"Double Whammy" came out in 1987, but it's the best book I read this year: "A wacky tale of murder and mayhem at a big-stakes Florida bass tournament delightfully exposes corruption among the rod-and-reel set."

I really can't recommend this book enough. It's hard to put it on the right shelf. It should be filed under crime, humor and fiction in general at the same time. Hiaasen is an incredibly talented writer and if you read one, you wanna read all of his damned books. He's that good. He's funny, he writes great characters and, man, he's got issues. Lots of issues as we can learn from Carl Hiaasen's column for the Miami Herald.

I'm currently reading BASKET CASE, the one with the dead rockstar. Everyone who ever thought about buying tickets for the Led Zeppelin-reunion should check it out. It's probably the only book which has a title-track by Warren Zevon. Get the MP3 here!

Check around the homepage to find out more.

"Double Whammy" - Review from Publishers Weekly: "A Miami Herald reporter who struck a blow against corrupt entrepreneurs in Tourist Season, Hiaasen follows through with this acid satire, a real double whammy. Private detective R. J. Decker is hired to prove that TV host Dickie Lockhart cheats to win fortunes in Florida bass-fishing tournaments. The investigation makes Decker a prey to hired killers who have murdered other "snoops," but the detective also finds a strong if weird ally in a hermit who calls himself Skink. Along with two honest cops, Skink goes with Decker to the lake where a big tournament is under way and the four make a tremendous splash, to the dismay of the assembly. Hardest hit is Reverend Weeb, Lockhart's sponsor on the Outdoor Christian Network, whose generous supporters don't know that he's addicted to prostitutes, profanity and land-grabbing. The cast of bizarre characters and the suspenseful events confirm Hiaasen's reputation for creating singular villains and heroes. While he's probably unpopular among some fellow citizens in his home state, he will certainly please readers who appreciate the Swiftian wit in his cautionary tales. Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Read the first pages

Worthwhile checking out: this long article in Metrotimes Detroit about Richie Hawtin, "exotic Chinese meal rituals like the beheading of live snakes, whose blood is immediately drained into glasses and drunk, and whose innards are scraped out and eaten," the Berlin-Detroit-Connection, Techno and a couple of other things.

1. The Customer (middle-aged, North American, reasonably well off, lost):

berliners are terrible tippers, no? today she bore her ten-thousandth tray of beer and coffee, still they settled the bill awfully precisely. straight-spined as ever, when her studies finish and home reclaims her i'm sure it is she who will be served. but where is home? some

equatorial city, packed traffic like a split gut alight with hot necklaces? i imagine the weight of the green floods mountain's dark body, cocoa-leaves consuming the breakfast of the earth. and the erogenous smoke. and the scent of the indigene for hire. did her childhood mingle with

music in festival streets where every third face greeted was a christ and the mud so fat it tingled with that secret vitamin the too-rich spice of ideological blood? was she touched, or buoyed as in a flood

at market by fingertips black as beans, jostled by the magistrate's mocha elbow in line to purchase manioc, molasses, shell-fish or plantain? i'm certain she wore white dresses for sundays, shining against the novelistic sky like an offering. is there any truth in my imagination? conversation would enlighten, but as yet i only have courage to

overtip

2. The Waitress (young, “foreign”, sure of herself):

how can i bear this cold country, the lunar stares they bare to curiosities? i, the sapid black of heliologic scarring, most of all suffer breathing the dark air of their language. did i immigrate to apply the mercy of my questionable beauty to the aesthetic wound of this city? or was i driven by premonitions of hunger or political violence or just escaping the luxurious green cancer of equatoriality; the too-real sun; the chaos of the market; the life-threatening excellence of nature's stupidity? (even the graves) (stay obscene with) (fertility). perhaps after all i came to improve myself through sacrifice, denied even the occasional relief of merely belonging. you, too, know

the weird lure of berlin, her native race of Beamtendeutschemenschen, hungering for (yet set against) everything in us un-german

3. A moment of Loudness (for Mailer):

.

"In BERLIN, it's different. It's different in BERLIN. We don't ascribe to the narrowed, uptight, fitted, fashiony ideology that seems to have taken over this city. For instance, the other day I woke up in my apartment (I live in a huge former button factory on the Fingerstrasse for which I am charged about 60 dollars) and I decided I would just walk down the street with a teacup on my head! And no one even looked! Because we are all beautiful losers and artists and creators and puppeteers in BERLIN!" Gawker That's the talk of the town in nyc?

