August 2012
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UnBerlin Bingo
Today I saw:
A play whose curtain call ended after one individual and two ensemble rounds of bowing. Toto, we’re not in Europe anymore.
July 2012
10 posts
It's so surreal to me that I used to know this... →
I just listened to the new album, and it’s pretty excellent. As a big fan of both Michael Angelakos the musician and the guy named Mike I graduated high school with, I sincerely hope he’s able to get control of his mental health.
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Watch“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain,” sang Bob Marley once.
Another good thing about music? Sometimes it hits you and it hurts like hell.
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Dear Music Industry: We Are Not the Enemy
Hey, Tumblr, long time no rant! This time the lucky recipient of my ire is one David Lowery, who recently wrote this post about ethical consumption of music on the internet as a response to this post about not paying for music by Emily White, an intern at NPR All Songs Considered, which is in turn a response to this post by Bob Boilen about entrusting all his music to the cloud. Obviously, one...
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PTX Volume 1: A Cappella (and Electro-Pop) Like...
It was only a matter of time until this post. I would have gotten it out earlier—the debut EP from Sing-Off Season Three champions Pentatonix has been out for almost two weeks, after all—but I was too swamped with visitors and fun to give it my immediate attention. Then last weekend I was able to dedicate a good chunk of a 12-hour round trip train ride (less fun) to the seven tracks...
June 2012
2 posts
Me: What were you guys just talking about?
Andrew: You know, life. The universe. The whole ball of wax.
Me: "The whole ball of wax"? What a strange phrase. I don't think I've ever even seen a... Wait a second, what am I saying? I'm a Waldorf graduate, of course I've seen a ball of wax.
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May 2012
13 posts
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Berlin Bingo
Today I saw:
A mid-fifties woman sunbathing in a public park wearing nothing but black bikini bottoms and a lavender fedora.
Things That Are Stressing Me Out Right Now
Sunshine. The weather here has been ruthlessly, unrelentingly gorgeous for as long as I can remember now, like a week or something. The stress this causes is twofold: 1) I feel like I’m wasting my life if I spend even a single second indoors, especially since I have exactly zero what one would call “good reasons” to be indoors, and 2) As a pale person, going outside and...
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Things I Do When I'm Bored
Create Tumblrs about grammar:
http://yoisthisgramaticallycorrect.tumblr.com/
So now I have to ask: Where the ungrammatical internet peeps at?
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WatchWatching this (awesome) video made me realize something. The history of Germany is exactly like the story of an ex-child star who came back from a troubled past. Consider:
In 1871 it burst onto a scene full of aging nations, young and fresh but backed by a strong legacy. It did some great work right off the bat; everyone respected it and thought it was going places. Then it hit adolescence, got...
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April 2012
41 posts
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I Am What I Read: Day 29
Mad Men: At the Codfish Ball - Tom + Lorenzo (Pop Culture Commentary)
Chapters 1-3, Part Seven, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
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I Am What I Read: Day 28
Best Berliner Afternoon Ever - Midwestern Berliners (Personal Narrative)
Being a Writer - Patricia Wrede (Personal Narrative/Commentary)
For Chrissakes There Is Nothing Wrong With You: A Dating Manifesto - Lindy West (Commentary)
Chapters 3-8, Part Six, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
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High/Low
Been a while, but here are my respective high and low points of this week:
High: Going into a Spätkauf at one o’clock in the morning and discovering a brand of wine coolers called “Kalte Muschi.” (For those not familiar with dirty German slang, trust me that that is a hilarious name for a wine cooler. Especially at one o’clock in the morning.) (Okay, I’ll give you a...
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I Am What I Read: Day 27
*Chapter 6, Amnon Zichroni, Die Leinwand - Benjamin Stein (Fiction)*
Chapters 3-8, Part Five, Chapters 1-2, Part Six, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
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I Am What I Read: Day 26
A Complete Guide to Hipster Racism - Lindy West (Commentary)
Chapters 1-2, Part Five, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
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I Am What I Read: Day 25
On College: What Theatre, Shakespeare, and Improv Taught Me About Business - Write Like a Lady (Personal Narrative)
*Der Progrom, Im Keller, Ende, Damals War Es Friedrich - Hans Peter Richter (Young Adult Fiction)*
Chapters 1-8, Part Four, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
Chapter 1, The Writing Life - Annie Dillard (Autobiography)
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“Leni Riefenstahl war eine deutsche Filmemacherin, die viel zu alt geworden ist.”
– My professor speaks the truth.
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I Am What I Read: Day 24
Dear Kate - Midwestern Berliners (Personal Narrative)
He’s Not Just Quirky - pinkpancakes (Personal Narrative)
Chapters 1-8, Part Three, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
*Schulanfang, Damals War Es Friedrich - Hans Peter Richter (Young Adult Fiction)*
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I Am What I Read: Day 23
A Short Cut - Midwestern Berliners (Personal Narrative)
Chapters 1-8, Part Two, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
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I Am What I Read: Day 22
Little sleep + much writing = scant reading.
Seitz: Community is TVs Most Ambitious Show - Vulture (Pop Culture Commentary)
Mad Men: Far Away Places - Tom + Lorenzo (Pop Culture Commentary)
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I Am What I Read: Day 21
Chapters 2-8, Part One, The Book Thief - Markus Zusak (Young Adult Fiction)
Sorry, everything else on my reading list. You just got put on hold for a while.
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In Defense of Briony Tallis
I’ll be honest, I decided to read Atonement because I liked the movie. A few weeks ago, I stumbled across some random internet people’s opinions of the film and realized that maybe I’d had a much different reading of the story than everyone else. Now having finished the book, I’m pleased to know that it is I who is right. Take that, random internet people!
(Before I go any...
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I Am What I Read: Days 19 & 20
*Asterisks indicate titles in German*
*Chapters 4-5, Amnon Zichroni, Die Leinwand - Benjamin Stein (Fiction)*
Chapter 1, Imaginary Girls - Nova Ren Suma (Young Adult Fiction) Note: This was a Kindle sample. I’m not going to continue the book right now, but I’m definitely putting it on my list for later because I liked what I read.
Prologue-Chapter 1, Part One, The Book Thief -...
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I Am What I Read: Day 18
*Aterisks indicate titles in German*
Pages 330-351, Atonement - Ian McEwan (Fiction)
*Chapter 3, Amnon Zichroni, Die Leinwand - Benjamin Stein (Fiction)*
I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script - Josh Olson (Personal Narrative/Commentary)
Editorial Anonymous - Anonymous (Advice/Commentary) Note: Ditto what I said about Brooklyn Arden the other day. I want to publish books so bad!
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I Am What I Read: Day 17
*Asterisks indicate titles in German*
On Becoming a Writer: An Evening with Jenny Lawson - Write Like a Lady (Personal Narrative/Commentary)
And the Winner Isn’t - New York Times (Literary Commentary)
Pages 309-330, Part Three, Atonement - Ian McEwan (Fiction)
*Chapter 2, Amnon Zichroni, Die Leinwand - Beinjamin Stein (Fiction)*
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Amerikanerin
After finishing David Sedaris’s Me Talk Pretty One Day recently, I felt inspired to write up one of my own personal experiences as an American abroad. Many procrastinatory hours later, here it is!
When it comes to traveling in Europe, pretending to be Canadian is the American way. That’s been the case for so long, I can’t even remember what exactly we’re supposed to be...
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Berlin Bingo
Today I saw:
Someone standing in the middle of the crosswalk, taking a picture of the red Ampelmann.
