Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Ampelmännchen, Ich werde auf dich warten. Campbell Straße, December 2010.

The Christmas/New Year period has derailed my reading somewhat. Who knew that so much literary graft could be achieved on public transport and during lunch breaks through the week?

That said, I'm knee deep in Gert Hofmann's Luck, and should be finished in a few days. I'm not sure how I feel about it yet. I think that much will depend on where he takes the tale...

Comments

Carola said…

Really amazing.

Kris, du und dein Ampelmännchen.

I remember that I registered in Blogger in November 2008 to comment to your first post with the Ampelmännchen.

For us Ampelmännchen is kult, too. Something positiv, left from the DDR. (It was not only in Ost-Berlin, all over East Germany).

I grew up close to the border on the west part (Zonenrandgebiet). And we were able to watch DDR TV. A figur in the childrens TV was Sandmännchen. I watched it. It is still present. Sandmännchen is giving sand in your eyes, so that you can sleep. Maybe you know.

31 December 2010 at 10:00

smudgeon said…

Give me Amplemann (& Ampelfrau) over this nondescript stick figure any day.

31 December 2010 at 14:08

Kris McCracken said…

Carola, Ampelmännchen has real character. I have seen snippets of Sandmännchen, he's a very odd fellow.

Me, Ampelfrau is trouble.

4 January 2011 at 09:37

Mad as hell

So there I was, arm hooked up to the machine, watching my plasma swirl away into a bag while the morning news dribbled across the screen like a bad fever dream. And what were they showing? A "riot" in Melbourne, allegedly. The sort of riot where the real thugs wear body armour, carry pepper spray and look like they just walked off the set of RoboCop. The people they were beating? A ragtag crew of teenagers and old hippies—probably fresh out of a drum circle, still smelling of patchouli. But sure, let's call it a riot. Now, here's where it really gets good. I mentioned this spectacle to a few people later, thinking maybe they'd share my outrage or, at the very least, give a damn. But no. What did I get instead? A smirk, a chuckle, and—oh, the pièce de résistance—"You should really just let it go." Let it go? Yeah, let me uncork a nice, overpriced cup of coffee, sit back with my legs crossed, and soak in the latest reality TV trash. Why bother caring when ...

Hold me now, oh hold me now, until this hour has gone around. And I'm gone on the rising tide, to face Van Dieman's Land

Theme Thursday again, and this one is rather easy. I am Tasmanian, you see, and aside from being all around general geniuses - as I have amply described previously - we are also very familiar with the concept of WATER. Tasmania is the ONLY island state of an ISLAND continent. That means, we're surrounded by WATER. That should help explain why I take so many photographs of water . Tasmania was for a long time the place where the British (an island race terrified of water) sent their poor people most vile and horrid criminals. The sort of folk who would face the stark choice of a death sentence , or transportation to the other end of the world. Their catalogue of crimes is horrifying : stealing bread assault stealing gentlemen's handkerchiefs drunken assault being poor affray ladies being overly friendly with gentlemen for money hitting people having a drink and a laugh public drunkenness being Irish Fenian terrorist activities being Catholic religious subversion. ...

Something unpleasant is coming when men are anxious to tell the truth.

This is the moon. Have I mentioned how much I adore the zoom on my camera? It's Theme Thursday you see, and after last week's limp effort, I have been thinking about how I might redeem myself. Then I clicked on the topic and discover that it was BUTTON. We've been hearing a lot about the moon in the past couple of weeks. Apparently some fellas went up there and played golf and what-not forty-odd years ago. The desire to get to the moon, however, was not simply about enhancing opportunities for Meg and Mog titles and skirting local planning by-laws in the construction of new and innovative golf courses. No, all of your Sputniks , "One small steps" and freeze dried ice cream was about one thing , and one thing only : MAD Now, I don't mean mad in terms of "bloke breaks record for number of scorpions he can get up his bum", no I mean MAD as in Mutual assured destruction . When I was a young man you see, there was a lot of talk about the type of m...

This will hurt me...

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