BBC Obituary: Norman Mailer: "Norman Mailer, who has died aged 84, was the bad boy of post-war American literature. Short and stocky and with opinions on almost every subject, he combined a formidable writing talent with the streetwise attitude of a prize fighter. (...) He once beat up a sailor on a Manhattan street because he believed that the man had questioned the sexuality of his dog. (...) In 1971, he head-butted his fellow writer Gore Vidal before a television chat-show after Vidal had written that 'there has been from Henry Miller to Norman Mailer to Charles Manson a logical progression'."

Wikipedia: "Norman Kingsley Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007) was an American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter and film director. Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion and Tom Wolfe, Mailer is considered an innovator of creative nonfiction, a genre sometimes called New Journalism, but which covers the essay to the nonfiction novel. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize twice and the National Book Award once. In 2005, he won the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters from The National Book Foundation."

9pm at Trödler Bar, Dresdner str 123 Xberg 36...

A few words from Gaby:

"Free event but have a few drinks at the bar to pay the performers. We will start the holly season with some laughs and presents. Jacinta Nandi and Ben Knight will grace the stage with their wit, foul mouth and xmas spirits.

As a live musical act we will have straight from Israel (it really fits in with the holly spirit) the experimental folk band, Mary and the Baby Cheeses..they are new in town but I am already a fan."

Also Gaby will auction off an poetry/art advents calendar...so if you want to win a calendar containing international poetry and comics and artworks,made by hand by Gaby....please come along and buy a winning ticket.

More at LADY GABY MySpace

From Gridskipper:

"In no particular order, Another Country is a secondhand bookshop, library, and subculture -- blogosphere and subculture events included. Alan Raphaeline, a marvelously outré Briton, is the gunslinger behind this highly-spirited and diversified place. The best way to experience Another Country is simply to arrive and allow its orb to swallow you whole. A word of advice: Leave your ego and Harry Potter inquiries at the door."

Gridskipper: Berlin

The Kiezkaffee Graefe is open Wednesday - Friday from 9 - 10 now and they got nice pictures on their new website.

People from all over the world, great three course meals for 3,50 and all the money goes to "Positive Aktion e.V.: MigrantInnen gegen Aids"

You can download the menue from the website.

Kaffee Graefe, Graefestr. 18, 10967 Berlin (Kreuzberg)

"A scene from a 1931 Paramount publicity film called The House That Shadows Built and the Four Marx Brothers appear to promote Monkey Business. It's actually a reworking of a scene from their Broadway revue "I"ll Say She Is!" where they all do their Maurice Chevalier impressions (again) while trying to impress a talent scout.

This clip is from the fantastic Marx Brothers documentary "The Marx Brothers in a Nutshell."

Also:

Marx Brothers in Color

Marx Brothers - Horse Feathers (1932) - The complete move

Sort of a series of "behind the scenes of Classic Hollywood"

The other parts are all over Google Video

From www.tvdays.com

Via Nerdcore

William Gibson's The Rolling Stone 40th Anniversary Interview : "Now, on a good day, my career seems so utterly unlikely that I wonder if I'm not about to snap out of a DMT blackout and discover that I'm not actually a famous writer of William Gibson novels but that I'm working at a used-book shop that smells of cat pee and drinking beer out of a cracked coffee mug."

Never mind the APPD! Look at the potential of the all-new "Ausländer Partei"!

Listen to the deliciously-coarse voice of Richard Burton reading from Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood.

You'll want to double up on the whiskey & cigarettes just to get some of that scrape in your throat.

undermilkwood.net

Wikipedia: "It has gone on to become a tremendous critical and commercial success, becoming the best seller for the platform, with 20 million copies sold worldwide."

Yes, you can play the whole damned thing on our website by clicking this link! Our little collection of games (see the side-bar on the left!) keeps growing! Wait 'til we get the Civilisation-Widget!

Some minor streamlining!

I took out a couple of things to make the page load faster.

John, we should really get together and talk about that cd...!

The songs are here now!

