "Summertime" and every other song by Jill Scott, plus golden hour harmony beats echoing A Tribe Called Quest's "Electric Relaxation" and Ill Al Skratch's "Where's My Homiez". Soon to be heard from a car window in your neighborhood.

Google Killed The Video Star

Gary Brolsma's "Numa Numa Dance" and those Chinese boys doing "That Is What I Want" was just the beginning. Now there's googleidol, where webcam stars compete for an induction into the googleidol hall of fame. First inductees - an interpretation of Aretha's "Respect" by Dutch duo Pomme and Kelly and Rockin the Bury from New Jersey doing "Eye Of The Tiger. Now German online portal Spiegel Online started their own webcan karaoke competition. And British band Motorettes is casting a video on googleidol.

---
Vote for your googleidol

Watch a German clip about the phenomenon and compete on Spiegel Online

Skinny Bears

CNN just aired another one of their features using cute animals to drive home a poltical point. In late March they had done a piece about puppy smuggling to drum up support for anit-immigrations legislation. This time for a good cause though. It's the harrowing story of the Hudson Bay polar bears, who are now endangered, because the ice melts earlier in spring and freezes over later in fall. That means that the polar bears have less and less time to feed up for their four month hibernation. Supposedly they already weigh significantly less than a few years ago. Some estimates predict that polar bears will be exstinct in the next few decades.

All this of course vividly demonstrates the effects of global warming. So now you know that everytime you take that SUV to the mall a polar bear cub has to die. Look at it! Dead! Because of your slothful ways!

Now it's been said that the easiest way to get Americans to think about saving gas and thus protecting the environment would be raising the gas price above US $ 3.-. Which just happened. Unfortunately one of George W. Bush's emergency measures is to losen the regulations for clean air, so gasoline producers don't have to supplement their product with expensive additives that make fuel burn with less emissions.

Not Funny

President and First Lady Bush were not amused, when Stephen Colbert closed this year's White House Correspondent's Dinner. On his show on comedy central former Daily Show member Colbert plays the host of a rightwing talkshow modeled after the O'Reilly factor.

Some of the puns that didn't fly with the First Couple:

Colbert urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
"I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
After scolding members of the press who claim the administration is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, Colbert said: “This administration is soaring, not sinking. If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

Editor & Publisher described the Bush's reaction: "As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and handshakes, and left immediately."

---
Watch the speech towards the end of the C-Span broadcast

You Are A Donkey Mr. Bush

At this very moment there’s a dramatic military stand-off that’s been gone largely unnoticed – between armed forces of the US of A and unapologetically anti-American OPEC nation Venezuela. The US has been conducting military maneuvers in the Caribean that have been suspiciously close to the Northern Coast of Venezuela. That nation’s populist government under General Hugo Chavéz has been a bit paranoid about the US’ activities ever since the so-called opposition movement almost turned into a CIA-backed coup four years ago. They got all the reason to be worried – with over a million barrells of oil shipped to the US each day they’re the fifth largest source for US oil imports.

Now the Venezuelans mobilized 13,500 men and launched a large-scale maneuver called Operation Integral Defence Patriot Navy that will last until June 15th. There’s a pretty good chance Venezuelan F-F-16s, ships or helicopters will encounter their American counterparts.

In the meantime Venezuela has become the main travel destination for lefties and Sandalistas from all over the world, just like Cuba, Nicaragua and Chiapas before. Chavéz has created armed militias though that supposedly are a civilian defense force. Looking at the examples of Guatemala and El Salvador in the 80s civil militias have never been a good idea for any Latin American country though.

---
See Chavéz taunting Bush.