Thursday 8 November "Malibu Song" (2006) A Documentary Film by Natalie Lettner & Werner Hanak

On the edge of the gigantic steel and asphalt kingdom known as Los Angeles, a hidden beach paradise is home to an artists community that lives in makeshift buildings dating back to hippie times. Sadly the State of California has just bought the land for the creation of a new park, forcing the inhabitants to surrender their homes and lifestyles. The film follows a few colorful characters through this transition... Norton Wisdom, a performance artist and lifeguard; Carole Winter, an incorrigible flower child; Herb Bermann, who wrote songs for Captain Beefheart; Larry Payne, a master of 24-hour architecture; Pablo Capra, a young poet; and Baretta, a surf bum who sings the "Malibu Song." Gaby has a event tonight also check out the webpage for details

Friday 9 November 9pm Dinner and Film around 11pm The Long Good Friday (1980) John Mackenzie

The film's protagonist is Harold Shand (Hoskins), an old fashioned 1960s-style London gangster who is aspiring to become a legitimate businessman, albeit with the financial support of the American Mafia. The storyline weaves together current events of the time, including low-level political and police corruption, IRA gun-running, the displacement of traditional British industry with property development and the emerging free market economy. Harold is the undisputed ruling kingpin of the London underworld, when his world is suddenly torn apart by a series of murders and exploding bombs from an unseen foe. Uncovering his enemy's identity forms much of the film's subsequent plotline. The story seems to hinge upon an act of betrayal by one of Harold's closest aides, the implications of which only become clear near the film's climax, when the solution to the mystery is suggested though not spelled out. from wikipedia Second Film TBA

Sunday 11 November 14:00 Bridge and Brunch The Wireless in the back.... Old Time Radio Fun Card Games, Board Games and Word Games Come by today at 14:00 for Bridge Afternoon, Learning, playing and making lots of mistakes if Alan is your partner. All is possible great fun for all.

Bookshop Recommends Lady Gaby's always wonderful monthly event FUEL 9pm at Trödler Bar, Dresdner str 123 Xberg 36... Free event but have a few drinks at the bar to pay the performers. we will start the holly season with some laughs and presents. Jacinta Nandi and Ben Knight will grace the stage with their wit, foul mouth and xmas spirits. as a live musical act we will have straight from Israel (it really fits in with the holly spirit) the experimental folk band, Mary and the Baby Cheeses..they are new in town but I am already a fan. also Gaby will auction off an poetry/art advents calendar...so if you want to win a calendar containing international poetry and comics and artworks,made by hand by Gaby....please come along and buy a winning ticket.

Tuesday 13 November 9 pm The Thin Man (1934) W.S. van Dyke

The story is set in Prohibition -era New York City. The main characters are a former private detective, Nick Charles, and his clever young wife, Nora. Nick has given up his career since marrying Nora, a wealthy socialite, and he now spends most of his time cheerfully getting drunk in hotel rooms and speakeasies. Nick and Nora have no children, but they do own a Schnauzer named Asta,changed to a wire haired fox terrier for the movies. The two decide to investigate a murder because Nora thinks it will be fun. The case brings them in contact with a rather grotesque family, the Wynants, and also with an assortment of policemen and lowlifers. As they attempt to solve the case, Nick and Nora share a great deal of banter and snappy dialogue, along with copious amounts of alcohol. The characters of Nick and Nora are often thought to reflect the personalities of Hammett and his long-time lover, Lillian Hellman. Contemporary readers are often struck by the main character's obvious alcoholism, and by Hammett's attempts to portray him as urbane and debonair nonetheless. Interestingly, Hammett's successful writing career roughly coincides with Prohibition. although he lived many more years, this novel, which appeared in 1933, was his last. from wikipedia

Video: Everything you always wanted to know about EXBERLINER (but were afraid to ask...)

British Council Reading Group at Another Country bookshop (Facilitator Jeremy Dunn)

"The Brooklyn Follies" by Paul Auster (Review from "The Guardian Online")

I am not normally prone to bouts of self-pity', comments Nathan Glass, the narrator of Paul Auster's latest novel, The Brooklyn Follies. We have little reason to believe him. This is the same Nathan Glass who, at the novel's start, declares his desire to seek 'a silent end to my sad and ridiculous life'; the same Nathan Glass who is writing a book dedicated to his life's collection of 'verbal flubs, physical mishaps, failed ideas, social gaffes'.

Fifty-nine, retired and divorced, Nathan lacks self-belief. He also, it seems, lacks self-awareness, a trait not uncommon to Auster's existential heroes. Familiar, too, is the questionable narrator, and the metafictional play (the book Nathan is writing is partly, but not wholly, the book that we are reading).

Auster's postmodern metaphysics are built around a host of such recurrent themes (see also the power of coincidence and its relationship with meaning; the slipperiness of identity and character; lost children and searching parents) and reading him can sometimes seem like moving through a checklist. In this sense, The Brooklyn Follies ticks all of the boxes, and as predictable as it is in terms of trope and foible, so, too, is it recognisable for the excellence of its writing.

Auster's prose is sharp, simple, compelling. His characters and vignettes are well constructed and often entertaining. We warm immediately to Nathan. He is curmudgeonly, urbane and funny, but also insecure, generous and wide-eyed. He has moved from the suburbs to Brooklyn and claims he doesn't wish to last the year, but the charms of the metropolis soon re-energise him. Nathan chose Brooklyn for the anonymity. He grows to love its vitality and endless possibilities for chance connections. He hadn't really wanted to die; he had just been bored.

Witnessing this transformation is affecting. So, too, is Nathan's self-mocking infatuation with an attractive waitress; and his (accidental) reacquaintance with a nephew who becomes his closest friend. Tom, we are told, 'is the long-suffering hero of these Brooklyn Follies', (though we don't take this authorial direction at face value). Clever but disillusioned, he has dropped out of university to drive taxis and work in a bookshop. He and Nathan share long conversations about the nature of things, their enthusiasm imbued with desperation. 'You love life, Tom,' Nathan tells him, 'but you don't believe in it. And neither do I.'

Action begets belief. Tom's nine-year-old niece turns up, refusing to reveal the whereabouts of her mother, Aurora (Tom's sister); Tom and Nathan take her on a car trip and fatefully escape a crash; the bookshop owner dies, leaving it to Tom; Nathan rescues Aurora from a lunatic husband; Nathan, Tom and Aurora get girlfriends.

This synopsis is cursory: plenty more goes on, and again one gets the impression of a checklist. Transvestism? Tick. Extortion? Yup. References to the 2000 US election to bind the sense of alienation and lack of agency to the wider sociopolitical spectrum of contemporary America? Gotcha. Because Auster is such a gifted writer, The Brooklyn Follies is always a pleasure to read, but it does carry a sense of literary coasting. It is strong on setpieces and conversational digressions.

But as the story gathers pace, the thread between these fragments starts to fray. Auster's fiction has occasionally been criticised for its implausibility and the same complaint can be levelled against The Brooklyn Follies. His preoccupation with chance means that the reader must practise a lot of belief-suspension as the characters start to pinball from one odd encounter to the next.

More problematic are aspects of his message. There is nothing wrong with being anxious about humankind's ignorance and impotence, but Auster can be too eager to shoehorn in reminders about the randomness of fate and the effects this has on character.

'All men contain several men inside them and most of us bounce from one self to another without ever knowing who we are,' Nathan reminds us towards the end, in case we missed the point. But he remains preoccupied with pinning down these selves. The book ends with him in high spirits, contemplating a new business writing biographies of the recently deceased for their families.

As fate would have it, his good mood is not set to last. It is the morning of 11 September 2001 and two planes are flying towards the World Trade Centre.

Weissensee is the new Mitte and it's all Paul's fault!

Rock Art 03.11.07 until 10.11.07

Dedicated to bands in Berlin and the artists who chronicle them. "Rock Art" is a celebration of rock'n'roll through posters and flyers, photographs, music videos, album art and... rock'n'roll!

Just one of the highlights is a show by legendary german Krautrockers EMBRYO (www.embryo.de) on Wednesday, 7th of November, 10pm -> Fusion of jazz, rock and ethnic music since 1969! After the show, the band invites guest musicians for a jam session.

Plus the Methylated Spirits the day after!

There is so much more going on in Weissensee... Check the list of EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS at wallywoods.com or go to the Wallywoods MySpace

The title is "Tails of Pomposity and Prejudice and Death of Celebrity and the Truth about how Earth has been invaded by Aliens".

Starts around 9 at "Another Country". More info coming up!